Lines Written in Spring

Today I sat and thought about this poem as I pondered spring and all the things still left to do. 

My mind began to wander, I began to think....maybe it would be better that I look to how nature treats spring rather than how man treats it.  Its not a season meant to begin the hurry and hustle, but its also a time to reflect on beauty and glory, and new birth.  

Yes, preparing for planting is needed, but we need to be purposeful in what we do.  Do we truly love the air we breathe?  Ok, this isn't literal, but think about what its saying (or at least give some thought to my musings...and humor me *wink*).  Do we love where we are and what God has given us?  Has our season of prayer and thanksgiving really passed so swiftly?  

Perhaps this season of resolutions should be more about reflections and actions and less about weight loss, healthy eating, and getting good grades.

Perhaps, we need to carry that spirit of thankfulness with us for longer than a couple months.  

Perhaps we should seriously look at our life and see what it really looks like.   

Maybe a spring cleaning should come early and we should sweep the dust away so we can look really hard and see where our feet really are grounded upon.  

Is it on solid ground?

and MAYBE I am up to late, got too much fresh air, ate too much birthday cake or any number of things and they have taken their toll on me.  Maybe I am blowing a lot of smoke. Maybe...

Lines Written in Spring

William Wordsworth

 I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sat reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And 'tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature's holy plan,

Have I not season to lament

What man has made of man?

Tending to our needs

Total Randomness!

We have been pretty sick with whatever semi-flu bug that hit our house.  Hubs is now down with it as well. 

I have been making smoothies for about a week, off and on and we are about to step it up a notch.  I just have to get the flavors and amounts down for us.  We can add, in my humble opinion, small amounts and work up to larger amounts of things like flax and kale, etc.  We bought an Oster blender, mostly because right now I could not see spending out money we don't have on a VitaMix or Blendtec.  I am not even sure if we will be doing smoothies long term every day, or if we will gradually go to a couple a week after we get some health stuff straightened out.  Although if someone were to give me one....  ah I can dream!  So far the Oster is a champ, I just have to learn smoothies don't need to be thick enough they make a spoon stand up! 

This late summer some big changes are likely going to be occurring in our family which will necessitate some changes in how we do things.  It will all work out good, and in the long run it will be a blessing.

I am not trying to push spring, honestly!  But I am thinking about some beds in the front yard along the south side that would be very nice to attempt a more "year around" growing area in.  I was reading in Mother Earth News about half tunnels and how the can extend the growing season.  I am also wondering about the feasibility of a small green house off the shed....  To that end, I am calling our little urban city lot, our farm.  I am trying to think of a name for our farm.... help me out!  *smile*

Speaking of which, I am going to again try my hand at seed starts.  I never have very good luck, try as I might, they never do as well as I hope. 

We visited Habitat for Humanity this weekend.  Awesome place!  We are adding a half bath and replacing some windows (Lord willing) this summer and we will assuredly be checking them out! 

Holidays on Mondays never seem like a good idea to me.  Friday- sure; Monday....  They make the week go sideways.

Sunday the devil tried to keep us from walking into church, and of course in the fashion of a tired mom, that had been dealing with a sick cranky child all week, I blew my gasket as well....  Don't you love days like that.  As is a customary treat for us, we get a coffee and Bear a Hot cocoa at our favorite local stand on Sunday mornings.  I carried Bears in and was reaching to juggle the keys in my hand and accidentally dropped her cocoa.  Oh you would have thought the world ended....  The screams of anguish and streams of tears, then she promptly threw mine down in the parking lot as well.  Can you imagine my face?  While I didn't scream in anguish and cry rivers of tears, I did let my displeasure be known....  We had a discussion right then and there and sadly, I might not have been as loving as I should have been.  Later my mind wandered to this verse:

 

I think it applies to moms as well, and a better translation might be, PARENTS, don't provoke your children because your unjustified or out of control anger does nothing to edify either of you.  It harms your child and hurts you.  Instead, do all things in love.  Teach through love, guide through love, and even correct in love, but don't ever jump off the bridge with no net in sight.  And..... don't dare a 5 year old, you will never win.

I went to a book sale at Goodwill and scored a couple awesome deals for under a $1 each and even a gently used Foodsaver!  It does indeed work and will come in handy.  No more worry about freezer burn on meat (or at least less worry). 

