Grass around the Blackberries

I have been pulling weeds and weeds and more weeds in my garden.  We have had some nice rain nearly every single day, which has caused everything to grow really well, especially the weeds and the mosquitoes!  Yes, the tomatoes are growing, too, and the zucchini, the strawberries, the roses, corn, and other lovely things.  We have had some great thunderstorms, with plenty of lightning, which is good for the garden!  Did you know that lightning changes nitrogen in the air into a form plants can use?  It's called "fixation" of nitrogen -- cool, huh?  It sure seems to help things grow.

I love cool, green grass. Getting grass to grow in bare spots in the yard has not gone particularly well so far.  It is, however, growing extremely well all around my blackberries and other plants inside my garden, where it is not welcome.  I guess you could say it is, "growing like a weed!"  It seems ironic to have to pull the grass out around my garden plants, when I WANT it to grow elsewhere and it doesn't!  

I have been developing a healthy appreciation for all kinds of little creatures who live outside.  I am very willing to let them live out in the yard and in the garden, where many of them are very beneficial.  (If they are inside my house, they are not welcome, and are doomed.)  I think I have a mental gauge that defines outdoor creatures as acceptable when they are below a certain size.  When they get a bit too big, they become a bit creepy.  Well, I was out weeding around my blackberries when I looked down at my shoe and THIS GUY was on it.  Of course, since he was WAYYYY over the acceptable size limit in my brain, I screamed and shook him off.  Poor guy...he was motionless for about 10 minutes, then he was gone.  I did not weed the section where he disappeared...

Today, however, I was blessed by hundreds of lovely ladybugs in the garden, and a few nice sized earthworms.  I was happy to see them, and let them know that I appreciate the ladybugs eating all the aphids so my roses don't have any, and the earthworms aerating the soil so my veggies and plants grow better.  

When I look at the tiny insects in my garden or contemplate the absolutely amazing artistry captured in a sunset, I am so humbled -- humbled that the Almighty God of the universe, who drew the polkadots on the the backs of lady bugs and uses the sky as his painting canvas, cares about the details of my life.  In the grand scheme of things, I seem so insignificant.  But God calls me His beloved, His friend, His child.  Wow.  That really is mind boggling.  I am constantly amazed by His Grace.  I have known Him for 51 years.  We've been through a lot together.  I see Him and His handiwork everywhere, and I am daily captivated by His love.

How Great Thou Art (Second Stanza)

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee; How great Thou art!
How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

(Written by: Carl G. Boberg and R.J. Hughes )

 "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:4 (ESV)

“He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth." Job 37:3

 

About First Days...

Many of my dear teacher friends started back to school in the past couple of weeks, and by now, the students have arrived!  I was thinking about how a teacher must always being ready for anything at a moment's notice, especially during those first few days of school! I was reminded of a particularly “interesting” first day in my career…

It was a few years ago, while I was living and teaching in the Phoenix area.  One of the characteristics of summer (we start school in early August, when it is still WELL over 100 degrees most days) is the large number of interesting creepy crawlies that may appear anywhere at any time.

On this particular first day, all the precious little Third Graders had their eyes on me as I told them about the great things we were going to learn and do during the school year.  But I had my eyes on a HUGE cockroach that was inching its way up the back wall, and then across the ceiling.  I knew it could decide to let go and drop onto a student's desk below at any time.  I had to decide whether to ignore it and hope for the best, which could surely result in screaming, running, crying, and general mayhem and unsafe practices, or act like a hero and somehow capture the critter.  Smashing it was out of the question, since we study about those guys in Third Grade science...  So, I told the students to get out their colored pencils, knowing the activity would keep them busy for a brief time...long enough for me to grab a jar from under the sink.  Then, I stood on a child's desk (after saying Excuse Me) and pressed the jar to the ceiling, trapping Mr. Cockroach.  Since I failed to grab something to act as a lid for the jar when I lowered it down, and knowing the unlovely Mr. C could easily get out of there, I was forced to calmly put my hand over the jar.  I smiled as I told the wide-eyed students that this was one of the great science topics we would study, and that I was going to release him out in the bushes near the parking lot, and they were to stay seated.  I accomplished this feat without delay, and then used GOBS of hand sanitizer to get the gross feeling off my hand!  Mission accomplished, we were right back to work without delay -- but my heart was pounding as I considered how the whole thing could have turned out, had I given in to procrastination or not wanting to deal with Mr. C.  Teachers don't get paid nearly enough.  :D

Speaking of always being ready for anything, we are commanded to be ready for our most important task:

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV)

 ¹ “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ²preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound^[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

 Blessings,

Annie

The Classroom

One thing I have learned in my life is that I am never out the The Classroom.  I learn something new every day, and sometimes I have to learn the same thing over -- maybe over and over and over!  I have spent way more than half my life teaching others, and have always been a learner in the process.  The best way to learn something is to have to teach it -- that applies to many different skills, academic content, and life lessons.  Often in my teaching I would discover that the character qualities and behaviors I found most frustrating in my students were the very same things God had been working on in me.  Not listening too well comes to mind.  And impatience.  And overreacting, critical thinking, and on and on the list can go. 

This blog has been going to happen for decades.  I just had such a hard time putting my deepest, most private thoughts on paper, where they become vulnerable to the scrutiny of others.  But the prompting has become too strong, and the purpose too clear.  So, I hope to have many posts in the future, as I share my world and heart and faith with you.

Blessings!

Annie