March...in like a lion, out like a lion

I had to save these cute little guys from my yard yesterday. I think someone is confused. Apparently they've forgotten that March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a LAMB. I don't think that freezing rain and then snow all day on March 28th constitute lamb weather.

I knew bad weather was coming all week, so researched for hours on Friday, trying to decide what to do about my flower garden. I really had the beginnings of an amazingly beautiful spring bulb garden in my backyard. I was devastated to think what could happen to my pretty little daffodils, tulips and irises up against Mother Nature in a bad mood.

I debated whether I should cover them, cut them, or leave them. I would have tried to give them some shelter with blankets, but it wouldn't have been much protection from freezing rain. Finally, I decided to leave them. Daffodils are very hardy and used to cold weather and my tulips and irises only had foliage and no bud beginnings, so according to the internet, they should be ok.

However, when push came to shove on Saturday, I just couldn't leave them out there alone to suffer in the cold, ice, and snow.So I tramped out in the rain and snipped them all. I brought them back inside and chipped all the ice off the petals and tried to make them a happy little home on my dining room table. I don't know if they're as happy inside, but they are cheering up the place.

Today, I didn't even go outside to inspect the damage. Even though, it's nice to have a bit of Spring inside, I am sad to think my little daffodils aren't living outside anymore. I do hope that my hard work last fall won't go to waste. I am praying that my tulips and irises survive to bloom this year. I am thankful that we didn't loose any trees to the ice/snow. I am sure that I'll see more than one split Bradford Pear on my way to work tomorrow. Those poor trees had such a slim chance, they were in full bloom yesterday when they were pelted with ice and snow for 12 or so hours.

So, I think the lesson that I learned yesterday was another one along the lines of having to roll with punches. My garden isn't going to look like what I imagined that it would last fall when I planted all the bulbs, but with God's grace, I'll still have a pretty spring bulb garden. And, now I have the added bonus of a big, free bouquet of flowers to cheer me up!

Luck

I've been incredibly lucky this year and I want to say thanks. Even though, I wasn't too sure about how 2009 was going to go, I am confident that this year is going to be good.


A couple of good things have happened to me so far! One, I'm PREGNANT! I am so excited to be a Mom. I can hardly wait until October when Sean and I can meet our baby. While this is by far the best news this year, I also won 2 raffles in the past month. Crazy! I don't usually win things. I won the first raffle door prize at Jenny Dunkmann's 3-Day Walk fundraiser. Then, on Saturday, I won the 50/50 drawing at the Columbia Second Chance Trivia Night!
The second best thing that has happened to me this year is that I am really excited about my life.

clones and mini-mes

Well, I can't sleep and sometimes it helps .to jot down your thoughts. Since writing them down would require turning on a light, I thought that I might as well type them in my blog where I don't need to illuminate my entire room, just a 17 in screen that I can dim.

Having recently been pregnant, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to pass on to my kids. I don't mean physical attributes or genes, but less concrete things like personality traits and what values are most important to me. I quickly realized that worrying about physical issues puts you on the fast track to crazy because you have no control over those anyway. Of course, I would prefer if all the kids looked like me, but Mother Nature has got that under control. I can't do anything to affect my kid's physical traits other than help them be as healthy as possible. At the risk of sounding shallow, I would like to put out an appeal that my kids not inherit Sean's widow's peak. I honestly have no idea how to style hair around that.

To some extent, I am not sure how much control anyone has over personality either. I used to think that I wanted a kid exactly like me, but I've come to my senses and realized I really don't want a kid that is just like me. I want a kid that is better than me! I think that much of personality is genetically influenced, and there are plenty of traits that I think I'd be better off without. So, I have a longer list of wishes for my kids in this area and the main one is, please God, help my kids be as easy going as Sean. I guess I haven't really decided what good traits that I'd like to pass on, but I do like the following things about my personality: ambition, practicality, and empathy. I'm sure that this list is longer, but it's late and I'm not sure that I'll have that much influence over my offspring's personality. So, I'll use my effort to think about what I am definitely able to influence, values.

I think that part of the reason that I want kids is to help ensure that there are going to be more good people in the world. Not to say that I don't have faith in humanity anymore, but I don't really anymore. It's really important to me that there are people out there who realize there is more to the world than themselves. I feel like people are just to wrapped up in their own lives to take one second and think about the well-being of other people, the planet, or really anything other than themself. There's a lot to say about this, so I may have to save it for another post. But, I want to make sure that my kids recognize that there are poor people, hungry people, sick people, animals who are losing their habitat, communities that crumbling, and glaciers that are melting and it's up to everyone to help change that. It's not someone else's problem, it's our problem. I want to teach them to give generously of their time to help others, to recycle, to be frugal, to waste less, and, most of all, to care. I think that's a tall order and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do it.

I also need to remember that my kids are going to teach me things too and I need to always be open to it. I don't think there is a better way to teach kids that they matter than to listen to what they have to say.