Location, Location, Location!

Location, location, location! Whether you are looking to sell or buy a home or are searching for just the right spot to grow a kitchen garden for your family, location matters!

It can be completely overwhelming to consider putting in a garden. For those who did not grow up with a garden in the yard or community, the mere word “garden” implies unpleasant things… like the “Three W’s”. Work. Weeds. Watering (endlessly). And then you end up with (click link to finish article) “http://www.simplyfamilymagazine.com/online/2013/04/kitchen-garden-primer-location-location-location

The Lawn Ranger

I have to admit that I despair when I see the lawn care chemical trucks start rumbling through town in early Spring. The little flags go up to warn folks to stay off the grass… I nervously check the wind, call my barefoot children in from outside, sometimes have to close the windows on the side of the house that is sharing frontage with a neighbor out to murder their weeds.

We have been on a journey, removing toxic chemicals from our foods, our home environment, our lives. Despite my always having believed instinctively in the concept that an organic garden was a healthier, happier place for me to while away my time, I had no idea that I would be so “crunchy” about so many other aspects of life once I became a Mom. But first the boy, then the girl, came to change the way I thought about consumption, being a consumer, and being a participant in the world at large.

Seven years into this journey, I now grow a greater portion of our family’s vegetables. I grow enough to do some major preserving come harvest time – from dehydrating to canning to freezing. My canning total in 2011 was 353 jars. I scaled back (due to a better idea of what we used and when) in 2012 with less than half that, but increased the amount I dehydrated and froze. The theory is simply to grow what we will eat, and to eat what we can grow.

Somewhere along the line of our Urban Organic Farmer growth, my eyes turned to the lawn. From this article at (http://www.organiclawncare101.com/dark-lawns.html):

•  “researchers reporting in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that exposure to garden pesticides can increase the risk of childhood leukemia almost sevenfold. Contact with low levels of pesticides increases miscarriage rates, and a study recently published in the American Journal of Epidemiology documented a link between residential pesticide use and breast cancer risk in women. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that frequent exposure to pesticides increased the incidence of Parkinson’s disease by 70 percent.

OK, so pesticides applied to lawns – and these can range from our personal front- or backyards to those surrounding businesses, churches, parks and sports fields – can seriously increase the potential for harmful and even deadly disease. Besides the pesticides and herbicides themselves lie danger in the “inert” ingredients, which are not even required to be labeled. Heavy metals, anyone?

Here’s a very informative site about easy organic lawncare. Wait, EASY? I thought anything organic meant a lot harder to accomplish? Not really. Honestly, what grows a healthy lawn is the same thing that grows a healthy garden (which grows a healthy person), and that is healthy soil. Natural, God-given, nutrient-rich, earthworm-active, biologically-exploding soil! http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

From sites like Richsoil.com and Organic Lawn Care 101.com, I find that the reasons my grass tended to struggle a bit in the summer are twofold: first, we mowed too low. Setting the mower higher, the grass is sturdier, stronger, takes up more nutrients and fights off the bad guys (aka weeds). And second, we were bagging our clippings. Now, in our defense, we were either feeding the clippings (remember, these are untreated, natural grass with no chemical dressing) to our small flock of urban hens, using them spread thin as a mulch in the garden, or using them to make compost. They were not going in the dumpster to drive on down the road… however, even alternating mowings and leaving one to self-fertilize the lawn and taking the next for the abovementioned activities, the lawn still benefits.

So… there are my thoughts about urban lawnkeeping! I have to admit that a bigger chunk is retrieved from our front lawn every year as I keep expanding my gardens. Even in a front yard, with graceful lines edging the beds, and the beds themselves a lovely cottage-garden style of mixed flowers, herbs, and attractive vegetables, I find no reason to make a garden look like a mini-farm. A birdbath here and there, some foundation flowering or evergreen shrubs, attractive woodchip mulch, and you have a front yard that feeds the senses as well as the body, helps along the avian wildlife that keep bugs minimized, and reduces the amount of water and energy that are strictly for “show”… ie, an American front lawn. But there is a place for most everything, and if it is integrated well and has a purpose, and we are good stewards of the land under our care, even a lawn can be healthy, attractive, and easy!

