…from flowers today to share my heart. Occasionally, I just have an urge to share a little of myself with you in hopes that you understand the person behind Botanical Brouhaha…not sure if that’s a good idea or not, but I like authentic people and would like to be one.

Lately, I’ve found myself sitting down to write the next Botanical Brouhaha post late at night and totally exhausted. Usually, I am so eager to spend time writing the posts and take my time exploring photos for a subject. My enthusiasm hasn’t waned, but my days seem to be getting shorter! As I was thinking about my new time challenge, I decided it was time to share another personal post. So…if you came here for flowers today, I totally understand if you need to scoot along to another flower blog. I’ll be right back to flowers tomorrow.

A year ago, we were struggling as a couple…feeling like we needed to be doing more for others and more to deepen our relationship with the Lord. We were discussing our options as a family with our 2 sons. Ultimately, we just decided to take a step of faith, sell our home and make ourselves available to go where we were needed. If you had told me one year ago that we would be where we are today and doing what we’re doing, I would have laughed. Laughed because…this new life we’re living is way out of my comfort zone and I would have never agreed to it had I known what would be involved. And yet, I’m finding it strangely comfortable and exciting. I’m amazed at the way I feel in the midst of some crazy situations…slowly letting go of the need to have constant control over my schedule and a perfectly clutter-free home in favor of spending time loving and caring for those around me…taking the time to sit down and connect with those that come into our house…and that’s a lot since we’ve moved. I still struggle to give up control of my life and allow God to guide my days, but it’s definitely getting easier…mostly because I don’t have control around here most of the time!

Our favorite part of our new home is that we’ve added two more boys to the mix…along with their friends and girlfriends. One amazing college student came to live in our garage apartment this summer and last weekend we had another precious college student move into the house with us. It’s wall to wall boys (even the dog is a boy)…and they have taught me so much already. Here’s the thing about boys…they don’t expect perfection. My own boys have been telling me this for years, but it has taken some “objective outsiders” to drive the point home! They’re helping me shift my focus from creating a perfect and comfortable life for my family to living a life focused on relationships. They don’t care if there’s laundry stacked on the stairs or mud on the rug…as long as there’s a basketball goal, a guitar and some food around, they’re all happy. And they don’t care about making plans…just grab a ball, go outside and see who shows up to play…have a random thought and act on it right now…no planning required. There are boys chopping things, throwing things, burning things, singing things, laughing about things…constantly. Here’s our youngest guy chopping wood for the fire pit…I took the picture from the kitchen window…scary to get any closer…

And one other thing…if someone needs help, boys will stop (some quicker than others) what they’re doing to help. They’re teaching me daily about what’s really important in this life…and I’m so thankful for the experience.

So…here’s what today looks like in our neck of the woods…

Got dinner in the Crockpot early this morning…there’s what’s left of the cake we baked at 8:00 last night…

…all of us took our turn using our one working shower because we have a leak that has taken our other shower out of commission…

…went out to take the youngest to school and the car wouldn’t start…husband headed to get it repaired…

…walked behind the fence to get my hair cut at the neighboring salon…

…will head out back when I finish writing this post to clean the B&B for guests who will arrive tomorrow…

…heading out to the cutting garden at some point today to water the seedlings…here’s the garden when we got it this summer…

…and here it is today…so far we have Centaurea, Sweet Peas, False Queen Anne’s Lace ‘Green Mist’ & ‘Black Knight’, Larkspur and Nigella growing…

…then back home to grab a bite to eat, wait for the tile guy to show up to assess the shower damage…if he fixes it, he’ll be my hero, but I’m not holding my breath (that’s my attempt at being flexible)…my family likes to call it being pessimistic…I like to think of myself as being “realistic”…maybe I’ll do some laundry while I wait…

…then pick up the one boy who can’t drive yet from school (that’s assuming the car is running by then)…back home for dinner with whoever stops in to eat (it’s different every night)…then the kids will head off to a youth Bible study and I’ll sit down to write tomorrow’s blog post.

Never could I have dreamed up this life, but I’ve never felt more blessed and alive. I’m so thankful for the relationships that have come about through this experience and for the changes my heart has undergone as a result. I’m still amazed at what God does in my life when I allow Him to be a part of my ‘everyday’…

Hope you have a great Wednesday! If you’re still reading, you should get a prize! Thanks for allowing me to take a little diversion from flowers…we’ll get back to them tomorrow…