The Maxwell House

The carrots are still sleeping, but most everything else has been pulled from the garden. The perennials are drying out (eeeek, I forget I’m still supposed to water for a bit) in the rainless fall. The multi-colored leaves are covering the lawn, ready for hubby to transplant them to their very own carbon pile for next year’s compost. This was a good gardening year, minus the small cabbages and pest-eaten beets. I feel as though I am running a collegiate experimental garden rather than a traditional kitchen garden. My experiment? The lazy woman’s garden. The goal is to achieve a garden where I can till in some compost in the spring, toss in a few seeds, and wait for the bounty to arrive. This year I added less compost and fish meal than I should have, and we still had success growing everything from seed. Not all of the cabbages were large enough to harvest, but I think I can get the seeds in a bit earlier next year and bulk up the nutritional value of the soil for a better yield. Note: the lazy woman’s garden only works if you’re already a fan of storage-type crops, those that do well in cool weather. I’d love to have an even less work-intensive garden in the form of more edible perennials, but that will come someday.

Are you ready for frozen ground? I’m not. Here is the Cooperative Extension Service’s Fall Gardening Checklist. It would be nice to actually get all of those items checked off this year.

Facebook has certainly come to define social networking, as modern culture embraces online relationship building. I’ve benefitted from reconnecting with friends and family, including those whom I haven’t spoken to in several years. But with this new avenue of social connection has also come a creeping problem. The influx of relational information is feeding a personal sin that I’ve spoken of before: my big, fat PRIDE. I don’t blame facebook. My own heart is responsible.

The nagging thought that I ought to unplug myself from this social marvel was implanted several months ago as I realized my mood would often change after perusing the current headlines. Five minutes of “just baked fresh bread”, “wonderful day of knitting and shopping” and stunning photos of puppies and kitties and beautiful families sends my prideful heart into overdrive. Pretty silly, huh? I should be happy for these “friends”, not jealous. And really, that’s what I succumb to: jealousy. Then that jealousy morphs into a prideful destruction of the micro-status in my own heart. “Knitting and shopping? Abandoning her children again?” And wretchedly, “Those photos were taken at family X’s house. I can’t believe they hang out with family X so much. X’s kids are horrible!”

And so, I have resigned myself to finally unplug from facebook, though I’ll miss the connections and easy communication. Because it is easier to cut off facebook than to cut out my own heart (Mark 9:43). I thank God for the work he is doing in me, and how he has revealed his character and nature to me through prayer and study. I pray that he would soften this sin in me that rears its ugly head so often. I’m afraid I will battle this ailment until the day I die. God please help me! I am hopeful that through daily meditation on the Gospel He will steadily fight this war and subdue this disgusting sin.

Adios facebook!