Monday Randoms <3
I usually do Randoms on Wednesday and hesitated doing today….but that’s the beauty of randoms, right?
Here they are, in no particular order:
Random #1
We had a great weekend, kind of kicked it off early with a trip to a local apple orchard. We went on Thursday and it was such a beautiful day, but a bit odd with the play area empty of little kids running around.
We browsed the grocery store and faced sticker shock at the price of a small bag of apples. A wander out to where the you-pick orchard was revealed it would be a hefty sum to pick our own and we would still pay for the apples…so long story short, Sam’s club bag o’apples…you look good to me.
I sense that apple orchards and pumpkin patches are more fun with little people to tag along.
Random #2
Do you winter prep your yard and garden?
I have been seeing articles about what needs to be done and it is inspiring me.
Here are the basics:
- Trim back day lilies and such
- Clean out leaves and debris under shrubs and bushes
- Get rid of last of the weeds that have cropped up while you were buying mums and pumpkins
- Plant bulbs for next spring
- Seed lawns
So there you go. A great excuse to get outside and enjoy these milder temps and blue skies.
Random #3
Change.
Does it make you excited or make you cringe?
I am in Camp Cringe.
Even good change is hard and while good change carries with it an anticipation of new and fresh directions and vistas, there is the required element of leaving something behind to move forward.
So there is a mixture of emotions, and since I tend to feel the fullness of all of them…it can be exhausting.
Our church is big on asking us to embrace change. I tend to do more of a side hug with it. Come in slowly, don’t commit to full on contact. It takes me time to adjust to change.
And that is okay.
While I can’t control the acceleration rate that change brings, I know my limits and my need to process.
So in the changes that inevitably come through the seasons of life, when I need to creep along while change sweeps us along, I find it necessary to allow myself more times to just sit down and read or knit or doodle.
I find that getting outside and walking, making sure I am eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of water, and carving out spaces of quiet are the balance I need to give me energy to move along with the flow the new current that is taking us a different way.
Random #4
You know I love the Irish and have a couple of little shamrock plants that are a delight to me daily.
If you didn’t know, shamrocks close up at night and open to greet the morning sun. They do not respond to artificial light. It’s the sun alone that guides them.
This little characteristic surprises people. A while back, a younger friend was at our table one evening when I pointed out that they were starting to close for the night.
She wanted one immediately. Thus began her quest to find a shamrock.
A few weeks later, I received a text picture of her new plant.
Success!!
It made me smile, but I was even more happy when she recently sent me a picture of it blooming. Apparently I failed to share that treasure about these plants.
I told her our shamrock seems to know when I need a little perk in my day and will brighten my life from time to time with a show of blossoms.
Be a shamrock…fold up quietly and rest and night, open wide to face the genuine light of the sun as it rises and bloom in ways that cheer others when they need it most.
Random #5
From time to time people will ask me if it is okay to share my posts with others.
Absolutely.
I don’t do this for me. I do it because of a crazy, hard to describe sense of calling. Urged by family, I started this blog because they thought the things I have to say might prove encouraging or helpful or inspiring to others.
I am amazed from time to time the people who tell me they read this and they read it because someone they know passed it along to them.
Because these are my thoughts and they flow and rattle around in my brain and need a release, I share them and it never ceases to amaze me when it puts voice to someone else’s sense that they are not alone.
So yes.
If you think something you read here has value, please pass it along. I write with one purpose, that God puts my words and thoughts onto the screen for someone who needs them that day.
Have a great start to your week!
YOU are loved <3