My "Brilliant" Thought.

I mentioned yesterday that I was on the up and up and starting to feel better thanks to your support. Well, last night something awesome happened, I was able to talk to Spencer about some things that I really would like to see in our relationship and in our family life. And, he was able to be open and tell me the things that he would like. We both talked about changes we want to make and neither of us got frustrated or shut off. I realized that we've been neglecting our relationship in trade for other good, but less important things. We have some work to do to get things back to how we want to see them, but I feel glad that we are addressing things and starting that work. Anyway, I am starting to feel really good about things and this morning, those good feelings resulted in a desire to work and to improve my home. It's amazing how bogged down I was feeling physically as a result of my emotional unrest. So after my shower I was talking to the kids about what they watched while I was showering... Curious George. Today's was all about Mr Pasghetti's garden. Jade thought that it would be a good idea to plant our own garden. She was being a little me and grabbed a notebook and pen and said, "Now, we need to make a plan for our garden." (ha ha, I had to grin at this obvious learned behavior) So we made a list of steps we needed to take to plant a garden. The first step that Jade decided on was that we needed to get rid of the weeds in our yard (which, if you don't know consists of dirt and weeds). We got to work outside. Actually, I couldn't find the kids tools so I got to work while they played in the dirt. I raked up huge amounts of dead grass and weeds along with all the nasty chewed up cotton that clutters our yard (previous resident had an un-trained dog). I had raked up a very large amount from about half of the yard when I began wondering what I was going to do with it. I didn't want it to sit there and spread weed seeds, but it was too big for a trash can. I had a brilliant thought! Why not burn it? I thought of the risks, I analyzed what might happen. I cleared the area around the pile and turned on the hose so it would be ready. I lit the pile. Dry weeds burn pretty well. I did a couple things wrong:
1. I lit the pile on the side opposite of the wind source, slowing the progress of the burn and creating more smoke
2. I asked the kids to stand back in an area of the yard that had no foliage in case the fire started to creep onto other fuel sources. Unfortunately, this was down-wind.
3. I didn't pack the pile down which gave the fire a lot of oxygen and height.
4. I assumed the hose nozzle was in working condition without checking.
This brilliant thought of mine began to look much less intelligent when the weeds began putting off a whole lot of smoke. The flames were pretty well under control, but they started creeping a little and I wanted to not take any chances so I pointed the hose, pressed the handle... and nothing. No water came out! Baaah! So then I quickly unscrewed the nozzle (soaking myself) so I could do what needed to be done. A burst of water flew out on the fire. What I thought had been a lot of smoke before suddenly quadrupled. Simultaneously, the breeze picked up a little and I and the kids were right in it's path. I could barely see the kids through it (although it looked like they had run to the side yard to escape the smoke) and my mind was on two things: kill the fire; stop the smoke! That is what I did; dousing it with all my might. I called to the kids to stay away from the smoke. Finally when it was all done and soggy, I turned off the water and got the kids inside. We smelt like we had been IN the fire. It was awful and probably my worst idea in a very very long time. What was I thinking? Last time I checked, I didn't live on a ranch. I don't own land, I have a backyard that is measured in feet not acres! And did I think that all I needed to worry about was flames? Hello! Smoke can be worse. I'm never doing that again! For now, what remains is a slightly large pile of soggy, half-burnt weeds in the middle of my yard; evidence of my "brilliant" thought.