We have a tiny garden.  We live smack-dab in the middle of a medium-sized city, so we don’t have the room for a huge garden like I’d like. That’s probably a good thing, as I don’t know if I’d be able to keep up with much of a bigger garden than we have!

Early this Spring, the kids and I were discussing what we’d like to plant. Watermelon and pumpkins were a must on the kids’ list and zucchini was on mine. Those are all big spreaders, however, so that didn’t leave us much room for anything else. Something had to go. We finally nixed the pumpkin idea, much to the kiddos’ disappointment, and planted the other two. Tomato plants filled in the last little corner of our garden along with a promise from the kids to bring lots more veggies home from their 4-H gardening project.

You know when God sometimes give you gifts later on down the road that you didn’t even know you were missing?  Yeah, several weeks ago, we realized that that has happened!

Do you sometimes feel like there should be MORE to life?  I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to grow up.  I’ve always been very goal oriented. From my very first science project in Kindergarten on the Space Shuttle, to each milestone along the way, sixth-grade graduation, and then eighth-grade graduation, then high school, and of course after that, it was on to college, and then grad school– it seemed there was always a natural built-in goal to attain. Then marriage, then career, then kids, and then….?

After that, there seemed to be a switch. My goals were no longer MY goals, but they were goals that I had for my kidlets.  Breastfeeding, Babywearing, First Steps, First Birthday, Preschool, etc. etc. etc.  Those natural goals were automatic. As time marched on, we hit each goal with flying colors.

But now that FixerGirl is beginning second grade and the baby days are behind us, (*sob, sob!*) I keep coming to the realization that MY personal goals got left in the dust somewhere along the way, and that I have NO IDEA where or what they should be! They aren’t “automatic” anymore. I rejoice in my kiddos’ milestones. We are embarking on our first year of High School with RocketBoy, so that will be a whole new challenge in itself.  But that’s RocketBoy’s goal, not mine.  Sure, as a homeschooling Mom the lines get blurred at times so that sometimes I feel like my goals are to get the kids successfully through another school year and on to the next one, but that’s not the same thing.

One thing I know I need to work on is that no matter where I am, or what goal I’ve currently got my eyes set upon…  I need to remember that the Lord has put me here, exactly in the spot that I’m at, for His Glory. I’m here to serve HIM and no one else. And if He wants to make a wonderful gift of my life… like a pumpkin vine growing out of a leaf pile on bare concrete, that He will do it!  I just need to step out of the way and let Him do His wonderful thing.  Cuz that’s “what God Do.” Wonderful Things. We just need to GROW where He plants us. And that way, the kids get pumpkin pie this fall after all.

Have you lost sight of the plans you had way back when?  Sometimes life gets in the way, but as long as we’re looking to the Lord in those plans wonderful things can and do happen. The pile of sticks has been sitting in a corner of our back driveway since we cut down a dead tree in our backyard a while back. We’d been using the branches and sticks little by little for our fire pit, and during that time leaves and debris had collected. Apparently, a little pumpkin seed somehow found it’s way underneath that leaf debris and a pretty little vine started to grow.  We watched it, day by day as it grew, finally stretching the length of the pile, with beautiful golden blooms. We wondered, what kind of vine was it? The leaves were different from the watermelon and zucchini we already had the garden. Could it be a squash?  Cucumber?  We didn’t know!

Then one day we noticed on the furthest end of the vine… a tiny fruit was growing. Day by day we’ve watched it growing bigger and bigger…  and let me tell you what a miracle this pumpkin actually is. Not only is this pumpkin pretty much growing out of bare concrete, but we are currently experiencing a severe drought here in Northwest Missouri. And already, this pumpkin is much larger than any of the ones I’ve bought for the kids in October in the past.  (Admittedly, I’m kinda on the cheap side, LOL!) And can I tell you how absolutely thrilled the kids are? Isn’t God amazing?  I’ll post periodic pumpkin-updates on the Facebook page, so if you aren’t already connected with us there, here’s a link!

Are you being overrun with yummy garden vegetables yet this year?  Due to the drought, we’re not having quite the Salsa-Summer that we had last year, but if that’s not the case in your area, here’s a link to our favorite fresh garden salsa!!