Tag Archives: the way we were

The. End. **sniff**

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

end of summer tomatoes

I pulled the proverbial plug.  I gathered up, from their toasty little covering (Dave was heat-lamping them) the remaining 84 or so Beefsteak, Heirloom and Early Girl tomatoes (not to mention the couple hundred cherries) and threw the plants into the barrel to be hauled away today.  I carried in bunches of tomatillas (probably threw away 3 times more), a pot full of green beans, 5 or 6 zucchinis, and a few dozen assorted peppers – not including the Serranos – another couple dozen of those, which I will directly give to my son-in-law, Ryan – do not pass go, do not collect $200.  Those things are wicked hot! Out with them!

What?  It isn’t still summer?

end of summer beefsteaks

The size of a cereal bowl!

Poor, poor little garden.  The beefsteaks were shocked it wasn’t the very middle of summer, I can tell from their behemoth size.  They had no idea how protected they’d been.

My counter was already heavy-laden with ripening tomatoes at every stage.  Now, if I wanted, I could do Fried Green Tomatoes and even found this very interesting recipe on Pinterest this morning, as if some fellow pinner knew I might need it:

fried green tomatoes cherry

How perfectly appropriate!

I like them red, and juicy and tangy and tart and real so I tend not to go in to the fried-green thing and opt for sneaking a couple of apples into their midst to get some quick ripening.  But I am rather inspired to try {this recipe} based on that image alone!

The kale and onions and garlic chives and Chinese Cabbage are still puttering along, with chamomile and some potted annuals, but for the most part, I pulled the incredible-fruitful plants out of the earth and ended a very nice summer garden in anticipation of a cold-turn, possible rain turning to {SNOW} flurries…tonight.  Ugh.

end of summer tomato assortment

Thank-you, garden, for a lovely, long and sweet summer.  Thank-you for still trying into the fall.  And God bless you for the lovely bounty I shall still enjoy for the next few days, maybe weeks.  So perfectly delicious.

“It’s the laughter we will remember, whenever we remember the way we were…”

I will always remember you, Garden 2013.  I really will.

Remembering

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

“How we remember is as important as what we remember.”  -Brent Curtis and John Eldredge in The Sacred Romance

“We view the present through the pasts glasses,”  -P. Arnold

Viewing the past through the chosen treasure of my heart rather than making a list, checking it twice just so I can remember who was naughty or nice…

I don’t have room in my head for everything.  For most of my life I had a “continuing -calendar” in my head.  You could name a date in my history and I could scroll backwards and tell you, because I could actually “see it” in my mind,  what day on which that date occurred, as well as related events and things that stood out from the time surrounding it.  I remembered every telephone number I’d ever had, addresses including zip codes (and if you know my moving history, you know this was quite a feat) and remembered birthdays and anniversaries for every relative we had, even “in-laws.”

Then I crashed.  I had a system blow-out.  The hard-drive in my brain fried.  My RAM was so full it exploded.  2006.  I became an unwilling recipient of a brain-erase, kinda like “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” but also sort of an emotional lobotomy.  It wasn’t pretty.  I didn’t want it.

I couldn’t keep it all, so I had to choose.

I started a trek to retrieve my lost memories: the good ones, the treasures, the fine times, the blessings.  Because keeping a record of absolutely-everything had caused me to melt-down, lose my way, hurt people and feel sick – literally sick.  I have to remember to remember blessing sometimes.  I have to be reminded to recall the good things, the rich, the treasure. 

The ways I want choose to remember:

1.

I HAVE TO REMEMBER With my eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith.  He endured and I can endure, too {all things}, for the joy set before me.  For all the ways I have failed and sabotaged His call on my life, He has a plan to bring me out and set me right.  He is my Story-Writer, my Author.  He knows the whole plot-line of my life and it isn’t finished until He says so.  He will finish my story – I can’t wait to turn the page!

2.

I CHOOSE TO REMEMBER For the joy set before me.  There is life ahead (as there has been so much to be thankful for already!), there is laughter to be shared.  If I look back in sorrow I will miss the present.  The present is a gift.  So, I look back long enough to catch glimpses of the people who still matter and see that we have so much more ahead for us.  I joy in the God of my salvation and thank Him for all He has done and I go forward in that strength.

3.

I HAVE TO REMEMBER LIKE A GROWN-UP… because when I was a child, I thought and acted like a child…but now that I have put away childish things, I can see and understand the past more clearly, with the wisdom of years, with understanding and a heck of a lot more grace.  I can see that my reactions to some things of the past had some immaturity and needed to be readjusted in my heart.  I can, as a grown-up, let some people off the hook, now.  It frees both them and me.

4.

I WILL REMEMBER Redemptively – as part of the good work God started in us, which He is being faithful to complete.  There is a whole love story being played out.  I love seeing how God is able to use the sometimes-shattered fragments of my broken life to create a whole, cool thing.  Redemption is awesome.

5.

I WANT TO REMEMBER Aware of the accuser’s distortions of truth, careful to hear the Voice ( “My sheep know my voice”).  Some memories are torment.  I am asking the Lord to give me clear vision to see when the Accuser has used the past to cripple my present.  And to show me what He was seeing when all seemed lost…

6.

I AM COMMITTED TO REMEMBER so that the LORD might be glorified {the prayer God always answers}!  He is all, everything and I want my life and my memories to bring Him glory.  May He be glorified in my story…

NOTE TO SELF:  Choose to remember the faithfulness of God, the love, the people I can’t live without, the blessings, the miracles, and see even the pain and disappointments with gratefulness for their part in my redemptive story.  And remember, too, that He is the Author and the Finisher of my faith-story.  We’re just somewhere in the middle.  The ending is going to be fabulous!   (Make this a repetitive reminder on my life’s calendar from now until….let’s see…I get to heaven!)

~oooooo~

“…It’s the laughter we will remember, whenever we remember, the way we were…”