Gardening...Take Two

First, I have to brag on my husband. He heard my pleas for a better way to water our garden, and he rose to the challenge! We bought a system that is automated. On it we can set times, days, length of time, and hose to direct the water through. Basically, for the areas that we have our system set up we can water them as needed without having to do anything manually. The hardest thing about it is setting everything up initially and spending the money needed on hoses, connectors, etc.

The garden (now with new plants in it) is set up with a sprinkler. The posts & wire are for the cucumbers to climb, btw. If you look closely, you can see Homer in the left corner of the picture.

The front of the house has sunflowers. The hose in the shot leads to a box that holds a hose that I can use to water things in the front and a side bed (because the spigot is in the back). This is practically the only place for me to have to manually water except for my new bed around the light pole.
The front bed is snaked with double soaker hoses. Not pictured, the back bed also has a snaked soaker hose. My hubby did that and used u-shaped things to hold them in place.
On Saturday I planted some new vegetables and all of my flowers, and I created that new flower bed. On Sunday, I planted some more vegetables, our herbs, and tomatoes. Below are the herbs.
Here are some cherry tomatoes in Topsy Turvy holders.
And, so I don't completely bore you with the garden (which is pretty much finished for a while except for weeding and mulching), here are some family pictures from yesterday.

The beautiful Christianna reaching for her new Bible at her baby dedication. It's hard to believe that she'll be 7 months soon.
Me and my mother. She's wearing the corsage my sister got her for Mother's Day. Some people say I look like my father, and some say I look like my mom. What do you think? I look more like my mom than my sister does, I know.
Me and my hubby, Josh. He's awesome. ;)
I'm going to head to bed soon. I start back to school tomorrow night. Although I think I'll like the teacher and the class, I'm not looking forward to going back to night classes. Sigh.

Wacky

I'll have to share some of the more sentimental pictures from a great Mother's Day later, but for the night, I'll share my wacky pictures from the day.

A critter that climbed onto a bag while I was gardening.
Rolling about in the dirt and also begging for love.
A sweet little girl, looking upside down at her Aunt Amanda.

Weekend Update

Since I'm about to watch some SNL, I thought it appropriate to give you a "Weekend Update." :)

I won't write much tonight though, since it is rather late.

Today was spent running errands in the morning and then gardening most of the afternoon. We stopped by a local nursery this morning, and we retrieved some replacement plants for my seedlings that did not make it through the frost. I planted some seeds to replace others that weren't available at the store.

I have had TONS of flowers that needed to make it into various parts of the garden, so I spent a long time figuring out where to put those, digging some holes, and getting them all set and watered in. One of my creations from the day was what you see below. I dug a trench around a light/electric pole in our yard, filled it in with about 6 1/2 bags of topsoil, and planted some flowers in there. My mother will be happy to know that some of those flowers are Black-Eyed Susans, some of her favorite flowers. I thought it was appropriate to be planting those the day before Mother's Day. :)

When I haven't been gardening (or doing homework), I have spent some time making jewelry. There was a local bingo night fundraiser that I donated some of my handiwork to. The fundraiser is for scholarships in the memory of a 3-year-old boy who was killed by a hit and run drunk driver. Very sad story. His parents couldn't have children, and he was adopted as a baby, but was tragically killed a few years later. They raised $1450 for the Brady Singleton Memorial Scholarship. The parents award two scholarships each year to local students.

If you couldn't tell, the above earring and bracelet set are the colors and mascot symbol for our school.

Below is a bracelet that is a Mother's Day gift for my mother-in-law, Mary Jane. I can safely post it online because she doesn't do internet stuff. My mother, on the other hand, will not be privileged to her jewelry spoilers. :)
So, that's a very quick update from my week and weekend. Once the garden is a bit more finished and mulched, I'll get some pictures taken of it as well. Time for bed. I can tell my Benadryl is kicking in. *yawn* Tomorrow will be a fun day filled with family, and my niece's baby dedication.

Hindsight is 20/20

I've been flexing my green thumb this year, trying my hand at not only starting all of our vegetable seedlings from scratch, but also most of our flowers.

I've watched, waited, and checked the Farmer's Almanac, and I decided that the much awaited day to put the vegetables in had come. I worked for hours yesterday to get everything in the ground. It looked great. I had plans to take pictures today of yesterday's hard work.

I guess it really is my own fault for not looking at the weather, but I really hadn't even thought to do it...It's just been such nice weather lately.

So, when we awoke today we found that our weather dropped below freezing last night, and there was a nice shiny frost covering all our ground this morning. I put off surveying the damage until this afternoon...

