A Box Full of Memories

Hello Everyone!

As many of you know, I lost my last remaining uncle on my mom's side of the family this past week. He had Alzheimers and had been in the nursing home several years. He was buried next to my aunt (Mama's baby sister) in our church cemetery. A few months before my aunt died, she, her new daughter-in-law and I were riding around the community, visiting friends and neighbors and getting her daughter-in-law acquainted with everyone. As we passed the cemetery, she told her daughter-in-law that she'd soon be coming back home. (She was born and raised next door to the church and cemetery) I really believe that she had a premonition that her days were short. A few months later, I recieved a call from the daughter-in-law that she had been rushed to the hospital and had passed away while there. Fast forward several years. Two graves now occupy that space in the cemetery. They were finally back together, but in a "new home", a heavenly home!


After the funeral of my uncle last Friday, I went next door to my Daddy's house. There on the dining table was a storage container. He said that the daughter-in-law left it for me. I placed the container in the back seat of the car and took it home. The next day, I opened the box and began to look inside. It contained many memorable photos of me, my aunt and uncle. There were other photos of family members and a photograph of my grandmother. I never had a photo of her and I was excited that she had included it in the box. There are two other grandaughters - my sister and cousin who I'm sure would like to have a copy, so I'll make one for each of them.


As I looked through all the photos, underneath the scrapbooks and other papers were some objects that were wrapped in newspaper. I unwrapped the items to find a covered china bowl and matching creamer and sugar bowl. I don't remember whether or not these belonged to my aunt or my grandmother. My sister or cousin could better answer that question because they are older and have a better recollection of the china that both my grandma and aunt had. As I ventured down in the bottom of the storage box, I came upon a large object in a heavy plastic zipper bag. It was a punch bowl with several cups and a ladle! I do not remember my aunt entertaining much so I assume the punch bowl belonged to my grandma. These treasures I will add to my collection containing the "plastic" emerald ring from a bubble gum machine and the two marbles found from my childhood!

Going through the box brought back very precious memories! I thank God for them!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

Let's Play Tag, Again!!!

Hello Everyone!

Becky tagged me with this cute little questionnaire.

Four things I like about my husband . . . . .
1. I like his sincerity
2. I like his ability to explain things that have a difficult concept in easy to understand terms
3. I like how he leaves "little love notes" around the house for me to find.
4. I like EVERYTHING about him!

Four movies I have watched more than once . . . . .
1. The Passion of the Christ
2. The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
3. Clear and Present Danger
4. The Devil's Advocate

Four TV shows I watch . . . . .
1. Star Trek (original series)
2. CSI New York
3. Sanford and Son
4. Criminal Minds

Four places I have been . . . . .
1. Washington, DC
2. Chicago, IL
3. Maui, HI
4. Indianapolis, IN

Four people who email me regularly . . . . .
1. My friend Terri
2. My niece
3. My bloggy friend, Lynn
4. My friend Jill

Four favorite foods . . . . .
1. Fried Chicken
2. Spaghetti and Garlic Bread with a salad
3. Barbecued Chicken
4. Corn on the Cob

Four places I would like to visit . . . . .
1. Vermont
2. Maine
3. Nova Scotia
4. Scotland

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year (2009) . . . . .
1. Spending another year with my WONDERFUL husband
2. Growing in the Word
3. God's many blessings
4. Many great times of fellowship with friends and family

Four friends I tag . . . . .
1. Lynn
2. Christi
3. Kim
4. Debrah

OK friends, it's your turn!

Be Encouraged!

Plant Lady

Thinking About The Holidays

Hello Everyone!

Summer is almost over and it's time to start thinking about the holidays! Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming soon and I was just thinking about all the ways in which we celebrate these holidays. I had an idea and was wondering if you'd like to participate. I haven't seen this on any other blog, but it may be "out there".

Here's the idea: For each holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) post about how you and your family will celebrate it. For example: I celebrate the traditional Halloween in a way to give glory to our Wonderful Savior Jesus Christ instead of the evil that is celebrated during this time. Our church does a "Trunk or Treat" in the parking lot to accommodate the "trick or treaters" that are out in the neighborhood and surrounding community. Each family will design and decorate their vehicle (trunk or truck bed) in a theme that will be attractive to kids and will also promote the message of the Gospel. Treats are passed out along with a tract or one-on-one witnessing. The kids love visiting the themed sites (Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, etc.) and the parents are often the most reachable while their kids are having fun!

