Words for the Weekend :: I ought

 
source

And you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

This is the first commandment.

 

And the second, like it, is this;

You shall love your neighbor

as

yourself.

 

There is no greater law than these.

 

--Mark 12:30-31

Yarn Along :: 9 May

~ ~ Ginny shares what she is knitting and reading this week, and invites us to share as well. Here is what I am up to and into this week ~ ~

Reading ::  In addition to reading a Psalms and Proverbs daily, I am slowly working through Shepherding a Child’s Heart.  I  haven’t really been reading anything “fun.”  I keep perusing The Pioneer Woman’s cookbook, various homeschool books, and just picked up a Dave Ramsey book (again).  I need something “fun” – ideas?

Look!  I have a pooch!  16 week-pooch!

Knitting :: Still on the Garter Yoke Cardigan.  The body needs to be 13” or so, and I’m about 8” down.  I keep telling myself that this yarn WILL soften up…but any tips how how to help that along?  I am also fighting a case of “startitis.”  I am trying to only knit from my stash, but that means very small projects.  Rather my forte these days, but not really feeling the love.  What I really want to knit are more socks.   Something that make my feet and swollen leg (still a mystery, ya’ll, a blamed mystery) look sassy.  :)

What are you working on this week?

I am also joining up on this, as my cardi is a stash-buster!

Creating a Family Home :: a neat little blog!

In the May Garden

I am on my way back out, but wanted to share what was going on with our garden! 

    
We have one little white peach tree (on the left), moved last year from right beside the house, and I do mean, RIGHT up against the house.  We added three apple trees last year, the picture on the right being one of those three.   Note:  we need to learn more about fruit trees.
Oh!
I forgot to snap them, but we also have 6 blueberry plants can’t decide are making it or not.  We need to read up on berries, too, huh?


I have a few red bell pepper plants waiting for a home (we need a tiller!!), as well as cilantro and parsley.  I am also going to start some seed……sometime.  Cilantro is a MUST at this house!

Tomatoes!  Romas, grapes, Mortgage Lifters, and Cherokee Purples!  I think we only put out 15 plants last year (of course, if I had kept a garden journal, I could tell you exactly how many.  tsk,tsk,tsk) but this year?  44 plants.  I love it.

To the right are our two looong rows of green beans.  We WILL stake these up better this year.  We will.  You might notice how dense these guys are in spots.  This, friends, is the evidence of  a 2-year old and her father planting green beans.  And I love it.

You can’t tell it, but there are a few potato plants growing.  We know nothing of potato growing, and I guess it shows?  Papa planted a bunch, but we have 8 or so that are making it.  I can’t figure out how to circle stuff in a picture, so just imagine 8 irregularly space leaf-mulch piles with green leaves coming out.  :)

MG has her own plot at the end of our family garden, beside the black walnuts.  She LOVES the Lovejoy book, Roots, Shoot, Buckets and Boots (I do, too!) and wants to plant lemon balm, fennel, and a whole hosts of herbals.  I love it.

Another plant we know nothing about growing: onions.  And glory be, they are making it.  Do I need to be covering these guys up with more soil?  We have been told we can plant these pretty dense, so maybe next year, our 2 year old can plant them :)  (of course, then she will be 3….wonder what that can mean, other than more gray hairs?)

At our house, the 12 and Unders prefer to work sans footwear

…I have told them again and again that we should start a gardening blog for the, and title it “Barefoot Gardeners”. 

EK’s one little sunflower :)

This is EK’s little circular plot, between the barn and the family garden.  I *think* she has carrots, cucumbers and pumpkin seeds in there, and it’s all very experimental.  And I love it!

 

How does your garden grow?

Words for the Weekend :: I Can

I can

do

all things

through CHRIST

who

gives

me

STRENGTH

 

--Philippians 4:13

The Mysterious Case of the Woebegone Leg

It’s been a time, this April past.  Whoo boy, has it ever.  ::Be warned, I’m full of coffee and a quiet house, so this might get long!::   [and the pictures are completely random, because who wants to see pictures of a pregnant lady’s leg?  :) ]

Monday, April 9, I woke to my upper left leg super tight.  It didn’t go away through the day, and by Wednesday, the tightness had been joined by some major nerve pain right in that spot where your leg meets your hip.  It was so. hard. to walk.  Just getting from the couch to the bathroom and back, my leg felt like I had just sprinted the 100 meter dash without warming up, and carrying bricks on my back.  It was insane.  Couple this new pain and exhaustion with my own pregnancy fatigue, and I was basically useless. 
I finally went to a local chiropractor, where a plan was made, but I really wanted it to end.  Right then.  Who wouldn’t, right?  No such luck.
By the following Tuesday, the pain was starting to move out of that major muscle in my thigh, more to the muscles on the inside of my left leg, while the pain at the top of my leg continued.  And so the chiropractor appointments continued.  By Wednesday, though, I was at my limit.  Crying all the time, in pain literally all day, and that feeling of complete uselessness and dependence on everyone else just took its toll.  The entire house was beginning to suffer at the expense of this leg mystery, and a woman who couldn’t deal. 
And so I did it.  I went to a doctor.  Not the one I *wanted* to go see (no, the one I wanted to go see is so popular, I couldn’t get a new-patient appointment for her until June.  Yes, I just said "New Patient.”  That’s the kicker about not having a doctor – when you need one, whoopsie daisie!  They can’t see you until you have a New Patient appointment.) So I went somewhere I knew I could be seen.  I won’t mention the fact that I have been there, and had a negative experience and caution friends and husband alike about that place. 
And guess where I went.   Mm-hmm, that’s right.  Sigh…
I was desperate, folks.    I walked out of there feeling like the doctor was just catching butterflies.  I talked to my chiropractor and she gave me more information and dern it! – with more confidence, and that’s what I was needing.  The ruling was against a UTI (what??), a hernia (come again??) and a blood clot – which I was not ruling out, personally.  I won’t even talk about the “conversation” about the number of children we have and our child-bearing …plans.  {breathing deeply now…}   And I shall continue to eschew friends to other locations after this.  The good thing out of it was a referral to a PT, which I actually had considered much earlier in this whole ordeal.  I mean, it’s muscles that hurt, right? 

