Beautiful Ohio

I was just thinking back to when our family first moved to Ohio - I so did not want to move to Ohio. Now, I look at where we live and I thank God for the opportunity to live in such an amazingly beautiful state. Every day I get to hear the most beautiful songs, sang by the most beautiful birds.

(A male and female cardinal - this picture was taken from my bedroom window)

I get to do dishes looking out at the cherry and apple trees in bloom, knowing that in just a couple of weeks they will be full of fruit and the deer will begin to frequent our backyard again.

And...I get to garden. Granted, my garden is extremely small scale compared to most of my neighbors - but - it is a great little garden!! The boys and I have planted lillies, zinnias, marigolds (to keep the rabbits and other woodland creatures from eating our garden - they hate the smell of marigolds), and some type of gerber daisy that my neighbor passed my way. None of these have bloomed yet - but watching them get bigger is so exciting. I cannot wait to see all the color!! We have also planted 4 varieties of blueberry bushes (so that we will have them year round), and strawberries - hence the marigolds;). The blueberries will not bud this year - they were a birthday gift to daddy and they will take a while to establish. However, the boys and I were out gardening today and we discovered that we actually have strawberries!! They are not ready to eat yet, but there are so many little clumps of baby strawberries, and flowers that will later become baby strawberries, that I can taste them already. My kids still talk about how much fun it was to go berry picking when we were in Oregon. I can't wait for them to be able to go berry picking here in Ohio.

(Jason and Reagan helping mommy weed and water the strawberries)

As everything grows and blooms I will update this Beautiful Ohio post so that you can all see how everything turns out. To be continued.......:)