Every year I find sunflowers growing in my garden in places where I wouldn’t have chosen — perhaps planted by the resident squirrels who are a bit willy-nilly in seed placement. Sometimes I pull the volunteer plants out—most of the time I just leave them to grow and enjoy whatever happens.
This beauty was one of my favorites–classic sunflower perfection.
Continue reading “Willy-Nilly Gardeners”Rewind of a Facebook Note written sometime in 2015
I made Momma cry today.
Somewhere near the intersection of my trying to be helpful and Momma’s trying to remember, she snapped at me, shooed me away with the wave of her hand, blurting, “Get out of here! Leave me alone! Let me just try to think about one thing at a time!”
With more hurt and frustration in my voice than I intended, I retorted, “Alright Momma, I’ll leave you alone!” Retreating to the solitude of my former bedroom, I felt the door slam behind me, hot tears stinging my eyes, ready to gush at a moment’s notice. I really wanted to throw myself on my bed, bury my face in my pillow, scream and bawl, then drift off to sleep, leaving the nightmare of Mom’s advancing memory loss behind.
Instead, I stood there in the middle of the room and cried out to God. I was only in prayer for a minute or two, maybe even only a few seconds of time. But in that small measure of time, I felt God’s presence. He was speaking to me. Not in an audible voice, but in that place in the very core of your being where all of life’s decisions are made and emotions are felt. That place where you love. The heart.
God was reminding me He was there and that we would get through this together.
Gingerly opening my bedroom door and peeking down the hall, I spied my sweet Momma at the other end of the hall. She was right where I left her minutes ago, sitting in her favorite chair in the living room, quietly dabbing away her tears of confusion with great big wads of tissue.
Humbled in heart and quieted by the Spirit, I went to Momma, knelt in front of her, then wrapped her in my arms and said, “I’m so sorry, Momma.” My sweet mom put her arms around my neck in a motherly hug and laid her tearful, trying-to-remember weary head on my shoulder.
“Momma, Jesus will help us through this.”
“I know. I know,” acknowledged Momma with gentle, reassuring pats on my back.
Barefoot Lily Lady here, sowing a few more ‘seeds’ of financial wisdom today. Today my husband shared five suggestions on his blog for practicing vigilance in keeping online accounts safe. For the sake of your financial security, please give it a read.
It’s a busy day – no time to write. But here are a few pictures of what’s happening in my August garden.
My financial advisor shares his wisdom concerning Social Security.
Financial stuff is not my usual topic to write about. I’m more about gardening, as my blogger handle suggests. From time to time, I also write about Alzheimer’s caregiving, a topic about which I am passionate due to my experience in caring for my mother and my brother. I occasionally share slices of life, like a biblical truth gleaned from my study of scripture, a fun thing I experienced with my grandkids, or a tasty recipe I’d like to share. I can barely write a check and keep a checkbook balanced, so I’m not the person you want to ask for financial advice. Conversely, my husband loves to juggle numbers in a spreadsheet and writes about financial matters with great regularity. He recently wrote an informative article on a subject which I’ve been pondering lately.
Continue reading “Sowing Financial Wisdom”One major item that has been near the top of my list for several years now has been to cut down two diseased and unsightly spruce trees in our front yard. I was out pulling weeds one day earlier this summer and noticed there were tree trimmers working in the neighborhood, so mentioned it to my hubby. He surprised me by immediately walking down the street and engaging in conversation with a young man on the crew–the son of the owner of the company. A few minutes later, they came for a look-see and before I knew it we had a contract and the trees were felled by the end of the day.
Now that the spruces are down, we have a brand new full-sun garden space, and I am enjoying choosing what to plant in that space. First order of business, however, was to deal with the weeds that had gotten a foothold underneath the spruces. We also needed to relocate some of the shade-loving hostas to a more wooded location in the backyard. For the most part, I’m able to divide some of my existing sun-lovers from other flowerbeds, so I moved in a few daylilies and a trio of Allium ‘Millenium,’ an ornamental flowering onion that literally blooms all summer long.
Even with this good start, this new flowerbed was the perfect excuse for a trip to our local garden center. I knew I wanted to add a flowering tree, so Monrovia’s Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ now graces that flowerbed. I look forward to its giant, tulip-shaped, creamy yellow blossoms in the next year or two. I’m also quite in love with hydrangeas these days, so two of them hopped in my shopping cart and now anchor the front side of this flowerbed (I really wish I had bought a third).
Inspired by Butch and Pam over at Everyday Living, whose annual plethora of gorgeous zinnia photos caused great envy, I planted more than my usual packet or two of zinnia seeds this year. My husband bought a big canister of Renee’s Garden heirloom zinnia seeds for me while we were on vacation in June. I lost no time in scattering the seed when we returned home. Wowzers! They did not disappoint. Look at all that amazing color!
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that my sweet mother passed away in 2020 after a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s. You might spot two of her blue flowerpots in the photo above. Those flowerpots sat on the front porch of our family home for several years. When dementia took its toll, I moved her to live closer to me, bringing those blue flowerpots along as a connection point to her past. Oh, the stories she told about those pots! I planted some annual ‘Hawaiian Punch’ hibiscus in them this year and set them toward the front half of the new flowerbed. I think mom would have approved.
One hidden blessing of the never-ending task of pulling weeds is the beauty you see more clearly when you’re on your knees. The beauty of this daylily is just one of many colorful examples in my garden today.
Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering.
A one word prompt sent to a community of writers. Five minutes to write about it. Unedited. Don’t think too hard…just write. The Five Minute Friday word prompt this week is WORK. Ready, set, go!
I have a favorite Bible. It’s filled with sermon notes jotted in the extra-wide margins, prayers I’ve written out, and insights I have gleaned in my studies. It’s held together in a few places by tape.
Funny thing about this Bible, though, is that it seems to be shrinking. I can’t quite make out the words anymore. Tongue in cheek, as you might have guessed; it is my eyesight that has changed.
Thankfully, I have two large-print Bibles. The first is a brand new ESV version that my friend Tom recently passed along to me because he didn’t quite care for its tab feature. I can tell that this Bible will soon become my everyday study Bible. The other is The Message, self-described within the flyleaf as “a contemporary rendering of the Bible from the original languages, crafted to present its tone, rhythm, events, and ideas in everyday language.” I keep this second Bible on my nightstand. It’s the Bible I reach for first thing in the morning.
I love how Eugene Peterson, the translator of The Message, writes in such a way as to help me see a familiar passage through a fresh pair of eyes, so to speak. The Holy Spirit used this rendering of Romans 12:1-2 to prepare my heart before heading off to work today. Here’s what I read:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God bring the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
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The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. - Isaiah 50:4
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