Unmerited Favor

I havent blogged in a while, just been busy I guess with different things.  The yard is coming along nicely.  As I have said before we didnt think we would be able to afford to build our patio until next year, but I started search on Craigslist for patio pavers and found a great deal on some 6x6 gray stone pavers!  I got them for half price and its almost enough to do everything!   We havent started yet, mostly because we havent had time, but REALLY because we have no idea how!  I've researched online how to do it, and I've come to the conclusion that the hardest part to me sounds like getting everything packed and leveled... so... who knows!  We are going to plan on doing that in July maybe.

Last night our pastor preached some about having favor, and when you doubt or ask questions you pretty much are questioning God and the fact that he can do anything!  Nathan and I have been wanting to record some of our origional songs so we can get the word out and hopefully keep a little busier with our music ministry.  But we also want it to be good quality which = $$$  Think 2 or 3 songs for around 1,000.00 and thats low balling it!  Thats just with Nathan and I bare essentials...  We would like to record the songs with our band, and I am believing that soon we will!  But this leads my to my whole point.  This morning as I was getting ready for work, I was praying, and I was praying for favor for us and our ministry and marriage.  Then I looked around me and saw my beautiful house that we just bought this year, I thought about my new pavers outside and our patio project that will be completed a year sooner because of the good deal I was blessed to find, I thought about our new patio set, and all the landscaping we have done in the past couple months, and in that time I felt bad for even asking for anything else.  I thought to myself... I already have been blessed so much, what right do I have to ask for more?  He's already blessed me beyond measure, what more do I want!  What more should I expect?  So I stopped praying for a min. and continued to get ready and then that still small voice spoke..... His still small voice said...thats why they call it UNMERITED FAVOR!  I have to admit, I had forgot about this!  I had not been thinking that my father is the king of kings and Lord of Lord and his grace is unlimited and freely given to all who need it!  Deserving or not, its there continually flowing out of him!  PRAISE THE LORD!!!  You see, I can pray for favor because I am his child.  Just like a child really doesnt contribute to the household, but the parents love them so much they continually give even when they dont deserve it!  They can throw a tantrum one minute and mommy and daddy will give them a hug and a candy bar the next!  He loves us to much, he loves us unconditionally, he loves us more than we can even imagine!  In fact, thats why a lot of people have such a hard time with it, they dont understand it.  They cant figure it out in their heads!  They want to understand it.  But the awesome part is... thats not our job to understand it, its not our job to wrap our heads around it, its not our job to deserve it.  Our only job is to except it, and pass it along to others!  That agape love is what draws the lost to Christ!  Unconditional, undeserving love!  Thank you Lord for loving me unconditionally, even when I dont deserve it.  Thank you for your unmerrited favor, for just pouring favor out on us freely, just because we are your children!  Thank you for teaching us to love unconditionaly! 

Yard Plans

Im SOOOOOO excited about my yard!  I feel like a kid waiting on Christmas to get here!  Nathans parents and Granny came over Saturday for an early dinner and we went outside and planned out my landscaping.  Not this weekend but the next we are going to get it started!  So to continue our excitement after Nates family left, we went window shopping at Home Depot to see what kind of flowers, shrubs, etc we liked!  There were Japanese Maples near the front for 100.00 a peice, these are expensive trees, Im not really sure why, but they are.  I LOVE them too, they have beautiful red leaves!  So we were looking back in the back and I saw some small baby trees with no leaves on them and it looked like Japanese Maples and sure enough it was!  FOR 20.00!!!!  I made sure and ask if it was just because they were baby trees and not very mature yet and they said that was the reason for the low price, so we bought two!!! 

Here are my plans:

Front yard:  cut down the dead dogwood tree, thank God only 1 is dead, the other two are about to bloom!  Rip up the enormous bushes in the front yard. Plant a Japanese Maple somewhere in the front beds and some more bushes and flowers.  Not sure exactly on the rest yet.

