Ed and I spent some time in the yard working today, and I was pulling weeds like crazy. We’ve had some rain lately, so it seems like they sprang up overnight.
I found a plant with shiny red leaves and I was positive it was poison ivy. The vine was growing up the fence between our yard and our neighbor’s yard. I was wearing gloves, and I used a trowel to dig up the poison ivy. Ed had started a fire in our fire pit, and I just tossed it in there.
Our brother-in-law came over, and I asked him about poison ivy. He said the worst thing you could do was burn it. That’s when I started to freak out. I ran inside, threw my clothes in the washing machine, and hopped in the shower. I was terrified I had brushed up against some, and then Lily or Emmy would brush up against me. I did not want a roaring case of poison ivy on me or my kids!
Then I looked up poison ivy online. Turns out taking a hot shower can make poison ivy worse!
Okay, so far I’d done everything wrong. Typical for me.
I kept reading and I looked at the pictures of poison ivy. The saying goes “Leaves of three, let it be.” 
The plants I threw on the fire had leaves of five. I had mistaken Virginia Creeper for poison ivy. Phew! Although poison ivy sometimes grows with Virginia Creeper, no leaves of three were in my yard today. Imagine what would have happened if I’d seen a snake! I would have been positive that our yard was a haven for copperheads…or something along those lines.