Our Garden

My husband has been keeping

quite busy this summer! Not only does he hold down 6 mowing jobs, but he is also maintaining a 40 by 50 ft. garden plot. Because we live in an apartment, we don't have space available to garden where we live. Luckily, our church owns land outside of town. Part of it will soon house a family life center, but there is still plenty of landleftover for several families to maintain their gardens. Our garden is one-third of a huge plot.

Tonight, Seth and I went out to pick beans, peas, zuchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers. I haven't been very involved with the garden yet because I have my own summer job to keep me busy, but now

that the harvest is coming, I will need to help as much as I can.

In other news, I got a call today from a friend at church. Her dad is selling a 5.5 ft.2 chest freezer, and because she had heard me talking about looking for one, she called me first. He wants just $50 for it, and it is in good working condition. The cheapest I have seen one new is $155 and, being the frugal woman that I am, I have not been willing to pay that price. After a year of keeping my eye out, this used one has come along, just in time for preserving all our vegetables.

The pictures above were all taken during planting some time ago. Results pictures are coming soon, so stay tuned!

Blueberries Galore!!!

Seth and I were invited to go out and pick blueberries this morning! A friend of a friend owns some land that used to be part of a berry farm. We picked five gallons--FOR FREE! I haven't gone berry-picking since I was a little girl. My mom and I used to pick raspberries and blackberries from the bushes that grew out behind our backyard shed. I should have taken a picture of Seth in his suspenders with an ice cream bucket threaded through his belt; we both looked pretty funny, actually.


I did take some pictures of our haul...




We will freeze them on sheet pans, place them in plastic baggies, and pull them out as we need them for pancakes, muffins, batter breads, etc. I like to eat them straight from the freezer, also. They taste like little frozen candies!!! Luckily, we are getting our first deep freezer within the next couple of days. The timing is perfect, as our garden produce is really beginning to come on now!




I'm so thankful for this blessing of free food!

Missing Meme

You may have noticed that I went from April 30th to June 30th without a blog post. Just as the school year was winding down, I got a call that my grandma (we call her "Meme") was in the hospital with a blood clot. This was quite a shock for me because I had just seen her the weekend before, looking as healthy and as spry as ever.

On May 18th, a few days after the initial call, I found out a devastating piece of news: following testing of spots on the pancreas and liver, an oncologist determined that Meme had Advanced Stage 4 pancreatic/liver cancer. They estimated that the cancer had been in the pancreas for 2 years and in the liver for 1. After that, I went home to visit Meme every chance I got, but I didn't have much time. Just 29 days after diagnosis, she passed away. In hindsight, it was such a blessing that none of us new, including Meme. She was able to enjoy living (and being in love with her 85-year-old friend Harold) without the knowledge of what was going on in her body.

On the morning of June 13th, I chose to be in the room with Meme when she died, along with a number of other family members. It was the most difficult experience of my life, but at the same time, it was a beautiful memory that I will treasure always and forever. I actually watched her pass from this life into the next. I saw her open her eyes and stare into the corner with expectation.

As I thought about that moment, I assumed that the angels had come for her. Later, while talking to Rev. Phil Bruzeeze, Meme's Sunday school teacher and an incredible man of God, I knew that Jesus Himself had come for her. Phil shared with us a truth that the Lord had revealed to him through the scripture in John 14: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME BACK AND TAKE YOU TO BE WITH ME that you also may be where I am" (verses 1-3, emphasis mine). Praise be to God!

I will miss Meme dearly. She was both my grandma and my best friend. We talked on the phone every week, sometimes for as long as 2 hours at a time! I will always treasure those moments of sharing as two grown women, one with a wealth of experience and knowledge, and the other just beginning to navigate the journey of womanhood. I'm sure I will pick up the phone many times before remembering that I cannot call my grandma. Maybe I will call anyway, just to listen to her voice on the answering machine: "Hello, this is me! Just leave a message, and I will get back with you!"

Here is a link to her obituary online. It was an honor and a privilege to write it myself.

http://heraldbulletin.com/obituaries/x93715918/Olivett-Hardesty

Commemorate This Day

"Then Moses said to the people, 'Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand.'" ~Exodus 13:3 (NIV)

Our Sunday School class is reading a book entitled When God Takes Too Long: Learning to Thrive during Life's Delays. In chapter seven, the author, Joseph Bentz, encourages us to write down the ways in which God has blessed us in the past. This blog couldn't possibly hold all that God has done, even in my short life so far, but I would like to list ten of His blessings here:

I am thankful for...

1. loving and intelligent parents who knew how to raise a strong-willed child.

2. a host of musical experiences that shaped me as a musician and molded me into the teacher I am today.

3. a rich heritage of faith on both sides of my family.

4. God's deliverance from Obsessive Compulsive tendencies.

5. God's deliverance from a two-year stent of anxiety and depression in high school.

6. God's provision for college expenses through my winning the Eli Lilly Scholarship, which paid for four years of school plus books in full.

7. God's leading throughout our job and apartment search. I found my job on the internet and felt the Lord leading me into the unknown. I tried not to resist Him, scary as it was, and now I know my husband and I are exactly where we are supposed to be. God provided Seth with a job in the area and helped us to find the perfect place to live.

8. how the Lord has shaped my heart on a specific issue regarding future motherhood.

9. all my Heavenly Father has taught me through my grandmother's illness and death these past few weeks. I am spiritually and emotionally stronger than before.

10. that God brought Seth into my life and gave him the patience to wait for me to make up my mind!

Thank you, God, for blessing me through the years. Not only have you never left me, you have poured out your blessings on me. I know that you will fulfill your promises to me, and that I can wait with expectation to find out what else you will do in my life. Amen.

