Bulbs

I am a big fan of projects that show immediate results. I love painting a room - a huge change in the feel of a room in just a few hours of work. I found that laying sod was the same way when we helped Jeff's parents last weekend.

Usually when I plant flowers I go for the same sort of thing. You go to the store and you pick out the ones that you love best, the ones that look the healthiest and you transplant them into your garden. Yes, they get even better with time and nurture, but even right away, your garden is greatly improved.

This year in an attempt to save some money, I bought bulbs and seeds. I have seen a few little sprouts come up from my seeds and have had some hope, but I had all but given up on my bulbs. Until yesterday. I think I might have skipped one day checking on them, but they went from nothing, to something - way more than I would have expected.

My little caladiums have full sized leaves! Well, two of them did yesterday.... and several others were well on their way. I bet they have leaves today or tomorrow. I am so pleased!

This lead me to remember a lesson we had is Relief Society while I was living in Choctaw. The discussion kept going back to things that the ladies had learned while they were gardening. Several said that they felt like working in the garden was a place that welcomed the Spirit and inspiration... much to their surprise. One of my favorite of these comments was a woman who had lots of children. She said that she had a garden full of variety and she had success with all but one particular thing. She thought about how it had received the same sun and nourishment and water and weeding that all of the other plants had thrived with, and yet it suffered. It was a little epiphany to her that this plant needed something different that the others. What worked for most, did not work for this one. It required more thought and a different tactic. It was the same with a certain child in her family.

So as I thought about what I could learn from my caladium bulbs I felt like there is hope when you have all but given up. I kept watering the empty mulch patch everyday. I didn't necessarily see any progress, but I kept trying. So here's to hoping that teaching my children kindness, unselfishness, faith, not picking your nose, sharing, eating your vegetables, putting your clothes in the hamper, and that they are Children of God will all catch on one day suddenly, and they will develop into the little men that I pray they will become.

Bragging on my brother

My brother John has been doing a blog about his experiences with German culture. He has lived there on 3 different occasions for a couple of years at a time each (none of which were missions for anyone wondering - you'll notice this quickly as there are several incidences where beer is a chief topic of discussion). He is terribly sarcastic and just having fun with it. He loves it there, that's why he keeps going back, but he plays up the stereotypes and idiosyncrasies just enough to stir up lots of controversy in the comments. The comments are just as amusing as what he has to say.

Todays entries was one of my favorites so far... mostly because he said:

"The silliest thing the Germans do is use the metric system. Everyone knows the inch is better than the centimeter, because it is bigger. Also, if you want to divide up a Subway footlong sub among 2,3,4, or 6 people, you make, 6,4,3, or 2 inch sections, respectively. Try that with the centimeter. The sections would be 15.24, 10.16, 7.62, or 5.08 cm. That’s simply too hard to remember."

Memorial Day Fun

Yesterday was such a fun and relaxing break. We got together with friends from the ward and had a picnic at the new spray park which is just a mile or two away from us. Jeff busted out the new portable grill and fulfilled his manly fire tending duties. I ran through the water with the kids. Lincoln has no fear of this anymore. Jackson was still a little timid, but definitely into it, despite the chill. There was a great time had by all.

I was happy to share my newfound girly friends with my whole family. I've had several opportunities to bond with the ladies, but was glad for an opportunity for Jeff to get to know some of the guys better... and even for the kids to hang out with the their peers. We are considering setting the guys up for a night out on their own. What do you think they would do? It has been suggested (by one such man) that they would run out of things to say(gossip?) after about 20 minutes and just come home. I doubt it, but if indeed this is a concern, maybe we need to send them out to a manly event, like fishing or a hockey game.