Almost June

 

Happy Memorial Day! Its been a long time since I posted. A really long time. Life happens, and I didn't want to miss a single drop of all of the things that were going on here at home. Having Ben and Megan home with the kids was such a gift to me. I won't go into detail about things but if you are so inclined here is the link to what is going on in their life right now. This one is called:
"They said we shouldn't be alive."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CModFBFWQaY&t=10s


We had a nice visit. I am praying now they get home in one piece and that they will have no more anything on the way home. The weather sure isn't cooperating. We had 13 inches of snow here in California over the weekend. I haven't been able to find just how much rain we got. My plants love it though.

 

  I just had to show you this crazy hydrangea. It is way over my head now and look how high it is on my windows in the back. It really loves this weather.

Last night I fixed Chicken Scampi and I used some of our new bell peppers. As I cut open the first bell pepper, it smelled like roses. It was so sweet and so pretty. I always forget how wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables are fresh from the garden.

I wanted to share the mix I have been putting on my plants this year.
I buy this in bags.
Blood Meal
Bone Meal
Magnesium
Lime
I mix it all together in a large bucket and I just put a tablespoon around the base of the plant. Its dry by the way. With all of the rain its been getting washed down. I have never had tomatoes or bell peppers in May. I was looking at my tomatoes this morning and they are covered in blooms. No blossom rot which has been my bane for a few years. No splits either. I crawled all over the garden on my knees feeding everything on Saturday because I knew that we were going to have rain. I just didn't expect so much rain.

 

I am almost ready to pick beets. They are getting to be such a nice size. When the boys were here they helped me in the garden. They helped me plant sunflowers and some Indian corn. We planted pumpkins and cucumbers and dill. Its all up now. They were such fun to have be my helpers. We spent a lot of time out here. They are such good helpers. It was barely warm enough for them to swim. They could only swim a couple of days because it rained the rest of the time.

 

I just love it that the beans are climbing like this. Its going to be so much fun when the arches are covered in vines.

 

I have to tell you a story. I have never really shared much, but I am obsessed with all things bigfoot.

I listen to stories and I read anything I can get my hands on. I was going to the library on Saturday and there was a man on my way selling these wooden signs. He only had this one bigfoot. I told myself all the way to the library, I did not need a 8 foot big foot. As I drove back from the library it was still there. I stopped and he came home with me. I laughed the whole way home. When I got home Elliot was putting stuff on the lawn and I said, " Hey come help me with my big foot." He stopped and never said too much when Mom opens the back of the  car and we have to carry it where it is now. I asked him, " Is Peter coming home for the weekend?" He said "Yes I think so." He went back to the lawn, and I was laughing to myself as I went and found Ron to show him what I brought home.

He is so good, he didn't even get mad but laughed with me and I admit to chortling quite a bit every time anyone tell me how it scared them. So the stage was all set for Peter to come home. Peter lives in San Diego and gets off work at 11:30 P.M. and drives home. He will get home depending on L.A. traffic sometimes between 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning.

This is what he said on Instagram. " That's all fun and games until you get home at 2am and it scares the daylights out of you. "
I have laughed and laughed.

I have plans for this big foot. His name now is Harvey. Like in the movie by the same name. I am going to put him in the garden so he can be a scarecrow. He is going to go out in the yard around Halloween. I am going to put him out in the trees in the pasture. Lots of plans for him. Right now though, this is his home for now. Until the rain stops.

 

 I hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend.  Remembering those who have gone on and given us the life we have today.
Thank you so much for stopping by today,

~Kim~

You must have a garden. Wherever you are. ---Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patrica MacLachlan, 1985

Guess What?

Guess who will be coming in the driveway today? Only the other direction. Isn't that exciting? Well it is for me. After a whole year of traveling the United States, in every kind of weather, they are going to be home. Of course, we would be having downpours and thunder and lighting today. The storms have chased them home.

I will get to hear all about the travels. I will get to hear all about their new place in North Carolina. I get to feed them. I get to bake and bake. I am so excited. I feel like today is better than Christmas. I am sure the boys will be taller than me.

So a very busy day today, I need to get myself in gear and get about a million things done before they make it home.
This grandma/mom is counting her blessings and feel like its the best Christmas present ever. Tonight they will be sleeping at our house.
God is so good!!

~Kim~

Today, God gives me the desires of my heart, my kids will be home. I will not count the days as they pass, but embrace every tiny bit of time we have. I will not look to the goodbyes, but to the joy of the moment. In every grain of sand, that pours from the bottle. I won't even try to catch the sand in my hand, but open my hands and give back to God freely. Following God is always better, than safety and wishing things were this or that. Dreams are hard work, and full of sweat and tears.
I am glad that our kids all have dreams and they have had the guts to accomplish those dreams.

~Kim~

Spring Notes

 

Good Morning, How are you on this day? I had my birthday this week. It was so nice. I felt very spoiled and loved. One of my sons went on a job interview. I was so happy that it happened on my birthday. Ben and Megan started for home too. Emilie and Nik made it home as well.

It looks like they spent a little time hunting Bigfoot in Northern California.!

 

Nik and Emilie, look like they had a nice vacation. So glad they are home now.

 

I even hooked on my giant rug this week. I really spent a lot of time hooking and it felt so nice to be doing what I love. Well I guess there are so many things I do love its hard to isolate just one thing.

