Blessed

I know that Mary, the dear mother of our Lord, is "most blessed among women" but I just want to share that I feel amazingly blessed myself! With David deployed, it has opened a lot of doors for people to step in and bless us. And they have walked through and blessed us tremendously over and over again! There's so much I want to say, but I have no clue where to begin! Let me just say that the Lord has used so many of you to "fill in" spaces in my life left vacant where David would usually fill them with his spontanaeity, his time, his labor and love in fixing things broken and maintaining the yard.
You know, I have realized, in my desire for perfection, that life is never going to be perfect. Cars will always break down. Children will always disobey (and try to get out of going to bed). Somedays you're really tired. Often, the to do list is left incompleted. But, you know, all that stuff is just life. And, God asks us to love Him and rejoice in the day He has given us, even with all the imperfections of it. You know why? Because He made it and it is perfect because God is perfect! We are blessed just to be alive and living in His love each Day! I am so thankful, so thankful! And, I will myself to remember this at 6am tomorrow when I am subjected to all the imperfection all over again--that He is perfect and I am blessed because I am loved by Him and part of His Day that He made! (Psalm 118:24)

Garden, year two

Well, I decided to go for a garden for another year! Gardens make you slow down and do the simple things. Many people who live extraordinarily long lives attribute gardening to their good health. Here's to that! Gardening is just one simple way to step out of the rat race and/or the busyness of life for just a few moments. Somehow, after planting or watering or pulling weeds, you somehow feel like you've really lived. It is a very rewarding way to spend a little time every day.

We are growing Better Boy tomatoes, grape tomatoes, red peppers, 12 stalks of corn, and finally 2 watermelon plants. I bought new watermelon seeds this year...and then I lost them...so I eventually planted the ones from last May ('08), but they did not sprout for the looooongest time. I had given up on them and was already thinking about where I would put the little peat greenhouse they were in until next year. Later that afternoon, after I had given up hope, I looked and to my shock there was a two inch sprout there! A few days later a second one sprouted. I planted three and went ahead and put all three in the ground; maybe, just maybe the third will sprout, too. Here's hoping for 4-6 melons this year!