Don't Be Content to Just Staple

This fall, I am undertaking a new challenge, a new adventure. For the past nine years the women's group at our church has been in the very extremely capable hands of our Pastor Susan Watson. At the end of our Women of the Word (WOW) year last year, I felt God nudging me to become more involved with this group. I was sure Susan could use some help making copies or stapling papers together so I sent her an e-mail asking if she could use me in any way. Meanwhile she felt God nudging her to get me more involved, but in a much different way. She asked if I would be willing to be involved more with programming and become really involved in all aspects of WOW. It wasn't what I expected, but after meeting with Susan a couple times this summer and now with our kick-off less than a week away, I'm filled with anticipation and excitement of where God will take this ministry.

I do not look at this move as taking over this program, but rather I feel that I am partnering with Susan. Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us: A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. (New Living Translation). I see Susan and I as 2 strands and adding God, WOW becomes a strong cord that is not easily broken.

Once again, God taught me a lesson through this. So often when we think of things we can do to further the kingdom, we think about copying or stapling, but God says, "oh child, I have something so much bigger, so lean on me in faith and see what I can do through you."

I'm encouraged by Susan's confidence in me to partner with her, we have some amazing ladies with incredible gifts and I'm looking forward to seeing what God is going to do through us.

Much love,

An Aching Heart

This past March, my cousin Dan and his wife, Jane, lost their 24-year-old son, Thomas. I can't comprehend losing a child, I just can't wrap my head around the pain and hurt of that. I had such a feeling of loss when my dad passed away, but that is still the natural order of things. Losing a child is not. I struggle to understand how the God who loves us, also allows such pain. Now as Jane and Dan go on, they enter the season of "firsts."

In June, Dan and Jane had their first extended family vacation without Thomas, a tradition they have celebrated for many years. I received a text from Dan's sister asking me to pray for Dan and Jane as it was the week for this family vacation. At the time, we were on our way to Ohio and literally at a standstill on I-80 on the south side of Chicago. I had my ipod with me and put on some praise music to prepare my heart to pray for Dan and Jane. As I sat there, offering prayer for Dan and Jane, I looked outside of the window and there on the side of the road were some birds looking for something to eat. They would pick up little white pieces, realize they were only little stones and spit them back out. I don't know if there was any food out there, but they were persistent in looking for it. As I watched them, I was reminded of Matthew 6:26:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I know God loves Dan and Jane, I know He is holding them close, I know He understands their hurt because He suffered the same thing with his own Son. Dan and Jane are an inspiration, they live out Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Despite pain and hurt, they continue to praise God and seek Him and God has blessed them with hope and a future with the birth of a granddaughter, Emmaline.

Recently, I heard this song on the radio and the words touched me as I pray for Dan and Jane and how they continue to show what it means to live a life of faith.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching(s) of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

--Laura Story--

One More Thing About Gardening

I forgot to mention in my previous post, that I got a beautiful canteloupe from my garden. Except I didn't plant any canteloupe.

Lots To Learn About Gardening

There is so much talk these days about eating fresher and better foods and more and more people are growing their own food. When I was young, growing up in Sheboygan Falls, we had a huge garden and, as a child, I remember helping to maintain it. But it doesn't appear that much of what I was taught stuck with me. I do remember my mom canning vegetables in the kitchen with the whole place all steamed up and the noisy rattle of her pressure cooker. We did not have air conditioning and I am wondering how hot was that?

So this year I decided that I try planting a garden and I did learn a few things:

1. Gardening sounds like a lot more fun in April than July.

2. Put your garden close to a water source.

3. Know what you want before you plant the plant, i.e., tomatoes/peppers.

So armed with little knowledge, I went and bought some tomato and pepper plants, got some bean seeds from Target and researched what I needed to do to get healthy raspberry bushes.

My beans started out looking like I was going to have an ABUNDANT crop. I bunny proofed them with cayenne pepper and something else and that seemed to work so well I was starting to wish I had shared some of them with the bunnies. The first and even the second time I picked them, I had beautiful beans. So my friend, Betty, came over and helped me can them.

I haven't tried these guys yet so the jury is still out on how they taste. But so far, so good. But then something started to happen to the beans. The leaves looked terrible and I would get itty bitty beans that stayed itty bitty. So I think lesson #2 would have helped that.

