almost spring

I have daffodils beginning to bloom in the front yard and robins have been filling the air for the last several days with their beautiful songs. We had one glorious taste of spring on Saturday, and then the temperatures plummeted with torrents of rain, reminding us that winter hasn't yet completely released us from its claws. Ah well. Spring is coming, and I'm excited to finally have my own front yard and garden bed to fill with flowers and herbs. The neighborhood I live in is made up of small two bedroom homes but many of the houses have somewhere around a dozen people living in them. Its a very trailer-park like setting in many respects. Not quite inner-city dynamics, but you'll get there without traveling too far.
With spring come planning meetings for summer programs for the kids ministry. Kids - I love. Adults - not so much. And oddly enough in children's ministries, there's far more interaction with adults then children.
To children things are simple and upfront. They take you at face value. You say God loves you, so He does. You say 'I love you,' and give them a hug, they believe you and love you back. Adults on the other hand bring politics, agendas, and micromanaging control into the mix. Bleh. I think I understand why Jesus said you had to have faith like a child!!!

Ah well. Back to the garden. I've been trying to balance wanting to invest a ton of time and money into having a beautiful secret garden, but at the same time show restraint and purchase little by little. I don't know why but last spring something snapped in me and I just started buying plants. And the things is, while a lot of them frizzled, a lot of them lived and are still with me. I don't have a magical green thumb, but I don't have a black thumb either! So thats been exciting. I haven't had the space for a whole lot of veggies etc. So mainly flowers and herbs. I can't begin to describe how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE fresh herbs. They are so beautiful when they grow, they make food so tasty, and they smell AWESOME when it rains. Ahhh nature. Gods creation never ceases to amaze.

as promised, pictures

 As promised, pictures :-)

 Fairy-like tea party I picked up in Disney World for a song.

 Found these very awesome flower pots and so bought some flowers to put in them. I realized the majority of my plants are edible and while nutritious and the foliage is nice, I kind of want some colors to break up the green.

 My tea party with Lavender!

 The big pots have 'bush beans' which are very stalk-y but don't have the tentacle whoojingles to climb anything so I know they aren't pole beans; and the big big pot has broccoli in it. It used to have beans but some critter at them :-(

 All together now! And finally, I loved this sign. Didn't buy it but may paint it on something in the near future ;-)

With silver bells and cockle shells!

 I was good. I practiced self-restraint. A few weeks ago, this was the extent of my plant collection. Yeah thats it. Just two basil plants, a house plant, and an aloe vera (the other aloe vera is a previous room mate's and she still hasn't come to pick it up yet!) However, the one basil somehow died, and then I kept walking by beautiful gardens in our neighborhood, or seeing picturesque places like this at Ms. Pat's house:

 Amber hasn't been feeling all that great lately, both physically and emotionally, so I bought her flowers and left them as a surprise on her doorstep. I knew she wanted hydrangeas and I found them at Trader Joe's while I was grocery shopping for half of what the plant nursery was selling them for, so I bought her some. She is going to plant them in the garden plot to the right of her front door.

 See? Aren't they perty? However, this set off my plant-lust.

 Now in my defense I already owned all these by this point, and the majority were grown from seeds that I bought over a month ago. There are Bush Beans (which I thought were pole beans. Woops. Read the package next time, don't just look at the picture!!) The seedlings on the far left are Cucumbers, as well as Lemon Verbena, Rosemary, and Sweet Peas in with the Bush Beans.

 And then on the other end of the porch the two planters on either side is Lettuce, and the pots in the middle are Lavender which I started from seeds for the first time. Dude they take FOREVER to grow from seeds!!!

 See? Teeny baby Lavender!!!

 And here's me herbs: Closest to furthest: Rosemary, the pot that's empty is actually Columbine that hasn't sprouted yet (okay so not all herbs) my Lemon Verbena and Basil. Yeah I move the plants around off the ledge and back onto it depending on how hard the wind is blowing.

 Here's the Bush Beans and Sweet Peas. This one is okay, but in the other pots this size there were two bean plants and two sweet peas growing. I knew that wasn't going to go well for very long before they started crowding each other out. Well I thought I had enough pots to house everything, but I knew I needed more potting soil. So I started out for Walgreens this morning as I knew they had potting soil and I wasn't feeling good so I didn't want to go too far from home.

