Patience and Hope

Patience is not one of my virtues.

I know that it is a fruit of the Spirit...

and that I have it in me...but it is not something that 

I have quite figured out yet.

Maybe because I try to figure out how to be patient rather than just being led to be patient.

I don't know.

When Paul and I first moved into our home some eighteen and a half years ago, I would stop by the nursery that was located right across from the elementary school where I taught.

Every afternoon I would head over and buy something new for my flower garden...almost always a perennial of some sort.

If that poor plant didn't perform in the amount of time that I thought it should, I would pull it out
and throw it away.

Finally, Paul said to me, "Why don't you just leave it there for the winter and see what happens."

Genius.

Pure genius.

And he is so much more patient than I will ever be.

I think that maybe that is why I have never gotten very far with a garden.  

Plants grow so slow and weeds grow so fast!

This year, with some hope and patience (and plants that had already been started at the local nursery),
 I have vegetables!

Here are the zucchini plants!

Look!

Flowers!

I don't think that you can even imagine how excited I was about this bread!

I mean...zucchini.

Double Batch!!

This is the plant that Joshua adopted.

He was so excited too see the little green tomatoes!

Pumpkin plants!

I soaked the seeds for two days to make sure that the shell would be tender enough for the roots and shoots to break through.

They sprouted before I ever put them in the ground.

Now, fast forward one week...

William took these pictures for me.

He has been having fun watching 

the vegetables grow too.

And check out what great pictures he took!

He experimented with flash and no flash. 

So pretty!

I think that the key for me being patient is to not check on them every day.

Or twice a day.

Or even three times a day.

I'm better off if I ignore them totally and have the kids water them every so often.

And bring back pictures and reports.

The hands-off approach to gardening.

:)

Enjoying being the patient, hopeful, hands-off gardener,