Mr. Hummer

This pretty, little fellow has become a frequent visitor on our red water pump. Perched on top he sits calmly for up to 15 minutes sometimes. I wonder if maybe he is guarding the food supply. What a beautiful creature.

Jaunt

Examining the trees in hues of green, warm from the magnanimous rays of morning sun, their glow melding with the stark contrast of blue sky in the 10 o'clock haze. 
August beginning in continuation of Summer and I my day with the usual routine of milking cows. My eyes dilate as I turn my focus from the out-of-doors to the pulsating milking units. The darkness blinds my eyes for a second, as I have left off the lights in the barn to keep away flies and encourage the cool temperature. 
I ponder the earth and it's place in the universe and I suddenly jaunt through the layers of firmament and sky below me right out into space, gravity not withholding my mind, I leave my body behind. 
I see the earth, a globe of blues, grays and murky greens. I am vaguely aware of the black intensity around me, the sun in the distance and other planets too... all that my imagination could afford. This heaven not being so important however, as the earth fixates my attention. A toy ball rolling on a floor, a top set in motion on a table, I behold the smooth sphere wobble and pivot as if dangling from a bedroom ceiling on invisible strings. I am frightened. I shutter through scenes of my home, then a busy city street, and at last the entirety of humanity going about living. A whole world of people. I fear for my own feet that are left supporting my flesh in the little barn there on that earth. Stunned by this sudden insecurity, would it all give way? 
And then I know that out there, beyond the sides of the sun, stars and space is God. Holding it all together. 
Peaceful. Safe. Solid. 
Insecurity vanishes. I fleet back to my body, awed by His greatness, back to the dim barn and the sweetness of Summer. Who are we, so tiny and decaying, to magnify ourselves? Our cities of skyscrapers, laboratories - plains of microscopic discovery, our highways of traffic by land or sea or sky or airwaves. We are small. So small. So finite. Surrounded by a vastness of universe and even this is diminutive, unpretentious. 
In this I see the true, immense greatness of God in heaven, who does not need anything we have to offer, who is Lord of all. I humble that He should make a way for even insignificant me to be a part of Him and His creation.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said,  

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, 

I found an altar with this inscription,  

To The Unknown God. 

Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.  

God that made the world and all things therein, 

seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, 

dwelleth not in temples made with hands;  

Neither is worshipped with men's hands, 

as though he needed any thing, 

seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;  

And hath made of one blood all nations of men 

for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 

and hath determined the times before appointed, 

and the bounds of their habitation;  

That they should seek the Lord, 

if haply they might feel after him, and find him, 

though he be not far from every one of us:  

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; 

as certain also of your own poets have said, 

For we are also his offspring.  

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, 

we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 

gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; 

but now commandeth all men every where to repent:  

Because he hath appointed a day, 

in the which he will judge the world in righteousness 

by that man whom he hath ordained; 

whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, 

in that he hath raised him from the dead.  

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, 

some mocked: and others said, 

We will hear thee again of this matter.

Acts 17:22-32 

Christ is the only Solid Rock.

I saw this video just today. It's only 3 minutes long so give it a watch if you have a few minutes. Thought I'd share it with you because it is so nice to see that through fame and fortune these people aren't forgoing the only thing in life that makes life worth living: Jesus Christ.
(Jase and Missy Robertson were made famous with the rest of their clan by the reality TV show, Duck Dynasty).


Jase and Missy: Building a Foundation on Christ

Thankful

I had a bunch of blank, white cards... and therefore I have created a little bit of art. The black and white one is pencil, but the colored picture was made with pastels and I'm worried that if I put it in an envelope it will smear. I guess we'll see.... ;) Or some lucky recipient will. As always the artwork was a pleasant exercise. Just as Jesus Christ created the universe and man in God's image, even so it is good for the soul to be active and design/create, I think. :)

I'm mostly back to normal after my experience with anaphylaxis, which is what a severe allergic reaction is called in the medical world.  I'm really thankful to have been so close to my sister and brother-in-law's house when I got stung and for Mr. Kubetz (a friend from church) who was able to bring me Apis Mel when I was at the hospital (a homeopathic medication that has helped me recover from bee stings in the past). I'm still feeling a bit weak, itchy and my head hurts at times, but I'm well enough to be back to work. I'm just thankful to still be breathing and to be alive. :)

That being said, hopefully all goes well since the next two weeks are going to be exceedingly busy. My dad's been working a full time job doing concrete while Channing and the rest of us run the farm, we're babysitting 3, sometimes 4 boys five days a week, and on top of that weekends are full of trips to get hay for the cows, visiting new babies (yay!!), planning my sister's baby shower, church and all of the usual events as well as random surprises that come up (such as a broken seal in the barn that is spraying milk whenever the pump runs but that we wont be able to replace until Monday!). I normally have 3 nights off from milking each week which give me a nice break and time to rest, but after our hired hand milked last night he won't be milking again till next Friday, so I'm gearing up for working for seven days without brake. I have a friend from NC who's in the area that I'm hoping to get to visit sometime this week and in August our relatives from VA will be visiting, and it sounds like my sister-in-law-to-be, Brittany, is supposedly on her way here to stay for a few days!!! I'm looking forward to all of this visiting!