Have a great day!  Here's to rejoicing in the randomness that keeps our life sane, or at least makes us see we are human and need God to guide our walk, DAILY!

My wild and wacky child..... 

A true Pacific NorthWet girl!

Monday....

Monday madness has struck again.  Well, not really madness, just a realization this week I failed on the first day of the week to rise at my hoped 5:30 am.  I was just so very tired, and turned off my alarm when it went off for the second time.  I had plans to just sleep a few more minutes and get up, but we all know how that goes.  Two hours later Bear is singing "cock-a-dooddly-do!"  My saving grace is that tomorrow is a new day, and I can go forward. 

That is so true in much of our lives.  Failing doesn't mean giving up and never trying again.  If we fail we get back up and dust ourselves off and try again.  God commands us to strive forward.  Looking to what we did yesterday doesn't help anyone, it even hinders the repentance process.  Yes we need to remember it, but we shouldn't dwell on it.  Sometimes we dwell, thinking we can't possibly be good enough for God to love and care about and never move past that into changing and moving forward.   He is able to forgive, we need to be able to forgive as well. 

We made kimchee yesterday.  Its a long process, and finally about 9 pm last night I got it into the final jar for the fermenting process to begin for a few days.  Hubs is rather excited.  Bear helped to cut much of the cabbage.  I added nappa cabbage, turnips, carrots, bokchoy, ginger, and garlic.  Our house smells pretty fragrant right now.  Its a different smell, but not a bad smell.  Just different. 

Today we are making bread (started already thanks to my Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day-- new batch started yesterday), maybe making laundry soap if I get my rear in gear enough, and the never ending pile of laundry that seems to materialize out of thin air.  Also, throwing in some play time, reading, and math.

So that has been my Monday so far.  Tomorrow is a new day and we can look forward to doing right the rest of today and starting new tomorrow.  To that end, signing off....  Have a wonderful Monday.

Leaving you with a poem by Sister Connie, a lady at our church, please visit her blog at Gifted by the Spirit.  She is a strong woman of God, after His heart.

You're able

You're able
to love completely.

You're able,
my sins to forgive.

You're able to
heal the sickly,

and able
to make the dead live.

You're able
 to bring to justice.

Lord theres nothing
too hard for you...

What for man
 is impossible,

You're able
with ease to do.

Sister Connie W.
Read Eph 3:20 and Heb 7:25

Check out more of Sister Connie's poems at Gifted by the Spirit.

Life changes

My brother and his family visited us over Memorial Day weekend.  They left Tuesday mid morning and we had a really good visit.  Sarah Bear loves her cousins.  She said she isn't to sure about L though.  She is too little to play with, according to her.  *grin*  Silly bug!  She has not stopped talking about her "girl cousins" and has requested that she be allowed to call occasionally.  I see no problem with that.  I grew up close to my cousin Julie until we were teenagers and nearly the same age spread separates Hannah and Sarah. 

The cousins had sleep overs, play time and Bear was able to show off her favorite activities, Owen Beach, several local parks, and digging in the dirt.  Yep, the girls dug holes in the dirt.

Speaking of holes in the dirt, I got the last of the garden planted.  My first batch of bush beans rotted and I had to re-buy and wait to plant them until it stopped raining long enough to not be dealing with mud.  Our radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins, kale, chard, tomatoes, sunflowers, peppers, zucchinis and dill are doing well.  Surprisingly the carrots haven't sprouted noticeably yet.  I may be replanting those as well.  Many seeds I purchased this year were from Azure Standard. 

Sarah had her ballet recital and it went very well.  All the dancers did amazingly, and the actors did very well too.  Metro Parks outdid themselves yet again.  I am happy for a summer off ballet lessons though.  We will enjoy the break.  I will post pictures later on her ballet recital.

I am also doing away with my private Facebook account.  All in the course of my simpler life plan.  I am unable to regulate myself easily, so just dropping it is the plan.  Garden Tenders will still have a Facebook page, never fear, so I hope all my friends that are close and have hopes of keeping tabs on us will look for periodic updates on the Garden Tenders Facebook page. 

