30 Days of Thankfulness

Everything that surrounds us is a gift from God.  We wake each morning & breathe in and out all day because He allows it to happen.  It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day struggle of managing a home & being a mom, wife & friend.  I want to change that.

This month I am going to be posting on Facebook everyday something that I am thankful for.  Maybe if more people were thankful for what they have then our lives would be more focused on God.  There is so much to be thankful for and we don’t think about it very often.

Yesterday I was thankful for friends who share their children with me.  A friend helped me out by taking Elizabeth to town for a recital practice.  I kept her kids & the rest of mine.  They had a ball playing together & enjoyed some outside time in the leaves.  It was a great afternoon.

Today?  Well I am considering it before I post that later.

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Psalm 3:5-6

 


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Lessons from the Ocean

God gives us perfect gifts we just have to look for them.

We’ve been staying in the Outer Banks, NC.  It is a vacation that we take every year for Steve’s continuing education.  This year it’s special because we’ve been married almost 20 years and we added some time to just enjoy being here.

I love the ocean. 

That doesn’t give magnitude to how much I enjoy being here.  I could live here but my friends and family drawn me back home.  We’ve been walking our stretch of beach each morning & evening.  As we go we look for shells as so many vacationers do.  There haven’t been many beautiful perfect ones but we do find bits and pieces with perfect colors.

These are the shells that have been beaten and battered until they don’t resemble the shape that they began as.  Sometimes life feels a bit like that.  That project you started didn’t turn out to be as wonderful as the vision in your head.  The direction you decided to take your business didn’t go well.  Parenting a precious child is always affected by sin and personal choices.

We’ve been searching for God’s will in our lives.  The direction we are travelling isn’t giving us joy or allowing us to know the freedom in knowing we are following God’s will.  My prayer lately has been “Lord show us.”  We are listening & know he will show us the way.

Just like this morning when I walked the beach alone.  Not something I like to do—I’d rather be with Steve.  I was up earlier than the last few days—again I’d rather sleep in.  But as I walked I saw that the tide was high.  There are sections of the beach that are rocky and sharp to walk over here.  I avoid them usually but with the high tide I would have to be in the really soft sand—not good for walking.

Then I saw them.  As I prayed “Lord show us”.  I came upon one after another.  Beautiful.  Perfect.  Not broken.  Precious gifts of shells.  I literally couldn’t pick them all up to bring back. 

So I left them for others to find.

Thank you Lord for showing me you can do anything.  Please continue to show me.

Don’t be late!

Or you might end up here trying to find your luggage.

Then you might be forced to look at your luggage while it is held hostage until you can find the Baggage person with the key.

However life is VERY good when you can head to the hotel with your own jammies to sleep in.

Harvest

I have not so fond memories of going to my grandma’s to help with her garden.  We would pick & snap TONS of green beans.  Shuck & cut off the cob dozens of ears of corn—very stick hot business.  But the messiest part of all of it was doing tomatoes.  My mom & I also canned tomatoes at home.  I remember the deck railings covered with tomatoes that were “ripening.”

So I am carrying on the the tradition.  We got our garden in late this year.  June 18th to be exact but I did put in plants not seeds so that helped get us going. I just kept putting in plants & finally when it was all done there were 34 plants.  They have grown in to a jungle! I just said “Yikes” that will be a lot of tomatoes.  Guess what?  I was right!  God has really blessed our harvest this year. 

There were a few that grew in to monsters.  We picked them and compared them to Joshua’s head.   He is truly my garden boy.  He loves walking in the garden looking for “tomato bugs.”  He especially likes when we throw them out in the road for cars to run over—yuck!

Pretty significant!

This morning’s picking was 2 ice cream buckets full to overflowing!  We also picked more tonight as it is supposed to storm.  So my helper & I got to work.  He’s awesome & peeling those slippery tomatoes(notice the new glasses!)So today we put 12 quarts in the cabinet for this winter.  I love using “our” tomatoes for chili, soup, etc.  It just makes me think about fall & the coming change of seasons.  Our count so far is 21 quarts & there are lots more out there.  Needless to say I am too tired for a picture of the finished product but they are beautiful!

Summer 2010

When this summer started and I finished up the school year there were several things that happened. 

First once Michael graduated I felt like there was a huge weight lifted!  Not that Michael is a burden but it meant that I no longer was in charge of the education of my oldest.  It was a strange feeling because I have dedicated 13 years of my life to making sure he becomes the man that God wants him to be.  There is something bittersweet about this time. I am so proud of who he has become and yet it is difficult to watch as he spreads his wings for the next stage in his life.

