We all have our thing that makes us smile. And while I’m pretty sure this will confuse more than amuse at least 99% of the people who will read this post, I’m pretty sure it’s going to amuse that 1% more than enough to make up for the rest of it.42D
And in some circles, that means I’m impressed. 😀
I have a pot garden. I’ve had one off and on for a couple of years now actually. And I love it. Just because I live in apartments doesn’t mean I should have to suffer from a lack of fresh tomatoes. Or fresh chives for my potatoes. Or pretty flowers. Technically what I do is called container gardening, but you have to admit that a pot garden sounds more fun.
I’ve actually had a lot of luck with several different tomato plants in containers. You just have to make sure you get a big enough container. I think mine is a 16″ one. And if you need a cage for them, you’ll have to shorten the legs on the cages you buy so they fit in the pot. My tomato plant this year is the “patio” variety, and so far it doesn’t look like it’ll need a cage. There is also a baby tomato on it! It’s almost as big as my thumb nail right now. A few more flowers should start turning into tomatoes soon too. Saturday when Brett came over he commented that I’d vacuumed my floor and asked to see my baby tomato. It was an exciting Saturday.42D
I’ve had hit and miss luck with chives. They either grow real well, die, or get stolen. They’re struggling this year. I decided I wanted a full out herb garden this year too, so I also have oregano, mint, thyme, cilantro, rosemary, and lavender. And I have two planter boxes, one with lettuce seeds and one with spinach seeds.
I prefer useful plants, so I rarely do a lot of flowers. I do have a soft spot in my heart for pansies. And if you are going to tell my dad that I have a rose bush, make sure he knows I’m planning on keeping it pruned.
Not only do I like eating fresh tomatoes, and the smell of a tomato plant, but I love working in a garden. I love that feeling of having living things around me. Oddly, I don’t even mind weeding that much. Although with pot gardens there really aren’t weeds.
Saturday I was on my patio working on my pots, replanting the lettuce because I didn’t water it enough the first time and it died, planting my rose bush, and enjoying the dirt. Two different men walked past and said something. The first guy asked if I was moving out, I told him no. He asked if I was moving in. I told him no. He asked if I was spring cleaning. I told him I was gardening. As he walked off I was real confused. How what I was doing could look like any of those things was beyond me. The second guy also thought I was spring cleaning. Those guys must clean weird because when I clean it doesn’t involve bags of potting soil, watering cans, and potted plants.
My favorite non-career job I’ve had was the summer and fall I worked grounds at BYU. I didn’t work normal grounds, I was one of the three or four people who worked at the horticultural garden. It was a couple of acres that they’d divided up into a couple of areas. There was a perennial garden, an annual garden, different grasses they were studying, fruit trees, day lilies, strawberries, black berries, it was a wonderful place. The other people who worked there were horticulture students. I learned a LOT that summer. And I loved being there. It was one of those sacred gardens for me.
I cannot feed myself solely from my garden in quite the same way some friends of mine can. I’m extremely jealous of how much they get from their garden and all the canning of their own produce they can do. But I can add variety, and I can enjoy the work for it. Growing a garden is even included on the Provident Living website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
I hung a thistle sock and a hummingbird feeder in my “garden” Saturday as well. We’ll see how long it takes the birds to find them.
It is no surprise to me that I have had many moments of quiet reflection, meditation, and inspiration in gardens of all types and sizes. Gardens have always been used as places of spiritual importance. There are four we know of by name.
The first such garden was the Garden of Eden. It was within this garden that God finished all of his creations with the creation of man, Adam and Eve. It was in this garden that Adam and Eve learned their first lessons they would need on this earth and made their first covenants with God. The Garden of Eden was where the sacred event of the Creation culminated.
The next garden would be the Garden of Gethsemane. In contrast to the joyful spiritual creation of the Garden of Eden, it was in this garden that the Lord knelt in prayer and fulfilled the law of justice for all of us. It was the atonement carried out in this garden, that gives importance to the events in all other gardens.
Three days after the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is the spiritual events in the Garden Tomb that brought light again to the world. I imagine the garden around the empty tomb to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. The peacefulness of the garden would have been a perfect setting for the announcement that death had been conquered, that the Lord had risen, that resurrection was indeed a reality.
Centuries later we have another important garden, although it is more often referred to by another name, the Sacred Grove. When Joseph Smith went to make his first attempt at prayer, he went to a peaceful grove of trees. And it was there that both God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared. They are living beings. They answered the humble prayer of Joseph Smith. The restoration of all of God’s blessings, covenants, and promises to the earth was begun in that garden.
There is a fifth garden of great spiritual importance. But there is no name for this garden. What’s more, there is no one specific place for this garden. The fifth garden is the garden where each of us experience our own spiritual growth. Some of these gardens might be actual gardens. I have often had spiritual promptings and felt much needed peace while working with the plants in my garden, even if that garden is nothing more than a collection of pots outside my apartment. The gardens of the temple grounds have been spiritually important gardens for myself and countless others. There are also the natural gardens of the mountains and other places of nature that give us a place to escape from the noise and confusion of the world to experience the peace and spirit of the Lord.
I encourage you to find your own garden, of whatever type it may be, that can be your own sacred gardens of peace and spiritual importance.
The pomp and spectacle of the Kentucky Derby is something to be seen. Gotta love all the weird horse names. I pick my horse based mostly on their names. I actually picked four this year, Mine That Bird, General Quarters, Join in the Dance, and Friesan Fire.
