simple woman's daybook 5.25.11

 

for today:

outside my window... the small city i live in is surrounded on three sides by beautiful mountain ranges. awwwwww... i am always blessed with such a beautiful view!

i am thinking... about how huge the mercy of the Lord is and how thankful i am that i receive it when i don't even deserve it.

i am thankful... for all the reminders God is giving me to spend time with Him getting filled up with His love and the knowledge of Him.

remembering... that justice and mercy are not opposites.  God operates in both and it is a beautiful paradox to my naive mind.

from the learning rooms... i feel like i have been learning so much about the small prophetic books in the end of the old testament that i was not all that familiar with before.  i am really enjoying becoming re-familiarized with them.  i have read them before, but not for a long time.  reading unlocking the Bible as a companion to my Bible reading has helped me so much in just getting the context of these little taught on books. 

from the kitchen... i have slowly been building a whole foods pantry.  i have been buying in bulk from azure standard and have amazing gals in town who are willing to split 25 or 33 lbs orders of things like sugar, oats, beans and such with me so that i can get the best prices possible and be able to feed my family stuff that is good for them and cheap.  i have to counter balance all the not good for us treats we have been eating with all the birthday celebrations this month (though i have to say i have really enjoyed them)! 
 

i am wearing... jean shorts, a sleeveless knit sweater in pretty greens and blues, leather flip flops, hair up in a messy pony tail, and light makeup.

i am creating... gifts (i keep saying that because i keep creating them!).  i even thought of things to make for my husband, brother, and brother-in-law that they actually would use and like!  it has been so fun.

i am going... to house of prayer sets more regularly lately at our house of prayer here (called the watch).  i have really enjoyed just the little couple hours away to focus on the Lord, to refuel my heart in loving Him.  i had really missed not going as regularly!

i am reading... the last few books in the old testament in my Bible reading challenge. i can't believe i am almost all the way through the old testament!  even though i am constantly a couple days behind in my reading plan, i keep sticking with it and not giving up.  it has been so good for me and i have to say the accountability of regularly letting my readers know where i am in this challenge i committed to is so good for me to keep on going.

i am hoping... to have a great time connecting with my husband tonight!  yesterday was his birthday, but we were so busy that we decided to celebrate today instead.

i am hearing... the sounds of a busy home with four busy little boys getting ready for the day.

around the house... let's talk my veggie garden:  my garden is coming along nicely.  i did have a few of my little seedlings die, but it seems that more is making it than isn't, which is a great thing.  i am still a pretty novice gardener. i am trying to grow: tomatoes, potatoes, crookneck squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, bell peppers,  jalapeños, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, kale, bunching green onions, mint, basil, thyme, strawberries, blackberries, sunflowers, and various other bee attracting flowers.  did i get it all?  i am hoping to have a great harvest this year. 

  
one of my favorite things... is crossing things off a list.  i must admit that i frequently lose the lists i make, but when i don't... i find immense pleasure in crossing things off of it.

pondering... how amazing God was to bring my wonderful husband bill scofield into my life.  it was a pretty amazing story.  maybe i should blog on it someday?  he has been such a blessing to my life.  my very best friend.  the way God brought our paths to cross is truly amazing. 

a few plans for the rest of the week: we have a big birthday bash for our 3 oldest of our 4 boys this weekend.  their birthdays are not in may, but i told them if they would wait to celebrate their birthdays until we could have an outside party, i would let them invite any friends they wanted to invite.  so... i made my month of may even busier than it already is!  it is fun though.

picture for the day:

two years ago my dear sister-in-love did a photo shoot in the lovely month of may of me and my dear beloved. (don't you just love my purple hair? i had to do something bold for my 30th birthday.) in honor of his birthday yesterday, i wanted to post a picture of us together.  can't you tell we like each other an awful lot?!

i am linked up with other lovely ladies at the simple woman's daybook.  

charis

tomatoes!

fyi... any apparent lack of continuity is due to being a mother of 4 boys who apparently do not know what it means to give mama a couple consecutive minutes to blog and keep the same train of thought. 

one of the things that has keep me occupied this summer has been my garden.  (as if being pregnant and then having a baby doesn't keep one busy enough)  i have had such a high learning curve, but i have learned so much and been blessed to get both great experience and great reward in food for the dinner table from this new venture of mine.  i think i am hooked for life!  i thought i enjoyed flowers, but do i ever enjoy the type of gardening i can eat.

