"Summerti-i-i-ime, & the livin' is easy..." 🎶

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In reference to the title of this post & the title to a song by George Gershwin,  I have to declare a resounding...

NOT!!!!

I LOVE Summer, & this summer I have purposed in my heart to savor the days (that are going by much too quickly!) of this wonderful, glorious, season.

"savor: take pleasure, relish, take delight in, taste, smack..."

Smack?!,? Such as smacking your lips & rubbing your hands together in anticipation of, can't wait sort of thing. 

But as wonderful as summer is, the 'livin'  is very hard work!! But it can be rich, fulfilling, satisfying, & yes, even fun.

& when we look at it like the above sentiment, we get a touch of expectancy thrown in, kind of like a moment by moment vacation! 

Now I have to say that the work at times can be tedious, overwhelming & never ending, but when I  'train my brain' to respond positively, like when I'm watering my flowers, (sometimes twice a day in the heat. I have a lot of flowers. 😁) I think how much I enjoy giving thirsty flowers a drink.

These moss roses are called 'Peppermint Stripe". Isn't that adorable?!

Darling little pansies in my 'Fairy Hollow'.

These little grafted into the same bush different colored miniature roses are the sweetest & hardiest little rosebushes. I love them! One bush can have three different colors of roses, a little rose bouquet! & so many different scriptures will come to my mind, like,

Romans 11:17 which talks about how we Gentiles are grafted into the blessings of the Jews because of salvation through Jesus.

or John 4:13&14, "...but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become a well of water, springing into eternal life." & John 7:37, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me & drink."

 There is a bit of Jesus & His wisdom in everything around us. Another example of this is the continuous garden maintenance. 

We were gone for just a few days, & when we returned, our garden looked like this.

Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it took us a couple of days to find out what we had planted & to see if anything had poked up through the soil. 

What we found was a little disheartening. Some of the seeds had washed away because we have had some very hard & lengthy rains & some had flooded away.  But after we weeded everything, & my husband tilled it again, he planted some more green bean seeds.

When I pull weeds, I always try to get them out by the roots so they don't come back & of course I'm thinking about the application to my own life again. What does the garden of my heart look like? What am I doing to maintain it's health & life? Am I pulling the weeds of discontent, anger, bitterness, self-pity & all of the other 'clamoring for my attention' weeds out by cultivating thanksgiving, which produces contentment, taking charge of my thought life & purposefully thinking about...
"whatever is good, whatever is true, whatever is lovely & pure..." according to Phillipians 4:9? We are in complete control when it comes to our thoughts & words. & it makes all of the difference of how we will act. Also, how about the watering of the garden of our hearts. The garden has to have water to live, but I have read that a good & thorough turning of the soil with a tiller or cultivator is as good as a good watering in dry seasons. That says to me that sometimes a little pain & suffering, maybe a little of turning things upside down is good for the growth of my soil, or, my Christian character. Then a good dose of fertilizer adds needed nutrients. For our garden, we use seasoned sheep manure or when we had chickens, we used chicken droppings. (Somehow, it just doesn't sound natural to say chicken manure. 😑) Or some make a compost pile throughout the year to put on their gardens. Also, Magnesium is a good source for much needed nitrogen, such as epsom salts & even coffee grounds, for the health of our gardens.

"Nitrogen is vital  for plant growth. It's found in healthy soils & gives plants the energy to grow & produce fruit or vegetables. Nitrogen is actually considered the most important component for supporting plant growth." Now, if we are the plant, what would you say would be the nitrogen in our lives to make us healthy, fruit producing Christians? I would say, a good, living fellowship with Jesus, our vine, (John 15:5)  & the reading, studying & obeying His word. Jesus our Nitrogen + the fertilizer, His word = a healthy, life & fruit producing heart garden. & the world will love eating our hearts' produce! 

It is so helpful & energizing to turn difficult or tedious tasks to something we enjoy & even look forward to by changing our thoughts & attitudes. Or praying for others. Or just talking to Jesus.

Slightly on another note, vacuuming is one of my favorite things to do, & I have had some of my best fellowship times with the Lord then, keeping a notebook & pen handy because He would give me such neat revelations & bits of wisdom or scriptures! Just so cool!

