Meet the MG

This post is long overdue. 

I’ve said many thank-you’s to the MG, thought of her many times this summer as I worked in my garden. 

But an official, public thank you seemed to be in order.

My mother, the Master Gardener (or MG), is the one I watched as a kid.  She grew an amazing raised bed garden at our first house, and filled it with brown eyed susans, marigolds, and all kinds of herbs and vegetables.

I, for one, did not like gardening at ALL back then.  It was hot, sweaty work.  The only thing I liked about the thing was the sprinkler set up in the middle and the warm, crunchy, fresh cucumbers we were allowed to pick from time to time. 

But now I’m grown up, and I’ve surprised myself by becoming a gardener.  I like it.  Who knew?

When you start gardening, you have a lot of questions.  What’s this pest?  How do I get rid of it?  When do I plant?  What can I plant that won’t take over the whole garden?  What shouldn’t get planted next to this other thing and how much sun does this, that, and the other one need…?

The MG ought to have a dollar for every text, phone call, and monopolized conversation about the successes and failures of my backyard experiment. 

She is always gracious.  Always patient.  And any time she doesn’t know the answer (which seems very rare to me), she looks it up and gets back to me later.

Here she is:

Rocking my firstborn on her wooden swing.

Hauling compost for our new garden.

Breaking her back for her then-pregnant daughter.  Mr. MG is there, too, and worked his fingers to the bone that day along with my Sweet Babboo…

At the end of all that work, she (and Mr. MG) were not too tired to ferry their grandson around the yard.  You’ve gotta love parents like these… 🙂

She never pushed me or my sisters to like gardening ourselves.  Just quietly did her own thing, enjoying her gardens and sharing their produce with us along the way. 

 

I remember how encouraging she was to my sister, who wanted to grow potatoes in the woods when we were teenagers.  Those potatoes probably grew simply because she was encouraging their young caretaker so much.

Mothers, never underestimate the strong influence you have over your children.  Your habits and hobbies are part of their bloodstream, whether they like it or not.  Some day they will appreciate what you’re doing for them – even if it seems hot, sweaty, and unappealing right now.  Even if it is.

Mom, you ARE the MG.  No arguments, please.  Thank you for fielding all my questions, working hard to get this awesome garden started this year, letting me can tomatoes out of yours last year, and just being plain amazing.

I love you.  🙂

Dad, I love you too!  🙂

I’m Compassion. How Do You Do?

Yesterday we missed a wedding.  I’ve known the bride my whole life.

Granted, we were never close.

And we weren’t actually invited to the wedding.

But I picture it taking place in an apple grove, with some sort of ivy winding up and over a wrought iron arch.  A gorgeous Autumn ceremony.  The minister is just getting to the heartwarming stuff at the climax of his speech.

Suddenly all you can hear is

AP’M!

AP’M!

AP’M!

AP’M!

AP’M!

AP’M!

AP’M!

That’s Riley yelling “APPLE!” and waiting for someone to notice his brilliance in suggesting the name of the nearby fruit at the top of his lungs.  There he goes, scooting in between rows of guests, squealing and laughing.

Then there’s another noise, sort of quietly violent, as Riley’s mama starts losing her cookies.  Must have been a bad apple.  Someone catch that kid!  He’s getting too close to the bucket!  He’s getting too close to the bride!  He’s as curious as a cat and as fast as boiled Crisco!

I bet they wish they’d invited us.

The point is, I learned a lot in the last day or two.  I’m joking about the wedding.  Someone I know did get married, but my 1:30A.M. mind just thinks it would have been hilarious if our comical circus had showed up. 

You see, I never thought I’d be the parent with the rambunctious toddler.  MY children were going to stay perfectly in line. 

And I, not having actually thrown up in 16 years, never had much compassion for those who got stomach bugs.  It was more like, “Oh the poor thing.  Glad I didn’t get it…”

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.  Psalm 86:15.  I posted that as my verse for the weekend, and funny thing – God’s been teaching me to have compassion – to sympathize with those who struggle or suffer.

After all, I was one of those rambunctious toddlers whose heart was good and happy and whose bum never hit the chair.

And now I was one of those poor souls hunched over the garbage can while my loving husband rubbed my back, and my parents whisked our children from the room.

Thank you, God, for your love and faithfulness – for getting me through and reminding me how much I need you.  Maybe I’ll have the chance to reach out to someone soon in compassion.

I feel like now I can say sincerely, “I know what you mean!  Let’s get through it together.”

Thank YOU

Today I am thankful for YOU. 

It has been so much fun writing this blog from the very beginning, and more and more as people have found it and contributed comments, advice, etc.

What a great way to “meet” people and share friendships!  I can hardly believe that we have the ability to be so much a part of each other’s lives even though some of us who blog or read blogs are on separate continents.  Just too cool.

