Big Weekend!

I'm so excited for the long weekend! We're starting off early-early tomorrow morning heading to meet with family, then caravaning to Oshkosh, WI for a family wedding. We'll get to see family who we don't get to see very frequently, so it will be a welcome trip. Of course, we'll get to celebrate with the groom and bride Aaron and Heidi, too, which will be delightful. I better remember my camera- I forgot it a couple weeks ago at my nephew's birthday party, and I'm super-bummed.

On Sunday we'll get to swing down and visit the Big City when we stop to see my sister in Chicago. It'll be good to visit with her, even though I got to have lunch with her just a few weeks ago when she & her husband were in town for the Mini Marathon. Always good to see her. (Also, check out their new fitness and healthy eating blog, where they promote exercising and diets that work. They're so far ahead of me in that respect, it's not funny.)

And, it's a long weekend! My dad's birthday is on Memorial Day, so we'll have a cookout with my parents and probably attend another cookout with friends, too. We have lots of social plans over the next 3 days- hopefully I can keep up!

What're you up to this weekend?

Grace & Haiti in the news

Our church was on the local news talking about the teams we've sent down to Haiti. The trips so far have been medically focused, where they've done everything from handing out prenatal vitamins to rushing children to surgery. I'm thankful we have so many skilled professionals that are willing to share their medical expertise! More trips are planned- two in July and one in November. It's exciting to see people I worship with get to share their stories with a larger audience. We can't forget Haiti!

House Projects: New garage doors

It was time. The old sliding barn-door garage doors were deteriorating, and had been for a while. Raccoons were getting into the garage and wreaking havoc. Seriously, a raccoon climbed up on top of Josh's car and pulled a shop light down on top of it. No damage done, thankfully, besides having to re-hang the light, but finding the muddy raccoon prints on our cars regularly was a constant reminder our garage needed to be fixed. (Cat prints are on our cars regularly, too, but those are cute and less objectionable. Also less muddy.)

After we took the doors down, I snapped a picture of the bottom of one to give you an idea of the deterioration:


Yeah. It's a wonder we didn't have deer wandering in.

Josh was brilliant, and looked for material for the doors on craigslist. Although we had to make a trek to get it, he found the right kind of siding new for about half-price. Somehow, he knew just how to put the new doors together. He painted them the same color as what we had before, and we worked together to re-hang them on the same old hardware, figuring we didn't have a chance of finding similar sliding-barn-door hardware anywhere in the suburbs.



That picture was taken after we hung the first door. After hanging both doors, he put handles to make it easier to pull the doors open or closed. You have no idea how much nicer these doors look. I'll see if I can find some better pictures. I'm so excited. Have I mentioned my husband's awesome? Because I really ought to mention it more often.

Next projects: new compost pile, backyard picket fence, the ongoing garden weeding & harvesting, and surely others will come up. We'll never have time to twiddle our thumbs playing an XBOX 360. 
The joy of home ownership- there's always something, right?

Real life, savored

My living room is cluttered. There's a collection of books and magazines, a keyboard, and my camera on the coffee table. There's a stool upside-down on one of the chairs to keep Casey from climbing up on it. Sitting here, I can see my kitchen, which isn't in much better shape. Stuff is strewn about the counters, including a birthday card and gift for our nephew I still need to wrap. Mail that needs to be filed sits on the kitchen table. The box for our first Ikea purchase is still propped in the foyer, yet to be taken out to the trash can. I can see our new pet gate we got to keep Casey off our new-ish carpet at night. I really like the hands-free swing-open gate. Hopefully it's tall enough he won't try to jump it- he hasn't yet.

The bed in our bedroom is unmade. Clean clothes are sitting on the floor and need to be put away. The office-turned-hobby-room is storing stuff we've been meaning to put on craigslist. The game/toy room is actually in pretty good shape, but hasn't been used much lately. I was glad to have the spare bed in there a couple weekends ago, though, when we had an out-of-town friend stay with us. Luckily, no guests are planned to come over, because I don't think I could get the place straightened up before they were ringing the door chimes.

