Archives for 2012

Words

July 25, 2012 by Amy 8 Comments

I finished a book Kaitlin sent me last night called Thirteen Reasons Why. It’s a teen novel based around a girl that commits suicide. Now, before you check out, it’s not as depressing as it sounds.

The premise of the book is before the girl commits suicide, she records a tape for each of the 13 different people (reasons) that she pinpointed that led to her death. Before she dies, she sends the tapes to the first person on the list and then insists they listen to all of them, pass it on to the next person and if anyone fails to do it, the tapes are released to the public.

One boy that she did like and liked her is on the list and that’s who we follow as he listens to all the tapes.

It may seem a little grotesque to read an entire novel which serves as a suicide note but the story reads like a murder mystery, each chapter unfolding how the person affected this girl’s life.

I finished it in 3 sittings and I can’t shake the book from my mind today.

As you can imagine, many themes emerge from the book but I walked away remembering we’re all connected and even the tiniest of encounters, words, or actions can greatly affect those around us, even if they aren’t directly said or done unto a person.

I thought specifically about gossip and how I really have struggled with that over the years. Not that I made up lies and spread them or purposely spread untrue things. But I think at some points in my life I prided myself in knowing something another person didn’t. It took a few times of breaking confidence and hurting people’s feelings that I learned my job was not filling a person in on the finer points of someone else’s life.

Gossip is not just hateful or untrue talk. It’s ANY chit-chat over someone else’s personal life. Sure, there’s a time and place for talking about specific situations but overwhelmingly, it’s just plain old gossip.

Proverbs 18:8 from the Message says it like this: Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you really want junk like that in your belly?

It’s junk. Just plain old junk.

Track your conversations for a week and you’ll see pretty fast if this is an issue. If it is, stop it. I can say this because I had to say it to myself at one point. Just quit talking about e’erbody else!

In the book, you really see the affect of gossip and people’s opinions of each other. They drove this poor girl to her death. Let’s not believe the lie that our words don’t have the same power.

Curious, I looked up in the Bible about words and I determined there’s only two ways it refers to words. Life and death. That’s it.

Either your words are defiling, rash, corrupting, obscene, angry, careless, wrath-provoking, foolish OR your words are healing, graceful, life-giving, salty, gentle, satisfying, and joy-inducing.

Which is it?

Let’s be a people whose words heal and not hurt.

Love Languages and How The Bachelorette is my Crack

July 23, 2012 by Amy 7 Comments

Last week’s posts were heavy. I like the heavy, but sometimes I’m not sure it reflects me completely. In between all these deep thoughts, which are only written and rarely spoken, I’m doing not so serious things like laundry and making salsa (Ree’s Restaurant Style is to die for). And mostly last week, watching the Bachelorette and basically being a complete and total fan girl about Emily and Jef.

photo credit

The Bachelorette is My Crack

I swore off the Bachelor/ette a few seasons ago. In fact, I swore off a lot of TV in the past year or so. Everyone has their weakness and I’ve just realized that TV is mine. I can’t just watch a TV show. Just like I can’t just buy a shirt. I have to rewatch every single scene 5 times, post all the animated gifs to Tumblr and watch all the fan videos on YouTube and then spam all my Facebook friends with them. I’ve also been known to create an entire fan site or two.

Here’s what I relearned this summer with The Bachelorette: TV is my crack.

We only get one life, folks. And I don’t want it to be spent fangirling over strangers. I mean, it’s fun and all, and it brings me a lot of joy. And I still would be super excited to be new BFFs with Jemily when they get set up in Charlotte. But that’s just it, it brings *me* a lot of joy.

I want my life to not be all about me.

I mean, it’s my life, and I should be happy and all but I’d rather be happy about making an eternal difference. If I had died with one of those people in Aurora, people could say I spent a lot of my last week on YouTube and I did a really great job culling up Bachelorette articles. SERIOUSLY. This is our LIFE, folks.

Alright, I’ll hop off my soap box. I needed to give myself a good talking to but let’s be done with that.

While we’re camped out on the Bachelorette, I figured we may as well learn something from all my devoted hours of TV watching.

The Bachelorette and Love Languages

I promise I’m not going to Jesus Juke this whole thing but I do think there’s a good applicable reminder in here.

