"O" is still for Overalls

It's been two years since I wrote that sweet little "'O' is for Overalls" post about Gemma.  Two very fast, full years!

Today, Ruth was wearing the same outfit (and she's just about the same age!), so I brought the camera along with me while I was hanging clothes on the line to take a few fall shots.  

The mums are the same, and my rosemary and thyme are much bigger!  Two years ago, I had some basil which was just about done.  I haven't had any since, and I miss it!  But I do have some tomatoes in--just recently resprouted some and replanted them.  The new plants seem happy; we'll see how they do!  

So much less hair . . . and still uses a pacifier.  I'd forgotten that Gemma gave hers up by this time (sort of accidentally--we lost it, and then she wouldn't take one anymore).

She's such a little darling, though!  She's just starting to crawl up on her knees, and pulling up a bit, too.  She loves to stand.  :)  She blows raspberries and babbles a lot.

Big sister, reminiscent of the struggles we had with naps at 10 months, is not napping anymore.  But she IS singing nursery rhymes, as much as she sings!  She loves pretending--she'll nurse a wad of pine straw or her toothbrush to sleep and have her markers go potty.  She finally named one of her babies Cinthia Baby!  And she thinks that "Winnie the Pooh" is "Winnie OF the Pooh."  :)

It's good for me to pause and reflect on these precious moments, because we do find discipline and potty-training very draining much of the time.  Ruth mostly sleeps better than Gemma did at this age, and I think part of it is because we've learned more since then, both through experience and reading.  Hopefully it will be the same the second time around with the disciplining and pottying.  I read a quotation by Elisabeth Elliot today which was very encouraging in this respect.  She said, "Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering.... The love of God did not protect His own Son.... He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process." 

It's easy to pinpoint the most painful episodes of suffering in our experience--a breakup, loss of a baby, bike accident and burglary were some of the hardest things I've been through.  I think others can relate to the nagging question "What is God going to test me with next?"  I've been thinking lately that maybe this isn't the best approach to have toward suffering.  Yes, more tough times will probably come, but that doesn't mean that I should pull up my bootstraps and toughen my heart so that I won't ever hurt like that again.  The suffering we Christians go through is to make us more like Jesus.

I've also been thinking about how the sanctifying work of "suffering" doesn't always present itself in the form of a painful episode.  Sometimes it's just about persevering through another semester with a tough professor, another year with a challenging class of students, another sleepless night with sick children, yet another accident on the rug.  We pray and hopefully learn our lessons along the way, instead of just reflecting back upon them after the trouble is over.  While parenting really isn't suffering (it's mostly joy!), it is sanctifying.  We cannot demand that God make it easy for us just because He loves us, since He is teaching us through the struggles.  He is with us in our storms, and He is also with us when it's just cloudy and depressing for weeks.

I digress.

Happy Fall.  :)

Monday Recently

How quickly the Mondays fly by! I've had this little post in mind for weeks...

It was a Monday recently when the gloriously beautiful weather drove us outside. And while someone was doing this: 

And someone else was doing this:

I trimmed the wild-looking vine which grows against the fence and finally mustered up the courage to cut back our rose bush. It looks much healthier now!

Just for fun, I twisted up the long pieces of vine,

And hung them beside the front door.

And the sprigs of green I trimmed off the rise found their way to the kitchen windows. :)

That's almost it for the gardening this year! I have to keep things small--I am not a green thumb by nature. I must have missed that gene! But some friends have us their leftover tomato plants, so I put those in. And I actually did a bit of an experiment inspired by something I saw on Pinterest! Each plant has a whole raw egg under its roots. I cracked the egg under the first of the four, and it's presently thriving the most. Perhaps we'll have some tomatoes this year!

My Herb Garden :-)

I didn't do much housewifery from the end of February to the beginning of April, but I did get to reap the benefits of my mom's and mom-in-law's skills!

For some of the culinary highlights: we made and ate WONDERFUL, chewy Italian no-knead bread, a new version of chicken and dumplings, and cinnamon scones. We had cinnamon scones several times. :-D And when I write "we made and ate" I mean "John's mom made and I ate."

In other food highlights, we bought some mouth-watering sushi and Greek yoghurt. I quickly fell in love with Greek yoghurt! Mom also made chicken with goat cheese sauce from a recipe which I've had since my wedding but never had the nerve to try, and it was savory and scrumptious! We fared quite well under the care of our two mothers.

The outdoor highlight is my new herb garden! We noticed that the bushes around half of the kitchen patio were strangely dead, so my sweet mom dug them out and replanted the bed with parsley, basil, rosemary and thyme, with some lobelia for color. Oh, I love herbs.

Our "Garden" Is Growing

Hopefully in another week or two, we'll be thinning and eating our baby lettuce greens!

This tomato is doing the best of the three, though I'm not sure why.  It already has a blossom!

The cilantro is growing beautifully, but something ate the parsley clean off.  

I moved them inside for now, but it may be hopeless for the parsley.

P.S.  I just put up a poll for our bedroom paint color!  I'd love to hear what you think.

First Gardening Attempts

I haven't always been a huge fan of gardening, but the prospect of cheap, fresh, backyard vegetables is just too hard to argue with!  So, we're starting with baby steps.  We're starting with pots.  Providentially, the previous owners of the house left a whole lot of big pots behind!

So far we have lettuce sprouting from seed,

and some tomatoes I just put in, 

and cilantro and parsley, which I'm trying again after the first ones died.

How Can It Be Spring . . .

. . . already? 

 

I'm not complaining.  :-)

Poor Mouse

This photo is actually over a month old, but even into the midst of December, this pot was almost as green as ever on our kitchen patio.  It's one of the sap buckets Grandpa Smith bought at an auction some time ago.  Mom and Aunt Andrea planted them all with mint and annuals to decorate our wedding reception and we brought one with us, yay.

