backyard miracle update

so, here's the new play house that scott and a neighbour/friend built. it may not look like much, but it's heaven.
i added some garden photos to the spring post below.

spring

well, it's here. spring has sprung in saskatoon with such glory that it provides winter amnesia.  the tree in my front yard is brilliant in youthful green, i believe a bleeding heart is growing in my front flower bed, and the grass has now turned truly into a lawn.  i have spent much of the last week watching my children run through sprinklers, or not watching them play in their new fort (my backyard miracle!).  it's heaven!
or, it would be if i didn't have a cold.
i know, whine whine, but summer colds suck.
i have thought of blogging a few times in the last number of days, but have thought "what is there to say?".  my brain is currently swimming in snot.  and, truth be told, i've been feeling a little down about the blog lately, wondering if anyone is actually reading it, and then
then!
i got a little postcard in the mail from a bosom buddy (bethany....... - that's said in a drawn out fashion with my head tilted down and to the side and my mouth slightly smily with a tina fey pout and my eyes looking up through my bangs at you - bethany......!) with great blogger encouragement, so i'm back at it.  even with nothing to say. :)

i went to my first (cashless) poker tournament on monday.  well, first i learned how to play poker at the end of our home group on sunday.  it went a little like this: 

               'amen'.        
               pause. 

'ummm....i have this serious problem that i need help with and if you don't want to or can't that's fine.'
              affirmative and sympathetic nods and smiles from all.
'scott and i are in a poker tournament tomorrow and we need to learn texas hold-em tonight.'

i locked eyes on the one guy with the ear to ear grin and knew we were saved!

i was the second person out in the tournament, which landed me a set of toronto maple leafs cards  (i'm sure there's some hockey significance to the gift and the losing, but i'm not privy to such trivia).  scott, however, made it to the last table.  i think it was the painful colouring of his hawaiian shirt - he caused his opponents moments of mental hysteria.

all-in-all it was a very fun time, despite the grandious amounts of deep-fried appys.  the organizer of the game (and youth group pastor at our church) asked some friends to cook from a specific cookbook his wife had given him last Christmas, entitled "this is why you're fat".  delicacies included deep-fried pepsi and doughnuts wrapped in bacon.   
now, lest you think that people in saskatchwan actually eat like that, it was a joke. 
there were also some amazing little bacon-cheese-pastry somethings and mexican layered dip and home-made caramel corn.  yum.

i planted my first vegetable garden on the weekend.  i'm doing the square-foot box method where you plant a different crop in each square foot of your 4x4' garden.  so, i have two types of basil, two types of tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, beans, carrots (hopefully - they don't seem to be sprouting), beets, rosemary, oregano and strawberries (they take up four feet).  every morning  i come downstairs and look out my kitchen window to see if my tomato leaves look wilty.  i love it!  sunday morning i grabbed a cup of tea and went out to water in my pj's.  i came in five minutes later refreshed and happy and with two misquito bites on my NECK!  they (meaning the mosquito population) must have heard of my twilight tendencies.  i wore a shirt with a collar to church to try and hide them, but the first women i saw graciously pointed them out to me.  thank you.

well, i must rustle my children off to bed and my nose to a kleenex and my body to the couch (in that order).

quick news flash - my kids just came in from riding their bikes at the church parking lot (my daughter is still learning to go training-wheel free).  can i just say how, with all the talk of the church not being a building, it's so nice to have a church building!  anyways, the news is that my dear son went to blow a dandylion seedhead and sucked in by mistake.  not recommended for humans.

