Grandma got the littles some cute hats. If the weather is ever warm they will go outside and keep their heads protected from the sun. Last weekend the ventures and DH went to Mineral Wells. Now he'd like us to go back and spend the day hiking. I think the kids will enjoy that.Sunday was a 5th Sunday which means we had a combined RS/Priesthood meeting. The Bishopric spoke. Bishop Petty told us we all need to plant a garden, if that means one tomato plant in a bucket that's where we need to start. We actually have planted a garden every year. The first year we were married we planted a huge garden with an elaborate drip system and it took about a third of the yard. We harvested one pepper that year. When we moved to TX we continued to plant. Through the years we have had a few things grow. Very few. We do not have green thumbs. Some years we get tomatoes. One year we had several zucchini. One particularly bad year we planted 12 fruit trees on "our land". 8 were destroyed by Millie and another 3 by fire ants and I don't remember why the last one perished. Our biggest success was the year that the kids spit watermelon seeds in our front flower bed and it sprung a huge plant. And it grew and grew and finally produced two watermelons. Whoo Hoo.
This year I was thinking, "well me might be moving and DH is going to be busy with testing so we will skip it." Guess not. Darn it. Yesterday I bought seeds and dad weeded and turned over dirt in the two front beds. I guess we'll be planting again. Maybe this will be our year.
All complaining aside I know we are blessed when we follow our Bishops council. Several years ago Bishop Shuldburg gave a talk on finances and really urged everyone to get their houses in order. We took that council to heart and watched the video on personal finance and have made great efforts to build up a saving and get out of debt. We actually were doing that before but I think our focus changed a little. We have been blessed by that effort. With the current AC disaster we have seen in a very concrete way the benefit of having the money available.
There are so many blessings that come from living the gospel and following the council of our leaders and the commandments of our Heavenly Father. I feel very grateful for that blessing in my life. ...and I will try and remember that when we harvest a zucchini and 3 tomatoes this summer :)
8 comments:
We too have been trying to garden, we got some strawberries this year, and our tomatoes did ok, but it is hard for me to keep plants alive, some days I am amazed that my four kids are still living, though they are a little more hardy than plants and make louder noises for water and food.
Just think of your blessings as you cut that one tomato into 8ths :)
I am so glad to hear what the Bishop spoke on. I love 5th Sundays...but I subbed in Primary and missed it this Sunday. Thanks for the update and I hope you make something yummy with your three tomatoes!
Our garden is never very prosperous. Except for 2004 when it rained almost everyday that summer. We had so much and I canned EVERYthing that didn't walk.
For our 5th Sunday our topic was finances. The bishopric asked us (in YW) to do a lesson appropriate to their age. I taught half the lesson on home skills that you can learn now that will benefit you when you're an adult. We did gardening, cannning, haircutting, and sewing. It kind of seemed more like HFPE, but I used Proverbs 31 (virtuous woman) to tie it all together.
Love the hats--hope they get to use them outside soon. (By the way, I have a sister who lives in Mineral Wells ; )
You are so right about following the counsel of our Bishop. We are always blessed when we do. We do not have green thumbs either--and have to admit I learned a great deal when our Gospel Doctrine teacher was talking last Sunday about the allegory of the olive tree (Jacob 5) He talked a lot about gardening and tomato plants and what you do with them and I learned some things I've done wrong.
yes cute hats i know I feel very compelled to plant just need to get through enrichment
I really struggle keeping things alive... plants, gardens, etc. I try and try, but I do not have a green thumb... at all. I do have 2 orange trees and a green pepper plant :)
Nice to know what the Bishop talked about. BenD wasn't at church and I, of course, was in Primary. I would love a garden, but I am another brown thumb :( I have been successful at keeping approximately 5 houseplants alive for over a year! That's a first for me. By the way, I think Millie finished off one of our peach trees one year (she chewed it in half!). It was doomed to begin with, so don't feel bad, Tahoe dug the other one up with much haste.
Good for you, following your bishop's council. He's a pretty smart guy without the bishop thing thrown in, to boot.
We had trouble with our garden when we were there, too. I called my Dad who is a tomato expert (farmed them for a living for 20+ years) and he said they weren't stressed enough. He said we were making it too easy on them and that they were just like people. When things are good, they just go along, growing and doing their thing and it isn't until they are put under pressure that they really start to produce. So we went out and yelled at them that they had better set fruit or they were outta there. What do you know? It worked!
Truthfully, we cut back on the water a bit. We had pollination problems with our squash and zucchini so we hand pollinated, too.
There you go... advice from a farmer's daughter! You can bank on it!
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