Garden update #1

So... Gardening is not very easy I've discovered. At least not for me. It's been less than 48 hrs and our plants look very sad, despite Dave and I giving them the attention we would give a new born baby. ("How do you think they are doing?" "No they prefer to be watered like this." "I think they've grown already!" "What's wrong with that leaf?")

We've learned a few things:

1. When planting for the first time, do some reading- books, the instructions on the fertilizer etc... We were so excited we planted our vegetables right away without doing much planning. It remains to be seen if the plants will survive.

2. Don't transplant your fragile young vegetables into a garden on the hottest day of the year, at mid day, and then leave them in the scorching sun, on the black top, to fry. (Wow, that should have been common sense.)

Thank goodness for mothers and sisters and sister-in-laws that have green thumbs. I unfortunately, was born with a grey thumb. I have often joked that I'm the hospice of gardeners- where plants go to die. But I'm working on it! I'm determined to keep my garden alive!  

3. Fertilizer often = poop. We found this organic fertilizer that we mixed in (we winged it, again, we didn't read the instructions). It looked dry and sort of pellet-y when we scooped it out of the bag, but once watered, it reconstituted itself as poop. And it stinks. And the flies have arrived. And we discovered that our drainage holes work as there is now liquid poop pooling on the floor of our garage that now smells like the sewer. What a pleasant surprise!

At the advice of others we have moved our plants to the grassy/stone area in our yard that will be much cooler than the pavement. Hope it works! Hope they are still alive in the morning!

The Berrys' Mini-Garden

Many thanks to my sweet husband for making my dreams - both big and small- come true!

Earlier this spring we were under contract to buy our first home. It had a sun porch, a pool and a garden, and I was over the moon about having our own little place to  settle in. As I'm sure many have experienced, life doesn't always go as planned. Things with Dave's flying career became uncertain and we had to back out of our home purchase. I was crushed, but I know that there is a wonderful house and stable job situation in our future if we continue to pray and be patient. 

One of my biggest disappointments was that I had already figured out what I wanted to grow in the garden and I was sad to have to put those plans on hold. Our townhouse doesn't get sun in the back yard and the front is governed by a homeowners association so I didn't think I'd be able to plant anything.

But my creative and thoughtful husband was not oblivious to my gardening dream. He surprised me with a trip to pick out some plants and he plans to build me a garden on wheels! We are going to purchase a little wagon so that during the day we can wheel the plants out front for sun and then take them to the back yard at night. 

Here is our first little garden- cherry tomatoes, peppers, basil, dill and mint! Check back in for updates :) 

Ps. It's Memorial Day Weekend, make sure to pause from your BBQs and fun plans to remember the men and women who have lost their lives defending our country, and their families who continue in without them. 🇺🇸

Update

Hey everyone!

So sorry for not writing in such a long time. This has been a roller coaster of a spring so far. Unfortunately in my stress, I stopped following through with my workout routine. I'm disappointed in myself but hoping to feel motivated again to get back into it. 

I won't get into specifics, but in the midst of our stress about the future, God has shown us that He has a more perfect and beautiful plan than we ever could have imagined for ourselves. Trusting and waiting for his timing has proven to be both incredibly difficult, and immeasurably rewarding. God is good, all the time! 

Kendall

Day 1: 2015 Handstand Challenge

Have you ever had a fitness goal hit you randomly and then suddenly become the best idea ever?? This one time I thought I wanted to run the Boston Marathon. Then I remembered that running is literally The.Worst.Way.To.Exercise. (no offense to all you out there who do run, I'm secretly jealous that you're able to find enjoyment in an activity that is pure torture for me). Needless to say you won't be seeing me at the nearest Color Run (do people ever choke on that chalk stuff they throw at the runners? It looks awful. Like I'm already running, and now I can't breathe because there's chalky dye being thrown at my face? I'm not trying to have a full blown asthma attack here.)


Anyways, for whatever reason, I have been hit with this burning desire to walk on my hands. It literally looks like so much fun, and I have no explanation as to why. So therefore, my newest Bucket List item for 2015 is that I would like to be able to walk, or at least stand on my hands by the end of the year.

I got on Pinterest and have been researching like crazy how to actually go about training for such a feat (suggestions welcome), and this looks like it's going to be a little harder than I was expecting, given that standing on your hands is mostly about balance, of which I have none.. But we all have to start somewhere!


So here we are, Day 1. I did some push ups. and by push ups I mean exactly ten modified knee push ups before I died. Tomorrow I'll make it 12.

I took some pics so you can laugh at my shoddy technique and tucked in shirt:

Yay! Tucked in shirt!  Big smile because I know I'm gonna look goofy! 

Hey! If you turn this photo upside down, it will give you an idea what I am going for :)

One of the first steps is mastering a 90 degree angle to the wall, which I swear I achieved for the split second before this photo was taken. I realize this looks like a bad twerking video, I swear that's not what I was going for- though now that I've tried this pose I have a lot more respect for the physical endurance it would take to maintain this position. 

I think this is the Grasshopper position or something. Funny story, this girl in middle school used to make fun of me by calling me a "grasshopper" because of my long legs and the way I hop when I walk. I'm gonna embrace it now and channel my inner grasshopper. Gotta work on that balance. 

Practice makes..progress!  (Ignore the pile of stuff on the floor behind me, I'm slowly cleaning out my closet for GoodWill) 

I'm thinking I'll give weekly updates as a way of motivating myself to stick to it! Thanks for your support!

