Celebrating mom/grandma

  Behind every great woman is a wonderful mom.......at least that's what I think.  How I respect my mom.  She taught me lots of things in life--how to cook, how to sew (not always very patiently!!), how to flower garden, how to be kind and respectful to people, how to serve others.  And as we all know sometimes it takes a lot of years before we truly appreciate all they did and continue to do for us.
   We got to celebrate my mom's 75th birthday this past weekend.  We laughed as families do when you start reminiscing, and we enjoyed time together that is much too rare given we don't live in the same town.   My sister-in-law Karla suggested we start doing "Christmas in September" so that we can have a good crew here and not stress everyone out so much in December.  We're all pretty excited about it, and it just took one brave soul to suggest it.  
  So very blessed to have a wonderful family.  I'm looking forward to lots more "Christmases in September" - besides, after you eat all day long you can go take a very long walk in September. That doesn't work so well in December in Iowa!

GIVE IT AWAY

GIVING AWAY LOVE
  I'm heading to northern Iowa today to talk to a womens group.  Several churches coming together to share together, and I get to speak and share a little worship.
  When I was trying to figure out what to share to this group of primarily "older" women what God's Spirit whispered to me was that I needed to teach about how we make a difference--young & old alike.   The cool thing is that I got to see that first hand last weekend when we celebrated the birthday of my dear friend and a neighbor we lived next door to for 17 years.  Marcie was an amazing neighbor and still is.  Every year she plants this unbelievable garden.   Now mind you, she lives by herself; she is 80 years old (although she doesn't like you to know that); and she's been planting a garden for years.   Oh and yes, I forgot to mention that she just quit working as a full-time legal secretary after 50 years!   The garden planting happened even while she was working full-time. 
   All of us who lived near to her reaped the harvest of her beautiful produce by receiving jars of canned goods: beets, beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pickles and more.   She gave it away - she always had an abundance and always shared it so willingly with all of us as well as other friends and family.  She gave away her love by sharing her garden produce with us.  She made a difference in my life and in the life of our family all those years we lived by her.  She was more than a neighbor!
  So as I was finalizing my talk I thought "you know, why is it that people want to make a difference?  What is it that gives Christ followers that desire?" And I came to the conclusion that it's what Marcie does.  She gives away LOVE through her garden produce. 
  And isn't that what Christ did for us?   He gave away his love to us!  I love that.   John 15:13 says "greater love hath no man than he who would lay down his life for his friends."  Giving it away.
  I want to be like Marcie.  Unfortunately, I am not a huge gardener so I'll never be able to give away the kind of produce that she does.  But I can give away love - and I can give it away freely out of gratefulness for what Christ did for me.   I pray I can give away my love today by sharing with these ladies. 

All the Broken People

So many broken, hurting people.  That's not a revelation.  My heart hurt this weekend hearing of lost lives in tornadoes around the Midwest.  My heart hurt as I prayed with many, many women at a retreat I spoke at.  Heavy hearts.  Wounded hearts.  Women living with so much pain.  Sometimes I feel so helpless wondering what in the world I can do.  But I remember God is Able and to cast my cares to Him because He loves them much more than I ever can.   So I pray, and I pray, and I pray.   ROMANS 8:26 says "we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words."  That's how I'm praying today.

How do my Wildflowers Grow

  When you have a beautiful garden it's hard to stay indoors.  You want to spend most of your time in the garden because things change from morning to night.   This time of year the strawberries ripen hours after you've just picked.  Of course, if you're like my 3 year-old grandson he eats them like candy as fast as I can pick them.  They are SO yummy. I absolutely love spending time out there.  Flower gardening yes - vegetable gardening not so much. 





An unknown wildflower



  The emerging wildflowers are so much fun.    I'm hoping I'll get to know all their names; that will take some work no doubt.   I love walking among the flowers seeing what's bloomed since my last stroll.  Yesterday the goldfinch, red-winged blackbirds and even a couple of ducks were enjoying the garden as much as I was.