Explaining Easter

What do you tell your kids when they ask about Easter? About the real story, the real reason for it. The truth about what Christianity is all about, not the Easter bunny hoopla, hunting eggs…  the fact that Jesus was the only perfect man who ever existed, and was equally God. That none of us could make it to heaven because we’re human, we’re messed up, we are prone to wander and determined to have our own way. The fact that Jesus was and is the only way that faulty, imperfect, sin-prone mankind could ever come running straight to the Father, all debts paid, all sins forgiven, love abounding. What do you tell a young child when they ask?

 I’ve heard and read people’s opinions that you should tell your preschooler or young elementary-aged children that bad guys killed Jesus, and He rose again after paying for the sins of mankind, and that He is our way to heaven. Well, that’s true enough. Except that it isn’t enough.

 If we don’t gently share with our little ones the very real truth that WE are the bad guys, that it is OUR sin that put Jesus on the cross, then some day someone is going to tell them “Jesus died for YOU” and it is going to be an insult. If they grow up thinking that Jesus was taken by force, beaten, mocked and scorned, and then forcibly restrained and nailed to the tree… all because the bad guys took control… then the new information that THEY had anything to do with it, that THEY are the reason as much as any one else in creation, then what is the response? After having grown up fully secure in the knowledge that “bad guys” killed Jesus, what is the compelling reason to accept their equal culpability in His death? No wonder so many kids fall away from the church. The world is telling them that they deserve the best, they are a rock star, they are a winner. Self-esteem is this huge issue, as though any human child needs to be told again and again of their own importance when it is something that kids feel instinctively from birth. And self-esteem, pride, rears back its head and says, “Wait! What? You’re saying that I’m messed up, dirty, sinful? That I’m one of the bad guys who killed Jesus? NO WAY.”

 Since our children were very young, and I’m talking 2 or 3 here, we’ve been gentle but we’ve been honest. We show them their sin. We admit to our own, and apologize to them and to God in front of them. We call it sin. We call ourselves sinners. We don’t pound the pulpit or judge, we simply point out who is in control of our hearts when sin takes place… and Who is in control of our hearts when love takes place. We call it like we see it through the eyes of biblical love and compassion.

We explain to our kids that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was not forcibly taken, restrained, nailed to the cross against His will. No, He did it willingly. He could have had legions of angels immediately rescue Him at any instant. God the Father could have destroyed the Earth in one blink to rescue His Son. But Jesus took the hurt and the shame. It wasn’t “bad guys”, it was all of us… the same ones who were crying “Hosanna!” and waving palm fronds just days before. Why did He do it?

• Because He loves us, as specific and individual people.
• Because it was and is the only way that each one of us can get past the stain and ugliness of the sin we carry around in our bodies, and join a resurrected Jesus and His Daddy, His Abba, in heaven. And He didn’t want to live without us.
• Because that was the plan from Genesis, and repeated throughout scripture, and God’s scripture is always true.
• And mostly, He did it because His love compelled Him to do so.

 And our love should recognize that it isn’t an “us against them” good guys with white hats versus bad guys with black hats… it’s all of us, sinners, equally unworthy, that are rescued by Jesus and the work that He did.

 I don’t believe that a child can be too young to hear that Jesus chose the cross because He wanted that child to be with Him in heaven, and that there was no other way for that child to be good enough. It should not instill shame in that child to hear that they are so beloved that a Savior would go to any imaginable lengths to assure their safety and security forever.

It is not a curse “You are dirty!” but a cry, “We are all dirty, unrighteous, un-able… but, God…” But, God… was pleased to see His Son die for us, because God loved us that much. But, God… was willing to become man and live a life on the Earth, to share our experiences and to suffer and die for us. But, God… never intended to leave us alone. He always intended salvation. And through Jesus, understanding and accepting that what He did and we celebrate joyously at Easter, He suffered through utter love for us. Kids get it. They see Mom and Dad’s fierce love for them, their joy with them, their compassion and the security the child feels with them… and they understand that God is the source of all of that good, and that they are God-esteemed.