The moment you've been waiting for..

Dear friends, 
The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. Scratch that, the moment I hope none of you have been secretly wishing on me has arrived.

That moment being the moment I stopped being able to eat whatever I want, not exercise, and remain rail thin. Yeah that moment happened about a month ago. It arrived with no advanced warning or explanation, and I probably wouldn't have even noticed if I didn't wake up one morning last week and quite literally could not fit into a single pair of work pants when I was getting ready.  Like, I actually heard something rip in the process of trying to stuff myself in, and it was terrible, I think I cried a tiny bit. I finally found a pair from high school ( back when Mom would only buy things for me with 'room to grow'. such wisdom!) the style was low rise so every time I bent over throughout the day I was holding my shirt down over my crack, not so flattering... (Thank goodness higher waists are in now. Seriously.) With the prospect of having no pants, needless to say, I had to go shopping asap - there's a silver lining to everything.

Now, I realize nobody, probably not a single person reading this, will feel bad for me, but you have to admit it does suck a little! It's fine, I understand you're currently still gleefully giggling over the image of me ripping my pants trying to button them.  ._.

 In reality, I've been trying to gain weight for years now with no luck, and secretly enjoying that I could eat all the fattening foods I wanted- like a whole batch of buffalo dip over a weekend, full fat yogurts, Nutella, cream, butter, cheese on everything, dessert several times a day, and my personal favorite snack- cheese nachos dipped in warm cream cheese with salsa . YUM.

Part of me is pleased. I want to be a healthy weight, especially with the thought of starting a family sometime soon, and knowing that being underweight can cause as many health risks as being overweight. And I do think I look good with a few extra pounds (can I choose which areas will get bigger? No? Darn it).  I'm just realizing that as I turn 25, I need to stop thinking like a 21 year old when it comes to caring for my (aging) body. I need to start and CONTINUE an exercise routine, eat better, and overall just care more about starting healthy habits now that I'll continue the rest of my life. 

~Kendall

Mid-20's Observation #1

So, there's this one thing I have yet to master now that I'm a mid-20s adult (okay, way more than one thing)... 

Folding fitted sheets...

Am I right?! 

I could be having a serene, relaxing evening, doing a little laundry, enjoying the satisfying accomplishment of warm, clean clothes. (Laundry is actually my favorite chore, maybe because it mostly does itself).  Then, I come across a fitted sheet, and I find myself having a moment of rage so disproportionate to the task it's almost comical.

"No big deal", I tell myself when I first see that clump of sheets with elastic corners.

Then, somewhere between picking out the still damp socks that got tucked inside, pairing the corners together, and attempting to make a shape that can be neatly folded, something inside me snaps. 

I let out an "ughhrawarrrr", and violently karate chop that sucker into ball to stuff into my otherwise neat linen shelf.

Then back to the towels for some rectangle therapy. 

Sharing the Good News

1 Peter 3:15 : 

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..."

I've been thinking lately about my own awkwardness and discomfort when put on the spot about my faith. I love to talk about my relationship with God, but I can be easily intimidated by the tough questions others may ask. I'm so concerned that I will give them the wrong answer, that I end up fumbling and bumbling around what I am trying to say. I usually end up kicking myself later when I've finally come up with the perfect way to word what I was thinking- too late. I've certainly always been more comfortable with acting out my faith than with speaking about  it. However, lately I've been feeling convicted that I need to stop using my own comfort levels as an excuse.

Last night an analogy came to me that really drove home to me the importance of sharing my faith with others:

If I had foreknowledge of a huge national disaster or tragedy before it had occurred, say for example a tsunami, or a forest fire was coming our way, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be running from neighbor to neighbor warning them.  On my way out of town I'd be yelling out the windows of my car, and running into gas stations to warn total strangers of what I knew was coming. I'd be banging on doors, shaking people awake, and causing a scene - and it would be worth it! I would want to let every single person that I physically could reach or contact know that they were in danger so that they could save themselves.

How is this any different from the situation we face as Christians every single day on Earth? We know and believe in our hearts that the knowledge of our Savior can save multitudes of people for Christ. We believe that hearing and believing the Good News of Jesus is literally a matter of eternal LIFE or DEATH! Forget total strangers for a moment, why am I not at the very least taking every effort to introduce family, friends, coworkers and other people I care about to God? I mean, really, If I say that I care about someone, why wouldn't it be a top priority for me to pray for them and at least plant the seed that could save their life? Going back to people I don't know, if I wouldn't leave a perfect stranger to die or go through a disaster alone, why do I avoid bringing up their relationship with the Creator?

A few years ago I saw a YouTube video made by atheist comedian, Penn Jillette. He makes a profound statement about proselytizing (trying to convert non-believers)  that I think all Christians (an non-Christians) should take very seriously. He says:

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize.... If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward – and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself – how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"
(The Full Video is here)

What answer can I give him? 


What if one day we stand before God to give an account of our life and we are presented with a number. Not the number of good deeds we've done, or the amount of money we had given to the church, or even the number of times we've used God's name in vain. What if we were presented with the devastating number of the hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of people the might have entered the kingdom of Heaven if we had just talked to them about Jesus? 

It gives me the chills just thinking about it...

(Photo from http://admiralcreedy.blogspot.com/2011/07/wonder-of-cross.html)