The real reason for the random picture posting is that today we finally caught a mouse!  Finally. 

I post pictures because I like looking at pictures and figured that other people probably do, too.  But I already promised that there would be no mouse pictures.  In fact, I hardly looked at it myself.  (This is yet another benefit of having a husband who works from home.) 

To back up, when we returned from our January travels, I kept finding mouse droppings all over.  Oh, they were on a cookie sheet under the stove, on the binding of a cookbook on the counter and, yes, still in the towel drawer where I stashed the dryer sheet.  It seems I spoke too soon about the effectiveness of dryer sheets in scaring mice away.  Just a few minutes ago, I was dusting around the computer and found mouse droppings back there.  I do realize that some of you are probably resolving NEVER to visit us on cottage lane as you read this!  But please reconsider; we're trying to fix the problem!

I can just imagine those little mice having a fiesta while we were gone.  There were certainly plenty of nibbled gingerbread ornaments on our, ahem, still standing tree to keep them busy.

It was when I found some droppings in the linen closet that I finally alerted John.  It was just too much and he agreed.  We've had the traps out randomly in the kitchen and I didn't honestly expect to catch anything last night, but he set one in the linen closet anyway.  Success.

Of course, the moment I saw the poor mouse I felt pity for it.  Hey, I wouldn't have minded if they'd enjoyed our gingerbread cottage for a Christmas feast, but they can't be soiling our house.  I know that I could have cleaned the trap myself, and therefore didn't need to prove it to anyone, okay?  My sweet husband dumped the little thing and expressed some pity on it himself.  Yet, in the spirit of manly and womanly dominion (the subject of a conference we both recently attended), we're confident that we're not trespassers on this earth or in our home.  The mouse and all his friends must go.  If you're a friend of that dead mouse, you may fear for your life.

The Last Rose of "Summer"

One of the surprises awaiting us when John and I drove home as newlyweds for the first time was a rosebush.  Near it was a card--it was a wedding gift from John's realtor!  I like this realtor.  :-)  The name of the rose is "Double Delight," fitting for a wedding gift, and very fragrant and lovely.  There were a couple of buds on the bush when it came to us, and as they opened it became apparent that its name comes from its color.  While the bud is a vibrant pink, when it bursts forth into full bloom, the dominant color is a creamy white, with its first pink petals singing back-up vocals along the outside. 

Besides dumping water on it occasionally and moving it to the sun, I neglected the rosebush for the first couple of weeks in favor of more pressing house-matters.  Finally, when things were somewhat settled and I discovered that we did indeed have a digging-type-of-shovel, I had no more excuses.  Without realizing it, John even pushed me toward action by some reverse psychology . . .

"We probably don't even need to plant it.  We can just enjoy it the way it is."

"But it will eventually die!  And it would be sad to lose a rosebush." 

I listened to my own voice of reason, picked up some bone meal and potting soil and started digging, hoping it would "take" to its new home in our little backyard. 

It did. 

And now, though it seemed to be done for a season, the third of a recent series is in full array, her head drooping with her own weight on this rainy day. 

I think it will be a good day for baked beans and sweet potatoes.  I hope the beans get soft this time.

My little herbs are still growing, too!  The cilantro is growing several frilly, characteristic leaves, and the parsley is starting a few of its own. 

Light of God

I am quickly beginning to love the music of Keith and Kristyn Getty more and more.  One reason I love it is that it's proof that there are some hymns being written today that are doctrinally substantial and not merely emotional.  Another reason is that they're Irish.  :-D  And, finally, it's just plain beautiful and true. 

We sang this one in church last Wednesday and Sunday.

Light of God

Light of God, come dwell within Your people, as intended from the dawn of time.
Make Your goodness, echoed through creation, our desire; Joy of the Divine. 

Light of God, come to Your fallen people, as we follow in the steps of Christ.
May Your fragrance beautify Your people, as we mirror our Creator's light.

Light of God, come claim Christ's stolen glory.  Burn the shadows with the flame of Truth. 
May Your church rise, stars within the darkness, giving glory to the Lord of Light.

Light Divine, come Father of all beauty; Son of goodness, Spirit of all Truth.
Move us, use us, people of Your vision, as we wait for our returning King.

Refrain:
Holy Spirit, break through our darkness;
Holy Spirit, breathe through our lives.
Light of God come, radiant and glorious;
Perfect wisdom in this world today.

Do not the words appeal to the depths of your very soul?  We are His church--I love how the Gettys treat God's people as the church and not just individuals in this song--and we desperately need to be people of His vision.

Darkness and Light

"What fellowship has light with darkness?"  1 Corinthians 6:14

John heard me squeal with delightto find so much development in my herbs this morning!  Just look!  My mother is a farmer at heart and has always loved dirt and plants and being in her garden.  I was convinced that I just didn't have it in me.  When I used to think of gardening, I thought of squatting in the burning sun filling my fingernails with dirt to pull up some weeds which were only going to sprout again next week.  But I love the benefits of fresh, homegrown vegetables too much to write it off entirely.  And now, now I am beginning to learn personally about this plant-love.  :-)

My Cilantro is Sprouting!

Can you see the bit of green in the pot on the right?  Well, maybe not, but I can and it is soooo exciting!  Fresh, free cilantro in the winter!

These two herb kits were gifts at our southern shower and I finally planted them about a week ago.  The parsley is supposed to take about twice as long as the cilantro to sprout, so it's biding its time.  And for now, my herblings are soaking up the sunny weather we've been having!  Once it cools, I'll bring them back to the kitchen window and see how they do.  :-)