Mother's Day Makeover

Before: What I used to see when I looked out my kitchen window...
Travis looking studly with his shovel. Madalynn (in true firstborn form, directed the moving of the sod.
Justis is Mr. Details. He's removing a corner weed we missed in this picture.
Jillian's job was to look cute.
Dawson's gloves swallowed his little chubby hands...but they were Daddy's gloves, therefore he HAD to wear them!














Travis went above and beyond in blessing me with a Mother's Day garden makeover, including a custom-made plant stand he made from a little drawing I gave him!

Watching the designs and creations that I imagine come to reality satisfies a need inside of me. I love to create, to re-design, maximize the potential or functionality of something, and leave it more useful and beautiful than it was before. God put that desire in me.

A stronger desire God placed inside of me is to love and invest in my family so each one of them can discover and experience the full potential of the unique plan God has their lives. Imagine my joy when the six of us worked together to make a transformation. My family, creating and God all-in-one. Now THAT'S a great Mother's Day!

The sound of a saw woke me the Saturday before Mother's Day, and I went outside to find Travis already working on making my plant stand dream a reality. Several hours later I had a beautiful new plant stand that was exactly like the one I drew!

An eye-sore of a spot in our yard had been sitting half-dug up for about a year now. I see the area every time I look out the kitchen and living room windows. It has an ugly concrete pad that used to anchor a tower the previous homeowners had there. A piece of white PVC conduit sits beside the concrete pad. We're guessing the conduit houses the wires that were hooked up to the tower.

I tried, on my own several times, to dig the spot up to remove the packed-in grass and weeds that were especially dense there. Digging a flowerbed is something I've done plenty of times, but this spot was just difficult. Travis used round-up on it several three times for me and I would start digging and give up, then the weeds and grass would just re-invade the half-dug mess.

Travis came to the rescue, as always, ready to help. He had been willing all along to help. I was the one who had to (again) put aside my pride and stubbornness and realize asking for help is a wise decision, not a sign of weakness.

The dreaded "grass-clump" of a dug-up mess was next on the list to take care of. Travis and I begrudgingly took our shovels and started digging. The kids, as usual, asked, "Can I help?" I thought for a moment and looked down at the 8" sod clumps Travis was removing and realized they would be great fill-ins for the huge holes in the yard the pesky armadillos dig.

My little busy bees happily went to work, relocating the sod to the armadillo holes and stomping it down into them. Every bit of sod taken out to make room for the new garden found a home elsewhere in the yard. Unfilled holes still remain but there are considerably fewer of them thanks to the kids' hard work. I followed Travis with the round shove, turning the now-workable soil to prepare the bed.

Proper edging was an essential part of this garden plan, because it's a wet, dense spot and creeping grass likes flower beds. We priced all kinds of edging options, but thrift is essential in optimizing materials. We decided to stop construction of the bed until we could find the right edging.

God knew what we needed, not surprisingly, and provided free railroad ties for edging. Travis brought them home Friday night and had them cut and put in place before I even made it outside Saturday morning! I filled the garden with more soil, helped Travis put the plant stand in the middle and used transplants from my overzealous (but beautiful) perennials from other beds to create a beautiful bed I enjoy looking at.

One thing did make Mother's Day a little difficult for me this year-the fact that my mom is 16 hours away and I had to wish her happy Mother's Day over the phone. My mom passed on her gardening knowledge to me, by the way. I would not even know a weed from a flower if it wasn't for Mom! Gardening and enjoying the details of each different plant always makes me think of my mom.

I now think of Travis, my children and my mom each time I look out my kitchen window. They all played a part in creating the beauty of the flower bed, and the garden reminds me of the irreplaceable blessing my family is to me.