Flower Power

Youngest is a flower crazed little girl. She picks every single flower she can get her hands on and I have given up on trying to discourage her from picking flowers. She gets immense pleasure from finding them and giving them to me, and if she didn't pick them, they'd never get enjoyed as much as they are now.

When we go out, she points out all the flowers she can see-- the redbuds, the pastures flooded with yellow flowers, purple, white and pink phlox, the azaleas and dogwoods. Spring time here is so colorful and beautiful.

Look how happy she is! Today, it's dandelions. I like dandelions and I remember picking my fair share and giving them to my mom when I was little, too. Then I'd make the mistake of licking my hands and getting that yucky taste from the milky-white sap all over my hands from the dandelions. Do you remember doing that?


They look pretty in a glass even if they don't last long. I like the way they smell, too.


She picked every single buttercup I had. I have no more left and it looks like I won't be getting anymore, either. Previous owners planted these way in the back of our garden area so they would never be seen if Youngest didn't pick them. Buttercups always make me think of the old Willy Wonka movie when Gene Wilder drinks from then eats a buttercup flower.

The red tulips are another story. I took the girls yard sale-ing with me on Saturday and at one of the homes we stopped at, they had bunches of flowers all over. Youngest wanted to pick and I had to tell her repeatedly that we don't pick other people's flowers. Well, the nice owner overheard me and said she could pick a flower and helped each of my girls to pick one flower each. I appreciated that because Youngest was heading toward a meltdown when I told her she couldn't pick any.

We have lilacs outside our bedroom window and they just smell heavenly. Youngest is begging me to help her cut some more blooms off, but I can't bring myself to cut any more. They smell so strongly, I can smell the ones in the dining room all the way down the hall towards the bedrooms. I can only imagine how a few more would over power the house.

My lilies are coming up, but they won't bloom until June, if they can survive all the trampling from the girls. Their days are numbered when they do start to flower because I can only imagine how happy Youngest will be to pick them and bring them to me.