Surrogate Children

I took a break from work this afternoon to go speak with our across-the-street neighbor because she will be babysitting for us while we are on vacation.

Okay, so really, she'll actually just be watering the plants. But I don't think I've ever gone out of my way to line up care like this for something in my absence...and I can't help but think of the plants as E's and my children. We discuss them. We worry about them. We brought them to their current level of maturity together. We even (I wish I was kidding) have argued over the best way to treat them.

So, it was almost like giving the babysitter instructions when I walked our neighbor through the watering rules we follow (How many times a week should I water them? Well, we just keep 'em damp. Umm...you know, we just check 'em several times a day. We walk out there for breaks from work, breaks from life, just general breaks. Typically, we only actually hit 'em with the hose once a day, but sometimes, like this weekend when it reached 107F in the eaves, it's several times a day...)

Anyways, I'm going to get back to work now. Or perhaps I'll take a quick walk outside to check on the plants first...