NOT the Botanical Garden

This is our backyard!! My friend/neighbor, Alice, split her irises two years ago and gave us some. Last year the late freeze got them. Now they have doubled and are beautiful. There is another yellow bunch by our back stairs, though they are a little puny due to Ridley using them as a teether when she was really little. There is another bunch at the back of the garden that are both deep and light purple - but they haven't bloomed yet. You can see our purple tulips too, behind the irises. Olivia pretty regularly looks out the window now and says, "Yook! The flowers is booming!"

Mike and I are really enjoying gardening, though we are complete novices. I planted a bunch of flower seeds that are already coming up - sunflowers, shasta daisies, cosmos, and something else I can't remember. I put in a couple of tomato and pepper plants, but we aren't doing too many vegetables since we will be gone most of the summer. It is the most hands on experience I know (except for maybe child-rearing) of pushing back the effects of the Fall. If I can find them on our CD's I will post a picture of what this yard looked like when we moved in. Much like most of our lives before Christ and his Holy Spirit entered - ravaged with weeds, weak and spindly rose bushes, trash, no order, no care. But, to use Schaeffer's words, there was evidence of glory in the ruin as a few rose buds would pop through and the day lillies continued to bloom despite being overgrown with vines and weeds. Two and nearly a half years later more and more beauty comes up as we prune and weed and sow. I pray to have the same excitement (and courage) to be about pruning, weeding, and sowing of spiritual fruit in my own heart and life - and the wisdom to do the same in our children.