tales from the backyard

I love my new house.  I think one of the biggest surprises for me though has been how much I love my backyard.

At first, when we were thinking about buying it, the backyard was somewhat of a negative.  There is no grass. And we have a dog.  But she hasn't seemed to mind.  There are fruit trees and other foliage lining the perimeter, and sometimes she likes to pretend like she's in the jungle on safari.

And when she's had enough of the safari, she can take a dip in the pool.  She takes the same route every time.  Walks down the steps....to the end of a "bench" in the water and then paddles across the shallow end to the other end of the "bench".  Then out.

 

Of course she really prefers to swim when her people are in the pool with her.  Older son is one of her very favorite people.

Did I mention that there are fruit trees?  Several variety of citrus...grapefruits, oranges, lemons, tangerines/satsumas, kumquats.  I'm pretty sure this is dear husband's favorite part of the new home experience.  He reminds me every so often that he was perfectly happy in "the other house".   But I think he went outside two or three times today to see if any fruit had ripened since the last time.  :-)

Does anyone have any recipes for lemons?  Besides lemon-aid?  I don't often drink sugared drinks, and I think all of this lemon-aid cannot really be a good thing when it comes to my clothes continuing to fit.

Oh - and the dog (Sandy)....she likes citrus fruits, too.  At least the oranges and kumquats and tangerines.  The lemons....not so much.  We've caught her "picking" some from the lower branches.

Besides the citrus trees there are two rose bushes.  One is nearly totally eclipsed by a lemon tree, but the other produces beautiful long-stem roses that I cut periodically and put in a vase on the table.  

This flower showed up all on it's own about mid-summer.  My facebook sources say it is a Bird of Paradise.  I can see that.  But what I don't quite "get" are the green spiky cocoons around the base of the flowers.  Quite unusual.  

And that is that.  Nothing profound.  Nothing exciting.  Just some pictures from the backyard, so I can say "hi" and reassure my massive fan base ;-)  that I have not fallen off the face of the earth!

so long, summer...

I had meetings three days last week....and the kids come on Monday.

Summer is officially over for us.  :-(

Last summer was a rich one, spiritually.  This one will forever be known as the Summer of the Move.  It was only across town.  Only 6 or 7 miles.  But from a house where we've lived forever (my husband lived there as a kid, and then off and on, until he ended up there for good in the late 1970's).  It's a house where we barely had room to turn around (or put up a Christmas tree) to a place where we have room to stretch.  But it has been a full time job - moving.  Dirty, hot, heavy, stressful.  And we are still not totally done...

But I digress....in honor of the end of summer, perhaps some pictures that did NOT make the blog are in order....

This is what the grass looked like in June.  We went a long time without rain.  

But there were some yummy things produced in the garden.  

Those red bell peppers (top right)...they were rather underwhelming.

The kids' "tree house".

It was one of the things that had to go in preparation of the move.

The fence, too.

It has been there for many, many years.  

Twenty, maybe.

Hurricane Gustave flattened it a few years ago. 

But we stood it back up, patched it, tied it together...

Too precarious to leave for a renter, it's gone now.

Someone came and hauled the sections away...to use again.

The single picture that I have of the moving chaos. 

It was just too horrible to photograph.

The collected, neglected junk of so many years.

A diversion from the chaos.

My parents, sister, and nephew visited.

Twice.

I live in a house that people can visit now!

Our annual altar server outing.

With our kind pastor and the majority of our faithful altar servers.

They told me I had to be in the picture this year.

I went with the flow.

The cake for my mother-in-law's 80th birthday.

Her name is Dolly.  

Oops.

This is how the younger teen spent the majority of his last week of summer vacation.

Swimmer's Ear kicked his ....

Two trips to the doctor's office, antibiotic ear drops, and oral anti-b's, and I think we're on the downhill side.

And that, boys and girls, is part of the story of my life.

last week

I did not set out to take a blog break last week, but I did.  Fitting, perhaps, since I was out of school!  (Here, we still have EASTER vacation, although some of the politically correct schmucks have taken to calling it "Spring Break".)

This past week:  

I attended Mass with my friends at the Library Chapel of the burned down church down the road.  They recently broke ground on their rebuilding, but I don't think any actual rebuilding has occurred.

They were my Mass choice this week because my own pastor took some time off!

Planted some cantaloupe, watermelon and more strawberries in my garden.

I bought my boys a straight iron.  

Or is it a flat iron?  

In any case, he discovered (courtesy of his friend's 16 year old cousin) that it helped to tame this:

Looked at houses.

