The Micro Garden

I think, aside from apartment window planters, my sons and I have planted the smallest garden ever. We planted corn, carrots, and green beans. We are also trying to get a melon patch turned and ready for seeds. We will have cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkin in the melon patch. When the melon patch is planted the garden will no longer qualify as micro, but for the moment, it does.

The grown boy is concerned about the dog eating the plants.

The children beg to see the plants everyday - and are dismayed that in two days, we don't already have corn to eat.

I am determined to rototill a large portion of our backyard, fence it off, rototill it again with some good compost, and let it sit all winter. Then, come spring, I will rototill it again with a little more compost, and I will start all of my little plants in either the garage with grow lights or the dining room. I think having a daycare open in my home will require me to use grow lights in the garage. We shall see.

My long term goal: 10 acres, chickens, lambs, goats, my horse, and a large enough garden to make us a minimum of 60% food self-sufficient. A lofty goal, yes. A worthwhile and attainable goal? Yes!

Are you gardening this year? What have you planted? What made you realize you wanted to grow your own food?

Weighing Sin

I've been considering for the way we qualify and quantify sin. I believe that God sees justice, and sin, and eternity in a way that I am not capable of fully understanding. Knowing that I am a sinner, in need of grace, causes me to justify myself by lessening my own sins. I make my sins seem a lot less significant by looking at the people in this world that are considered bad. At least I didn't: rape, kill, torture, victimize, etc. Right?

That makes me better, right?

Humanly, I'd like to think so. But, when I consider the sin that marks the fall of man, I have to wonder if this is all a human attempt at justifying myself. They ate a piece of fruit from a tree. Okay. Let me say that again. All they did was eat a piece of fruit from a tree. You remember them, right? Adam and Eve, enjoying the lush, perfect Garden of Eden, and freely enjoying the presence of God. Those two? That had the life, the people we say "Why'd you do that guys?? Come on, life would be so much better now if you hadn't eaten the fruit."

But we're talking about eating a piece of fruit. Like, I can't minimize that enough. On one hand, we have murder, on the other fruit. But their sin separated them from God, caused them to be cast from the garden, and changed things for all of mankind.

Are you following me? If we think about sin as disobedience - as making the wrong choice - and realize that God takes all disobedience in the same seriousness, then my sin is no less wrong than anyone else's. I don't get a different dose of grace. I don't get a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon. I get grace. The debt (which is death) for my sins, paid in full, by the precious blood of Jesus.

As I picture myself, kneeling before the throne of God, I cannot imagine trying to give God my justifications. My, "ands, ifs, buts," about my life. I cannot fathom trying to tell the Creator of Justice, the Author of Mercy, the Giver of Grace, that I didn't do "too bad" - that I was better than another of His creation. I am thankful for the gift of life, for the price that Christ paid for me. On that day, when I am brought forward to be judged, I will keep my mouth shut and let my Redeemer speak for me. Because I don't have the eloquence of words it would take to redeem myself.

Focus, Focus.

I am lacking all focus today. This week, actually. I get started on one project and am suddenly derailed by another. Point in case: 15 minutes ago I started working on the laundry. Now I am blogging. I actually sat down to jot down some ideas I just had for a novel I'm going to write. The boys are happily enjoying the sunshine and dirt that the backyard so readily provides. I am awaiting the arrival of my un-husband. We are going to grill salmon for dinner tonight, which means I should start the brown rice soon (that stuff takes forever.)

I've spent about 60% of my time today working on blogging-things. Like, finding guest bloggers to add some content and variety to my blog. Like, reading about SEO and what that means for me. I've also worked on learning how to use a social deck. Hashtags, retweets, social deck, SEO, my head might explode.

As I'm working on learning how to expand my online platform, I am writing a novel, opening a home daycare, and homeschooling two boys. Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy, and I'm pretty sure that I am. Yet, my life seems so great right now, I can't imagine it getting any better. I am filled to be emptied again, and I am thanking God for all that is going on in my life.

Guess I'll get back to that laundry, or maybe I'll get sidetracked doing something else on the way....

90wpm

I've spent most of my life proud of the fact that I can type 90 words per minute. Recently; however, I've learned something about that accomplishment. It is insignificant when it comes to writing. Especially character building for a novel. Just because I can type 90 words a minute, does not mean I can churn out page after page every time I sit down. My fingers working 90 words a minute, does not make the process of churning the information out any faster. Some days, it is slow going. It is like sitting in a crowded room, trying to hear the details of someone else's life, as they talk to me amidst the noise. I have to filter out the noise to listen, and some days that is a slow, painful process. Sometimes, digging through this stuff from deep within myself takes much more work than just typing 90 words a minute. So, now I think I shall consider typing so fast a small thing compared to the work of creating a character, complete with a personality, and filling page after page with information about her life.

