A few tidbits from my day.  The dogs slept well.  The family is coming half way home and will be here tomorrow.  I spent about 45 minutes to an hour cleaning the house.  It will be dirty again by Sunday (LOL).  God is good.  I'm off to read my book, Leslie Meier's English Tea Murder.


Now for the real post today.  Mary Madison wanted to grow some vegetables this year.  So, my mother in law with the green thumb bought two grape tomato plants, one other tomato plant, and a green pepper plant.  Maddie and Tom planted them and have been diligent to water~sometimes too diligent!!  But, we have tomatoes and peppers.  


No one in the family seems to think to harvest them so, since the end of June, that's been my job.  And this week I've been watering as well.


Now, I'm as far from a farmer or gardener as God makes them.  I simply kill things.  My mother in law tells me it's because plants, like children and pets, need attention. Well, for the most part she's pegged me~I just don't think about taking care of green things.  But the good news is I do remember to make sure Tom, the kids, and the pets are provided for!!


But there is something simply spiritual about plants.  In a wonderful old movie with Jimmy Stewart, Shenandoah, there is a line at the beginning that grips me and makes me laugh every time.  Charlie Anderson, the character Jimmy plays, is getting ready to pray before a meal. He doesn't believe any of it but keeps praying out of love for his dead wife, Anne.  He says something like, "We tilled the ground, planted the seed, pulled the weeds, watered the plants, ...it grew because of our labor but we thank you just the same."  By the end of the movie, after the death of sons and a daughter in law during the Civil War, he tries to pray that prayer again and breaks down crying.  I like to think it's because his pride is broken enough to know that all things come from God, we are not in control at all.


That's why I love harvesting my little tomatoes and peppers.  I haven't done a thing to make the grow.  We can put the seed in the ground, but where did the seed come from?  We can't make it.  And, some plants live, some die and we can never be fully in control of all the events to ensure their survival.


As I was reading my Bible the other day, I came across this wonderful verse.  Psalm 104:14 says, "You make the grass for cattle and vegetables for the people.  You make food grow from the earth."  I'm so grateful to God for the mysterious, miraculous, marvelous ways he takes care of us~seen in my plump tomato that came from God's seed.


Today's workout:  Slim Series Mix it Up.  I'm also going to do Kathleen Anderson's Yoga in the Garden of Serenity shoulder section, I feel so loose after that.