I have a vision for our back yard. Hart and I are trying to make it happen on our slim budget. When we bought our house, our backyard had pretty much NO landscaping alongside the back of our house. (Our front yard looks great, minus some slowly dying azalea bushes!) We have slowly tried to change this to create a more inviting space, but our back yard is tough for various reasons. The soil is horrible. It is very hard, rocky, lots of clay, and so far, not much has really taken off. However, that is not stopping me. Give me a bag of dirt and some miracle grow, a little prayer to God...and Lord willing, this space is gonna get there! I've never been a gardener or felt like I had a green thumb, but to my surprise my creativity is helping me garden! As we transform this garden space, I hope to share the changes that take place.

We know we will have to spend some money to make this area more beautiful, but my goal is to do it as cheaply as possible. My vision for this space is to have a cobblestone patio area outside of our beautiful screened in porch. I also envision adding an architectural height element, hence what seems like a random board strung between two trees (below), that my hubby worked so hard on yesterday.

Problems to Work on or Around: Shade. Our backyard is very shady. Most plants like sun, so my choice of plant selection diminishes to just shade lovers. Notice our lovely neighbor's backyard (above). We share that ugly fence and whether I like it or not, that nice, not working truck sits right in my line of vision. I don't know why you would just park a vehicle in your backyard instead of getting rid of it, but that is what they decided to do, so we all have to live with it... bitter? Maybe! We have slowly worked on pulling out the 50's wood pieces that are interwoven along the fence, but we still have more to do. I have planted Confederate Jasmine along the fence, and it is slow growin'. Eventually it should grow up and along the fence to create a natural barrier and I will no longer have to look at the fenced area OR truck. At the current growth rate, I think whoever lives here after us, will be the ones to actually benefit!

The Plan: In a nutshell: Cobblestone area; garden lights; weepy plants; take the indoors out.

So, my plan is to put some planter boxes up on the board that Hart suspended between the two trees. Then, we will plant some type of weeping plant that will dangle over and drape down like a curtain of sorts. Hart's parent's have some that they are not using and they said we could have. I believe this will create a "wall" to make this a more intimate area. Underneath the board I want to put the bench or swing that is on our screened porch, as well as some garden lighting (lots of fun ideas here).

In front of the seated area is where I want to put some cobblestones to create a patio. I haven't priced these yet, and so I really don't know how much we will be able to afford, but that is the vision, at least. I spent $50 at Lowe's and bought some plants that we started in this plant bed.

It is rudimentary at best right now. I have to get some dirt to amend our soil right here, but so far this area is the best area I have discovered as far as soil type goes (in our backyard). I need to build this area up with some dirt and mulch. It might be hard to see from the picture, but I have some Phlox's planted, some Hosta plants, and some Pampas Grass (to help hide the water meter area). I would love to have some plant that would grow up and fan out, but for now I have put these plant hangers in this area to add a height element, until we can get something better.

We will keep you posted!

Faith Like Tomatoes

I haven't been very excited about my garden lately because I haven't felt very successful. I have never gardened before and I feel completely unqualified to grow even one thing! However, I have been faithful to water it and do some occasional fertilizing (maybe too late for some!). I see evidence of growth, but haven't had any fruit when it comes to tomatoes. I have compared my garden to others and I can tell it looks kinda diseased in spots. The tomatoes have been green, but green for a long time. I just walk over, turn on the sprinkler, let it go for awhile, and pray that God will make them fruitful. To be honest, it has been so hot, that I haven't really spent a lot of time looking at the plants themselves very much the past couple of days. My mom came over and wanted to see how it was doing, so she headed out to check on them. She came back in and was excited to announce that I have two reddish looking tomatoes hanging out there! WHAT?! I DO?! I ran outside to see for myself. Sure enough... there sat two orangey-looking tomatoes.

Sometimes my faith is just too small.

Yesterday, at church, I was coordinating for the children's ministry, but I stepped inside the sanctuary for about 15 minutes during the sermon. Those 15 minutes were exactly what I needed to hear. He was talking about how true believers are the power of the church when we are scattered out into this city. Church isn't one or two hours on Sunday. We are the Church, Christ's Church, and we are taking the gospel everywhere we go 24/7. I really was convicted, in my own life, because I have gotten so complacent over the last few weeks. I've been absorbed in myself, in my wants/desires, and I have once again fallen into the routine of going through the motions. I have my agenda and as long as I get done what I want to get done, then all is well.

I can't really explain it, but God took ahold of my heart again on Sunday. He opened up my little tunnel vision that I have for my life, and made me think about faith in Him, about others around me, about being a praying woman, about being intentional with whoever I run into. Stop talking about yourself, your pregnancy, your whatever... Give God the glory!