 We do our kids, even our very young kids, a disservice to imagine that they don’t know that choosing behavior that they know to be opposite of the directives of their loving parents is, actually, sin. We do them a disservice to not be honest with them in the explanation that Jesus is the only way to heaven, for ALL of us. None of us are good enough without Him. We do them a disservice to pretend that we do not sin, or to be unwilling to acknowledge and repent of it, change our ways and apologize. We do all of us a disservice not to accept that the Bible says that No one is righteous, no, not one. That ALL fall short of the glory of God. That the only way to the Father is through the atoning work of the Son. We need to prepare them for the truths that they will more fully understand as they get older.  We should be gentle, compassionate, empathetic… but we need to be honest.

 It must never be Rules and Laws, us versus them. It should focus on the relationship, always. We were, and our kids were, created for relationship with Him… so it is us and Him, not us and them. It’s a good thing. It is grace.

Back to Eden Film

How absolutely lovely it is to find a film that combines two of my very favorite things in the world: God, and gardening! If you haven’t spent the time to sit down and watch “Back to Eden” (free at www.BacktoEdenFilm.com), you don’t know what you are missing! Gardener Paul Gautschi shares how God has revealed Himself through His creation and His Word.

“The ground is a living organism. As all living organisms, God has designed and made it so it is always covered with something. It’s all about the covering!”
- Paul Gautschi

For about 20 years now, I’ve been a huge believer in sheet composting. Basically, rather than tilling the soil, which I find:

- destroys soil tilth (if there is any at all);

- kills earthworms; and

- kills your back to boot

the concept of sheet gardening involves covering any existing sod with several layers of (non-slick) newspaper, wetted down. Then you apply a nice layer (4″ or so if you can) of compost, and this can be fairly raw! Weed-free animal manure is great – if you can get it from the source, even better. Then layers of available materials… chopped leaves (run them up in your lawnmower instead of raking), peat if you have it and don’t mind using it… a thin layer of fresh (untreated) grass clippings… finished compost (either from your compost bin or the bagged stuff)… and finally a visually appealing layer on top.

So where the Back to Eden gardeners differ is primarily in their choice of top covering. They choose wood chips, and have plenty of gorgeous garden and example to prove why it works! I’d always heard conventional wisdom to say that wood chips took up too much nitrogen when used in a garden, but here’s the rub. That is not the case if they aren’t tilled in! These are on TOP – a nice deep covering (4-6″). They very slowly decompose into the soil, releasing nutrition as they go.

So after “mostly” using this type of garden for the past two decades, I have decided that wood chips are my new top covering of choice, trumping chopped leaves. I’m going to begin implementing them immediately on my various gardens (from every corner of the yard, to our church, to my community garden plots). Heavy mulching and lots of composting has always been very effective in my experience; it will be exciting to garden with a Biblical approach!

My gardens are a combination of several non-conventional styles: companion planting with square-foot gardening spacing (although I only rarely measure), lasagna raised beds with Back to Eden covering. I’ve got happy worms and lovely vegetables, herbs and flowers! And the best part is that it minimizes both weeding (bleck) and watering needs, while improving the soil itself. What a blessing!

“No matter where you live, if you apply a covering to your garden, God will do the rest, and you will be blessed!” – Paul Gautschi

A River of Self

I have always considered myself fairly good at multi-tasking. That confidence has continued despite somewhat alarming indicators that perhaps my abilities were either overrated (by myself) at one time, or the joking concept of “Mommy Brain” has combined with my advanced age of 44 to render me somewhat Less than Before. I used to consider myself a pretty sharp cookie, one of the sharper knives in the drawer. Now I’m doing good if I can get the peanut butter and jelly spread.

