Planting Seeds of Hope--A New Season

I must say that I feel like I've entered a new season of life.

 

Not only are there new and interesting challenges, especially moving to the big city and entering my forties.  But, I'm learning new ways of adjusting and adapting and finally feel like I'm staring to blossom where I've been planted.

 

  And I'm SO thankful that we found our little brick house and God opened it up for us to buy it when we did.  In less than 4 years time the value of homes in our Denver metro area have risen dramatically.  We have already benefited from this happening by qualifying for a home equity loan, which has enabled us to reduce our debt payments.  Jay is in a new job that he likes MUCH better.  And I'm now working full-time.  While this isn't always easy, it helps us pay our bills with Jay's pay cut.  And it's a job that gives me a great sense of meaning and purpose as I get to assist our Missions and Outreach Commission of our church to do things like welcoming missionaries who are on home visits.  It also makes my heart glad to know that Penny has been doing so well in her first year at community college.

All of these positive changes has helped me to begin to take an interest, again, in things that used to interest me.  When we first moved to the big city, it took all of my energy just to learn how to navigate my new world and help Penny adjust, as she struggled a lot with depression at first.  I no longer wanted to do things like gardening.  It just sounded like way too much work.  But, now that things are looking up, I'm ready to start planting seeds again.  So, finally, I've collected all of the various kinds of free seeds that have been passed on to us over the past 3+ years and took the time to actually plant them outside.  Free seeds are definitely within my budget.  I only purchased one bag of seeds, two bags of soil and one potted plant for a grand total of less than $25.  Not only were the seeds a gift to us, they were from organizations that we have sometimes donated to to help others who are less fortunate, like victims of abuse and single mothers.  Here are the seeds that I planted in pots in our front yard.

 

So, here are my "Before" pictures of my potted seeds and the morning glory seeds I planted next to our trellis.

 

On the east side of our house, we used to only have weeds.  So, I dug up the weeds and I planted these sunflower seeds.

 

In the back, too, on the south side of our house, there was also nothing but weeds.  So, in that area, I dug up the weeds and added new potting soil.  Then I raked the ground and tossed down these wildflower and shasta daisy seeds before watering the area.

 

 

The only seeds I planted that weren't flowers, were herbs.  I planted this basil seed in a pot on the back deck.

 

 

Besides the seeds, I purchased one potted plant of salvia, which usually does really well in Colorado.  Here's what it looks like.

 

Hopefully, it'll grow large and attract plenty of butterflies!  I'm thankful for the many beautiful perennial plants that were either here when we bought the house, like the roses, lilacs and lilies and others that people gave us, like the irises, mint, and penstemons. 

 

And then there are the special plants that were given as a gift like these hydrangeas given to me by Penny for Mother's Day last year.

 

It's still small, but I'm thankful that it seems to be coming back after the winter with all of our snow this past winter.  And then there was the beautiful hot pink geranium given to Jay for him singing solos for the Cherry Creek Chorale's performance.

 

So thankful for this new season.  Hope your season of life is filled with lots of seeds of hope, as well!  I think of others facing challenges much harder than mine, such as my sweet sister-in-law, who is going in for biopsies for suspicious looking lumps.  Somehow the beauty and fragility of flowers helps to remind us of the preciousness of life.  Let us be thankful for each new day and the gift of life!