1 blue

The 4 pinks have been gone since Wednesday, so it has just been me, the lone blue. The pinks went to Georgia to visit Aunt Sarah for a few days and see the sites in Macon, Georgia. They have had a good time checking things out, going to parks and so on. I am sure that the primary pink will blog about this when she returns.

Their having been gone has given me cause to think some about life with 4 pinks. Let me say at the outset that 1) I know they are all sweet, 2) I know they are all precious, and 3) someday they’ll not want to hang with this blue and they’ll be gone. I know, I understand. But... typically I feel as if I am living within a musical with people breaking into song w/o any apparent reason at any given moment. I typically don’t like musicals as some of you know – goes back to one called ‘Into the woods’, it was a tragedy, believe me. I imagine that we would all agree that it is hard to see the bigger picture when you are in the middle of daily-ness. And maybe that is what having some time alone does, it gives you the chance to take off the helmet, come out of the foxhole, and consider the larger perspective. When they left on Wednesday things were good, I enjoyed the quiet and the chance to watch a complete TV show and sleep through the night (though the primary pink would argue that I do this most of the time). Thursday came and went. Friday is here and will soon be gone, and it is entirely too quiet around here. Simple things like wandering around the yard looking at ‘spring’ happening before our eyes with the girls – can’t do that if they’re not here. So, I will be glad when they are home and will try to learn to appreciate musicals, both the cast and the songs they sing.

Podcasts

I have an iPod, have had one for a couple years.  I started out just listening to music, but then got hooked on Podcasts.  I guess it is fair to say that I am addicted to them.  Most of the ones I subscribe to are pastors from around the country whose books I have read.  Listening to Podcasts from around the country gives you this perspective that you are a member of that body – I mean you could walk into their church and carry on a conversation about the current sermon series with a regular church member as if you sat on the front row each Sunday.  It is kind of like that episode from Andy Griffith where the outsider comes to Mayberry and seems to know a lot about the town, though the town doesn’t know him – he had been receiving the Mayberry newspaper through the mail for years.  I have been thinking about blogging about some of these Podcasts and the general thoughts they cause me to think, start a conversation.  It might be boring in concept, but these guys wade through stuff that is  provocative and thought provoking – not that my friends-of-the-cloth are not.

Are you interested?  Hope so.

Refreshing...

It may sound strange, but I am proud of my Pastor. He has been wading through 1 Corithians on and off for the last few months, taking it a chapter at a time - all about being deviant, deviating from the norm. Last week it was chapter 7 and this week chapter 8. The other night he and I were talking and he said he was wrestling with chapter 8 and making it relevant to this generation, but knew that he had to take it head on, straight-forward. It doesn't matter the issue, he tells it straight like it was intended and not like some would rather it be told. It ruffles feathers for some and that is good - hopefully makes folks think about what they believe. If you don't question why things are the way they are, then you should have your feathers ruffled I suppose. For others, like me, it is refreshing!!! Refreshing to have a person in his position call it like it is as opposed to what the 'institution' and tradition give us. I mean, the very idea of being honest and transparent is rare. How many times have you heard someone teaching and think that they are just about to drive the point home, just to back off and go soft... not here.

You can listen / watch his sermons on the church website if you want. Or, check out his blog, it usually has posts throughout the week that relate to what he is wrestling with in his sermon prep. Most of you reading this go to church with us, so maybe this is for those that are checking in on our family from a distance.

Frozen peas...

that's what you get when you plant peas this time of year.... some will find this funny.

It is that time of year again. Each year when the Maples and Red Buds begin to show just the slightest tinge of red, I get Spring Fever. One of the ways I go about curing the bug is to start thinking about my gardens - what am I going to plant? when will I start? will the guy across the street come over again this year to tell me how 'he would have done it'? I built a couple of 10' x 4' raised beds last year and had more vegetables and herbs than I knew what to do with. Whenever we were gone for a day or two, we got neighbors to pick tomatoes and squash - whatever was ready - as a way of sharing and connecting. This dovetails with some posts from friends talking about the community aspect of gardening. I guess I have been part of this 'community' gardening-type thing for most of my life, but didn't realize it since it was just life.

I grew up with two gardens - the 1/2 acre we had as a family and then the acre that my grandparents down the road had. From this you can tell that gardening, both vegetables and flowers, was a part of my life - work in our family garden was mandatory, working in grandma's garden was just expected, just what you did. I remember having so many tomatoes, onions, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, beans, corn, squash and the like that we gave it away, froze it, ate it, ate it again, and in some cases probably still threw some to the cows because we didn't know what else to do. If there was even more, we (grandma and the grandkids) sold it to 'meat & threes'. Really, I remember loading my grandparents car trunk with everything and going to a restaurant in town and opening the trunk to sell it to the lady that cooked.

I'll keep you up-to-date about my garden as we progress through Spring.

Guess what is missing???

Friday afternoon Mary and I were outside piddling around in the yard, talking about spring, and so on. Then she up and asked me about taking the training wheels off her bike, affectionately known as the Jitterbug. I said that she would probably be ready this summer and that once we take them off we won’t put them back on – no going back. She thought for a moment and said how about now? We fumbled around for a few minutes getting the tools out and the bike flipped over and off came those training wheels.

We went through all the ‘pre-no-training-wheels’ check list – helmet on, shoes tied, one foot on the forward pedal, one foot on the ground, push down and go – if you look down, you go down; if you look forward, you go forward. Next was the amazing part. She got on, I gave her a little push and there she went riding through the yard. She was very determined when she stopped to get going again without help. This went on and on and eventually she was riding the length of our short little street and even turning a circle in the cul-de-sac. Needless to say, but of course I have to, I am proud of her.