I’m not a dirty girl.

Well, I do have a totally dirty mind… but I love CLEAN things.

I love clean cars. Clean counters. Clean bathrooms. And especially while cooking or gardening, I love a clean environment, and I clean as I go.

So yesterday provided a bit of a challenge for me… a Grandma Challenge.

Barry and I have lived in our home for a little over 4 years, but because of inside and outside renovations, I haven’t been able to truly garden in all that time. My yard reflects this nakedness, but this year is the year to get into the soil.

This brings me to the Grandma Challenge. And 3 major problems: 1) an outdoor water line had cracked over the winter and it hadn’t been repaired (translation – no outside water); 2) our brand new umbrella had leaped out of our deck table the night before and shattered the table top glass all over our deck; and 3) I had promised William (4) and Alex (3) that we would plant a little garden on Wednesday (that would be yesterday.) Our plan included lunch, a trip to Home Depot for the plants and then the planting itself.

I could not break my promise to my grandsons. So Barry and I spent 2 hours in the morning sweeping glass, picking up glass and digging out tiny glass cubes from between deck planks. But we didn’t have outdoor water to wash away the tiny shards of glass, so Barry put in that put-it-off-’til-now call to our plumber.

By noon, my promise was taking shape. William, Alex and I measured the little garden space between our deck and brick patio. (Oh, did I tell you that the deck is raised about 8 feet and the brick patio and small lawn area is accessible by stairs only? This is fun for lugging buckets of water with 2 little guys if the plumber can’t make it!)

We headed off to lunch. And by lunch, I mean Burger King drive-thru. (What a Grandma, huh?)

Then to Home Depot, where I let William and Alex pick out all the flowers. My only requirement was that the flowers be already blooming so they could see immediate results when finished planting.

And back home to the gardening project. Can you say “dirt”? On shoes. On hands. On faces. On clothing. Up the stairs. In the house (for the necessary snack, drink and bathroom runs. Do you know how hungry 2 guys get while gardening?).

But through it all, I was a true Dirty Girl. Dirty feet. Dirty hands. Dirty clothes. At one point, William accidentally turned over a shovel of soil on me. That’s OK. I’m dirty.

I had the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I found it is almost relaxing to be dirty when you can’t help it…

The result? A beautiful garden, filled with creeping flox, eastern star dianthus, and pink mist and blueberry blue pincushion flowers. The loveliness is beyond words. The beauty is exquisite. And as the flowers reach toward the sun, my little grandsons will see the wonder of their work.

Of course, as soon as we were done planting, William became a great explorer and Alex became Indiana Jones… and they climbed up and down the outside of our staircase, filled with imagination! I sat down and reveled in all their adventures. Ah… a Grandma Challenge finished. A Grandma Promise fulfilled.

By the way, the dirt is still there. And I don’t care!

(For those of you who are uncomfortable with all the dirt, our plumber did arrive at 5:00 and he repaired the water line. The rinsing and washing will commence today!)