growing a green thumb

For mother's day this year, I wanted one thing: a flower garden! I have never done anything but pulled weeds before. Never planted a seed or a bud, never dug a hole or pulled up a bush. So, I was starting from scratch and completely winging it! I thought that gardening would be a really fun activity just for me and Veda. I worked VERY hard for days uprooting shrubs...very stubborn shrubs...with very strong roots. Grrrr. So, on mother's day, Veda and I finally got outside and got to planting. She mostly threw dirt on me and sprayed me with the hose. On occasion, she would pull some of the petals off of the flowers that were waiting to be planted. But, I was able to get her to put in 2 flowers, and then her new hobby finally took off!

We have recently moved, so we left our little garden behind, including a beautiful rose bush that we babied and watered until it gave us some amazing little blooms. I was tempted to uproot everything and bring it to the new house, but let's be serious...i have 3 kids. Even if I had the energy to uproot all of our new plants, Im sure my kiddos could find something for me to do with all of that energy. So, for Veda's birthday, a few people jumped on our gardening band wagon. She got a beautiful, hand decorated pot from Aunt Feffie and Uncle John, complete with soil, seeds and gardening tools. Then, our friends Amber and Joe also got her a gardening set, including lots of little seeds to plant.

We got started the next morning and planted her first set of flowers in her new little pot. She did almost everything by herself...including throwing dirt all over the place. We watered those little seeds and set them on the deck with big hopes of at least one pretty little flower! For the next week or so, it continued to rain on and off.
Veda says  "Mama, it waining?"
"Yes, Veda its raining."
 "Why?"
"Because God made it rain so it would help your pretty flowers to grow."
For almost two weeks, we continued this dialogue every time it rained, which has been almost daily. Every time, her "why" question was answered with the same response...God wants Veda's little flowers to grow. After the first couple days of rain, we started to see some tiny, but precious sprouts. No flowers yet, but we have green!

So, I was laying in bed with Veda the other night, and the rain started to tap at her bedroom window. The dialogue starts once again. And after I tell her that God is growing her flowers for her, she looks at me with a very grown-up face and says "Mama, God gonna come to my house and see my fwowers."

What a beautiful thought.