The message I had for my friends was one of hope and renewal for myself and my relationships.  Not those relationships just within my family, but also with God, and those people who are really friends.  I have stretched myself very thin the last few years.  I know with the deep soul searching I am doing that I have used Facebook  to replace the family sense I was missing with my church family.  We are now in a smaller church and feel a sense of family connectedness, but we also know that it isn't up to just them, we also need to work on watering the community of church brothers and sisters as well.  I am still here and alive and well, but my well-being and happiness was compromised with the escapism I persisted in doing on Facebook.  What started as a nifty way to "social network" has become something that is in no way an edification of God, and has taken me away from those things which are important too me.  We are also getting rid of all the extra cable.  We must keep basic for internet, but it will be severely limited.  We have been discussing this for months, its not a hasty decision, just as getting cable seven (7) years ago was not hastily done.

The internet gives you a false sense of who people are.  You can't really know someone from a Facebook page or a profile.  On-line relationships can't replace human relationships.  I want to have better real relationships.  I am still here, my friends.  You can still contact me via email and the phone, even via the "snail" mail, but for me, well, I need to break the ties of plastic computer generated personalities.  Real is were life is, you know?

Summer will hopefully find us exploring more as I embrace this new freedom, and it really will be a sense of freedom.  Fifteen minutes here, thirty minutes there, it all adds up.  I am actually excited at the new doors that will be opening for me as I actually cross the threshold of a life that looks to the simpler things, a life where relationships are real, a life where my husband and I spend a Sunday afternoon on the swing watching our daughter play in a bucket of water and chase poor Ollie with a hose.

Thank you my gentle friends.  I love you all. 

WHAT REALLY MATTERS:

Monday Musing

He Leadeth Me

He leadeth me, O blessed thought!

O words with heavenly comfort fraught.

Whate'er I do, where'er I be,

Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.

Chorus:

He leadeth me, He leadeth me!

By His own hand He leadeth me;

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand, He leadeth me.

Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,

Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,

By waters still or troubled sea,

Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!

Repeat Chorus

And when my task on earth is done,

When by Thy grace the victory's won,

E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,

Since God through Jordan leadeth me!

Repeat Chorus

He leads me, He leads me!

By His own hand, He leads me!

His faithful foll'wer I would be,

For by His hand, He leadeth me.

He, He leads me! (He leadeth me)

He, He leads me! (Ohh...)

Repeat

I started off this Monday post with that hymn.  Its a favorite of mine and when I sing it tears are brought to my eyes.   Its humbling to know that God do loved me, even me, that He sent His most beloved and sinless son to die for my sins.  His grace is mind blowing. 

Ok, I can only speak for myself.  I am a sinner and I need that grace.  I like to say that I do the best I can, but do I?  Is my behavior and actions that of Christian wife and mother?  Have I surrounded myself with people that can foster this and help me through rough patches?  Do I have sisters which can lend an ear, give advice or just help me over those obstacles which each of us are faced with, with seemingly never ending regularity?  Do those women I do surround myself with have a Christ based approach to living?  Generally not, sadly.  It does sadden me.  I long for a Christian family.  We were disfellowshipped from the very small fellowship DH belonged to before we married because we told the "elder" we were searching for a place where there was more unsheathing of the Word, we weren't being given milk, much less meat to eat;  and we also wanted  a place where our child could develop Christian friendships.  Some would view this all as a sign to give up, and it can be daunting.  Frankly, we need the Christian living around us, especially in a world so wrought with things that are not in the least Christian. 

I need to surround myself and my family with more Christian things, better television programs (less as well), less computer time--facebook is a time eater and waster.  It can get me .  worked up, takes my mind off my family and the things that really matter and too easily allows my nose to butt into business it doesn't need to be in, etc. Just wanting a simple life is not the key, I need to have a simpler life and we need to return to a strong faith base.  I had it at one time, and I remember how it felt and I need that again. 

I will admit, Saturday I felt over stressed, over worked and under appreciated. I was cranky.  I was not exhibiting any loving spirit, at all.  I get tired of that specter of the Proverbs woman living over me; in the verses in question she hasn't got to deal with a 4 year old that sometimes wont mind worth a hill a beans and a never ending list of chores; trying to prod her family into helping, to keep the lawn mowed, the socks picked up and the shoes out of the living room.  Sometime I will look more at proverbs 31 and the woman that is described and how many in Christiandom and the world have a false idea of what it means.  While I have my own idea of Proverbs 31, the specter remains.   That specter was there Saturday.  If I am just a good enough Christian wife and mom my child will behave, my husband will help do yard work, etc., etc., etc. (BTW, he does help... more than most, but whe you are tired and cranky, well it seems like no one does, you know?).  The specter keeps nailing at me how bad I am and not because of what God says, not in the least, but because of man's (humankind, not just men) interpretation of it.

