Well it is that time of year for the annual green bean update…..

The definition of retardation is doing the same thing over and over again looking for different results each time……I must be retarded.  For every spring I can’t wait to plant the green bean’s, I love the planting, the digging in the ground, the early sprouts, and then helping the vines form around our fence which in turn transforms into our “privacy fence”.  This year Jeff was upset for his travels and my oversight missed purchasing the seeds for “green onions”.  I went on line and purchased green onion seeds and then in order to get free shipping I went ahead and purchased a couple packets of green beans, since Mary Jane told me last year that you could grow and harvest green beans on into the fall…..silly, silly, crazy me…….. Currently the green beans have sprouted and need picking …….. and each weekend Jeff announces that he is going outside to plant green beans…….the nightmare never ends……for Jeff told me when I presented him with my prize purchase that the seeds have to be used this year and for the amount of seeds I purchased we’d be growing green beans all around the fence that lines our backyard plus into the neighbors.   Jeff plants the seeds with great joy, knowing full well the agony it brings me to pick all of those hidden green beans…..again what are they hiding from.

I did suggest this year once, that he go out and pick the green beans ……he returned with perhaps 10!  I go out and pick 30 more….Jeff is evidently fooled by the green beans plan to grow green and blend in with the leaves or very smart………

Yet this year the green beans have completion!  Due to our cool and rainy July our cucumbers have gone crazy!  These guys grow inches over night and every night, I go out and pick cumbers!  I love cumbers yet my goodness there is such a thing as cucumber overload…I mean how many meals/dishes can you make with cumbers!!!!

Now I do have help……my worst nightmare use to be that the “girls” discovered the green beans and started picking them themselves.  Well the “girls” love the cucumbers and help me pick them (and eat them with side effects : }.  Prairie has also discovered the green beans (well of course since they are growing everywhere!) and she goes up to the fence and delicately picks the green bean from the vein……you could never tell there was a green bean growing there in the first place.  On the other hand, here comes Tally Ho, she has to do everything that Prairie does, except she doesn’t pick the green bean off the vein, she pulls the whole vein down.

“Prairie is a Princess” and “Tally is a Bull Dozer”…..Jeff tells me that Tally needs “manners”……oh good grief, I hope she finds them soon!

Backyard Summer Fun

At the time this story took place my garden center work hours were from 6am until 3 pm.  I then went home, changed into my swimsuit (Oh I wish Lecompton had a public swimming pool!) and sat in my “pool” to cool off and read. One day while filling my pool I noticed that some stupid mole had subjected it self to suicide by entering the backyard, for there were fresh holes around the tree closest to the gate.  The mole was crazy if it thought it was going to enter the backyard where the “girls”…aka “the killers” rule.

So to cut to the chase I was sitting in my pool reading and enjoying myself.  Tally the “land shark” came charging to help me read. She did a belly flop. “SPLASH”, there went my book.  Next, Prairie joined me. She is a Princess and full of grace. It’s in her blood, for she didn’t learn her grace around here(!).  She steps purposefully into the pool one foot at a time without making a ripple in the water. Before I knew it Prairie was lying down at my side. I was petting her sweet head and marveling how lucky am I to have such a love of a dog…..then I saw it….. a large dark brown oblong thing right under the surface of the water.  I jumped out of the pool.  Princess Prairie aka the mighty killer, had brought me the result of her latest hunt, a very dead mole.

The girls and I buried the mole in the garden and said a few words. We then went on to enjoy what was left of the afternoon.  Upon reflection if Lecompton did have a public pool, I’d miss all of this excitement that happens in my own backyard!

The journaling in “Journal According to John”

The novel “Journal According to John” is about many things but journaling stands out. It starts out with a recently divorced man, John, who is trying to make sense of his failed marriage and his dysfunctional life by using a journal to record his thoughts. These actual journal entries are interesting because they lend themselves to intimacy between the readers and the main character.

Journaling is also a device that is used in the novel to facilitate a subjective viewpoint and the main character’s perspective is definitely skewed. Written in another way, there could be other perspectives. This particular form of writing is a direct antithesis of the manhood that John is trying to find so it is interesting to find out if he does come to term with his masculinity while writing in this way. It might be fair to say that not many men write in journals. So what will happen when one does?

John is in the profession of giving therapy to people and journaling is sometimes about personal therapy. He is trying to assist people in healing themselves but he is in need of healing himself. John writes about other people in his work but he comes to journal writing reluctantly because it’s easier to write and make a diagnosis about other people than to make one about himself. However, the journal takes on a life of its own and John’s constant, personal writing allows him to look at himself for the first time.

This is important because John blames his mother for his dysfunctional life. The beauty of journaling lies in really looking at the self and no one else. Although this seems like a subjective thing, John’s thoughts on paper allowed him to take issues from his mind and shift the way he sees things. What journaling does is transport decisions and issues from the subjective mind. Written down on paper, John can distance himself from his words and look objectively at them.

In the final analysis, the journal entries in the novel are not just for voyeuristic reasons. They provide a good picture of how journaling can bring insight and clarity into people’s lives.

“The Noticer” by Andy Andrews, is a pleasant surprise of a read.  The book illustrates a short story with a powerful punch; a story that I don’t want to spoil for any readers of this review.  I’ll tell you this though, my husband and I participate in a highway clean up project sponsored by our township and when we first started he insisted that we pick up cans on the same side of the street and then pick up cans on the other side during the walk back, otherwise there would not be any cans for us to pick up during our walk back to where we started.  I told him it wouldn’t matter if I picked up cans going the same direction as he yet on the other side of the road, for there would still be cans for us to pick up on the way back, because we would be viewing the roadside from a different perspective.  “The Noticer” is about viewing our everyday lives from a different perspective and what a change in perspective can do to one’s world.  Excellent read and one I am happy to recommend to everyone, no matter your perspective on life!

Earth it UP, Today and Everyday!!!! Tree Hugs, Darby

The Word of Promise Next Generation, NEW TESTAMENT CD collection is an awesome version of the New Testament in audio format.  The New Testament is acted out on audio and the voices match the characters as we have all imagined them to be from our previous readings of the New Testament so accurately that after listening to this collection you will only recall these voices’s when reading these passages in the future.  I especially enjoyed, that the characters in the New Testament were played by younger actors and actresses.  Their young voices serve as a reminder to us how young Jesus and his followers actually were, although we like to think due to their wisdom and trial’s that they were much older than ourselves.  I believe this audio format due to the young cast will be appealing to our youth.   In a classroom setting or on their own that the individual listens to this audio collection, the relationships, fellowship and companionship the young readers/listener’s receive individually will drive them to dig further into the book in order to uncover other mysteries that they will find themselves relating to and perhaps the Bible will in return become their closest friend and confident.