A Little of This, A Little of That

Garden Planted
Last week, I was alone, as my husband was away on a business trip.  I took the opportunity to get some things done around the house that I'd been meaning to do for a while, and on that list was my garden.  We had a hot stretch of weather, so I tried to pick the cooler dry day of the week to get out there, but it was still in the 80s when I went out last Wednesday evening to work my garden and plant some veggies.  As you can see, though, I was able to get almost everything in!  I purchased my peppers and cucumbers from the store, but I planted a patch of beans, four ears of corn, and a row of pumpkins.  I am waiting to plant my second patch of green beans until after the first patch sprouts, and I'm hoping to get a prolonged bean crop this way.  One interesting note: as I was digging holes for my cucumber plants, I began to notice some fine roots around the bases of the limbs we used for trellising.  Apparently, the branches are still alive and trying to take root!  Did not expect that.  Hopefully, it won't last and they will eventually dry out and give up.  We'll see!

Can't wait for everything to grow!

Little red pepper plants

Cucumber plant!

Saturday Fun 

When hubby did return Friday night, we made plans for Saturday!  We spent the morning at rummage sales, and it was a beautiful day for it.  I found a lady who was selling parts of her plants from her garden, and purchased an iris and a shoot of bee balm, which I hope to plant near my garden to attract butterflies and such.  We also found a neat little camping lantern at another sale, and were happy with our finds.  After that, we got some lunch, went to the grocery store, and came home to work on our neglected yard.  We are thinking about replacing our brick patio with a poured concrete one, because we seem to get a lot of weeds and have ants tunneling underneath.  It would be considerably less maintenance to have a concrete patio area.  After the yard work, we ate dinner and had a nice fire in our outdoor fire pit.  That was the night of the mega moon, and it did look bigger than normal.  Over all, we had a great day together.  I'm just not the same when my husband is gone--he is my best friend and favorite companion, and I miss him terribly when he's away.

Garage Sale Plants

Roaring Fire

Burning Embers

Mega Moon

Vacation Plans

I mentioned in my last post that we'd made plans for our anniversary trip.  We've decided to go to Cincinnati for several days, and we'll be staying at a beautiful B&B in Kentucky called the Willis Graves House.  We'll be staying in the log cabin, and I'm so excited!  It looks so rustic and perfect.  I'm especially interested in finding out just how a steam shower works.  We were referred to this B&B by the innkeeper of the Ivy House B&B, who said that if we were ever in the Cincinnati area, this was the place to stay.  I looked it up after we got home and fell in love.  I knew eventually that we'd end up in Cincy for something, so I kept it in mind, and it worked out to go down there for our anniversary.  We'll be seeing two Reds games, and we plan to visit the zoo and The Creation Museum.  Hopefully, we'll also have a day to do some antiques shopping and just take it easy.  I'm very excited for our trip.  I enjoy it when we can get away together and see new things.  I'll take lots of photos, of course!

Mother's Day 
This Sunday is Mother's Day.  To the mothers in my life, and all of the mothers out there, I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for all that you do for your children, even though it might take them years or decades to realize all that you sacrificed for them.  So take the day off and go shopping.  You deserve a day of pampering!

Have a virtual rose plant!

Since we will be traveling in a few weeks, I know that we'll run into all sorts of people--some nice, some strange, and some just mean.  Many will not be Christian.  Most likely, 80% of those you interact with (outside of church) are not Christians, and/or have no Christan background.  I have a hard time connecting with those who don't share my beliefs, and therefore have a hard time creating meaningful conversation with many people.  It's really something I've never been great at--I would not call myself a people-person at all!  I can work on it, but it's a character trait, and likely will never change.  I would just end up being like one of those people who make awkward, strange conversation at parties with other guests--you know who they are.  As a result, I am the kind of person who has a small but loyal group of friends.  So when I saw this passage today, it caught my attention: "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Col. 4:5-6).  This is something I should be striving for, not shying away from: for while actions are necessary to share Christ with others, sometimes it is our words that can carry the most weight.  Words have so much power!