I love gardening, who would have thunk it?

Thought I would post some pictures of my garden. I wish I had before and afters, because then you would really be impressed.

This is the flower bed right in the front of the house. I took out about 2 feet of grass and added the border. I'm growing strawberries here. We've never been able to grow anything very well in this area, but I added new soil and have given it much love. I'm hoping we will have some luck with the strawberries.
This is another flower garden. My dad pulled out a very ugly bush last fall. Jackson decided he wanted to have a garden with purple flowers in that spot. So I added more of the border and the purple flowers. Tonight I added more color to it with some white and red Petunias.

We planted some sunflowers from seed here. It was so exciting when they started to sprout.

And this is the vegetable garden. I've planted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumber, bush beans, carrots, radishes, onion and watermelon. This area was grass, but Tim came over and tilled the grass so we could plant. Then he and my dad went and got 2 truck loads of dirt to fill it in. And then I did the rest. I tilled it, planted it and have been taking care of it. The plants are all growing so good. The beans, carrots and radishes were planted by seed, and are doing really well. It's so exciting!!

Come What May and Love it...

A friend and I were talking the other day about her life. It’s not going so great right now. I reminded her that the bad times never last, even thought when you are going through them it feels like they will never end. She told me that she knew the bad times were coming because she had a really good year prior to this rough patch. She had a feeling that it was going to get rough, but she never imagined this rough.

That got me to thinking. Lately I’ve been really happy and content with my life, and have been really grateful for the direction it is taking. I’ve had a few hiccups with kids and stuff, but relatively smooth sailing. This is the first time in my life that I’m completely happy on all levels.

Am I headed for rough times, or was the last 3 years of my life been enough for now?

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Elder Joseph B Wirthlin in his last conference talk before he died titled "Come What May, and Love it". (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html) He said, “The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.

I always knew that this would someday come true for me, and I looked forward to it. I put the quote up by my bed so that I would have a chance to read it when I felt as thought things weren’t going my way. I expected to have this grand experience while kneeling across the alter on my wedding day, or some other large, important and amazing life changing experience.

But, like most things in life it happened in a very quiet moment. I was kneeling at the time, but it was in prayer with my children. I listening as they said their personal prayers that night, they had such gratitude for all of the things that the Lord has blessed them with, and they were expressing their thanks to him. It was that night I felt what he meant when he said “the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.”

Who know how long this good patch will last - hopefully a while, but I'm determined to enjoy it while it's here, and to remember to come what may and love it...