This is my life. It's not always orderly or neat or anywhere close to perfect, but I love it. Today, between mowing the yard and heading to straighten the church library, I stood outside and reflected on the glory of spring-turning-summer. I watched the birds hop between branches, and even caught a glimpse of a hummingbird enjoying our bush full of pink flowers. Our yard is solid greenery, punctuated by bright flowers- pink peonies, a red poppy, large purple alliums. As overgrown as everything feels, the sheer life of it makes me love all of it.

In the midst of all the to-dos, I got a long nap today. I hung out with my husband. I got fresh air. Josh is baking cookies right now, and the house is full of yummy smells. All of this is terribly ordinary, I know. Life isn't exciting, exactly, and my list of things I ought to get done is longer than I like, but I can't let these days pass by, where everything is growing and changing and there's so much to savor.

Science lesson o' the day

On Sunday, while heading out to the car, something brightly colored on one of our bushes caught my eye. It was some sort of butterfly or moth, and it wasn't moving much, just clinging to a leaf. It was HUGE. I snapped some pictures of it with Josh's cell phone camera, and filed away the thought to look up what it was later. Of course, I forgot.

While checking out the progress of my strawberry patch this afternoon, I found the same moth, still huge, and just a couple feet from where I saw it before- this time clinging to a strawberry plant. I went and got my good camera, and tried my best to get some pictures without disturbing it.





Searching Google for something when all you know is what the thing looks like is not the easiest proposition. I finally figured out what this creature is- it's a cecropia moth, apparently one of the largest moths in North America! I'd believe it! Interestingly, once these caterpillars turn into moths, they have a natural fat burner: they have no mouths, and therefore don't eat. This lady out here probably only has a few days left to live, but the cooler temperatures we had and the fact this gal hasn't moved around much has made her life longer.

I love the orange and white stripes and black dots on her abdomen. If I were a bird, I'd steer clear of this bug! Also, if I ran into one of the caterpillars of this moth, I'd steer clear, too! What a colorful, cool insect!

Growing things

Monday and Tuesday, Josh and I took a mini staycation. The four-day weekend was a last-minute decision to use up Josh's vacation days before they expired, and the whole weekend was pretty low-key. We took a road trip to Ikea one day to get a computer/TV hutch we had been eyeing, but beyond that, we stuck around home. Saturday, a friend of Josh's was in town from South Bend, and we were delighted to be able to hang out and catch up with him.

My big project over the weekend, however, was to get seedlings planted for my plot in the Grace Garden. Cabbage, onions, kale, and peas are all in the ground, ready for this week's rains. Wednesday, I was tired and sore and sunburned, but it was so worth it.

What is the Grace Garden?
The Grace Garden is the community garden at my church. For $25, members join the garden, work in their plot 3-5 hours a week, and take home fresh, organic produce all summer. Each plot has a few families, with a plot leader giving direction to the members, and ultimately responsible for the plot's production. Really, the structure is more of a "working CSA" than a community garden, with a much lower cost than most CSAs (A sidenote: If you want to join a CSA in the Indianapolis area without all the work, my friend Lisa's farm has a fabulous one, with lots of interesting foods. Check it out.)

Why is a church running a garden and why should I be involved?
It's not something you normally hear about- a church with a food garden. Why bother? Here's a few reasons:

• God commands us to care for creation, and gardening is a spiritual discipline of sorts that goes along with this command. Those that practice it often find it meditative and therapeutic. For me, I've become much more aware of the created rhythm of the seasons and of God's design by gardening. It makes me slow down. It's good for our souls.
• Getting our produce from a local, organic source is another way we obey this Creation Care mandate. When less resources are used to grow and transport the food, and less chemicals are dumped on the soil, the creation is better cared-for. Getting produce from local, organic sources is also a way to love our neighbors who suffer from contaminated groundwater (from pesticides) and exploitation of labor (from the industrial food system). It's good for our neighbors far-away.
• A share of produce from each plot in the Grace Garden is headed to our local food pantry. Low income, food insecure populations are at higher risk for obesity, and good, healthy food is more expensive calorie-for-calorie than junk food. Providing produce at the food pantry will give healthy options to those who don't have access to good, healthy food. It's good for our neighbors nearby.
• Speaking of healthy food- $25 for a summer worth of vegetables? It's good for our body and our wallets.

If you're in the north Indy area and would like to join us, email me, or fill out this form for more information. We're still looking for more families to join! I'm looking forward to seeing what will be growing this summer!