Wisdoms from me~

I fear I'm turning into one of those people.  Those People.  You know us, the ones who are always fussin'?  Fussin' about too much television, get outside, turn down that dadburn music, when I was a kid, how much does that cost? and a personal favorite, "I could make that at home!"
When other people are Those People, it's obnoxious  I'm glad to report that when I am one of Those People, I'm just imparting wisdom into the world.
Allow me to enlighten...
When the news is hitting its third loop of the same stories, turn it off.  As for the television in general, if there is not a show you want or need to see specifically, TURN IT OFF. Do not channel surf until you can find something tolerable. 
If you'd like to listen to music, please do!  I love music.  Here are some of my personal methods of enjoying music:  radio inside my house, in my car, Ipod or even in my yard played at such as volume so that I can hear it but the rest of the world doesn't.  Unacceptable?  Blasting your music in your backyard loudly enough so that you can hear it over your lawn mower.  Also unacceptable, having a party and blasting your music after 10 p.m.  Or before 10 p.m. for that matter. 
There is stuff outside worth experiencing.  Fresh air, birdsong, grass under your feet.  When you are hanging about inside and the weather is lovely, consider taking your current activity outside.  Many things can be done outside such as reading, praying, meditating, napping or even doing light yard work for a bit of exercise and to beautify your space.  Unacceptable outside activities including the loud enjoyment of music, drunken revelry or nudity in any form unless you have 4 legs and a lot of fur or 2 legs and many feathers.
Just because it is inexpensive, it doesn't need to be purchased and eaten.  This week we, in the Smith House, have resisted 31 cent iced coffee, $8 deep dish pizza, 39 cent White Castle Hamburgers and 2 for 1 Whopper Juniors. 
Well, that's about all I have to share at the moment.  I could go on but you shouldn't just sit at a computer trying to think of things to say when you could be sitting on your back porch admiring God's blue skies. 
Over & out.

Doing it myself~

The Lord didn't give me a man who likes yard work.  Or even really cares about having a yard.  This has been an aggravation to me for 27 out of the 27 years we've been married.  I'm starting to think that next year, the number might just be 27 out of 28 years.  Because this weekend as I was looking over and dreaming about yard ideas, I got the 'tude again.  But this year, the Holy Spirit checked it.  This is indeed, the man God gave me and God probably realized I'd want a yard guy and also, that the Mr. wasn't one.  Why would God mismatch us so?
I don't really know, frankly.  What I do know is the following.  I love my yard and could spend hours and thousands on it.  I am not a physically strong person, I'm just not.  Dean is not a yard guy.
So I talked to the Lord about it all.  Why do I have ideas and wishes that mean so much to my very heart?  And the Lord said, "Go do it yourself."
Remember that part about not being physically strong?  I imagine God knows that too.  I can be frustrated year after year or I can work on myself, which is basically the only person I can do anything about anyway.   
So I'm making a list of the things I can do and how to make it more likely that I will. 

1. Do yard work in the early morning or evening when it's cool.
2. Think long and hard about projects to be sure I'll be happy in the long run.
3. Choose perennials and sustainable plants.
4. Work around what I have and learn to let go of the larger construction type projects. 
5. Don't try to convince the Mr. to join me or seek his approval.  It's just not his thing.

With these few guidelines in mind, I've made a to-do list for myself.

Plant a perennial herb garden on the south side of the garage.  There are old patio blocks there that are crumbly and a never ending frustration to me with the vegetation that grows in between.  So I've had a EUREKA! moment :) I'm going to pull out the very crumbly ones and plant herbs in the dirt there, leaving the intact ones.  It'll be kind of informal, cottagey.  I think it'll be sweet.  And it is the spot across from my berry patch which, a good idea for which has eluded me lo these many (5) years.  I'm excited!  That's an inexpensive and physically easy project with big pay-off that I can enjoy every year. Yay. I also planted two peonies at the far end of the area last year that came back, so I'm going to plant a few more to create a peonie patch bookend to the herb and berry garden.  In my head, it's utterly charming!  Which brings me to my next little project, the patio along the side of the garage.  Half of it is uncovered and that's my herb garden plot.  Half has an awning over it and it faces the prettiest section and biggest tree in the yard.  I've cleaned up those old patio blocks and weeded it and every year, I make myself a little shaded hide away there.  This year I am going to purchase inexpensive outdoor curtains to hang around the sides so that I can truly make a little room to myself out of it.  I'm going to treat myself to a chaise lounge or a few Adirondack chairs.  I am already imagining reading and catnaps and best of all, I can make it happen myself.  My. Own. Self.

I've asked for the area next to our back porch to be turned into a vegetable garden and I'm getting no help with that.  Year after year, it's not happening and I'm mad.  So I'm (trying to) letting that go.  That bare little expanse of grass that is an eyesore is getting a make over anyway.  I'm going to get a little ornamental tree and plant it right in the center of that spot and call it a day.  If I'm of a mind, I can plant veggies in a few containers. 

I've wanted a pond forever.  I've been promised one for even longer.  In fact, I've been promised one with a waterfall and possibly rapids suitable for rafting.  Hey, if it's never gonna happen, why not dream big?  LOL.  I'm going to buy a container and make a self contained pond on my patio.  I actually did this a few yeas ago and I loved it.  I filled that pot with dirt because we were going to build Smith Creek in the yard but that's ok.  I can get another container. 

