Plant a Row for the Hungry

This was part of my morning reading today.
Isaiah 58:10-11
"Stop oppressing the helpless...Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day. The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring."

This reminded me of a web site I was on recently.

Check out the Garden Writer's web page for Plant a Row for the Hungry. Here is a quote on hunger in America from their site:

"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 in 8 households in the United States experiences hunger or the risk of hunger. Many frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for an entire day. Approximately 33 million people, including 13 million children, have substandard diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. The demand for hunger assistance has increased by 70% in recent years, and research shows that hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources."

That's the background info. Here's a tiny part of a solution that we can do today:

"Launched in 1995, Plant A Row is a public service program of the Garden Writers Association and the GWA Foundation. Garden writers are asked to encourage their readers/listeners to plant an extra row of produce each year and donate their surplus to local food banks, soup kitchens and service organizations to help feed America’s hungry.

There are over 84 million households with a yard or garden in the U.S. If every gardener plants one extra row of vegetables and donates their surplus to local food agencies and soup kitchens, a significant impact can be made on reducing hunger."

It's a cool idea. Just thought I would pass it along. I think I'll add some more peas and lettuce so maybe there will be extra!

My Big Dog Hiding

Last night the thunder and lightening sent our big 100 lb German Shepherd mix, Spirit, running for the laundry room as usual. Normally she camps out in the corner until the storm passes. But last night she decided she needed to upgrade her storm shelter. Check this out!

Speed Blogging

I left my laptop at work and Alli's is not picking up the wireless for some reason. So I have to vie for time on the dino Dell that lives in our study. But Gene and Alli seem to think they need it too, and since we were all home this weekend, I just gave up and did other stuff.

Like cleaning. Seriously. Yes, this is me. Stop looking at the URL just to check if you have the Extreme Gardener page. I cleaned my study this weekend which was overcome with unfiled, unshredded, untrashed paperwork. It looks pretty good now. That and my usual 6 loads of laundry kept me busy. I also taught children's church again today. And Alli and I addressed and stuffed graduations announcements. Dishes, cooking, etc. It all gets in the way of blogging!!

Also, last week, Debbie and I joined a group at Amanda's house to hear the crazy coupon lady talk about her career as a coupon maniac. That lady is psycho! A cute, petite, friendly sort of psycho, but psycho, nontheless. So I've been trying to figure out her methods, even bought a paper today and studied the sales and coupon section. Sigh. Yet another point of failure as a woman, a mother, and a homemaker! But I'll keep trying. I know it was a good reminder to actually CHECK to see if groceries might be cheaper somewhere other than my usual, don't think, just go there, and get the usual stuff and stand in the usual line place.

I took some photos today of the coreiopsis and bachelor buttons that are spreading across the Oklahoma hills in my neighborhood. But the wind was blowing at about 50 mph so they are mere purple and yellow blurs, whipping helplessly past my viewfinder, first to the left, then slammed to the right.

I'll try again if this wind ever quits. The storm that was supposed to bring mega tornadoes has thankfully broken up, but not before a bolt of lightening struck our house and took out the old TV in the study. Bummer. That happened to our TV when I was 8, (you know, back in the 60's)but I didn't think, with all the surge protectors and things, that it happens today. Guess so.

YIPPEE! (Okie for "HOW TREMENDOUSLY EXCITING...")

I haven't fallen off the blogosphere, folks. I've been OUTSIDE! YIPPEE! At least when I'm not working, which is mostly inside, so that when I can finally go home I want nothing more than to go OUTSIDE because it's so incredibly beautiful this week, and there's so much fun stuff to do with plants and flowers and seeds and weeds and stuff. (Pause for breath.)

So, that's where I've been.

This is a great week for anything outside considering the mild temps, mild winds and reasonable humidity. What is this, San Diego?

I'm also reading Edgar Sawtelle, which is an excellent novel so far about a boy and his dog. Not so simple as that, really, but an engrossing, beautifully written story anyway. Sometimes I read and sit outside all at the same time. Amazing.

And then there is dog walking. Several times lately I have managed to take both Spirit, the hundred pound dog/chicken who tries to take my arm off to whip around and run home every time she hears a gun shot. This is the country, folks, so there is some kind of gun shot just about every time we walk. And Spyro, the 70 pound black lab who is the ADHD poster dog when the world is full of birds and bugs, and scents of all kinds of critters, and "Ohhh, look over there! Sheep!" So that's more dog poundage than woman poundage by a good margin. I don't wrap the leashes around anything that could be yanked out of place, should they decide to lurch and run in earnest, and drag me along They really have been walking pretty well lately, so it's enjoyable.

