Different

I just wanted to water my struggling lawn and garden. As dry a it is here, I was content to move the single hose and sprinkler, however long it took. Everything gets a good soaking and I get to check the progress along the way. Plenty of time for peaceful prayer...

My husband, God bless him, had a better idea.

Yesterday, he came home from work with 2 new hoses and 2 rainbird-type sprinklers. "Just connect them all together (end to end) and water it all at once."  Okay, but...

No "buts" about it. Today, I did as he instructed, got them all connected and strung throughout my yard. I hooked up the 100+ feet of hoses, set the sprinklers, and adjusted the spray zone. I turned the water on and walked back to see how it was working. I could have cried...water was spraying in every direction, so I couldn't walk through without getting soaked...there went my peaceful prayers as I resorted to desperate ones for patience. There was very little water pressure since the hoses were so long and there were 2 sprinklers spraying every which way. I gave up, switched back to one sprinkler, and went inside.

I find that there are 2 kinds of people:
•Those that are always looking for the fastest and easiest way in life.
• Those that pay attention to every detail and don't mind taking the time to do it, slow and steady.

There are pros and cons to both, you see. And yet it's rare to consistently find all of those qualities wrapped up in one individual.

Fast & Easy
+ wastes no time
+ makes quick decisions
+ always looking for short cuts
- misses important details
- doesn't always see the "big picture"
- always looking for short cuts

Slow & Steady
+ plans ahead, organized
+ considers things from many angles
+ rarely takes chances with the "new"
- needlessly worries over potential problems
- unable to make quick decisions
-rarely takes chances with the "new"

I know my husband was just trying to make my life easier. I know he doesn't realize how much I enjoyed the redundancy of this mindless task, perhaps he even saw it as tedious or a waste of time.

We are each created so differently...yet so perfectly for each other.

It's time we had a little talk...so I can say thank you for his thoughtful gesture and explain how I treasure the simple tending of my yard, my quiet time of worshipping the Lord.

I am thankful that God has blessed us with such a rich variety of personalities, each beneficial in their own special way. I pray that God continues to show me the blessings he has blooming right before my eyes.

Hibernation

…*stre-e-etch*…

…*ya-a-awn*…blink-blink…

…*sigh*… “ah, that’s better.”

I feel like I just woke up from a long winter’s nap…only it was summer! Okay, so I didn’t really sleep all summer (gee, wouldn’t that be interesting?), but I did take a much needed break from a number of commitments. Some good, some not-so-good. School, home, health, the list goes on. Why? Well, let’s just say it was part of some pruning God was doing in my life, only I didn’t necessarily know it at the time!

School

Our homeschool endeavor was pluggin’ along last spring, looking like we’d wrap it up “on time” at the end of May. Of course, I didn’t take into account how much we ♥ our history curriculum OR how much progress my children were making in their math program. When we finished both the 1st week of May, we decided to call it quits early (reward? yes!) since we always school year-round. I knew I could never get them started in the next books if we couldn’t keep going. So, there you have it~ Early Summer!

what I learned:

Never say never…or always.

We did not school year-round this year. In fact, Plan B was to just skip our “summer school” and start our new school year the beginning of August. That would have been great, if we weren’t packing to move…

HOME

Oh, didn’t I mention that we sold our house??
After much prayer and multiple attempts to refinance or modify our loan every which way imaginable, we strongly felt God leading us to sell our home. Huge leap of faith here, since we have so many friends here locally, trying to do the same thing, and they’re still sitting in their homes…waiting…over a year (or two!) later. We were also in the process of trying to adopt, which could/would also be a lengthy process. Knowing all of that, we chose to trust God, and in April we listed our home.

One month later, we got an offer with a request to close escrow the end of August.

Back and forth, the negotiations went between our banks and realtors, and then…silence.

No word for over a month. It was July and we didn’t know whether to pack or start looking for a new place to live. Then August came…We finally got the thumbs up! The banks accepted the offer and we were going to *gasp!* close on time! The rush to pack and find a house left our family in a whirlwind of chaos.

