in the trees

I had fun yesterday. I lived vicariously through my daughter and two nieces. 

Brad had built Ian a tree house back a couple of summers ago. Originally, that wood was being dried for a handmade farmhouse table that Brad was going to make me. Then (you know how it is when you're a mom) I sacrificed that much-coveted farmhouse table, for a tree house for my son.

For one reason or other, Ian never really ended up hanging out much in that space. In fact, that space almost became a donkey house. Really.

Actually, I still had some obscure plans to cut that house out of the tree and set it down in our backyard to house some dairy goats, even this spring.

That is, until Lily and my nieces took the initiative yesterday to sweep it out and rid it of all the insects that had made it their home through the winter. Well, I can't very well take it off of some ambitious, motivated girls that were willing to clear out cobwebs and six-legged friends, could I?

Instead, I jumped back into my childhood days, those days when I longed for nothing more than a tree house to call my own (well, that and a wooden dollhouse.) My sisters and I would scheme about ways to talk our parents into building us a little house outdoors. I would dream about hanging girly curtains and hanging pretty things on the wall. I imagined holding club meetings (I started several different clubs when I was a young girl, haha.) Oh, yes, that dreaming was delicious. 

So I took a break from scrubbing toilets and shoveling manure yesterday afternoon, to hang curtains and carry a basket of pretty things out to the girls' new tree house space. My mom gave them a rug and two battery-operated lamps. I pulled some old bed linens and pillows out of the closet. We hung some of my handmade garland and a Scripture I had painted onto a canvas a couple of years back. The girls took in some of their "kitchen" supplies, their stuffed animals, some activity books, and other little odds and ends that delight girls. 

And that's why I had fun. And, of course, we had to invite all of the other mommies in to check out the new space. I suspect the girls will be receiving some more donations for their cozy spot in the trees. Maybe a couple of kiddie chairs for the deck? Some floor cushions to make a soft place to land? We'll see. But I do believe that that dream in the trees is going to be well-loved this summer.