I’m especially thankful for those who’ve been encouraging to me in the area of asking for help.  The recent post Do I HAFTA Ask For Help? inspired some to shake me a bit and say “HEY LADY!  Ask for help!”

And I’ve really appreciated that help when it’s been given.

To my mother-in-law, thank you for holding Quinn for me at the campfire.  It was so refreshing getting to play music again; and I know he enjoyed his time with you.

To Mrs. M, thank you for watching Quinn this week so I could take Riley to the farm.  The time together was sweet.

To my Mom, thank you for watching the boys today so I can go to the doctor’s alone and concentrate on what she tells me.  I need all the help I can get these days.  🙂

The people in my life are amazing!

To each one who’s been helping out and encouraging me, even just by reading this silly blog,

THANK YOU.

You’ve been uplifting me.  Hope I can return the favor.

(The “I Love You” picture was taken by my sweet babboo, which is how we say “husband” in my family.  Thanks, sweetie!)

For Power

This week I made a cooking pit out of bricks and a grill cover and heated our dish and laundry water over an open fire.  I felt like a pioneer woman and it was fun!  Call me Fire Queen.

Our nights were candlelit, nursing sessions included.  Jon read the Chronicles of Narnia aloud while I knit or sewed by hand.  I actually felt like Marty from the Love Comes Softly series. 

You could hear crickets outside our house.  The street was dark and quiet.  Until 3 neighbors started up generators.

But now the storm has been over for 5 days, and we finally have our power back!  Let me say, people – I am SO THANKFUL for power! 

Of course I have to say that I’m thankful for God’s power to meet these circumstances and for His strength and protection.  Especially since 3 of the four of us were sick in the middle of it.  I never get sick like this, but had a fever, chills, and aches.  Yuck.

It’s all over and we’re out the other side.  And we didn’t get slammed like folks down South.  Please pray for those who are still out of power (most of my family included) and for those who got hit with storm when it was much worse. 

Hope you’re doing well, hope you have power, and hope it’s both kinds.  🙂

Do I HAFTA Ask For Help?

Something dawned on me today.  God is working on a stronghold in my life that I didn’t realize was a problem.

I mean, come on.  Is self-sufficiency really all that bad?  So I’m a little independent!  I’ve always liked that about myself – strong, capable, proud Yankee.  If it’s out there, I can do it (unless it’s Math or tanning, but I’ve made my peace with that).

So I handled every detail of the wedding myself.  Yeah?  And?

So I feel like it’s not worth doing if I can’t be instantly good at it and show off.  Your point?

So I had a hard time (did I say “had”?  I mean “have”…) a hard time learning to be a team player in marriage.  No big stink, right?

Wrong. 

God’s wisdom surpasses my stubborn will.  And for that I am very thankful. 

How is He doing this, you ask?  Through my children!  Only a wise and loving God would use my beautiful treasures, my exhasperating and exhausting and wonderful, incredible boys to teach me the tough lessons I refuse to learn.

I found myself envying women who don’t have to use any form of birth control.  Yes, they’re out there – ladies whose children naturally and almost methodically appear every 2-3 years.  At first I thought, we’re just extremely fertile.  Be that as it may, the woman with a more socially acceptable offspring spacing than mine is just as fertile as me.  She has kids.

But why are some women able to rely on God for the nice spacing and I can’t?

Because I have control issues. 

I was thinking, “Wow!  God just plans out their families for them.  Lucky.”  Ahem. 

Anyone else see the problem with my thinking?

God DID plan out our family for us.  This IS His spacing.  We ARE fertile, but my faith is not.  Two boys 15 months apart is God’s spacing for us.  If I have a problem with that, I ought to take it up with Him.

And really, I don’t.  I love that our boys will be close growing up.

What I’m realizing is that God is using this experience to force me to ask for help – His and others’.  I cannot be an island anymore, not to the doctor’s office, the fair, or some days even the backyard. 

I need help.

And it BURNS ME to have to ask for it.  I think God just smiled.  It dawned on me this week that unless I allow other people to assist me and admit that I’m not supermom, I’ll never go out anywhere or do anything.  Worse, much much worse – I won’t gain what God offers me through this experience.

And I don’t want to miss anything He gives.  After all, He’s the giver of good gifts.  I just look at my boys for proof!  They’re a blessing I don’t deserve and I can never thank Him enough for them.

Just hafta keep this verse in mind:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  2 Corinthians 12:9

This proud New England mama can bend the knee and ask for help.  God’s first, and others’ too.  According to God’s Word, if I’m going to be proud about anything, it ought to be that I’m a big lame-o who desperately needs His help!  🙂

Maybe then I’ll know His grace on a deeper level and feel His power firsthand.  What a story!  What an adventure!  What a calling.  Thank You, God, for working on me and not giving up your work in my heart.

How You Do It

My husband shared this verse with me this morning:

O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. –Micah 6:8

This is a very busy weekend around here.  Lots of hard work and fun, family time, cleaning, cooking, giant yard sale, laundry, LIFE.  Micah 6:8 gets a whole new spin for me.

