Growth

It is absolutely amazing to watch things grow. Like most everybody else, we have a door jamb with increasingly higher lines and accompanying dates scrawled on it, marking Gavin's height. I measured him recently for the first time since late April and he's a full inch taller. Unreal. I both love and dread seeing my children grow. Tonight I was reading books to Gavin before bed, it's one of my favorite parts of my daily routine with him, and my mind briefly flashed to the future and a time when I no longer read to him before bed...I never want that time to come.

However, a time that I LOVE seeing come is the time of year when the garden starts to really pay out for all the work that has been put into it. We're just about in full swing here. Everything is paying out except the 'maters; which just started ripening a day or so ago, and the blackberries and blueberries, which have about a week to 10 days to go before first harvest....and apples and peaches in late Summer/early Fall. Everything else is spitting out the goods like crazy. Last year's gardens, for most folks in this area, were downright awful due to a crazy rainy and cold June. Everything was rotting on the vine. This year seems to be making up for it big time.

Gavin and I took a spin through the yard early this morning before the girls got up. here's what we saw...


A view from the back deck


Peppers-a-Plenty


Future salsa and red sauce


Last week we saw stems of 12 or so cherry tomatoes on-the-vine going for $3.99 at the local market. Craziness.


"Daddy, there's a squash in there *THIS BIG*!!


Come on down to Cucumber City!!


We've been hearing reports of neighborhood cats disappearing around here. We're pretty sure that the pumpkin plants have been eating them.


Future Jack-O-Lantern






Blackberries
Blueberries
Granny Smith Apples
Peaches....won't be long now.



Here's what today's yield ended up being. With all the cukes we made......



Our first ever batch of homemade pickles! We used a recipe that we got from a friend who got it from a friend. Going to give them until tomorrow to let all the spices and juices mingle, then tear into them. MMMmmm.

When you spend time working your land, you really see why God used so many planting/gardening/growing analogies in His Word. You spend so much time cultivating the soil, planting the seeds, watering the seeds, weeding around the seedlings, pruning the plants, protecting against varmints. And only after all that is done does good fruit come forth. Our lives are so much like that. God cultivates the soil of our hearts, in doing that we recognize the need for Him. Then seeds of Salvation, Grace, Love, Mercy are planted. The seeds are watered through discipleship by studying His Word, hearing the Holy Spirit, and sitting under wise teaching. Weeds of sin are removed while areas of our lives that will inhibit us from producing good fruit are pruned. We stay close to Him, the Master Vinedresser who keeps us protected from evil and on His path of righteousness....THEN, good, Godly fruit is produced in our lives. He is so wonderful.

Psalm 8 (New King James Version)

1 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!