Quick Takes - Baptists, Gardening, and Lent

Baby basil! 

1.) It's spring (more or less) and that means I'm gardening again!

We have a couple buckets for herbs on the front porch and we've been planting squash, corn, beans, and turnips in our now VERY heavily mulched bed.

It's both very exciting and nerve wracking seeing seedlings come up out of the ground. It always feels like a shot in the dark to me to plant a garden. Sometimes nothing does  well and all we have to show for our efforts is a couple of stunted carrots. Other times we get a bumper crop of something seemingly at random-- like the summer of okra we had last year.

It'd be nice to have an entire garden do well, but we'll see what's in the cards this year.

Library books. Worth the hassle of leaving the house.

2.) I've joined a homeschool co-op at a local Baptist Church, I dragged my mom and brothers along, and I'm pretty sure we're the only Catholics.

I actually like the group of moms-- they're a really friendly bunch, and my kids seem to be enjoying it. I even ended up in a theological conversation with one of the mom's, and we still liked each other when we were done talking.

We're doing homeschool right now, but it  actually looking like we'll be putting our oldest in the rural public school district where Chris works next fall.

I'm VERY nervous about it. It seems to be the best fit for little boy's personality, and Chris has a very high opinion of the people on campus there, but I was homeschooled and graduated from a private high school. I grew up hearing how public schools were basically the enemy of real education, and how I would be miserable if I was in one.

Then I found myself married to a public high school teacher and was surprised by how much I liked what I saw on campus at his workplace. He loves his school district, and thinks even higher of the elementary campus than he does of the high school one, and I trust his judgement.

So here we find ourselves. About to take another leap in the dark (seems to be a lot of those when you hit adulthood). One of my dear friends said I feel about public school how other people feel about starting homeschooling, and I think she's right.

I have to say, between getting my tattoo and considering public school for my kids, I am NOT who I thought I would be ten years ago.

Our hodgepodge prayer corner. Note the popsicle stick frame. 

3.) Lent has started!

Yay.

So far so good, I suppose. I'm making a point to try and read a Bible story with the kids every day, and we have a countdown calendar thing from Catholic Icing (that's more than a year old and in a page protector we color with wipeboard markers, because I'm cheap like that).

Personally, I'm trying to cut down on phone usage and do some prayer stuff in the evening. I'm having mixed results.

As usual (seriously, this happens pretty regularly) there's something that's popped up in our personal lives this Lent that adds an extra aspect of penitence in our lives. Nothing too bad this year, but something we'll be dealing with for awhile.

At least we're not dealing with what a family friend of ours is dealing with-- he found out he had breast cancer right before Lent and underwent a double mastectomy the Thursday after Ash Wednesday. (Prayers for his healing and recuperation much appreciated). Last year, he had a minor stroke during Lent and had to spend about two weeks in the hospital.

We keep telling him he needs to tone it down; he's making the rest of us look bad.

My not-so-clean-but-good-enough minivan. 

4.) If you put a bunch of soapy water and a couple of old cloth diapers in a kiddie pool and let your toddlers 'wash' the car, your car will not get clean, but it'll keep them busy for a little while.

It's been warm enough in this area of Texas to allow some water play, and the kids love doing 'very important' jobs, so that's how we spent an hour or so this afternoon. Got some grass watered too.

5.) If you put a bunch of old CDs on the back of your porch in the middle of a cotton field, you'll look like a weird redneck tech junkie, but it'll help keep the birds off your dog's food.

Just in case anyone else can use that information.

The rest of this week's takes here.