A Bloomin' Miracle I Tell 'Ya!

I'm not sure what's happened with Halle lately but she loves having her picture taken. It's been a long time coming. Her sisters have never had to be coached, asked or prodded to have their pictures taken but Halle, well, she's just Halle. Yesterday she begged for blueberry crisp and I let her have some and this is the result. She always ends up with food on her forehead. I don't know how she does it but it's extremely cute. And last night she asked to have her picture taken while she was dancing in the living room. I'm really happy to see her personality come out. To "bloom" if you will.

And this morning at 7 o'clock I looked outside (I was quite groggy) and saw that my pumpkin had bloomed! And it was raining. And I didn't trust the bumble bees to do their work so I had to take it upon myself to make sure this pumpkin happens- you know, fertilization. So I put on my tennis shoes (I was maybe grumbling just a bit- or maybe a lot) walked out into the rain and ripped the leaves off of one male bloom, took out the stamen and dropped it in the female bloom. And then I did it again. I was in such a hurry to get out of the rain that I wasn't sure if I'd done it right the first time (plus I don't think I was thinking clearly). Not that it's a big deal, there are probably 10 blooming male flowers and 1 female so it's not like I was messing it up. And apparently that's how much I love pumpkins. I guess you can call me farmer Amy- that sounds ridiculous. I'm a bit concerned because autumn is literally around the corner for us and everything is going to really cool down. I'm hoping this little gal will be able to grow until at least October. We'll see. And if not I'll just be happy with what I get. And next year I'll have two years of pumpkin growing & pumpkin mistakes under my belt which I'm sure will make next year better. I'm afraid I might be hooked.

So Sweet...

I haven't really talked about this yet but school is going fabulously for Chloe this year. I had an endless list of frustrations with last year and one of the big ones was the amount of homework she had. And hour to an hour and a half per night- really. It was especially frustrating because her teacher said it would be 15-20 minutes a night. This year, however, she's gotten a teacher that seems to be anti-homework! Really. When the year started she had a substitute- for the first 5 weeks. I was very disappointed and thought it would be awful, how would Chloe cope with the change, would she cry for 6 months again? But it's actually been good. She didn't like the substitute teacher (who made her cry more than once in class) but loves her permanent teacher. She hasn't cried about going to school at all and I'm so thankful.

And we'll be leaving in just a bit for dance class at church. Chloe didn't do dance last semester because the first semester we just had too much going on. I was in choir and so was she and when we added that plus dance it was just too hectic. So she's in dance and I'm not doing anything- and I'm happy about that. I am doing the second semester in Freedom in Christ so I'm anticipating personal and spiritual changes in me. That's a good thing.

And I finally have a wee baby pumpkin blossom. Or female bloom. It hasn't actually bloomed yet although I look for it every morning. I counted 5 others on the plants so I'm crossing my fingers for more than one pumpkin.

Most of them look like this or smaller, if you can believe it. I was a bit neglectful of the plants thinking that they would get the nutrients that they needed from the ground. But they were a very pale green color and looked pitiful. Until I added some organic choice fertilizer and bone meal. They really like bone meal.. (sorry for the blurry picture)

but so do cats. I didn't really know that until a couple of weeks ago. Last week I saw a cat (that looked just like Phoenix) on the patio around my garden cart. He ran off and later in the day I was going to do some gardening and I saw the bone meal like this. I've since put it in the grill to keep the cats away. I feel bad and wouldn't mind feeding them but it makes them dependant on people and they would likely die if we weren't here any more to take care of them. I've got all sorts of things running around in my head for our cookout this weekend and I'm going to finalize the menu tonight. Mary offered to bring the burgers so that frees me up to make a nice appetizer (bruschetta maybe?) and a dessert or two to go with the one Mary is also bringing. There will be 15 people here so I don't think we could have too many desserts, right? Plus it gives me a chance to make some without having them sitting around here just waiting for me to eat them. I'm looking forward to a good weekend.

