I read recently in a gardening book that we really ought not to be walking around in our gardens, that it closes up any air pockets that are in the soil, which makes the soil compacted and not good for the roots of our growing plants. I put my two brain cells together and pondered buying some stepping stones, but in the end, I decided to use some old branches as guides. After all, I’m probably the only one who will walk in there anyway. I think it looks enchanting, don’t you?

In other news, my ladybugs are gone. They came, took care of business, and left. And Todd and I just built them this house too….

Don’t get me wrong, I’m truly grateful for taking care of my aphid problems, I just wish they would have hung around for a while.

These are my new babies: pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, watermelon and corn. They are spending the night outside for the first time tonight. If they survive, I will finally be successful at hardening off my plants grown from seed. It will be quite an accomplishment for me. ETA: They did, in fact, survive. I am ecstatic that I have finally figured out how to keep my little guys alive. They will be planted within the next day or two in the newly divided garden beds.

As you may have gathered, I have been doing a lot of thinking.

I’m not really one to think thoughts such as, “Why don’t people do what I do, think the way I do?” I am well aware that God has different plans for each person, and that we all approach life based on our own experiences, and I’m ok with that. It’s just that some things are just so glaringly obvious to me that I wonder why others don’t see these things too.

One of those obvious things is Americans love affair with and dependence on ready-made products. Of course, I understand that we have fewer and fewer minutes of the day to be making all of our food from scratch, let alone tend a well-stocked garden and find any time to make our own deodorant, makeup and beauty products, laundry and dishwasher soap, etc….after all, we have better things to do. We are busy people and need things to be easy so as to free us up for quality family time.

However, let me submit to you that perhaps those things ARE the better things. Perhaps they can be part of your family’s quality time. Personally, I find much relaxation in providing simple things for my family–it feels good. Not to mention, I don’t have to run out to the store when I’m out of lettuce, and my pocketbook doesn’t suffer every time I need a new container of $9 face powder, because mine costs pennies to make and works just wonderfully. I love to spend a couple of minutes teaching Sky to make these things or to tend our garden, so that she can see that everything doesn’t need to hinge on whether or not Walmart is open, or there is money in our wallet. It’s a great feeling to be able to pass that along to my children, whether they choose to use the information now or not, they know it can be done with a little extra work.

I have plenty of thoughts along these lines, but I’m tired, and I need to get to bed tonight. If you got this far, thanks for reading and feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think about these things, or just say hi, I’d love to hear from you.

Blessings,