April 28, 2014

Flowers To Combat Frustration …

dog

I took these pictures yesterday with my phone. I have been staring at them ever since.

There is something very therapeutic to me about spring flowers. I could photograph them all day long. Then when I’m feeling frustrated, I could look at the pictures and something in my soul feels healed. This is not me trying to brag about my photographic skills. This is me saying that God has given me a love and respect for nature that speaks to me and helps me to feel better when things are tough.

Is that weird?

There are a few things that are frustrating me right now. Nothing super serious. Just the usual  things like teenagers who don’t care enough about things they should care about, or almost five year olds who are losing their four year old charm and turning into sarcastic, talking back non-baby types, or almost eleven year olds who cannot for the life of them seem to stop fighting with littler brothers EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. OF THE DAY. Basically, everything about being a parent right now is trying my patience and fortitude.

Today I opened up our mailbox and was met by hundreds of ants who were crawling all over the mail and a giant pile of ant larvae. I almost threw up. I have been bathing and showering with ants for the past month. Ants are taking over my life. Today I thought I had ants crawling on my leg and I freaked out! In short, we have a serious ant problem in our house. I am counting down the minutes until pest control is at my door.

I could go on. Because there’s more. But instead I’m going to look at this picture of cherry blossoms I took over by our outlet mall and think happy thoughts. This tree was so pink it made me want to cry with happiness. I am not even being dramatic. I am serious. It was that beautiful.

Thank you God for Spring flowers. They are what’s getting me through.

 chrry

6 comments:

Apis Melliflora said...

We have a few daffodils here. You can focus on those this Saturday and Sunday.

Natural beauty is a perfect counterpoint to sapped energy and frustration.

TracieCarter said...

Beautiful blossoms!!! I'm so sorry about your ant infestation. We had them bad in Lburg too and I dreaded coming downstairs to find what invasion routes they'd made overnight. I'm really enjoying "Child Whisperer" by Carol Tuttle right now to figure out myself and the kids because I've had it with the fighting and whining around here too! Hang in there!

Janie said...

Samantha - Don't know if this will work for you but it has worked for me.

Ant Killer

1 empty water bottle
(Cut it down to about 2" tall)
5 Tbsp of baking soda
5 Tbsp of powdered sugar
3 Tbsp of water.

The very best way of eliminating ants is truly simple:

Take a small amount of powdered sugar (also called icing sugar) and mix it with an equal amount of baking soda (formally called sodium bicarbonate) and water.
Powdered sugar is essential. You cannot use the larger grains of sugar for this..

Mix the two powders together and then place small amounts against the walls or other areas where you would not normally walk but where you would normally see the ants.

The ants will be attracted to the sugar and will eat some of it and collect more to take home to feed others, so all of them will get their share.

The sugar and baking soda powders are similar in size and, once mixed together, the ants cannot separate the two items, so, as they eat the sugar, they will also ingest the baking soda, which they would otherwise never touch. This is the reason for using powdered sugar.

Once the ants eat the baking soda it will react with the formic acid in their stomachs and cause gas. The bodies of ants are unlike humans and they cannot eliminate gas so it will build up inside and eliminate them.

The Queen Vee said...

Hmmm, I like Janie's anti-ant recipe, give it a try.

Beautiful bloom shot…they fade so quickly.

We all have frustrations, they are part of life…this soon shall pass.

christy said...

Amen! I am going through some very frustrating house-selling times (or should I say house-not-selling times) and the beauty of spring everywhere helps ease my frustration as well.

Melissa said...

I had ants in my dryer, they were crawling on my warm clean clothes, I about lost it... good luck.