All of us have a bunch of Big Things to do in our lives… for me that is being a Christ-follower, a wife, a mom, a homeschool teacher, a homemaker and family chef.

Then we’ve got our medium-sized responsibilities. Those include serving at my church as the Grounds Committee chairperson (currently I am also the entire Grounds committee), working at our local community garden as both a gardener and a helper on common ground areas, working as a nonprofit corporation president of the board (it’s a small nonprofit, but it’s fairly active), and working with a larger group trying to get an ordinance changed in our city of 100,000 – which has been going on for about 18 months now.

Finally we have our details. All the things that we like to do that may or may not be necessary. Hobbies, crafts, interests, pets,

Hmm. Where should friendship fit in these 3 categories? Jesus always put people first. Even to meeting the Samaritan woman at the well to talk to her and meet her spiritual and emotional needs, when He and His disciples were hungry and the others had gone in search of food. So maybe as a medium-sized responsibility? Although with the prevalence of things like email and Facebook, the term “friendship” can have blurry edges as well. I find it so easy to get caught up enough in my friend’s lives and activities that sometimes I’m neglecting my own responsibilities.

Lately I’ve been hearing messages and reading daily devotions based on Matthew 6:19-21, where Jesus tells us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He continues in verse 33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,” (Song of Solomon 2:15). It’s rarely the big things but so often the little things that ruin our vineyards, steal our time, and derail our best intentions. It strikes me that the little foxes are running rampant in my own vineyard… little foxes of interesting blogs and websites and books to read, cookbooks, intriguing new projects, entire craft/hobby stores, ideas to explore, stores to check out, Facebook pages to peruse, and on and on and on. The world is really full of an incredible amount of interesting, thought-provoking, fascinating ideas, concepts, and points of view. There are many causes to become involved in, including those that are extremely worthy. The richness of the world is not only monetary, but also artistic, creative, emotional, physical.

Life can so easily become a river of self. Of things that involve, provoke, excite, encourage, inflame, intrigue, and require our attention. As a people we are proud of our ability to multi-task. Our computers can carry on multiple processes at one time and our computers are rarely the only digital device available to us at any given time. We share life in 140 characters or less, thumbs flashing as we drive through the fast-food restaurant on our way to other activities. Americans are busy. Our attention is at best divided, at worse parsed into dozens of different directions at any given time.

I am finding that this is too much for me, or perhaps better looked at as not enough. Like Martha, I’m busy scurrying about taking care of all the details, when I am actually missing out. Jesus told Martha that Mary was concerning herself with the better thing, and that was the relationship He Himself was building with her… the same relationship we can build with Him. I cannot sit at His feet and listen enraptured to His explanations, analogies, and love for me. But I can immerse myself in His Word and spend true time in prayer, His Spirit in my heart bearing witness to the truth and changing me from the inside out.

I strongly suspect that our relationship with Him is a worthy part of those treasures that we can store up in heaven, along with the subject that really has His heart: His people, and more specifically our bringing other people with us to heaven.

I’m tired of swimming in the river of myself, all my energies pointed toward survival, my brain going seven different directions at once while I “multi-task” fit to beat the band. I want the living water. I want to rest in Him and find His peace, to wait upon Him until I find He has given me wings to soar like an eagle. And like the manna in the desert that was given to the Israelites daily, I need that daily dependence on Him.

Praying Out of Time

I read a quote recently in which the writer reflected that she wished she could pray about a situation, but “it was too late”. Here is something to consider:

God is not within the time line, but with out. Time is His Own creation. He is able to manipulate it to move a shadow backwards 10 steps (2 King 20:9), to stop the sun in its tracks while a battle is being fought (Joshua 10:13). He knows and has told us in His Word the events of what we consider to be the future for even several thousand years, has done so repeatedly since His Word and His prophets were first given to us, and been proven True time and time again. Time constrains the Lord from acting no more than taking fleshly form constrained Him to the grave.