And even more fun are all of the hats! Hats are so much fun. I don’t have any that are nearly as detailed as the ones in Louisville, but I thought I’d have fun wearing one today while I played around with my garden and did some housework with the huge Derby pre-show on in the background. The trouble was deciding on the hat.
You also have to love the jockeys. They are quite the interesting group of people.
The track today was super sloppy. This was definitely a race you wanted to be at the front for. But the winner managed to come from behind, and he was definitely dirty.
I didn’t do too bad. Mine That Bird won. The horse’s name is weird. The jockey was strange. But the trainer just really rubbed me the wrong way. He seemed a bit of a jerk right after the race when he’d seemed quite nice before. He sure got snooty fast.
The Run for the Roses – the most exciting 2 minutes in sports. That takes a whole three hours to show and talk about. But there sure are a lot of pretty roses.
This story ran on KSL news tonight in Salt Lake City, Utah, “Facebook friends help grant ill woman’s wish.”
Brandon and Julie lived in the same ward as me when I lived in Utah. Julie was always so full of life and so wonderful about helping everyone around her.
I am not particularly known for my cooking skills. When I was the Relief Society president, the bishop liked to joke with me about it. I remember in one meeting he asked me what I would do if someone in the ward needed to know how to cook beans or something. I told him I’d send them to Julie because she knew how to do all of that. She inspired me in a lot of ways.
It breaks my heart to think of her suffering like this. But I am grateful for the love and faith of their family. They are in my prayers.
I grew up watching PBS. It seems like if there isn’t anything good on TV, I can find something good on PBS. So I’ve watched a lot of NOVA, Nature, Secrets of the Dead, Scientific American Frontiers, and many others. I love them. There’s so much to learn out there. And nobody beats PBS for reality television either (Manor House (loved the scullery maid problems), 1900 House, Colonial House …)
I also have wonderful examples of informal learning in my life. Grandpa Nelson never read fiction books, saying there were too many non-fiction books out there for him to read and learn from. He also attended university classes as long as he could, taking classes on a large variety of subjects.
And my Grandpa Giles always reminds us to not “let the book learnin’ interfere with [our] education.”
This year I’m reading at least 26 non-fiction books, one topic for each letter of the alphabet, and in alphabetical order as well. I think it’s as much for the benefit of others around me as it is for myself and spreading my horizons. Now I’m talking about the books I’m reading and not just the educational research I’m studying. It’s given me more to talk about.
So it really shouldn’t surprise anyone when I frequently say in a conversation that “I saw a show on PBS about that.” Although it does surprise me just how often I say it. I’ve seen a lot of things on PBS, on so many different topics, that it really is hard to find something I haven’t seen on PBS. And if I haven’t seen it there, odds are I probably read something about it at one point.
This weekend I attended a baby shower and we played a game where you had to match the name of the baby animal with the name of the adult animal. Someone said they thought I looked like I’d do well at it. Does it really show that I watch that much PBS and read that much? I did do real well on it though. And it’s because I’ve watched a lot of PBS, especially Nature, as well as National Geographic specials and magazines.
I love my program of study. But I’m also so grateful for all these informal opportunities to learn that keep from being too absorbed with my “book learnin'”. And as I look at it, there are two more shows I need to watch on PBS, NOVA – Marathon Challenge and Only a Teacher. I should probably get my presentation for class finished first.
Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich. (D&C 11:7)
Several months ago I had the following exchange with an older gentleman when he asked what I am doing right now and I explained that I was working on a Ph.D. in educational psychology.
Him: What do you plan to do when you are finished?
Me: I’d really just like to be a mom.
Him: That’s a lot of education for that, isn’t it?
What? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that wasn’t meant the way it came across. Otherwise I feel to pity his wife and what he must think of her.
We have been commanded to get all the education we can. Education will bless us both in this life and the eternities. Seeking for as much wisdom as we can will unfold the mysteries of God to us and provide opportunities to be blessed with many types of riches. And we will need all of the education and blessings of eternal riches we can get as sections of the world continue to spiral downwards. Continuing to study will help us on our upward path.
Simply by getting as much education as I can, I have blessed the lives of my children in many ways. Through my studies, I have read many reports of research showing the numerous and well documented advantages of having highly educated parents, especially mothers. My children will have great benefits in their lives, particularly in their teen years. Children of highly-educated parents are more well adjusted, less likely to be negatively influenced by peers, and more likely to go on to college themselves, among other things. You cannot have too much education for the calling of motherhood.
But the benefits of my education are not just for my future children and not just for this life. I have loved reading the Church magazines this month. Both the New Era and the Ensign were devoted to the eternal importance of education. They give updates on the Perpetual Education Fund and all the good that it is doing. I particularly enjoyed the message in the New Era from President Eyring, “Real-Life Education,” and the article by Sister Cook of the Young Women General Presidency, “More Fit for the Kingdom.”
I am not continuing with school to earn more money (I’m in education, money doesn’t happen). And I’ve never seen an education as an “insurance plan†“just in case†I need to provide for myself. I’m continuing my education because I am not through with me, and I don’t think Heavenly Father is through with me either. I have plenty of room to continue to improve and grow. Education is an eternal pursuit, so why not get as much of a jump on it now while I can. And the more education I have, the more opportunities I can give Heavenly Father to use me.
A simple search on the word “education,” specifying only those articles by members of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints produced a great number of entries. I pulled out eight by President Gordon B. Hinckley. No one can read these quotes and doubt that education, for both God’s sons and daughters, is of utmost importance.
I intend to get all of the education I can while I am on this earth, formally while that is an option, and informally until my dying breath.
The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one. (D&C 93:36-37)
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
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