Longing for the Garden

It's the end of February. Lent! Lent snuck up so quickly I barely had the Christmas decorations away. And, well, that's not so unusual for me anyway. I love Christmas decorations and see no need to scurry around putting them away, even after the Epiphany. After all, the liturgical season of Christmas lasts longer than that. But I did get them away before Ash Wednesday. So that's good.

Now we are in the dead of winter. But here in Michigan the weather has been confusing. Some days feel more like March with its familiar tease of warmer days to come. And some are bitterly cold as is typical in February.

Still, I'm longing for planting weather for the garden.

The daffodils are as confused as I am. It's not Spring, dear ones. Please stay hidden and safe.

The moss is still staying green, reminding us of warm weather to come.

The Hens and Chicks in their patio container MIGHT come back in Spring. Here's hoping!

No, this cherry tomato plant is very much dead, although there is a bit of hope that it might reseed itself.

I include it in these photos because even seeing its dead leaves reminds me of such fun times with my three-year-old granddaughter Josie. She just loved picking the cherry tomatoes. "Here, Nana, you hold the basket," she would say as she reached her tiny fingers into places I truly could not reach.

Long after the plant was surely dead I would see her peering intently from the window at the plant, clearly hoping to get one last glimpse of something red.

But the real heroes of the Michigan cold are these winter pansies. I bought them last fall hoping they might last a month or two. They are very hardy plants and can even survive some frosts. You can see they are not blooming but they are clearly not dead either. When it goes below zero they wilt up a bit but they are not dead yet.

They are not a landscaping element on my front walkway, no, but they bring a smile to my face and my heart whenever I pass them. They live. Even in adversity they live. In their case, it is life-threatening adversity, weather cold enough to kill them. And yet they hang on.

Oh, Author of Life, please give me and the people I love this kind of tenacity. May we cling always to your faithfulness and your promises knowing that whatever we face in this life Spring is still coming.

God is good. All the time.

Baptismal Day--O Happy Day!

 My sixth grandchild was baptized yesterday. Such a wonderful, joyful day. The grace of God was all over it. Such peace. Such a sense of gratitude for all that God has done and continues to do.

All but one of my grandchildren were there. (The missing one was sick.)

Just looking at my children and grandchildren fills me with joy. I know I'm extremely biased but they are adorable. There was a large immersion Baptismal font that pulled the kids like a magnet, to put it mildly.

Father explained to the children before the Baptism started that we only put our hands in the holy water when we are going to bless ourselves. You should have seen them, repeatedly dipping in a little finger and then making a quick little sort-of Sign of the Cross. The seven-year-old, the only one who could really do it would make his Sign of the Cross with a slight head bow and then look at me as if to say, "Is this OK?" before doing it again like the others. I always gave him a little smile, resisting the impulse to say, "Stop playing with the holy water." Not my children. Not my responsibility. My job is to just love them. And that's what I did. 

Glory to God. He is so good.

Grandchildren-- the Best!!!

 Just returned from a delightful three day visit with my son and his family. Grandchildren. They are the best. So cute. So engaging. So wonderfully devoted to their grandparents and the feeling is mutual.

When we arrived they came running out of the house yelling, "Nana! Grandpa!!" Their faces were filled with delight, as were ours. 

I took a walk later with my three-year-old grandson when he saw a neighbor. "Hi," he shouted. Then, "This is my Nana!" Heaven must be something like this.

We played a simple board game called Orchard. The dice rolls one of four colored circles so, no need to know numbers. Each player gets a little wicker basket in which to collect the little fruit that is the same color that you rolled. For very young children this is a fun game because there is nothing complicated about it. And all the players are working together to collect all the fruit before the raven comes to eat all of it. 

I must have rolled the dice eight times in a row turning up the blue circle for plums each time. They thought it was hilarious and I was able to share their sense of humor, even exaggerating it, in a way that does not happen with adults. "Blue?? Again?!?!" They laughed hilariously as did I. Was it funny? Yes. But mine was more a laugh of delight in sharing the mindset of young children.

With grandchildren your only job is to love. I tell them how great they are, how smart they are. When I'm not speaking to them I'm loving them with my eyes.

Raising them is not my responsibility. I don't need to set boundaries except to enforce the parents' boundaries when I'm babysitting. I always support the parents and try to reinforce whatever their rules are. I don't make any rules. It's great.

It's so much fun to just love. All children bring joy into the world. But grandchildren bring a unique joy-- the joy of familial bonds, of seeing the next generation, of delighting in that child just for being who they are. 

God is good.

Weeding- Avoiding Procrastination As Well as Perfectionism.

 

All right. It's been a while. Time to write here again.

I spent several hours weeding my gardens this morning. It was not too hot and I knew I'd get more done in the morning than later in the day. 

Just as in life, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the presence of weeds in the garden. We finally had several days of good rain and the weeds clearly loved it.

The challenge for me in weeding is to not let procrastination or perfectionism get an opening. It's easy to put off weeding. Well, the weeds will be easier to pull when they're a little bigger. You know, more to hang onto. Yeah. Well, maybe.

Or on the other side perfectionism pipes up. -- there are too many weeds. I will never catch up so why get started. It's a losing battle. To fight this thinking I make my goals small. I'll just get the ones right around the plants first. Those are the ones stealing nutrients from the beloved flowers and veggies. Or...I'll just do what I can in one hour. Or even a half hour.

Invariably, I get more pulled than I had planned. Why? Because it doesn't take that long to weed. And...truth be told, I kind of like weeding. Why? Because it gives me a chance to hang out with the flowers and veggies and they give me joy.

I'm thinking theres a spiritual metaphor here. Procrastinating about pulling weeds is akin to ignoring sins and character flaws we'd like to get rid of. It's too hard. That's just the way I am. It's not that bad, etc.

Perfectionism convinces us not to try. The effort is too great. I will never succeed. Why try, etc.

Oh Lord, please help me to avoid the extremes--to be diligent and work hard but also to be humble enough to realize I will not perfectly succeed but I may indeed please the God mercy who likes the effort.

Weight Loss Wednesday

 Good News: I'm down 1.1 pound since last week. Very happy about this. I am trying to eat more mindfully, paying attention to whether or not I am actually hungry, and only eating when I genuinely am. (and only eating what is necessary, not as much I as I want!!)

Overall Loss: Down 4.1 pounds. That's cool.

All kinds of reasons to lose weight: I want to stay healthy. I want to keep up with my grandchildren. I want to go easy on the aging joints. And I want to be good to the body God has given me. I want to honor His gift by taking good care of it.

God is good. All the time.

Weight Loss Wednesday

 Good news! I'm down 3.4 pounds! That's over two weeks since I didn't post last week.

Why didn't I post last week? Because I was very sick with a gastrointestinal bug. Yeah, very sick. Yes, yes, that does account for some of the loss. But a loss is a loss, right? I didn't gain it back after my recovery.

Note to self: Keep eating mindfully. Do NOT eat when you are not hungry and DO stop when you are full!

 Am I serious about want to lose weight or not. Being serious means not trying to eat as much as I can get away with. It means eating as little as I need. :-)

Here's moving forward!

Weight Loss Wednesday

 OK! Good news. I am down. I am down two pounds from last week and 2.8 overall. (Because I had a gain one week.)

Note to self: Good job eating mindfully. I have to continue not just eating for fun, but only if I'm hungry. Also need to stop when I'm full. Keep reminding myself that this is not a matter of eating as much as I can get away with. It's a matter of eating healthfully and only as much as I need.