Fool Proof Planter

For several years I've been trying to find the right combination of plants to fill my front porch planters.  I've tried loads of different flowers, but this year, I have found that adding no blooming flowers, at all, has been a massive success in my book.

The lime-green vines, with the tiny yellow flowers, trailing down the stoop are called Creeping Jenny.  A landscape architect told me if you plant Creeping Jenny in a 2nd story window box, it will grow all the way down your house to the ground!  I love this plant.

The varigated red and lime green leaves are a plant called Coleus.  Coleus comes in several different colors and sizes and doesn't like too much hot sun.  I get afternoon sun (after 2pm) here at my front door so it's not too intense. 

And the tall grass in the center is called Purple Fountain Grass.  All three of these plants are annuals and love it in part sun (5-6 hours).

The soil that I prepared for the pots consists of part peat moss, part soil from the ground, and part manuer-compost mix.  I water them almost everyday to keep them fresh and perky.  I'll definitely be doing these again next summer too!

What are some plants that have worked well for you in your planters?

My First Good-bye

My Grandma Iris died yesterday at 3:00pm.  

Her home is directly next door to my parent's home.  We've lived together as one big family on one big plot of land for 23 years.  Her loss is suffocating, but she is, right now, with her Savior in heaven, so I have peace.  This is my first time losing someone I love so dearly, someone who was so intertwined in every aspect of my and my children's and my parent's lives.  I feel this gaping void.  I wonder if the void just lingers there in your heart forever?

I will be gone for two weeks to take care of things back home.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Run the Race

"Poverty has not been my experience, but God has allowed, in the lives of each of us, some sort of loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in order that we may learn to offer ourselves a little more willingly, to allow the touch of death on one more thing we have clutched so tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and joy that much sooner. 

We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom.  Trouble may help to incline us--that is, it may tip us over, put some pressure on us, lean us in the right direction."

Elizabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

I enjoyed this portion of the book today.  Where Elliot says "We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom." my heart lept a little in my chest. 

Until this week, I have sincerely believed that there must be something off kilter in my faith.  I DO love God and I DO seek His Kingdom, but I'm like a well-behaved pet at times.  I love my Master, I want to stay in the boundaries He has laid out; however, every now and again I get distracted...eat a pile of garbage...chase a car....run out the gate to explore the neighborhood. 

And I keep asking myself, "Why do I keep failing the Lord?  Why has my love for God been so weak today?  Why do I have to continually rerout my thinking to seek what is eternal and important to God, instead of focusing on me, me, me?  Shouldn't my love for God and my focus on His work come continually and easily; without inturruption?" 

If it came easily, the apostle Paul wouldn't have called it a race, I suppose.  I can't think of anything much harder than a race; a triathalon; an ironman; a marathon; even a 10K, nay, a 5K,  is quite an undertaking for most of us.  The Bible says that living a life of faith in Jesus is like running a race.  Running takes continual effort.  Every step takes effort.  Paul says it's the same in our relationship with God.  We must stay focused and run in such a way as to get the prize. 

Photo Credit :Stock Photography

1. 1 Corinthians 9:24
   Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
2. Galations 2:2
   I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.
3. Galations 5:7
   You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
4. Hebrews 12:1
   Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Photo Credit: Stock Photography

 Staying in the "race" has become more natural and more consistant with each new year that I've been a Christian; 17 years in all now, but it's not perfect yet...far from it! The biggest help for me has been mental discipline; training my mind to focus on the Lord, focus on what He would have me do today and to remember He is with me every moment.  We must discipline our minds, and for heaven's sake, don't try to do it all on your own.  Pray for some help with it! 

Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will."

And I must say that troubles and suffering have been a wake-up call to "renew my mind", and get back in the race; my mother's cancer, a broken wedding engagement before meeting my current husband, Joel, and a physically difficult miscarriage all sent me running to God for comfort and peace.

Elliot says, We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom." and that trials and troubles can lead us to prayer and a closer relationship with Jesus.

However, we ARE naturally inclined to believe in God at all times, no matter how obedient we are from one day to the next.  Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

I used to be a runner before I hurt my left knee, and I can tell you that running takes consistant effort; that even one day without a run can put you back physically and mentally.

