Help! I Have Ants in My Plants!

This morning I was killing valuable time filling my head with useless information from the web. Yahoo had a headline--Fun Jobs That Make Folks Jealous. It grabbed my attention because one day my mother told me she envied me. It's not really me that she envies, it is my "lifestyle." My sweet mother has never seen the oceans or the Gulf of Mexico. She has never been to Hollywood nor has she toured our nation's capital. She has never driven (in a convertible with the top down) through the Florida Keys. These are all things that the good Lord has allowed me to do because of my husband's crazy career. I know I have been blessed.

I guess part of the reason I post on this blog is so those of you who have never had the opportunity to go where I've gone can get a glimpse of this great country. My goal is to give you something to enjoy and to make you smile. I can't stand the thought that my life's opportunities might make someone jealous or envious.

Yes, I enjoy my "lifestyle," but some days, I have to take captive every thought and make it a matter of will so that I can continue to live in that frame of mind. You know how it is--the grass is always greener in someone elses back yard. Traveling around the country is not all fun and games. It does have its difficulties and bad points. I will not dwell on those difficulties, as I said, because I choose not to. But, just in case any of my readers might have the crazy idea that my life (through God's provision and my husband's hard work) is one to envy, I want to share one lighthearted drawback to my "gypsy lifestyle."

Pictured here is my entire flower garden--four different colored geraniums planted in one pot that I can tote with me wherever we go. (Except California) When we pack up and move, it rides in the shower along with a terrarium, shampoos, shaving cream, and shower gel. (It is important to know that when we are "camped" the terrarium sits on my kitchen counter.) My geranium flower garden sits out on the ground or picnic table, or wherever I can find a sunny place near the camper. As much as I enjoy digging in the dirt and watching things grow, this tiny little garden is a bit of a negative to living on the go, but on the bright side--no weeding required!

The big problem is ants. Yes, ants just love to call the soft damp potting soil of my flower garden home. Everywhere we go there are ants. They may be different sizes, colors, and have different social behaviors, but there are always ants, and they always get in my plants. When we pack up to move, the plant goes in the shower and so do the ants. While we bump on down the road the ants take a walk and discover my terrarium. More damp soft soil. A whole new neighborhood! When we set up in the next place, the terrarium goes back on the kitchen counter and--you are way ahead of me here--so do the ants. The geraniums go back outside and so do some of the ants. There are always those little critters that decide they kind of like it in my shower and all over the bathroom and anywhere else their tiny little legs can carry them. So, my first few days at any new place is spent chasing and smashing ants. All for the sake of having a few plants to make my home on wheels a little "more like home."

Now, the next time you might feel the slightest bit of envy because I am someplace you are not, doing something that seems to be more interesting than your daily routine, do me a favor. Go out to your yard and hunt for an ant hill. Gather a few of the hardworking pests in a jar and take them in and let them loose in your shower and on your kitchen counter. Then go back out to your yard and smell a few roses or whatever kind of sweet flowers you might have in your flower garden and thank the good Lord that you are where you are, doing what He has willed for you to do.

Bloom where you are planted--and watch out for the ants!