garden update

Here's our garden at the beginning.

Here it is now!!
Here is where the broccoli was (as in past tense).

A little bit of red peeking through.

a ginormous zucchini leaf
a cute cluster

so incredible!

So....when my parents are out of town, one reason that I have a great time is because I get to do all the cooking, shopping, cleaning, experimenting, etc...It's like having my own place. Yay!!! (Not that I don't have a great time when my parents are home but....you get the picture.)

Ok. So we have a percolator coffee pot and it has desperately been in need of a clean for a very.long.time.!!! I know my Mom has cleaned it before with vinegar and water but I wanted to find a solution on my own. So where do 20-something-year-olds turn? None other than GOOGLE!!!

By the way. When you google "how to clean", the first thing to come up is uggs. That is hilarious. And I never would have even known what uggs were until I started cleaning for my fave's this past winter. And I guess I didn't know that they were (apparently) so difficult to clean. Because why else would they be the very first thing to pop up on google when you type how to clean. Anyways. I digress.

So through nifty-thrifty google, I found out that you can use baking soda and water. Tried it. Didn't really work.

However, on the same page, someone mentioned those dishwasher tablets. Bought some of those on a great deal at the local grocery store this afternoon. Popped one in. And OH.MY.WORD.!!!!! Did it EVER work!!! I called my Mom to tell her. And they were at dinner. In San Francisco somewhere. She wasn't as excited. But I am so pumped!!! It's still a little grungy up at the top where the water didn't quite reach. On the website that I popped on to through nifty-thrifty google, someone said that it made their percolator look like new. Seriously. It does.

Moral of the story: if you have a percolator, GO right now and clean your percolator. You'll be so glad you did!

keeping time

I know these are terribly unassuming pictures. But I was working in the kitchen this morning and thought I'd tell you a little story.

My mom has had this little daily flip calendar for years. It's made up of quotes and portions of sermons from Dr. Bob, Sr. When she was sick, we would only flip the calendar if she was home. It was our way to keep track of when the last time Mom had been home.

I was looking at it this morning and realized that we haven't flipped the calendar in a few days. It's now July 21st and it hasn't been flipped since Sunday, July 19th. That means that Mom has been gone since Monday.

Do ya'll have any interesting, quirky, unique ways of keeping time or an unassuming tradition?

It has fallen in the dishwater a few times over the many years as you can see by the warped pages.

Here it is sitting perilously close to the edge!

heart2head

So many things in our society reference the experience of "finding yourself" or "getting in touch with your inner-self". This is Biblically incorrect.

Proverbs 18:2

A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

heart2head INTRODUCTION

I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase, "You have a head knowledge but not a heart knowledge." This is implying that a person has a school knowledge of a subject but don't really believe it.

However, in my life, I have found that sometimes I have a heart knowledge but not head knowledge. Let me explain. I know something is true because I know that it is in the Bible but I just don't quite know where.

Well, that's changing. I've been burdened to start memorizing what I believe for quite a while. Then, my brother went on a trip to Israel with a group from our church plus other graduates from our church's college. There was a family that went (it was a father plus his three grown sons) and they are all in full-time Christian service. Anyways, my brother had a great time with them and getting to know these men better. One of the things that Geoff commented on was that when they stated the reason why we (as Christians) do something, they always backed it up with a Scripture verse.

Here's an easy example that we all are familiar with: Kids are supposed to obey their parents. Why? Because it says in Ephesians 6:1, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right."

Of course that's an easy example but there are so many times when I know something that I see or hear or read in the newspaper is not Biblically correct but I cannot point to a Scripture verse. Shame on me!!

Here's is the verse that is convicting. I Peter 3:15, "...and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." The thought is continued in verse 16.

I have found that when I write (or type) a thought down, I tend to remember it better. So for the benefit of myself and (hopefully) to be a blessing to ya'll, I am going to start a series of heart2head. This will help aid me in the memorization process and be a resource for me.

plans for this week:

• get feelin' better
• work
• weed the gardens
• give the gardens some TLC
• water the gardens
• fertilize the gardens (get the picture?)
• make a few more song visuals for bus
• get visuals laminated (this is huge)
• work on my summer goals (see side bar)

Because...I'm gonna have a little extra time this week.

Because...my parents are gonna be out of town for a few days.

OH!

And...my mom has a very small family. She has no brothers or sisters. My Granny (my Mom's mom) only had one sister. And she only had three kids. (Confused?) Long story short...my Mom only has three cousins for extended family. Well, one of her cousins and his family is coming up to visit at the end of this week. They are going to be in our great state doing a seminar (or something like that) and are going to make the drive up here to see my Granny (my Mom's cousin's Aunt). In the meantime, we get to spend a little time with them. I'm so excited. And I don't think I have ever met any of their kids. They have 6. And the oldest is 17. So, in other words, my Mom's family doesn't get together very often. So I'm very excited!

I found this verse while doing a word search here.

Jeremiah 13:16

Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

Very, very good!