garden update

I thought maybe it was time for a GARDEN UPDATE.

Things have um, been going well, as you can see :-)

Radishes are a big winner, they mature in 20-30 days so we've already eaten all of them and planted more. The snow peas also matured and we ate pretty much all of them. It got to the point I went out there every day and picked a dozen. That was fun and I was getting used to it. Now they're all gone, sigh. I wonder if more will come in? The strawberries were June-bearing so they're done, too. In fact, several of my strawberry plants are now "running," which is a fancy thing where they are like, wanting to spread to other parts of the garden, and I'm desperate to plant them IN THE GROUND instead of pots. It feels cool to invest in the future, so to speak, with these little plants. I just need to commit to a spot.

Our slow growers are green beans.... taking forever but we are getting some on the plant now, getting bigger. Green onions also take forever. Sheesh, like 120 days to maturity. So they're chugging along.

The garden bully is zucchini. We've harvest a couple zucchinis so far which has been fun, and now on one of the plants I counted SEVEN growing. The leaves for that plant are just so darn big.

Our disappointments so far:

• Pea pods -- they just kinda shriveled and half died but we got some. And we're still getting some, oddly. They didn't grow up on the lattice nearly as well as the snow peas did. 
• Lettuce -- I don't know why. It's only supposed to take about a month to mature, but we have teensy leaves and it's not that fancy. Maybe the bully zucchini plant is covering the leaves so they're not growing?
• Raspberries -- I put our starts in a planter pot and forgot to unplug the stopper on the bottom, so they drowned I think. I hear they are rather hearty (they're invasive after all), so all I need to to is find a spot in the ground for them and they'll come back, too. But nothing this year. 
• Cherries -- Our poor cherry trees. The crows ate all the cherries. Literally I ate one, and Laurel had maybe four. All the rest either fell off and rotted or the crows ate them. There are NONE left on the tree. So strange. Last year I had enough for a fancy slab pie and this year, nothing. If the crows go after my plums I will buy a shotgun.

The remaining unknown is carrots. They're still growing. Nothing to report there.

Here are some of our harvests. The carrots I pulled waaaay too early but I just wanted to see! Everything has been great. Laurel ate the strawberries as soon as they were even remotely red. She also wants the snow peas right off the vine. That girl will eat anything. 

"The gift that keeps on giving" award goes to the soil in general, which has produced all sorts of wild mystery plants that I've identified one by one. The first mystery plant is in fact edible -- red potatoes! I've got a bunch of them growing now. Pretty cool. It took some detective work to figure out what they were, and in fact I pulled several of them, but the big one I left and it's producing real food. I also have had a decent amount of mystery weeds that I let grow, wondering if they were something special, when in fact they were weeds. A couple google searches of "Pacific Northwest weeds" burst that bubble. I currently have two I am trying to identify, I can't bring myself to pull them until I know what they are, although I'm certain they've got to be weeds. 

Well, that's my report. I'm actually keeping a "garden journal" which is cool and documenting this summer's growing exploits. 

hastening

Warning, this is a personal post!! But I've been greatly affected lately because of spiritual things, so here we go. I've been humbled recently thinking about how things are changing. Yes, the world is kinda crazy and it seems like the only way it's headed is downhill, but I think I know better. Not everything is headed downhill.

 The Church has called it a "hastening," as in, "hastening the work of salvation." Since they changed the age for young people who wish to serve missions from 19 to 18 for men and 21 to 19 for women, more missionaries than ever are now out in the field and more work is being done by missionaries and members everywhere.

In April's General Conference several talks inspired me to be mindful of the miracles that the Lord is enacting, miracles of people coming to Christ and finding truth in the gospel. In one, Elder Neil A. Andersen said that just as the Lord is inspiring young people to take the time to serve (1.5 to 2 years out of their young lives!), the Lord is also inspiring people to hear the message who maybe wouldn't before.

I feel stunned, because I have seen this in my own life. In the last 6 months my life has completely changed, and it's for this very reason. The Lord is "softening hearts" all over the world, but more importantly, he softened a heart in my own home. I'm living this miracle. I'm living this hastening.