Last year was the first year that our church has taken part in this ministry to the community, and it was well received! We had numerous kids along with their parents who,
amazingly, lingered to talk after the kids got their treats.

So that's just an example! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's celebrations bring lots of ideas and I'm looking forward to hearing if you'd be interested in participating.

Please post and let me know your thoughts!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

Sweetheart and the Ground Mole

Hello Everyone!

Several weeks ago, I did a post entitled Sweetheart and the Bandits". Today's post is about her latest adventure. Sweetheart (that Strange Bird) is up to her same old tricks! This time, she has taken to digging up ground moles that are burrowing under the grass in the back yard.

Friday, as we were washing vegetables for the Market, Daddy noticed her "rooting" in the yard. "Look at Sweetheart," he whispered. There she was, with her nose buried in the ground! She was using her snout as a shovel to search the tunnel for its furry little inhabitant. She was getting close! As she dug, her tail was wagging a warp speed! She had this rhythm going - digging with her front paws, shoveling with her nose and then "snorting" out the dirt that got in her nose. Finally, it all paid off! She came up with a small, brown, funny-looking creature with strange feet.

She tossed it up into the air, pounced on it, and finally finished it off! When it failed to move again, she lost interest and went about following the other tunnels to root out another.

Later that day, she was in the gourd patch, where we were gathering some of the gourds that were ready. She became very interested in the pursuit of rats that were feasting on some of the gourds. The gourd vines and the grass that has overtaken the patch made it difficult for her to walk, so she began "leaping" just like a deer as she chased the rats. What fun she was having!

Suddenly, she heard a noise in the front yard! She took off like lightning toward the front and then detoured into the garden where she found the noise maker - a tractor with a piece of machinery attached to harvest the tobacco that is grown by a neighbor. Once she saw him, (he's her friend) she turned and came back to us in the gourd patch where she resumed her rat-chasing!

Afterwards, when we went to the house, she went in and fell asleep on her usual spot on Daddy's couch, waiting there only until Daddy took his afternoon nap in the bedroom, then she followed him to her usual spot on the bed! Such is the life of Sweetheart! Never a dull moment!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

Lost and Found

Hello Everyone!

I LOST MY MARBLES! You all are saying, "Yes, I believe she has after the post on those BEAUTIFUL spiders!" But I really did lose my marbles when I was a little girl!

I can't remember who gave them to me, but I once had a little velvet bag that contained several beautifully-colored marbles with designs in them. My grandmother was terrified that I would put them in my mouth, swallow them and get choked. Knowing me, she was probably right, but that was one of her fears that was never realized, thank goodness!

I can remember playing with them on the rug in the den where their movement was easily contained, but don't let them get off on the hardwood floors!(We had hardwood floors BEFORE they became all the rage and I remember how much I wanted Mama and Daddy to get wall-to-wall carpet) If the marbles did venture onto the smooth surface of the floors, they disappeared never to be found again! Or so I thought!

Somehow, one of my precious marbles ended up in the garden! The garden of all places! But there, as pretty as a picture, I found one just sitting on top of the dirt like a diamond, waiting for ME, all these years later! Several years ago, I had a similar find. While looking in the "packhouse", where my dad packed tobacco and blueberries years ago, I found another of my marbles in amongst the rusty bolts, nuts and nails that were kept in a box. Along with the marble, a tiny ring that came from a bubble gum machine.(You know the kind that you put in a dime(now a quarter or two)and get a prize) It's band was still shiny and the "plastic" emerald was still as green as it was when it would fit on my ring finger!

Today, I placed the newly-found marble in amongst the other "treasures" I keep in my jewelry box. I don't know why I keep these trivial things, but I guess I'm just sentimental that way!

What treasures have you found lately? Did you tell anyone? Did you put it in a "special place"?

The Greatest Treasure can be found anytime! When you find it, tell someone! The most special place it can be put - your Heart!

Seek and You Shall Find!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

The Spider

Hello Everyone!

Mr. Plant Lady and I have had a visitor take up residence at our house. She is a garden spider (what better kind for plant people?) Some call it a "writing spider" because of the silken "writings" that it forms on its web.

