Our house

Here are the photos I promised several months ago of the outside of our house! I'll have to take more in the woods now that it's green. (Can you tell I downloaded all the photos of the past few months off the camera today?)

Front

Back

Backyard

Bridge across the ditch to the woods

Path through the woods

Snowy Sunrise

Here's a picture I meant to upload and share a while back.

Useful plants

The woods behind our house are fascinating to me. Watching them turn green (and purple and white and orange) and come alive over the past couple of weeks has been my favorite pasttime. I know so few of the plants I found that I decided to start researching them. Today I checked Peterson's Guides to Edible Wild Plants and Medicinal Plants and Herbs and started working on identifying what is out there.

American Brooklime. You can eat the leaves as salad greens.

Spring Beauty. You can boil the corm, or root, and eat it as a potato.

Crabapple. I think. I plan to make jam from the fruits, Lord willing.

Plantain. Ugly weed, I know, but a great healer for sores, an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic.

There is so much more out there, but these were some of the more interesting or beautiful.

Been a while

Yeah, so I've been busy! It's springtime's fault!

I've gotten my garden up and almost running in the past couple weeks. When the plants started to pop, I suddenly realized that I really did want one. So I pulled out the plans I made last December and started working. I made a raised bed, no dig garden based on a plan I found in an ebook at Sustainable-Gardening-Tips.com. Plants aren't in yet but I have some ready to go.

I've been pounding nails, shoveling compost, spreading soil additives, shaking out straw with all my available energy over the past week!

I've built three 4 by 13 foot beds. Here is one with newsprint spread on the bottom. It blocks weeds.



Here is another with the first load of compost spread in it.



I've really built muscles loading, pulling, and spreading compost. At least it was all free from the township. I need to take another couple photos now that the beds are finished and covered with straw, then again once some plants are in. I'll post more later.

Springtime

I love spring! I've been doing work in the yard for the past couple of weeks. (For about the first time in my life!) And watching the green things begin to grow. I feel a little like Mary in The Secret Garden when she finds the way in and and begins discovering all the green things growing in the rich soil.

Since we're in a new house we don't, or didn't, know what was planted in the yard. I've been enchanted finding all the new things coming up. There are all sorts of bulbs all around the perimeter of the yard, crocuses, and some blue and white bell shaped flowers, and others that look like they'll probably be daffodils and tulips.

All the new green reminded me last week that I wanted to garden this year, so I pulled out the garden plans that I made last December and started working on them. I'm making a raised bed, no-dig garden. While I'm waiting for Dad to cut the wood so that I can build the sides, I started some seeds in peat pots on Tuesday night, and already some sprouts are starting to come up: broccoli, romaine, and cucumbers! Exciting! I spent half an hour today just hovering over them, examining!

I also saw yesterday that a green mist has formed in the lower part of the woods behind our house. The leaves of the small bushes and underbrush are all starting to push out of their buds. Green is beginning it's creeping takeover!

Long live Spring!

Hello, my name is Becki and I'm a sugarholic

But I'm 10 days straight and counting! Actually, Jen told me that a treat every ten days would not be a big deal, so I indulged last night at the Ladies' Time Apart. It was good but I'm glad to be back to a normal diet.

Actually, having no refined sugar was a lot easier than I expected considering how much I had been eating. It's just a matter of a change of attitude... a change of belief, I guess. If I see chocolate, I can't look at it and think how good it would be. If it enters my consciousness I can't more than glance, and think, "I don't eat that anymore."

Kind of like sin actually. If you dwell on some temptation, it becomes almost impossible to pull away. You have to turn away immediately.

Robin Williams' plan for world peace

Check out Paul's blog on The Plan. Very amusing and satirical!

Up and Away...

I picked up Uncle Jim and Aunt Fina from the airport today. The sights and smells set me off daydreaming about just leaving for China. I really could just do it. I don't have huge responsibilities here. I don't have the money for a ticket, but I could obtain it with not too much difficulty. I wouldn't have to worry about getting a new car! I could stay with friends when I got there until I could get a job teaching English somewhere. It could really happen!

(sigh) But it won't. I do feel like the Lord has me here for a reason. He's teaching me a lot. And money is probably a bigger drawback than what I let it be in my imagination. But the imagining is sure fun!

(Don't think that this means I'm not happy here at home. I am. I just don't want everything to become "business as usual." There's a whole beautiful world out there and I don't want to become so focused on my little circle that I don't see the bigger picture. Part of that is dreaming of the possibilities.)

It's our one month anniversary...

Mine and exercise's, that is! Monday was a whole month that I've been regular about going to the fitness center at LCCC to work out. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday!

Friday Game Night

We had a fun time last Friday night, playing games and hanging out at Peggy's new house. We finally got pictures of one of our Friday nights, too! You can check them out on Jenelle's blog in her entries for Friday, March 17th and Saturday, March 18th.

And if you're wondering why I don't post a link directly to those posts, it's all Andy and Jenelle's fault! Something's the matter with their blog!

Job Change

My nanny job changed around a bit this week. Because of some difficulties at work, the lady I work for asked if I would come two full days a week instead of two half days and a full day. So I'm in Strongsville all Tuesday and Thursday now.

