This weekend I had the big task of clearing our grow boxes in the back yard. Most of what I successfully grew this year came in the form of weeds. I sadly did not get to garden as much as I loved my garden last year. I hardly got anything in my harvest this year. And the even sadder part...I weeded each garden like 3 times in hopes of planting and then still grew mostly weeds. I really want to make sure I get the drive to plant an awesome one next year cause I really missed my tomatoes and zucchini this year!
I discovered while pulling up the beastie weeds that resided in my boxes, that these were the perfect play pens for jane!! She was in second heaven playing in the dirt. She'd sprinkle it on her head, smear it down her legs, dump it in her shoes and got it in every nook and cranny. It was quite hilarious when she decided to climb out of it and get cleaned up. She was covered, head to toe. Normally I'm not a humungo fan of letting Jane make huge messes. Every once in a while she gets to put paint all over her, or smears yogurt while eating, but for the most part it's controlled (well as "controlled" as they can be) messes in her high chair. This dirt experience was complete freedom! I didn't tell her to stop, I let her go as long as she wanted and she was filled with dirty joy!
We just had a beautiful women's conference with my church last evening. At it speakers shared amazing talks that uplifted my soul and gave me much to ponder on. My favorite talk was all about happiness and joy. Elder Uchtdorf of the first presidency of our church gave ab incredible message and shared an inspiring story. My favorite quote was, "God didn't design is to be sad. He created us to have joy!" How true that is, and I firmly agree! We are created to joyfully live life. We are meant to joyfully live life. There is great strength that comes from a joyfully lived life. That doesn't mean that your life is buttercups and rainbows. There are still trials, hard days and so forth....but they don't need to be the bulk of life or allowed to be the focus or the stumbling block. We truly are meant to have joy. I love watching my small children experience joy. Wee William has been so full of smiles and coos this month and it warms my heart to see him happy and curious. My Jane learns new words and phrases daily and is starting to pretend. How joyous that makes me, for pretending is one of my fondest pastimes. There really is great joy to be had in this life, good dirty joy!!
