As the Green Things Grow....

So, Blogger has been strange lately, with the photo's i upload coming out as text instead of photographs, so that i don't know how to separate them and put my comments below the pictures. Instead, i have to write all my comments here, at the bottom of the post. so here goes:

We have been busy, busy, busy in the yard for the last 3 days or so. Taking Sunday off to go to the zoo (sorry, forgot the camera in the car that day!!). Dave dug up four feet of dirt to seal the back of our home so he doesn't have to hate the rain anymore. (translation: no more water problems in the basement every time it rains) He and some very helpful friends dug and dug and dug. then sealed and sealed and sealed. they filled and filled and filled. I helped where i could, but you know how it is... being pulled in a lot of directions during the day tires one out. three kids, and endless home-and-yard projects can keep you hopping! But - BUT BUT - working outside and in with the ones we love is very satisfying and sanctifying.

Sanctifying- because there are so many stress points with training kids to be respectful, polite, kind, thoughtful, etc etc. and when you are making the choice to have your kids work along side you, so you have 'teachable moments' , you are choosing to be stretched and flexible for their greater good (and in turn YOUR own greater good). This means a lot of 'letting go' of the 'exact way' of doing things (which sounds soooooooo much easier than it is! haha) and needing to be okay with time delays and interruptions. So, now that you all have pictures in your minds of times in your own life that look like this... you probably see why i call them Sanctifying! we either learn from them, and see how God desires us to change and grow. Or, we blind ourselves to them over and over and over again, without realizing a pattern in our life that is there to give us the chance to change and grow.

So like all those green and blossoming things out-of-doors i hope i rely on God to give me strength to change in the ways he is showing me to.

Picture Notes:
the slices of tree stump are from our rotting tree that had to come down. We are using them as stepping places across our garden. Dave is so creative!!!

the ferns are from the plant sale at Julia's school... i am so so so excited to plant them. I LOVE FERNS!