Little Faces

This is my 600th post!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoa!


The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote two weeks ago.

Today I have little faces in my head, but these are far away faces. Little boys and girls that I must give to Jesus. Deep brown eyes that stared into mine from outside our bus. A dirty face and a dirty green cap, bare feet and worn clothes on his young back. Not looking for my pity, but looking none-the-less. Sack over his shoulder, working to feed his own mouth and who knows how many more. A boy of, how old? Maybe 11? But his eyes wore so many more years...

Add on a few days of my life and add another set of dark brown eyes. She's watching me wave goodbye. Her dark hair cropped chin length. She's waving at me now. I am in the bus and she, outside. I see her eyes, welling with tears, and she quickly wipes them away. I turn away to choke back my tears. Why does my soul rise up within me with such emotion?

Yet bear with me once more, for this one time will always be etched into my memory, filled with pain and regret. Why each memory finds me inside the bus and unable to wrap my arms around their shoulders, taunting me in my helplessness? Perhaps it is because I must learn that it is not I who can help, but only pour Lord. Only our Lord can now soften the blows of the sticks upon his head as he crouched in the alleyway, knees tucked to his chin. Why were those other boys so cruel? Why did I not holler "STOP" to the bus driver and rescue the young boy from his torture? Why did I only look on in horror as he was beaten mercilessly? Today he is again on my mind, and I lift him up to our Savior. I am no longer there to witness his beatings and the possibility of me being his rescuer is a moot point. My God sees. He knows his need. He knows if the beatings are often and repeated. He also knows what would've happened if we had tried to rescue him from the cruel hands of his peers. *Sigh* And so I give the faces to Jesus. The Lover of our souls. The nameless faces. But He knows them by name.

Today is another day. God sees the children on the other side of the world and He sees the ones who live next door. He loves them more than I ever could. He cares for their needs. And I will trust Him.

Sponsor a child today through Compassion International.

Garden Addendums

I just want to say that I am loving that it rained today. I was so thoroughly happy to have rain. It hadn't rained since midweek last week or longer and my garden soil was dry, real dry. This year, as I may have said already, I have been working on making raised garden beds. They were finished this past weekend and filled with peat moss, compost, vermiculite and other goodies for growing. My only problem was that packaged, store bought soil addendums are very dry and dusty. I needed rain. I still haven't been able to plant my early peas or spinach because of that reason and also that my boxes are not very full. It costs a lot of money to buy good growing soil... *sigh* Maybe, I will just plant in the boxes as is this year and use the "lasagna gardening" method as I go year by year.

Anyway, this is a picture of my sad looking garden. It'll look beautiful soon! I'll have to take "after" pictures.

A Tasty Treasure

A week or so ago, I went to an auction with some friends. I bought a few different exciting things which included four block planers for my Dad, a wheelbarrow with a metal wheel, a four-foot ladder, and a box of old sheet music (for which I did a happy dance). Along with the sheet music came a small box of random pamphlets and papers, which I didn't even get a chance to look in until this past Saturday. But when I did finally get to see what was in the shallow box of papers, I found a little treasure. It looks old and worn out but inside it is a like a tasty trifle. Literally. The pages are water damaged and worn, and some are completely faded, but the pages which you can still read, makes my heart flutter... The little book is filled with a woman's hand-written recipes, desserts, cakes, cookies, and tastinesses. She even has a recipe for cream puffs written in there! What really made me smile was the recipe for gingerbread cake, since last week I had been craving it. You must understand that I NEVER crave gingerbread cake. I mean, I rarely even think about such delicacies, except for last week. So, it was a funny little blessing from God, to find a gingerbread recipe in that little book. I fully intend to copy out those recipes onto something more durable before the pages completely fall apart... Then I can get to baking! Now how about those cream puffs....

A Sunny Day Outing

I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, and my mind began to run with all the things I could get done outside on such a gorgeous day. It was difficult for me to quell those thoughts, as my stay-at-home time is limited, but an outing had been planned by husband and son and I didn't want to miss out on family time just to spend it with some dirt. Josh had gone to bed the night before chattering about feeding carrots to the cows at Lollypop Farm and he woke up talking about it too. So I tucked my thoughts about raised garden beds into my back pocket and clambered into the car with my men. Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bob were meeting us at the "farm" and Grandma Jo was bringing her carrots. Unfortunately for the carrots, upon arriving, we found that we were not allowed to feed the animals. But we wandered the paths admiring the horses, pigs, emus, goats, cows, and ducks and we were even able to get up close and personal with the goats. Josh had such a ball playing with the goats. There were a couple kids (of the goat type) in the group of goats that were quite friendly. They came right up to us and nibbled on my coat. The not-quite-as-friendly goats were chased by a small boy, and I'm not sure who was having more fun, Josh or the goat being chased! I thankful that I had my camera along as I was able to get several good photos of the kids playing together, the goat kind and the human kind...

Growing Again

I'm eating ice cream at 9:30, just FYI. It's going to go right to my jiggly thighs...

I am so ready for another sunshiny day tomorrow. Today, it was like torture to have to go to work and leave my garden lying still under such a blue sky. If it is beautiful tomorrow, I am staying home all morning and doing garden things. I know it is only April 7th, but I am getting ready early this year. I am making raised beds in my garden and I have been working on them in my mind already for three months. I need to finish painting the boards so I can screw them together and fill them up with fresh soil. I have had such a hard time growing root vegetables for the past four years and I am ready to try something new. So I am making four 5'x5' raised beds to supplement my garden area. And I am also sooo ready to plant cool weather seeds, like peas and lettuce. The sooner, the better. I already feel like I am behind, even though I am starting way earlier than ever before. I have planted tomato seeds which are sprouting in my basement and I am anxious to get some pepper seeds sprouting as well... Again, I am hoping for a beautiful day tomorrow, because that is my excuse for skipping preschool as volunteer Mom. Even if it is not so great of a day, it would be so encouraging for me to be able to get some things accomplished at home. And we are having lunch company too. Maybe I should clean the bathroom as well?

Happy Birthday Pops!

Before it gets too late, my favorite Daddy is having a birthday today! I love you Dad and hope you had a good birthday! I love having you as my Dad and I want you to know that I look up to you and am blessed to have you as my Daddy. XOXO