Good Things

I'm feeling quite a bit better today. Not 100% but better. And so I asked Travis if we could meet downtown to walk for a bit. There were things I could do here. Plenty of things. But I stay inside these walls so much when I'm not feeling well that I want to take advantage of every opportunity to get out and walk and explore and just enjoy things. So we did. We all ate PB&J for dinner, it wasn't gourmet but it fit the bill for a really quick bite to eat. And we walked. One day I'm going to take a picture of the 4 churches we have in dtf within a couple of blocks. They're all pretty- beautiful really- I just think it's funny that there are 4 so close together.

This one is a Methodist church. When we got downtown it was 6 o'clock on the dot and the church bells were ringing. I thought "I live in a postcard". I had the biggest, silliest smile on my face.

And this is the church office. It's across the street and is right next door to the Presbyterian church. And this beautiful Victorian style house used to be Lillie Belle's tea room. But now it's Monell's restaurant. They serve country food family style. As in, you get large portions of food and pass it around. I really wanted to go there when it was a tea room. I guess the upside is that I won't know if anything changed if I'm able to go and won't be disappointed. I was feeling pretty tired at this point (I love Tennessee, I just wish my body did) so we decided to head back, but on our way we saw a street performer. Well, it was a guy with a guitar singing next to Mellow Mushroom. We weren't really in a hurry and Chloe wanted to give him some money. So she did and we decided to sit for a bit and listen to him. And I really liked his sound. I mean, guy+guitar, what's not to like? I can't vouch for his lyrics or anything because I only heard him for a bit but you can find him here. And while we were sitting and listening, Halle- sweet, shy Halle- started dancing. She was dancing kind of spazzy with her eyes closed as if she was thinking 'nobody can see me if my eyes are closed' but it was adorable. Then Travis and Chloe joined in. It was sweet and perfect and I thought "I'm just going to enjoy the moments". I don't have lots of times that I feel well. But today I had these moments and they were beautiful. I found myself thanking God for that moment because He gave it to me. Then we had to rush off because Travis is on call and got a page. But I got to drive and I went through two beautiful, historic streets that are off the main street that I love. I enjoyed looking at the homes and the sun started to set. I think that it was just about a perfect evening.

It's Going to be OK

We're at the end of family night tonight. I took some Claritin and amazingly my shortness of breath and general crummy feeling subsided. It would really help if I could distinguish between allergies and real sickness. I mean, I'm pretty sure I had both but it's confusing because a different allergy pill didn't help but....OK, it's just confusing. I'm still really tired but overall I'm feeling better. Which means that I can get ready for a get-together I'm having this weekend. I haven't had one of those since Amanda's graduation. And I really like having people over.

I was able to do some experimenting in the kitchen tonight. And that's always a fun thing for me and a big irritation for Amanda since she does the dishes. I made a gravy that was really yummy and I think it's going to work for chicken pot pie too. Fantastic. I've always used soup because well, it's easier, but the last time I did it tasted gross to me. I also made that parsley paste I was talking about a few days ago. Parsley, olive oil and salt blended up together makes a nice paste that absolutely takes the garlic smell off my hands- yippee! And it gives me a use for parsley besides feeding caterpillars.

Backtracking a bit to yesterday...we took a trip to the park. The weather was just gorgeous- low 70's with little to no humidity and made it a necessity to be outside. And on the way there we noticed a house for sale in our neighborhood. It's bigger than ours by about 500 square feet and it was completely remodeled last year. They rented it out but I was hoping they'd sell and bring up the values in our neighborhood. So I checked it out today and it's nice inside- new kitchen, hardwood floors, etc. And the asking price is only 2K more than we paid for ours 3 years ago. *Before* we refinanced. Before the new roof. Before the floors. Before the windows. Before the new a/c. And I was bummed. Not freaking out mind you, but a little bummed. I guess it was also before the real estate market crashed. If we stayed here for 5 more years it would probably work itself out.

