What a great feeling – reaping the first harvest from your home garden. This is my mixed lettuce and spinach, and if it would ever stop raining, I’d pick some iceburg lettuce. Now I’m kicking myself for not planting carrots; and my cucumbers seem to be late bloomers (pun intended).

Seems like these days, I’m growing a variety of things: veggies in the garden, flowers, my business, and a little boy. And I think they all need about the same ingredients – – hard work, lots of love, at least an hour of sunshine every day, patience and hope. And a lot of faith.

My husband wonders why I’m so excited about my garden. If you take a closer look, there really are so many similarities between the garden and my son. My garden flourishes with sunshine and a good attitude; my son excels when praised and encouraged. My garden has weeds that are an annoyance, and require a lot of attention and work; my son has 2-year-old “habits” that touch my last nerve, and require persistence and love to steer him in the right direction. And they both have taught me an insurmountable amount of patience!

Maybe when he’s older, I’ll have him work in the garden with me to see if he sees the same reflection in life that the garden has already, in such a short time, shown me.

But I’ve found that with all the right ingredients, for both life and salad, you can make the perfect mix.

Until we walk again …