Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Yeah, That's a Lot of Free Plants...Round Two


The gluttony of free plants continues.

My neighbors run a "flower tent" here in town.  They put the plants that they don't sell out for "free" in their yard today.  They were taking donations for a local dog shelter, so we did contribute to that.  I gave her $17. It was all the cash I had.  And I drove home with all of this.  The peonies in the back were free from my friend's yard (again, thank you, Jessica).


The best lil gardener around helped me to plant over 57 plants in our "kid garden" today. He informed me that since he is in the library garden club, he can put the plants where ever he wants.  I tried my best to comply.

I have to say that I am wondering why the Lord has blessed us so amazingly with all of these plants?
He must draw as much pleasure from watching my little ones' love of gardening as I do.

I left the house this morning thinking, "I'd sure like to run down to the Farmer's Market, so I can buy a few tomato plants.  We could really use them."

We never made it to the Farmer's Market, but somehow I ended up bringing home 15 tomato plants, 4 basil, 3 oregano, 3 parsley, 4 green bell peppers, and countless other flowering beauties, all, pretty much, free of charge!  That is a blessing, my friends!


I asked my husband if he liked the new plants in the garden.  "What new plants?" was his response.
Uh, honey, I put in a TON of new plants today!  You did?

UH, yeah. And I took him on a little tour...counting and pointing out each new plant.

Sorry, Boss, but you can't miss 57 new additions to our garden.  
That ain't right!  Poor man, he needs a day off!
He makes me laugh!

Well, it wasn't all work and no play today.  After a few sweaty hours of planting, we headed to the pool, where my sweet and lovely children discovered that they are, in fact, half fish.  My dear first-born actually swam in the deep pool without me today!  Try as I may, he is growing up so quickly.

I love him so much.

I love being a Mother, so much.

Even on days like yesterday, when we got all the way through the grocery store check-out process only to discover that I had left my wallet on the kitchen counter.

Even in the moment of that terribly inconvenient realization, I felt peace, as the Spirit assured me that this was an opportunity to teach my children, by example, how to deal with disappointments in life.

In that moment, I felt purpose, poise, and power.

And I felt reassured that the "little jobs" a Mother does are oh so important.

(We drove home, got the wallet, returned for our groceries--and no tears were shed--not by me anyway, and when I explained to the kids that this stuff just happens sometimes and instead of crying or getting mad, Mommy, just finds a solution to the problem, fixes it, and moves on, they were ok with that.)


Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and I see more planting in my future.

7 comments:

  1. I had one of those grocery store teaching moments this week too - tonight actually. My oldest knocked over a very large display of candy bars while doing something I had asked her not to do a few moments earlier. The clerk came over to clean up, and I just said, "No thank you. We'll be cleaning this up ourselves." I wasn't angry. I was almost glad to be able to calmly teach her that mommy asks her not to do certain things for a reason while we dealt with the consequences of her behavior. It took forever, but it was worth it.

    Love the garden! What an incredible blessing!

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  2. what a great attitude you have and a good example to your little ones. gardens are wonderful teaching places. go for it!

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  3. Awesome post...love the plants, what a great deal on those. And of course a great lesson and very well taught as always...congrats!

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  4. You are going to have (already have =)) a beautiful garden! I'm slowly working on a garden for our yard (just moved in last fall).

    You have a wonderful attitude about what it means to be a mother. I wish there were more moms like you.

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  5. I love the grocery story. I did that once at the grocery store and when I was about to pop out Jared, it was black Fri and I went to Walmart to get something I REALLY wanted and forgot my wallet in the car! I couldn't leave my prized possesion so I borrowed a cell phone from a stranger, called Chris and made him drive over to Walmart to get my wallet from the car at 5am! What a good husband I have and what a funny story it is looking back on it now. So jealous of all your wonderful free plants! Lucky you!!

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  6. you will have a veritable Garden of Eden in your backyard and wherever else.

    Did you pic up that pretty little number in the last pix...the one with the wee lassie...from some open air market?

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  7. I love it- I can't wait to have a home of m own with a garden; there's something about the growing of plants and being self-sufficient that is so fulfilling. Way to go for teaching your children early!!

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