Lord Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise

Saturday was the best sort of Saturday. Or, one of the best sorts, because truly there are lots of them. We spent our lovely one at Grandma and Grandpa's with a whole lot of family, some with some (new to us) friends that were very nice. The ever-wonderful nieces and nephews were marvelous to their little cousins so as Mommy and Daddy could have grown-up conversation and company. Some of said company was my dear cousin, Theresa, and her husband Mike. Not only was it good to see them, as always, but they were rather useful in our Down Back adventure to be frugal. (I'll use that Amish Andrew, rather than "cheap!")

Over the course of last summer, our three little dears managed to remove most of the sand from its sandbox home in our backyard. Truly the sand we had wasn't super fantastic anyway and when we started to do the math in our head of buying (once again) bags and bags of (better this time) sand, I would begin to get a little faint with thinking of all the other pleasant things I could spend that money on than sand. Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa have a 4 wheeler and a creek with a wandering creek bed that has left piles of sand. The kids gathered rocks and soaked themselves while T and her Mike and Mike and I all worked together to filter sand through a window screen into giant feedbags. And, after a bit of trouble (possibly, um, a TAD too much weight in the trailer) getting the ATV first to move, second out of the old creek bed, and third up the big hill out into Grandpa's field, we managed to get home with just the right amount of sand to fill up our box to the tippy-top.

Yep, filled up to the tippy-top, our sandbox with sand and our lives with blessings.