Spring Pots Bring Entertainment/Pocket Money

Hello again to all of my “stay at home” fellows!  It is day umpteen of this quarantine and I’m wondering what you are all finding to do.  Thankfully there is various sources of media that we are all able to use for communication and news gathering but the lack of face to face contact is driving the extroverts in my house crazy.  Those of us that are introverts are feeling the change but not so strongly as our extroverted house mates.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, gardening is high on my list of to do’s now that I’m home more and I’ve been out weeding and readying my garden space for new plants.  In most places in the Northwestern United States this is a good time to plant things such as lettuce, beets, carrots, cabbage, kale, broccoli and such.  It is also a great time to prune out the old raspberry canes and transplant strawberries, raspberries and other perennials.

With this in mind, one of the things I’ve been doing to occupy myself and bring in a little extra money, during this season of no income, is to put some of the extra perennials into my recycled pots to sell!  I enjoy growing food producing plants and my hope is that other people are also interested in starting some of these in their yards!  I have an abundance of pots from past years, I can’t bear to throw things away that are still usable, and they are coming in handy for potting strawberries, raspberries, lemon balm, cat nip, walking onions, etc. I have also been having some success with the local advertising I’ve done on social media.  Gaining some pocket change makes this little project even more fun for me!

Today I received news from the school principal that school may continue online for the rest of this school year,  I also saw that the CDC is predicting this week the US will face it’s “Pearl Harbor moment” due to a surge in deaths from the coronavirus.  With these things in mind, I am reminded that my finding things to do is a minor side issue of these times we live in.  While I will continue to do what I can to be productive and joyful in the situation I find myself in, I will also look for ways that I can be of help to my neighbors as they wait, hopefully in health, for this to pass.

I pray that you and yours are safe, healthy and provided for as we go through this storm!  “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:32  “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

Biblical Inspiration in Spring Blossoms

Today I enjoyed a tour around my front yard enjoying the blossoms that are thriving there.  It made me think of a couple of Bible verses that have always comforted me, but in these crazy, unprecedented times mean all the more.

The first was, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night, shall not cease.”  Genesis 8:22  As you may remember, God made this promise to Noah soon after he and his family came out of the ark after the flood that had covered and destroyed the entire earth.  With some people looking around our world today and wondering if it will ever be back to “normal” this verse seems just as much needed as it must have been for the patriarch Noah.

The second verse that came to mind so readily while I enjoyed my front yard blossoms was, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Matthew 6:28-30.  Now it was the flowers that brought this verse to mind, but more than flowers, as I go to the grocery store and look for nonexistent toilet paper or flour or mushroom soup etc. I can be sure that God has not forgotten my family or yours.  He knows our needs and will provide.

I hope that these short thoughts and pictures can encourage you as they have encouraged me today.

God bless and stay well!

Keeping Busy Staying at Home

We’ve almost come to the end of three weeks since Washington state’s governor ordered all schools to shut down and do school online because of the coronavirus.  I have four teens who came home with that order and while it took us a bit to get readjusted to them all being home, some had been away at college, we are doing pretty well with this extra time on our hands.

I’ve seen some complaints on social media from folks who aren’t used to this slower paced life and I thought I’d share a few of the things that we are doing to make life more bearable for even social teens.  Admittedly, we may have had a head start on getting adjusted to this since we have spent many a year in the homeschooling realm already, but even this mom of six had kind of gotten used to a little more peace and quiet and had some attitude adjusting to do.

One of the things we are doing is pursuing some of our former interests such as gardening, crocheting and reading.  At the beginning of this quarantine I had scary visions of four teens sitting around the living room glued to their phones and having giant sized attitudes.  I decided right away to curb that by having them all figure out a daily schedule for themselves.  I had them include time for outdoor exercise, time for chores, time for reading and crafting and some time to communicate with friends.  Since we had spring break for the first week and a half of this past three weeks, these schedules proved to be invaluable!

The kids helped each other stick to their schedules by getting their siblings to come outside with them when it was exercise time and recruiting each other to play games or help with projects.  Three of the four teens are now in full swing of online classes, the fourth is done with high school and not currently in college so I have put her into “home culinary school” for the time being and assigned her to help make the families main meal each day which we eat mid day.

This “culinary student” doesn’t have very many hobbies and is extremely social so she is the one I most worry about sitting around bored and having a bad attitude but this plan is helping a lot!  She is happy to be learning something she’ll need for independence in life and feels good about herself when she accomplishes the job well.

One of the teens is a 19 year old boy who was going to college and working construction.  Providentially, I believe, he purchased an old camp trailer from a friend right before this stay at home time, and now he has a project to work on when he has spare time.  He is remodeling it and hoping to make it into a small air b n b.

Mama’s attitude needs to be dealt with from time to time too, I must admit.  For my alone time I have been writing, reading, videoing and gardening.  Today I photographed some of the blossoms in my yard.  I came across apricot and peach trees in bloom, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, dandelions, hen and chicks, johnny jump ups and more.  These never fail to make me happy!

Last week I brought a large pot of soil into the house because our weather has been quite temperamental lately and I wasn’t able to go out and work in the yard.  I planted radishes and chard in the pot.  The radishes are because they always sprout up quickly and though they aren’t our favorite food they will add to our salads.  The chard because I didn’t have any lettuce seeds right now and wanted to plant some salad greens.  I plan to pick up or order more seeds soon so that I can get the rest of the garden started whether indoors in pots or outdoors depending on the needs of the plants.

I’m planning to check in here a little more often than I have in the past since I have more time.  Here’s hoping you all are finding things to do that will enrich your lives as you stay at home during these unprecedented times and may God bless you and keep you and yours healthy and strong.