   Two new pieces of "yardwork" done by Wiemann Remodeling.  One is a bridge that is allowing us to get across our small creek to our makeshift firepit.   Anyone who has a large backyard knows that you have to take things in stages.   This year's larger investment was steps from the deck to the backyard and a small bridge.  Having steps sure has made composting much easier since I can go down right from the kitchen; and the small bridge wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be at under $300.  Of course, I don't have to pay for labor which helps!!

The red yarrow is in full bloom, as is the moonbeam coreopsis.  The fish in the pond are growing which of course is SO exciting because this is the first year for them. Now I know why my grandmother spent so much time in the garden. I call it "gardening with God". Every time I'm in my garden I experience God through His beautiful creation. What a gift to be able to say with a grateful heart "thank you God."

My evolving backyard oasis



The wildflower garden emerging



   In the spring I have a REALLY hard time focusing on work.   The beautiful thing is that my office overlooks our backyard and so until about 3 pm when the sun gets too hot in the western sky that I have to pull my blinds, I can revel in the backyard that is continuing to evolve over the past three years.  



Our pond



   Every morning after heading to the gym I put on my sunscreen  (still in love with my Beauticontrol Cell Block C AM sun protection because I absolutely hate wrinkles and skin cancer). www.beautipage.com/beautifulskinandspas.  Then I head out to the garden for a couple of hours, waiting to see if anything looks different from the day before.  This is the first year of our wildflower garden.  I spread some seeds last fall; and then more seeds the first week of May.   We'll see how it progresses.  The creekbed is nearly finished.  We still need a couple more loads of larger rocks to finish the waterfall and for the pond basin.  It's been a hard project with lots of heavy labor because we've done all the work ourselves, but so rewarding!!!  

   Our goal is to have perennials but also part of this backyard be native wildflowers and grasses so that we don't have to spend a ton of time with mowing and upkeep.  We want it to attract birds and were SO excited to see our first goldfinch this morning--3 of them sitting on the feeder eating.  What fun! 

   This weekend is Memorial Day; I'm sure I'll we'll be exhausted but it's a good exhaustion.  I can't wait to see what new things have budded if it ever stops raining!

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The power of journaling

  The new year always brings me to a place of evaluating.  I spend the first week of the year reading through my journal to see if there is any common thread of things God's been saying to me so that I can address it.  This year was no different than others in the past.  I read through 2010 journal entries, looked at my goals and mission statement and made new goals that would align with where my life presently is.   Then I re-write my funeral plans.  My close friends and family know that I do this.   It may seem morbid but the older I get the more I realize this is not morbid but instead very wise.  My sister-in-law of 50 died of cancer Jan. 12, 2010; three other friends in their early 50s also died of cancer last year; and the older I get the more I realize that life truly is fleeting; and there is nothing that says this won't be the year that I leave this earthly body to reside eternally with my precious Savior.  And I don't want my family to have to plan my funeral celebration.
  I actually got the idea from my friend Connie who's been doing this for years.  I love it.  I pick my favorite song which does change year to year.  I write a letter to my kids and my husband; I put it inside my bible and there you have it.  

GIRLFRIENDS

  I'm very intentional about this each and every January.  I'm also very intentional about looking at what God's been doing in my life and making adjustments to be disciplined and intentional about how I live.  About where I serve and my job and my relationships.  The older I get, the more intentional I become. I've been studying through Luke for the past month and was reminded today that Jesus challenged his disciples, thus challenging us to "put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me."  I love and I detest this challenge.  But two years ago this was the verse that turned my business around for me. I realized that even after 18 years of being in sales and building a clientele and a sales team I often had my own motives in mind.  When I turned them to having a heart of serving everything changed.  Being in a business like I am with BeautiControl I am constantly working with women. Yes I'm trying to sell, but it's mostly about the relationships and I need to shoulder my cross daily and not make this about me.  Trying to impart that to my team is a discipling and mentoring thing. Sometimes I weary of it; but mostly I love it and know God has called me into this.
  That's the power of journaling. That's the power of evaluating and being intentional and seeing if I'm living out what God's called me into.  I do not want to leave this earth with lots of regrets, but rather with lots of satisfaction knowing that I lived well, served well, planned well so that my God would say "well done, good and faithful servant".