Results of the Garden

I have kept you in suspense! I'm sure you were standing by waiting to see what happened...not. But here are the results. We have seen tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, a couple zucchini's. Our strawberries, unfortunately, didn't produce this year and our yellow squash decided to not really do well. But it was a good first test of how we would do with a patio garden. It was fun to get out every day to water, to harvest and get excited when it was growing!

How does your garden grow?

This spring, my roommate and I wanted to do more with our patio than in years past. We found an online store called "The Growbox" that guaranteed better patio gardens. We bought a few of these boxes, found some vegetable plants and are hoping that we will reap a bounty of fruit from our labors. I haven't been really good at updating my blog, so I'm a little behind. But I wanted to do a little series on how this garden is growing and how I'm feeling while daily working in our porch garden.

We planted tomato plants, a cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, green pole beans and a small strawberry plant. We have some a little herb garden growing as well, from seedlings that we got at a Relief Society activity. This grow box system had "nutrient patches" that were placed on top of the soil. The plants roots actually drop down into a bottom box that we keep full of water. As long as we keep that water box full, the plants grow. Even though we've been dealing with some May gray here in San Diego, it hasn't been bad and the plants have soaked in about 6 hours of sun a day.

It took us the afternoon to fill the boxes and plant our garden. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. I reflected back on my high school summers and spending them out in Utah on my mom's aunt and uncles farm. They have a large cherry farm. For a few weeks during the summer, they harvest the cherries. It was the most physically demanding work I have ever done. My first summer I worked the days during harvest, driving tractors out to the trees and different orchards. My next two summers, I worked the night shift. For 3 weeks, I'd go out to the orchards about 10pm and work till about 8am. Go home and then sleep and then go back out in the afternoon for a little bit of work in the apple trees, go back in for dinner, take a nap then go back out to work at 10pm to start my shift again. But there's something to be said and valued from physical labor. You have tangible results. I sometimes don't like sitting at a desk job all day. I read and study new legal rules, take in paperwork and put out paperwork. But I love the feeling and results from physical work and going to bed physically tired. So while this little garden is not that physically demanding, it does require daily care and attention. This principle of daily attention can work so well with our spiritual nature as well.

Today in church, Elder Callister shared a story of a parent asking a music teacher, how often her daughter needed to practice the cello, did she really need to practice every day. No, the teacher replied, she doesn't need to practice every day. The teacher asked how often the child ate? Every day is the answer. So the teacher said the child should practice just as often as she eats then. If we need to eat daily, we should provide sustenance to our spiritual bodies daily too. Our garden needs daily attention, to check the water, to make sure the tomato plants are staying in their cage, to pull off dead leaves and thin out the yellow squash. I need to pay attention to my spirit with the same daily care.  So I'm going to try to keep the updates on the garden coming, and use the analogy in my life as well.

Days off...too much time to think

One perk about working for the federal government is the federal holidays that come with it. Today is one of those days. After spending the morning outside, it was time to come home and enjoy the 55 degree, drizzly day by turning on the fire and ruminating.

The last week has been somewhat of a puzzle. I have hit another one of those moments where you have to make a future career choice. There's just too many scenarios that play out in my mind. This choice could lead here, this one could lead there. Sometimes these options are too political for me. I don't like the politics involved. If I decide to stick with the current direction, others that could make decisions about my future career might not like that. But if I take a job that has opened up, I may be putting myself in a position I don't know how to move out of in the future. Then, it wouldn't look so good if I took a job to then try to move to another in just a little while.

So, what to do? I know life doesn't turn out the way anyone expects. I never really thought I'd have to take every 3-5 years figuring out what to do in a career which has always stayed out of the Goal-#1-slot. The gap between where hopes and expectations and reality stand and stare at eachother is sometimes a hard chasm to fill. Somehow it has to be filled in order to feel things are ok with the world.

So, here we go again. attempting to cross that gap and accept that there are some things I can control and that there are some things I can't. And all will be ok.

Christmas Time is Here

How quickly the year has come to a close! My intentions to send out cards, while well and good, just didn't happen. So this is my attempt to make up for that and hopefully spread some Christmas cheer through this e-note.