 Well, there was a nursery about half the distance to my house than Walgreens, and I knew they would have potting soil. So I pulled over and checked. And wouldn't you know it they had herbs for half the price I had been getting them. And I found CURRY! I don't usually cook with Curry but it was really fragrant and unique, so I bought one. And then they had large, beautiful Lavender so I bought some of that, as well as two more Rosemary plants. My late grandfather was able to coax his Rosemary into huge beautiful plants that he then planted under his wife's kitchen window. I LOVE that idea. I don't want to plant the rosemary at my current residence but I'm hoping if I baby it and keep it in a pot until I have more permanent residence it will be established enough that I can do the same thing. Or just have huge potted Rosemary. I know in Tennessee it will grow out of doors and be a perennial but I think Kentucky is too cold, so I might just have to keep it potted. 

 So I brought all my goods (including 2 bags of potting soil - waaaay cheaper than at Walgreens as I'm sure you can imagine) and realized I now did not have enough pots. My room mate Amber (different from Hydrangea Amber) came home, saw all the foliage and said, 'Mary Mary, quite contrary, how your garden GROWS, and grows, and grows! Girl where did all this come from?' So I confessed and told her my predicament. 'I need accountability. I need to go to the big nursery and get more pots because the little one was out. But I'm afraid I'll get the itch again and will buy more plants!' 'Oh girl I'll go with you. I'll keep you accountable. I'll yell 'PUT IT DOWN! We ain't got no more room!!'"

 Well as SOON as I parked and she got out of the car and saw all the beautiful blooms, she said, "oh crap. I'm getting the itch too! This is not good!" She has an Aloe Vera plant (its a popular gift in these parts, apparently!) that desperately needed repotting. And of course this nursery not only had regular terracotta pots but amazing pottery pots that were three times the price for fru-fru gardeners. So we spent 3x's the time I thought we would as she walked back and forth between the pretty pots and the terracotta pots. Finally I suggested she paint the terracotta pot and she caved. I also got a hanging planter for my indoor plant, and she liked that idea so started perusing the hanging pots. However they were $20. So I talked her into leaving and we left with pots and some miracle grow plant food.

 Here is what the Aloe Vera planter looked like when she finished it. She painted it black and then spray-painted silver flacks onto it. As you can see, we have enough Aloe Vera to last us a while!!

 Well we went back to the smaller nursery to get potting soil and she found a hanging Fuchsia for $17.00 so she bought that. And here is our lovely porch, way too much $$ and two hours later:
 

Now I need to STOP playing and get this study guide done for my Theology 1 Final on Tuesday!!! :-D However, like I said, whenever I garden there is something incredibly refreshing and RIGHT about it :-)

musings on church and gardening

I really didn't understand any of this four years ago. Now I get delicious, sadistic, unsanctified delight out of pieces like this.
To be honest, I am not sure what to do about church when I graduate. I have the church I'm a member of which is great but there's not really a place for me to serve, and honestly I don't fit the profile for their stereotypical member. And there's the deaf church, which I love, but I'll confess I love me a good praise and worship song once a week. And then there is searching for other churches. Dad wants me to look into the Wesleyan churches. 1. I don't know that there are any in the area (I am in Baptist land after all) and 2. there's a Calvary Chapel in the area I want to try. Not saying I'll join it not saying I won't. God bless the Wesleyan's and all, but while I am unsure its something I want to figure out on my own. I have so many voices telling me what I should and ought and should think about. I'm tired of direction and suggestions and 'feedback' and 'accountability' (code for we're not going to tell you in a Matthew 18 way, we're going to wait till we're P.O'd at you and then give you a long sermon for how horrible you are and how our way is the best).  I'd like just some good old fashioned love and support. Honest truth. Is that me being unteachable and rebellious? Well paint it how you want its how I feel and I'm being honest. Which apparently people don't like anymore.

Sorry I've had a massive allergy attack the last four days and its developing into a sinus infection. God bless antibiotics and steroids. However my sudden dependence upon drugs is concerning, 'cause I didn't grow up popping pills. Granted the stuff I have been taking is needed. And medicine is wonderful when you need it. However I still feel like my body should be sufficient to ward of allergies etc. without drugs. So its an adjustment. Which is what the last three years has been apparently. So all that to say I'm tired and more cynical than usual.
However today is going to be a good day. I am going to class then going to my new job at the Crisis Pregnancy Center inputting donation information, and we had a huge amount of donations over the weekend. And I'll be working with older women which I love doing. Then I have my other job in the dishroom. Not my most favorite occupation ever (in fact I'm sick of it) but my bosses are awesome there and the pay is alright.

