Through The Mud Clearly

 I have always wanted to plant a garden but my living situation was never conducive to doing so until I move here. I have a ginormous backyard and one of the first things my landlord said was "feel free to do anything you want with the yard; build a pool, plant a garden. Whatever". I nixed the notion of pool building immediately! I did however begin to plan a garden and the next thing you know I was digging up the yard.

Let me back up a few years...OK a lot of years. I've never planted a garden in my entire life and my only experience was watching my grandma work in hers. I recall with great fondness eating the fruits of her labor...boysenberry pie, strawberries, potatoes...  I remember helping her shuck corn and snapping green beans. I didn't remember it being hard work. Probably because I didn't actually do the work!

So; I started digging up the grass all the while thinking this was going to be easy. I was wrong. It was hard. It was backbreaking. It was not easy. But I continued.

Here is the yard before the big dig.

To be continued.......

No chocolate was consumed in the month of May! Glad that one is over.

This "no chocolate challenge" is hard. Only 19 days to go.

Friday was the Wright's Anniversary so they decided to celebrate by getting out of town. I got their children, dog, cat, house and garage door opener. Whoo Hoo! So I came up with an awesome schedule of events for Saturday. Our church had a workday on Saturday. We went for a few hours. Bethany and Daniel joined the crew picking up giant rocks and placing them strategically in the wash. I pulled weeds and watered the plants. It was hot. We were exhausted. Next stop Starbucks. Here I let them choose whatever they wanted. Bethany opted for an iced mocha, Daniel wanted an iced white chocolate macchiato and  I got a caramel, mocha Frappuccino with extra caramel! Of course they were the Grande size. Bethany totally enjoyed hers. Daniel totally disliked his. I loved mine! So, I tasted Daniel's and discovered it was absolutely awful and I gave him my drink (which he enjoyed). If we were still at Starbuck's I would have asked for an alternate drink. We went there because I was given a couple of gift card for "Administrative Professionals Day". Next; we went to my house. My original plan was to do some work in my garden but it was the hottest part of the day and we were too tired from working at the church, so no gardening happened. Instead we played with the cats and the Legos. Yes, I have Legos! From there we went to Little Caesar's Pizza and picked up one cheese pizza, two orders of Italian cheese bread and one order of oven baked wings. We devoured it when we got home. I believe there are 3 pieces of pizza left. Then we began a mini movie marathon. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Flintstones and several episodes of The Pink Panther! This was accompanied by sugary snacks! Dinner was a "do it yourself" mainly because nobody was hungry. ( wonder why?). Then it was time for bed. They both were telling me they weren't tired. Ha! They were asleep in less than 10 minutes. This morning we are somewhat cleaning up the house. Bethany is loading the dishwasher, Daniel is taking out the trash and recycling and I am picking up the living room. Then we will be off to church. We will meet up with their parents at Ronnie's Cafe...we call this "second service" because many of us go there to eat after church. Then, I will go home and take a nap! Whew!! what a weekend.

It looks like the challenge for May is NO CHOCOLATE!
This should be interesting. And difficult. I think I must be CRAZY to attempt this! Oh well; a challenge isn't a challenge unless its challenging. Off to find any and all chocolate (and eat it) before May 1.

Wow, I think I have consumed more water this month than I have in an entire year! Although I wasn't consistent with my goal of drinking 32 ounces of water....some days less; but some days more...I feel it was a successful endeavor. Water is a necessary ingredient for life; as is the Living Water!