tomatoes

these are the gems i mostly got into gardening for... tomatoes!  i love the other vegetables and herbs i have had the opportunity to grow, but when i think of a summer garden the first thing to make my mouth water is the thought of a sweet juicy tomato.  don't you think these look pretty good for being my first try at tomatoes?  i am impressed myself... i think their beauty is half the work of God and half due to the gorgeous heirloom varieties my friend john gave me as small plants to start my first garden.

back to eden

gardening this summer has made me think a lot about God and how He created the very first garden.  i have thought about what it must have been like for adam to tend the garden of eden (genesis 2:15).  can you imagine what it would be like to tend to the plants of the earth without the nuisance of pests eating the plants or the fruit?  in eden, the soil would be the perfect balance with no lack.  it wouldn't need any fertilizer.  there would be no blossom end rot on the tomatoes because of lack of calcium in the soil because the soil would have plenty of calcium.  the sun would be just the right heat and there would be plenty of shade from the foliage, so nothing would be scorched by the sun.  there would be no weeds!  can you even imagine no weeds?!  there wouldn't be rain nor the need of watering with overprocessed tap water... but water would come from the river in the garden making the ideal growing conditions.  there would be an abundance of bees to pollinate the flowers to produce the most fruit.  the fruit would be huge and in abundance (not to mention completely organic)!   oh, how i would love to garden there!!

it wasn't until adam sinned against God that gardening because the challenge that it is today for gardeners.  due to adam's rebellion against God, the ground that he worked became cursed to be hard and difficult:

cursed is the ground because of you; 
in toil you will eat of it 
all the days of your life.
"both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; 
and you will eat the plants of the field; 
by the sweat of your face 
you will eat bread, 
till you return to the ground, 
because from it you were taken; 
for you are dust, 
and to dust you shall return."

genesis 3:17-19 

bummer

man was always meant to garden (work), but it wasn't always meant to be difficult with the disappointments that can often come with it.  i know i have had my own share of disappointments this year in my first attempt at vegetable gardening.  i planted twenty pepper plants, both hot and sweet peppers, only to end up with two  that barely survived the cutworms, the strange weather this year, and have yet to even be fruitful at all.  bummer.

i was excited to pick my carrots, as i was told that carrots were easy to grow as a beginner.  my carrots were puny!  i wish i had a picture to show how skinny and short they were.  they weren't even big enough to eat as baby carrots.  bummer.

hope

we have a hope, however, that our work won't always be a mix of reward and toil.  Jesus promised that when He returned to the planet to set up His eternal kingdom that He would make all things new. (revelation 21:5)  in romans 8, paul says that all creation groans and waits to be set free from the corruption and curse it was put under.  there will be a day when the Son of Man is ruling on the earth and we will see with our own eyes the fruitfulness of the original garden.  we were created to work, but not originally meant for the toil and disappointment.  in that day we will get all the rewards of our gardening without any of the disappointments that sin brought upon the ground.

and we will get a bountiful harvest of tomatoes.

charis

mia

i have been majorly missing in action.  so sorry about it!  update on the minivan situation: we found one!  and we bought it completely in cash!  thank you so much for partnering with us in prayer.  we are almost ready for this little guy's big arrival.  besides doing the final baby prep stuff, i have been growing things in my 1st official vegetable garden.  here are some pretty pics to show a little of how things have been going.

the top picture of the slow growing pepper plant is a sad story.  i planted 20 hot and sweet peppers... only two have survived to now and are so small because of the odd cold weather this year.  i believe it was cutworms that decapitated my pepper plants... reminds me so much of the "little foxes" is the song of solomon that threaten to ruin the garden.  i feel like it has been a fight!

the Lord has been speaking to me so much through gardening... makes me wonder what it was like to garden in eden before the fall and when there was no toil of working the land.  how amazing adam's garden must have been!

so, growing a baby and growing some veggies have been what i have been busying myself with.  i will probably not write much for the next couple weeks, but will try to check in here and there, and definitely announce the baby's birth.

charis

the flowers fade

yesterday we had a conversation in the car that went like this:

asher:  those are pretty flowers mom.  why did amma give them to you?

me:  because she is going out of town and wants someone to be able to enjoy them.

asher:  but who is going to enjoy them when we go out of town next weekend?

me:  well, they won't live that long.  they will only probably be alive a couple more days, so we get to enjoy them for the short time they are still alive.

asher:  but i thought it was spring?  why will the flowers die?

this led into a conversation about the difference between cut flowers and flowers that are still on the plant, and how in reality both will eventually die.  of course, as a six year old, asher's main question was why.  i started thinking about how to explain it to him.  since i am not a botanist, i simply told him this:  God created the flowers.  He could have made them any way He wanted to, but He chose to make the have a short spurt of absolute beauty and then for them to die.  He could have made them bloom forever.  He could have chosen to have their fragrance and beauty go on and on and on.  but for some reason, when He had a completely blank slate to work with when creating flowers, He chose for them to bloom, be fragrant and beautiful, and then in frailty fade away.  i don't know why He chose it to be this way, but i do know it was not an accident.