Next, tomatoes. I don't like to eat tomatoes as just tomatoes. I like salsa, I like ketchup, I like to use tomato sauce for various things. So I went to a plant place and told them exactly what I wanted to do with the tomatoes and I could tell they were really just helping at this place and weren't exactly sure what I needed any more than I did. But off I went with my tomato plants and this is what I have:

Seriously, I would need like a million of these to make a couple batches of sauce. And they're yellow. I want red tomato sauce.

For my salsa recipe, I needed some hot green peppers and some sweet green peppers. On my plant I'm getting little red peppers. About one every other week.

The raspberries ..... I'm overwhelmed by all the "advice" I found by googling "care of raspberries." I did get about 16 raspberries this year though, more than last year, and I understand it takes a while for them to really get going so maybe I'm heading in the right direction.

Since I ask people who are more experienced gardeners than me, which is everyone who has a garden, I'm getting some good advice. I learned I should look for "paste" or "beefsteak" tomatoes for my sauce and where to get paste tomatoes. Thanks, Brenda, for your recipes and your good advice on preserving. I'm already planning my garden for next year keeping in mind that August has been a lot cooler than July.

The End of the Hillside Season

This year, my hillside was the best it has been since I started this project. Oh, yes the weeds are still abundant and there are still "holes" that need to be filled, but the plants were bigger and more abundant than they have ever been. I was disappointed that their bloom faded so quickly. I don't know if the hot, Really hot, dry weather in July hurried their demise or if that's just their life span. I also see that this will never be a tidy flower garden. I don't know what the first pioneers saw as they entered into Iowa, but plants die as others bloom so there are always plants that have lost their bloom and dying mixed in.

Unfortunately, I had to neglect it quite a bit during July as temperatures were in the high 90's, but felt like 120! That's just not for me, but with the return of tolerable weather, I have been able to get out there and I am pleased to say that I Think I am conquering the vetch that I have been battling since I started this project. Oh there's still quite a bit of it out there but it has gone from 95+% to I would say less than 50.

Here is a little flock of butterflies that landed on a spot where we had just watered, I think looking for some relief from hot and dry.

I also see a lot of these little guys a I'm out pulling out the weedy business and trying not to destroy their habitat.

When I was down at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago, I learned about monarchwatch.org and I ordered a monarch waystation to plant next spring which will be perfect for one of those "holes" I was talking about.

My hillside slopes towards the back of our property so hardly anyone sees it. My sister-in-law Cindy told me it's too bad I can't throw it up like a table cloth and reverse it. My neighbor recently told me they could see it from their house, but it was too bad no one else could. In a way it is too bad, but earlier I have talked about how it's a sanctuary, my place of rest and peace, my place of worship and while it would be nice to share it, I think I'm fine with it just the way it is.

Football and Me

I am fascinated with football. I don't watch American Idol, Cake Boss, The Bachelor, even missed the Golden Globes, but during the fall and well into winter, there is usually a football game on my TV. I watch the NFL Network, ESPN and pregame shows. I read Packers.com and packersnews.com. While I can pay attention to all of football, clearly the biggest part of my football heart belongs to the Green Bay Packers.
I think it started when I was about 12 or 13. I remember Sunday afternoons sitting in the room we called the "den" of our family home watching Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Paul Hornung, Vince Lombardi, et. al. on our black and white TV. While we watched, I remember my dad explaining how you had four chances to make 10 yards, but if you didn't make in 3, you usually had to kick the ball to the other team. He taught me that you got 6 points for a touchdown and then an opportunity to get another point by kicking it through the uprights. He very patiently taught me the rules of football. After the Packers were victorious once again, he would change the channel to another game and I would ask him who we were for in that game. He always told me we didn't care. He also taught me that "The Bears, oh the Bears they play dirty." To this day, I think the Bears play dirty, but I don't think the Packers have ever made a dirty play in the history of the franchise. Packer football during my high school years in the early 70's was very different. Gone were all the greats and also the wins. My dad would hold his newspaper in front of his face like he wasn't really watching, but down came the paper quickly when something didn't go right. But by then Packer football had become a part of my DNA and so I suffered through the 70's and 80's and then Brett Favre made Packer football exciting again, then down again and earlier this year, Aaron Rodgers joined Bart Starr and Brett Favre in leading the Packers to another Super Bowl win.
Now we really days away from beginning another season and to say hopes are high for the Packers doesn't begin to describe the Packer Fever raging through Packer fans. So let the games begin and GO PACK GO!