backyard miracles

i went to a craft show a few weeks ago.  before i went i had the thought "way to go Janet!  way to support local artists!"  i've been to this show once before and loved it.  it's held in this old warehouse in what looks to be the middle of nowhere (in the middle of a city) and i think it's organized by a local screen printers guild that actually works in some other section of the building.  anyways, beautiful stuff.
i found my new favourite pair of earrings there for five dollars.  yes!  you read that right.  they are angel wings, made of something silvery.  they make me feel like i have a tattoo hanging from my ears and they make me think of my beautiful friend Cheri, and they're long enough that when i move my head quickly they tap my neck.  tap tap tap go my angel wings. 
today i wore them (again) and was in Rona when the cashier said to me (cue troubling music)
her: 'oh, i totally have those exact earrings.  did you get them in a make-your-own-earrings set?'
me: 'no, i actually bought them at a local craft fair' (at this point i think she must be mistaken)
her: 'oh, cause i bought one of those kits and they have the same pair in them'
me:  'well, i probably paid much more than you then..... five dollars'
her:  'ya, well, i paid four. 
       (hmmmm)
but, i mean, there was a whole bunch in the kit...."
       (grrrrr)
me:  'did you get the kit on-line?' (please say etsy please say etsy)
her:  'oh no, just at walmart'


you have got to be kidding me.


icing on the cake:  the girl beside her leans over and says "ya, you can totally get kits like that at Michaels".
nail in the coffin.  how many other coloqualisms can i write here? 

my angel wings have lost some angelic presence, i must confess.

on a brighter note, my husband made me a square foot garden box for mother's day this week.  i actually have a bonified garden in my bonified backyard.  i planted lettuce, spinach, mint, beets, carrots and peas this week. i feel so domestic i'm hankering for a new apron. 

there is something so pleasurable about putting a seed in the ground, covering it up, giving it some water, and watching a miracle.  i mean, there's nothing i can do but give the seed the right conditions for growth, i can't personally make it grow.  it's a beautiful reminder that God is absolutely in charge. 

i was listening to an AWESOME sermon the other day while painting.  i was painting chain mail (as in the armor not the annoying letters) and a horse, but that's another matter.  the sermon was from Brian Buhler at Pacific Community and it was on Psalm 3. 
first, let me say that i was filled with thankfulness that so many of my dear friends and Parkside sojourners now attend this church.  i pictured cori and leah and dawn and jaclyn and vanessa and jenna all sitting and hearing what i was listening to and i so wished i could have been there as well. 
my favourite part of the sermon was when Brian talked about those passages in the Psalms that we all cringe at: the inappropriate, bloodthirsty, bargaining, theologically incorrect parts.  and how he explained that these prayers are a part of our holy scriptures not so much as examples of prayers to pray, but examples of honesty in prayer.  they give us an invitation to prayer those desperate prayers that in other circumstances we would never pray.  "God, if you just....then i promise I'll....".  prayers of anger and loss and bitterness and disillusionment.  like God is saying "i can take it.  tell me how you really feel".  and then, after we've laid it all out on the table, God reminds us of his truth, his wisdom, his timing, his goodness.  something we fail to grasp when we continue to stuff our true selves behind veneers of piety.

hey, do you want to listen to it?  here it is: the transforming friendship.  it's the april 16th one.

tomorrow another backyard miracle is taking place here in saskatoon:  my husband is going to build a play set for our kids.  yes.  scott's never been a handy man before, but it's been something simmering in him somewhere - fanned by summer jobs and inspirational friends (eddie!).  we got a play set for free off kijiji which we took at first to be an incredible miracle, then found out in the midst of dismantling it that the wood was half rotted.  so, now we have half a play set (and a backyard big enough to hide it!), a neighbour with tools, and all the right elements for my husband to break out of the anderson family tradition and build!!!  i will definitely post pics when it's done.  i can hardly contain my excitement.  two things built in one week!!!

saskatoon has finally greened up, there are buds on my pear trees and tulips in neighbours gardens.  how would we ever survive without the promises of spring?  i lay on the hammock in the sun today in complete happiness, with my little boy rocking me back and forth. i think that i will meet the goodness of God many times in my backyard this year.  i pray the same for you.

today feels like a turning point. 