By Thursday, there was only residual, comes-from-walking-weird sensations in the large muscle and very little in my nerves at my leg.  But, all the pain was then in the calf and hamstring.  And Yowza, was it there. 
Fast forward to today.
I have been going to the PT and the chiropractor, and really just trying to keep my wits about me. I struggled so much to keep my mind focused on the (hopefully!) temporary nature of this condition and continue to the joy in it all.  Keeping God in the center of my viewfinder, so to speak.
The bummer of it is that I allowed my mind to shift from what God was doing FOR me, to what what happening TO me.  It got bad, and here’s how it made spiral downward into such a bad place:  
I Couldn’t Deal.      
I have friends who are going through life and death situations, relatives who lived joyous and praise-filled lives through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  I have friends who live every day with Lyme disease, Fibromyalgia, and other conditions where they are basically told that even with pain meds, the pain will always be there – it’s their lot in life now.      
And I could not  DEAL with my one leg. Really?  Sally, what would you DO if you were faced with something more hardcore? 
That realization that I was no more dependent…no,no,no RELIANT on God in my weakness and imperfection that someone who boldfaced stated their independence from God.  I was trying to drive this think ALONE!   What on earth was I doing???

It was a HARDCORE reality check, friends, that is what this leg deal was.  I found myself in a place I don’t ever care to be (and shared more here than I thought I would!), but I found myself being lifted up anyway – being gently turned in the right direction. 

My voice You shall hear in the
morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to
You,
And I will look up.
--Psalm 5:3

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
--Proverbs 3:5

I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
--Psalm 3:5

There some very specific folks who have been warriors for me – not pitying me, just wanting to serve in some way. They went to battle for me – to keep me cheered, to keep my children engaged, to keep the home going, to keep the Enemy from taking over my mind (I need some hardcore artillery here, ya’ll), to keep life moving.  They took time from their lives to help in some way, and it has all meant the world to me and my family.
***My mom is always checking on me by phone and email and praying – and I know when she tells me she will pray, she isn’t just messing around.  It’s happening.  She lives in another state, so I don’t have her here to pop over, or watch the kids or anything.  That said, she has come up here on a whim, just stepped into life and worked on getting this house in better shape, giving Bryan a much-needed break!
***My husband has been amazing since we found out we were pregnant:  wash dishes, cook the meals, clean the clothes, straighten-ish up, taking the children to church alone, to outings so I can rest, in addition to all the garden and yard work, the children’s baths, and bedtime that he usually does.  Don't forget fixing me my one cup of coffee I the morning (and the evening—shhhhh), making sure I take my vitamins (I am convinced there is a chemical in my body that causes my brain to block out the calling to take vitamins.), making my herbal tea, even.  All when the semester is ending up and he is crazy busy with meetings, exams, advising and whatever else can be squeezed in before 5:00.  And he still rubs my bum leg, stays up to talk with me, watches Bones and Castle with me :)
And one Wednesday night, he and the children PRAYED OVER ME.  He has NEVER in our time together prayed over me before.  Someone was crying……
***My church family.  Praying, helping Bryan with the children at church, and loving on us all.  It feels good to know that when one is down, there is a fellowship of believers to surround and lift you up. 
***My readers!  I have gotten so many emails from folks I haven’t even met in real life who have been following the blog and lifting their voices on my behalf, and for that I thank you all!!
***And Lecia.  This girl has a halo and wings that we just can’t see.  She has been the most tremendous help these past four weeks.  She has prayed, constantly checked on me, cared for my children in her home and out, even served us supper – Bryan is SO grateful!!

I’m mostly mended (but a swelling that has us all scratching our heads, but at least there’s practically no pain!!!) and am ready to get back to business!

Yarn Along :: 2 May

~ ~ Ginny shares what she is knitting and reading this week, and invites us to share as well. Here is what I am up to and into this week ~ ~

Reading :: Shepherding a Child’s Heart.  Ok, really, I’m REALLY starting this now for my Sunday School class.  I am also starting over in Proverbs and continuing in Psalms, reading one a day.

I am also heading up a Good Morning Girls group, reading Proverbs 31: One Virtue at a Time, beginning the 14th.  We commit to holding one another accountable in our Bible reading by checking in with our private Facebook group sometime each day over the course of the study  There’s loads more information about it on the GMG site --  Wanna join?
I am also trying to get my 11yo daughter to let go of Wildwood so I can read it.  Nod to friend Lacey at So Every Day for the intel on that one!
Knitting :: I am trying really hard not to start another knitting project, so that I can get this cardigan done before the baby arrives.  (Wait, Sal, isn’t this baby due at the end of October?  Why yes.  So you see, I don’t have long at all!!  LOL!)

I am working on the Garter Yoke Cardigan by designer Melissa LaBarre, using stash yarn: Peace Fleece in some burnt orange color.  As I said last time, as it’s a Vogue pattern, they do all sorts of weird model-y things, so the cardigan is far better modeled on real people on the “projects” section of the pattern page for it on Ravelry, which you can find ::here::.  It’s so easy, even with the short rows (which are far scarier in print than when you do them!)  there are a few projects linked on Rav where the knitters have added all sorts of eyelets and things!  So pretty!

.: also joining in some stash busting here :.

What are you working on this week?