A Garden Tour, Part Final

There's so much in my mind and heart to write, yet so little.

Someday maybe all my thoughts will come back in coherent sentences instead of random ramblings I think of like taming kittens and how that compares to our showing God's goodness to children.  Thoughts like James and Paul talking for hours about their experiences with Jesus.  I hope I can see a video of that someday.

And like how my little nine year-old gardener/farmer got to experience his ultimate dream last week....seeing the largest pumpkin at the state fair.  Over 1200 pounds is what I've been told.  I've also been told the goal is to grow his own next summer.  It requires basically a swimming pools' worth of water a day to accomplish.  And taking out our side yard.  Hmmmm.

So here's the young farmer's garden this year:

This is a tunnel leading into a teepee.  The tunnel is made of wire grid with yard long runner beans

growing over it.  And birdhouse gourd vine taking over.

One of the only times I've felt like a good mom is when the kids and I bought the wire and poles and I took them out to the parking lot and hoisted them onto the top of the van, secured them, and drove home.  I was proud.

Walking stick kale

Last night we sat on a hill and watched thousands of swifts at dusk fly into a chimney. As we waited for them to circle into bed, along with a couple hundred other people, I joked to my husband that he should get up and preach.

He looked at me and said, the swifts will do the preaching.

And so might the pumpkins, and the kale and the birdhouse gourds....speaking to our humanity the intricate wisdom and creative authority of our Creator.

A Garden Tour, Part 1

The kids spend countless hours in the garden.  I cannot list all the activities they've come up with.  Right now they are getting sunflower seeds out of Blackoil and some other sunflower...to be stored up for the birds for winter.

Here is our corn.  I think Raleigh planted it from a kernel of popcorn.  They made a face on the one ear of corn and styled the hair.  It's funny to walk out to!

This is our wheat.  There were other patches but we decided to take them out for our Garden of Giants, to be shown in a later post.  Raleigh and Dawson are the ones who took the wheat berries from the garage and decided to plant them.  You can also see the rhubarb we keep transplanting...maybe next year it will really grow.  All of the sunflowers are volunteer and they make the garden SOOO happy--filled with goldfinches and brightness.

  

We will make some bread with their wheat!

Loving the harvest and the Lord of it all!

Library Find Friday: Summer Time Reads

When the weather's nice, we can mostly be found outside.  But a good, intentional read on a hot afternoon enhances our outdoor experiences. 

Bear and Bunny Grow Tomatoes

by Bruce Koscielniak

We pull this one out every year, though I know you can find it at the library!  It's a cute story with quirky illustrations proving the point that to successfully have tomatoes in the fall means planning, preparing a garden bed, weeding, watering, and working.  

When my kids aren't keen on garden work come July, a gentle "are you bunny or bear?" is all it takes!

Miss Rumphius 

by Barbara Cooney

I made sure to pull this off the library shelf this week, as the lupine is in full bloom along the highways and hiking paths right now.

It is a lovely story about Miss Rumphius, who, as a little girl, sets three life goals: to travel to far away places, to end her life living by the sea, and at her grandfather's request, to make the world more beautiful.  

The words and pictures are a treasure.

We watch her go through life meeting the goals...and lupines are included!

Night of the Moonjellies

by Mark Sasha

Another great book with beautiful illustrations.  This book has the feel of summer to me, as the seven year old boy tells the story of working for his Gram (Grandma) during the summer at their drive-in restaurant at the ocean.  

We see him work together with family to run the business, feel the warmth of the summer ocean breezes as they sit to take a quick lunch during the quiet hour of mid-afternoon, hear the loud blaring of stereos as the evening crowd gets their dinners, and then sense the quiet peace of the ocean as he and Gram release a moonjelly to its' home far out in the ocean.

The ending is rich with sentiment and intentionality.  This story captures a dominant essence of summer.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots

by Sharon Lovejoy

If you've not planted a garden in yet, this is a fun book to look through.  This year the kids have chosen to take a large section of our garden plot to try one of the garden plans featured here: The Garden of Giants...we've planted birdhouse gourds running up a tepee, yard-long pole beans growing to form a tunnel into the tepee, walking stick cabbages to stand guard, and giant pumpkins to fill it in.  

It will be an adventure to see what happens and journal its' progress.  

There are many different garden plans featured, some being herbs, a pizza garden, a flower garden, and more.  It also has many natural gardening tips featured throughout, whimsical illustrations, and includes top 20 plants to grow with children.  So fun!

So, take a break from the computer and TV and open up a book this weekend.  

Happy reading!