The past few years when 
Christmas has come around, I've reflected and thought to myself, "I've learned a lot. This is the most productive and enlightening year to date." And then the next year comes to a close and come to find, nope this one beat out the previous year. So again, I will let you in on the secret that I don't know much of anything, as evidence by the continuous revolving door of lifelong learning that I seem to be in. Seriously, I can truly say that his past year has been the most eventful, most fun, most physically and emotionally demanding but also the most rewarding year so far. And all this gets to happen in beautiful sunny San Diego! Highlights: Journey concert(yup, I saw them:); summer evening picnics on Coronado; Cabrillo National Monument; walking La Jolla cove and La Jolla shores; running through my own neighborhood near the temple; working in the temple; the fair where you can eat fried Kool Aid and snickers to your hearts content and see the Beach Boys live; murder mystery parties; Girls Conference weekend in Palm Springs; there was just a lot going on.


Like Rabbits

This year, I looked forward to 4 new nieces or nephews. Brigitte and Tyler started it off when their daughter Erica Allison Brown was born in February. I was able to go to Utah along with other family for her blessing and to hang out with the family there. I forgot how cold Utah is but have to say, I do miss the seasons. While I appreciate the season of winter, the snow can stay in the mountains for me to go play in when I want to.
Next up was Melissa and Kiel, who added number two to their little clan in August. Rhyan Patrice Christensen was born and offered another chance for all the family to get together this time in Southern California. All of us, all 5 of my siblings and their families were able to be there, spend a day at the beach and spend Sunday celebrating September birthdays and enjoy eachother's company.
November, when the seasons change and fall sometimes visits Southern California, brought about another addition. Jace McKay Jordan was born on early Thanksgiving morning to Shelley and Steve. Good Morning! It was pretty much planned by Shelley that Thanksgiving would be in the hospital, so they stayed out in Yucaipa, while their kids with my parents and I met up at Kiel and Melissa's house for dinner and family fun. This little guy will be blessed in January.
And we are awaiting a Christmas addition. Brittany and Gabe are expecting Sophie Keogan any day now, wrapped in a bow I'm sure. That will add 3 nieces and 1 nephew, for a total of 9!


Running Against the Wind

Around the beginning of the year, some of my girlfriends concocted the brilliant idea of all of us single gals running in the Ragnar Relay* series race. Pretty much, this sounded like the craziest thing I could do, considering I don't love running and never was very good at it. But, 11 other single ladies and I spent 2 days and 1 night running our teams distance of 200 miles, through Southern California, ending back across the San Diego bay on Coronado island. Yup, one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done. From there, we were unstoppable. The Single Ladies signed up for another one, in September, this time in the Bay Area, running from San Francisco through the Napa wine country. 190 miles total. And just in case my body didn't have enough, I did the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in June, 6 miles of military style obstacles on the Marine base and then in October, the Crafton Hills 5k, that my brother in law Steve organized to benefit the local fire and emergency responders. Why not?!

(*Don't worry, the Single Ladies will be back on the track again this April, this time under the pseudonym Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Check your local SoCal listings for when they may be running in your vicinity.)

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again....
I'm not sure it's that I didn't succeed the first time, but for the 2nd time in as many years, I was called to be the Relief Society President, but this time in my new family ward! I left the world of Young Single Adult wards in October of 2010, having served as RS pres since April of 2009. I left and a more carefree feeling replaced it, as I was able to enjoy being calling-less for a few months. I got a calling as the Relief Society Activities coordinator in January and that was just fine for me: planning uplifting girl time was fabulous. We were hitting the summer months and I was feeling fine. "When all of sudden..there arose such a clatter"...in my heart. I felt like things were going to change up. So when my Bishop called me in, I wondered what it was going to be for, having a tiny inkling, but no idea what direction. I was pretty shocked when he threw this one out there. I had only been in the ward for 7 months. I went home, took a little time to just sit on my bed, go for a walk, come back, stare at the floor with a dumbstruck expression I'm sure. But here we are, 6 months later, round 2. And it's been a sometimes overwhelming, yet amazing experience so far.


On the Road Again...