While we were on vacation, Hart's mom would need a wheelchair to get around most of the airports. Everytime she would sit down and the caddy would cart her around, she would immediately say "I have cancer...." and go into all that she has going on. Then, she would ask the caddy if they believed in God. Only two believed in Jesus out of eight. I would selfishly think... oh, please, not again. Why does she have to tell everyone this stuff? I think I even got a little annoyed and showed that frustration a time or two, to which she replied... "When I tell them about all that I have going on, then they see that I am willing to open up. It is amazing all that those caddies (usually foreigners) have been through, the things they tell you in about 15 minutes time!"

This didn't really impact me right then, but when I realize that I came into countless situations with people in the different airports traveling, sitting on the plane, or even just this past week at home, at the grocery store, wherever my two feet have taken me.... I was absorbed in myself. I really didn't care about them, about their need to hear the gospel.

I have to die to myself daily. Lord, I give my all to you!

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." -Galatians 2:20

The gospel changes you. It changes me all the time and yet sometimes I don't believe that it will change others. Jesus is the answer. He is always the answer!

Our Garden!

This is the garden that Hart made for me to plant some tomato plants, cucumbers, and bell peppers in! I wanted to start small and work our way up since I had never gardened before. We will be adding some tomato cages in the next couple of weeks and I already have one flower bloom on one tomato plant! The little fence is to keep our puppy Abe OUT! This whole endeavor cost probably around $100, which may seem like a lot, and it does to me, but if we do well with this, then next year I can use what we already have and start from seeds instead of seedlings and that will be cheaper! Plus, we do not have to build a bed again!

Abe into the bag of soil!

12 Tomato plants, 4 cucumber plants, and 6 bell pepper plants

Not shown here is also a container of herbs that I planted. The herb garden includes rosemary, oregano, parsely, and basil. Once they get larger and I can convince my dog not to eat them, I will transplant them out of containers and into the earth!

Spring Break: Day 1

I have 10 days of Spring Break, counting today, which has already flown by! I'm starting to wonder if my list will get accomplished! Two days are Sundays, one being Easter, so we will be with family and I won't be doing much those days. I wanted to let you know what I DID do today to start on my goals of this week!

First thing was that I had a quiet time. I'm really not good at making this a priority during the week. I want to, but I'll be honest... I said I am NOT good at it. Remember that 30 day challenge that I mentioned I proposed to do? Well, if you are wondeirng how it went... I didn't write about it, because it didn't happen consistently enough! However, I have promised myself that this week will be different with more time on my hands and NO EXCUSES! Today, I grabbed a blanket and my Bible and went out onto our porch swing. I was convicted that if my goal is to clean up our house, then I want Jesus to be cleaning up my heart, too. It was a REALLY sweet time. I read in John about the story of Mary coming to Jesus about dead Lazarus and Jesus was so moved, he wept, about the miracle he did in Lazarus's life. I just fell in love with my Savior all over again. So Day 1 of quiet time, went really well and my heart was A LOT softer! Praise Jesus!

Then, I came in and threw open the blinds and made the bed. I got in my cleaning clothes (I did this before the blinds were open FYI), and checked my messages! Well, change of plans... I had the opportunity to go get my hair cut with my mom out in Gilbert. This has been on my list for this week, too, I just didn't tell you about it. So I got ready and headed out to Gilbert. Afterwards, my mom and I went and kidnapped my Gramie and took her to lunch at Shealy's in Batesburg-Leesville. It was a blast! I love hanging out with them! Hart was jealous, of course, because I got to eat there! Did I mention that he LOVES BBQ and one day when we can, he wants to become a Certified BBQ judge? Then, we can travel to BBQ festivals and eat BBQ? Haha. I love it!

Often, when I go to Gilbert, I get affected by what I like to call my "country" roots.

For example, I have some herb plants that are going in the ground soon. Well, something inside me about really wanting to have a real garden took over. We are driving by people's country homes with tons of sunshine and places to plant and I just cannot stand it! I get a little sad that I have few pockets of a sunny backyard, in which to grow things in. However, this didn't stop me.

On my way home, I stopped by the Depot Building Suppy, which is in Lexington. My student, Oliver's father owns this store. I was determined to get some tomato plants and I have been talking to Hart about doing a potato container, too. So my mind was made up to do Tomatoes and Potatoes. However, I left with some cucumbers and green peppers, too. About 5 bags of soil and then I came home and looked at my yard and realized that what I need is a Garden Box. Hubby, please?!

So anyways, maybe I didn't do so good with other goals, but I'm excited about trying to do a little garden. WHERE is this stuff coming from? It MUST be the pregnancy hormones!

So, in short, I made the bed, got a hair cut, did one load of laundry, bought some gardening supplies, spent time with my family, and now I am going to make some cookies to take to Community Group tonight! We are eating dinner with some sweet Bible study friends!

It was a good day!