Bought a plane ticket to Philadelphia for the summer.

$$ Ouch! $$
But worth it to see my BFF and enjoy some peace!

Helped change the missalettes at church.

Helped my Granddad celebrate his 95th birthday!

That's him in the green shirt.

He looks good for 95, no?

Signed a contract to purchase a house!!!!

It is beautiful!  I never dreamed I would live in something this nice!

And it's surely not what I planned on doing this week!

But things came together nicely, and so far so good.

Inspections and financing stand in the way, but neither should be an issue.

(Pictures to follow when it's really, really for real!)

 And, no, it's not the property that we were praying about a month ago.

Prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet with my Ad Altare Dei group of Boy Scouts.

I don't think any of them (or my co-counselor) had ever prayed it before.

~*~*~*~*~

What I did NOT do this week:

Score the stacks of progress monitoring that I brought home to deal with.

Cut the grass.

Hang out with friends.

Wake up to watch the Royal Wedding.

Care enough to see it in the zillions of replays later in the day.

See Soul Surfer.

Buy clothes.

Win the lottery!

Iron my pants for school on Monday.

Which I really should!

Just gotta say...before I go.... EIGHTEEN more days of school!!  But I'm not counting or anything!

fertile ground

I wonder if so many religious communities garden because of the spiritual aspects of it.  It was a beautiful day today, and I was able to get a few things done outside.  It is quiet, and my mind wanders... 

Maybe this is what our spiritual life looks like by the time Lent arrives.  

There's decent soil underneath, but there's also a lot of junk piled on top, weeds growing, dead stuff...

No doubt there's some good things there. 

Like this strawberry plant left over from last year.  

But before it is going to flourish, some cleaning needs to be done, and maybe some compost needs to be added.

The leaves that have fallen need to be brushed away.  

Then the weeds need to be pulled out...roots and all.

Some of them are easy enough to pull out bare-handed.  

But some of them are clearly going to need more than MY bare hands to pull them out. 

But when all is said and done... you are left with fertile ground.  

A place which can bear fruit and nourishment.  

Something to sustain us.  

Something that we can share with others.

Perhaps that is how Lent is.  We dust off our souls, take a good look, assess what might need to be done.  Then we set to work - all with God's help.  We might need to add some things...prayer, time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, or spiritual reading.  We might need to remove some things that are choking off what growth we need to do.  Some of those things can be removed easily - giving something up.  But some things need a little extra help....the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We might need to give of ourself.  The end result - hopefully - is a place in our heart where the Word of God can put down roots.  Growth.  Sharing with those who hunger.

Prayers for a blessed Lent and a bountiful harvest!

 3.12.11  Would it be too much to edit this post to add that I went to confession this afternoon.  Very nearly the first words out of the priest's mouth by way of encouragement were something about seeing our lives as "fertile ground for redemption".  I've heard him use that terminology before, so I wasn't totally awed and amazed.  More like God sending a wink and a thumbs-up my way, and further confirmation that the priest is a pencil in God's hand. 

gardening

Often, it is not hard to draw spiritual connections from gardening.

I planted pepper plants last spring, and for some reason, the banana peppers never produced anything.  Last year I had all the peppers I could want off of 2 or 3 plants, but this year, 8 or 9 plants yielded nothing.  Summer got too hot to be outside.  The grass grew up in areas I couldn't get to with the riding mower.  I stopped watering.  I stopped tending to them at all.  And now:

It is a picture of pure neglect.  Something that started out with such high hopes.  And then was left by the wayside.  Yet, in spite of the neglect, there is fruit (or veggies, as the case may be).To the right of the withered red pepper hidden by a leaf is a new "baby" banana pepper.

Is that not how are spiritual lives are sometimes?  We ask and ask.  We see no results.  We do different things to try to achieve the desired results. We bargain, we promise, we pray, we fast.  And then we walk away, disappointed.  Not sure if God has even heard us, but sure that if He did, the answer must have been "NO!"

How often God DOES come through!   Maybe not in the way we had planned, but He comes through in spite of dryness in prayer, in spite of the weeds of sin, in spite of our lack of effort and lack of faith.