I had to tell Travis, of course, and we talked about maybe having to rent it out if we move before market values catch up to our house. I can't imagine renting because well, renters sometimes destroy houses- call me little miss sunshine. We ran an errand at Publix and I thought to myself "I'm going to trust God in this but I think I'm going to really have to work at it". Have you been there? Sometimes trusting God comes so incredibly easy and then sometimes it doesn't. So the girls and I went outside and waited in the car for Travis and I looked over and saw a bumper sticker. It said IGBOK. I've seen those before but I don't usually pay a lot of attention to bumper stickers. Under the big bold letters it said "It's going to be OK". Hmmm. It's not that the bumper sticker was telling me something I didn't already know but it's nice to see it in print. Yes, "all things work together for good" and lots of other scriptures say it's going to be OK, without actually saying "hey, Amy, it's going to be OK". But it is. I have to trust that this is God's plan and we just have to walk it out.

This Has Nothing to Do With Sunflowers...

I mean, they might be making an appearance but this really has more to do with parsley. Yes, that's right parsley. Or to be more precise parsley flowers. That's what the little green flowery things are in the vases with the flowers. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I didn't know that parsley flowered. But it does and they're so pretty I just had to use them. That and they were just out of control next to the lemon tree. I've never actually used the parsley for cooking although I have thought of trying to make a paste out of it to use on my hands after I mince garlic. I don't know about you but my fingers smell like garlic for three or four days after I chop the stuff. Which is why I don't make alfredo sauce that often. Pity. I have seen recipes that call for it in pesto but I'm certain that there are caterpillar eggs on it since I saw them around and well, that just kind of creeps me out.

I do think it's kind of funny that I've followed up a week of blogging by not blogging at all. It's been an interesting week though. A friend of mine from college called me and I hadn't talked to him in nearly a year. His life is in a much better spot than when I talked to him last. God's faithfulness never ceases to amaze me.
That same night Travis worked late and so I had a girls night with the kids- minus Amanda. We ate girly food- bagels with pink cream cheese, raspberries, blueberries and figs. And had pink soda. And we polished our finger and toe nails. It was really fun. I don't look forward to Travis working late but spending time with the girls made it much more enjoyable.

Saturday

Guess who came to see me today. Allright, he didn't come to see me but I'm thankful that Travis had the camera handy. Yes, my sweet hubbie took this picture. Isn't he gorgeous? I never thought I'd get one this close up.

I had such big plans for this Saturday. Really. And I still feel not so fantastic. Even so I was determined to work through it and do my big project anyway. But my body won and I'll be watching a movie with the girls instead. Bummer. I *really* wanted to get this thing done. On the upside though Travis is doing the floors inside the hall closet and I really hope that he'll have the other finish work done on the floors by the end of the weekend. Oh and there's my birdie friend again.... And again. He's hard to see in this one but look towards the top. You get "Where's Waldo" points if you find him. Travis was very determined to sneak up on him and get some good pictures for me. He loves me. And thus concludes my blogging week. I'm a bit bummed that I didn't blog on Tuesday but I'll just have to be OK with it. Now I'm going to grab a blanket and lay on the couch and watch something ridiculous with my kids. It never ceases to amaze me that they can watch the same thing over and over and over. I'm still hoping I can summon the strength to do my project. I'm determined to get it done this week. I'll let you know what it is once we're done.

A Moment...

As parents we make a million little decisions for our kids every single day. And sometimes it's tiring trying to do the right thing or figure out what the right thing is. Sometimes it's easier to go with the flow and give in to their relentless pull on the reigns that we hold. Other times something rises up inside us to say "no, that is absolutely not going to happen" or "yes, you are doing that and that's the end of it". But you never really know how it's working out, do you? Even good kids have attitudes that are less than stellar at times and it's frustrating to figure out how much space to give them and how much freedom and which decisions are going to be left up to them. Because there are decisions that we have to let them make.