I had a realization today of why everyone is in love with Emily and Jef. And specifically, Jef.

Jef is really good at expressing himself. And it’s not just his eloquence. Jef is really good at all the love languages and furthermore, he’s spot-on with Emily’s.

The proof:

Words of affirmation

By far, I think Emily’s prominent love language is Words of Affirmation. If you watch back, Emily was always so focused on what the guys were saying. It was a huge deal when Sean had a hard time saying I love you.

Jef is a hopeless romantic and knows just how to communicate his feelings. He says things like we need to bridle our passions and I’m smitten with her and I want to spend every night with you in our own fantasy suite. The guy is smooth. And Emily ate that up.

The fact that Jef is quite eloquent coupled with Emily love for words of affirmation, played a huge part into her falling for him.

Touch

Anyone that watched could tell you that Emily liked to kiss. A lot. She was kissing left and right (no blame here, Emily). The one time she got frustrated with Jef was when he wouldn’t kiss her. Was anyone just dying when he wouldn’t kiss her on the beach? Gah.

I’m going to bet Emily’s second love language is touch. Jef finally got on the ball in London and they never looked back. If you watch their scenes, he was always playing with her dress or rubbing her arm or holding her hand. Jef expressed his love well through touch.

Gifts

I think out of any of the bachelors, Jef did the best at giving gifts. They don’t have a ton of opportunities to give each other gifts but one that stuck out to me was Jef buying Emily the puppet in Prague and including one for Ricki. You could tell Emily felt very loved.

He also gave her the book from Curacao and took the time to draw stick figures of them. Cheesy, but Emily ate it up. I can’t really blame her.

Oh and let’s not forget the beautiful flowers he gave to Emily’s mom and future sister-in-law.

Quality Time

Emily and Jef probably lacked time the most. They only had a handful of dates but time was important to them. She gave Jef the fantasy suite card so she could spend more time with him and they were constantly reminding each other how much they loved their time together.

Acts of service

Acts of service was probably the least represented from the season but I think Jef did little things like pulling out seats for her at the dinner table, giving her a blanket when it was cold and paddling them around a cove to send things through the roof.

Of course, I think there is much more to Emily and Jef’s match, but I certainly think their love language match is a huge factor in their connection.

Sean had a hard time expressing his love in words—a deal breaker for Emily.

Ryan vomited out of the mouth constantly–a major turn off for Emily.

Doug had a hard time kissing Emily–it sent him home.

Arie was good at both words and touch–landing him in the final two.

I would mention Chris but I think he’s still fuming somewhere.

The display of the love languages didn’t just cement Emily and Jef’s connection, but the audience’s connection to Jef as well.

I wonder if people were to read this and then watch back, would they recognize they were drawn to Jef when he displayed their own love language?

Did you hear he just said he’s smitten with her, he’s so sweet!

That kiss was amazing, he must really love her!

Wasn’t it so sweet he bought Ricki a doll? He just thinks the world of them!

And since Jef was so good at all of the love languages, I think he was well-loved by the majority. Each person could usually find something to be drawn to.

Why am I being a dork and analyzing all this? Let me get to the point.

The real point to all this rambling is how important our love languages are and how we ought to let that translate to our spouses (and even kids!). If you don’t know your spouse’s love languages, RUN to the book store and get the book.

The thing is, many of us are not matched in our love languages and are not naturally good at expressing love in all the different languages.

Mine is words of affirmation and Scott’s is touch. I always know if I need Scott’s attention, it’s through an unexpected kiss and if he wants on my good side, it’s through washing the dishes or a well-played compliment.

When we become self-aware enough to recognize our own love language and our spouse’s, we can learn to speak our love in such a way that they know without a doubt we’d pick them out of a crowd of 25 every. single. time.

If you know your spouse’s love language—use it! It’s not manipulation, it’s simply showing your spouse your love in the language they understand.

So, I’m curious. Is TV your crack? What’s your love language?

A Giving Tree

July 17, 2012 by Amy 12 Comments

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

What does that command conjure up in your head?

For me, I imagined a slow, painful process of emptying my house, suffering through innumerable yard sales and Craigslist transactions until we were sitting on milk crates in the living room, with no pictures on the wall and only enough clothes in our closets for a week.