What I learned:

God ONLY has a perfect plan and it is EXACTLY what you need. TRUST!

Wouldn’t you know it? God had it all perfectly planned out. He had the perfect home just waiting for us. (More on that another day!)

HEALTH

Normally, our summers consist of planting, tending, and harvesting a vegetable garden. We did plant one this spring, expecting that we would still be in our house in the fall (silly us!) to harvest it. We did get some early cukes and berries, but I was a bit sad to abandon my tomatoes and squash! Oh well, at least they’ll be blessing the next guy’s table!

We were SO busy and eventually our good, wholesome, nutrient-dense diet went down the drain. (It’s called really called “laziness”, but I’m working on forgiving myself and being nice!)

What I learned:

Healthy food makes for healthy bodies. No exceptions. Eat well, Thank God!

Now that we are settled into our new place, we are working to remedy that! What a blessing to discover a friend from church was planning to kiss-her-garden-goodbye since she’d be gone for 3 weeks. This is only half of what my boys and I picked last week!  Praise the Lord for His Perfect Provision…again!

 

So, as you can see, I wasn’t really hibernating. Quite the opposite actually! (Hibernation’s sounding pretty good right about now!) I’ve missed sharing my Blessed Season with y’all, but a break was absolutely necessary.

Dare I say, “Welcome Back”? ☺

Planting Seeds

Originally posted 2 years ago, this is still my "go to" plan for starting seeds!
Happy planting to you :)
tika nicole

…I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit…
Leviticus 26:4

We moved to Oregon, my husband’s home state, 8 years ago. Shortly after we bought our first home, I decided to try my hand at planting a vegetable garden…But I’ve never done this before!…Thankfully, my neighbor had a lifetime of experience and was happy to share her wisdom. I miss the days of chatting with her over the fence, or dropping in for a cup of tea. With her advice and encouragement, I learned what to plant and when…and we have enjoyed the harvest each year!

This year, my younger son declared that he would be in charge of planting this year’s garden…Praise the LORD! Since we are trying to save money wherever possible, that we should be resourceful in the garden too.

While looking for an affordable way to start my seedlings without dumping a fortune into cute little black trays that won’t last through a second season, I stumbled across this post on Pinterest from Bonzai Aphrodite, and was inspired to give her newspaper pots a try. I liked the simplicity of her idea to wrap the newspaper around a can, but round objects weren’t going to fit very well in my rectangular box! And being the orderly girl that I am…I had to devise an alternative.

Here are my square seed pots~

Starting by spreading out the newspaper.

Cutting or tearing down the center.

And across the middle again.

Here, I folded a 3x5 index card folded in half lengthwise (like a bookmark), and used it as my guide to fold over the edge of the newspaper 1.5”.

I repeated this twice (for a total of 3 fold-overs).

and slid out the index card. The folded edge will be the top edge of the pot, reinforced by the folds to hold its shape.

Next, I used a box of plastic wrap to wrap the newspaper around, forming the square shape of the soon-to-be pot.

Here’s the tricky part. You want to slip the top edge under the flap closest to the box, and gently adjust it as tight as it will go. No need to wrestle with it, you just want it to hold its shape.

Now it will look like this:

 And you can turn the box on its end, with the newspaper “sleeve” at the top.

Fold down the edge of the newspaper closest to you, as if you were wrapping a birthday present.

Fold in the left and right sides.

And fold the final point down towards you.

Slide the newspaper off of the box and allow the point to pop up a bit. When it does, you’ll want to tuck that little flap inside  the pot, so it stays put.

Flip it over…

and there you have your nice & tidy little seed pot!
Now my little green-thumbed son is ready to fill them with soil and start his seeds a’growing!

My Autumn Blessing #51

Harvesting Autumn Blessings...

...harvesting the last of our garden!

Thank you, Father God, for the abundance You provide. It is always "just enough" to meet our needs.