Growing Stronger

I am terrified of caterpillars. I can specifically recall at least 7 traumatic events involving caterpillars as a child and on in to my teen years. Not the little furry caterpillars, but the big ole' honkin' green ones -- some with 6 red eyes, some with horns. All terrifying. My mother always grew tomatoes in our garden and they seemed to be mostly on those plants so I have come to call them tomato worms. I swore I would never grow tomatoes regardless of how much I love a fresh tomato right off the vine.

You may have seen in one or two of my layouts that my daughter decided to grow a garden in our back yard this year. Up until now the yard has been largely ignored as just an appendage to our home. Oh we tried to keep the grass green and the weeds down to a semi-minimum. But we never gave much love to its appearance. That all changed this year when we put in a short stepping stone pathway and my daughter worked for hours one weekend on her garden. The one promise we had was that she would not be raising tomatoes.

Caterpillars come regardless of tomatoes or not. There have been a few of the smaller variety that I could convince my son to take to school for his science classes. But the other day I was looking for green peppers and eggplant and came face to face to two caterpillars instead. I managed to get them both (and the entire branches they were on) into a trash bag and out to the dumpster.

Two days ago I was in the garden again and just happened to look down at the right time to see myself nearly step on a fat, bright green caterpillar. Very similar to what I would call a tomato worm if we had tomato plants in our garden. My breath stopped, my heart raced and my palms sweated. I used a small toy shovel to flick it out of our garden. For some reason that appeased me, but every time I step outside I am constantly on the lookout.

I am feeling pretty proud of myself about these encounters. I was able to face my demons and had the strength to rid my yard of three caterpillars. My sister has a wonderful expression that I hold tightly in my heart. "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger." I believe I just may be a bit stronger this week.

Oh, and yes, my back is feeling better too. Not 100%, but at least I am able to sit. Wonderfully enough, that means I have been able to scrap a few pages. I've been having fun with some stronger backgrounds. It feels good to be on the mend.

 Papers and elements from Divine Debris by Studio Gypsy

page template from Easy Breezy pt 13 by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from Falling for Fall by Vera Lim
page template from Harvesting Memories by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from Patisserie by Sugarplum Paperie and Paisless Press Designs
page template by Traci Stroud
 

papers and elements from Perfectly Suited by Allison Pennington
page template from Easy Breezy pt 14 by Busy Bee Designs

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. Please come again!