Side of the house:  There are some mums there now, we may move them elsewhere, because this will be my herb/ veggie garden.  Im planning on planting rosemary, basil, oregano, dill, maybe some other spices and maybe tomato, jalapeno, squash, and zuchini.  Like I said, nothing is in stone yet, but this is what the plans are.  Im going to plant these there because its right off from the kitchen, so it will be easily accessed when Im cooking and in need of fresh herbs and veggies!



Patio Planning:  Patio pavers are really expensive so I have that project lined up for NEXT spring, but for now, Im going to go ahead and plant a screen around where the patio will be so next year there will be mature trees and shrubs there to provide more coverage.  Nates mom gave me some curly willow tree cuttings that I am rooting inside right now, they will probably go in this area along with bushes and ornamental tall grass and flowers.  I want to include some hydrangias throughout this also as well as in the back!  This week Im going to kill the grass there...this is one of my favorite things to do!  haha, dont ask me why, but Its just fun carrying around the pump and spraying every weed in sight! 

Back Corner and tree line:  I have snow drops, Iris, mums and some other things growing in the back corner of our lot, so in addition I will plant a couple hydrangia bushes back there  to be viewed from the patio!  Also along the tree line there will be azalea bushes.  Im buying the small bushes because they are cheaper, they wont look quite like I want them to this year because they are babies, but in a couple years they will be a beautiful boarder of color!




Okay these are the plans so far, when its all complete, Ill post pics of the after! btw...these pics were taken when we moved in  in the fall...those leaves are long gone, Nate would have a cow about that. He does so good with the yard, He's very excited about putting the fertilizer on it and getting it nice and green.  In the fall were planning on areating and also planting more grass seed!  One step at a time though....   :)

Spring = Flowers

Nathan and I bought our house in November, and from the moment we saw the house we loved it!  I remember coming back to our apartment after seeing this house for the first time and us both jumping around and doing the "happy dance".  (In case you dont know what the "happy dance" is, you pretty much just move your body any ridiculous way you can think of to show your enthusiasm and happiness about the situation at hand.)  I remember Nathan saying, "baby, this is the house God has for us."  When he said those words, I knew it was the one too, and as God would have it, it IS the house God had for us.  I could go on and on about our house searching and the things we learned, which were a LOT, and the things we hated, and loved, but this blog would be a book.  The house is perfect for us in many ways, and like all houses, there are things we immediatly changed, things we are changing, and then there is my LIST.  On the very top of my list is the yard.  Of course we have to wait until spring is fully sprung to start doing a lot of my honey dos, but this 70 degree weekend is making me itch to rip up some bushes!

These bushes have been #1 on my list since I laid eyes on them, and I cant tell you how bad I want to hook a chain up to them and just rip them up out of the ground, and if I have my way in it at all...I will be driving the truck when they come up!  I am falling in love with gardening, flowers, and landscaping.  Right now I know next to NOTHING about the subject, but I love learning new things about it so I think this is slowly becoming my new hobby.  The tree's in this picture are dogwoods, they might be dead, we should know in a couple more weeks when everything is in full bloom.  I really hope they are alive they will be so beautiful if they are Im sure.  This year I want to plant hydrangias, I think they are so beautiful,  and  yellow bell bushes.  I already have a camelia bush as you can see. It has made a baby right below it, so I will probably move the baby to another part of the house!  This bush is gorgeous, its been blooming all winter.  It will bloom and then it snowed, the flowers would die, but the next warm day there would be new buds sprouting out everywhere!  Im also planning on planting a curly willow, Nates mom has a beautiful tree at her house and we rooted and planted one in china grove that had started to grow nicley when we sold the house.

Also on my list is build a patio!  This can get rather expensive, so this year we are going to focus on the flowers beds and landscaping, and next year Im planning on tackling the patio, BUT, I want it to be surrounded by trees, flowers and shrubs, so I think I will plant some things near where I want the patio to be so there will already be some larger things around it! 

Since Im new at this whole gardeing/flower stuff, do you have any plants, trees, or shrubs you would like to suggest for me to try?!