Bye bye jungle!

I wanted to title this post "Welcome to the Jungle" but blogger wouldn't let me do strikethrough text in the title. Anyway, I think the last time I posted on our yard was October of 2011, 5 months after we moved it. This Sunday marked our two year "house anniversary" and boy have we been working hard on the front yard the last month or so. To look at the 'after' pictures you'd think we were done. I'd say these are not really 'after' but more like in progress. Jason and I guess we're probably between 75%(his guess) to 85% (my guess) done so let's split the difference and say the front yard is 80% complete.  Here is the 'before' picture from October 2011. I tried to add arrows but instead you get numbers. Here is what we have done so far.
1 & 2: taken out those awful junipers and replaced them with grass. Junipers in your yard are of the devil. Their limbs reach out and grab you and scratch you. No joke. Anyway, now my sweet HG has a yard to play in.
3 & 4: took out the evil privet hedges along either side of the yard which walled us off from our neighbors (whom we like) and made the yard look much much smaller. Plus privet is a non-native, invasive species that all three of us happen to be allergic to. Good riddance!
5: took out the overgrown Indian Hawthorns (and one random boxwood) and replaced them with knockout roses. Now burglars and cockroaches can't hide in the overgrown bushes next to the house (seriously, in our home inspection they listed getting rid of those or cutting them way back).

Ta da! Isn't that better? 

I don't post this to get you guys to give us a pat on the back (though it couldn't hurt, right?) but more to encourage us to keep going! We still have two more bushes to remove (one is right up next to the house and the other is right behind Harper's head in this picture), some MORE bushes to trim (I just trimmed the azaleas and pruned the snowball bush way back...camellias are next!) and I plan on repainting the shutters and the front door (which doesn't really count as yard stuff, but still). When we bought the house we loved the yard but I still remember when we were standing in the front yard trying to figure out if we wanted to make an offer saying "I'll get rid of these bushes and trim this and....". So we knew we were in for a lot of work. We love having so many mature plants but a lot of the yard just hadn't been cared for in some time before we bought it. I call it my secret garden and I do feel like Mary from that book! We are making the yard come alive and making it functional for our family!

 Have you guys done any major yard work lately? Anyone need a pile of brush for a bon fire? 

Harperisms 2013 2.0

I love kids. I always have. I love working with kids and hearing the hilarious things they say or do. I love being a mom and laughing out loud at the hilarious things Harper says, which of course, are the MOST hilarious things ever! Here is another sampling of Harperisms, from February, March, and April!

*I need some shoes on...like my black shoes or my blue shoes or my brown shoes or my red shoes....
      (I have no clue where this girl gets her love for shoes!)

* Me: "Peeee yoooo Toby!" (after Toby had passed gas)
   Harper: "No, he not bad. He stinks!"

*I love getting the chance to debate my two year old! Like when Harper is saying a friend's name wrong:
   (PS- Not actually posting the little boy's full name because I didn't ask his mom for permission!)
   Me: "His name is John E....."
   Harper: "No, John B...."
   Me: "John E...!"
   Harper: "No Mom, it actually John B.... say it John B.."
        Clearly at two she knows better......

*On the way home riding in the car:
  HG: "Which sticker you want Mommy? "
  I see a purple sticker in the rearview mirror so I say "The purple heart"
  HG: "No, you want the green heart".
  Me: "okay" (clearly we have already established attempting to argue with the 2 year old is futile)
  HG: "I no have a green heart sticker!"
               !!!!!
*"Hatapillar" (we love that she says caterpillar this way!)

* Harper had been playing with some pretend money and was passing it out to Jason and I.
   Jason: "Harper, I have some money for you."
   HG: "I have my OWN money!"
              If only she'll say this at 16!
*"That yucky. Restaurant is dirty. You NO touch wall. You hear me? Mommy? You no touch wall in bathroom. You get germs!"
    (I love this because it a) shows how I am slowly making my child OCD and b) she never follows her own advice! What is it about public restrooms that make them so attractive to kids to touch every surface?!?!?

Seasons

We all go through seasons in life...no, I am not talking about weather based seasons. Since January the 'season' that I have been in has been one of refinement and growth. When I became a Christian I thought that from that day on I would have things figured out. I never thought my life would be perfect or easy but I thought my walk with God would be a smooth one, one that progressed in a gradual up-hill rather than up and down. Well, that's not the road I've been on. I don't think it's a road most people take. When reflecting on my relationship with Christ I always think that if I treated a spouse, friend, family member, etc. the way I treat my relationship with Jesus, our relationship would probably be irreparably broken. But this is the beauty of the gospel. God loves me. That period is important. There are no conditional statements that follow. He loves me. He loves you! Even in my darkest places, even when I put everything else first, even when my faith is just a checklist of things I think I should do, He loves me. Right where I am.
With Mother's Day fast approaching I have been thinking about parental love. Harper has started asking us (usually when she has gotten in trouble) "You still love me?". It breaks my heart to hear her ask, as if her having an accident before she gets to the potty would ever change my love for her. We've started telling her "yes, of course we love you. No. Matter. What.". And in thinking on this I realize that being a parent gives me a tiny glimpse of how God loves us. I am not perfect. I fall short of the glory of God daily constantly, but my success or failure is not what God uses to measure His love for me.  He loves us. NO MATTER WHAT.

As you celebrate Mother's Day this weekend keep this in mind. I will strive to live life in such a way that God's grace and love overflow onto others. I will not let God's unconditional, unfathomable love be an excuse to do things that I know are not His will or do not advance His kingdom. But I will live in the mindset that my shortcomings are just an amazing reminder that, even with my flaws, I am loved.