How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you have been reading this blog for a while (and bless you because I have been anything but consistent), then you might remember my posts from last summer and fall about my garden. If you haven't read them, then you can find them here and here.

Now, let me bring you up to date on this lovely garden of mine...  Early in the spring, when I was still pregnant with Mason, Ben and I were in Wal-Mart buying groceries when I decided that I wanted a box of fruit roll-ups. Strawberry flavor.  Keep in mind that I haven't bought a box of fruit roll-ups ever and I probably hadn't eaten one since grade school, but I wanted a fruit roll-up. So, we buy them and I have one out of the box and unwrapped before we are even in the car.  (Not as good as I remembered. Still have about 8 left from the box of 10.)  So, Ben is like, "I can't believe you bought that box of fruit roll-ups. Those things are expensive." "They aren't that expensive." I counter back, defending my purchase.
Then the conversation continues like this:

B: "They have to be at least 3 dollars."
K: "No, I looked before I picked them up, they were only 2 dollars."
B: "No, they have to be more than that. Let's make a bet."

I have to add here that Ben is all about making bets.  He claims that he will not make a bet unless he knows he won't lose.  Ben is also all about saving money. I could write 15 blog posts about Ben and his money saving. This is the reason he is questioning my frivolous fruit roll-up purchase in the first place.

K: "Ok, what do you wanna bet?"
B: "I bet that those are more than $2.50 and ....."

I honestly cannot remember what I was going to have to do if I lost, but that isn't important anyway since I won.

K: "Fine. I bet that they are 2.00 or less (remember, I looked at the price before I bought them but he didn't believe me because I am so frivolous, obviously, and just throwing money into the wind) and if I win then you have to prepare, plant, and cultivate the garden to my specifications ALL SUMMER."
B: "It's a bet."

So, we get home, pull out the blessed Wal-Mart receipt and low and behold, those babies were $1.99!!!
Muwahahahaha!!!!!

So, feast your eyes on this year's garden:

See how cultivated it is?  Isn't it lush?  See all of the lovely, defined rows of plants?  Not a tree weed in sight! Oh, and the produce!!  Don't even get me started.  You are all going to be so jealous. Allow me to show you these pictures (can't capture it in just one) of our bountiful first crop of tomatoes:

Aren't they so beautiful and round? Don't they remind you of prize winning tomatoes or the ones you see at the farmer's market?  I know. We can't all produce this kind of quality fruit.  Some have it, some don't. And, I guess we just have it. Don't worry, there was more where these came from! Unfortunately I was unable to photograph the three tomatoes that grew together to form one tiny tomato with three bottoms. You will just have to imagine it.

I think we are also producing jalapeno peppers... if I could just locate the plant.

Ok, so needless to say, that is not exactly to my specifications.  However, remember my post about Ben traveling to montevallo every day for all those months? Well, when is he going to have time to care for a garden? So, I haven't been that hard on him.

It wasn't until my friend, Ashley, who was in town yesterday visiting from Florida while her hubby took the Bar  here in town, looked out my window and said, "Oh. Is that your garden? It kind of reminds me of a rain forrest." that I realized it was a pretty good laugh.  So, at her suggestion, I decided to fill you in on the latest garden events.  I hope I did not cause you to covet.  Just holler at me in the comment section if you want to sign up for my community crop share program. Thanks.

When I went to photograph the "garden" yesterday, I happened across this little beauty on my butterfly bush and I just wanted to share these photos since you don't get to see pretty butterflies like this very often.

The Power of Positive Thinking

First of all, thanks to all of you who thought of me this past week as I went back to work.  Your comments, notes, and text messages were very encouraging and I definitely felt your prayers coming my way!

As I mentally prepared myself to go back to work, I tried to think positively about it and not dread it.  I knew that dreading the day would only make things harder and make the situation worse.  Honestly, that mindset helped a lot.  I was able to remain upbeat and the week went really well.  I am not attributing the success of the week just to my positive thinking; I know that God played a huge part in the way things played out and I really had a sense of peace about everything.  However, I am constantly reminding myself of the power of our minds and how I can use my mind to make things better.

Living with an eternal optimist really encourages my drive for positive thinking.  Before you start thinking I am all optimistic and stuff, I have to tell you that Ben's positivity sometimes drives me crazy.  I'm all "can't you just let me whine about this for one minute?!" :) Forcing me to look at the positive side of things and put things in perspective is one way that Ben helps make me a better person and for that I am thankful.

When I get down or become negative, I am reminded of this verse in Philippians 4:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.(verse 8)


That verse is preceded by "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  In my Bible I have written, "Dwell on your blessings while God works out your problems.  


Yesterday, my mom sent me this article which I found very motivating.  It is about thinking big, thinking outside the box, and acknowledging the power of your mind.  The main points that spoke to me in this article are: 


1. Invest time strengthening your strengths.


2. Spend your life on your passion. "This is what you were created to do."(Do you know what your passion is?)


3. Deposit your energies into the creation of products and services that will add value to the lives of others.


4. Choose to see abundance, be abundance, and live abundance, but never at the expense of others.


If you have time, it is worth the read!

And for you moms out there, I stumbled across this website, last night while reading an article on PW's blog about the effects of school on creative children (yeah, I guess you could say it's a little early for that). Anyway, that website (coolmompicks) has a really great recommended reading list that you might want to check out.  I think I will be reading a lot of those books in the future.

And I leave you with this:

My little man is three months old today!! Can you tell that he was DONE with this photo shoot?  I was taking pictures of him this morning ( I will post the Three Month post once I get them edited) and we were doing some shots in vintage outfits.  First I put him in a Feltman Bros outfit that belonged to my brother, Matt, that was complete with matching shoes.  Then, I remembered the p.j.s pictured above which is what Ben and both of his brothers wore home from the hospital when they were born.  I had intended to take Mason's pictures in those a while back (like, when they would fit him) but forgot about it.  When Mason came home from the hospital he was only 6 pounds 3 oz so the outfit would've swallowed him whole at the time (since his daddy was a whopping 8 lbs 12 oz when he was born). Anyway, this morning the p.j.'s barely snapped (I didn't even attempt to snap the top one) and Mason was not having it! Needless to say, I have pictures of him in his daddy's outfit, but they all look like the one above. That picture is a bit deceiving because Mason was an absolute angel during the whole event until I tried to put those on him! You will see when I post the others later on.

Have a great day!