My Winter Garden

Song of The Flower
I am a kind word uttered and repeated

By the voice of Nature;

I am a star fallen from the

Blue tent upon the green carpet.

I am the daughter of the elements

With whom Winter conceived;

To whom Spring gave birth;

I was

Reared in the lap of Summer and I

Slept in the bed of Autumn.
At dawn I unite with the breeze

To announce the coming of light;

At eventide I join the birds

In bidding the light farewell.
The plains are decorated with

My beautiful colors, and the air

Is scented with my fragrance.
As I embrace Slumber the eyes of

Night watch over me, and as I

Awaken I stare at the sun, which is

The only eye of the day.
I drink dew for wine, and hearken to

The voices of the birds, and dance

To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.
I am the lover's gift;

I am the wedding wreath;

I am the memory of a moment of happiness;

I am the last gift of the living to the dead;

I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.
But I look up high to see only the light,

And never look down to see my shadow.

This is wisdom which man must learn.

- Khalil Gibran

Tim's coaching paycheck came at just the right time. Gardening time...(thank you Tim!) Guess this will be the last time he gets paid to coach...he was elected to school board. Congratulations, Tim.

I planted my winter garden a couple of weeks ago. I decided to do plants versus bulbs so I could have immediate satisfaction. (Can you tell what kind of day I had?) I unfortunately had forgotten to count the flowers because about half way through I thought to myself, "What the heck? I've been here forever digging holes! No wonder I usually do bulbs. For bulbs you just dig up a bunch of earth, throw down your bulbs neatly, cover with dirt, and wait. and wait. and wait... But it is easy!

Shopping with children is always an adventure. This particular day I had Stephan (my 2yo) and the twins. Since everyone fights over the steering wheel, and I'm constantly rotating them so that everyone has equal steering wheel time...I use a regular cart. Why don't they invent carts with three steering wheels? Anyway, I was letting Stephan pick out the colors of the plants when I looked into my cart and saw that all the flowers were blue and purple. I hate "themed" gardens. I like ecclectic. So I swapped a few out when he was munching on his mum that he picked out. Thank goodness they aren't poisonous! I'm serious! He totally bit down and ate the top off of the mum. Strange things that boys do.

Here are the boys in the cart. Isaiah cracks me up because he always manuevers himself to the front. I swear it is because he likes to feel the wind in his face. Stephan usually gets the seat part. Then there is Aiden. He is hidden by Isaiah...he is so laid back.

Do you see all of the empty parking spaces? That is because the closet town with a Home Depot isn't much bigger than where I live!

Stephan even picked out his own plant. (Big sister Ashley helped him repot it.)

Do you like the boots~shorts combo? It is a regular outfit at our house. You should have seen him earlier. He wore his shorts backwards all day! I'm still not sure how he got them on that way.

Stephan's plant is at the top right.

Enjoy my garden ~ I do. :)
Yep, he's gardening in his underwear. Clothes are not always worth the fight.