It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.  ~Lewis Grizzard

People often ask me if I have a garden.  I love gardens, especially flower gardens, and I know how to grow vegetables but I really don’t see the point in growing my own when I have so many friends and family who do it so much better.  We joke in our family about eating a $50 tomato because by the time you prepare the beds, buy the supplies to start the plants, or buy small plants, it ends up costing more than it would at the farm stand or grocery store.  I say, let the experts do what they do best (grow veggies) and I’ll do what I do best (eat them!). I have been enjoying the bounties of my friend’s and family’s gardens.  Tomatoes and mozzarella.  Fresh zucchini and cucumbers. Yum!  I am grateful to all those neighborly farmers who have made my summer a little sweeter tasting.  My daily inspired thoughts.

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” - Vaclav Havel

The official end of the summer season was marked today, with perfect weather, great barbeque food and lots of friends and family.  It was a different kind of summer for me. I didn’t make it to the beach very often and my children are getting a little older and a lot more independent so I was much less of an activity director and more of a check-up-on-them to see what they are up to while I’m working kind of mom.  All in all though there were maybe not as many family activities, but the ones we had were good ones.   We are now all starting new adventures and setting new goals for the coming school year.  We all have a feeling of hope and anticipation for something good in our near future.  We’re not able to pinpoint it exactly but we know it is coming.  Knowing is the beginning of all good things that come our way.  My daily inspired thoughts.

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.  ~Vernon Howard

I am always amazed by the zest for life that my 94 year old grandmother has.  It is apparent to me that she continues to enjoy each day because she finds purpose in each day.  Sometimes it is simply to cheer up someone in her retirement community who is missing their family.  Often though, it is because she is continuing to learn and teach others what she knows. Tonight when I went for my regular Sunday visit, she was beaming with excitement at the fact that a friend had arranged to make Grandma a new brass peg that had been missing from her one-of-a-kind Cribbage board her uncle had made more than 60 years ago.  It is absolutely beautiful and what amazes me even more is that I still can’t ever beat her at a game!  Lifelong learning, growing and serving others is what makes life meaningful, no matter how many years we are given.  My daily inspired thoughts.

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”   - unknown

I was reminded the other day about a story my dad tells.  He may not be the first one to talk about parenting this way, but this is where I heard it.  He said to think about all of the purchases we make for complex or technical items.  The one thing they all have with them is an owner’s manual.  Our car’s manual tells us if this light comes on then do this.  And at this stage in the life of the car, you will need to do x,y, and z to keep it performing well.  Our televisions come with instructions on how to get the best picture and use the remote control to tell it what you want it to do.  Then we get this precious gift, this tiny little person that is more complex than anything manmade and we are supposed to know how to take care of it without an owner’s manual.  My dad suggested, it would sure help in raising kids if they came with the Bible tucked under their arm to use as the owner’s manual.  I too believe that much of the knowledge we need to raise a child can be found within its pages, but I also know we are given a kind of intuition that is uniquely customized to raising a completely unique individual.  We should seek knowledge and advice from our trusted sources, but not discredit our own gut and the source of its promptings in fulfilling our appointed role.  My daily inspired thoughts.

“Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It's all about timing.”  -- Stacey Charter

Each day when I blog, I first write my thoughts in a Word document.  I have been doing this since we started on January 1^st, partly because I lost a post more than once while trying to write within the blogging program, and partly because I like to have my journal all in one place.  Today my file is 75 pages long.  Who knew I had so much to say!  If I were to describe this last 245 days, it might be compared to a roller coaster ride.  I used to love roller coasters as a teenager, but it would take a lot of coaxing from my friends to get me to try it for the first time.  Once I knew the twists and turns, ups and downs, I couldn’t get enough of it. With everyday life, though we can’t anticipate the ups and down as readily.  We have to trust that riding it out, just like the roller coaster, we will in the end recognize the exhilaration and thrill was worth the ride.