You'll Probably Hate Me For This

Welfare Bees

Fresh basil from my patio garden. This smells heavenly.

Homemade pizza dough (and my basil again).

While I waited for my dough to rise, I chilled on the couch with Greta.

Then we went outside to play. Yes. That's a baby bath tub.

She content to pour the water from cup to cup.

Then she realized the Greta wasn't with us. "Where's Greta?"

I guess she was going to find Greta.

"Mom, where's Greta?"

The child has some sass, for sure.

The dumb rooster is in the trees directly behind Maddy. About 3 seconds before this picture Maddy saw it run up into the trees.

She eventually came back to play in the tub.

Well, almost.

Then she changed her mind.

She's proud of that belly.

"hey yee" (That's Lillee)

Checking on "yee"

The finished product. Homemade dough, fresh basil pesto with some walnuts, cheddar cheese, and fresh summer squash from a friend's garden. YUM!

Now, I'd like to share something with you about my family. You see, we're kind of lawn mower snobs. Actually not just lawn mowers, but anything with a small engine. My parents own and operate a small engine/lawn mower/gokart shop. They have always sold the top brands and been one the best dealerships around. So when we see either junky brands or people who don't know what they're doing/talking about, we make jokes about it. I realize how NOT normal that is. Here's an example:

 A normal person wouldn't see the error. But "tecumson" is nonexistent. It's actually Tecumseh. Actaully to be acurate, it's not Tecumseh anymore either. They're long dead and gone and out of business. Anyway, My  mom and I got a good laugh from it.

Then there's this:

Yes, I realize I derive far too much pleasure from peoples' mistakes on craigslist. I've never heard of "rawed" iron, and I'm not too sure I'd want a bar stool made out of it.

Update on my squashies: Well, the seductive charm of Marigolds seems to be doing the trick. I had to throw out about 8 fruits that were going soft, but now I have 3 or 4 fruits that are maturing better. They're almost the right size. Maybe my bees are lethargic from the impossible-to-breathe-overly-dense-ozone-humidity. Or maybe they're like everyone else around here and are chilling at home waiting on the 1st to roll around to get their check they didn't work for.

What we wear to worship

Alrighty. I have a question for today's post.

What do you think is appropriate to wear to church?

I have a few thoughts on the subject.

I've been reading my Bible and have come across a few things that speak to this issue.

1 Timothy 2:9-15 talks about how women should dress modestly. I know a lot of people have different ideas of what modesty is, but that's not super important right now. It goes on to say that an attitude of service and thankfulness is more important that fancy clothes or expensive jewelery. Basically, your heart is what matters, not what you're wearing. 

1 Peter 3:3-4 speaks to same issue.Your clothing, jewelery, and hairstyle aren't important. True worship is in your heart, in your deeds. Women should be in subjection to their husbands with a meek and quiet spirit; husbands should honor their wives. 

Deuteronomy 22:5 states that women should wear women's clothing; men should wear men's clothing. I don't think this means women can't wear pants; when it was written men and women all wore robes. The point is that men and women are very distinct. Your clothing should be modest, but make it clear that you are either a man or a woman. You can show your femininity and still remain modest.

Why only wear your best on Sunday? I think that's something we've learned from the world, not from the Bible. Romans 12 starts off by saying that our bodies are our living sacrifices and that is our act of worship. It continues to tell us not to conform to the world, but to renew our minds with the word of God. As humans, we want to show off the nice things we have and look the best when we are gathering with a group of people. But we all know the Bible demands humility. Proverbs 22:4 says that fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Not "wearing the most expensive outfit" or "looking better than your neighbor". Besides that, I worship God in far more places than in a sanctuary. My body is my living sacrifice. Last time I checked, my body is living ALL THE TIME. God doesn't care if I worship while I do the dishes in my PJs. I can worship just as successfully in my bathrobe while I make my bed in the morning. So if the idea is to wear your absolute best when you go to worship, the you're either wearing your fancy church clothes 24/7 (which makes them NOT fancy church clothes anymore), or you're only worshiping for that hour on sunday morning when you're at church.

I think we're focusing on the wrong aspect of worship. The whole idea of gathering on a particular day of the week was originally a time to present sacrifices to GOD, then to receive a message from the priest, who had received the message directly from God. Well, now our sacrifice is our body. Like I said, that's a daily occurrence, not just on Sundays. Not only that, but  because of Christ's salvation for us, we no longer need a priest to receive the word of God directly, then pass it on to us. We have the Holy spirit. We should be constantly living and receiving the word of God, which SHOULD translate into every action we perform being an act of worship. Our worship should be good deeds, obedience, service. That being said, what does clothing have to do with the state of our heart?

Lastly, we are called to model our lives after Christ. 1 John 2:6 says Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. Well, if you will recall, Jesus walked with shepherds and fishermen. Have you seen/smelled a shepherd or fisherman lately? Well, let me just go ahead fill you in. They're dirty, stinky, unhygienic, and who know how often they bathe?! Jesus didn't care if they smelled like fish or had sheep poop on their sandals; they were his disciples and were doing God's work. 

