Love Hate Relationship

 I find it interesting the feeling I have for my garden.  It is like I can't wait to get it planted every year yet by like the end of August I am ready for it all to go away.  I am ready to till it all under so that I don't have to look at it anymore.  It is alot of work and maybe this year is worse because I am pregnant and it has been so hot.  There is so much good about it that it out weighs the bad but I think I just get tired, tired of the bugs we have to fight, raccoons(Mike has been hunting all summer that killed our giant pumpkins), fungus that kills our plants, dragging hoses around to water, dirty kids after they go in and play in the dirt, piles of vegetables all over the place, sticky all over from watermelon, canning and more canning.  Yet some of those things are the things I love about it.  The kids working in the garden(digging holes, catching bugs, planting, harvesting, learning how to work), bringing in 30-40 pounds of fresh vegetables, the taste of the vegetables (bacon and cheese stuffed jalapenos, fried zucchini, pickles, fresh salsa, slices of tomatoes in rice vinegar, fresh corn on the cob, the mountain of pumpkins on our front steps when we pick them all, sauteed vegetables, potatoes and onions,baked squash, homemade enchilada sauce, etc.), trying new recipes, meals made of meat and everything else out of the garden,  how good everything is for us, how willing the kids are to eat them because (they grew them), the money we save not having to buying all of it, watching Mike on the neighbors tractor (like a little farm boy) in the spring, sharing everything with others, the tiller and fresh tilled soil, the feel of the dirt, watching the new little plants come through the ground, watching it grow literally everyday, the hard work, the satisfaction that comes from knowing your hard work paid off, cheap food storage, and the quiet peaceful time I have in there when I have my own thoughts and talk to my Heavenly Father.  The pros most certainly out weight the cons so I will continue to have a way too big garden every year and wish by end of August that it would all go away.