Garden 2012 Lesson 1

Tonight I Rhoda-tilled, Rhoda-tilled, and Rhoda-tilled the garden. It was back and forth multiple times in different directions to try to break up the soil. Last weekend I mowed the garden which tells you how bad of shape it was in.

Last fall I was out of the country for 16 days, soon after I had minor surgery, and soon after that Renae had knee surgery. We did no fall work in the garden and now we are paying for it. The grass and weeds over took last fall and it continued this spring. Had I taken care of the weeds and cleaned everything out last fall this spring would be better. Had I added compost last fall the soil would have broken up better this spring.

How many times in life do we think we can do something big without the necessary preparation. Let's do this mission trip but we need to prepare our hearts ahead of time. We can't just show up at the bus or plane. I think a lot of people enter relationships without having prepared for that role. It's just the thing to do.

So at the start of the season--wait, the start of this year's garden should have started months ago in September and October of 2011. Well at planting time I have great intentions for the garden this year. THIS YEAR I will keep up on the weeds. THIS YEAR while I will give some items away I will make good use of the harvest. THIS YEAR I will clean up the garden will in the fall to be ready for next year.

And that is the first lesson I've learned from my garden this year.

Thankful Thursday 5/17/12

1. Had my first Skype call tonight with my sister and great niece Emma.

2. Enjoyed coffee tonight with two very good friends.

3. One more day of work and then the weekend.

4. This week's beautiful weather!!!

Random Mother's Day Thoughts

1. I like attending a church that celebrates the church calendar instead of the Hallmark calendar. Many churches make a day like today so awkward for non-mothers (sometimes with the token--all ladies mother in someway or we all have a mother), that for many years I just didn't go to church on Mother's Day. Yes, Mother's Day was mentioned this morning acknowledging the day but the entire service wasn't focused on it.

2. Hooters really planned a promotion around Mother's Day???  Seriously, "Bring your mother to Hooter's for Mother's Day!" What would be more awkward?

3. I cooked "Mother's Day" dinner for Renae and her mother last night because I couldn't cook for my own mother this weekend. I prayed for them before the meal and tried to ask God to bless my mother as well but it made me miss her too much.

4. Each of my sister's (Ann, Mary, and Molly) are great mothe's in their own way. From them I've learned something about parenting--helping a child learn independence, letting a child express their creativity, not having to birth a child to love them with a mother's love, etc.  I'm glad they are the mothers of my nieces and nephews--who as they grow up I think realize how good they have it because of these special women.

Friday

So many things have  happened in the last few weeks since the last post so here goes a list of lots of random thoughts:
1. I really miss my mom on Mother's Day weekend. I loved 3 years ago when she was here for Mother's Day.
2. Vacation was wonderful. Two weeks ago today I spent the entire day on the beach. Thanks to Jayne I read 4 books over the week--don't know when I've ever done that. I may write about the 4 books later.
3. I like teaching but I don't like the work between the classes, but then I think the students probably don't either.
4. Had a nice team outing with 3 of the 5 team members at the Volksparade at Holland's Tulip Time.
5. My car really needs to be washed. The nice thing about the color of my car (metallic light blue) is good for not showing dust, but the windows show how dirty it is.
6. This has been a couple of very busy weeks at work--getting back from vacation immediately having month end, busy days at the start of the month to invoice clients, getting ready for a server move today, etc.
7. Other thoughts shooting around like a ping pong ball in my head, but those will have to wait . . .