And I don't have pictures but a lot of the veggies I planted have sprouted! The green beans are HUGE. The cucumber hasn't sprouted yet so I don't know if its just taking its time or dead. The herbs still look bushy and happy, a few sweet peas have sprouted and the lettuce looks happy. I love growing things. I'm not all that successful yet at it. But for me there is something so wonderfully refreshing and lovely and peaceful in a garden. When I'm doing work there and getting my hands dirty and smelling the green I feel a sense of purpose and peace like I do when I'm being obedient to God.
- the good feelings are rather quickly taken away by the allergy attack but I'm figuring out which dr's to go to and which steroids are helpful so you know. ;-)
(Yes that was me being flippant and sarcastic. Its how I cope)

Ok I need to get out of my jammies and ready for this awesome day.
~Princess Ouch~
p.s. this new blogger dashboard was confusing at first but I took the tutorial and I'm kind of loving it now!!!

Dried roses

I dried the bouquet of flowers I had received for valentines day, and a friend asked me why I did that, as now the flowers were all brittle. I must admit, a rather lengthy reply formed in my brain as to the reasoning of saving something beautiful even though it is now delicate and fragile, whereas before it was strong and vibrant. However, I decided to hold my tongue at the time. But later on that night, a poem formed itself in my brain and I thought I would share it with you:

Why do I like dried flowers?
Its a simple matter, you see.
Because I have no garden
filled with ones living.

Either because it's winter
and outside all green things are dead
or because I own no ground
on which my seeds can go to bed.

So I cherish these few cut roses
given to me by a friend
and not let them die and wither
by hanging them up on end.

Yes now they are far more brittle
a delicate, fragile thing.
Yet I'd rather have these remainders
then simply sweet memories.

So the solution you see is simple,
though not exactly cheap.
Either give me a tiny garden,
or buy me cut flowers every week!

Full day

Woke up, had breakfast with Dad while Mom filled us in some more about how her weekend at the Homeschool conference went. Then braided Flower's hair while talking with Mom and Feche boy and KB. After herding the cats - I mean the two dogs and two little kids - the four of us went for a walk along the river for about an hour. It was a nice welcome to SD when we got to the river and the pup leapt into the water to investigate what I thought was a rock but turned out to be the front half of a week-dead deer. I pulled the dog out of the water and with difficulty pulled her along the bank to a point where she forgot the deer and leapt into the water towards another "rock." This turned out to be the BOTTOM half of the dead deer. Yummy.

The two kids climbed tree's and fought over who 'claimed' which tree first while the two dogs investigated smells, rolled around, listened to the killdeers singing across the bank and got plenty of burrs in their fur and leads.
We headed back so the kids could start schoolwork and I decided to give the older dog, Diamond, a bath, which she hates. The new pup, Ursa, on the other hand, thinks that water and baths were the best thing invented. So between the pup jumping on my feet, Diamond's feet, and her own feet, and Diamond turning her cowardly tail and trying to escape as much as possible, most of the mud and dirt from the dogs ended up on me and they still didn't end up smelling as sweet as I had originally hoped, and I am sore and slightly bruised. Dumb animals!! I went inside and chatted with Mom a little more and got some lunch between helping pick up here and there before I decided to plant a few of the seedlings that were growing out of their little containers on the porch. (The picture is of mom doing the laundry while we were chatting in the living room) The next thing I knew, there was a family wide weeding and planting fest going on. It was fun, but we all got a little sunburnt and light headed from the heat. Its been warm in the south where College is at, but I haven't been sitting in direct sunlight for hours on end at all this year, and it's just starting to get above the 40's and 50's during the daytime here. It was about 70 maybe, but we were all HOT and sweaty by the end of it. Before we knew it, it was 5 pm and we were all bushed. Flower picked some lilacs and she and I took turns pozing. She's still trying to learn that when one takes pictures, it is a good idea to hold the camera STILL while pushing the shutter button. So most of the pictures she takes are still a bit blurry. But hopefully you get the idea, and it's the thought that counts, right?

So now we are going to crash in front of X-men 1, which no one but me has seen yet. :-D And eat dinner, not sure if the two will happen symultaniously, but whatever.
So anyhoo. I took the dogs and kids for a walk, washed the dog, weeded the garden, harrassed the teenager, helped clean, and had interesting discussions. WHEW. Been a full day. Life at home. And they say homeschoolers live sheltered, boring, unsocial lives. ;-)

~PrincessOuch~