The busy work of the garden

I am at the busy work of canning today. Even now I sit with a bowl of green beans in my lap, snapping them while reading the lovely words in the blogs that I follow. In between snapping and reading, I am sipping hot coffee, listening to the sounds of Where The Red Fern Grows as Libby watches it for the 50th time, and enjoying the quiet in the house at the other two kids take a much needed nap. And most of all, I am thanking God for the blessings that He has given me ...

rain to water my garden so I don't have to;
the fact that my husband works hard so I can stay home and raise and educate our children;
and that my children spent the morning gathered with their toys in the kitchen, playing together close to me as I canned yet another round of pickles.

This weekend I plan to post my recipe for delicious zucchini bread :)

On the tablet of my heart

 It is early in the morning, and the thoughts hit me. The lies that the enemy knows I will easily believe. You really blew it. Why did you say that? Why did you act that way? You can image what they were saying about you. The truth is that it doesn't matter how it really went down, the enemy will always put a negative spin on it, and I will believe it, at least at first.

Why is it that we are so hard on ourselves? Why do we as women, wives, mothers, friends, sisters, always think so critically about ourselves? As the thoughts, the lies that I am trying hard not to believe, swirl and spin around, I feel myself tighten up. My heart clenches, my soul cries out. I cry out to Jesus to remind me of the truth. I cry for His protection around me, over me, through me. Because we all need that, and maybe we as women need it especially.

He lovingly takes my face in His hands and reminds me. Through the voice of Peter Furler He reminds me that it doesn't matter what other people think of me. When my focus is on Him alone I am truly alive. And so, again, I take my eyes off of me, put them on Him, and we move forward.

I walk downstairs and look around. I remember to choose thankfulness. I am thankful for chalk drawings, and how they have evolved over the last year. I am thankful for the quiet early morning moments with my husband, as we read through the Word together. I am thankful for ponytails on top of the head and endless summer afternoons.

I take a deep breath. Smile. And move forward to conquer my day, in thankfulness, love, and with the Truth written on the tablet of my heart.  

Summering and 1000 gifts

 We have been so busy, which means that this blog has not been :)

I have been picking at the little garden space of mine, picking and buying from others, and keeping my hands busy with the work of preserving and filling my shelves to feed us through the winter. Laughing at the fact that the main thing I have been preserving so far is pickles, but my little family of 5 can go through pickles like nobody's business, and even the large amount we end up with probably won't even last us all through winter.

I am half-way through a month-long process of juice fasting and detoxing, and I am finding that I have been drawing inward, quiet except when necessary, detoxing my mind along with my body. I have been considering for some time Ann Voskamp's dare to live joyfully, and with the beginning of August I am going to jump in. In choosing to live thankfully, I am choosing joy over everything else. I will choose thankfulness over downheartedness, joy over worry, love over fear. Some I will share in this space, all I will keep in my own list, and will encourage my littles and my family to do the same.

I am thankful today that finally, finally, we have had some answers regarding my children's individual medical issues. Finally, after so much waiting, there has been a "yes" to our questions, rather than no after no after no. They have not been easy answers, but at least they are answers that move us forward.
I am thankful that Jesus continues to mold and shape me, to use me in spite of myself, even in ways that I may never know.
I am thankful that God never leaves us alone on this path we are traveling, my husband and I, and that His plans are always greater than our own.

Thank YOU for joining me here, sitting down for a visit, enjoying some time together :)