How do we respond when we see these gifts?  Do we see them at all, or have we given up and gone on to other things?  Do we leave them hanging on the vine with indifference?  Gee thanks, God, but I don't need it now.  Or do we say a prayer of thanks and make use of what we've been given?

veggie tales

There is something about working with my tomatoes that allows me time to reflect.  Maybe because I am usually alone and the 'maters don't talk back.  I have fed them Miracle Grow the past few weeks in the hopes of resurrecting them.  I spend a lot of time clipping off brown leaves and stems.  The dead stuff.  The dying leaves that take away from what the plant could become.  No matter how many brown leaves I clip off, it always seems like there are more the next day.  Sometimes I clip off the whole branch and sometimes I just clip off the leaves on the tip - if the rest of it is still relatively green. 

Reminds me of us with our sin and confession. Always there is stuff to clip off.  Dead stuff.  Stuff that gets in the way of us becoming the people God created us to be.  Sometimes you clip off just a little bit - just the behaviors.  Sometimes you can lop off the whole branch - the attitudes, thoughts, deeds and all. 

You see this?  Remember this post?  (It's a pretty quick read and some people told me they liked it.)  Anyway, you see this guy?  He's a super pooper, apparently.  Follow the poop and you'll find the caterpillar.  You see that powdery stuff on the leaves?  It is SUPPOSED to keep pests from eating your plant.  I guess you can see for yourself how well that is working.

Wednesday I return to school for my first inservice.  Please mumble a quick prayer if you read this. I will need it.

And, although Tuesday is nearly over and this is probably longer than 60 seconds, I'm linking to Jenny's Sixty Seconds on Tuesday. 

Have a great week!

show me

The Adoration Chapel near my house has a few open slots on Sundays.  About six months ago, I signed up to be a substitute.  I can't commit to a certain hour every week, but I can sometimes fill in when needed.  And today was one of those days.

A couple of three years or so ago, I remember hearing a priest at daily Mass say that we should ask God for the grace to see things as He sees them - especially in regard to our own sinfulness.  I thought that was something I'd rather not see, so I didn't pray too hard for that grace.

But things change.  Lord, help me to see.  And He did.  It was a productive "conversation" today at Adoration.  I think I was mostly listening.  But that's OK.  Speak, Lord, I'm listening.  He spoke; I took notes.

Spent the rest of the day taking care of odds and ends around the house.  Scooped the litter box.  Watered the plants.  Washed a load of clothes.  Sorted the clothes on the top of oldest child's dresser.  Downloaded backgrounds to use with my Promethean board.  Dear hubby was gone all morning and part of the afternoon, so it was very quiet.  *I* got to use the remote and watch a couple of shows that I had DVR'd. 

The electricity went off twice.  For no apparent reason.  Gee, I love our electric provider.  NOT!  It could be a long summer.

Waited to see if I would hear from the happy campers.  News was hard to come by, but at last report, the boys were all tucked in and sleeping. 

When I was watering the plants, I saw some more of those very hungry caterpillars on my tomato plants.  They are SO hard to see.  Even when you are looking right at them, you don't see them.  The give-away on most of them was the droppings that they leave behind.  You know, what goes in, must come out - and the poop doesn't blend quite so well.

It occurred to me that sin is kind of like that. The attitudes and thoughts blend so well with the ways of the world.  When we're sitting there in the middle of it, sometimes - often times - we fail to see it for what it is.  Even when we're looking for it - really looking - preparing to do battle by confession instead of insecticide - it is hard to see.   Except for the poop - the inevitable consequences.  That's the give-away.  That and the branches stripped bare by the appetites that can't be satistfied.  The hateful words that spring from the need to always be right.  The impatience that comes from wanting to be in control.  The hurt feelings.  The failure to pray for those we don't like.  And on and on.   Lord, help me to see.

and he ate and he ate

This very hungry caterpillar was found on a tomato plant in my yard today.  I regret to inform you that he is no longer with us.  But he was pretty to look at.  Too bad his kind can eat up an entire tomato plant in nothing flat. 

random thoughts

Random things all in one post.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. 

I have that verse on the wall in my classroom (among others).  Not in plain view, of course.  Someone might be offended.  But where I can see it.  That was part of today's gospel.  We would do well to examine our motives for doing things, Father said.  They either come from love or from selfishness.   As a final thought, Father added that what you do in secret - when no one else is around - is a good indicator of where your treasure is.

My oldest child came with me to Mass this morning.  I think we were the youngest two people in the church.  Seriously.   And I am not young.

Leaving with my sister-in-law to go on a retreat this weekend.  Perhaps I'll have something to update on that when we get back.  Very much looking forward to it!

A few random pictures - just because the blog looks better with pictures.  I'm sort of envious of some people's blogs with beautiful pictures.  Oh well....

A picture of the crepe myrtle in my back yard.  Surely there are others with more flowers and prettier colors, but this is mine.  It adds beauty all the same.  