We have a hummingbird that built a nest right outside our bedroom, on the porch. On a light bulb. 

She sits out there on it, I wonder if she will chase us away when her eggs hatch. Right now she watches every single thing we do. I find myself staying away from my bedroom during the day and not sitting on the porch.

We put in a sun shade this weekend. Its helped so much with shading the patio. So you can see why this puts me in a weird place, because I really want to sit out there and hook. But not disturb Mrs. Hummingbird.

I don't know why we didn't do this sooner. Its made it so nice in the living room in the late afternoon.
When we went to Tucson, that house there had one, and it was amazing how much shade it provided, I had never even thought about one before.

Our bathroom is back to being a bathroom and not a greenhouse. The last of our plants will be planted this weekend. The ones we grew from seed. The ground is warm enough now. Some of the melons I have planted already have blooms. That just amazes me.

I should get outside. I need to grab my little shovel and my plants and get to planting. Its May now, so I am going to be planting sunflowers. This morning we had a green parrot flying over scolding because there were no sunflowers to eat. I normally have a few that came up over the winter but this year I don't for some reason.

Have a lovely day,

~Kim~

“You have, to dream things out. It keeps a kind of an ideal before you. You see it first in your mind and then you set about to try and make it like the ideal. If you want a garden,—why, I guess you've got to dream a garden.”
― Bess Streeter Aldrich, A Lantern in Her Hand

Almost May

 

All of the pictures of sunflowers are the sunflowers of the past. I have none up yet.

 Can you believe its almost May? We had a thunder and lighting storm this morning. Rare for here, and the rain is nice.
That too is rare for here. I am excited for May. Ben and Megan will be home. Emilie and Nik will be home, and Peter is home now. It was a exciting week for me. Ben and Megan will sign papers on the new property in North Carolina this week. Makenzie was voted best photographer in our town. Nik graduated from Seminary. Peter got his second job. I know I am forgetting something. I had a lady sign up for the Bible Study I am leading in May. So all very cool things. I feel in awe of God and that He just is who He is.

Have I ever shared with you my favorite word I learned this year from the Bible?
The word is called Hesed.
It means:" When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything."

Isn't that cool? I feel like in every area and in every place in my life, in spite of what is going on in the world, there are bits of light and my life. It is like a kaleidoscope. My life might look like bits of colored glass with no shape or content, but when God turns the tube in my life, everything come out in beautiful designs. Each one different and each one unique. Why? because He is lovingkindness. It is who He is and what His nature is and He is Hesed.

 

I always have this question in my mind sometimes, and since I am doing 12 Extrodinary Women by John MacArthur this summer and the first women we will study will be Eve. This question pops up when I am thinking and studying. " Yeah, but would you love God if He didn't do good things in your life? Are you a fair weather believer? So I ponder that all of the time. Would I walk away if bad things happened? Would you? What about those things that are beyond my ability to grasp.

In my mind, my answer is, well, yes I suppose I might walk away, but where would I go, and I am so glad that faith doesn't depend on me. It all belongs to God and because He is Hesed, I can just rest in who He is today. Only today. Not yesterday, not in the future, only today.
One of my favorite prayers is this:

Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! Habakkuk 3:17-19

 

I share sometimes only in the good things that are going on, I don't like to share the messy underbelly of my life. Its there believe me. In the world we have so much bad news. All the time, that I choose to leave that part out. We all have hard things and things that seem to not make sense. I have learned in this year, that as God has pried my fingers one by one by all that I was clutching so tightly in my hands.This is one I will share.

I have too much stuff. I decided that this year, what I would do in 2019 to do was to do it scared. Everything.
I have done things I never dreamed I could do this year. I have to say I do it scared all the time. I cleaned my shed the week Ron was home. Elliot helped and we got rid of so much stuff. But in my shed I had four school desks. Those desks were the 25 years we did school at home. Those desks represented all I had done. The picture in my mind of the school room and spending my days and weeks and years educating the kids. The good times and bad. Wednesday morning Elliot said, he had a friend and they were going to haul off the desks. Silly I know, but I really thought I was going to have a heart attack.  I couldn't breathe, it was like, my life was officially over. My past life was gone.
So they loaded them up and hauled them away.

While they were gone, I walked out to the shed. I stood and looked at all of the room I now had. I thought about each kid that is now an adult. How each one is going off in a different direction. How proud I am that they are going in the direction God has for them how by giving my life for them for those years in the school room, they are each different and each unique. Not because of desks, but because of the time we had. Because of God and His plan.

Letting go is about moving on and doing it scared. Trying things even if I fail. Getting up every time I
can't see the next step to take. Walking down a path, I have no idea where its going, but I know I am not alone, now or then or ever.

Now if you are still here reading this twaddle. Thank you. May is filled with good things. I am excited every time I do something scared. I am excited for the future. I am thankful for all of the hard things, because in them, I see that God is greater than I can even imagine.
Have a wonderful week, May is almost here,

~Kim~

“The summer,' Randy explained. 'I'm going to appreciate it. I'm going to walk in the woods noticing everything, and ride my bike on all the roads I never explored. I'm going to fill a pillow with ladies' tobacco so I can smell it in January and remember about August. I'm going to dry a big bunch of pennyroyal so I can break pieces off all winter and think of summer. I'm going to look at everything, and smell everything, and listen to everything so I'll never forget --”
― Elizabeth Enright, Then There Were Five