We, as a family, need to focus on what we can do and be around other Christians more and be more mindful of what we say and do. So that is another step on our path.  Realizing that we can't go it alone, that we need to be MINDFUL of our actions and think more about things like:

• Would I watch this if Christ were next to me?
• Would I talk like this if Christ were here?
• Would doing this be edifying and will it show forth God's love?

I will close with another favorite....

Because He Lives

God sent his son, they called him Jesus,

He came to love, heal and forgive.

He lived and died to buy my pardon,

An empty grave is there to prove my savior lives.

[Chorus]

Because he lives

I can face tomorrow

Because he lives

All fear is gone

Because i know he holds the future

And life is worth the living

Just because he lives

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,

And feel the pride and joy he gives,

But greater still the calm assurance:

This child can face uncertain day because he lives.

[Chorus]

And then one day I'll cross the river,

I'll fight life's final war with pain.

And then, as death gives way to vict'ry,

I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he reigns.

[Chorus]

 Thank you gentle friends for staying the course with me....

Monday Musings: Good Nuff

My dad use to say "good 'nuff for government work" and I find as I get older I say it too, generally when I just have to stop messing with something because I'm going crazy trying to "make it perfect" and most of the time it's already perfect and just me with the problem and not being able to let it go.

I think a lot of us have those problems.... really.  None of us want to let it go long past when we should have kissed it goodbye and good riddance.  The cake that wont rise properly, the fence post that is still, after trying and trying, just a mite off center, the paper that you labored over and still can't get exactly what you want said, said.  Well, you get the idea.  Sometimes we just need to say, with a shrug, "good nuff.  God can do the rest," and He can...  If we let Him.   

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  Philippians 4.6 

Which brings me to.....

I think I am a pretty good friend.  I try hard anyway, but lately I have decided to do my best to not worry if people don't reciprocate the friendship.  I am good nuff.  I guess I am odd, and just don't fit into the boxes that make me be the sort that others seek out to be "best friends" with. I try hard, but to no avail.  I'm not antisocial, and no one would say I am, however I am not money wealthy and I am not impressed with the "money wealth" that others may say or pretend to have.  We don't go on fancy vacations, we don't drive new fancy cars, we don't wear designer clothes, etc. and I think because of this I just don't fit in.  Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, the kind of car I would likely buy would be a very serviceable economy car and a Scout or an old Toyota Land Cruiser or something along those lines.  If my Nissan would just get running right, I would be 100% happy to just keep it.    I mean I know I am liked, just not the person that seems to be the "friend" that is included, you know?  This sounds whiny, huh? 

To kind of continue on what I wrote last week, I found another article that was interesting to read with regards to children and early learning......  Teaching our children to write, read and spell  They have some very interesting ideas and reasons why it isn't for all children and observing my own 4 year old I can see where they have a lot of valid points. 

This weekend I was shopping at Costco and then Safeway --we needed to pick up a prescription for Bob since he hurt his hip/leg and has been suffering with pain LONG enough and we needed a new Microwave since I kind of ruined ours for use in the kitchen after trying an experiment with it...  Don't ask... LONG story.  Not everything on Pinterest works.......  so Sarah was wanting some fruit, like grapes and I was really hankering for some asparagus.  The Blue berries looked really nice as well.  I started checking where they were from......  I decided to forgo that fruit until it got in season and we will just eat frozen for now.  Oh, BTW the asparagus, was from Chile.......  That prompted a brief geography lesson, right there in Costco amongst the salad mixes and mangos.

ANYWAY:  This week I need to get ready for Weather studies next month (we are going to look at our rain gauge every morning after a rain--OK every morning here...  LOL) and talk about clouds and rain and sunshine and that will lead into spring planting in March and April....  I also need to, on that note, get paper and pen out and work on our planting along with getting our carpet cleaned in the next couple weeks.  Then I plan to have someone come in and do some cleaning I can't do easily.  BUSY times to come and then spring planting.  I can't wait to find time to sew later!