I spent  a few hours pulling out weeds today. I started in the front yard where I’m waging war on the dandelion patch that sprouts every May. I’d gotten a head start on it before my road trip and tried to deputize Lizi as my replacement, but came home to a pretty large crop. I don’t like using chemicals on the lawn and so every year I fight this battle. I’m a firm believer in the possibility of staying ahead of them if you keep at it, once or twice daily. I have a cool tool which allows me to pull weeds without bending, kneeling or getting my hands (very) dirty.

Our front yard has three grass sections and the largest one is dandelion-free at the moment. The other two sections have a long way to go. But since today is the graduation at the high school next door, I didn’t want to spend my afternoon in the front yard while all those people walked by tsk, tsking (as I am sure they must be.)

So I spent the afternoon working on my back garden, one of which is overrun by little onion plants. We’ve been living here for 26 years (this July4) and every year the garden sprouts a million small onion shoots all over what is now mostly a strawberry garden. Every year I dig out thousands of tiny white orbs, but every year there is a new supply.

As I hacked and pulled away, I thought about last spring, when I’m pretty sure I did little to no gardening. I realized that I missed my one year anniversary of starting chemo on Friday, but didn’t feel surprised or sad about missing the day. I remember the end of chemo and celebrate that–I don’t really need or want to remember beginning it. I’m just glad it is in the past.

For awhile, those tiny onion orbs looked like cancer cells and while I pulled and pulled and pulled, I knew I’d never get them all. There will be green shoots next spring, and maybe even next week. I hope the chemo did a better job at eradicating the cancer cells than I do with my annual weeding binge. (I decided it wouldn’t do any good to focus on the possibility of left-behind cancer cells, just as you can only go so crazy trying to weed out the onion roots. At some point, you just say “enough” and go on to enjoy the garden.

I’m planning to weed out a lot of things this year. We would like to move sometime in the next 1-2 years and so we’re focusing on going through our belongings and getting rid of a lot of stuff. We’re not pack rats, but 26 years’ accumulation is starting to wear on our nerves. Another firm belief I have is that you should move every 20 years, minimum, just to get rid of stuff. We are 6 years overdue. So, little by little, I plan to weed through the various rooms and closets, with a view of moving in mind. We might need to move a few more of our kids out in order to accomplish this.

But for now, I’ve made a little progress in the yard and John is working on opening up the pool. Summer is coming!