Top Five Reasons Gardening Is Good for the Soul

1.  It promotes Diligence.

Nobody likes to weed.  Admit it, if you had a choice you probably would chose not to weed a garden.  Weeding is like anything else that promotes good habits...exercising, losing weight, eating right, raising kids...you need to get in there and not be afraid to do the work and get dirty!

2.  It promotes Leisure.

While you are in there with your hands filled with dirt {which by the way is one of the best feelings in the world}, you have plenty of time to contemplate and give thanks for all of the beauty and blessings around you.  If you take the time to do this, I promise the rewards are many!

 

3.  It promotes Serenity.

How can you not feel better with being outside on a gorgeous summer afternoon and just soaking in all of the fresh air and sunshine!  It's all good and that is the way that God intended it to be!

 

4.  It promotes Forgiveness. 

Gardens are very fickle at times and if we are not on top of our game, we may not have much fruit when it comes harvest time!  I have learned over the years that if something is not thriving, it is time to cut our losses and pick up that hoe cause it's gotta go!  I have spent more than one season trying to revive something that is just not meant to be.  Instead, now I realize that it is not meant to grow at this time, make peace with that and in a way repent for the mistake made.  Gardening is definitely a learned hobby that over time and with each year I learn a bit more.

5.  It promotes Humility.

How can you go outside and take time to carefully observe nature and not know that you are in the midst of something amazing and bigger than you are?  It is at times like stepping into Wonderland as Alice did.  The sights, smells and sounds of summer are truly distinct from any other season and make you feel wonderful!

I try to get out to my garden every night after dinner and take a little time to make it better.  There are a thousand other things that I probably should be doing, but, this is a little piece of my day that I carve out to spend with nature, my garden and God and love every minute of it.  I make the garden better and being in nature more makes me a better person too :-)

 

 

 

 

The Weekend in Review

We had such a fun weekend! It was jammed packed with non stop action, mostly outside (YAY!) due to great weather.

There was the Testosterone Zone.

  I am the queen in my house of blue and boys will be boys and we had LOTS of boys {and one lone girl} hanging out and playing.  We usually have lots of kids over, but, this summer our little group seems to have grown. A good amount of the pictures I took came out blurry and you can't tell, but, we had ten boys here riding bikes.  It was pretty entertaining!

We had a birthday party for Lovey Dovey's Webkinz.  They all turned TWO on Saturday.  I thought it was very sweet of them to all celebrate their birthday on the same day! 

Here is Lovey Dovey making his GF, EF, DF, NF chocolate cake for them bright and early Saturday morning.  This cake is amazing and it is probably one of the best I have
come across!

{notice that Lovey Dovey could not wait until their party to have some cake!}

We even had some basketball to round off the weekend nicely.

 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend with your family as much as I did mine!

Finding Your Rhythm on Vacation

I don't know if you are anything like me, but, the idea of going on vacation does not elicit relaxing thoughts at all.  In theory, I *love* going on vacation, I really do, but, all of the setup and breakdown of a vacation is a huge undertaking, not to mention that vacation this year fell smack in the middle of my planning school for the upcoming year!  No pressure there {wink...wink}.

I remember about twenty years ago when I could pack a bag {for one}, hop in the car and be off on my merry way.  Of course vacation then would be alone or with some friends and not nearly as much fun as going with my family, but, truth be told it was WAY easier to prepare.


Now the idea of vacation involves packing for four people instead of one {my sweet husband packs his own things and has the daunting task of placing all of the puzzle pieces together in the car to make it fit *just so* to enable us to hit the road.}  Packing before would entail throwing a few pieces of clothes, some daily hygiene items and a few other sundries in a bag.  Now it entails making sure there are extras of things and my youngest son has his own separate bag filled with emergency medical items, like Benadryl, Epi pens, The Duck { cute little spacer we use daily for his asthma maintenance...looks like a duck's face}, rescue inhaler and Darth Vader {our nebulizer, we named it that since the boys love Star Wars}, lovies ,Legos and the like.


Twenty years ago I had much more room in my head too.  Not sure exactly what I did with all of that room, but, spacing is very limited now and it is taken up with things like legos, food allergies, asthma, the scary thoughts of accidental ingestion of allergic foods, homeschooling {that takes up ALOT of space on this momma's hard drive} and just the dailiness of living, loving and having a good time.

Once we get on the road one would think that I would be carefree and look forward to where we are going..., but, again I see when we get there that there will be unpacking and setting up somewhere else again.  Kind of like a vacation version of Groundhog Day.  Same activities, but, a different surrounding.  While the boys are running around having fun, momma is setting up camp...again.

Now, don't get me wrong.  None of this upsets me.  I know that it is part of the deal and what we do to go on vacation. 

A few weeks ago we went on a lovely trip to the Adirondacks.  Like I mentioned I spent a few days packing up and then set up for a good while once we arrived.  We have traveled here before and stayed at the same camp and it was lovely.  We had our own private lake and the view was spectacular!

We did things different this time around and really just slowed down a bit and didn't fall into all of the touristy things we did years before.

When we go on vacation, the rhythm our of daily lives is totally changed.

Change is GOOD!

There is no television.
There is no Wii.
There is no computer.
There is no landline telephone and cell reception is very weak.

