This Is Love

Many would think this picture (yes, it's sideways,sorry) looks like a giant weed in the middle of my mud room. Many more of you may wonder why I would include "Love" in the title of a post containing this picture. And many more of you may be wondering why this post isn't titled "Get That Damn Thing Out Of My House!" Well, let me introduce you to Mr. Aloe. Five or six years ago I found Mr. Aloe at Target. He was on a shelf in the middle of the store, in a wee tiny pot, dying. I had wanted an aloe plant and figured I would purchase the wee tiny plant and nurse it back to health. Well, that I did. Since then Mr. Aloe has gone from a wee tiny plant to, well, somewhat of a giant. Each year when the weather gets cold we move him into the mudroom. Each spring we dump him out of his pot, place him in a larger pot to accommodate his new growth, pull off any new "babies" (yes, we pot the babies and also realize that Mr. Aloe is actually a Ms. Aloe), and then repeat the same process again in the fall. This year Mr. Aloe even flowered twice. I never knew aloes flowered, but alas they do! This year also brought the first, "Are we going to keep Mr. Aloe?" conversation. As you can see, Mr. Aloe takes up a HUGE portion of our mudroom. We need to keep him off the ground to prevent eye injuries to the dogs and kids. James thought this might be the year to keep Mr. Aloe's babies and say good-bye to Mr. Aloe. I was crushed. He's become a member of the family. The kids are fascinated by him, he heals my babies cuts, scrapes and burns, and well, he's grown on us. (Pun intended) I can't bear the thought of letting him die! I called my parents and asked if he could spend the winter in their heated basement. My Mom agreed, but weeks flew by and we never got around to repotting, separating, etc. So, it seemed with frost in the forecast we were going to have to say our final good-byes. I already prepared myself for seeing his limp, wilted, frost-bitten limbs laid out across the lawn. Sunday night, brought frost, I felt horrible about him being outside, but knew he had grown too large for our home and too heavy for James to easily carry. I woke Monday morning and went to let the dogs out, praying the frost had spared Mr. Aloe. As I opened the mudroom door, I witnessed the above sight. James had hauled Mr. Aloe inside late Sunday night, before the frost. Now THAT is LOVE!