You'll notice that cooking, cleaning, organizing, bill paying, etc. are not on this list. I did some of that last weekend, but only what was ABSOLUTELY required. Like, to keep living in my house and driving my car, and using electricity, etc.

Gene got out the mower today, since the grass is three inches high after all the rain. I noticed he left the front yard. Was that a hint? Heavens to Mergatroid. You mow a lawn once, and suddenly it becomes your job! Just kidding honey. OF COURSE I will help mow this weedy, grassy 5 acres. Since I can do it OUTSIDE.

Spring is Reassuring

Just some pictures. It seems all my words are used up at work these days. So here are just some pictures. The trees and my pink Calla Lilies get to start over from nothing every year. And they turn out beautiful.

So Much of the Music in My Head Belongs to Jesus

So many lyrics in my head. So many melodies won't be still, until I sing them out loud. So many rhythms keep time to everything I do, even in my sleep. We sing a lot around here. Papa G has a lyric for every situation, every rhyme. It's entertaining listening to what songs come out of his brain while shaving!

Four of us women were sitting in the school office last night waiting for parent/teacher conferences to be over, talking about random stuff. We had to turn off the weather radio about every fifteen minutes as wildfire warnings kept coming across. Debbie started singing "It only takes a spark..." And all of us joined in, "to get a fire going. And soon all those around..." Scary. The fires, and on a much lesser level, the fact that we all knew the song. (Quiz: What's the next line?)We had all sung it around a campfire with guitar accompaniment at a youth camp in various places as part of various types of churches, all, of course, in the '70"s. We could probably all sing Kumbaya too, but Pass it On was scary enough!

Most of the music in my head belongs to Jesus. I remember singing a duet of "Fairest Lord Jesus" with my sister in children's church in about 3rd grade. We sang hymns at the nursing home a lot with our friend Katrina H. when her dad preached there on Sundays all through our elementary school years. I wrote and performed my first worship song there! I'm glad the old folks were indulgent. From teenage years on I was too scared to sing in public. After about 20 years I got over it, mostly. Now I love to sing worship music.

Easter songs occupy a big brain file, since the celebration of Resurrection Day is so sweet to me.

These songs live close enough to my breath that they come off my lips automatically:

Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes!
He rose a victor from the dark domain. And He lives forever with His saints to reign!

Halleluiah, He is risen, Halleluiah He's alive!

He came from heaven to earth to show the way
From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky,
Lord I lift your name on high!

I'm forgiven, because you were forsaken
I'm accepted. You were condemned.
I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me.
Because You died and rose again.
Amazing love, how can it be
That You my King would die for me.
Amazing love, I know it's true.
And it's my joy to honor You, in all I do, I honor You.



He is risen!
He is risen, indeed.

May your Easter remembrance be blessed with worship and wonder.

8 Reasons Why I Haven't Been Working in my Garden For Days and Days

1. Wind. Lotsa wind that knocks things over and pushes back against you and makes your hair a mess and your skin feel like it's covered in Oklahoma dust.

2. Cold. We had near record cold last night in April for-cryin'-out-loud, so that I should be making a fire in the fire place, not planting a row of 'maters. It seems like every day lately that I have time it's either way windy or way cold.

3. Chores. People and critters around here (the kind living in this house)think they need food to eat other than cereal (doesn't bother me to eat cereal. We have two or three different kinds to choose from for goodness sakes!)or they think they need toothpaste, or dog food, or their prescriptions or clean laundry or bills paid or help packing for luxurious science club trips to Cancun. Whatever.

4. A good book. I read a great one on Saturday and Sunday. (My Sister's Keeper)Can't do anything but read when I read.

5. Family. Had to witness talented nieces showing off brilliant singing skills. Of course. She's so cute!

6. Friends. Spent an hour or two with Neva at the hospital waiting to see how things would go with her grandpa. Keep on praying for him.

7. Parents. The school kind. PTO meeting last night. Parent teacher conferences tonight until 8:00 pm and coming again all evening on Thursday.

8. Exhaustion. Yeah. Passing out on the couch seems like a better option recently.

Not that I'm complaining. Some of it's good stuff. Some just routine. Some just life in Oklahoma! Maybe tomorrow I'll have a few minutes in the evening. I think the weather will be decent. No meetings planned after 4:30. No one home but me, and I like cereal.