What there is is a lot of quality sweet time with your family.  Time to play in the water, time to look closely at nature and time to reflect on just how blessed you are to have four sweet men in your life!  There was time to watch a movie at a really cool movie theatre, to take walks to a local donut shoppe in the morning right after waking up, alot of time for kayaking and even some time to climb a mountain!  More on the last one is another post :-)

Of course it really does take me a few days to settle in to a vacation. 

 

 

Usually in the middle of day two I actually exhale and the idea of being away from all of the daily chaos and just *being* with my family sinks in and I love it!  When this happens I am a different person too.  Gone is the idea of needing to get things done because I didn't take these things with me.

I only took the important ones :-)

We all have to find our own rhythm.  For me, it is a constant ongoing refining process...kind of a purging of the mind and soul.  What was important to me twenty years ago is not important to me at all right here, right now.  What is important to me now is trying to do the best that I can to be a good wife and mother.  The rest is just icing on the cake.  I am trying my best to simply live and to stress the importance of simple living with my boys and this vacation was simply living at it's best.

Spoiled on Saturday

I love waking up to the sweet little face of a little one saying good morning to me :D
Nothing in the world beats a hug and kiss first thing in the morning.

Today I was spoiled by Lovey Dovey.  He insisted on making me breakfast in bed (with a little help from Dad) and it was wonderful!  A delicious breakfast of coffee, oj, waffles with a few pieces of crisp bacon was served to me in bed with a freshly picked rose :-)

We all sat on my bed and ate breakfast and it was wonderful!

GREAT way to begin a day.

Lazy Days of Summer

Ahhh.....I love summer! 
I cannot believe it is August 1st today and that I have not been here in one month!

Yikes on  both accounts!


We have been enjoying a pretty relaxed summer this year and just taking in all of God's glory and the beautiful nature that is all around us.

We truly are blessed to see so much of it in our own backyard!


This year we had many visitors to our birdhouse.

The summer began with a black capped chickadee that laid her three eggs in the house.

This is the sweetest little bird that sings such beautiful songs!

Black Capped Chickadee

Once her little ones flew the coop, we were graced with another black capped chickadee momma and her babies.


And last, but, not least last week we waved goodbye to two little house wrens that were ready to fly away.  Their momma made such an elaborate nest that I really never thought she was going to lay her eggs.  Her nesting process took well over a month to complete.  House wrens are small birds and they make an incredible nest made out of twigs that are really much bigger than they are, so to watch their nest being built is amazing.  The amount of time, effort and patience that goes into it is unbelievable!


House Wren


We are normally blessed to have gorgeous birds gracing our back yard.  Beautiful Cardnials, Blue Jays and American Goldfinches are seen here frequently.

Over the weekend we even had a flock of Turtle Doves that stopped by.

You can see a group of them in this tree if you look closely.  There must have been about 25 total that came that day.

 We always get lots of bunnies visiting too.  Love them!

We went away on vacation to the mountains a few weeks back and saw a raven!  It was just hanging around at our camp.  It was HUGE!

 While I was taking a walk with Handsome one morning we came across a doe and her fawns that were nursing and grazing at the same time.  SO sweet!


 






 And also spotted a momma turkey and her babies.




The most exciting animal we spotted was a Black Bear.  No picture to share of that one!  Right as we were packing the car to leave camp one came scooting down our lane looking for food. 



Since being home from camp I have seen a hawk seven times this week.  So graceful flying around in the sky.

This is not my video, but, it is very cool to watch a hawk!
Hawk in flight

The gardens are growing.  I planted a bit late this year due to lots and lots of spring rain, but, it's coming.
We planted tomatoes, beans, snap pea pods, lettuce, zucchini, winter squash, jalapeno peppers, corn, carrots and spices.

I have many pictures from camp to sort and share, but, wanted to stop by and say hello :-) 

Hope you are having a wonderful summer.

Aahhhh Sweet Strawberries

I love this time of year.  There is always so much to enjoy and fun things to do....like strawberry picking!

The day before Father's Day we went for our yearly trip to the strawberry patch.  This year was especially fun since the boys seemed pretty enthusiastic about picking :-)

Here are a few highlights of our trip....


 













Some of us enjoyed snacking on the strawberries more than picking them as can be seen here :-)

Here is our haul.  Not bad for 30 minutes work.  We managed to pick about 8 quarts.  YUM!






When we left Lovey Dovey gave me the sweetest little bouquet of flowers.






And then we moved on to a picnic at the park.  We do this each year and it is one of the best parks around. 

 

Love this picture of Kit Kat as the static in his hair was amazing coming down the slide.

 

Life really is SWEET!

My Summertime Love

I always look forward to those long summer months where the air is sweet and filled with sunshine. Each year I plan my garden and try to expand upon the previous year of what I have learned worked and did not. I absolutely love gardening! It is such a wonderful feeling to be able to make something and nurture it. Must be why I love being a Mommy so much too :-)

This year we planted lettuce, cucumbers, grape and big boy tomatoes, cilantro, basil, dill, parsley, red peppers, eggplant, corn, green beans, snap peas and winter squash. Everything is growing well too!

Here are a few shots of this years gardens...