So here's the same recipe for contentment most of us have heard several times, but I can't hear it enough:

Read your Bible and pray every single day.
Don't fear the troubles and trails and messes when they come.  Cling to the Lord; love Him and trust Him, and learn whatever you could possibly learn in your suffering.  Trust Him.

Luke's Garden

Luke playing in his "Rock Box" in his garden

My Mother-in-Law, Meg was visiting Joel and I and the children these last two and a half weeks, so I found myself with some lovely time to do several projects I had been aching to get started on.  My first priority was to begin Luke's "secret" garden.  Instead of a swing set, or a large wood structure with slides, or plastic play houses, or turtle sandboxes, I have been dreaming up an imaginative play area inside my back hedges for Luke (and Sophia too). 

I started with painting a sign with Luke on a piece of left over wood under Joel's workbench.  I drew block letters and he and I painted them with acrylic paint.  He painted all over the board and I simply kept painting over the letters in bright colors as he went.  When it was dry, we nailed it to that small tree trunk.  Luke loved every minute of it.  During Luke's nap I picked up some slate pavers, a blue dragon fly that flaps in the wind, and three bags of pea-gravel from my local home improvement store.

I loosened the dirt where I wanted the pavers and kind of buried them into position.  I dumped the three bags of pea gravel behind the hedge at the end of the path to create Luke's Rock Box.  We decided to go with pea gravel instead of sand to deter cats from using it as a litter box, and because it provides great drainage after a good rain.  Luke plays in his Rock Box for hours with his CAT construction vehicles and matchbox cars.

I planted three grasses along the fence back in the Rock Box to provide some privacy.  They're small now, but they'll work quite nicely next year. 

Here's the blue dragon fly being driven on by Luke's digger.

Luke and I planted some shade loving plants together in his garden: Astilbe, hosta, lobelia, Japanese painted fern, and caladium.

We added this fish wind chime, from my mom, high up in the hedge where the children can't reach it since it's made of glass.  Luke loves to watch it spin and reflect the sun on the floor of his garden.

I've only scratched the surface on the things I'd like to create for the children back in the hedge.  I'm looking forward to making it into a whole world of play and wonder!

Clematis

This is a purple Jackmani Clematis. It was given to me as a teeny tiny sprout of a plant from my mother to celebrate my first mother's day (I was 7 months pregnant with my first born, Luke).  My mother has this exact breed of clematis and I wanted one of my own to make my new house feel like "home". 

In this current photo, the clematis is now 3 years old, and just bursting with life. The Jackmani is the classic clematis. It has large violet-purple blooms and it's very hardy. You can find them at almost any nursery.

Rule #1
Keep the roots in the shade and the blooms in the sun.  In the photo below you can see how I've planted a cedum right at the base of the clematis to keep it's roots permanently shaded from the sun.  It loves this.

Rule #2
Cut back and throw away the entire plant the first week of March every year.  Leave only 6 inches of stems left sticking out of the ground.  It takes some work to unwind all the dead growth out of the trellis, but it's worth it!  Some people say to cut back the entire plant as soon as it's good and dead in December.  I did that last year and it came back just as beautifully as when I had waited and cut it back in March.

Rule #3
Clematis stems snap very, very, easily.  Once they snap, that whole branch will die (but just for that season).  As you help to wind the new growth in and out of your trellis or fence, be very, very, very, gentle.

Rule #4
Water your clematis about 2-3 times a week depending on the amount of rainfall. 
And that's about it!  You'll love watching your clematis grow every spring.  Some days it will literally grow 6-8 inches in one day!  This plant has only been growing since March.

Year One of my Clematis' Life (2 years ago)--It only made 6 blooms that year.  And look how small my Knock Out Rose bush is too!

Your Clematis vine will be small to start, but have patience and it will double the following year and continue to be fuller and more beautiful each year.  Happy Gardening!!!