I used to wonder what I could possibly do for God – I’m not a judge or someone who can “do justly” with the law in my hands.  I’m no Florence Nightingale or Merciful Mother Theresa.  But it’s slowly dawning on me. 

Walk humbly with God.

It’s not so much what I do but how I do it.  The right thing without mercy and humility is the wrong thing.  God’s presence – His help – is the only thing that will change me from who I am into the kind of person that verse describes.

Please keep me mindful of You today, Lord.  In the busy-ness let me have a quiet heart.  At the end of the day, You are still my heart’s desire.

Sweating and Smiling

I can see cucumber sprouts from my window! 

They’re such an encouraging vegetable to grow, because as soon as they poke up through the dirt, the first leaves look huge and healthy.  Makes me feel like I know what I’m doing. 

There would not be any cucumber plants (13 of them!) or peas, or bush beans, tomatoes, or herbs, if my husband and parents hadn’t done the grunt work this year. 

They absolutely spoiled me when I probably had no business starting a new garden.

I really do think my neighbors look out their windows at me and shake their heads.  (weirdo) …8 months pregnant, doing deep knee bends and odd ballet moves to get up and down, resting my watering arm on my belly while I refresh a plot of soil that still looks like a graveyard…

But there’s 13 cucumber plants! 

And I am very, very thankful.  God has given me the strength to plant all sorts of things and get it ready before the heat and humidity hit.  He gave me amazing and generous parents and a husband who supports my schemes, even though it means he has to work hard to help me get them going. 

And even the shade that had me so freaked out will be a blessing when there’s a one month-old baby basking in it, watching his slowly shrinking mama grow his family some food. 

Honestly, I think the neighbors have simply gotten an eye-full of family.  One keeps asking who those people were who came over and helped.  There are so many dysfunctional families that I wonder if it’s strange to see a tightly knit one working together, helping each other out, sweating and smiling, covered in dirt?

More than my garden, more than cucumbers, I’m thankful for my family.

Cooking Day

Heard of Once a Month Cooking?  I’m hooked.  I don’t actually plan out every meal for every day at this point (I’ve only done this 3 times so far, so I’m a novice).  But it made planning ahead for post-partum meals very easy.  Spend 8 hours making lots of food, freeze it, and don’t eat it yet! 

My mother and older sister are pros at OAMC (Once a Month Cooking).  You should see them fly through meal prep, cutting, sautéing, shrink wrapping or whatever that crazy machine is called…  Here’s a sneak peak into our oooking day last Friday.

My sister’s kitchen is phenomenal – big, cute, lots of counter space, two tables with leaves that can fold out to make room for all of the above…  It may not look organized, but it worked for me.  My work space away from home.

Mom’s station was right next to mine.  Notice the coffee cup, water bottle, Sharpie, and stack of notes and recipes – all staples of an experienced OAMCook.

Here we are, side by side, me with my 33 week belly, Mom with her prettiness.

These are two of the four trays of Cheesy Rotini that would be cooked, labeled, and frozen for after Baby #2 appears.  Not every meal gets totally cooked like this, but it sure makes it easy on the eating end.

Two chicken pot pies.  My husband’s chicken pot pie song went through my head over and over and over and over and over and over…

Not the prettiest pie you’ll ever see, but I’m learning.

Raw meat is everywhere on cooking day!  Thankfully it all ends up in the right place, whether precooked or just breaded and frozen raw.  It sure makes cooking easier later on!

I don’t know what this was, but someone was making hotdoggy goodness.  Like I said…meat, everywhere.  Is it any wonder I always go home smelling like Taco Bell? 

There’s always room for experimentation.  This new recipe will become Chicken Burgers – basically a chicken salad melt, baked in buttered buns.  Yummy.

Lunch time came fast, and we enjoyed Mom’s egg salad sandwiches with her homemade bread and eggs from the farm.

The kids were great all day – my one, Riley the Explorer, who actually sat still now and then, and my sister’s four, ages 1-9.  Sweetest kids ever.

They’re always offering to help.

Or stir something, or eat a stray carrot that needs a home.  Or hug my belly and say “hi” to the baby.  I love my nieces and nephews.

And Riley LOVES his cousins.

He loves Bunny too.  I must have been too slow with the snacks because Bunny almost became rabbit stew…

This pot should do…

There. 

Ah, never mind.  I love you too much, old friend.

These days are going by too fast.  A few cooking days from now, there will be another little one around to create distractions – welcome distractions that will force me to do this more than I’m willing to now:

Hey.  That’s why we do OAMC.  In the coming days, we’ll have more time to spend with our families because we gave up one back-breaking day to get some of the leg-work out of the way.

Job well done, ladies!

Are any of you readers OAMCooks?  Care to pass on a link to a favorite freezer meal?  We’re all still looking for new ideas!