i thought about this the rest of the evening.  there is beauty in the frailty of flowers.  it reminds me of the verses in matthew 6 about God's care for us:

and why are you worried about clothing? observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. but if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? you of little faith!

i also think of david's comparison of man to the flowers in psalms 103:15:

as for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

also isaiah 40:6-8 comes to mind:

all flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 
the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

the bible has so many references to the frail beauty of the flowers.  it makes me wonder:  why God, did You chose to create flowers this way?  why would You create something so beautiful and so satisfying only for it to be gone in a short time?  why would You take something so beautiful and instead of creating it strong, You purposed to make it weak? 

all this thinking of flowers reminds me of our own short lives here on earth.  i think it puts in perspective what the end of the passage in isaiah 40:8 says - the brevity of the flowers and even our lives are meant to stand in great contrast to the eternal nature of God and His Word (Jesus).

when i can look at all of life and all of the natural world around me and realize that the only thing that never fades is Him, it causes me to wonder.  how could the eternal find pleasure in temporal and fragile beauty?  how could He take those who fade just like the flowers, and transform them into an eternal bride for His Son?  how could the God who possesses all strength and majesty find beauty in humanity which is so frail?   it is a mystery that may baffle me for a lifetime. 

with each flower of spring, wonder arises within me at this Creator God who could have done things a million different ways.  but He chose the perfect way.   this God of all strength and power chose to pursue and win the hearts of frail and fragile humans like me.  this truly is a wonderful God.


charis

time for my first veggie garden

this year, i am going to try something new to me that i have always wanted to do: vegetable gardening.  we have a wonderful house and are blessed with huge wonderful shade trees that keep our low utility bills the envy of friends and family, but there is no place with enough sunlight suitable to growing a vegetable garden.  i have grown flowers in the front, herbs on the porch, but i keep wanting to grow veggies.  my attempt at growing strawberries ended up being more of a pretty addition to our flowers, with small tasteless berries that were eaten by bugs before anyone else could really try them.  but this year i have aspirations of something different.

my sister-in-law, who lives only 12 houses down from me, has the ideal area in her backyard for a vegetable garden and generously offered me part of her garden bed to try out some growing of my own.  finally, a dream of mine is coming true, and i am so excited... and so intimidated!  i have to admit, i am very intimidated about being a rookie at something and the possibility of failure.  i know it is silly to put that much weight into something as simple as a garden, but i just have no idea what i am doing.  my sister-in-law i think is starting her plants from seeds, but i don't know how to do that.  do i put the seeds into the ground?  do i need to start them first inside?  when do i put them into the ground?  what should i even attempt to grow?  so many questions, and unfortunately i haven't taken much time to research the answers because i have been consumed lately with researching minivans for our soon to be upgrade in size of cars for our growing family. 

so... here is another way i am vulnerable with you my readers.  i would love suggestions in the comments below from any of you who have any amount of experience on gardening.  i don't even know where to buy seeds (if i go that route) or small plants (if i go that one).  i do have thyme thriving on my porch that has lasted for the past 4 years, am going to replant basil on my porch this year as well, but as for the veggies... i have no idea.  i need to figure this out soon if i am going to take advantage of my sister-in-law's generous offer. 

so... comment away.  give me any and all the advice you think i need, can handle, or might point me in the right direction.  i am excited to see what happens. 

charis

the master gardener

to hear the whispers of God in the meanderings of life.

we have a little lemon tree that i planted outside our bedroom window a couple years ago because of my intense obsession with lemons and the delight of the smell of citrus leaves. i also planted at the same time english lavendar with the soothing woodsy smell and dainty purple blossoms. unfortunately, i have neglected my plants over the past year or more, other than to blow the sea of fall leaves, and i mean sea of leaves, from drowning them and all the rest of the landscaping that we worked so hard on creating ourselves.

two very different problems face my two favorite plants.

my little lemon tree for some reason didn't produce fruit last year. i decided that this year we must have fruit, so i have taken it on as a project. as i looked at the tree trying to decide how best to help it thrive, i noticed two problems. for one, there were yellow, sparse, dull looking leaves. yes, it has survived two winters and beat the odds that were told to me by my neighbors who said how hard it was for a young citrus tree to not freeze, but it was needing some help. second, a nasty vine type of weed with the burrs that get stuck socks and shoes was overtaking the ground all around it and threatened to choke my tree with its long tendrils.