Thinking of my job as a homemaker, it is a job that I have always loved. Peter Marshall coined the word 'homekeeper' & I love that job description! Titus 2:5 says, concerning godly women, "...to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home...."  I see that as I am a keeper of the home. We women, wives & homemakers are the filters of our homes & responsible for the atmospheres of our homes, & that can be very challenging, especially with all of the technology of today. But I will talk about that part in another post. Today is more about the physically demanding part of being 'homekeepers'. All of the myriad of jobs we are on call to do every day. I really can't think of a singe thing that I didn't or don't like to do as a "Domestic Goddess" (that's what I've heard it called haha!) I don't even mind changing the litter boxes because I like things to be clean & fresh. I love the cooking, the cleaning, the baking, the sewing, the laundry, the ironing ( although there's not too much of that anymore!) the mowing & yard work, painting, cleaning bathrooms, etc., etc., etc., husband pampering, child pampering, Christmases, birthdays, holidays, non-holidays.....I have loved it all. (I'm sure I'll be hearing from my kids to set the record straight if there is some disparity here. & that's ok. I know looking back can be rosier than actual fact sometimes. I will set the record straight in that case!) Anyway, I have had the best job in the world though some of the job descriptions have changed over the years because of the empty nest, the full nest & now, an almost empty nest again, (except for the grandchildren. Yes!!! But that's also for another time.) & now I have time for another love, & that is writing. & I'm testing out a lot of water here that the time & place is here & now, & trusting Jesus to show me what to share & say. I believe everything I do & say needs to have eternal value for His kingdom or it's a waste of my time, & at sixty-seven, time is more precious than ever & I really want to make it count for Jesus.

So now, back to summertime, which although the livin' is hard work, what great dividends! We get the beauty of flowers that explode our senses of sight & smell! A dining room window opens right next to my small rose garden & the fragrance is so sweet, therapeutic & divine, I can almost weep for it. & oh the colors & varieties of flowers! It seems like at times that you almost couldn't live through all of the beauty! This year, almost the entire state of South Dakota has been covered with fields & pastures of sweet yellow clover.

The fragrance is delicious & so heavy that you could cut it with a knife & then eat it! Truly heavenly! It lasted almost two months, but is starting to wane where we live, though to the eastern part of the state it is still hale & hearty. & my husband says that it is lush & thriving in North Dakota. (He works in the oil fields there.) We have loved to sit out at night to watch the fireflies & stars & soak into our very pores the fragrance of the clover, such vital olfactory sustenance. (It causes me to 'wax' poetic, alas....)

I planted a sweet little Hollyhock this year, a delicate pink....

 I just wanted one of my own. They make me think of old-fashioned cottages, with old-fashioned grandmothers, wearing old-fashioned aprons, baking old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies that was eaten with a glass of ice-cold milk after which was waiting a downy bed with cool, crisp, white sheets that smelled like the sun & wind & an old-fashioned grandmother waiting to tuck you in with a kiss & a prayer. All that from a simple, little Hollyhock.

From all of the weeding, hoeing, watering & tilling of the garden comes the fulfilling of another sense & that is TASTE! Oh boy! In the future  (& I don't need a crystal ball either!) I see quarts of canned green beans & tomatoes, or fresh from the garden to the plate! Then, tasty, crisp & crunchy dill pickle spears, corn dripping with butter ( my nutritionist friend says butter is great for you so lavish it on!! However, I do use homemade or organic. Even better!) plump peppers, & juicy watermelon! & so much more. That's good country eating at its' best! & worth the 'livin is hard'  summertime work.

Now for a little respite from all of the hard work, I love to relax in a wooden, glider rocker with a glass of cold iced tea (unsweetened for me thank you!)

My absolute favorite iced tea of all time is Mangoberry from Marketspice. I can drink this tea by the pitcher. Or even gallon! & then, just sit back & do some cloud gazing.

as you know, I love clouds. Some of these are pretty stormy looking.

So beautiful & delicate, even graceful.

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It's the little breaks that gets the perk-o-later going. That's when the livin' is easy in the summer. Those warm, drowsy afternoons that the porch swing very enticingly whispers your name. Or the creek shouts out loud for you to get your pole because the fish are biting, or invites you for a swim.

or going for a relaxing drive in the countryside & stopping somewhere for an icecream cone.

or just sitting in a nice air-conditioned room in your favorite chair reading a favorite book, which is very appealing to my age genre. I take poetic license here using the word 'genre' sort of out of context, but you know what I mean.

So, as summertime is at least two-thirds over, ( I always think of summer as June, July & August), I say ENJOY, ENJOY! Do the 'when the livin' is hard, & reap the blessings of it. Do the 'when the livin' is easy & go swimming & fishing. Eat lots of barbecued everything. & watermelon. & ice cream! & don't forget the maintenance for your own hearts' garden. Make sure it gets plenty of 'Son-shine'!

"That beautiful season the Summer! 

Filled was the air with a  dreamy

magical light;

& the landscape

Lay as if created in all

the freshness of childhood."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Raintree Perk of the Day:

"You shall be like a watered garden, & like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail." Isaiah 58:11b

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