Within the Lines

Thanksgiving

Darkness & Light

Our eyes are naturally drawn to the light.  Too often, tho, I find my inner gaze to be more drawn to darkness than light.
  
     While I like happy things and love to laugh (often), I tend toward being a glass-half-empty sort of person.  If someone asks how my day went, I would usually say "great!",  but then feel it necessary --in the name of balance and fairness-- to inform them of the few not-so-great things.  In a desire to problem-solve, I tend to dwell on the things that are wrong, saving exulting in the good till all problems are fixed.  I come home from a gathering more aware of the problems needing prayer, than the benefits needing praise.  And, in a desire to stay informed, I spend way too much time in Fox Online news, the majority of which is NOT good and uplifting.

     So, when God brought to mind the picture of me going outside to gaze at the dark, ignoring the stars, I was -happily- convicted. 

Bright Lights

Building an Orchard - Before

We've been working hard this spring/summer re-vamping a hill.  We needed a place for the crabapple, pear and peach trees we decided to put in as well as expanded area for more black raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, and cherry bushes.  So the project began with an excavator lined up to remove tree roots (we'd already cut down the jack pines that were previously there) and smooth the lumps and bumps.  He was able to remove the tree roots but didn't have much luck with smoothing; said the sod was just rolling and bunching up.  So we lined up to get a tiller, but in the meantime had to get those trees planted.

The hill:
In this picture, the crabapples are already planted; you can see three of them.  The orange-flagged area in the background is one of my chokecherry groves.  They're looking very productive so far this year.  Yay!

Husband digging:

Then each kid had to get in on the action:



We now have five crabapples, 3 pear and 3 peach trees planted and apparently thriving.  Yesterday, I worked on rock and root removal, and putting wood mulch around the trees while husband tilled an area for the black raspberries.  This past weekend we tilled the hill seen in the background of the last two pictures and planted lilacs.  It's beginning to look more as intended.  I'll post "after" pictures later.

P.S.  It'd been maybe only a week since I took those baby robin pictures and they've already flown.  I wanted to take some update pictures on Monday, but the nest was empty.  Amazing!!  I think it took longer for Mom and Dad to build the nest than for those babies to grow and fly off!

Chokecherries & Robin's nest

The chokecherry blossoms are fading fast.  Fortunately, this week I got all I could find on our property flagged so I can find those berries later.  Chokecherry jelly is delicious; although I do need to research and improve this year.  My first attempt last year tasted good but had the consistency of, well, to put it indelicately, snot.  But I've seen that of friends and it reminded me of currant jelly with it's smooth texture and rich color.

Thought I'd also share with you these picts of the nest a robin built in my garden gate.  I actually went to get picts of the eggs (if I could sneak in when mama wasn't around) but the babies had already hatched.  Here they are about a week or so ago:

and here they are yesterday:

They sure grow fast!  Probably due to their vigilant mama keeping them safe and well-fed.  It's wonderful having a nest built right in the garden gate, but it's not so great being told in no uncertain terms that my garden is now OFF-LIMITS!

She dive-bombs me every time I come in or go out!!  I'm glad she's protective, but my goodness, it is my garden after all!

Pray for NE Iowa

I came online this morning to post an idea that was rumbling around in my head all night, BUT then I remembered that Melissa from Down Mulberry Lane lives somewhere in Iowa so thought I'd check and see how they're doing.  So far, seems okay, just wet!  You can read about their weather problems at her site.  I don't have time to post my other thoughts, so thought I'd just say

Pray for the people of  Iowa!

Grumpiness

Monday was starting out as a grumpy day for me; well, actually it started Sunday night.  You know that feeling of needing to scream or stomp or throw something, tho you know you can't, but you're looking for a good reason?!  About mid-morning (Monday), I had a sudden revelation break in to my meditation on reasons to be mad -- I didn't have to give into the feelings; I could pray!  So, I took a break from my frantic drivenness, went into my bedroom, plunked in a chair and waited.  God focused my attention on a book beside the bed, Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  I weighed my options for a bit -- did I want to read the book? "certainly not"  so did I want to remain miserable and infect everyone else in the house, collapse into bed at night hoping no one would remember in the morning?  "NO!  more-certainly not"  So I got up, got the book and opened "randomly" to a section titled "Signing Our Surrender".  It speaks of signing a contract of surrender to God.  She goes on in the next section to describe the joys of those who have willingly surrendered.  Included is this "Covenant Prayer" written by John Wesley, based on a Puritan text:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.  So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.

In the latest issue of World mag, the following is listed in Quotables (pg 18):

"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith.  You can make life good, or you can make it bad."   Dianne Odell, who lived nearly her entire life in a 7-foot long metal tube due to complications from polio.  Odell, who despite her health problems gained a high-school diploma and wrote a children's book, died on May 28 at age 61 when a power outage stopped a pump drawing air into her lungs.

I chose (and choose) surrender.

Oh, and P.S.  Monday went amazingly well, so that I lay in bed that night marvelling at what God had done.