Homeward Bound

This summer the garden has been the outlet for me. And as we come upon August, I am pleased to say our first year garden has not done entirely bad. My 5-year-old son has been my partner in crime for all things garden and chicken related. We built our raised beds together, raked manure into said beds together, planted seeds together, and did our "checking on how the garden is doing" together--just about every day. It is one of my greatest joys to sit and talk with him about these things as we learn together.  We started small, only 3 boxes, but the return has been favorable for a first year try. I planted easy things, popular plants that most people find success growing: bush beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, and cantaloupe--the last of which I am hoping to harvest by the end of the week. Of the assortment planted, beans and cucumbers were by far the most successful. Zucchini squash would have been quite a hit had it not been for the dreaded squash vine bore, and

This spring I have started a garden. It is as if a switch has gone off in my brain the moment I turned 30, and now I desire to plant things, water them, and watch them grow. I am a total amateur, ignorant of the entirety of it. I now have a few tomato plants growing outside, some zucchini already sprawling out. I have one bead dedicated to cantaloupe; but my peppers are still inside waiting to get a little bigger before I transplant them. We will see how it goes on my first year, maybe we will get some yield? I have learned this much: never set the bar high on the outset. As a novice I am at the mercy of others. I watch some youtube videos when I can, and in doing so I learned you are supposed to prune your tomato plants. There are strategies and a world of opinions on the topic, but apparently there are branches that grow at 45 degree angles called suckers, which in most instances, should be snipped. The video said these suckers block out the sun from other productive leaves and restr

Few things strike our sensibilities quite as harshly as humiliation. To be brought low, to fall down, to struggle, to run out of answers, to become weak and poor—this is a hard place to fall into. But what if I told you the “valley of humiliation” is really green?  I am reading through part II of The Pilgrim’s Progress for the first time. It is a real shame I have put it off as long as I have as it sheds much light on the characters met and places visited in part I. The first part tells of Christian’s perilous journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Part II, perhaps less well known, is the story of Christian’s wife Christiana and their four sons as they follow in Christian’s footsteps towards that same City. It is all an allegory for the Christian life and one of the most celebrated works in the English language. It is also loaded with Scripture.  Throughout part II I am very curious how women and small children will fare on such a difficult journey. How will they

It is easy to look at the wickedness in our world and be overwhelmed as we peer into the abyss. Mass shootings, regressive political administrations, global conflict, rampant immorality, the decline of Christianity--things appear very dark indeed. And the longer we gaze the more hopeless it becomes. How can we persist in a world so evil? How can we abide through to the end in the face of such opposition? How can we raise children in a world that is bent on inventing new ways to transgress the laws of God, and targets its messaging on them?  One way we can regain confidence is to stop looking at the world.  I recently finished reading The Lord of the Rings (a thoroughly enjoyable read!), and it is interesting to notice two characters who followed almost identical arcs. Saruman and Denethor both begin as powerful characters fighting against the enemy Sauron, and both lose their way. The wizard Saruman defects to the enemy, and Denethor, during the height of the siege, succumbs to madnes

There has been quite a buzz about the "He Gets Us" ads that have been building up and were shown during the Super Bowl. They are well done and grab your attention. I am hopeful that many people will dig into their Bibles and discover the thrill it is to know Christ and have faith in Him. You can view their ads on their website here . Charitably, there is only so much you can say in a few 1-minute advertisements. You want to make your point and get people interested in what you are trying to say. What irks me about the ads is what irks me about most advertising. It’s intentionally deceptive. Pharmaceutical commercials are notorious for this: look at the person smiling and living a normal life; look how happy this drug makes them; look how they can live as if their pre-existing condition no longer exists. What a good deal! Then, in the last five seconds the narrator speed reads a dozen negative side-effects and you are left wondering, "is this really a good deal?" Why

We are coming up on a year from Bobby's death, and I remember that month before and the month after as one black shadow. It was a very trying time. Staying the night in a hotel in DC, expecting any moment to hear that he has died, only to hear him doing better in the morning. Then, back and forth, a little good news, some more bad news. He woke up! Now he is trending downwards, and we need to talk about removing life support. Talk about heavy.  He was very close to me, and I was blessed to have so many good memories of him. My family would go over there at least weekly, to grab a meal and hang out. It might not have been right but Bobby and I would poke fun at people, politicians, friends--no one was really exempt. We would make fun of ourselves. He was very self-deprecating and he loved to make people laugh. Montana and I loved watching him laugh at Tim Hawkins videos; he loved whatever kind of humor that is called. John MacArthur and Dave Ramsey were his favorites, and I would f