Dinner tonight

Tonight I used my George Foreman grill (from Goodwill) for the second time.  I grilled some chicken breasts I had, and then tried to figure out what to do with them.  Eventually I settled on salad, since I had half a bag of spring mix left that I didn't want to go bad.  Then I also decided to use up some of a white onion I had left in the fridge, so I sliced it and put in on the grill after the chicken was done.  Tas-tee!

Salvation Belongs to our God

When people talk about being Saved (and you know there's a capital letter there), I always get a little itchy.  Not because I'm uncomfortable with talking about it, but because often it seems the people who talk about it that way insist that there be a life-changing, spirit-altering Moment of Being Saved.  That's not how it's been for me.  Here's my best answer to the when-were-you-saved question.  It is not meant to be inflammatory, or rude, or critical.  It's just my experience and my interpretation.

I was saved when Jesus died on the cross.  Salvation is something that God does; my actions can have no effect whatsoever on whether I am saved or not.  However, my understanding of this amazing act of grace has been growing since I was a child.  I hope it will continue to grow throughout my lifetime, by thought, prayer, and revelation.
The only thing I can really DO with salvation is accept it, and that is not something to be done once and then remembered forever.  Instead, it is a daily (sometimes an hourly) task of admitting my sinfulness, my inability to fix the situation, and putting my life in God's hands.  If that's what you mean by being Saved, then I try to do it every day.

If you have had a life-changing, spirit-altering Moment of Being Saved, that's awesome.  But please don't assume that it is or should be that way for everyone.

The Garden of Eden...

it ain't.  But I'll have spinach, herbs, and flowers this summer.

From head to heart

This weekend, I:
went to the farmer's market for the first time this season
attended and sang in a funeral
visited a baby boy
watched the sun set over a lake
and finally, cried.

Thinnings for breakfast

The spinach has developed secondary leaves!

Can you see them?  They're more roundish than the original sprouts.

Spinach is growing!

The spinach is doing quite well!  During the few late-season snows we've had, I've been putting the lid that came with the tub on, and that seems to have helped the soil stay consistently moist, not too soggy nor too dry, nor too cold.  The short amount of sunlight is, I think, causing the sprouts to grow slower than they might otherwise, but I think they'll make it anyway.  I hope.

Spinach has sprouted!

I woke up this morning, knowing that it might snow tomorrow, and looked out the window to check on the spinach bed.  To my surprise, there were little green things sticking out all over!  I had to go out and get a closer look:

Close-ups taken from my phone almost always look bad.

Green stuff!  Hooray!  Now I just have to keep them alive through the weekend (lows in the low 30's), and we should be good to go!

The Next Morning...

Good news!  Although the temperatures were in the low teens overnight, my tub of dirt and seeds did not freeze all the way through.  There's frost on top, and a layer of frozen soil, but I can stick my finger down into loose, still-moist goodness.  Hooray!

Spring has sprung!

Last weekend was the Spring Equinox.  I had decided to plant spinach on my balcony, as it is both shade- and container-tolerant.  So I went to Home Depot to purchase containers, dirt, seeds, and tools.  I was surprised to find that, at least at my location, they did not stock large bags of potting soil, nor large containers of the type I wanted.  I decided to improvise; I bought a plastic tub of the type that is meant to store out-of-season clothing under the bed, and a set of power tools, including 18V drill/driver, 5.5" circular saw, flashlight, and dustbuster.  I used the drill to make some holes in the bottom of the tub (for drainage), but alas, I still had no dirt.  After a week of asking countrified friends if they had any dirt, the tub was still empty.

Today, after attending a baby shower in Chanhassen, I went to the Eden Prairie location of Menard's.  Their garden section is considerably more useful than HD's; not only did they have many different kinds of soil in large bags, they stocked gravel (to improve drainage), sand, watering cans, and other heavy duty materials and tools.  I have figured it out.  Home Depot is where suburbanites and urbanites go for their DIY needs; Menard's is where ruralites, farmers, and wanna-bes (like me) go.

I wish I could have taken pictures of the process, but my hands were rather dirty.  First, I took three trips to lug the gravel (very heavy) and two 2 cu. ft. bags of potting soil to my apartment.  Then I shoveled/swept the snow and most of the ice off the balcony.  I got the tub positioned and added the gravel, then a layer of soil.  When you use potting soil, you're not supposed to use it dry; you're supposed to get it thoroughly "moist", but not too wet.  I decided to use hot tap water, since it was pretty cold out, figuring that if the water started out hot, it would be less likely to freeze completely overnight.  I ended up doing three layers of soil, watering with hot water and mixing with the hand rake between each layer.  It felt amazing to dig my hands into that warm, moist earth.  My arms were black to the elbow by the time I was done.  Finally, I sprinkled the spinach seeds over the top and covered them with a little more soil.  I wish I had a big piece of Plexiglas to put over the top, to help it stay warm.  I hope they don't freeze.  Updates will be forthcoming!

After all that (plus getting up at 4:30am; long story), I was a little tired.  So I watched a documentary that I just happened to find at the library, The Farmer and the Horse, which Jenna happened to mention recently also.  It made me so excited!  All about farming with draft animals instead of tractors, in NJ, of all places.  Being originally from NJ myself, it was super cool to see the Howell Farm and even a shot of the Hopewell Borough train station and farmer's market.  Wow!  I highly recommend watching this if you can get it.  [Mom: I checked the MCL catalog, but apparently they don't have it.  Since it's about local farming, maybe you could suggest they buy a copy?]

T Week

The letter of the week in preschool is "T", so tomorrow we're having a tea party.  We will:

Taste Tea, Tootsie rolls, Twizzlers, and tentatively, Toast Triangles

clean up with Thomas the Train "Towels" (actually napkins, but who cares?)
Tack the Tail on the Tiger
Tape the Teeth on the Tyrannosaurus Rex
win Toothbrushes as prizes

Any other ideas?