She has spun her web (remember Charlotte's Web?)on the shrubbery just off the front porch. We have been talking about her for over a week now and have watched her progress as she waits patiently for her prey. We noticed a few days ago, that she had "captured" an unlucky prisoner and had spun a silken shroud around it, just like the Egyptians of old, when they embalmed their dead (mummy) and entombed them in the Pyramids.

As I went to work this morning, I noticed that the "mummy" was gone. She had totally disposed of the body! I wonder what she did with it! It is amazing to me how God provides for all His creation! How much more will He provide for His children, giving them their daily bread as well as other blessings too numerous to count?

Keep an eye out for those garden (or "writing") spiders at your house. They are most beautiful and I think that they could possibly be writing a "thank you" note to their Creator! What do you think?

Thank you God for Your blessings, provision, and the spiders!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

"Why Christian Manhood Must Prevail" Giveaway

Hello Everyone!

I've been happily visiting some blogs and I've found one I think you'd like to check out! "Our Family Highlights" is a wonderful blog that you're bound to enjoy! They are doing a giveaway for a CD by Douglas W. Phillips, entitled "Why Christian Manhood Must Prevail".

Please visit this site to get more information and a description of the CD. It sounds like a great one for the man in your life! The deadline for entry is Friday, August 15, so hurry up and register!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

HOPE and FAITH

Hello Everyone!

I've been thinking about HOPE and FAITH for a week or so, after overhearing a conversation at the Farmer's Market. No, I really wasn't eavesdropping - the man in the next booth was in a conversation with an elderly lady about some of the fig trees and other trees that he had available for sale. She was interested in purchasing a fig tree and he was explaining the difference in the varieties.

I had customers of my own, so I just got bits and pieces of the conversation, but she had all of her questions answered and decided on a particular one. As she and the man walked to her car with the fig tree, she mentioned that she was 93 years old and would be 94 later this year! She didn't look a day over 70! She was amazing - a smile on her face, a spring in her step and HOPE and FAITH, which was very evident in her life!

I don't know why this thought struck me, but it was as if God was giving me something to think on. I thought about the fact that the "fig" tree was common in Biblical days and that it was referenced several times in both the Old and New Testaments. I did a search for the significance of the fig tree in biblical days and I found out that in Mark 11: 12-25, when talking about the fig tree incident, Mark may be using the fig tree as a metaphor, as Jesus himself might have, for what he sees as the barrenness of the priests and the withering of their teaching and authority due to their lack of TRUE FAITH. As Jesus hoped to find fruit on the fig tree, Jesus hoped to find "fruit", the fruit of true worship of God, at the Temple.

This is interesting for me because I have been on a quest to experience "True Worship." I commented on another blog about desiring true worship experiences. Hmmm, is this the direction God wants me to go?

When I first thought about this post, I was going in a completely different direction. My first thoughts were about how much HOPE and FAITH that this lady had to be planting a fig tree at her age and expecting a harvest! But, I guess we all have to be like that - at any age! We have to have the HOPE and FAITH in God that we will receive that which we seek! Well, there's what I've been missing in my worship lately! I have not been expecting TRUE WORSHIP, therefore I haven't been experiencing it! What a lesson!

I am so glad that God uses simple things like an overheard conversation to turn my FOCUS back to Him and the things He has for me - like the TRUE WORSHIP I desire!

THANK YOU, Heavenly Father for your gentle nudge!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

Today's the Day - and What A Day!

Hello Everyone!

Today has been CRAZY for me! I started out in my usual Saturday morning routine - up at 6:00 AM, get dressed, gather up my gourds and load in the car for the trip to the Farmer's Market. Nothing unusual about that until about 2 miles from the Market. A noise! I slow down, pull over, and get out. There it was - a FLAT front tire! No problem, I know how to change a flat, but I have to unload all the gourds in the back of my car to get to the spare tire!

There I was, in the parking lot of the local Quizno's with all my tire-changing equipment out beside the car and dozens of gourds piled in boxes! I set up the jack, took off the lug nuts and put on the spare. And in record time! I loaded up all those gourds, placing them strategically around the flat and got back on the highway. I went about 100 yards and then . . . ANOTHER FLAT, now it's the spare that's gone flat! CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE? I surely hope NOT!

