dirty little secret

When I married Jess, there was one thing I did not know about him. In fact, no one knew this dirty little secret. And it's literally dirty. As in dirt. You see, he loves plants. They follow him home, I swear it. This Christmas, when they were about to throw the office lobby poinsettias out (because they were pretty much dead), Jess brought them home. All of them. A herd of poinsettias in my kitchen. (And he has revived all but one, it should be noted.)

We have the plant I gave him for our first Valentine's Day (his first plant). We have a plant from his grandpa's funeral (a giant leafy guy) and a plant from his aunt's funeral (a beautiful orchid that he miraculously keeps growing ALL YEAR). (These two are my favorites as they are little reminders of the people we love so much.) We have the orange plant I gave him for our last anniversary. There's the TREE (huge plant) that he underestimated size wise that has no real place in our home and gets rotated around in a desperate attempt to fit in. There's the little guy that Home Depot was getting rid of and Jess said, and I quote, "He needs me!" Belle adopted him and has taken charge of his water and food. There's a plant that was dying at his mom's house, so of course he volunteered to bring it back to life (and he did). The plants go on and on. 

And when I give these plants pronouns, it's no joke. They're as good as pets in this house. (Actually, they are our pets.) He makes sure each of them have what they need in terms of their various water needs, and the girls get in on the action too, which is pretty adorable, and follow him around with their spray bottles and watering cans. When one starts dying, he takes it personally and researches its guts out in an effort to save it. I think to date, he has only lost one plant (and considering we literally have dozens, this is a pretty good statistic). His parents laugh because they never saw his green thumb coming, but he takes it seriously. And he really does love it. (I secretly think it's in his blood. His grandma with her lovely garden and yard must have passed some of her magic on to him.) 

Just this weekend, we started planning out our yard. The fact is, we bought a dead yard. The grass is long gone and overtaken by weeds, or a FLOWER GARDEN! as Belle calls it, and this yard needs a little (read: a lot of) sprucing. We went and bought our first gardening tools on Saturday, which I imagine is just the beginning. Because if this yard gets the kind of care that our indoor plants get, it's going to be lovely. 

And truly, I'm grateful. We're so lucky to have a yard, and a yard that will be cared for. The girls are going to have such a good summer of running and playing and digging and growing. And I love that they've learned so young a certain respect and love for God's good earth. It truly is lovely.