Well, you get the idea.  The actual work of it, despite my delicate disposition, will be good for me.  I'll have to be purposeful and take my time but I can do it.  The herb garden and patio reading room will be my first project, shouldn't take more than a few hours since the "bones" are there and I'll have the space to enjoy all summer long. 

Will I never be frustrated again?  Well, I probably will be, and possibly this week.  But I am going to work on making the yard a place to strengthen my body and soothe my mind and not to let the enemy (who is a jerk) steal that potential joy year after year.  With the Lord's help, I might just let the Mr. off the hook.  That is a goal worth pursuing.

Free

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom, not freedom from.  Do you find that as interesting as I do?  I've been thinking about different aspects of my life by which I feel encumbered.  Actually, I've only just started recognizing the feeling as encumbered.  Areas of life that I want to be relieved of, delivered from.

Freed.

When I started thinking about it, I wondered, what exactly is on that list?  What do I feel trapped by?

My job.  My weight.  My finances.  My body.  My bad habits.  My emotions.

The list grew pretty quickly.  There are quite a few things about which that my spirit cries, "God, get me outta this!"

Even in consideration of spiritual truths, we filter so much through carnal understanding.  I thought and meditated and thought some more and realized, I am already free.  There.  Isn't that a breakthrough? 

Just keep reminding yourself, I am free.  It is for the sake of being, or at least becoming, something far better than I am now, that Christ set me free.  Everything that seems to press in on me and wrap chains around my life only takes hold because I forget.

I'm free.

I am free of the burden of it all.  The burden is condemnation, frustration, weariness, anxiety, anger, impatience.  All of those nasty experiences belong to the person who has no future.  I have a future.  Even the things that will follow me to heaven will follow me no further.  It's all just for a moment. 

For freedom, I was set free.  For the fences ripped away and open pastures unfolding eternally before me. 

I am free in the midst of the fences.

I am not burdened.

It's time!

It's almost here!  Memorial Day!  Am I thinking of barbecues, picnics, a day off work?  Nope.
Memorial Day means it's safe to plant in The Mitten!  Yay. 
I'm making my list, drawing my drawings, daydreaming of annuals and perennials.  This years additions and the someday when it's all exactly as I imagine it will be. 
Yay!
I planted ornamental grass around our telephone pole but they didn't survive the winter so now I have a decision to make.  I love ornamental grass and may just go ahead and try another hardier kind.  OR, I am thinking very seriously about this idea...

Red, white and blue hydrangeas!  My friend at work was telling me about her red, white and blue hydrangeas and I now realize, this is exactly what I need!  The only problem, as my friend informed me, was that her red one died and her patriotic theme is now not so patriotic. Unless you're Israeli :)
That got me thinking, I believe I shall go with the all American idea and plant petunias in red white and blue along the front edge of my berm.

I suppose technically, it's red, white and purple but you get the idea.  Pretty, huh?
Then of course, there is the traditional Boston ferns that hang around my back porch every year.  I'm sticking with tradition on that one, they not only look lush and green but they provide a little shade and make the porch nice and cool in the mornings and evenings.

Well, those are just a few of my ideas.  I have planted perennials on the berm and I'm more or less going for an informal and unstructured sort of look.  Cottage?  Farm?  I don't know.  I just know that I wait all year for these sunny warm days and I'm going to enjoy every single one!

Every back yard needs~

1.  Hyacinths
2.  Poppies
3.  Forsythia.
4.  Lilacs.
5.  Hydrangea
6.  Peonies
7.  Sunflowers
8.  Geraniums
9.  Petunias.
10. Lily of the Valley

Apologize

I don't like making mistakes.  Does anyone?  I suppose there are people who don't particularly care.  I, however, do care.  I don't like just basic innocent mess ups like burning dinner and I especially don't like moments when my attitude or words are unChristlike and offensive.  I become embarrassed, humiliated, defensive and sometimes ridiculously focused on something small making it into something huge.  That's why I've learned to appreciate being around apologizers.
I have always sought to live in a way that didn't require apology.  And that, frankly, was more motivated by pride than by holiness.  
In the last few years, I've paid special attention to the apologizers in my life.  They've taught me a lot. 
I've noticed that I don't think less of the apologizer for making a mistake.  Their ownership not only takes responsibility for the situation but it rights the wrong.  It neutralizes it.  When someone apologizes for something, I have noticed that I have greater respect for them than I did before they offended me in the first place. 
There is a more important lesson in apologizing. 
When someone apologizes to me, and that forgiveness is expressed from me to them, it gives me a glimpse of Jesus.  The more easily I extend forgiveness, the closer I feel to him, the Great Forgiver.  Perhaps more importantly, it teaches me that sin  is ugly but mercy and grace are beautiful. Repentance makes situations lovely and sweet no matter how bitter we feel at the start.  I've learned to apologize quickly.  To model sacred repentance in the world, it's like an opportunity to sneak in a Sunday School lesson in everyday life. 
Every "I'm sorry," is a picture of repentance.
Every "No problem," is a picture of redemption.
I think making mistakes is not so bad after all.  It's necessary to continually turn our spirits back toward the life that only happens through the exchange of repentance and redemption.  Instead of being ashamed when I make an error, I want to be eager to ask forgiveness, and sow one more seed of redemption.