my friend naomi is right: its hard to know where to pick back up again with an unattended blog.

happy summer!  hard to believe its already here.

whenever i look through my blog archives to find an old post, i notice that i go through cycles pretty frequently with my blog: posting lots of good content for a while, then dwindling away, and then stopping for a time.

in the past month, i have written down lots of great blog ideas.  i have read many things (in the bible and other books) that have struck me that i want to share with you.  but it hasn't happened.

i think the best place to start would be an update on life and what has been keeping me busy of recent.

*preparing for another foster placement. after a few months of basically forgetting about us, our agency is finally getting the ball rolling to get us re-certified and ready to take another baby in our home.  a few weeks ago we got a call to take in a little black baby boy, but his case changed from fost/adopt to straight foster care, so he went to a different home.

in the past few weeks we have had to catch up on classes, meet with our social worker for a home inspection, set up our second crib, clean up the garage (a bit too messy for the SW's liking!) and fill out paperwork.

at this point we have a few more things to get done around our house and yard, and then we will have to wait until our social worker does our home study (which could be done in a week or in a few months).  basically the timing is in God's hands: he knows who our next baby is and when s/he will come into our home and i will be content to wait for Him.

*gardening. both caring for our veggie garden and our yard in general.  when we moved in the gardens were pretty much empty, which i was excited about.  but its also pretty expensive to buy flowers and such, and its MUCH more work to build up a garden than to maintain one that is already doing well.

as far as our flower gardens go, we are taking small steps forward.  i grew some columbines from seed (much cheaper than buying full grown plants... but also more risky and they take longer) and they are slowly taking root (i hope they flower this summer but i kind of doubt that will happen).  i also got some lilies and irises off of freecycle this week (yay for free perennials!).  i also don't think they will bloom this season, but next year i hope!!  my next step with our garden is to hopefully mulch it all.  i can get a free delivery of mulch to our house from the city of long beach, but i need to ask our landlords to put in the order.  i am positive they will be up for it, but i am a little shy to ask.  but i hope it happens soon because mulch will really improve the look of our flower gardens.

as for our veggies, there is good news and bad news.  the bad news is that most of our seedlings died (mostly due to the chickens eating them or my inadvertently killing them). but the good news is that we have some really strong cherry tomato plants (and tomatoes are one of the things i have most been looking forward to!), a few small pepper plants and a handful of herbs (basil, chives and sage are new this year, and we already have well established lavendar, thyme and oregano plants).  i have counted over 30 cherry tomatoes so far! they look big and robust, albeit still green.  i can't wait until they ripen!  and as with my flower gardens, i have learned a lot from my failures in my veggie garden, and i look forward to next year when i hope to do much better (i will also probably try to do a fall planting, i hope that works out well).

the bummer with our garden is that as soon as we get to a point where things will feel like they are coming together with the garden will be the point at which we are moving.  but the good thing is that i have learned a lot and two years into my next gardening venture i expect to be doing a lot better than i am now.  also, i would love to be a blessing to our landlords (we really like them) by leaving the yard looking much better than when we left it.

*praying and reading. few months ago, i prayed that God would give me a deeper desire to pray.  i think i should have been a little more hesitant to pray that prayer, because he has answered, but not in the way i expected.  so i have been praying more.

and reading more.  i continue to work through the m'cheyene year long bible reading plan (along with d.a. carson's accompanying daily devotional "for the love of God").  i also am reading the bruised reed by richard sibbes, the meaning of marriage by tim keller, and in the presence of my enemies by gracia burnham (a missionary in the phillipines who was held hostage by muslim terrorists for a year.  her husband was killed by the terrorists).



how have you been spending your time these last few days of spring and beginning of summer?