I was journaling yesterday, thanking God for His mercies, new and old… New mercies: electricity, sunrise, oranges and lemons waiting to be processed and preserved, Bonus Teen’s joy in helping and interest in learning, hugs and prayers with the Hub, strong machines to do laundry and dishes, abundant food and Read more…
The reduced number of social interactions lately has provided me with some extra time to spend sprucing up the yard and garden, unearthing some buried paving stones along with Bermuda grass stems and rhizomes. This has netted some interesting bird-watching opportunities. From the window over the desk in our “library,” Read more…
We have been blessed with a house on a good-sized lot, and since the first year we lived here, I have had a vegetable garden and some fruit-bearing plants. Fruitful? Indeed! Beautiful? Hmmm…maybe not so much. For a while. I have been asking God to give me what I needed Read more…
Picking up where we left off…after some more-or-less quiet time with Jesus, an everyday event in this disciple’s life is meal planning. What in the world does meal planning have to do with following Jesus?! At the end of this “following” is a great feast! The Marriage Supper of the Read more…
It started with the death of a lizard – a gecko, actually. We have bugs in our house. The big kind you can hear coming, or the kind that try to sing you to sleep at night. My tendency is to smash first and think about the consequences later. This Read more…
I heard Jesus inviting me to come away one Saturday morning not long ago, or I would have remained in bed despite the urging of my alarm. (Exhaustion seems to be the theme of my life lately.) Yet there I was. I was not alone. I had anxiety, fear, burdens, Read more…
Someday I will write a book called, “Eternal Vigilance Is the Price of Grapes.” As easy as it is to grow grapevines, tending them so as to get a bountiful harvest is an ongoing struggle. One year there are grape-leaf skeletonizers. The next year there are leaf-hoppers and thrips. If Read more…
Sitting on the back porch, enjoying the unseasonably cool weather . . . trying to find peace. There are more things on my “to do” list than I can possibly get done! Guests coming to sleep in a guest room with no flooring and missing woodwork . . . a Read more…
Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well. — Matthew 6:33 So…about those leaf-hoppers… My current theory (or insight) is that the tiny, sap-sucking things are very like the “secret” critic that often infests the places that Jesus means me to live Read more…
I have a leaf-hopper problem. They are not usually a big enough issue for the “insects of the garden” book to give more than a nod to dealing with them. But they ruined last year’s grape crop. Instead of the hundred pounds I expected, I got about twenty-five, if that. Read more…