Seriously.

I thought that was the end goal.

While I’ve been doing Spending week(s) for Summer of 7, I think God gave me a little insight into this idea. Perhaps I’m behind the ball on this idea but he showed me that selling our possessions and giving to the poor does not mean that we are left with nothing.

In fact, what I find in God’s economy is when he takes away, he always gives back in abundance.

He Replenishes

I have always been enamored with trees. I can remember learning to draw trees in fifth grade art and just loving that I could do that. I would go years. I mean, years trying to draw trees. I still to this day try to draw a great tree when me and the girls are drawing. I have many pictures and art pieces of trees in my house. I always choose the tree if I have to pick out an image somewhere.

I love trees.

Weeping willow is my favorite, if you’re wondering.

While thinking about selling what I had in order to give, I thought about Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Have you read that because it’s just the most beautiful story of giving. In sort of the same vein, I thought about how fruit trees are made to give. They bloom their flowers and give forth fruit. The fruit is taken but the tree doesn’t die. It’s not left with nothing.

God created the tree to bear even more fruit. In fact, if you take some branches at the end of the season too and not just the fruit, it is quite healthy for the tree and will produce even more fruit.

You see this concept of taking and replenishing everywhere in nature.

I thought about Job and how God took every single thing he had and then when he stood strong, in the end it says “the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before”. God took but he still provided in abundance.

Be a Conduit

I went back to the verse in Luke where it talks about selling your possessions and the whole section is that part about not worrying. About how the wildflowers grow and the birds eat. They don’t worry and God takes care of them.

Towards the end, it says he is pleased to give us the kingdom. And in conclusion of all that he says, and yeah, so since I’m going to take care of you, sell your possessions and give to the poor.

I think God was just showing me I’m supposed to be a tree.

He’s going to give me what I need. At some point, these things I own are no longer meant to be mine and I’m supposed to sell them and give the money to the poor. I ought not hoard the money and chase after more things. He’s going to provide. My job is to be conduit of the fruit.

He gives me things, beautiful things, like he gives a cherry tree its beautiful blossoms every year. The branches stretch and say look at these beautiful flowers God gave me. They produce delicious, beautiful, ripe fruit. But then the fruit is taken for others.

But God always starts the cycle again.

I want to be a tree. A beautiful conduit of his fruit. Whether that fruit be spiritual fruit of mercy and grace and forgiveness or whether it physically be these things he gives me or the money I earn from them, I want to pass it on.

Have Less

If you take it a step further, then, and you begin viewing yourself as a conduit, the buying of “all the things” in the first place begins to make a lot less sense.

Dani and I held our Garage Sale for Orphans on Saturday and we would have these moments where we’d stop and just look at all the stuff and say why did we buy all this in the first place? Do you know how many people could have been helped while this stuff sat in our attics?

The ultimate idea, then, is not to buy, sell, give cyclically, but to simply give.

I keep waiting for God to tell me my spending fast is over but you know, I think I’m permanently done. I’m done with it being all about me. I’m fine with buying nice things and enjoying them and displaying and being grateful for God’s beautiful gifts but my perspective is changed.

I’m done with all the Target end caps and Wal-Mart plastics.

I’m just done.

Give More

I started this post talking about how God replenishes and never leaves you with nothing. I think that’s sort of set up for failure because one might think the idea is to give so God will bless you. I think what we miss though is if we get this mindset of being a conduit, when he begins replenishing, he’s then not replenishing you in abundance but replenishing others in abundance but in an awesome way using you to do it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to be a Giving Tree.

And just guessing, but this could be fun.

I know we’ve probably all read this passage a zillion times, but just read it again with this perspective and see how much more it makes sense.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Awesome, right?

You know what’s awesomer? Today’s my birthday and I’d really love it if my birthday could be a conduit for something GOOD.

Real Hope for Haiti is a medical clinic in Haiti. They’re trying to raise money to get another container shipped from the States with much needed supplies. Hop over and donate to help them out? You are awesome! Thanks!

Together for Our Good

July 15, 2012 by Amy 21 Comments

I favorited that tweet by author Anne Lamott a few months back. Instinctively I knew I would need this reminder. The moment is here. A story needs telling and not everyone, including myself, will be shed in the best light. But it’s my story, my experience and I think there’s value in sharing.

