As a homesteading family of seven who owns one acre in the country, we have to be practical about the use of our limited space.  After living here for almost a decade, I finally splurged some of my time and a little of our money and put in landscaping.  We built beds at the front of our home with plants and flowers.

My Favorite Rose

As I stood looking at the finished product yesterday, I could not help but smile.  I was filled with joy from one of the simple pleasures of life: beauty.  Looking out at the landscaping I was reminded of all the love involved in making it.  My children carefully selected the flowers for me.  My husband surprised me with a few plants and a load of topsoil.  My father and step-mom also had brought gifts of plants and flowers.  My mom and step-dad had given me roses for Valentine’s Day.  All these gifts of love worked together to produce a beautiful array of color, shape, and texture.  I feel completely blessed.

This made me think that sometimes people get so caught up in what they are doing or what has to be done that they don’t take the time to enjoy their surroundings.  People can get so busy doing for others that they don’t do something that pleases them.  The old adage, “Stop and smell the roses,” has new meaning for me.  We must take time to enjoy our life.

The Landscaping in Front of My House

So today I challenge you to do something just for yourself.  Make yourself happy.  Share it with others.  Your friends would love to know.  As you sit around your dinner table with your family, all of you could share what makes you happy.  You can learn something about each other.  After all, what is the point of life we don’t take time to enjoy it?

Daisies

Tags: beauty, landscaping, surroundings

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 8:17 am and is filed under For Women, Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.