The next thing that happened was I went to the doctor for some pain in my hip.  It was NO fun!  However, now on the other side of lots of Aleve & one wonderful cortizone shot I have a hip that works and I am able to for the most part do as I want to do.  I do know now that down the road I will be replacing this hip for a new one but thank goodness not now.

We borrowed my dad's tiller & got the garden turned over & the tomatoes put in--34 of them!  More of them than last year but hey I am crazy I admit it.

There are so many things I wanted to do this summer.  Projects, planning, peacefulness.  The main thing was I didn't want to go, do or get tied in to anything ALL summer.  Usually we are at the pool or gone on vacation for a while or making over the rental house.  This seemed to be the summer we could just be home. 

So we managed to have some of these moments.

I just wish we could have everyday be like these.

Tuesday Top Ten

There are so many things I love about summer!  Here's the best of the best. 

1.  Changing up the schedule.  We play in the morning while it is cool & then do any "work" or school time.

2.  Vegetable Gardens.  We planted 30 tomato plants this year--yes crazy I know but it will keep me from buying diced tomatoes all winter.

3.  Flowers!!!  I have lots of shade in our yard which makes it hard to plant those sun loving flowers but we carved out a spot and planted sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos & rose moss!

4.  Late bedtimes.  It seems like every night around 8 we start a game that is going to take at least an hour.  I don't stress about it because our getting up time is rather flexible right now. :)

5.  Chill & Grill.  We eat SO differently in the summer.  I like to keep the heat outside so we grill more & I use the crock pot when I can.  Also we more salad, vegetables & of course watermelon.

6.  Projects.  Since I am not tied up in school(as much) we are able to tackle some projects that have been put off all winter.  This summer I am ready to paint the girl's room & perhaps the master bedroom.  I dream of doing the living room & dining room too but that might be a bit much.  Also we are working on cleaning up weedy places outside--just a little at a time!

7.  Visiting friends.  In the past two weeks we have enjoyed visiting with several of our friends families.  It seems there is more time to just get together & play.

8.  Bike rides.  Since Joshua has gotten old enough to ride w/o training wheels we have been packing up the bikes to go on rides because the road we live on is just not safe for bikes.  So far we have enjoyed riding at Cosmo & Oakland parks and we went on the Bear Creek Trail too.  Everyone loves the feel for speed!

9.  Open ended plans.  It seems we are daily evaluating what is most important to do.  From projects to vacation plans--I am feeling the blessing of flexibility.  We tackle things to get them done & then move to the next thing but I don't have this big schedule that has to be stuck to in order for our lives to function well.

10.  Warmth.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love the sun.  I struggle through the cold part of the year so that I can enjoy the outdoors & the warmth of spring & summer.  It makes things grow & keeps my toesies warm.  Now if I could just daily add some sand and waves . . . .

Doing less is good

Things have been tough around here for several weeks.  It is a long story and really boils down to the fact that my hip hurts & haven't been able to do as much around the house.  The five o'clock hour is when I am the tiredest and I hurt the most so making supper has been a challenge to say the least.

Sometimes(okay a lot of times) Steve is very wise.  At the beginning of last year he said that I should have the kids help more with lunch.  I am not saying that I haven't taught them to cook.  I have.  They make a great lettuce salad.  Peeling carrots--no problem.  Michael makes a mean loaf of honey wheat bread & actually enjoys rolling enchiladas.  However I hadn't turned the kitchen over to them for an entire meal.  I wasn't having enough time to grade papers so Steve said--get out of the kitchen at lunch time & use that time. 

That is SO paying off now.  When I am just done for the day by 5 p.m. I have been able to ask the kids to do supper.  I am so proud of the job that they are doing.  It is Elizabeth who has been shouldering most of the burden.  She has a willing spirit and just turns up the music and COOKS!  To be fair, Megan and Joshua are doing a great job of washing dishes afterwards(we don't have a dishwasher) and cleaning up.

I feel guilty for not "pulling" my weight right now but it is allowing my kids(girls especially) to help and contribute where they are needed.  Tonight is date night for our friends so we have their kids here.  While we were at the grocery store this morning I asked the girls what they would like to make.  After a short discussion they decided the other family liked Chicken Tetrazini and that wasn't too hard to make.  This is my 13 year old girl cooking for 10 people.  WOW!  That is so awesome and just makes me proud of her.

I need to step out of the way in areas where my children are capable but I haven't allowed them freedom to work and serve.