Kids in the Garden

Luke playing in the yard and gardens in the rain

This week my mother, Elizabeth, gifted me the most beautiful book.  It's called The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids.  I've really only just started working on my gardens last year.  I'm working on creating beds and hedges, privacy and pathways.  But now, I'm looking to start adding all those intriguing nooks and crannies that kids love to explore.  The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids gives you oodles and oodles of amazing and fun ideas to turn your yard space into hours of educational and imaginative play for your children of all ages (itty bitty toddlers through college age kids).  The book showcases several different families, their yards, and specifically how they've transformed their yards into useful and beautiful garden spaces for the whole family.

Here are some of their ideas:

--Birdhouses, feeder and baths

--Plant a pizza or pirate garden

--Miniature landscapes: a fairy garden or toy dinosaur garden

--Garden signage throughout the yard

--Living structures: A bean tee pee, sunflower house or plant tunnel

--Play areas: sandbox, playhouse, hopscotch pathway

--Plants to graze on: sugar snap peas or cherry tomatoes

--A sundial

--Places to hide

--Areas to gather: an outdoor eating area sized for children

--Places to relax: A swing or hammock

--Tools for measuring the weather: a rain gauge or wind sock

I've only scratched the surface of making my yard kid-friendly.  Luke and I made a concrete stepping stone together with his hand print on it. Placing that in the garden bed gives him a little ownership and pride out in the yard. He likes to keep placing his hand in the print to see if he's grown. 

Whenever Joel and I have a planting project, we always include the kids as much as possible.  It makes them feel like the yard and plants are theirs too.  Last summer we planted zinnia seeds in Luke's own little garden area, and they grew larger than him! This year we planted sunflowers, but the chipmunks ate them as soon as they started to sprout, so we must start over with new flowers, and soon!

Luke checking out the hole for the new giant boxwoods we planted a few weeks ago

Sophia checking out the grass while we plant bushes

What are some things you have done to your yard and gardens to make them into spaces that children love to explore?

Phthalates

My car before the babies came 

I have a passion for researching all things concerning the health of me and my family.  I save articles I find concerning, what I view, as the most pressing health issues of today.  In this post, I've copied part of an impacting article from CBS news in May of 2010.  Since this article was written, more human studies have been done to back up Congress' decision to ban phthalates in certain children's toys.   For toys and games that are phthalate-free, visit this section of Amazon.

What are phthalates?: Chemicals that make plastics soft and pliabe.  They’re found in all kinds of plastic bottles, as well as plastic containers, steering wheels and car dashboards, kitchen wrap, soft toys and medical devices.  Phthalates are also used as slovents for fragrances, so they’re in a lot of personal care products like shampoos, conditioners, lotions, perfume, nail polish, and cosmetics.  Cosmetics maker Avon, Johnson & Johnson and S.C. Johnson - on their own initiative - are taking all phthalates out of their products.

Health concern: Studies on humans show that phthalate exposure may be associated with genital birth defects in males as well as infertility problems in men.

Phthalates: Are They Safe?

By CBSNews May 23, 2010

"More than ever, people are worried about how all the chemicals we're exposed to are affecting our health: among them a family of chemicals known as phthalates, which are used in everyday plastics.

Not plastic bottles of water or soda, but soft and flexible things like shower curtains. They're also in shampoos and carpeting.

Phthalates are so ubiquitous, we all have traces in our bodies.

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, put phthalates on a list of chemicals that "may present a risk" to the environment or human health. That's because they disrupt hormone activity and some preliminary studies show that they may be causing a slow and steady demasculinizing of men.

But if phthalates were on trial, a jury might find the evidence against them conflicting and inconclusive. And yet last year Congress took action, doing what Europe had already done: it banned certain phthalates in children's toys.

Congress came under pressure to act because of a study by Dr. Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester Medical School. Dr. Swan compared the levels of phthalates in a group of pregnant women with the health of the baby boys they gave birth to.

Swan told "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl she found that the higher the level of phthalates in the mother's urine during pregnancy, the greater the problems occurred in young boys.

Asked what she found in babies, Swan said, "We found that the baby boys were in several subtle ways less completely masculine."

Dr. Howard Snyder, a pediatric urologist at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, says Swan's findings line up with what he's seeing in newborn baby boys: an alarming increase in deformed sex organs.

