HYDRANGEAS AND "GARDENING" AND LIFE

I have to be honest here and say I'm not really sure what color my thumb is.  My mom's is bright screaming kelly green.  I'm hoping mine starts leaning that shade and while I wouldn't say it's completely black, my thumb might just be a dingy brown-olive-y color.

Stephen and I have been spending a lot of time in the front and back yards this summer {should have started this spring, but seeing as we are just now able to do things other than simply survive, summer it is}.  it's been a little hot...

BUT, I can't begin to tell you how good it feels {after two full summers of pregnancy and neglected gardens} to get all good and sweaty and dirty working in the backyard.  With gallons of bug spray.  And all before the sun rises too high.

Like any true southerner, I love me some hydrangeas.  Blue mophead being my favorite...all variations of them.  Bright true blue and then ones that are almost white with a hint of green.  Gorgeous.  We recently planted ten or so bushes around our yard.

{quick shout out to laura kay's nursery in town - if you are local it is an AWESOME resource for affordable landscape plants and the like. I won't begin to tell you what everything cost but lets just say the only reason we even DID all of this was because it was AFFORDABLE} 

{new info to me...but did you know you can change pink hydrangeas to blue and vice versa? all about soil ph}

Since we lack a sprinkler system, time will only tell how well they do.  The monsoon season we apparently had the past few weeks has helped things tremendously. {but it destroyed my black eyed susans....grrr}

And I could keep showing you these pretty pictures but let me take you on a real tour of what our "garden" consists of.

A month or so ago our new yard guy weed-eated every.single.one. of my new wild flower seedlings in the garden.  Zinnias, morning glories, and those are the only two I remember the names of.  But there were a lot.  And now they are all gone.

{imagine this entire space filled with FLOWERS...instead of weeds...sigh}

The only zinnias I have are the ones that were seeded from last year.  They are growing up in the middle of my tomatoes and mexican sage. {my pretty mexican sage}

We had to transplant a couple of the mexican sages when we planted purple formosa azaleas across the back of our yard, and now those plants look like this

So sad.  Happy to say though since this picture has been taken she has been watered religiously {and by that I mean God sent forth our mini monsoon season and she loved it}.

 I also bought these off the dead plant rack at Lowes and they have...well...remained dead.

again, God's monsoon has brought some life back, but I just don't know the future of these cheap-o babes.

and now, back to hydrangeas.  While mine are no where near producing enough to actually vase around my house {yes I just used the word "vase" as a verb...} I hosted my sister's baby shower this weekend and one of the perks of such an occurrence is the abundance of flowers left over! I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing this at every turn

I love how hosting things can really make you clean up your act and...clean up your act.  It will definitely take some effort keeping it clean.

On the home front, we are enjoying summer and the kids and my schedules are jam packed.  Having so much to go and do actually makes our time at home even better...no bored children

Just very interested ones who like to "work" with you and entertain you {and themselves} with song and dance from VBS 2012.  If anybody was wondering, you you you, you can trust God. {I left you a handy dandy link there so you can go fill yourself in on the wonder that is Sky VBS.  Everyone in my extended family knows every word and probably hand motions too, thanks to my handy helper.}  VBS is huge around our house.  Bennett soaks it up and I love that.

Aside from my sisters baby shower, Jacob was also baptized this weekend.
We had a cookout on Saturday night

{Jacob and his godmother...momma's very very dear friend Jill}

{me and the hubs}

and then on Sunday my fuss-free baby fussed during the entire service.  I was so worried about my other two during their baptisms, as they were normal-amounts-of-fussing little babies.  No no no.  They were angels.  No spit up and no tears.  Sweet quiet laid back baby number three?  Moaned the entire time.  Whiny frowny sad little man.

{Jacob with his godmother Jill and godfather Preston} 

 

But we decided to raise him in a Christian home anyway. 
Unconditional love y'all.
Un
con
ditional
;)