You see, my husband -- whom I married in the LDS temple in 2003 -- had been inactive since 2005-2006. It took a lot of prayer and consideration for me to decide to even stay married after this "bait and switch," but I decided to stick with it. We had a baby in 2008 and another in 2011. Things have been hard. Really hard. Multiple times I went to the temple and said to God, "OK God, I'm ready to be done with this. Please just let me know that decision is OK," and time and time again, I got the same impression to "just hang on." Stick it out, work on my own faults, be more charitable. I hesitate to admit that these were answers I didn't want to hear, but I listened. I hung on.

Having two kids to care for in Church alone was tough. In my last ward, a young woman who I loved would sit with me every week to help me. In our new ward, I was all alone -- and felt like such a spectacle -- until a nice woman whose children had all grown came up to me and said she had noticed me and wanted to sit with me and help me. She and her husband became my "helpers." They were seriously angels from God during the time Laurel was an infant.

And then.... the hastening happened. It was January 2013. I'll tell you, this year is shaping up to be the awesomest of my life. It didn't happen at all like I imagined it would (and believe me, I had imagined it plenty of times). It happened on Shane's own time -- I suppose in God's time. He made the decision to come back when he was all alone, the kids and I were on vacation visiting family. It was magical to come home and see a change in his eyes and realize the Lord had touched his heart. I didn't want to believe it at first because I didn't want to be disappointed, as I had at certain times before, but as things have progressed I realize this is real and I feel so happy. I just want to pinch myself. Going to Church as a family, watching Conference as a family, having Family Home Evening together, just sitting and talking about spiritual metaphors and observations and questions with him has been AMAZING. I AM SO HAPPY. What joy, what joy, what joy fills my heart. Just today I looked over at him during Sunday School and got teary eyed. This is so exciting.

I can't explain how I did it without him! Just the other day I was thinking about being at Church on my own with the kids and I realized there must have been other unseen angels with me. I know God was with me, helping me keep them calm and allowing me to hear the messages and be uplifted during the hardest part of my life. (It was hard.) So many people came into my life during those years who touched me, helped me, strengthened me. I hope now that those angels (literal and figurative), that calming influence, and that Spirit can now go on to support other members needing comfort and wanting strength.

Truly, a miracle has happened in my own home. I believe I am part of the "hastening." Just recently my mom told me about a man my dad works with who has been inactive for years and is also coming back to Church. A woman I used to visit teach (who I LOVE) but who has been inactive for awhile (despite my best efforts!) is also gradually coming back into activity thanks to her family members (and the Spirit, presumably!). I am SO EXCITED to see these incredible changes, and to tangibly feel the Spirit touching people's lives.

And then I go back to that quote by Elder Andersen.... some people are being inspired to hear the message now who weren't before. Any of my friends? co-workers? neighbors? People I've talked to about the gospel before, but who were not interested, but now feel the stirrings in their hearts? It's a daunting task.

Just this week I was at a park with two mommy friends and their kids and out of nowhere, there were two sister missionaries!! Instead of feeling inspired to share with my friends, I sorta froze. I kneel in prayer at night and ask for missionary experiences, and here was one where I could have introduced my friends to the sisters and maybe something pleasant would have come out of it, but I just bombed. The Lord isn't going to give me any more opportunities if I won't act on the ones I get. Sigh. I went away feeling totally awkward and discouraged, thinking my friends think I'm nuts, but in reality they probably didn't notice a thing and it wasn't awkward for them at all. We're still friends. I care about them. We'll see. 

I remember a friend I had in Seattle told her conversion story, and she knew a man at her work who invited her over and over and over again to Church activities. She politely said no over and over, until one day she said yes. It took multiple times but that man who invited her must have had the Spirit with him and knew she would accept the message. And she did! She was in the Relief Society presidency! It makes me feel like I need to keep asking people....

The Church recently had a broadcast on missionary work, and I was able to watch it with Shane. Overall I just felt like that in the same way the Church "raised the bar" for missionaries (raising the standards of who could serve), the bar is now being raised for us members. We need to do better, be better, live better. Instead of just having a "checklist" to follow for missionary work, we need to be receptive to the Spirit and invite it into our lives and the lives of our friends more. Live by the Spirit. Listen to it. Heed it.

