Hello, Hi, Howdy, How are ya?

 

 

Hazel, the new baby of the family.

That's the Timber Shed in the background- looking all spiffy with its' shiny roof.

If you haven't had roasted garlic scapes.... well, you must.  You MUST. 

It's been a while, hasn't it?  

I was finally able to empty my camera card only to realize that I am so far behind blogging that peony season is over and so is the spicy floral scent of old roses.  So much for blogging what my days look like.  In fact, when I blog these days it is more like blogging what three months ago looked like.  

I find it entirely strange that our world can be in such an upheaval and all of us, stumbling and tripping along in these surreal, dystopian times- and yet the peonies live and die...roses bloom on...the garden grows and the flies keep buzzing around my head and lighting upon my elbow as I type (knock it off, already!)  Isn't that bizarre?

Our world is so very strange and so very much the same.    To know history, to know nature, to know sin, to know God's goodness...we see the truth in those words. 

It's no wonder that we are told to look to the lilies.

We are told these are 'unprecedented times' that we are living in- but one good look at history shows us that this just isn't so.  There have always been plagues.  There has always been civil unrest.  There has always been sin.  Injustice.  Power-hungry people, lying people, violence.

We have just been spoiled because we have not experienced it in our lifetimes.  This is OUR moment.  Quite possibly, this is the prelude to 'our moment'.

Every generation has their 'moment'...as recently as jim crow laws or the great depression, world war II, concentration camps all the way back through history to enslaved Israelites, the plagues, Nero lighting Christians a'flame for parties or an entire world flooded because of the wretched wickness of EVERY SINGLE PERSON save one family.  Yep- that's ACTUAL history, not little fictional tales. 

What do we do with this moment, OUR moment?  Put our heads in the sand?  nu-uh.  Act like everything is right with the world?  Nope.  Live in fear?  Not a chance. 

Read Matthew 6.  Every day if you have to.

We trust God.  We obey God.  And we THANK God, even in the midst of all of this...knowing that a refining fire--- REFINES. 

Now, in an effort to throw off the 'Most Boring Blogger of All Time' title, I am going to be changing things up a bit. 

Up until now, I have made very long blog posts with all the photos from my camera so that you can see all the things that are happening in my life in a single post.  But since I still haven't quite got the hang of getting photos from camera to computer, I am going to stretch those pictures out more, making little posts more frequently. 

You may either love it or you hate it, but hopefully, it will result in blogging becoming a less MONUMENTAL (and thus, something less likely to procrastinate at) chore for me. 

We'll be seeing ya!