After 'me n the boys' got home from the gym this morning, I fed them lunch and put them down for naps. They stayed up very late last night since we made a huge family trip to the grocery store, and Sam doesn't believe in sleeping in no matter what time he went to bed, ergo Jackson was awakened early, too. Anyway, long story short (too late for that, huh?), they are both taking super long naps right now.
Ben was outside doing yard work and it was a beautiful day so I joined him to weed my flowerbeds for the first time this year. When I say flowerbeds, I really just mean beds where flowers
should go, as I have yet to plant any this year. On that note, flowers are so dang expensive! What if I planted seeds? Does anyone have any experience with that? What types of flower seeds would I likely be most successful with? I tried to plant seeds last year for the preschoolers to have flowers in the Mother's Day flowerpots they made, but it didn't go so well and I ended up buying some flowers and putting them in the pots with some soil. Any tips you have are much appreciated because my flowerbeds are longing for some beautiful color in them, but I just can't afford to fill them all with already grown flowers.
As I was working in my front flower bed, trimming back the dead canna debris to make room for the new shoots, I was thinking about the state of my flower beds and the backyard in general. (We are having a hard time keeping grass in the backyard since 10 preschoolers are stomping on it for over an hour every day.)
I was thinking about the last house I owned and remembering working in the front yard in my flowerbeds, and how when I moved out, how sad I was that I didn't have time to do more landscaping. I had a beautiful little yard with lots of older developed trees and shade. I had a pear tree in the backyard and some very pretty bushes and flowers in the front beds. My old yard had such potential to be a place of beauty and peace with just a little cultivation, but the marriage deteriorated and I moved out of the house and lost the yard.
As I was reflecting on that and ripping out and trimming back dead debris from my current yard, I noted how quickly things can deteriorate in life if they are not nourished. I was making the comparison (and bear with me cuz I'm no green thumb) that our lives are a lot like plants and flowers. My previous marrige was not rooted in the gospel, and so it had no solid foundation and no continuous nourishment from good things to help it grow and flourish. It started with so much potential, but wilted fast without getting what it needed to sustain life.
This analogy can apply currently as well. Sometimes we get so busy with life that we let obstacles hinder us from stretching up towards the sun's nourishing light. Other times, unimportant objects can blow into our flower beds and trash it up or we neglect to weed our flowerbeds and the focus on the beauty of the garden as a whole (eternal perpsective) is lost. If we don't make time to constantly clear those things out, so that our nourishment can be constant, we will begin to wilt as well.
Anyway, just seem deep Colleen thoughts I thought I'd share. I like to try to make everything an analogy. I don't know why, but it helps me understand things better, I guess.
Everyone loves Sam, especially his self-appointed second mom, Sophia. Although you can't tell from his expression, he loves her, too.
Best Friends - Sam hates to be separated from Jack and well, Jack mostly likes to have his tag-along brother with him. They even have a special scream they call each other with.
"Hey! I found one!"
"This Easter egg hunt is wearing me out! I gotta take a candy break..."
Sam found the biggest (and might I add BEST) egg ever!
I just LOVE these boys!
In the midst of hunting, look what else Jack found!
and here is his reaction...
This is Sam's new favorite thing. Good thing Jackson still loves Elmo, too, because we had moved past the Sesame Street phase, but he will still patiently watch SS with Sam.
Ben put up a tent in the backyard, thinking he'd sleep in it with Jackson last Sat night. That so did not happen...
but they had a blast playing in it after naptime on Sunday!