first, it was my little man's last day of being three years old.  sigh.  i picked him up into my arms at the grocery store and said "pretty soon you'll be too big for me to do this!" and he said "i can stand on a chair and hug you."  he's been using big words lately like 'familiar' and 'appreciate'.  i can't believe my youngest is four. 

secondly, i started attending a bootcamp class with two friends today.  i've really been asking God for this (i can NOT believe i just wrote that, but it's true) and it was such an awesome answer to prayer to have friends to work out with.  for some reason i can motivate other people to exercise much better than i can motivate myself.  but i was actually excited for boot camp.  miracle!  i remember in BC watching my friend Leah, and how she would be so excited to exercise and i thought (sorry Leah) "coo-coo".  exercise has always been a painful process for me, albeit necessary:  like fasting, or breast-feeding, or small-talk.  but now...nothing beats that endorphine rush, or the satisfaction i feel knowing i've worked hard at my health.  and i'm proud of the example i'm being for my kids.  and secretly proud of my thighs.  don't tell.

third, it was 18 degrees in Saskatoon today, and i felt the incredible sensation of being hot.  ahhhhh.  we barbequed steak for dinner and splurged on corn-on-the-cob.  we walked along the river and explored the foot-bride near the wier.  we saw a pelican!  a big white one bobbing up and down on the water.  who knew?  and i got my first saskatoon misquito bite.  it's begun.

fourth, carter started his first soccer class today.  i think his team name is going to be the "little monkeys" and their chant is a very cute "oo-oo-ahh-ahh".  yes, he cried at least twice in the practice because someone else was using the ball he wanted, but he also trapped the ball with his foot quite well a few times and managed to listen to most of the instructions.  baby steps.

i guess today feels like i've settled in an inch more in this new home.  like i've wiggled my hips and sunk down a bit deeper.  new rhythms, new appreciation, new discoveries.  it feels great (except for the misquito bite). 

the other day scott and i were talking about a church in the area and their approach to leadership and i had the thought "maybe that's the answer for Parkside!", then quickly realized we are no longer at Parkside, and there no longer is a Parkside, and,well, that's hard. it's hard.  there are some wishes and wonderings and what-ifs in my soul that i continue to stuff down.  no answers in this life i'm sure.  but some scars that i tenderly stroke as dear friends, as beautiful memories and deep loss.

on saturday night scott pulled out his guitar and i pulled out my paintbrushes and we sang and painted for an hour.  songs we haven't sung in a long time.  prayers we needed to remember.  it was lovely.  i'm currently painting someone's vision of the kingdom of God - a huge battle scene actually - and it's inspiring and terrifying all at the same time.  inspiring in the vision, and terrifying in the fact that i'm painting chain mail and horses and a castle.  !  i'll post it when it's done in four months.  seriously.

i also went to a class on the weekend that taught me how to plant and tend succulents (one of my favourite variety of plants).  the teacher was a sassy homosexual named roger who was wonderful and said things like "a rounded teaspoon ladies, we're not baking here" and "you'll find my succulent tips on the website".  succulent tips.  i love it.  so, i'll leave you with some of my own succulence: 

• don't skip rope if you have poor bladder control (learned that one in bootcamp today)
• bbq your steak for 2 minutes, each side, on high heat - then tent with foil for 10 minutes and perfection!
• if your kitchenaid mixer falls on your foot don't watch the blood pooling under your skin because it will make you want to pass out.
• prioritize sabbath
• my new favourite author is Laurie R. King (not to be confused with Laurie King who does erotic photography - this one learned at the computor kiosk in the middle of indigo)
• try Stash's double bergamot earl grey tea
• live thankfully

blessings to you all

ps. could someone hug leah for me?  and dawn?  and vanessa? and could someone encourage bethany that she's an incredible mother and artist? and could someone rub Jaclyn's belly for me? and tell Kandy she's beautiful? and kiss my mother-in-law on the cheek? thank you.