Daunting task, yes.

So I will continue to pray for opportunities, and I'll also pray that that Spirit will strengthen me and help me when I need it. I know this is real, I KNOW these miracles are happening. I can't deny it, and anyone who knows my family and has seen the change inside the walls of my very own home can't deny it either. The Bishop once told me about Shane, "He looks GOOD. Every time I see him he looks better and better." And he does! My handsome husband just looks DIFFERENT. I hardly recognize him. I feel SO BLESSED. So happy.

Believe me when I say things are changing. And yes there are riots on the street because of jury verdicts and Supreme Court cases, and things seem unsettled... but I know a work is being done and it's being hastened by powers I can't fully explain. Things are getting better. As much as I wanted this, I didn't dare expect it. And that's exhilarating.

prized recipe

I need to put this somewhere. So here it is.

This is a sure-fire play-doh recipe that I use all. the. time. I got it from Wesley's preschool. It lasts quite a long time as long as it's kept airtight. As it dries out you can just chuck it, or if too many hands get into it and it's germy you can use it for other things like making baking soda & vinegar "volcanoes." The other nice thing is that it's made with, you know, ingredients, so if kids/babies eat it they won't ge hurt, they'll just get a mouthful of salt. We have a good time around this place. Wesley is ADDICTED to play-doh, and I love that Laurel is taking an interest too. One of my mommy friends knew we were crazy about play-doh and just gave me a HUGE BIN of play-doh accessories that'll bring my children great joy. Now to find the time to sift through them and find them a place to live in our toy chest....

(These are from February 2013...)

(Wesley says, "no Big Airplane, you may not eat play-doh!)

(And a few from December 2012...)

 

Yes. We do play-doh several times a week now.

And now the main event here.....

First:
Heat to boiling 2 cups of water
Add 3 tablespoons oil
Add food coloring if you want (to match your kool-aid below, I recommend it for deeper color)

Combine:
2 1/2 cup flour
1 cup salt
1 Tablespoon cream of tarter
1 pkg unsweetened kool-aid

Mix wet with dry. Let the kids help but remember it was boiling water so it'll be hot.

Knead, and add more flour if necessary to make it less sticky. Keep in an airtight bag and it'll last forever!

getting away for the 4th

Yesterday was delightful.

We woke up and had cold cereal. I started our BBQ in the oven at 10:30 AM. We took BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, chips, and graham cracker squares decorated to look like American flags to a picnic lunch with some friends. It was delightful and the kids played happily on the play set.

The idiots around where we live started shooting off their fireworks by 9 AM. Nap time was cut short, but luckily there was a nap nonetheless.

Then we packed up. We headed to a hotel barely 4 miles from our house. We checked in, jumped on the beds, hit the indoor pool, got the kids baths, ate Papa John's pizza and breadsticks, made microwave s'mores, and fell asleep in a dark, quiet, cool room by 9:30 PM. IT WAS AWESOME. Shane and I had our respective electronic devices to read and entertain ourselves until we wanted shut eye after the kids quieted down.

All night long, war raged outside the windows of our unincorporated Snohomish County house but we weren't there to hear it. AWESOME.

In fact, we KNEW our neighbors were having a party, since they mowed their lawn, set up a canopy in the backyard, and had the grill and patio set all out. I didn't want to be here. At all.

We heard some fireworks from the hotel, barely-in-the-distance fireworks, really. They were hardly noticeable and the kids slept soundly. Also, the hotel was near the airport, Paine Field, and someone teased me that I'd hear airplane traffic all night. Well, I didn't hear a single airplane after 5 PM. Definitely none of the big Boeing ones. Maybe they all got the 4th off?

When we returned home this morning (after a splendid breakfast and another dip in the pool), the carnage in the 1-mile radius around our house was awful. Firework debris everywhere. And we missed it! We missed it all! YAY!!!!!!!!

I imagine when our kids are older maybe this will be fun, but right now, it's not fun. Laurel is a light sleeper. Wesley thinks fireworks are terrifying. Shane had to work this morning. (Solution? We drove 2 cars to the hotel. His commute today was literally 2 minutes.)

Best $122 I EVER SPENT. EVER. We will probably do it next year.