A little late...

So, everyone is posting about Osama Bin Laden's death today, and I'm a little slow the race. Granted, I was up at 4 this morning, and should have had plenty of time to post early. But, I'm always a bit behind on the news, and by the time I saw a report about his death, I had wrapped up my morning writing time.

Besides, what can I add or say that isn't already being said?

Oh yeah, and I'm afraid to be controversial, I know, I know. Readers love controversy. But I don't like to stir the pot. But after thinking and thinking, I do have a thought.

How is the sanctity of one life any different than that of another life? Would it have not been a far greater victory that the leader of a terrorist organization came to Christ and lead some of his followers to a righteous standing with God?

I don't know God's plan, but maybe, somewhere, in the heart of someone that could reach that man, God was preparing a way. Maybe God was readying a heart and a person to have the courage to speak to Osama about Christ's love, mercy, forgiveness. Maybe his message would have changed from terror to transformation?

We will never know now, and my questions will remain unanswered. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by the number of my friends that recognize that today America is celebrating a death.

No, I am not anti-American. I support our troops - especially knowing that they are following orders from higher ups. I just think our focus is skewed. It seems as though the focus of our prayers and thanks are not in line with what God is thinking or hoping for.

Romans 3:22-24
This righteousness is given through faith inⁿJesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Guess I'll finish that other controversial post I've been working on...it goes right along with this.

Please comment, share your thoughts. Where do you stand? Should we be celebrating this death as a victory?

A Glimpse into the Heart of God

I've embarked on a journey that has been unlike any journey I've ever taken before. I've decided to write a novel, and this time, I've stuck with it. This isn't my first attempt, but this attempt has carried me further than any attempt before it. This morning, after writing 19 pages in my book, I've stopped to reflect. I had this profound thought and I just have to share it. What if, as a writer, I get a small glimpse into the heart of God when developing my characters. Now, I know that God is truly omniscient, which is a huge thought and hard to wrap my brain around. Yet, for a moment, when I'm creating a world and characters to populate it, I get a small sense of what it would be like to be omniscient. And yet, my characters surprise me. This is a deeply personal thing to share with you, because even I know that it may sound a bit crazy. Yet, they take on this form of their own, and when they jump off the pages and shake me by the collar, telling me that I got a scene wrong, I wonder if we surprise God. The surprises would be much the same, because everything about my characters, I crafted. Every surprise they present me with came from deep within myself. Is it the same with God? Is that what makes our relationship with Him personal? He is Creator, and He knows me better than I even know myself, yet I have paused to wonder, do we, in small ways, surprise him? All that we are comes from deep within Him, created by Him, but when we display our character and personality, does He sometimes smile and chuckle a little at who we are? Is this process of getting to know God a two way street in which He is getting to know us? I've always considered that God knows all about me, which is true, but maybe, just maybe, He is getting to know me. It's like the subtle, yet vast, difference between knowing about God by knowledge of scripture, and actually knowing Him.

Do you think God already knows everything about us and that we are incapable of surprising Him? Or do you think, just as our own humanly creations occasionally surprise us, we get the opportunity to pleasantly surprise our Creator?

I've been identifying with the wrong generation.

I have a confession to make. This may come as a shock to some of you. I have been listening to my friends play the "80's" station and while I occasionally recognize some of the songs to be ones my dad really liked, it isn't music I identified with. I could sing along, but I rarely, if ever, heard a favorite on the "80's" station. This has been bothering me. I spent all of my money on music at one point in my life, and I can't fathom why I don't recognize more of it, or identify with it. Or stroll down memory lane remembering that sleep over with that friend where we listened to that single all night long. Why doesn't hearing the "80's" station do this for me?!

Because I've been identifying with the wrong generation.

Yep, that's right. I forget that I tend to hang with people that are a few years older than me. I was introduced to the world just a few years before the "80's" went out. So, in exploring all of the channels on TV (since we now subscribe to services...), I found all of the music channels. My first thought? Put on the "80's" like my friends. Yet, I again was not getting into it. So I tried something new. I listened to the "90's" and wouldn't you know it? I recognized almost every song they played, recalled owning a high percentage of CD's that played that very same music, and even remembered listening to a song all night with a friend.

So, for however brief of a moment, I'm reminded that I'm only in my twenties. Better than being reminded about my age, is being reminded that I grew up with some favorites and things, and I can identify with a generation.

What generation do you identify with? Have you always been aware of your generational identity or did you have a striking epiphany one day?