Cattle on a Thousand Hills

During my college days, I was just sure I would be teaching in the big city, so when God led me to Southern Indiana (WAS there anything south of Bloomington? I really couldn't be sure), it really caught me off guard! Now that Spring has sprung, I receive a special blessing every morning as I drive through the countryside. The rolling hills are a verdant green and the air is quiet, save the birds singing. On those hills graze dozens of cattle, perfectly satisfied and provided for, and I am reminded of Psalm 50:

"every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." ~verse 10

When I feel myself sinking, the eyes of my heart straying from the heart of my Lord, I look at the cattle on His Southern Indiana hills, and I am filled with hope. If my Heavenly Father counts the cattle on a thousand hills as His own, how much more must He delight in his human children!

Renting vs. Owning

I am beginning to notice the strange looks my husband and I get when people ask if we are planning on buying a house soon and we say "no." Some voice their opinions: "You're just throwing your money away by renting," "Why don't you build some equity?" "There's never been a better time to buy a house," "How could you turn down the $8000 tax credit?" Others decline from comment, but I can see that they think we are strange.

As Dave Ramsey says, "You know you are on the right track when people start calling you weird..." This is a comfort.

The fact is that I grew up in a family where NO ONE I knew rented. In fact, my dad owned several rental properties in our town and I used to go with him for maintenance runs. I even made friends with some of the kids who lived in the different houses. I got the impression that families who rented were just not forward-thinking people. They didn't know how to use their money wisely. And I assumed that I would grow up and own a home immediately.

When we first moved to Southern Indiana, in fact, we were looking to buy a home. No, we knew nothing about the area. Yes, we were just out of college and hadn't even had our first paychecks yet. In fact, Seth wasn't even hired on to his school corporation until the week before school began in August. But by golly, we were not the renting type. Actually, our families both seemed skeptical when we showed them a few houses on line. "Get to know the area first," they advised, much to our surprise. They were so right (and are, more often than not). Between their good advice and God talking some sense into us, we realized that we were in no way ready to buy a home. We asked the realtor we had been working with if she could help us find an apartment to rent. She gave us a list, I picked up the phone, and in one afternoon, we found the perfect apartment, where we still live happily today.

We never thought we would be here as long as we have, but God has revealed a lot to us about our finances and His path for our lives. First of all, we became convicted that we needed to get out (and stay out) of debt. I am excited to say that we have paid off a Lowe's card, a Visa card, two student loans and one car since the fall after we got married, but we still have a ways to go. Because all of our savings has been going to pay off debt, we do not have money set aside for a downpayment on a house. Not to mention the fact that we sense that we are entering a new chapter in our lives that may change our income significantly. Not to mention the fact that my husband and I both work as music educators, and as much as I would like to think our jobs are safe, I would not be surprised if, when all is said and done, they are not as safe as we would like to think they are.

I know that those who shake their heads at us in wonder really do care about us and are just trying to help. Deep in my heart I really do want a "piece of the pie!" In fact, I want that so much that sometimes (like now) I have to lay everything out in front of me to affirm the fact that we are making the right decision (for us) to remain renters at this particular time in our lives. I really believe that God has something special in store for us down the road; we just have to be patient.

And as for the argument that we are throwing our money down the toilet, I like to make a comparison to food. I eat because I must eat to sustain my life. Okay, I enjoy it immensely, but even if I didn't, I would still eat even though it does not make me any money. I pay rent and in return I get nice, comfortable, affordable shelter. Of course owning a home is a better investment, but making the food comparison helps me to see that whether or not money is being wasted is a matter of perspective.

What Must I Do to be Saved?

"When you were dead in your sins...God made you alive with Christ" (Colossians 2:13)

I admit it--I am a control freak. The Lord has been working on this area of my heart for years, and I'm sure He will be working on it until the day I die.

A few days ago, as I was driving and listening to a sermon on the Christian radio station, God revealed something to me about salvation that I have been fogetting lately. Yes, my head knows the process of salvation, but my heart has been missing one very powerful point.

When Jesus cried out on the cross, "It is finished!" he used language that implies "Your sin is paid in full." There is nothing that we can bring to Jesus to complete the act of redemption that He performed on Calvary.

I have heard a number of speakers use terminology leading people to believe that they have to bring something of value to the cross of Jesus. They must bring a commitment to follow Jesus, a heart ready to live for Him all their days. But is this salvation? I don't think so. The only thing we bring to the salvation process is our brokenness and the filth of our sins. If we do not come empty, how then can we be filled with the grace of the Lord Jesus?

Commitment to live in obedience to God through the power of the Holy Spirit is something different (not that it can't happen along with salvation, but for many it seems to happen later). At the cross, we are justified; then, we are sanctified (set apart) for the work God "prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). Understanding this distinction is a long process that began with my upbringing in a Holiness church.

The Church of God, Anderson, is historically a holiness movement that believed sanctification to be a second definite work of grace. Although the Church of God today does not seem to preach sanctification directly, my parents and grandparents alluded to it often as I was growing up, and the Nazarene Church of which my husband and I are members does teach it very intentionally. As my grandmother (the daughter of early Church of God ministers) always said, "When you are saved, you bring your sins to Jesus. When you are sanctified, you bring your Self."

With all of this theology presented to me from a young age, why does this grace of God still catch me by surprise? Because the love of God is so "wide and long and high and deep" that I will never grasp it until I stand before my Savior in heaven. And thank God for that; may the wonder of it never cease. Because I want to be in control of my life and my faith, I tend to come to God only when I feel I have something to offer to His kingdom. I am thankful to the Lord for teaching me this week that He paid my debt in full that day (today, Good Friday) on Calvary, and there is nothing I have ever done or will ever do (try as I might) to add to that payment.

Thank God that His strength is made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).