Springtime in Louisville

I'm learning that there really IS a spring in Louisville! I was fooled into thinking that I was back in South Carolina during our stretch of hot days back in April, and then was quite befuddled at the following spell of rainy coolness. It's downright chilly in our house right now! (I know Nathan's saying "what else is new!") I was marveling at how "cool it was for May" when Ryan informed me that this is ALWAYS how it is in Louisville. After staring blankly for a few seconds, it dawned on me that I AM 4 states north of my old stompin' grounds, after all. :)

I had to wait until the second week of May to plant my garden, and was glad I did when we had a frost the first week in May! Ryan & I adventured down to the gardening shop (on Bardstown Rd., where else!?) and picked up tomato seedlings and some seed packets. I bought more later at the Dollar Store (10 for a dollar!!)... Then, I went to town. Or to yard. Our little neighbors saw me digging in the dirt and wanted to come help, so of course I told them to hop through the fence, if it was ok with Mom, and they did! The boys, Ibrahim and Yousef, were fascinated with the worms!! When Ryan got home we were all still out in the back, and he recruited them to help him prune some trees. Let's just say they LOVED cutting stuff down! I see now where Ryan gets it: his Y chromosome! It was a great answer to prayer, though-- our neighbor kids IN our yard, running through our house, begging us to let them come over and "help" again soon, and wondering when we'd have the floor done so they could come play. Halleluiah! I got a good chance to talk a little to their mother, Shukri, about children, adoption, parenting and barrenness and the Bible's teaching on it. It was a good topic to bring the Word of God into, because it's an area where Islam mostly lines up with the Scripture-- they highly value children, and view parenting as a privelege, as well as children having duties to their parents. So I was able to tell her that Ryan & I are Christians and practice bringing up God's perspective without offending her right off the bat. Anyway, she is so sweet, and I admire her a lot! (she drives her disabled little girl all over the States, alone, because her husband is also disabled and wheel-chair bound. Talk about the power of maternal affection!)... oh, did I mention that these neighbors are Somali (Muslim) refugees? There are a LOT of them in Louisville, and they are a group our church specifically is burdened for and reaching out to. If the Lord lays it on your heart, please pray that His word will go forth among them and start bearing fruit!!

Speaking of fruit, I'm a little worried about our tomatos. It's been SO rainy, with precious little morning sun (and the garden is set to get the most sun in the morning) since we planted them, and they aren't doing so well. My mom says that too much rain can kill a fruit crop, and that that's why some people do it in raised beds (or pots, I guess). We'll see...

To top off the gardening post, I'll describe a little of our newest home-owner challenge: ants! We had an invasion this weekend, and I tackled the critters yesterday. They were marching after something (we never could figure out what) in our kitchen, and swarming in our herb garden bed (I'm afraid they were feasting on my newly-planted seeds... *sad *). You should have seen me making pepper-cinnamon-chili suspensions to spray on the tomatos, throwin coffee grounds and then diatomaceous earth on the herb garden & around our back door, sweeping, mopping and then re-mopping the floors with vinegar... all toxic-free, natural remedies against the little insects. They'd better not come back.

PS- Ryan took the "spring" pictures around Shelby Park one evening when I was cooped up with something or other. Aren't they great!? We LOVE the squirrel ones. We've discussed several times how some plants are so pretty, yet called weeds... why? Who got to pick what was a flower and what was a weed? Maybe it's dependant on the ugliness of their leaves, hmmm...