As I wandered through my garden this afternoon, my heart dropped, and sadness turned to anger as I'm pretty sure I uttered a few words that I won't repeat here. I'm a very easy going person, and it takes a lot to make me mad, but seeing that my bell pepper, cucumber, and possibly even other seedlings that I have slaved over for the past few months were frostbitten and on their death bed, brought me to such a high level of irritation....Ooooooooh.

I haven't quite finished venting, and again, I realize that it is partially my own fault for not checking for upcoming frosts. I figured we were past that by May 5th. Sigh. Hindsight is truly 20/20.

We're going to buy a few seedlings this weekend, and I'll plant some new seeds again on Saturday, and we'll see where that gets us. Don't worry....I've already checked the weather tonight for my survivors. Having a garden has been a learning experience for me, and I'll certainly remember this for next year and years to come.

For the purposes of frightening my mother...

As I am walking out of our bathroom, I look towards the front door and hear my husband (who is standing on the front porch) say, "Hey baby, did you see this snake? Come here."

I proceed to walk outside, look to my left, and see an over 2 foot long, beautiful reptile stretched out on our porch. My husband says, "I think it's a Copperhead."

So, we proceed to call his co-worker, who knows something about snakes, and she said we could send a picture to her to see if she could identify it. Sure enough, she identified it, and she added, "It's a big one." We decided to kill it, since the bite from a Copperhead snake will most definitely send a person to the hospital (and probably mortally wound our cats). She warned us that it can strike within half the length of it's body (in our case, probably a little over a foot). As Josh went to get a shovel, it crawled into some wood we had on the porch, so it ended up kind of defensive once we moved some of its hiding place.

So, my husband, my hero, successful killed it with a shovel. I watched the entire time, praying to God that he wouldn't miss. Now, we're as nice as it can be when it comes to trying not to kill wildlife outside our home, and if we see black garden snakes, which are very beneficial in eating rodents (and I've been told, Copperhead snakes), we leave them alone, but when it comes to poisonous snakes, we don't play very nice. Interesting enough, this snake belongs to the family of pit viper snakes that account for the largest number of snake bites in a year. As far as I can tell, bites from this snake are not deadly to adults, just extremely painful, swollen, and nausea inducing. Mr. or Mrs. Snake, is no longer with us. I'm sure some snake lovers out are gasping in horror now, and others might call us a bit stupid since many people get bitten while trying to kill snakes (this one's defense mechanism is to stay very still unless someone encroaches upon his/her personal space), but I will sleep a little easier knowing there is one less poisonous snake in our yard.

And, just so I don't induce nightmares with the scary little guy, here are my babies, resting after a jaunt in the hot sun the other day.

Athena, looking regal & a bit snooty.

Homer, being his usually adorable (and needy) self.
Back to homework now! I'm trying to unburden myself from the last throes of my Spring semester. So close....

Have you looked up?

I took the time to go for a walk today, and after I shook off some of my self-absorbed thoughts, I happened to look up. I thought to myself, "Wow, that's blue." Not just any blue, but a brilliant, clear sky blue, that one can only truly appreciate after a day full of darkness, storms, and destruction.

As I gazed up, I thought to myself, isn't it awesome that no matter what kind of day we're having, God is always there? Whether we're selfish or giving, hopeless or hopeful, overjoyed or dismayed, it doesn't matter, because our GOD, our Lord and Savior never leaves us. He created us, He loves us, and He will always provide for us.

Josh and I have been so blessed this year, and we were blessed yesterday by not suffering any damage from the storms. I know God was protecting us because no matter when it seemed like an awful storm was headed our way, it seemed to change direction ever so slightly so as to avoid us. I realize that God does not always save us from the storms, but He always guides us through them.

God has been working on me so much through my graduate school process. God and I have had many talks about my need to be in control of my life, and His need for me to let Him take control. And what I've found is that if I follow Him, even when I don't know what will happen next, He rewards me greater than I could have ever imagined.

I've had a bit of a mantra for myself over the past few semesters. It's Jaci Velasquez's song, "Lay It Down", and I thought I would share the lyrics with you. She sings it so beautifully, and the words have not ceased speaking to me. When I start focusing on making my plans for the future, and trying to figure out what I'll be doing once I graduate, I remember to turn to this song, and place everything back in God's hands.

