New Things

I have to repent.

Through those early blogs I seemed to complain so much about all the rain, and how the veggies in the garden couldn't ripen without a little sun. Seems like the rainiest summer I've ever seen.

Well, things have a way of balancing out, and the sun came back, and the veggies ripened. And because of all the RAIN I was so busy complaining about, most gardeners I know have the biggest, best quality vegetables in memory. And tons of them!! I'm harvesting about 50 little red grape tomatoes every day. We can't eat more than 15-20 in a day, so I've given away a lot, and still have pints of 'em bagged up and in the deep freeze. The full-sized tomato plants have produced not only ripe, sweet slicers, but nice, tart Celebrities to salsify, and bland but prolific Jet Stars for stewing. And the beans--bush bean. All the experts, and the seed packets, promise one good crop, then you pull the plant. Well, I didn't. And with all the rain and a little extra TLC, these little plants are into their second crops, and some of the earliest plants are putting out flowers for a third crop!!

So God lets the rains come. And these were good, steady rains, most of them. Not the violent gully-washers that strip the soil and flood the fields, leaving the farmers with nothing. These rains were strong but steady, leaving us all dreary. But with the sun came a bumper crop.


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By now my Selah sisters all know that I have changed churches. This is a move I´ve made for the sake of the spiritual growth of my guy, who I love enough to change churches for. I'm not a natural church-changer. I love change in general, but a church is like a family.

In our town, and given the dynamics of our family, there were a couple of churches we looked at as being viable options. I kind of favored one church, and my guy favored the other. And because I go to such a dynamic Bible study, I gave him the final choice. I figured I could grow at either one, since I have the Bible study and the Selah sisters to teach me. So, he chose the one he favors.

It's a nice church. It's Baptist. I grew up Baptist and never thought I'd go back. The long skirts, the hymns--it had all grown kind of tedious for me when I left. My dad was a Baptist preacher, and a pretty good one, I guess, but I didn't really listen much. I spent a great deal of time daydreaming, fidgeting in itchy clothes, and all the time my stomach would rumble, reminding me of the feast of fried chicken that was my reward for enduring this tedium. To this day it's hard for me to be engaged by preaching. I was oversaturated early on. I go, these days, more for good teaching and good worship music.

So we go to the Baptist church and I wear the long skirts and sing the hymns and listen to the sermon. The Sunday school is nice. The people laugh and enjoy one another, and seem to enjoy being there to learn together. They're friendly, but they're not my people yet.

We trust the kids with their Sunday school teacher, because she's taught them for years in their Bible club. And she teaches a large, immensely popular Christian preschool class at this church's private school. Her class always has a waiting list. And kids love her with that kind of early childhood adoration that they´ll always remember.

So I think the kids are okay there. I think my guy is okay there. He's already responding to the teaching, to the church community, and I think he's going to be okay, now. And I guess eventually I´ll be okay there too.

Bible Study starts in a few weeks. I am SO-O-O ready. It's a place where I can go and be okay.