I love thems like my children :)

I have plants to help me breathe. They are my children, all that I need.

It's probably pathetic how many house plants I've welcomed into my life. I've started some as seeds and most of them I transplanted myself. :) I've really gotten into this new hobby. I've been looking for something captivating and time-consuming. Poetry, I run right through it. Painting, I get bored after a while. Writing, it's sometimes too drawn out and I psyche myself out because I want it to be perfect, so I spend hours cramping on a chair. Exercising, you get tired after a while and although you feel fulfilled, where's your material gain? Working on my language is beautiful and MUST come at a time when I feel right; which is not often. Doing pixel art, that's another story.

Horticulture and indoor-gardening is my calling. It is absolutely amazing to see how a little bit of fertile soil, water, sunlight, and seeds react together to produce a gorgeous new multi-cellular organism. Since I've had plants in my room, I've felt more alive and I swear there's a pleasant change in the smell of the air. I feel like I can breathe better now. I'd have my window open often, but it's just not the same as having plants directly in your living space.

I rescued a tiny maple sapling from my friend Keith's yard (he was going to end up weeding it out later) and I have that soaking in a pot of miracle grow. It's only got two little leaves and one lead is half-way eaten. I've had it for 3 days and it's still alive, no discoloration, and no wilting leaves. I also have a money tree, which I've had for a few weeks. I'm very happy that it's still alive and in perfect color too. What scares me the most is winter and fall. I don't know how I'm going to keep the trees alive as well as my dracaena spikes through the coldness and since I'm cultivating them right on my window sill, they are threatened by the cold air that seeps through sometimes. :/

It's fun to experiment and learn what each plant needs. It's almost like taking care of children, I swear! I find myself thinking about them often, wondering if they're getting adequate sunlight, water, or nutrients. I have so many plants now that I feel like the dreaded cat lady who has 40 cats, a number decided by how many years-old she is. Hehe.

What really frosts my cookies is how I bought an extremely cute and affordable pot at the Dollar Tree store a week or so ago and now they don't sell them anymore. That upsets me. :/ It was extremely cute. I have my ivy planted in it. I have 3 different species vine plants growing. Vinca, a lime-colored ivy, and this unknown natural ivy that I uprooted from my friend's backyard. What's extremely neat about Vinca is it grows really long in short amounts of time, almost like hair. If you cut trim the vine and put the clipping in water, it'll sprout new roots and then you can plant it! I'm very weary of the ivy I took from my friend's backyard because it looks a little sick, but then again, it's been a few days, it should have died by now if it were going to.

What I want to do with the vinca vine is clip it when it grows a little bit longer and then try and grow roots form it, then plant it in this cute black mug I bought from the Dollar Tree. I think it'd look so adorable, a vine trailing down the side of a black mug. Ugh! I find myself thinking of creative stuff like that all the time now.

Where I got about 78% of my plants is this large greenhouse market in Romulus, Michigan called Block's Stand & Greenhouse. They sell very cheap plants there for very cheap. It's neat! I bought the vinca for about $1, the spikes for $0.99, red geranium for $0.75, these three red-leaf plants for $0.75, and 6 Italian-made clay pots with saucers for $0.59 each. They were running deal: buy two, get the third one free. I want to go back there this weekend.

Many things have been surfacing in my life.. between academics (I think I got a 4.0 again), prom (Should I go or should I not?), my plants (Will they die on my failure ass?), my two newly-close friends (Will we last far into the future?), nostalgia (I miss somebody a lot right now and it's painful to think of Him), someone harassing and threatening me over phone (I think it's my first ex Thomas), my family (I exiled my brother form my life), love (Am I going to be with this guy that I like, will I get back with an ex, am I going to be single for a long time?), my destiny (Will the Lord and Lady divine my future and past correctly--is my prophecy going to include my legwork? Will I make it?), college (My career--this is the most important thing. I have to get my shit in line and also redo my ACT..), and let's not forget my book (Will I finish Chapter 2--yes, chapter 2).

Many things are on my plate this year and even though there is so much to ponder about, I feel as though new hobbies and experiences will help reduce stress... so I'm indulging greatly my horticulture and indoor-planting hobby. :D Plus, it's fun!

Thanks for reading,

Miyäyu isto van,

Michael.