My dear friend Sandy and her husband Matt are expecting a baby at the end of this year and so are my friends Eliya and Billy (who's wedding I blogged about in January). I also heard last night that a good friend from church, Tim, just got engaged to his girlfriend Hannah! New babies, new families, and new families-to-be, ...Congratulations all around!

On top of all of the crazy randomness we're experiencing abnormally cold weather. It was only 50 degrees this morning. *let me check the calendar again to make sure it's really July*

Summer sure is a blast, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next!

The photographs I copied the artwork from were taken by my grandfather Perkins. =)

Leela

There is another baby!!! Kendra and Jed have a little girl!!! Leela Dielle!!! She was born on the 25th of July and was 5lbs 8oz., 19" long!  She looks a lot like her big sister Meadow, except for she has lighter hair.

Leela, a few hours old...

 Big sister, Meadow, with baby Leela!

 Grandpa with baby Leela!

 What a little doll! ....I don't think she's too happy 

about not being wrapped up in her blanket. ;)

Meadow and Dexter get to meet their little sister for the first time.... 

Their expressions are adorable!

I have yet to meet her myself but she should be coming home with Mommy and Daddy on Sunday or Monday so I'm looking forward to seeing her then and kissing her cute cheeks.
It's really exciting that she and Alice will be able to be little buddies!

Just Beecause.

I am currently sitting at my Grammy's house. Swollen and covered in hives (hives are a rash caused by allergic reaction or stress).
I was driving down the road yesterday afternoon to go to my sister's house when a bee flew in though my car window and stung be on my back... the left side... near my heart.
I have always been allergic to bees but I haven't had a sting in a while and I don't think I've ever been affected this badly. It only took 5 minutes or so before the bee sting started to affect me. A cold bath and benadryl didn't seem to be slowing things down so my sister ended up driving me to Urgent Care. There were a few times when my throat started to seize. That was pretty freaky and I almost decided to go to the ER.
Once at the Urgent Care they gave me an EpiPen and a saline IV. I was shivering/shaking from the shock, medication and the room temperature IV pulsing through my bloodstream.  It was pretty crazy.
So here I sit. Trying to recover and stay comfortable. It's pretty tricky...
I'm just thankful that I was so close to my sister's house and in town close to Urgent Care or the hospital.
On the bright side I get to spend time with my Grammy, stay in an air conditioned house and I get a few days off from milking cows/work. I'm hoping recovery goes quickly because there are lots of things to be done.
Oh well... life is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're gonna get.

Hope For Tomorrow

Every time I garden I ponder life. Pulling weeds, planting seeds, harvesting, enjoying the fruits of your labor, learning to be content even when the dog digs up all of the work you've been hard at. I think God knew we'd have questions about life so he gave us excellent explanations to be learned by discovering the world around us. Through some things we can learn a lesson or two, but what I love about gardening is that it's a lovely summery of life. Like the book of Ecclesiastes summarizes life, gardening does so without words. It's therapy to the soil really... oops, I meant to write soul. ;) Hehe... You can forgive me, I'm sure, since I have been outside all day mowing grass and weeding gardens.

I was browsing through a recent Economist magazine and read about new research on the symbiotic relationship between bean plants and fungi. Apparently the bean plants send messages to other bean plants through the fungi.
I also heard that plants do math according to a BBC news article! It's not so much that the plants think but rather they have been created by Jesus Christ to be able to do brilliant things and respond brilliantly to the elements that effect them to sustain life and live harmoniously with the world they're a part of. As noted in the BBC article in regards to plants doing math, "Dr Richard Buggs of Queen Mary, University of London, said: ""This is not evidence for plant intelligence. It simply suggests that plants have a mechanism designed to automatically regulate how fast they burn carbohydrates at night. Plants don't do maths voluntarily and with a purpose in mind like we do.""
I like that Dr. Buggs used the word "designed".

Oh, of the curious things we discover and do throughout life, gardening truly has to be one of the greatest pleasures and the greatest pains. What I find to be the most interesting part of this prodding of the ground is that it is a testament that we are an optimistic people. What is the point if there is not hope for tomorrow? Or hope for the day after tomorrow... hope that seasons will be constant, that drought or flood will not persist, hope in conquering little challenges that come up and hope in triumphing over large obstacles. I believe it is this hope that makes us happy and gives us so much joy in the end. No matter what sort of weather life will throw our way we have hope that there will be a harvest. Either beautiful foliage to please the eyes and nose or delicious fruits to sate the palate and appetite.

We garden because we have hope that even in spite of failure tomorrow will bring opportunity and another chance.
So really, what I'm trying to say is this... Instead of being afraid of the future or worried that any day could be doomsday get outside and plant a garden. 

I like how Theodore Roosevelt said it,  
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failures, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Here's my new gardening motto:
Don't read and weep, go weed and reap.