Dr. Snyder operated on one-year-old Griffin to correct something called "hypospadias," a birth defect that causes problems in urination.

"He's a healthy little guy who's, I think, going to get through the rest of life aiming without any difficulty at all," Snyder told Stahl.

"We hear that there are more and more and more cases of hypospadias. Are you seeing a lot?" Stahl asked.

"Thirty, 40 years ago, the best data we had then was that hypospadias occurred in about one in every 300 live male births. It's up to now about one in 100. So there's been a threefold increase," Snyder explained.

There's also been a two-fold increase in another abnormality: un-descended testicles. Snyder says something seems to be interfering in the womb with the production of testosterone, causing the male organs to form improperly. And he suspects it may be phthalates.

"You're moving in on these chemicals," Stahl remarked. "You don't think whatever we're seeing is smoking or diet or something else?"

"I think it's the chemical exposure that are most telling," Snyder replied.

He points to studies beyond Shanna Swan's that seem to link phthalates to low sperm counts and low testosterone levels in adult males.

"There's just too much incremental data that has built up to be ignored. I think it's a real phenomenon. I really, honestly do," Snyder said.

Look around Dr. Snyder's hospital and you see how phthalates can make their way into our bodies. They're in the IV bags and the tubing for instance. When premature babies - hooked up like this - were studied, researchers found that their phthalate levels soared.Who would've thought chemicals embedded in plastic leach out. Well they do, in small amounts. But studies are beginning to suggest that even small amounts can have an effect. If it is shown definitively that phthalates are dangerous, it won't be easy to get rid of them.

To show us just how pervasive phthalates are in our lives, Dr. Swan took us through a suburban house, sniffing, squirting and squeezing our way around, looking for flexible plastic: things that typically contain phthalates, like vinyl raincoats, the bathroom shower curtain and the rubber duckies.

It turns out they're also in things like car dashboards, steering wheels, gearshifts and even that "new car" smell.

Phthalates make fragrances linger longer - whether in cars, or in air fresheners.

Phthalates get inside us in a variety of ways, for instance, from products we put on our skin: they help lotions spread and women's make-up retain its color.

Swan says cosmetics alone could explain why women have higher levels of phthalates than men.Swan told Stahl phthalates can also be found in lipstick, hairspray, nail polish and nail polish remover.

If you want to know if something you're using has phthalates, it's hard to find out: there's no requirement they be listed on labels. There are so many products with phthalates in the average home, Dr. Swan says they leak out in measurable amounts.

"We've measured indoor air and it does contain phthalates, as does the dust in your vacuum cleaner bag." And, Swan says, we're breathing it.

We also eat phthalates which have been found in meat. In fact, food could be our biggest source of them: milk, possibly from the plastic tubing at dairy farms. And according to government regulators, they're in tap water, tainted by industrial waste."

So what are some basic first steps we can take to remove phthalates from our family's lives?

Here's what I've done so far:

#1 Throw away plastic shower curtain liners and replace them with washable fabric ones.

#2 When given the option, I chose wood floors over carpet.  I choose wool carpet instead of synthetic.

#3  No rubber duckies or vinyl rain coats unless they are advertised as phthalate-free.  We own these boon ducks for bath time.

#4 We purchase almost all our health and beauty products from stores like Trader Joes or Whole Foods so we can be certain that our products do not contain phthalates.  Cosmetics are not required to list their ingredients.

#5  No children's toys in the house with flexible plastic unless they are advertised as phthalate-free.  Check out this section of Amazon for phthalate-free toys and games.

#6  Absolutely no air fresheners. Period.

I have no idea what to do to rid myself of plastic wrap and zip lock bags.  They are both loaded with phthalates and I just haven't found a good replacement for them.  My mom, Elizabeth, has started using wax sandwhich bags for food storage, and she likes them pretty well.

If you have any ideas on how in the world to get rid of plastic wrap and zip lock bags, please let me know!  I'd also love to hear any additional tips on removing phthalates from our homes.

I am not a professional heath care provider. My blog posts on health and nutrition are just my shared opinions and observations from my own life experiences.