So my point is, I think people need to lay off the whole "Sunday best" concept. I mean, if you just like to dress up, that's fine, but I don't think it's a requirement. And it certainly doesn't have anything to do with your ability to worship.

What do you think?

Is God impressed with our nice clothes and fine jewelery?

Birds and Bees, and Baby Squashies

I'm feeling rather uninspired today.

So I guess I'll share with you my most recent adventure with my little squashies.

I've had about 20 little baby squashies on my plant for over a week now.

For those of you who have grown squash before, you know that these should no longer be babies...they should be fully grown, picked, cooked, and in my belly by now.

So I couldn't figure out the problem.

 

Turns out squash have some romance issues.

You see, there are boy squash blossoms and then there are girl squash blossoms.

Just like people, the girls make the babies.

But they sort of need the boys' help if catch my drift.

Only here's where it gets a wee bit sketchy...

the bees have to do the dirty business.

Not just once, but three times for every girl flower.

And if a girl blossom isn't pollinated 3 whole times by those busy little bees, well, no baby squashies.

Actually, you still get baby squashies, but they end up tiny and deformed and shrunken and they're just pitiful.

 

 So I have a bee problem I suppose.

My bees either aren't doing the deed, or they're stealing all the boys' pollen and taking it elsewhere.

Which I supposed might be good for the boy flowers, but my girl blossoms are feeling a little forgotten.

My bees are defective and it really stinks.

So, like any classy lady would do to attract to bees to the goods, I've positioned all of my flower pots strategically around my squash to lure those bees to the squash, and then hopefully keep them close so they don't abscond with my boy pollen.

And that my friends is the birds and the bees, condensed version.

Oh, and I guess you're wondering where the bird comes in?

Well, that dumb chicken is still running around. I bet he's eating my bees. Ugh.

fear [feer] n. a thing that causes a feeling of dread

Ok y'all. 

I want y'all to know a little more about me.

I've heard somewhere that knowing someone's fears helps you to better understand the person.

So today, I'll share one of my true fears with you.

Dictionary.com defines fear as : a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined

let me tell you, what I'm about to share with you fits this definition exactly.

Ok. here goes.

Don't laugh.

I truly fear that while shaving my legs, I will somehow slice through my achilles tendon.

There. I said it.

I'm for real y'all. 

Like, I would rather leave hair on the back of my knees and the backs of my ankles because putting a razor that close to my tendon gives me the heebie-jeebies.

For serious.

I cannot stand it.

In fact, almost every time I shave the back of my knee or ankle,  I end up cutting myself because I flinch as I imagine my tendon getting sliced open.

Gosh.

I'm getting distressed by the impending danger just thinking of it.

I realize how ridiculous this may sound to those of you without this problem, but I don't care.

Sharp objects just don't mix well with easily accessible tendons.

 

Mans..No. Maddy's Best Friend.

Oops, I lied

Well, I though I was getting ready to write my 100th post for this blog, then I realized that Blogger had saved 8 drafts that ended up being blank, so I actually only have 91 posts.

So be on the look out in the coming days/weeks for my special 100th post 

Until then, I'll try to keep you entertained.

 Here's Scott being a goof with his gas mask. "Maddy, I am  your father"

 Maddy at just 8 weeks old. I forgot how tiny and skinny she was. Chunk was NEVER this small.

Maddy around 3 1/2 to 4 months.  I'm not quite as chubby now and Maddy has grown SO much.

I was hoping to post some old photos today but i didn't bring any home with me from my Mom's. I got to go through a few boxes, but I accidentally packed up all the ones I set aside. 

I found some hilarious ones and realized that not only am I just like my mother, but my children are just like me! Maddy looks EXACTLY how I did at her age, right down to the eyebrow scrunch and the big blue eyes.

On a different topic, while we were at my parents' this weekend, Scott got locked in the basement. 

He turned the lights out, knocked on the door, then stood really still.

My mom opened the door, looked, and was about to close the door back when she saw two big white eyes staring up at her.

Needless to say,, she screeched like something got a hold of her and Scott laughed LOUD.

I'm sorry to disappoint with my 92nd post, but we'll get to 100 soon enough.

Ok, about 10 seconds after I published, I took a video of Maddy dancing to a commercial.
Here's the commercial that's playing on TV (don't ask...we live in Albany)...

And i missed the first half of her dance, but here's what I got on video:

Alrighty. There ya go!

Chunk Overload

Since Maddy gets her own day of the week to post stuff, I figured I better come up with something for Chunk too. By the way, my 6 month old is name Lillee...I think I always call her Chunk in my posts. If you look at her pictures, it's not mystery where the nickname came from.

Chunk has been such an awesome addition to our little family.

She is peculiar, silly, and very needy.

Very different from Maddy Moo at this age.

Most importantly, she is the most expressive baby I have EVER seen. Here. I'll show you. If you saw my post on instagram, look here anyway because I'll have some new ones.

All of these were taken within about 2 minutes.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

So there you go. I actually have about 15 more pictures but I feel like I already added too many.

Which one is your favorite?

Caption it in the comments for me!

Thanks y'all:)

P.S. Tomorrow will be my hundredth post. I'm trying to think of something special!