Until your grown kid thanks you wholeheartedly for the way you raised them. When they express gratitude that you made them open a savings account and that you trust them to drive and that you encourage them to prayerfully take risks and you taught them to be an adult. Then you know that you did ok and that all those hours of prayers and tears and tough love and well, just regular love too, brought about the result you were working for all along. Not that it's over. I'll never stop being her mom but in time I'll step into more of an advisor and friend role rather than the raising her role. In some ways I wish we could go back. There are things I wish I did better but I'm also very thankful for the husband God gave me. And the dad he gave Amanda. He's raised her for more than half her life now. And I know she wouldn't be who she is without the father role he filled in her life. And I'm just very thankful and very, very blessed.

My Birdie Friends Are Back!

I love sunflowers. Have I mentioned that before? I don't think I'll ever not grow them. I mean, they grow anywhere. I see random ones all over the place here. You know a bird had to have dropped a seed if it's in the middle of chest-high weeds. Bumble bees love them. Their fat little hind legs get completely covered in bright yellow pollen and it's the cutest thing ever. I'd take a picture but my camera just isn't equipped for that. I love my point and shoot but one day...I'll have a "real" camera. Back to the flowers. Hummingbirds love them too. It's so sweet to watch them and little finches that eat the seeds. The one pictured is a girl so she's not as pretty but she ate seeds for a really long time. I'm a dork but I love watching them. And they don't bother my tomatoes. Speaking of tomatoes, again, I thought that this little guy might be responsible for my messed up tomatoes. I've known that they were there eating my parsley which didn't bother me because they turn into really pretty butterflies and I don't really use the parsley for anything. But I did see one of them on my tomato plant which intermingles with the parsley plant. The info I read didn't say they would eat tomatoes though so I'm not sure. It's just that the info I've found on tomato plant diseases looks particularly vile in the pictures and my plants don't look like that. But I don't want to bore you with any more plant stuff. I'm not starting a gardening blog or anything. It is one of the big bright spots in my summer though. Seeing as how we have 5 months of brown grass and trees with no leaves to look forward to in the next few months. Autumn I'm totally looking forward to, winter not so much.

I'm also looking forward to making some house progress this weekend. Travis and I were both sick with some not-so-fun virus but we're both feeling a lot better today. That should get us through the weekend. I have some projects in mind but I'm really not sure what I'm going to tackle. Our project(s) will be mostly limited to the supplies we have on hand since our remodeling budget is really slim. Which brings out the creativity, right? Right. I'm sure it will be fun.

The Trouble With Tomatoes

I had a thought early this week and it was that I should blog every single day- this week, not in general. I didn't blog yesterday but I did do two posts on Monday and that should count, right? At least it's possible that I could have the right number of posts by the end of the week. It's just for fun and to stretch me a bit creatively. And to make me actually write out the little posts I think of during the week and never get around to.

Anyway, tomatoes. I tried the fruit of my labor again with salt and pepper and I actually liked it. It tasted faintly of tomato but in a nice way. Travis loves eating them fresh but would prefer a more tomato-ey tomato. He's asked if I will grow big beef steak (or whatever they're called) next year. He wants them on burgers and sandwiches and as a snack and...funny he never mentioned that he loves tomatoes that much. That's the thing about my hubby. I love him so much but after being married for nearly 10 years there are still things I couldn't tell you about him. He is very low key and he rarely asks for anything-which is somewhat maddening. Why? Because I like to buy him things that he likes. It's a thing for me. But I digress.

The trouble with those lovely tomatoes though and growing things in general is that they can be temperamental. For instance- see the cracks in my otherwise lovely tomatoes? It's because it rained last night. Since I'm growing them in pots I water them but the soil doesn't stay too moist because of the drainage holes. But if it rains for hours the tomatoes suck up a bunch of water and crack. I had to do a bit of digging to find out what it was. I harvested some just a couple of days ago and they had no cracks and these were fine yesterday- until I checked them this morning after the rain. Very frustrating I tell 'ya. Travis will still eat them but I hate feeding him inferior tomatoes.