neither problem with my tree were untreatable, but quite the opposite. with some dedication and hard work over the past couple days, it is looking much better. i tilled the soil around the root ball and mixed in some citrus fertilizer to get the soil back to the ph balance that a lemon tree needs for those glossy green leaves. i have pulled, dug out, and cut back the nasty viney weeds that threatened to choke my dear tree and keep me from the juicy fruit i desire.

as i worked this afternoon i felt the Lord speak to me so strongly. i felt very much like the lemon tree. i need so badly to be fed richly to have the new growth and to produce fruit in my own life. "for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." i need that regular diet of the Word of God to not get dry and yellow and sparse. yes, i may make it through the winters of life, but i will not produce the new leaves and buds and blossoms in the spring season that are needed in order to have the fruit if i don't tend to the feedings. and so, i am committed to open the Word, call out for wisdom and revelation, seek the face of the only One who can give me life, and commit to see growth in the areas i struggle in and am tempted to blame on personality, preference, or my culture and surroundings. Jesus said, "if you love me, you will obey my commandments." it seems pretty straightforward. however, sometimes it takes me so long to get it through my head to just do the things He laid out in scripture to know Him and love Him, just like it took me so long looking at my poor little lemon tree to actually take the time to find the simple solution to the yellowing dry leaves.

also, i feel my life is majorly in a time of weeding. Jesus compared the weeds in one of His parables to the worries and cares of this life. oh wow. did this ever come to mind today as i worked. it was interesting to me how some of the weeds came up easily and others were so deep that i couldn't even pull with decent strength, but had to dig down below the root of the weed to pry it out. i know that for me there are some cares of life that are more easily uprooted from my heart than others. right now i am in a season of the roots of certain worries that i have struggled with on and off for years, which i would work really hard to get rid of but would come back again after a season of good rain and watering, being dug up so that even the deeper root system can be rid of and not just return. i can say that it is not any easier in my opinion to be the soil from which the weed is taken out of right now that it was to dig and pull and tug today at those stubborn weeds.

i also was reminded today that the seed He plants is always good seed. the thing that can vary is the ground in which the seed is planted, and it isn't until the rain comes and waters the ground that the soil shows what it lacks, what was hidden, or what just needs a bit of tilling. it is painful to have Him dig deep in the tender regions of my heart, but it will be so worth it to allow His work instead of resisting. i am personally hoping that i passed the test this time and that those things that have felt like they have choked me at times when life gets tough will really be gone for good and that i will have victory in those areas in my life because the root system has been taken out.

the other plant that i felt the Lord speaking to me through was my lavendar. you see, i have done special nothing for my lavendar but it has thrived! good seed and good soil. little to no weeds. fruitful in all seasons. the fragrance of the blossoms brings me the joy and calm that i had hoped for. yet, because it has been so thriving, i was suddenly faced with the realization that something needed to been done about this plant. my uncle said about a month ago a little phrase in a sermon on sunday morning that i have thought of several times since and thought of this afternoon while pondering how best to care for my fruitful lavendar. he said, "the reward for fruitfulness is pruning."

pruning. i resist it as a novice gardener as much as i wince at the word when thinking of the Lord applying it to my own life. so many times i have equated pruning with punishment. somehow, i thought, i must have done something wrong for a door to close, or an opportunity to end, or my desires to seem to get further out of reach rather than closer. seeing what i had believed to be of value in me and my life taken away confused me and is still very painful even when i know fully that God is involved in the closing of doors or ending of seasons. and yet, when i looked at my wildly growing full of blossoms lavendar today i felt the whisper of the Lord to my heart, "I am not punishing you. I am rewarding your faithfulness. pruning is my reward for fruitfulness."

you see, for my lavendar to retain its beauty as a plant and to not grow woody and stubby in the center, i must cut it back. i have read that i need to cut it back as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of its branches, careful to leave some green, but as close to the wood as possible. that seems like so much cutting to me! i hesitate to cut my beloved plants, yet know that it will be the best things i can do for them in the long run.

i feel so pruned right now. i am so raw even writing right now because my perspective right now is still so small on the grand picture of what God is wanting for my life to look like. areas of fruitfulness, faithfulness, and what i felt were the blessings from the hand of God are being cut back right now, and oh how they are being cut back! but, oh, the comfort in knowing that it isn't because i haven't had good soil in my heart in these areas, nor have i done something wrong, but this is the reward i have for being faithful in what was given to me. as tears flow for saying goodbye to that which the Lord has cut away, i am at a strange peace that something very beautiful will come of this pruning. how good He is, and how rich are His rewards for those who seek Him.

charis