The Herb Garden.. (see below!)
OK.
So, I realise that I have been unaccountably absent this week, and therefore have decided to start a little thing I am going to call Random Saturday… innovative imaginative title, you say! Well, you know, that is just the way it is, try to keep up!! (self-deprecating humour, very Brit, not very easy to convey in txt!)
Here we go, here is a totally Random sampling of my week, taken from the perspective of second-cup-of-coffee-while-the-kids-fight/play-in-the-background….
* I planted a herb garden this week, I love it, I have raised the parsley and basil from seed and am unaccountably proud that they have survived my kitchen for long enough to make it outside.. it is worthwhile noting that while planning and planting the herb garden my house went uncleaned and laundry went undone to the point that no-one in my house has clean underwear or trousers, and we are about to run out of towels…. but at least my herb garden is weeded, seeded and fed!!
* I have noticed that my children instantly attach immense value to anything the other is currently touching… note I said “touching” not playing with / adoring / using… it is like they have some kind of ownership serum emitting from their sticky little hands that instantly challenges the other to draw blood / inflict concussion / throw a spectacular screaming fit in order to obtain said ultimately desirable object. Examples of such objects over the last week: one playmobil sword, a large stick (of the “fell off the tree in the back yard variety”), empty toilet rolls, a five gallon bucket (it was orange and as far as I can tell the fact that it was orange and not white like the other seven in the garage was the cause of world war XXVI for the week!!) etc etc.
* I am in desperate need of a reliable, responsible, reasonably inexpensive babysitter! When hubby got home from our meeting last Saturday (I was, as you may recall getting ready for the Blogger Dinner at the Grand Lux), he encountered the almost apocalyptic destruction of our, up to that point, relatively clean home. The sitter du jour had allowed my 3 and 5 year old to run wild ( insert gasps of horror here ); there was popcorn all over the floor; every item from the playroom had migrated downstairs was artfully strewn across the house and garden as if to give the impression that a horde of Vandals had just passed through; the boys had been allowed to eat anything they could get their hands on (which, by the way, is everything in my larder as they have decided that the shelves are as good as a ladder – so now there is nowhere to hide the chocolate 😦 ); the kitchen looked as though someone had allowed a kindergarden class to make spaghetti sauce without supervision… And we were only gone for five hours!!
* I have an extraordinary ability to ignore that beep that the microwave makes to say “I am done cooking, now would you PLEASE get this cup of coffee / rice / potato / soup out of me!!”… in fact, this week I ignored that beep for five whole hours until a friend came over and immediately identified the source of the noise and in an incredulous tone of voice asked me why the microwave was pretending to have cooked rice that was a) cold and b) very possibly beginning to attempt escape under its own power! I really must pay more attention!
***WARNING!! ***
****Serious one coming up***
* I am in desperate need of food for my soul. I know this is not funny / amusing etc but it is still part of my week. You see, that was probably the hardest part about this week, the dryness, the lethargy (some days even apathy) that I have been struggling with. I need real revelation of the person of Christ in my life daily, and when I don’t have it I am lost, anchor-less, adrift in the storm that is my life. My friends try to help and offer life-rafts of various varieties, but the only person who can truly rescue me is Jesus. The truth is that He is trying to bring me to a place where He is the source of my contentment, not our income, not my children, not my home, but Him, in all those things, despite all those things. Then why is it so hard? Why can I not trust Him to provide for us? Honestly, that is the root of much of my struggle right now… financial instability is THE challenge to my contentment in Christ, and the root of that is the battle for control of my life – He should be on the throne, He should be the one I look to in all things while I fight against the do-it-yourself, make-it-on-my-own, entrepreneurial culture of my world and my heart. So, in dependence I ask Him for help, and will not pretend that “more study / prayer / reading / discipline” will make the difference, but hope in His tender mercy and infinite Grace to rescue me from myself.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit, I hope your week was fun and fulfilling and even a bit challenging… because, like the trainers at the gym are always saying, if it isn’t hard it isn’t changing anything. Hard is fulfilling – that is what hubby always says.
🙂
Ally
Alexandra Sarah 
Glad you came back…thought 30 overbearing bloggers may have scared you off the whole deal.Great garden, I am simply working on keeping my kids alive and growing…Im into baby steps.Good luck with the babysitter search..always a challenge for us too…Jay
Great post! I love the herb garden…it looks great. And, my daughter, 15, babysits. I think she is responsible, based on her reputation anyway. (she has never babysat for me since she is my baby!) Tricia uses her a lot. Give me a shout, I can hook you up!
Your herb garden is marvelous! I am planning my own windowsill herb garden right now, and I’m hoping against hope that my black thumb won’t kill everything off….Your babysitter woes remind me again just how fortunate I am to have my mother-in-law five minutes away and happy to kepe my daughter almost anytime!I appreciated your “serious” thoughts. I have been feeling spiritually adrift too, and I agree that the financial concerns are the biggest barrier for me. It’s so hard to trust.
your herb garden looks great!!! my garden is “a work in progress” right now. guess i will be waiting for the nice weather to come back before i work on it anymore.and i will pray for you. you can pray for me. i struggle in the same area. my husband owns his own insurance agency and with the economy bad, people stop paying their bills and our income drops…drastically. anyway, we believe that it was God’s will for us to start this business so why do I struggle and question when it is not going as well as i think it should be. ugh.