No Rain Today!

Shower - like new!

And it's the first day this week without it.  The sun is smiling down on all the lush green, the flowers are all watered and happy and it's lovely out.  We went yesterday for a spontaneous lunch out - on the way home we were pelted with such loud, heavy rain/hail that it made conversation difficult.

The shower is finished!  I've seen tiled showers look a lot worse than ours did.  Still, though, it looks almost brand new again.  He did a nice job and we're grateful to find someone willing to do all that work - grinding out all the old grout and replacing it with fresh new.  Now on to the next project!

I try really hard to have respect and reverence for living things of all kinds.  (Except when it comes to spiders, rodents, bugs - that sort of thing.)  I work really hard to keep my plants happy and suffer some anxiety when I manage not to keep one alive.  I spent some effort dividing and re-potting one of my African Violets.  (The jury is still out as to whether or not they'll thrive.  But they're looking mostly ok at this point.)   The other one was just too overgrown.  I didn't know they should be re-potted annually, it was seriously overgrown but still blooming all the time.

Trashed plant.

But yesterday I did it:  I tossed the violet in the garbage, pot and all.  I took a deep breath and chucked it right in the kitchen receptacle.  Closed the door and walked away.  I couldn't do it anymore.  I felt guilt on so many levels.  I think that little violet cost me $3.49 - about a decade ago. It has brightened my spirits on many a day.  But enough.  It's gone.

I surely hope Heaven will be gentle when judging me by my plants.  And that all the ones where I've been more successful will help to balance the scales when compared to all the ones I've given up on.

And it's the weekend.  The possibilities make me smile:  mailbox repair, movie, get together with a couple friends, start a paint project.  And that isn't even a complete list.  I love having things to do as long as there's not a lot of pressure involved.  And the best part is whatever we decide to do, we'll do together.

I'm grateful for a fresh, new-feeling shower.  For the songs of the birds we hear through the open windows.  For laundry that's all done and dinner that's planned.  For the knowledge I have that I get to choose for myself, that I don't have to respond to another's instructions (well-intentioned though they might be) or criticisms (not generally considered to be well-intentioned, just controlling.) And for the hope that somehow, I might be acceptable to our Heavenly Father; He is the one that matters.