I apologize for the fuzzy picture on this one. It was nearly dark outside and I didn't realize that my camera was focusing on the dowel. Do you see the spot on this tomato though? That one I'm worried about. This tomato plant in general seems to be healthy but this spot looks like something either munched on it or it's some kind of disease. Gaaa. I'm glad I've been doing this for a while because stuff like this used to drive me mad. Again, the plant itself looks fine so maybe it's a fluke. And so ends my discourse on tomatoes. It might have been longer but Travis and the girls are watching Wipeout. Have you watched that show? It's ridiculously funny- for grown ups and little people. I hear a bunch of laughing and feel like I'm missing out. So I'm going to go watch people get knocked around a bit.

Photos...

I don't claim to be a photographer- at all. I do really like taking pictures though. For the last few days I've been burning this candle. It's no less than 6 years old. I got it for free for hosting a Party Light party, I think that's the name of the company. And I didn't want to burn it all at once- it being an expensive candle and all. Eventually I forgot about it and remembered it and forgot about it again...until a few days ago. I pressed the sides down like you're supposed to for maximum burning potential until it breeched the wax dam holding it back and spilled out all over the candle plate. And the flame got pretty high...cool. So I took pictures. Unfortunately I couldn't control where it was or what was in the background since I was cooking sausage for Trav's breakfast tomorrow. But I couldn't pass up taking pictures of the flames. And well, that's all.

Grandma's Mug

I grew up in Florida. You all know that. What you may not know is where all my other family was. My dad was from Pittsburg, Kansas and my mom was from Arkansas- all over Arkansas. My mom's dad was in the civil service although I have no idea what that is and he was also a Pentecostal preacher. Assemblies of God to be exact. We visited them every summer in Louisiana when I was a kid. And then in Arkansas when they moved back. My grandparents lived in an old house that probably used to be considered one of the well-to-do homes. It was on Main Street and it was big. At least I thought so. It had ceilings that were at least 12 feet high, maybe 15. And all of the doors had glass door knobs. The kitchen had cabinets built all the way to the top of the incredibly high ceiling and there was an ironing board built into the wall, hidden in a cabinet. In the back of the house there was a room, maybe it was a solarium, I'm not sure. The only time I saw it was when I was about 10. I just remember thinking that it was the most romantic, beautiful room in the whole world- completely surrounded by windows. My grandma used it as her sewing room so there were piles and piles of fabric everywhere. My grandma tended to be a bit of a pack rat. The next time we visited, that beautiful room had been torn down and two bedrooms and a bathroom were in it's place. It's understandable considering they had five kids and four of them were married with kids and well, there just wasn't enough room. So the beautiful room had to go. But I was so very disappointed.

It was in this house that my grandma's health began to deteriorate. She had a stroke and then another one that left her completely paralyzed on one side. And she had heart trouble. She took nitroglycerin tablets often. I didn't really understand what they were for. I was about 14 one summer when we were visiting and grandma had an episode with her heart. She was visibly in a great amount of pain and my grandpa was kneeling next to her praying. My mom and dad looked very concerned and my cousins were playing in the back. They had come into the room with me but I don't think they knew what to do. I couldn't leave. It's like I was paralyzed there and my heart felt like it was going to break. We lived so far away that we didn't have a relationship but she was my grandma. She was a person that was suffering and I couldn't do anything so I stood there and cried. And she saw me. I'm not sure if she appreciated the gesture or if she felt bad for me or what but after the episode was over she started gesturing to my grandpa. It was nearly impossible to understand her at this point. And I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind it but she wanted to give me a mug. And it said "I Love Mom". I thought it was strange then and, well, I still do. Maybe she was trying to tell me that she loved me. And so I kept it. All these years.

