Our Tennessee Garden!

For years I've wanted to plant a garden. There's always been a reason why not to! One of the biggest reasons was that we had chickens, and I had no way to keep them out of the garden. Another thing was soil, another thing was weeds in FL, another thing was it was TOO HOT, and then another thing was just plain "time!" I still have the "time" issue, but all the other ones are gone now so I figured this was the year. Plus, the people who lived here before us had a nice big 20'x20' garden all ready in the backyard for us!! So I couldn't let it go to waste. Now, we didn't do the whole 20'x20'. That was just too ambitious right now. So we did about 8'x20'. We'll see how we do with that before we spend more money on the rest!! :) But I thought I'd share some pictures of our fun and my helpers today. 

Getting the soil tilled took a lot of work. This was about the extent of Liza-Hill's help.

Cedar got in on the fun too!

Look quick. This is about the only time you'll see Breck!

15 year olds are very useful when tilling gardens!!

Getting it all wet and ready to plant after we added the compost.

Shepley loves to garden and help with the plants!

See this dog at the bottom of the picture? She's going to be a pain to keep out!! Once it was wet and cool, all she wanted to do was lie in it. She stepped on a few plants too!! AAAHHHH!!!

Planted tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, sweet peppers, zucchini, and pole beans. Plus we planted basil and thyme as well.

Adding some plant food. 

Cedar made things really easy!! And he had lots of fun dumping mud all down me as well.

Trand took these. So sad. Trand thought they were funny.

How sad. He's lying on the grass with compost on his hands shoved in his mouth. I was obviously not paying attention!! Gross!!

Cama-Jane with a wet ball of compost. Lovely!

Cama-Jane sporting her worm. I was pleasantly surprised at how many worms were in the garden!! Everywhere!! The soil is so great too!! I guess anything beats sandy FL soil!!

Finished product. Just planted the front. There are four rows of bean seeds planted on the left. 

Our FUN weekend

So, on Friday morning I woke up and decided I wanted to make a deliberate attempt at a fun day. I used to be fun most (if not all) the time! When Trand was younger, we had tons of fun. Now, we didn't get a whole lot of school done. But we sure had fun!! Then I started having baby after baby. As much as I loved and wanted those babies, I have to admit it took some of my "funness" away. It's not as easy to be spontaneous or get a little done at home and then go play. I felt like I had been really boring and down to business lately so I needed to remedy that! Off to some LIVING education!

I let Trand pick where to go since I always drag him around to little kid stuff. He chose to go to the Museum of Appalachia. We decided to go ahead and get a family membership since, for our family, it's usually much cheaper than going twice! I'm glad we did. I look forward to going back. On the 27th of April they are having a sheep shearing. We'll be there!

Then on Saturday, we went to Ijams (pronounced Iams) Nature Center. We hiked some great trails and explored nature. The kids had a great time! Shepley, who is my little flower child, had a great time collecting wild flowers. Breck discovered that he is quite the conservationist with a huge heart for endangered animals. We question if he's really related to my dad!!

So here are some pictures from our weekend.

 Sitting in front of the little schoolhouse

 Listening to a lady singing folk music. Cama-Jane stood up and danced during the 2nd song. :)

 The lady singing

 Trand taking a picture of me with the rest

 My handsome boys--who totally wish they could live in this time period!!

 Yes, this is the only picture of them all looking--even though Cedar is up side down.

 He's such a sweet big brother. Always helping the little ones. 

 Cutie patootie!

Two more cuties!!

I just wish my apothecary looked like this. I have a little ways to go!!

And at the Nature Center......

 Exploring!

 My flower child!

 Poor Cedar. We tried to get him looking!!

 Daddy and kids

 Daddy and boys

 Mama and girls

 Looking for flowers

 Dad and Trand

So that was our weekend!! We had lots of fun and got some good outside time in this beautiful weather!! Very happy to be in TN during the spring. I have to admit the weather is amazing!! :)

The happiest Mama!

So last night was a night of elation in our home. My 5th little one accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. Shepley was very instrumental in "getting the ball rolling" as she told Cama-Jane, "You really need to ask Jesus into your heart." :) I told Shepley that we couldn't tell Cama-Jane or force her to do that. She had to feel Jesus tugging her own little heart. I had full assurance that it would happen in due time. But as we talked more, Cama-Jane said she wanted to. I loved what came out of her mouth. She bowed her head and prayed the words, "Jesus, please give me a new heart." No other words could have thrilled my heart more! We hadn't even talked about what she should say. Neither had I ever said those words to her (at least not in our conversation last night.) Shepley kind of giggled, but I told her that was exactly what we all need--a brand new heart, and Cama-Jane was led by the Holy Spirit to pray those words. So we ran to tell Daddy where she got a huge snuggle and rejoicing! Then we called Mimi and tried to call Omi, but we couldn't get her. We'll call again today because this is something to celebrate!!

Thank you, Jesus, for calling all of my little ones to your side at such young, tender ages.  I pray that we can continue as parents to lead them in your paths and truths.

*I also learned last night that I have a couple of little evangelists! Shepley and Breck told me that they shared the gospel with the little boy across the street, and he accepted Christ there with them. He's 5. They go to church. They are Catholic. I don't know much more. I do know they have a very nice family. I guess I need now to approach the mom and ask her about it to see if she knows. I'm so happy to know that my little ones are spreading the Good News! Praise the Lord!