One thing I really love is to enjoy a beautiful garden. When I owned my own home in Texas, I would start my seeds indoors in early Spring, watch them grow, then plant them outside at the appropriate time. Because he loved me, my husband would always graciously help me by churning up the earth so I could pull out Spring weeds before I planted, but he would also always complain that it was silly for me to plant a bunch of plants that I was not going to weed and water. Still, I planted my carefully grown seedlings. Then I would promise myself that "this year" would be different because I would take care of them. It was the same every year.
Each morning during Spring, I would rise and send our children out the door to school. Then I would walk into our back yard and sit on the porch to watch the hummingbirds visit my feeder. It was glorious and peaceful, the time of day I enjoyed the most. I loved my wild hummingbirds and they seemed to have no fear of me. I had names for the two parent hummers, Jack and Trixie. (The hummers were so unafraid of my consistent presence that one time, when my husband and I were on the porch and he was up on a ladder near their food, one of my little friends came over to take a whif of his red hair!)
After enjoying my view from the porch for a little while, I would rise to walk down the few steps into our yard, then check on my gardens. I would water, pull new weeds, gaze at the results of my work, pick some herbs or flowers if I needed them, then go back inside to start my day. But when school recessed for the summer, my routine was upset. Texas summers are very hot. No matter what time of day I went outside, it was either too hot or too dark to sit and pull weeds. All I managed to do was water my gardens and, despite the good intentions I had at their planting, they became overgrown with weeds again. Year after year after year, eight years in a row, it was always a variation of the same story.
Now I live in Wisconsin. The house I bought and am fixing is more than 1000 miles North of the Texas summer heat and this is the first year I will be able to plant anything in my yard. Oh, how excited I am! For the last three (or so) weeks, I have been looking at seed catalogs and I think I finally am decided on a color scheme for my back yard. It will be ever so pretty!
This morning, I have off from work. I am done for the season and it is my first day off. After getting my daughter out to school, I headed upstairs to crack open my Bible. It is something I have been meaning to do and the first day off work after the season is a good excuse to begin a good habit. Therefore, I began at the beginning: Genesis. Well, where does Genesis begin? The creation of man. And where does that take place? The Garden of Eden, which (if you read the footnotes as I was doing this morning you will learn) means the Garden of Paradise. . . and that got me thinking about my fixer-upper's back yard and how I would like it's back yard to resemble a paradise garden.
It was not long before I had to put down my Bible to go look for my plants at the local nursery. I could not pay attention to the text while it was talking about gardens! The ground cover I want is not yet in stock, but guess what I found? The exact bushes I have been eyeing online and in magazines are in stock and were On Sale for 60% Off!! They even have the right color flowers. I bought four for half the price I anticipated paying for just one (based on internet pricing).
God Is Good to Those Who Follow Him. The only thing is. . . I now have four bushes that I am unable to plant for two more weeks (the next time I make the drive up North). Well, maybe by the end of that two weeks, I will have also purchased a shovel to dig the hole to plant them in.
Each morning during Spring, I would rise and send our children out the door to school. Then I would walk into our back yard and sit on the porch to watch the hummingbirds visit my feeder. It was glorious and peaceful, the time of day I enjoyed the most. I loved my wild hummingbirds and they seemed to have no fear of me. I had names for the two parent hummers, Jack and Trixie. (The hummers were so unafraid of my consistent presence that one time, when my husband and I were on the porch and he was up on a ladder near their food, one of my little friends came over to take a whif of his red hair!)
After enjoying my view from the porch for a little while, I would rise to walk down the few steps into our yard, then check on my gardens. I would water, pull new weeds, gaze at the results of my work, pick some herbs or flowers if I needed them, then go back inside to start my day. But when school recessed for the summer, my routine was upset. Texas summers are very hot. No matter what time of day I went outside, it was either too hot or too dark to sit and pull weeds. All I managed to do was water my gardens and, despite the good intentions I had at their planting, they became overgrown with weeds again. Year after year after year, eight years in a row, it was always a variation of the same story.
Now I live in Wisconsin. The house I bought and am fixing is more than 1000 miles North of the Texas summer heat and this is the first year I will be able to plant anything in my yard. Oh, how excited I am! For the last three (or so) weeks, I have been looking at seed catalogs and I think I finally am decided on a color scheme for my back yard. It will be ever so pretty!
This morning, I have off from work. I am done for the season and it is my first day off. After getting my daughter out to school, I headed upstairs to crack open my Bible. It is something I have been meaning to do and the first day off work after the season is a good excuse to begin a good habit. Therefore, I began at the beginning: Genesis. Well, where does Genesis begin? The creation of man. And where does that take place? The Garden of Eden, which (if you read the footnotes as I was doing this morning you will learn) means the Garden of Paradise. . . and that got me thinking about my fixer-upper's back yard and how I would like it's back yard to resemble a paradise garden.
It was not long before I had to put down my Bible to go look for my plants at the local nursery. I could not pay attention to the text while it was talking about gardens! The ground cover I want is not yet in stock, but guess what I found? The exact bushes I have been eyeing online and in magazines are in stock and were On Sale for 60% Off!! They even have the right color flowers. I bought four for half the price I anticipated paying for just one (based on internet pricing).
God Is Good to Those Who Follow Him. The only thing is. . . I now have four bushes that I am unable to plant for two more weeks (the next time I make the drive up North). Well, maybe by the end of that two weeks, I will have also purchased a shovel to dig the hole to plant them in.
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