If there is anything I learned while writing Entangled last year, it’s that your darkest moments shine the brightest when taken out of the shadows. I’ve had some dark moments over the last week. May I take them out of the shadows with you?

Last Wednesday morning I found out that when we were in Hilton Head doing this, my nephew broke into our house and stole 2 shot guns to pawn for money.

Scott waited overnight Tuesday to tell me because he didn’t want to see me react the way I did—a bursting of tears from the soul. Violation. Both of physical property and emotional bond.

The next 36 hours was near torture.

On Wednesday afternoon, we found out there was a 3rd shotgun taken and he admitted to it.

And then minutes later, I found my jewelry missing. Two necklaces, 5 rings, and a bracelet that Scott gave me while we were dating. My high school ring. A wedding set I wore while I was pregnant. Just as I type this, I remembered two more rings from my childhood missing. My nephew denied taking them.

Although I knew he had, I began worrying about our safety. If he truly didn’t take them, who else had been in my house? When? How? What else is gone? Do we need a security system?

I was experiencing so many emotions. I was furious that he would do this when we’ve done so much for him. My personal space felt violated in the worst way. And I was just sad for him. He knows better and I want so much more for him than this.

We debated about if and how to charge him. He’s done this before. He got arrested for the same thing just a week before we went to Hilton Head and has not been charged for similar acts in the past. It was salt on wounds that he did this yet again.

We knew he needed some consequences but ultimately know he needs the Lord. What was the best path for him? We were solely responsible for his future. If we pushed, he could sit in prison for 30 years. Would he find healing there or in an intervention program offered to him?

We talked to the detective on his pending case and got our options. By Thursday evening, my nephew decided to talk to Scott, something he had always denied him in the past. We just wanted to understand why all the stealing was necessary. He’d been out of work at times but the amount of money he had gotten was just not necessary for his lifestyle.

While talking to Scott on Friday, he confessed to a prescription drug problem and also to taking my jewelry.

When Scott told me he admitted to taking my jewelry, I’ve never experienced quite so many emotions. Validation for knowing he had done it. Hurt that he had done it. Grief knowing I would never see those meaningful pieces again. I will never be able to give my girls my high school ring. I can’t let them wear the heart diamond necklace he gave me on Valentine’s Day. I don’t even have my own choice of selling them for gold. Even relief flooded when I knew I didn’t have to worry that someone else had been in my house.

Scott decided, with counsel from many different directions, that charging him was the right way to go. He has an intervention program available to him so, if followed, he will not have extended jail time.

So as we worked Friday night to prepare our yard sale, raising money for orphans, our nephew was being booked into jail.

Life and death. I was sacrificing on all accounts.

C.S. Lewis was right. Christianity isn’t for the faint of heart.

I had every right to swear my nephew off. To say I’m done. Please don’t come near me again. But I know. I know, I know, I know that Satan is prowling like a lion. He’s here to steal, kill and destroy.

Scott told me about the jewelry just minutes before I had to go get Emma from camp Friday. That was supposed to be my most joyous moment of the week. Satan wanted to steal my joy.

Our last garage sale for orphans was planned and then thwarted the week my grandfather died. He couldn’t stop this one from happening, but he wanted to steal the joy in this one.

He wants to destroy my nephew’s life.

He wants to steal our family’s joy and unity.

He really wants us to give up on my nephew.

I hate everything Satan wants.

My only weapons against him are not hate and revenge but things like truth and love.

I believe God is a just god and that is why I have no qualms that we charged him. He ought to pay consequences. But we can’t let hate take over. Love covers a multitude of sins.

God is this beautiful balance of justice and mercy, both at full tilt, that I cannot wrap my head around.

I’ve been praying since Wednesday morning that God would give me forgiveness. I see some family members angry and bitter over things from decades past and I don’t want a life like that. It’s a miserable life to lead. Miserable for them and everyone around them.

So Scott, being the leader and general better person than me in a lot of ways, invited my nephew to church this morning. My first reaction? I really don’t care to see him and I doubt he shows. I prayed this morning that God would give me grace. Grace to a grace killer. It reminded me of Pete Wilson’s church’s reaction when they expected Westboro church to picket at Cross Point this morning.

