Battling the Jungle

It was one those days. We had a rough week and I promised the kids if they would help with the yard we would go to the beach after lunch.

Well we woke up ready to tackle the yard, but first we had to wage war on ants. We had been battling them in small skirmishes all week. This however, was war. They had come out by the hundreds, there was a big pile in front of the refrigerator, then a black line ran across the floor behind the book shelves and up the wall to the ceiling. When I pulled out the book shelves I found a whole nest! So I got out the spray and won the war, then I had to clean up the mess. Finally 45 minutes later I'm ready to start in the yard.

We had just purchased a used weed eater, that ran well and I was excited to finally get rid of the weeds that I couldn't get with the lawn mower. It started right up and I was just eating up those weeds when I ran out of line. No problem, I thought, I've got extra if I can just figure out how to put it on. Well, 30 minutes later I've got new line and am ready to go. I pull the cord to start the weed eater and it breaks. OK, no problem I'll just cut the grass. So I fill the mower up with gas and get it out of the storage room and am ready to go. Hold on!! The bar that you have to hold down to get it to start is missing. Oh no, this isn't even our mower it belongs to our landlord. Then I remembered he was the one who used it last, trying to cut further down into the jungle. So I go looking for the bar and of course I can't find it. OK I think I'll just fix the weed eater and use it to cut the grass. I get all the screws out but one and it's stripped. Now, I'm close to tears. It had rained a lot and the grass hadn't been cut in 2 weeks and looked more like the jungle than our yard. I am down to my last resort, my reel mower. You know its the kind you push, without a motor, and the blades go around and cut the grass. It works great if you cut the grass often, but this grass was knee high. Then I remembered that Papa never gives us more than we can handle. So I heave a big sigh and get started. I push that mower for about an hour and a half, and I'm not even half finished, and I'm thinking that this time Papa did give me more than I could handle.That's when I heard a clanking and I found the bar that goes on the gas mower. I put that thing back on and 20 minutes later the yard is done. We grab a quick lunch and in an hour I'm enjoying the refreshing waters of the Pacific. Thanking Papa for keeping me going and helping me to appreciate his beautiful creation.

Until the next adventure, I'm blooming here in the jungle.

Chickens in Guam

Well, we've been in Guam now for 6 months. It is really wonderful here. One of the most interesting things is the wildlife. Of course, there are deer, huge frogs and spiral shell snails, banana spiders as big as a plate, and monitor lizards about 3 feet long. But there are also, wild dogs, booneydogs, wild pigs, and wild chickens. Yes, I said chickens, they are everywhere. It took us a few weeks to get use to the rooster alarm. It starts going off about 4:30am and continues until about 6:30. There is one rooster that crows just outside our window at about 5:30 everymorning, this is the one we wake up to. Since there are so many chickens around I thought I'd get a couple of hens to keep for eggs. However, the only chickens you can buy on Guam are roosters, no good for eggs. You see, cock fighting is legal here so they raise fighting roosters. ( The cock fighting primarily takes place at the fiestas that each village has to honor their patron saint.) Anyway, the locals just laughed at me when I asked about buying a laying hen, so I decided to raise one. I acquired an abandoned baby chick, named Opal, (in Jan I think, its hard to keep the months straight when the weather doesn't change). She grew into a beautiful black banty hen. With only a few more months until she would start laying the family had alot of fun building her a chicken coop. The neighbors really got a good laugh at that since there are chickens literally everywhere, but I wanted the eggs so I needed a pen. Well, last week something scared her and she scalped herself on the wiring of the pen. After that I couldn't even get close to feed her without her going beserk so I finally decided to let her out. I really thought she would be gone for good. She stayed around the house for awhile then followed the crowd out into the jungle. But to my suprise and delight she comes back everynight to roost on, on inside, the shutter of the childrens room.

This reminded me of bloom and bud. We they were little we lived in New Orleans and their freedom consisted of a very small fenced in yard. Then in VA they had a much larger yard, but still a fence. Now they have our entire road and the jungle. But just like Opal, now they have more freedom, but still choose to play around our house. Just like that old saying,"If you love something set it free, if it comes back it is truly yours if it doesn't it never was." I guess that's why God gave us free will. We have the choice to come back to him, through Jesus, or not. If we do he accepts us as his children, if we don't we never were anyway.

Until the next adventure, I'm blooming here in the jungle. Stem

Blooming Where We Are Planted - Introduction

Blooming Where We're Planted
The story of a military family.

There is Dad; The Root
Then there is me, Mom; the Stem. Together, we provide stability and nourishment, all provided by The Son to our blooms.
Sweetpea is our blossom; fragile and delicate in appearance, strong and resilient by example. Finally is our Bud; wound up tightly and just dying to bust free.

Our family, like all plants, strives to bloom where we are planted. We try to fertilize the soil around us with hospitality, faith and some common sense. We are dependant on The Son to nurture us and produce fruit.

These are the stories of our growth, our fruit, and the seeds that we spread.

Blooming Where We Are Planted