I pulled my traveling bags out again and took the girls with me to visit Grandma in Nashville. We got there as the tornados were going through, but fortunately for us they were not as bad through Nashville as they were through other areas in the south. We tried our hands at honkey tonking, southern bbq, Franklin street fair, southern plantation viewing Andrew Jackson style, and civil war battlefield viewing. We had a week long biscuit eating competition (we might have consumed more biscuits than should be humanly possible, no big deal). We tried to temper that with early morning runs down the parkway near grandma's house. Pretty much, Nashville in the springtime is fabulous!

Utah was another destination and while it might seem a pretty common experience to go there, I hit the beehive state 3 out of the 4 seasons. It was fun to see family and to go with all the girls to see our fabulous Rosey get married in October! I also was able to come up to Concord a couple times and enjoy being back on my home turf (running through the bay area was a new experience though, one that I can wait awhile for again:)




It's been an amazing year, experiencing life with family and having new experiences that tested, taught and refined me.  I can honestly say, that while the tests weren't fun, I've learned a lot from them.  I'm very blessed and am grateful for all of it. Life has it's ups and downs, but there can be so much good if we look for it. The most wonderful aspect is that we have a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us through everything.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

A new blog to follow!

I've been somewhat addicted to Pinterest lately. I found a blog on one of the pins that I'm super excited to follow:

http://thenshemade.blogspot.com/

Check it out and enjoy! Totally going to do some things she does:)

Unspoken lessons

Many lessons in life don't have to be spoken. Many times, the words a teacher speaks don't go deep enough, but the actions and feelings I see expressed and feel, are what end up teaching me:

An arm extended to draw you in when you're nervous or anxious about something.

A piano arrangement that expresses your testimony maybe even more than saying it.

Watching a single sister be attentive and engaged with children that aren't her own.

Friends who go above and beyond to help a family move and clean their old house.

Watching a father cradle his newborn daughter and be totally enthralled with her, and seeing the pride of his wife as she watches.

The feelings a hug communicates when words just won't do.

A plate of "I was thinking of you" cookies.

Playing with a niece and nephew, meaning they can be crazy kids;)

Having a best friend just sit with you and watch the ocean.

Sitting alone on the beach, watching the ocean and thinking of how times of our lives flow in and out.

Feeling loved ones around when they're not physically there.

Watching a woman always be in the kitchen at an event to make sure everyone is taken care of, so others don't have to pull themselves away from the fun.

Before the RS president even knows of a need, everything was taken care of by other ward members.

Theses were just some things on my mind lately. Last week, my institute teacher asked a question of the class. We are studying the Pearl of Great Price and he asked how different would your life be if we lived like the City of Enoch? My first response was, I'd get released from my calling:) (what? no judging) Actually, I judged myself. The above list are the means lessons have been taught to me as I've served and truthfully, I really like this part of the calling. I don't think I would be as attune to see these things if I wasn't somewhat "forced" into it. And maybe that's the lesson for me about being a Zion people. Just doing the things you should do, because that's the type of person you are and have become. The people who have taught me the lessons above, are people who just ARE that way.

Challenge myself

I have been reading this blog lately. It's been intriguing and while I'm not up to par with Gabe and Brittany, I have been toying with the idea of trying to go the less processed food route. So this blog has a 10 day challenge, adapted from this families 100 day challenge of eating no processed foods. I think I'm going to to try the 10 day challenge. Here are the rules to eat by:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/real-food-defined-a-k-a-the-rules/

What brings this on you ask? Well, I've been ridiculously busy this week and last week. So much so, that I get home late, can't get up the energy to make a good meal for myself at 9:30 at night and so resort to the wonderful brownies that my roommate made along with ice cream that the other bought, topped of with whipped cream and chocolate syrup....twice. Yes, I have devolved into bad eating habits. So, I needed a wake up call and a challenge to myself to do better. This requires me to have good foods stocked up and ready to go, and not resort to late night sugar binges to satisfy my hunger and laziness. So...I have a weekend away starting Friday night. I'm going to start my 10 day challenge next week, on Tuesday. I need to go shopping Monday night for my 10 days worth of food. I'm going to take a look at the menu offered on the website and choose some things I want to make and do and hopefully see some good results, at least being able to get back on the wagon of making regular meals again!