Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I was out working in the garden this evening after Cora was in bed when Chloe came out. I was in my 'zone' - just focusing on my plants, enjoying the peace of gardening, and not really listening to Miss Chatterbox as she explored the area near the water spicket.

"Mom! I found a slug!"

"Mmm. That's nice, honey, but I don't think we have slugs here. I've never seen one before."

"Mom! There's more! There's a whole HERD of slugs!"

"Uh huh. That's great, kiddo." I finished pulling out all of the never-ending crab grass around my tomatoes and sighed with satisfaction.

Chloe came over about then and said, "See? It really is a slug! Isn't it adorable?"

And it was. It was really a slug. She took me to where she found it. She wasn't kidding, there really was a whole herd of them - dozens, crawling all around the moist area where the hose is connected.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed. "I'll pay you five cents for every slug you can catch. Slugs are a gardener's worst nightmare."

"These aren't my worst nightmare, Mom. This is my dream come true!"

She proceeded to put eight or ten of them into one of her bug barns. Then she took them out, a couple at a time... to pet them. She had slug races on our picnic table, squeeing with glee at just how darn cute she thought those slugs were.

Boy, I sure hope she thinks squash bugs and potato beetles are so cute, 'cuz I'm gonna need someone to pick those off my plants before long. :o)

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We had a lovely couple of days with Andrew off work. Last night we brought out the fire pit after the girls were in bed, lit it up, and sat watching the fire and drinking a little bit more than normal. We sat out there drinking beers and doing a couple of shots of whiskey and talked until nearly eleven o'clock. It was splendid. The weather has been beautiful, not too hot, and it was just... really, really nice.

This morning we stayed in bed until almost 9:00. I can't remember the last time I stayed in bed past six, so that was a real treat for me. The girls were up, they'd come crawl into bed and snuggle for a bit then run off to play - they were really good. It sure was nice just to be lazy. I'm not good at being lazy, usually. Definitely gonna have to do that more often.

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We worked on planning our vacation next month. Andrew's got 12 days off work and we're driving up to northern Montana to go camping with his sister and her new husband, who are driving down from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I'm really looking forward to visiting with them (especially N - I miss her so much!) and letting the girls spend time with her too. We're taking a longer route up there and will spend a day driving through a corner of Yellowstone and then across the Beartooth Highway into Montana. We'll camp at the end of that highway which thrills me, it's a place I've wanted to see for a few years now, since I first read about it. They say it's the most beautiful road in the country.