This works out really well for me. I'm spending and hour and a half less driving, and getting two and a half more hours of paid work time. And my days are less cut up. It's easier to focus.

Children's Book Site Progress

I finally made a little progress on my site Classic Stories for Christian Children. After barely looking at for two and a half months, I got two more pages built on it in the past week. I'm pretty excited!

So if you're interested in Bible coloring pages or free flannel board resources, check them out!

Catch Up

Well, my concert went well. I enjoyed it. (Especially wearing my long black dress with red and white striped socks and black boots!) There was a performer from the faculty of Baldwin-Wallace, one who is a student at Cleveland Institute of Music, and one who was the Meng kids violin teacher, which gives a connection to almost every music student that I know!

I'm home with grandma all day today, since mom's down in Amish country helping Jen Meng.

Tonight a group of us "college and career" people are getting together to play games at Peggy's new apartment. I'm looking forward to it, especially since this is the first time in way over a month that we've been able to get together. For a while it was every Friday.

Mostly Mozart

Had my last rehearsal for our winter concert tonight. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected. Our fall one lasted three and a half hours, but this was only a little over two.

I wasn't too excited about Mozart's Requiem when we first started singing it, but I think it was just a matter of it being out of perspective - only hearing my own part. Listening to a recording of a performance gives me shivers in several places.

The rehearsal went well, anyway. I'm looking forward to the performance tomorrow. Peggy and my mom are coming. My dad is staying with grandma. (She would not enjoy it! She only likes hymns.)

Amish Country

I went to Amish country on Friday with Jen, Jesicca, Jen's girls, and one of their friends. Check out Jessica's blog for some pics.

Our first stop was at a used book store. I bought a copy of the Silmarilion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Then we went to a thrift store where I got a retro-looking blouse, What's the Difference by John Piper, Fantasy and Your Family by somebody Abanes, and a action and game song book. Fun!

Then we went to a tea house - Rebecca's. Then to a couple of Jen's friends and patients.

Favorite Movies

I started brainstorming favorite movies today for some reason. Here are the top 22 or so I came up with, in only a vague order:

The Mummy - both

Much Ado About Nothing

Spirited Away

Star Wars - all six

The Matrix - all three

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Lord of the Rings - all three

Pride and Prejudice - BBC version

Pirates of the Carribean

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Signs

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - new one

Sweet Home Alabama

Independence Day

The Princess Bride

Casablanca

The Thirteenth Warrior

Braveheart

Peter Pan - new one

Moulin Rouge

Tombstone

A Legacy to Me

My grandmother's great-grandmother raised my grandmother's mother, because the in between mother died young. So my grandmother's mother passed along to my grandmother this fact that she passed on to me. The greatest prayer of my grandmother's great-grandmother was that none of her descendents would be found in a lost eternity.

Apparently she was an effectual prayer warrior because as my grandma has come in contact with different branches of the family through her geneological research, an amazing number of them do know the Lord as their Savior.

Praise the Lord for His workings!

"No Scar?"

No Scar?Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendent star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?

Amy Carmichael

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Mark 8:34

If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?

Matthew 10:25

But suffering with Jesus on the Calvary road of love is not merely the result of magnifying Christ; it is also the means. He is made supreme when we are so satisfied in him that we can "let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also" and suffer for the sake of love. His beauty shines most brightly when treasured above health and wealth and life itself. Jesus knew this. He knew that suffering (whether small discomforts or dreadful torture) would be the path in this age for making him most visibly supreme. That is why he calls us to this. He loves us. And love does not mean making much of us or making life easy. It means making us able to enjoy making much of him forever - no matter what the cost...

Suffering is God's design in this sin-soaked world (Romans 8:20). It portrays sin's horror for the world to see. It punishes sin's guilt for those who do not believe in Christ. It breaks sin's power for those who take up their cross and follow Jesus. And becasue sin is the belittling of the all-satisfying glory of God, the suffering that breaks its power is a severe mercy.

Whatever makes us more and more able to enjoy making much of God is a mercy. For there is no greater joy than joy in the greatness of God. And if we must suffer to see this and savor it most deeply, then suffering is a mercy. And Christ's call to take up our cross and join him on the Calvary road is love.

John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

Quote of the Day

When you have come to the edge of all the light you have,
And must take a step into the darkness of the unknown,
Believe that one of two things will happen to you.
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly.

Richard Bach

Don't Waste Your Life

I started reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper yesterday. Amazing book! I may have to start handing out copies of it.

Here's a favorite quote so far. (I haven't read half of the book yet, though it's short. It's so weighty I have to stop and think after almost every paragraph. Sometimes every sentence!)

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

One thing that Piper talks about is what love is. He says that our Western culture defines loving someone as helping them to feel good about themselves. We are taught, "Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees."

Love according to the Bible is something greater than that, however. It's choosing to do what is best for the person. And that may not be what makes them feel the best immediately. But that's not all. Piper says it so much better than me, so I'll quote him again.

We were made to see and savor God - and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied... Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them is a room full of mirrors.

What more is there to be said about sharing Christ with those around, Christian or not?

That's only the briefest preview of the book. There's so much more to it. Please read Don't Waste Your Life.