Garden Beauty

We get so much joy out of our 3 little garden boxes.  My husband and I both grew up in families who enjoyed summer garden produce by the bushel basket full.  Randy's grandmother was famous for her huge strawberry patch and the wonderful jellies and shortcakes that came from it.  In my home, summers were spent sitting on the porch swing snapping green beans and the smell of canning was always in the air.  Somehow, the ability to garden (and the desire to do so) skipped our generation.  It wasn't until a few years ago that we began to dabble in gardening.  I am pretty sure the motivation was to enrich our grandchildren's lives and let them experience the "ground to table" cycle.  For several years we have had 3 garden boxes off our back deck (about 2 and 1/2 feet high, 5 foot long and 3 foot wide) in which we grow tomatoes, zucchini and peppers.  The kids get such a kick out of watching the vegetables grow and mature.  They help water the garden and pull weeds.  Lately, I have noticed that Randy and I are the ones getting the most joy from these veggies.  I have noted in previous posts that we have added lots more veggies to our diet.  We eat zucchini at least twice a week now.  So, when we saw the beautiful blooms on our zucchinis last week we did a little happy dance (okay, maybe just a squeal of joy!).  The blooms were so gorgeous I had to get my camera out.  We now have some small squash on the vines and anticipate eating these straight from our garden in the next week or so.  I am almost embarrassed to tell you that, while living on 50 acres offers many opportunities to have a large garden, these little boxes are all we have.  Last year we attempted to plant cantaloupe, watermelon, potatoes and corn in our little creek bottom land but the animals and drought wiped the crops out.  So, for now, we are happy to step out our back deck and watch the cute little veggies grow.  We are anxiously awaiting the hundreds of cherry tomatoes to ripen on our one gigantic bush.  This plant is so big and heavy we have had to get fence posts to prop it up.  How is your garden growing this year?

Keeping it Real (maybe too real!)

I blogged last week about Randy blacking out.  As a follow up to his hospitalization, he had an MRI on his back done Monday.  Today he saw a specialist who basically told him that his back was shot and there wasn't anything that could be done to make it better.  Not good news to a man who has been suffering with back pain for close to a year.  Tomorrow he will see the Dr. about his bad knee.  I have been debating about blogging about this and some of the health issues Randy is facing.  And since the purpose of this blog is to record our life (good and bad) as a sort of written history for our children and grandchildren, I felt that this information should be included.
For the most part, we are positive people, so we are choosing to look at the bright side of this news.  It is not terminal.  He has been living with the pain for months, so the news that it is not getting better is really no news.  We have support to help us get through this.  We have each other, and, yes, it is a terrible cliché, but it is true. 
Our life in the past year has changed drastically.  Many of the traditional roles we have had in our marriage have reversed.  He has not been able to work since January.  He has taken on the role of family "worrier", which used to be my role.  He is learning to do things around the house that he has never done before because there was never a need. 
Life will go on.  We will find a way to enjoy life in spite of the challenges we face.  We will continue to enjoy each day and each loved one in our life.
There may be some regrets (mostly that he can't do what he used to do).  But mostly there will be opportunities. . . opportunities to find the joy in life, opportunities to share that joy, opportunities to become better people and be an example to others.  Today has been rough.  Being told that your chances of ever feeling better are slim, is not easy to hear.  Tomorrow is a new day and we will learn to move forward and find a way to make it better.  Mostly, we will remember to laugh again. . . Laughter has always been the best remedy for us and I am certain that this situation is no exception. . . really.