And a picture of some potential cantaloupes in my garden.

about late blooms

Back in March, I had a post about late blooms.  I wasn't really feeling God's presence in my Lent, and was rather disappointed.  I mentioned it to my pastor, and he said not to be too quick to write off Lent as a failure - that it might be a "late bloom".  At that time, it was almost Easter, and my Easter lilies weren't blooming, either, so I thought it was a cool image (and good advice, it turned out.)

My Easter Lilies are now blooming.  I have tried in vain to get a picture that really captures them.  This one will have to do; my lens was fogged up because it was cooler inside than outside. 

Very much feeling the Presence right now!

ick!

I hate these things!  What God was thinking with that bit of creation, I have no clue!

I know there is some fancy scientific name for them.  We just call them stinging caterpillars.  Brush against them and those ugly little spiny things get you.

Every spring - like clockwork. 

This one was in my strawberries, and it got me!  Not bad, though. 

Even uglier is squishing them.  Ewww...green...yellow....kind of like baby poop.  And on that note....have a great week!

spring break miscellaneous

The best kind of spring break.  I don't have school and my kids do!

Yesterday was a busy day.   Mass, getting the kids to school, haircut, picking up uniform shorts for my child who has refused to wear shorts for the past three years, grabbing some items at WalMart, and sitting tethered to a phone for 30 minutes while on hold with the IRS.  Mass is truly the best part of any day.  I'm not sure I like my haircut.  Maybe it will grow on me.  I want something different, I'm just not sure what it is.  Dear child has worn the same 3 pairs of uniform pants for the past 2 years, so I figured if he wanted shorts with 30 days of school left, the money was in the clothing budget. Hopefully they will still fit him in August.   I met a friend for a Zumba class in the morning.  Supposedly you can burn 1000 calories in an hour.  I assure you that I did not.  I am not very coordinated when my feet have to do one thing and other body parts have to do another.  I went back and did my regular workout in the evening. And the IRS... well, the good news is that our return is not lost.  The bad news is...it has been referred to the Department for Further Review, and they don't really work on any certain time table. 

I also found time to go by the adoration chapel.  I love that time.  In the conversation with God, I think I was doing most of the talking.  I wrote as I "talked", but I don't think I came up with many answers.  I feel like God is fairly silent in my life right now.  I know He is there.  I see His footprints all around me.  I know he was speaking to me last week in the homily snippets I posted, so it's not even fair to say that He's silent - just not talking directly to me?  Maybe more like "on vacation".  I went back today with the sole purpose of listening..  I ended up with this: 

A little lopsided, but I am not an artist, and I have no delusions about my lack of artistic ability.  Not at all sure of what I heard while I was sketching.  It did help block out some of the distractions.  Or maybe it was a distraction in and of itself.  It is frustrating not to get answers.  Or then again, maybe I'm getting answers, but not hearing them.

I have a conscientious objector child on my hands.  Not sure where he came from.  Yesterday, all 150 or so kids in the Junior High part of their school went to see the movie "Oceans" in honor of Earth Day.  All of the Junior High kids except one of mine.  He said he had seen the previews and it looked like a bunch of liberal propaganda, and it was not worth $9 to see it.  He insisted that he did NOT want to go.  So he stayed behind and wrote an essay about "Why Oceans Are Good" or some such thing and emptied the recycling bins around school.  He explained to the assistant principal, who was reading his essay that "C.S" was kind of like "B.S." but with chickens.  I don't think she was amused.  This has always been my shy, quiet child.  I always worried that he would be a follower.  With this, he never doubted that he was doing the right thing or cared what the others would think.  Of course, he noted with pleasure, that the kids who went said that the movie "sucked".  

The plants are starting to grow.  I planted lettuce (at least I hope it's lettuce, because I ate some) last October.  It is growing now.  So here was my salad tonight:  I have never seen tomatoes this small.  I would say marble-sized, but I don't think they were even the size of a respectable marble.  They were tasty, though.  I had thoughts of offering our priest some of the "first fruits" from the tomatoes, but I'm afraid I need something a little more substantial!


Mother-in-law ended up in the hospital today after starting the morning off weak and disoriented.  We suspected a stroke at first, but they have diagnosed some type of infection - possibly pneumonia.  I visited tonight, and she seemed in good spirits and appeared to be feeling much better.

I have decided that school is like a giant game of Survivor.  Outlast, Outwit, Outplay.  I know I can Outlast.  I am nothing, if not stubborn.  Not sure about the others, though.