Gratituesday- Landscapers for the Condo Association

We live in a first floor condo.  We have a 6 foot by 6 foot porch as our "front yard" and about 15 feet of sidewalk to the road.  Along this sidewalk has been English Ivy.  I have a strong dislike of this ivy that has grown over the past 3 years.  One because its poisonous if ingested by wee ones...something my wee ones have tried numerous times.  Two it provides a beautiful, moist, shaded, warm breeding ground these nasty little biting bugs called mosquitoes.  They actual swarm on our front porch in the summer.  It's pleasant.  This beautiful winter (another reason to be grateful!) has shown that I can allow our girls to play with chalk on our front porch.  It's a beautiful thing to cook dinner while the girls play a bit outside.  They are happy during what my mom calls the piranha hour (4-5pm) and I am able to cook dinner quickly.  I love having the girls cook with me, but I find dinner is not the meal to have this happen on a daily basis. 

Okay back to my lovely ivy.  I decided that before baby #3 arrives I wanted to pull it out so that hopefully it would help with the swarming mosquitoes and allow the girls to play outside while I nurse or just so all of us can be outside during the summer without getting eaten alive.  On another nice winter day I asked one of the men from our condo's landscaping company about pulling out the ivy.  "Instead of saying sure go for it lady."  Instead he called his boss and pulled it all out that evening!  What a blessing to be able to cross that off my to-do list without having to actually do anything!  Now I have this wonderful space that the girls are LOVING and hopefully come spring we can plant some herbs and flowers that will be pleasant to look at, not kill my children when ingested, and provide a bit of food.  An actual garden isn't allowed by the condo association nor do we get enough light to grow most veggies or fruits so that goal has to wait until we have a yard.  I'm also going to be in my third trimester of pregnancy by then realistically I will not keep up with a full sized garden no matter how ambitious I am. :)

I'm grateful for God providing help to do a job that was a bit more than I was probably going to get to.