Lettuce Again! - and other thoughts

I always said that moms couldn't get sick. And usually I don't get sick. But it hit me last week. I'm not sure when last I was sick for longer than a day.

And you don't have to start pitying me. I wasn't really THAT sick. Maybe since I'm never sick I make a big deal out of any little thing. Basically I was able to keep taking care of the children but that. was. it. I didn't do anything else. Meals were casseroles out of the freezer. Cleaning was non-existent. Naptime and any other spare moments found me on the couch. Ed helped tremendously. But you know how I feel when I'm not getting things done. Like a total failure.

So it was rough week. Not only did I feel bad, wasn't sleeping, coughed like a chain smoker and now have no voice - but I felt like a total failure as a wife, homemaker, and a mother.

And so I know - that God still is working on me. To find my fulfillment in Him and not in what I do. To be at peace with the day He puts in my hands. To discover joy, not in me, but in serving Him with my whole being, coughs and all.

Last week I also visited an inmate in prison. She did attend the Bible study in our local detention center and now was moved to a long term facility. The whole evening is a story too long to tell here. I was too sick to go but I had promised to visit and God graciously pulled me together for the evening.

Gratefulness is something that the Lord has been working on me for the last year. Maybe longer. If you feel like your gratefulness factor needs a boost, visit a prison. (Or the homeless or the sick...) What is it about seeing someone with far greater problems than me that makes me sheepishly return to my Father and say "Thank you for my "problems". For my cough, for my crazy children, for my dirty house.

Oh, I was going to write about lettuce. We have lettuce again! Fresh homegrown lettuce - perfect to drive the sickies away! I hope!

I'm not a pure local in-season only cook. But I try as much as possible to base my menus around what is growing fresh in my garden. Which means, in the spring we were eating salads like crazy people but as soon as hot weather hit the lettuce and other greens bolted. Toward the end of summer I tried numerous times to start some more lettuce for fall, but failed every time, apparently because of the horrible drought and high heat. Finally, with the last of my seed, I tried again. This time I kept a hose with a fine nozzle close by and soaked the ground every single day. And this time, a few lettuce and other greens managed to survive.


Later I transplanted the little plants into the cold frame and we have been enjoying wonderful mixed greens salads for the last few weeks! Since it has been months since we've enjoyed fresh salads from our garden, it is relished even more.

May I notice the little things, like lettuce, as gifts from my Father's hand, and stop and give thanks.


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