Green Thumb

As your kids grow up it is fun to see them discover their own interests.  An added bonus is when they are interested in something that you have absolutely no interest in thereby creating some sort of balance in the house.  Case in point-- People who are interested in plants and gardening are said to have "green thumbs".  I have often said that I truly have a black thumb when it comes to growing things.  I can kill even the heartiest plants (it's a skill, I know).  I never remember to water plants and I have no interest in learning anything about them. I only let fake plants in the house and outside I want don't want anything in the yard that actually requires attention.  I'm sure you can remember the great garden disaster of 2010.  I tried to plant a garden and well, nothing happened.  My Dad laughed so hard when he saw my "garden" tears formed in his eyes. It was pretty bad.  The next year we put sod over our garden spot and I've been a die hard fan of Bountiful Baskets ever since.

A few months ago at Britton's pack meeting all of the kids were able to plant a seed in a cup of soil and take it home.  Britton and Jenna both planted seeds and took them home.  I forgot all about it a nano-second after walking in the door that night.  Imagine my surprise when 2 months later Jenna's plant is still going strong.

She moved it to a window in the house where it would get the best sunlight and then remembered to water it faithfully.  When we were gone for an entire week over spring break one of the first things she did when we got home was run in and give her little seed some water. As you can tell from this next picture Britton takes after his mother in this department. 

Jenna enjoyed working in the yard with her grandparents last weekend and this week when I told her we should weed the front yard after school on Friday she had it all done before I had the chance to go out and get it started.  Not only did she weed the front yard, she started working on the back and then asked if she could have her own garden spot and plant some vegetables and flowers.

Yessssssss!

I officially release myself from all yard responsibilities!  Adam and Jenna went and bought a few garden seeds and flowers yesterday and I'm going to sit back and let Jenna do her thing.

Jenna's enthusiasm extends to other things, too.  Several weeks ago Jenna's rushed through the door after school all excited about the fact that it was time for spring pictures.  I must admit that my reaction did not match hers.  I find spring pictures completely pointless and a waste of money.  They used to just take every child's picture whether you wanted them to or not and then sent them home and asked you to pay an exorbitant amount of money if you wanted to keep any of them.  Basically they were banking on the fact you would be guilted into buying pictures of your child.  Last year they finally changed the policy and would only take pictures if you first paid for the pictures.  This was welcome news to me but didn't change the fact that Jenna loves spring pictures.  Britton and Korinne are fine not having their pictures taken again, but the minute Jenna finds out about spring pictures she starts planning what she is going to wear and how she is going to have her hair, and what jewelry she should wear and well, I don't have the heart to tell her she can't have any taken. So I just try and find the cheapest thing to buy and let her have her fun.  The excitement this year was that they were letting them brings props to be in their pictures so Jenna took her violin.

She loves how they turned out so I figured I would at least post it on the blog before it goes into the picture drawer for the next 20  years.

I will end this post on a personal note.  For all of you who have ever asked me, "Are you still the Primary President?" during the past 5 years I can finally tell you that no, I am no longer the Primary President in my ward.  After 5 years, 2 wards, over 60 sharing times and 5 primary sacrament meeting programs I was released today.  My kids don't ever remember a time that I wasn't in Primary since Britton was only 5 years old when I first got called. (Actually, I did have a 3 month break when we moved into a new ward so I guess that counts for something.)  I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling pretty good today.

 On to new challenges. . .