As a teenager, I kept it on my makeup table and it held brushes and pencils and such. And it's moved with me to every single place we've lived in. Fast forward to yesterday. It was one of the only clean cups in the kid cupboard. We have a kid cupboard for kids cups. I'm not sure why it was there but I decided to let Chloe use it and told her the story. A shortened version for Chloe's short attention span. I told her to be very careful but I just had a feeling that it was going to get broken. But it didn't. Not yesterday anyway. It got broken today. Amanda was doing the dishes and I think she dropped it. She called me to let me know that "you know that I Love Mom mug? Well, it broke and sliced my wrist". Sigh*. Thankfully it was just the handle. I don't know if all the pieces are there or if I can fix it. I will keep it in the cupboard though. It's the one thing that my grandma personally gave to me. I have an unfinished quilt and an old doll but those were given to me by my mom. I think if I learned anything from all of it, it's that sometimes you make a difference in someones life simply because of your position. I wish I'd known her better. I wish I'd been closer. But I know I'll see her again someday.

Edited to add that I was much more concerned about Amanda's wrist than I was with the mug at that moment. Her wrist is fine.

A Walk...

I went for a walk with Chloe and Halle on Wednesday, I think. I'm not sure because my days sort of run together especially when there are more than one memory in the same place in the same week. Nope, I'm sure it was Wednesday because it was Thursday night that Trav, Chloe, Halle and I walked around downtown waiting for Amanda to get off work. And it was Wednesday that we walked around and looked at antique/junk shops. Whew, glad I straightened that out.

I love this house. I'm not a super big fan of columns (at least not this style) but they work here, I think. I did think it was kind of funny that they had bamboo roll up shades on the 2nd story window. It just makes me really wonder what that room looks like. Does it have a classic exterior and a modern interior? I'll probably never know.

And this sweet stone cottage-sigh. I don't usually like stone cottages. But this one is fabulous with paint peeling on the shutters and a side porch with breezy white curtains and window boxes that *always* have flowers in them. You all know that I (along with most everybody else in middle TN) loves downtown Franklin. And as with all downtown areas, there's the main street (coincidentally called Main Street) and then lots of other streets with homes and shops mixed in. We'd lived here for about two years before I even knew these businesses existed.

This one was pretty cool and was very much an antique shop. It had magazine type things from 1865 and antique ink bottles and things like that. And I realized that I probably am not going to go crazy for antiques. I love the desk on the front porch and they had antique ceiling tiles and lots of stuff with peeling paint and it was lovely. Cramped but lovely. Oh, and the owner had a beautiful long haired chihuahua named Diva. She was shaking like chihuahuas do *but* she loved my kids. She licked their faces and didn't want them to leave. And they asked if we could buy a dog like that one. Actually they asked if Chutney could be a dog like that. Because we picked out our dogs name about two years ago...and we don't have a dog yet. I *really, really* want one though. The shop next to it was just junk as far as I could tell but I'm obviously not an expert. My perception of the place could have been tainted though by the attitude of the sales lady. And I decided that just because it was in DTF didn't mean that it was a desireable place to shop. The antique "malls" were particularly hit or miss and I'm pretty sure that the Elvis Presley cookie jar was not an antique. But Chloe saw it and went on and on about "how he died on the toilet because he had drugs". And Halle said "he got fwushed down de potty"?!? It was a much longer and much louder discussion about the subject than I wanted to have. She learned about the incident from a friend from school.

I did however find an armoire, um thingy, that I love and have dreamt about owning since I saw it. It's made for a corner and I really could use that. And, well, I just think it's super cute.
I also fell for some of the stained glass windows. I've always been a sucker for those. They had some that were pulled out of a Nashville church. Not these, other ones, but I liked these too.

We visited other stores and some I liked; some I didn't. But the important thing is that the girls and I were able to walk outside on an August day that was really quite nice. It was warm but pleasant and there was a nice breeze. And we had cherry limeades waiting for us in the car. I'm looking forward to doing it again very soon.

