Saturday, May 25, 2024

Blessings, big and small, enjoy them all

Good afternoon on this Memorial Weekend.        I pray that we all take the time this weekend to think about what it's all about.        It's about our freedom and the heavy price that people have paid for it. Most families across the US have family members that have fought and died for this country.       It's a shame that we don't value our freedom enough to fight harder to keep it than we do.         Those in politics have fought tooth and nail to squander our freedoms.        I think a new law should passed.    This new law would be that you can only run for a political office AFTER serving this country in the form of Military Service for at least 4 years!!!!        I wonder how many would be running now.        Not many!!!!        Anyway, I hope that we all remember the huge sacrifice that some families have given to our country.

ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL!!!

May we never forget!!!!
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I wanted to share a little bit about my garden and my second harvest of produce.         in the first pic is some stevia leaves that are now on my dehydrator.         I have high hopes of filling a gallon jug of stevia leaves thru-out the summer.        like I said, high hopes, a few leaves at a time.        hahaha

beside the stevia is my second batch of greenbeans.        I planted them in my greenstalk planters back in the middle of march and covered them with frost protection and when I took the protection off they already had blooms on them and I'll be doing this from on to have early greenbeans.

beside the greenbeans is my lettuce harvest.          it's delicious.         all of this is up on the deck at the back door. it's not too pretty, actually a mess or I would take a pic and share it.

the other pics is my below deck at the back of the garage.         I have 4 keter raised beds and they are now planted with greenbeans too.           I was going to take the covers off today and put my little fences in them to help keep the greenbeans from spilling out of the keters, and I was going to get the forks in them.        but, it's raining, so that's on hold.

all my peppers and tomatoes and cukes and squashes have been filled with forks, and guess what, it's working.          as you can see in the background, we have a forest behind our backyard and that means we have more squirrels than we have blades of grass.        hahaha         that's almost true.        hahaha  the forks are working so well that hubby ordered me another box of 1000.        and since these pics were taken, I've added more to all the pots you see.          because before I did, there was 2 pots that the little bandits had dug around in.

well, I put more forks and left those a little higher and it is working.         I probably have between 15 and 20 forks per pot.                I know a lot of people don't like forks in the garden, but I don't like squirrels in mine a lot worse, so there's that.          😅😅😅        I also have some long cook out skewers that I have tied some holographic strips to that also helps with keeping birds out.       when there is a breeze, they flutter around and it looks really nice.


a little about my garden deck behind the garage. in jan of 2023, my husband took that deck apart from the deck that is still at the back door. it was a 2 level deck.        he took that off and moved it behind the garage.                  we had intentions of tearing the old deck off and building a new one.

on the first sat in March of 2023, we had a contractor lined up to come out and give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace the old deck.           on friday before the contractor was to come on saturday,    we had a storm and had straight line winds of over 75 mph that brought down a lot of the neighbors trees on our property and one of them fell directly on my husbands lawnmower and tool shed. the tops was twisted out of a lot of them that didn't fall.              praise the Lord, that none of it landed on our house.       and that was His hand of protection over us.

but, we did have roof damage from the straight line winds.        so our contractor came out to look at the deck and give us an estimate.        we had to wait and see what the ins co was gonna do.        the adjuster came and looked.       he worked hard for us, but the insurance company wouldn't pay but just a couple of hundred dollars on the roof, so we had to foot the rest of the roofing job and that done away with the funds to build a new deck.       so, I have a garden on the upper deck and a garden on the lower deck.  the lower deck looks decent, the deck on the house is a wreck.              hahaha      so hopefully in the next year or two, we can get the new deck and get everything up where I don't have to go up and down steps all the time.

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as I leave you to today,   I leave you with an incident that happened to me that helped me to see and realize that God loves us enough to give us little things to bring great joy,   if we just willing to see them.           I wrote of this incident and shared with someone else and decided to share it here too.       I hope it speaks to just one person.        if it does, then it will have served it's purpose for this day.

I take great joy in the things of God. even and especially the small, unnoticed things of God.        after an especially low day, probably 15 years ago,      I was taking a sack of trash out the trash can before dark.          we have some pavers that make a stepping stone sidewalk and then pea gravel surrounding the pavers.        I was stepping from paver to paver,       watching each step.        all of the sudden I seen something in the pea gravel that stood out really big although it wasn't but about the size of my thumb nail.       I looked, and I bent over closer to get a better look and then I just decided I need to sit down and look even closer.          when I finally got as close to it as possible, I seen that it was little, tiny velvety purple flower.            purple being my favorite color, I sat there and just praised God for letting me see that little flower.        I watered it with a couple of tears and got up.       and I must say that this situation gave me a whole new way of looking at everything from then on.         when I can see the small things that God puts in my path for joy, then the larger things will become easier to see.       I challenge any of you today, to look for the small things.               things that you wouldn't be expecting, unless you're looking for them.        take joy in what you see.        and thank God for it all.       then start sharing with others the smalls things you have seen.          sometimes it's hard to remember to be thankful in the hard days that come, but when you have a day or a season of life that's hard, go back to the small things that God has shown you and ask Him to show you more.        as we grow older, we have more harder days and I find myself ask for more of the smaller things to brighten my day and then that puts me in a frame of thankfulness.        blessings be yours today and every day.           hugs and love, patty

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