It’s easy to gather your possessions and sell them for the orphans in Haiti. They don’t deserve what they’ve been put through. But grace to the grace killer? That’s tough.

I was anxious the whole way to church. I debated whether I’d even speak to him. Would it be so bad if I slapped him in the face one good time?

Scott dropped us off at the front of the church and I was wriggling around, trying to help the girls with leftover donuts we were taking in. When I finally got settled and turned around to go in and looked up, my nephew was standing just 6 feet away. He was early for church, showered and dressed and looking like he might be expecting a slap in the face.

As if I had no choice in the matter, I walked over and threw my arms around him and said, “I love you.” He said I love you too and apologized. I said thank you and that I was glad he was there and he said, “Me too.” I told him to wait on Scott while he parked and took the kids into church.

The girls had no idea what had just transpired. The people around couldn’t guess what was between the two people that had just hugged in front of the church doors. Just another Sunday morning greeting.

I cried most of the way through worship with Scott on my left and my nephew on the other side of him and my friend on my right holding my hand, having no clue what had been happening but knowing something was very wrong.

The preacher, not knowing what had transpired, seemed to talk directly to us. We have to let go of what we feel entitled to for greater things God has planned. Me, my possessions for my nephew’s future, and my nephew, his lifestyle for his own future.

And then we were asked to have communion—something we only do every few months.

I knew I couldn’t hold hate in my heart and take communion. I cried and prayed and asked the Lord to help me forgive. This moment would be the end of my hate. Not the end of the story, but the end of the hate. Satan is not going to win this battle. I took communion with teary eyes but a praising heart. They played 10,000 Reasons, the same song that had ministered to our family just weeks before during my grandfather’s funeral.

Church ended and my nephew and I exchanged hugs, I love yous and apologies again. I did so knowing it’s a long road in front of us. He could, and probably will, hurt us again. There are probably things from the past he’s done against us we don’t even know about.

But I know this and I want you to know it too. God is good and he works everything together for our good. Sometimes he allows us to sacrifice as he did but it’s never without purpose. In those moments, we have to open our hands from our earthly treasures and the hate in our heart so God can replace them with his good and perfect gifts. I may never have my earthly treasures but today peace and forgiveness and love and unity wins.

Be the Change

July 11, 2012 by Amy 4 Comments

Source: Uploaded by user via Symphony on Pinterest

I sat in Starbucks for an hour this morning working. I couldn’t help but hear an overzealous man next to us express frustrations about his church to his friend across the table. I heard things like:

“I’m not going to split the church. I won’t let that happen.”

“We need a new name. Something simple but divisive. Nothing wordy.”

“He might work in this environment but not that. We don’t know what happened in his last church.”

Wow. I couldn’t help but have many memories flood back from a few years ago. I don’t talk about us moving churches a lot. I don’t think it’s helpful or appropriate. But it’s been three years and I have some hindsight. I sense that someone needs to hear this.

Be the change you want to see.

I know so many churches are wrestling through this whole post-modern thing. I’ve watched for the last 10 years. I’ve been a part of some messy stuff and some really fantastic times. I truly believe we ought to be the change we want to see in our churches.

But.

Sometimes you need to be the change that needs to leave.

Sometimes God just has a new church for you and all the wrestling and new things you feel are preparing you for a new place where those things are already present.

I don’t mean to say when you are unsatisfied you should start church hopping. Because I’ve seen that happen.

I don’t mean to say you should leave mad. Because love covers a multitude of sins and perhaps simply offering forgiveness could assuage a lot of the frustrations you are feeling.

But sometimes we do all that and then the wrestling doesn’t stop. God puts a desire for something new, but it’s so hard to let go of the old. Leaving our church was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done. I miss the people, but I know that God has us right where He wants us.

If you’re wrestling, stay faithful to the process. Don’t leave when you’re mad. Change where you can. But ultimately, leave when you should.

Summer Camp

July 9, 2012 by Amy 5 Comments

I took Emma to camp this morning.

It’s her first summer camp. All week. With no phone calls home.

I’m not nervous about missing her. I WILL for sure miss her (should I mention I mailed her a letter Saturday so she’d already have one today?) but I’ve gone a week without her a few times so we’ve had practice.

