I Am Not a Tumbleweed! - Plus Some Kid Fun and Good Food

We started off our week rehydrating dirt. Actually Coco Coir Fiber Grow Medium to be exact. It seems kids are always up for playing with water and dirt so this was fun. What began as a hard brown square turned into half a bin of nice rich soil after we added water. We will use this in pots to plant some lettuce and radishes later this week.

Monday afternoon it was absolutely gorgeous outside. The kids climbed trees, played on the slides and visited the chickens.

Yesterday before we went outside we worked in our workbooks and then each child colored the letters for his or her name. I'm going to use them to label individual places for them to display art projects.

This morning we read and colored a book about a Mommy bird building a nest, laying eggs, baby birds hatching and Mommy feeding them. This will be our last week of our bird theme. I printed these books from DLTK Kids. This site has long been one of the first places I look when I need printable resources for PreK activities.

Yesterday we got to hang out with a friend for awhile. We let the dogs play and for dinner he served some of the best collard greens I've had in a very long time, as well as some awesome kabobs with potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and beef. The picture I got of the food is way too dark but it was the only one I got so . . . here it is. Plus he sent us home some corned beef and cabbage that I had for dinner this evening. Good stuff!

Recently I've been thinking a lot about tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds are the dried, physical structure of a plant separated from it's roots. Having detached from it's anchor, it rolls aimlessly wherever the wind blows it. Often it manages to roll into other tumbleweeds and they bunch together. In some instances they have even blocked roads and surrounded house to the point where public officials have had to help dig out the residents. And they are a fire hazard! A small spark can send all this dry useless vegetation up into flame threatening everything around it. 

I am not a tumbleweed!

In Psalm 83:13 David asks that the enemies of God be made "like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind."

 Life with God is not meant to be one of meek submission to whatever comes our way, being blown about by the winds of life It is not a life of aimlessness, rolling about wherever the wind takes me, being at best useless and at worst a nuisance or even a hazard.  I do not need to be blown about through the dust and dirt. I have no desire to bunch up with other dry and aimless tumbleweeds and allow friction to cause a spark that ignite the flames of conflict and contention. 

Instead I want to be like a plant attached to a healthy root system, watered and fed by Word of God, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and providing shelter and shade for those needing rest, strong in the face of storms. I want to be like the tree described in Jeremiah 17:8.

"They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out it's roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; it's leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."