WFMW: Low Maintenance Garden

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As I've mentioned in posts past, this year, we built two raised garden beds.

Let me tell you ... they are the epitome of gardening. They are fabulous, easy and LOW MAINTENANCE!!! No tilling, and no digging holes in the impossible hard ground (we have all clay and rock)!

There are many reasons to consider gardening: economical, satisfying, hormone-free, delicious. If you haven't planted a garden, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Let me tell you what I did to make the garden low maintenance:

1. First, it is a raised garden -- with new, fresh top soil and leaf compost (we purchased a truck load per bed at the nursery - a great investment in my eyes). No old weed roots to deal with.

2. I mulched, mulched, mulched. Not only does it look good, but it keeps the soil moist longer, and holds back the weeds.

So the key to a low maintenance garden? MULCH!!! (once we establish our strawberry bed, I'll use straw around the strawberries)

In the last three months, I've only had to pull approximately 4 or 5 blades of grass that have popped up. That's pretty awesome, if you ask me! I'll keep everyone posted on how we do in the summer months with weeds.

We are LYING parents

Recently, I started giving my precious angel of a boy (yeah, I'm REALLY referring to Hunter) Gummy Bear Vitamins. He loves them. He has started calling them his "medicine" or "vikamns," because we had to explain that he can only have two each night since they have a measured amount of vitamins in them. If he eats too many, he might get sick.

Try holding back a 3 year old from chowing down on gummy bears.

Try holding back a 42 year old from chowing down on gummy bears. (not ME -- I'm still 41!)

Neither task is pretty.

Man those things are yummy.

This past weekend, we ran out. I was incredibly busy putting together a party for about 30 people, and just didn't have time to run to Costco to get another bottle. And Hunter? He threw a FIT. He wanted HIS VIKAMNS.

So we did the next best thing.

We lied to our son.

And now we're both going to hell in a hand basket.

What has this world come to?

We gave him two fruit chews with no vitamin value in them whatsoever and told him they were "different vitamins."

And he bought it hook, line and sinker.

Then we did it the next night

And we'll have to do it again tonight because I haven't made it out to Costco yet

I'm carrying the weight of the world in guilt on my shoulders, folks. I'm a rotten, lying momma.

A rotten, lying, fake-vitamin-pushing momma who's got her son addicted to them like crack.

God DOES answer prayer -- In case you were wondering!

AND -- he blesses our socks off even when we aren't expecting it!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

About 5 years ago, my father in law lost 207 pounds.

And yet -- that's not the answer to prayer.

Let me keep you in suspense and fast forward to today.

My husband and FIL were out in our back yard cleaning it up and laying paver stones. They were digging out some of the dirt and throwing it into the back of my husband's truck, when something shiny caught my FIL's eye.

He exclaimed: Is that a ring?

My husband said: No, I don't think so.

Then, my husband picked up the shiny object and said: Yes, it IS a ring!

My FIL said: That looks like MY wedding ring!

He took the ring and, sure enough! It was HIS RING ... that he lost OVER TWO YEARS AGO after loosing all his weight. He prayed, and prayed and prayed, but never found it.

Until today. Exactly three days after their 44th anniversary.

Talk about God blessing his socks off! And... giving new meaning to that wedding ring!

We have sat here scratching our heads trying to figure out HOW that ring got into the dirt in our back yard... and we can't figure it out... but it did. And God decided to reveal it today.

He does answer prayer. He does bless. He does.

"Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

A Mixed Bag of Emotions

One thing I've learned after having a child is... as parents, you want to provide them with as many fun and exciting events as possible!

So with that in mind, last night we took Hunter to the circus. I think I was just as excited as he was! It was the first time he has EVER been, and I couldn't wait to watch his excitement. As it turns out, it was a strange experience for all of us. While we were standing in line to get our tickets, he announced that he didn't want anything to eat. Now, that alone is an odd thing, because Hunter nearly ALWAYS wants sweet things to eat. He was riding on Daddy’s shoulders, and he was very quiet. Almost somber! How weird.

But once we got inside and sat down, he became so excited to see the clowns and kept asking and asking and ASKING about them. “When are them coming out? Where are them? When are them coming out? Where are them?”

Three year olds tend to lack originality and a solid grasp of grammatical form in their questions. But, boy! It sure is charming.

When the circus finally came out, the clowns appeared. And they weren't all that great, in my humble opinion, but then again, I’m not three. Hunter sat in my lap perfectly still staring at everything with his eyes wide and his mouth open. He was so quiet the entire time!

Then, two dirt bikes came out. Or maybe they were mopeds. Who knows. I’m not a motorcycle aficionado by any stretch of the imagination. But they were red. And I am quite the expert when it comes to my colors.

They drove right into the huge METAL! BALL! CAGE! Otherwise known as … the “GLOBE!” of “DEATH!”

Hunter loves motorcycles. He’s fascinated by them to the point of distraction to where we can be talking to him in the car, but if there is a motorcycle next to us, we've lost his attention. I thought he’d love these stunts. Instead? He was frightened by them. Poor baby!!! He kept hiding his face in my chest. Hunter is a very sensitive child, and loud noises frighten him. This was NOT something he was enjoying.

But not everything was loud. I think he really enjoyed the “Dogs and Pony Review,” the “Aerial Ballet on Streaming Silks,” the jugglers, the elephants and the camels. He did not, however, enjoy the Wheel of Destiny (a man running around on a huge hamster wheel).

He didn't care for the high-wire walkers – especially when they jumped rope on the wire and one lost his balance and fell, straddling the wire. I think that pretty much scared him silly.

I think we stayed about 10 minutes into the second act. Long enough to watch two women hang from their hair and do tricks in mid air. That’s when my evil side got the better of me, and I whispered in Hunter’s ear: “Can mommy do that to you? Hang you from your hair and twirl you around so you can dance in the air?” Ugh. Why did I say anything? WHY? Because, suddenly, he had had enough. He didn't want to listen to mommy tease him about hanging from his hair. His senses were overly stimulated and had gone into overload. He informed us he wanted to go home. NOW.

Which in retrospect, turned out to be a gift from God, because we no sooner made it out of the big tent and into the parking lot when we heard a loud boom, and then, an even louder, huge boom – I’m assuming the second one was the human cannonball they advertised. If Hunter had stayed for that, I think it may have driven him completely over the edge.

The entire walk back to our car, Hunter kept saying, “I don’t like the circus. I don’t want to come back to the circus. I don’t like the circus. I don’t want to come back to the circus.”

I don’t blame him. He had bad dreams last night, my poor baby! I don’t want that for him, either!

I hope he won’t need professional counseling to overcome his fear of circuses!

We may need to evaluate a little closer what we consider to be "fun and exciting" events!!