I called Mr. Plant Lady on my cell phone and reported the BAD NEWS. He would have to get up and come to get a new tire. I just know he was thrilled to lose those couple hours of sleep without me poking him in the ribs. He is not a morning person!

There I was, sitting on an abandoned side road behind a shopping center waiting for my hubby to come RESCUE me. A State Trooper passes, and looks, but keeps going. He saw me on the cell phone so I'm guessing he thought I was calling for help. A few minutes later, the Trooper passes again, still looking, but does not stop. I must look like I'm pretty self-sufficient, no help needed here, RIGHT?!!!

I called another vendor at the market to ask him to let my dad know of the delay. I was supposed to stop and get him a breakfast biscuit! Breakfast will be LATE today, I'm afraid! The vendor answered, but he had not left home yet (he lives 30 minutes away)! He gave me the cell phone number of another vendor and I called him. He wasn't going to be at the market today, although his wife was on her way! He relays the message to her for my dad. A few minutes later, his wife pulls up beside me. She was nearby and decided to check on me. She would relay my message to Daddy and go through the drive-thru for the biscuits because I know, by now, he's starving!

Mr. Plant Lady arrived and took the flat to the Wal-Mart to have a new tire put on the rim. Mind you, this is a little after 7:00 AM. Is Wal-Mart service center even open at this hour? About 20 minutes later, Mr. Plant Lady arrived with the new tire and took the spare to be fixed. I finally made it to the Market! I felt as though I had done a full day's work and it's wasn't even 8:30 AM yet. WHEW!!!

I set up my gourds between customers. My dad had a brisk trade today, with everyone wanting the fresh okra, collards and cucumbers he brought. Daddy was not feeling well - it was probably going without breakfast for a while. His usual breakfast time is 6:00 AM! He left the Market early and I finished selling the veggies for him. The day was hectic, but it was a good one! I quickly sold four birdhouse gourds and some gourd ornaments. I also got more orders for Christmas gifts. I have to get busy! No more being lazy!

I know you've all been waiting for the announcement of the winner of the T'z Beez soap collection. Had I not had such a hectic day, I would've posted sooner, but better late that never, right?

The T'z Beez Soap Collection goes to Dancin' Wallflower! Congratulations! I bet she is dancin' now, don't you?

Thanks to everyone who took the time to visit and register. "Plant Lady's Ponderings" will do another drawing around Christmas if you'd like. Just let me know if you are interested.

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady

T'z Beez Soaps Give-Away

Hello Everyone!

Are you ready for another give-away from "Plant Lady's Ponderings?" Some of you did not get in on the one I did back in April. Katrina (SKY4KAT) was the winner of the apple gourd birdhouse! To see a photo of it, go to the May 18 post entitled, "And the Winner Is..."

This time, I have a collection of homemade soaps made by a friend at the Farmer's Market. She is a beekeeper and uses her honey and beeswax in the soaps. I have tried them and I just LOVE them! They are non-drying and rinse easily. She has a thriving business at the market and all her products are very popular. She also makes lip balm and bath salts and is developing a line of all-natural baby soaps.

I shared some clippings of my lemon thyme with her and asked if she ever made soaps using herbs. She never had, but said she had recipes for them. She is taking the lemon thyme and adding a citrus-based scented oil and will produce a citrus soap in the near future. I can't wait!!

This collection of T's Beez Soaps will contain a bar each of : Cucumber and Melon, Watermelon, Vanilla Milk and Honey, Sunflower, Unscented Goat's Milk, and Honey and Oat soaps. Included with the soaps, there will be a loofah gourd scrubber grown by this Plant Lady. It will make someone a very nice addition to their bath time. Just light some candles, put on your favorite CD, lather up and RELAX!

This drawing is open to anyone who lives in the United States. All I need is for you to post your name and e-mail address. When the winner is announced, it will be posted here on "Plant Lady's Ponderings" and an e-mail will be sent to the winner to arrange for shipment.

Please, as you visit other blogger friends, let them know about this give-away! The more entries, the merrier, I say! So, let's start signing up!(one entry per person) You have until Friday, August 8, 2008 to enter. The drawing will take place on Saturday, Aug. 9 and the winner will be announced here on "Plant Lady's Ponderings."

Will the LUCKY WINNER be YOU? As Ed McMahon says, "You can't win if you don't enter!" Enter TODAY!

Be Encouraged!
Plant Lady