I know she’s going to have fun. I never went to camp until I was in the 7th grade, but camp was my favorite week of the year after that. I loved camp. I can’t imagine someone walking away at the end of the week and just saying, “You know, that was a bummer of a week. So boring.” You are not bored at summer camp.

She’s with a great friend she knows. I’m not sure if they’ll be quiet for more than 30 seconds the entire week.

Her counselor seemed like a dream. Very down to earth and responsible.

The one thing I am worried about (ok, BESIDES the counselors making sure she eats gluten-free) is the basics…shower, brush teeth, brush her hair, put sunscreen on. It sounds so silly typing it out, but I realized in letting her go for a week how important the little things are every day.

Does she know how to take care of herself without a mommy going behind her reminding her?

Sure, she’s not headed off to college and 5 days without brushing her teeth would be nasty, but not deathly, but it really puts into perspective this whole mothering thing. It’s important what we do. One day they WILL leave the house and they’ll need to know how to do these things automatically, responsibly and well.

So, if anything, let my letting go be a reminder to all the moms that all the….

“Brush your teeth and remember to brush at the gums!”

“Let me get the tangles out of your hair!”

“Pick your wet clothes off the floor!”

“Don’t forget to put sunscreen on before you get in the pool!”

….are building habits of successful adults. Bravo, moms, bravo.

The Summer of 7: Spending

July 7, 2012 by Amy 2 Comments

Spending week is messing with my head.

The week as a whole has not been hard. Books went on my wish-list instead of my Kindle. Nothing else was a temptation because I stayed home the entire week.

Seriously, I don’t think I’ve been anywhere this week except picking up groceries, which I had allowed as a spending item, and meeting and eating dinner with our fearless Summer of 7 leader Katrina (she’s just as wonderful in person as online).

I had planned for the next two weeks to be breaks since birthday weeks are here but I think I’m just going to keep going with spending until it quits messing with my head.

I have a deep belief that God is not one of confusion and he wants to give me wisdom. But I also believe we have to seek and knock at the door. So I’m going to keep doing that until he answers. I have so many things running around in my head but every time I write, it’s a jumbled mess (other than Waterfall purchases). Perhaps he’s waiting to show me something at our yard sale next week that was postponed. I don’t know. Just know I’m seeking him and thinking about you and how all of us can learn. I know he has me doing this publicly for a reason. Not to show off, but to pass on. So, if you would, pray with me that I’ll get clarity. In the meantime, I hope you’re having a great weekend and check out more Spending posts below.

Garden Update – Month 3

July 6, 2012 by Amy 5 Comments

Can you believe it’s already been a month since my last garden update? I almost didn’t do another one because I didn’t think the garden had changed much but um, wow. You’ll see in a minute it has.

When we planted:

Month 1:

Month 2:

And now, Month 3:

So, um, yeah. The tomatoes and zucchini are going kind of nuts (sorry the coloring is weird. It had just rained and the sun was going down when I took these).

The squash on this side is about 3 feet outside of the box and just hangs over it.

The tomatoes are using the fence and are growing outside of our yard.

I look at this picture and cannot believe it is me. I grew vegetables, ya’ll. My aunt over the weekend said, “Who would have thought you would have a garden?” Not me, folks!

Photo Jul 05, 7 46 44 PM-001

Emma was so impressed with this perfect little tomato tonight. It had gotten blood red hidden at the very bottom and back.

You wouldn’t know it, but I still have jalapeno peppers, green peppers, basil, marigolds and parsley growing underneath all that too.

We’ve been using up the zucchini by making chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini cakes, and sautéed zucchini and onions. So far with the tomatoes, we’ve done tomato sandwiches and tomato slices for July 4th cheeseburgers. I’ve gotten more basil and parsley than I can keep track of and at least 6-8 jalapeno peppers to make jalapeno poppers. I’d say the investment of about $35 in plants has been well worth it.

I say it every time I write an update, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed my little garden. It’s just enough to keep me busy but not overwhelm me. I love fussing over the tomato plants and getting them tied up correctly and watching the zucchini nearly grow before my eyes. I love to trim back the parsley and basil. I’m turning into a little garden geek. I LOVE IT.