Prayer is not about changing God’s mind, but about changing ourselves. Prayer helps us to seek His will for our lives; it puts us in communication with Him… especially so, if we will be quiet from our requests long enough to listen to His answers. Therefore, if the purpose of prayer is to grow our relationship with Him, and if He is Infinitely God, then the effect of our prayer is no more limited to today and tomorrow than HE is limited to today and tomorrow. He can fix yesterday.

His Word promises that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [His] purpose.” (Romans 8:28) This means that the God who is not constrained by space or time is also not restrained by our failures and mistakes. He knew us in our mother’s womb before we ever drew breath (Psalm 139:13)… knew the mistakes we would make, knew the grief He would suffer with us over our choices, knew the pain we would bring on ourselves. He made us, remember? We did not make ourselves. But He still made us just that particular way, knowing exactly what would happen in our lives. More importantly, He was with us then and He is with us now, and He still loves us. He can take our past and turn it into something beautiful for Him. It might not be something we understand, a piece that makes sense to us right now… because that time that He created is something that does delineate our own thinking and understanding. We don’t need to understand it; we only need to know Him.

I love the perspective that it gives us to realize that God is not within our time limits. The perspective to… pray for your spouse for the years before you knew them… pray for the spouses of your children when they grow up, or for your grandchildren before they are even born. Pray for your parents when they were young and struggling or your mother as she was giving birth to you. Pray for your grandparents as children going through the Great Depression. Pray for the victims of the terrorist attacks during 9/11. Pray for our current and past presidents, for Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr! Pray for the unnamed soldiers lying in shallow graves all over the world. Pray for your children’s Kindergarten classes, for their teachers and administrators and the choices they will all someday make. Pray for Mary and the disciples when Jesus was being crucified… pray for Jesus. No prayer is wasted or without purpose. It brings us closer to His perspective, doesn’t it? It is of value.

WE are of value to Him, and our efforts to approach Him bring joy to His heart. He rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). Nothing we can do or have done can prevent Him from being able to wash us clean. It is a lie and a grievous error to assume otherwise. The Lord God of the Universe gave Himself for us, for me, for you… because His death was the only thing that could clean us up and let Him approach. He loved you too much to live without you; in the most powerful, healthy, Godly way it is possible to mean that.

In her Mitford series books, author Jan Karon mentions “the prayer that never fails”… and explains this to mean, simply and magnificently, prayer for God’s will to be done. If we understand that God’s will is to work things out for the best possible purposes (Romans 8:28), that He is with us always even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20), and that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), then we should therefore be able to trust Him with our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows. Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:26 assures us that “With God, all things are possible.”

Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And in Ephesians 6, we are reminded that our battle is not of this world, but of powers and spiritual forces.

Philippians 1:9 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

Pray out of time. Pray to have His heart and to be brought closer to Him. Be a participant in this world He has created. We will live forever… shouldn’t we Pray Like It?!

Eggnog for Breakfast??

2 eggs (backyard eggs are best!)
3-4 tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (plus more for serving)
1/4 tsp rum extract
2 cups milk (or silk, or other milk substitute)

Whisk eggs and sugar until sugar dissolves, then add remainder of ingredients. Chill, if you can wait that long, or just pour into chilled cup! Sprinkle with additional nutmeg if desired.

You can also add some pumpkin puree to taste, but if so you might want to do this in a blender rather than whisking, just to get it really smooth. This is a delicious way to get your morning protein (although what appears to be rum breath might get you into trouble with the boss). If your “boss” is wee, he or she might love this for breakfast too!

Re: eggs. Yes, these are raw eggs. If this is a concern to you, make sure your eggs are fresh (place them in a bowl of room temp water – if they lay flat down, they’re fresh. As they age they begin to tip up and will eventually float after about 30 days – the USDA lets producers sell them up to about 45 days after being laid. Eww. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.). You can also take your nice fresh egg and quickly wash it off in tepid/room temp water before breaking them open. Salmonella risk is very low from the INSIDE of the egg, but washing-before-use will help decrease the risk from the OUTSIDE of the egg no matter where you get your eggs from. (“>