I've been lookin' till my eyes are tired of lookin'
Listenin' till my ears are numb from listenin'
Prayin' till my knees are sore from kneelin' on the bedroom floor
I know that you know that my heart is achin'
I'm running out of tears and my will is breakin'
I don't think that I can carry the burden of it anymore
All of my hopes and my dreams and my best laid plans,
Are slowly slippin' through my folded hands

Chorus:
So I'm gonna lay it down
I'm gonna learn to trust You now
What else can I do?
Cause everything I am depends on You
And if the sun don't come back up
I know Your love will be enough
I'm gonna let it be, I'm gonna let it go,
I'm gonna lay it down.

Verse:
I've been walkin' through this world like I'm barely livin'
Buried in the doubt of this hole I've been diggin'
But You're pullin' me out
I'm finally breathin' in the open air
This room may be dark but I'm finally seein'
There's a new ray of hope, and now I'm believin'
That the past is past, and the future's beginning to look brighter now
Oh, cause all of my hopes and my dreams and my best laid plans
Are safe and secure when I place them in Your hands

Chorus:
So I'm gonna lay it down
I'm gonna learn to trust You now
Oh what else can I do,
Cause everthing I am depends on You
And if the sun don't come back up
I know Your love will be enough
I'm gonna let it be, I'm gonna let it go,
I'm gonna lay it down
I'm gonna lay it down
I'm gonna lay it down.

And, on one last note, after looking at the disaster that has struck our area, and as I pray for those who are having to rebuild their lives, I again look around me, and I see something.

It's kind of sad looking, isn't it? A lily with no flowers. All the petals that weren't strong enough to hold on through the storms left a sad reminder of what once was.

BUT, how beautiful is that which remains? How much more can we appreciate the beauty that is, when we draw our eyes away from the ashes from which they came?
"To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory" (Isaiah 61:3, NLT).

The Waiting Game

Cute, isn't he? I stumbled across something strange and funny several months ago called "Giant Microbes" which are plush stuffed animals of various viruses, bacteria, cells, and other sickness inducers (such as dust mites). They can be used for educational purposes and sometimes funny get well gifts (They can also be purchased from Amazon.com). Meet my friend above, who did not visit me in his cute plush form, but in his every day form of streptococcus, i.e. Strep Throat.

Needless to say, I had quite a miserable Easter weekend. I went from a mild sore throat and low grade fever Friday, to a 102 fever and horrible sore throat on Saturday. I went to a walk-in with my self diagnosis of strep, and they confirmed it. My antibiotics have been working, albeit slowly. Today is the first day I am starting to really feel like myself. I'm happy to actually be swallowing without wincing. The sinus infection that tagged along for the ride is slowly clearing up as well. Thank you Lord that it happened this weekend and not next when I have two Praxis exams. Also, I had a 4-day weekend to recuperate as well. :) Waiting to get better is no fun at all though.

Here's some creepy information about strep. I was mortified to find out that it can live on dry surfaces for MONTHS. Only 5-10% of adults actually catch it, and I wonder how many of those adults are educators? Washing hands frequently and disinfecting surfaces are a must with this nasty little bacteria. And, it's important to treat it because it can cause complications that can damage both your heart and kidneys through rheumatic fever.

In other news, when I haven't been whiny, feverish, and worthless, I have helped Josh out in the yard.

He has planted grass seed in areas that need it.

We both worked on chopping down some unnecessary pine saplings. Some were removed to allow for proper growth of other trees, and some were removed because they decided to grow where their branches would whack into our cars as we passed them. I found irony in that we cut them down on Earth Day. I'm actually very pro-conservation and and a bit of a tree hugger. lol. :)

Here's an eventual project for us. We're waiting until I have a job, and then we will buy gutters for our house. It will allow us to then landscape our front bed which right now makes the front of our house look kind of trashy.

I planted some carrot seeds and red onion bulbs in the garden. I've noticed that waiting on seeds to grow is kind of like waiting for water to boil. I can't watch them too closely or it seems like they take too long.

The carrots and the onions are the only thing in the beautiful garden that my husband has created. I wish I could take a little credit but between hurting my back trying to dig some of it out and then coming down with strep later in the week, I wasn't much help at all. My contribution will come through the seedlings I grew, that I'll plant, and then that I'll probably water for most of the summer. It's ready and waiting! The cages will hold bell pepper plants, and the fence posts will have a screen tied to them so that my cucumbers can grow up it. :)

Around the garden there is more grass seed planted. It will hopefully look much greener in a few weeks.

My husband also mowed. If you compare this picture to one in a previous post, you might notice where some of the pine saplings are missing halfway down the driveway.

Last, but not least, here's me with my husband's family on Easter. Baby Christianna looked beautiful in her Easter outfit!

Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful Monday. I'm going back to cleaning and homework. I'm trying to disinfect now that I'm not contagious. :)