Goodness in Grime

Every time I pass our compost bin I think of this verse:

He has sent me...[Jesus]
to bestow on them a crown of 
      beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
   instead of mourning
and a garment of praise
   instead of despair.
They will be called oaks of 
      righteousness,
  a planting of the LORD
  for the display of his
     splendor.
Isaiah 61.1-3


The vines came from last years' old pumpkins or squash...
we're still waiting to find out which.

They sat all the winter and sprung to life among the food
scraps, egg shells, grasses and leaves.

It's a smelly place.  A lot like my own soul.

But eighteen years ago I asked this God to change me.
To plant Himself within me.

His seed growing in me and giving life, beauty, fruit...
for the display of His splendor.

And He always keeps His promises.  He will accomplish
what He's set out to do.

And you, too, if you've asked Him to change you.
I dare you....Go back and read the above passage with
your name in place of "they" and "them."

Surprise!!!

I've had many surprises in my life.  So far most of them have been good.  Like my children.  None of them specifically planned by us, but God's plans have sure surprised and blessed us.

This summer comes another surprise.

Not nearly as great as another child, but a surprise nonetheless.  The peony bush out my kitchen window has NEVER, not EVER in the six years we've lived here, grown more than one flower.

Usually the little balls turn black and never become petals at all.  I decided it had a disease or when we transplanted it we buried it too low in the ground.

So imagine my surprise this year....

I don't know why, how, when.  Can't take any credit.

So I'll just enjoy the gift.

Birth

She labored thirty-four years ago today.  'Twas the first day my skin felt air, lungs breathed it too.  Freed from womb darkness light became bright and assumed.

And I've been thinking about how many births I've experienced since then.  Five from my own womb.  Just yesterday four butterflies hatched and we observed a turtle sending her eggs into the ground to grow full.

Friendships birthed, too.  Six years ago today I started walking with a dear friend nearly every Monday.  Six years of Mondays fills the heart in different ways than air fills the lungs.  But those Mondays have filled good.

Marriage, mothering, ministering....all birthed in my life through the years of living.  Filling these years and making them something.

I don't pretend to comprehend what that something is.  Only observe that it's happening.

Mostly, though, the birth of the Spirit in me, at what age I'm not rightly sure, keeps actively growing.

This body, breathing air as from birth, is slowly deteriorating.  But this Spirit, born a bit later, builds in me stronger and surer.

And though there's much more work to do in me than I care to consider, I rest in the promise that the Spirit of God in me will continue to do His work until the day of Jesus Christ.

To Him be all glory.

photos: trips to a local garden

Digging

I've got a sore back from working in the garden.  I don't mind, really, as long as I can still sleep, but the quack grass out there is really awful.

There's this twisted side of me that actually enjoys turning over yet another mound of five square inches of dirt and sifting through it, grabbing out long threads of white, evil  root.

But overall, it's a nightmare.  I can't believe how much it's taken over and entangled itself in large sections of the garden.  It's discouraging, too, knowing that as hard as I work, it's impossible to get every little strand, and every little strand has life in it just waiting to grow into more, more, more.

I keep telling myself not to take it personally.  Quack grass doesn't define my worth.  I know it's ridiculous, but it's so easy to internalize everything.  Even the garden.

So I ask my husband to speak Truth to me at night.  I ask my farmer Dad for advice.  He recommends amending the soil.  It's off kilter and thus a receptive place for quack grass to grow.

Even amending, though, will not completely fix the problem.  There's always something, always needs, changes, effort, intentionality, follow through required.

Harder, more painful, more terrifying, more threatening, more entangled and enmeshed is the stuff residing in my own heart, soul, somewhere.  Every five square inches in need of attention, cleaned out, scrutinized for what they contain.

I know it can't all be done at one time, but some times are more intense than others as long, connecting roots need to be cleaned out of many areas. Right now is one of those times.

I desire to submit to the Good Shepherd's leading, to trust Him to pull the weeds, stubborn and difficult, out for my benefit.

He doesn't want to let me cover them up, knowing that they only grow more and more challenging to eradicate the longer they're allowed to grow.  And He'll amend the soil within me, filling it instead with good.

So even in the pain, I say praise, honor, and thanks to Him.

Praising Him especially for:
(from the 600's)
*His rule and absolute authority
*His perfect timing
*His gentle guidance
*His reign over all time, all nations
*His perfect judgement
*His intimate knowledge
*His perfect responses
*His compassions that fail not
*His strength in the sickness here, peace too
*His infinite wisdom
*His willingness to work with what love we have for Him
*His desire to meet us in weakness, to use it for His glory
*He gives beauty for ashes
*His grace, lavish, and patient love