Monday Monday

It's Monday night and I've been a bit sore all day. Travis and I have begun our get-the-house-in-tip-top-shape campaign and we started in the yard. Wowza! Saturday was actually, really fun. I've been dying to get out there with the hedge trimmers and tame the bushes that made our house look desserted. I hacked away at the holly bush and made it look like a holly tree- except that I can only reach to a certain point and we don't have a ladder. So it's nicely manicured until it reaches the roofline and then it's just crazy. Travis was going to try to do it but there just wasn't a steady enough thing to stand on that made it wise to take a chain saw to it. I was really bummed because out of all the work I wanted to get done, I wanted that tree finished the most. Oh, and I cut through two extension cords. The second one actually briefly burst into a flame. That was a little scary. But I hacked away at every bush in the front and cut them all so that you could walk behind them without feeling like something could hide in there and grab you. We ended up with 5 bags full of clippings plus a large pile of branches on the curb. Thankfully our city waste department will come pick them up.

Travis, Amanda and Chloe worked on the parts of the driveway that have washed away. It had gotten so bad that driving up and down was really, really bouncy. The girls liked it but I didn't. So they were outside with shovels and a, um, wheeled cooler (ghetto, I know) taking gravel and dirt from the end of the driveway to fill in the missing parts. I'm sure that we'll look back on this someday when we live in a house with an intact driveway and say 'you remember when we used to have to put our driveway back together'? And we'll laugh and laugh. Overall, we spent about 8 hours over Saturday and Sunday working on it all. Saturday was a lot easier than Sunday was.

Saturday evening Travis took me out and we went to Pancho's Place. It's in the same plaza as Target, about 5 minutes from our house. I've wanted to go there since we moved (nearly *3* years ago. I can hardly believe it.) and it was really good. Of course, anything tastes good when you've worked that hard. After that we ran errands. It was supposed to be a date but we have so much to do and it's just easier to run errands when the little kids aren't with us. Besides it was raining and apparently Travis had a big master plan that was ruined by it. Bummer. It was just nice being out with him. I don't care so much what we were doing. Well, I wouldn't have liked a monster truck rally, but you get the idea.

And lastly, the other day we got a Costco magazine in the mail. Yes, I think it's kind of weird that Costco puts out a magazine. I usually throw them away without actually reading them but Travis got to this particular one first. Inside there was a story about a family that supplies apples and cherries to Costco. It's called First Fruits Orchard and is run by a family that are Christians. This family started out small and then ended up losing everything and then rebuilding again. They are unashamedly Christian and also very socially conscious. When the husband was a child he wanted to have his own orchard and to help starving orphans in India. And as an adult he's done both- and has adopted 9 orphans from India. They have an entire cherry orchard that's devoted to ministry with 100% of their profits donated. And they take incredibly good care of their workers. At one point they realized that their workers were keeping their children inside all day because they couldn't afford childcare. So they built a daycare for them. Then they realized that their workers were unable to afford decent housing for their families. So they built a neighborhood of 3 and 4 bedroom homes and rented them to their workers. The rent on a 4 bedroom house? About $485. And they help them buy houses and they built an elementary school and they give scholarships. You can read the whole article here. I really encourage you to read it.

I came away from reading it thinking "God can use anybody to do anything". I think it's more than a thought right now though, it's a passion. According to Ralph Broetje, the farmer, he's good at planting trees. He shouldn't be running the business he's running. But he is. And he's impacting people in this huge amazing way. I'm not saying that I'm going to run out and plant some fruit trees and become a farmer. That's not my gifting. I do want fruit trees but that's something else- I just like fruit. I used to think that the only way to positively impact the world for Christ was to be in full-time ministry. But how can you be Jesus to people more than this family is? I'm sensing a paradigm shift in me. A very real big shift. And maybe this whole journey has been a shift and I'm just now realizing it. I've always known that I could do anything and minister to people. But now I *know* that I can do anything and minister to people. God can do anything through anyone that is willing to follow Him. It's is sometimes a very long, arduous, winding road. But it's His road and we're walking it out with Him. What's it going to look like? I don't know. But I'm very excited to find out.