In Over Our Heads....again....and God Has Made Laughter....For Me

What have we gotten ourselves into?  Yesterday we planted 120 potatoes.  That's 4 rows, 60 ft. long.  If we get back what we've read we'll get back, in terms of produce, we expect to harvest somewhere in the range of 2400 potatoes.  That's enough for our large family....for TWO YEARS!  Ooops.  So, if you find yourself on our Christmas list, you might just be getting a bag of potatoes, just sayin'....

We also know that we are already making mistakes, at least we think we are.  We are still newbies at this whole gardening thing, let alone, large gardening thing.  We planted two rows in what appears to be soil that has a lot of clay.  Turns out clay isn't the best for potatoes!  Oops again.  So, the next two rows we planted in what we think is a richer, better soil.  Guess we'll find out in the fall which soil was better!  This is definitely a live and learn situation.

The garden itself is 120 ft. by 60 ft.  That more than triple the size of our last garden.  We expect about 30 rows of plants if all goes well, but, again...we'll see!  We have had more rain than we would like, so that has already slowed things down, but alas, that is farming for you. 

I am also currently overwhelmed by nearly 20 rows of vine cuttings.  We pruned our concord grapes and this time I was determined to put the cuttings to good use.  I've made vine trees before, but am now trying a new kind of tree and plan to sell those as well, either at a Christmas sale or on-line.  Meanwhile, my kids are very unhappy with me.  It looks like I literally have either a beaver dam or a pterodactyl nest in our living room.  The pile of cuttings is so high and so wide it is literally taking up half of our living space.  Sorry about that.  I'm trying to make these trees as fast as I can, but it is slow going!  It takes many hours to make one tree with all the interruptions, so the pile isn't exactly going down very slowly.  I figure it'll be gone in a few weeks, but that's when we're supposed to be in the garden!  My kids just shake their heads....

It has forced me to be very creative, though, with our seating arrangements.  I used to have two sitting areas.  To be honest it looked good, but it didn't suit our family.  We would have family conversations, but we would always be divided!  What was I thinking?  Now I've joined the two sitting areas into one.  It isn't my favourite look, but it suits the family way better and now we're all together every time we try to connect.  That leaves me and my beaver dam to the other side and has less impact on the fam.

With every day that passes, we come up with more schemes with the garden and how we can sell our produce.  It just gets nuttier and nuttier as we dream and plan, borderline comical at times.  Yesterday, as I was reading in Genesis, a couple of verses jumped out at me.  After Isaac was born, it was written in Genesis 21, "Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him."  There are many other phrases throughout Genesis and then in Hebrews that focus on Abraham's age, and Sarah's, for that matter.  Phrases like "as good as dead" are my favourite.  It makes me laugh because we're doing these crazy things when most people are planning their retirement and are booking cruises and thinking about slowing down.  We don't have that luxury.  We know as our family gets older we are just going to get busier.  We're going to actually need more resources to feed them, clothe them, marry them....when will we ever get to slow down?  We actually have to ramp up our activity!  So if we look to the "regular" way things are done, we probably appear a little batty.  This is why I love that phrase so much and I'm convinced God put the "old age" verses in their to reassure me even though it seems crazy to do what we're doing, it's ok.  Abraham had a baby at 100, we can handle this!  Oh, and I just found out this week that all of my kids will be around 24/7 come the Fall.  All courses at college and university are going on-line 100%.  This is NOT good news.  When school starts, my house gets quieter as the older ones all head off to work and school.  Not now!  There will be kids around the house all day everyday this September.  THAT WAS NOT THE PLAN!!!!  This means my grocery bill is going to continue to skyrocket (except for vegetables....if they grow!).  It means the noise level will stay high, the volume of activity will stay high, the cleaning, the laundry.....all staying high.  I looked at my husband with my eyeballs wide open and a crazy stare coming out of them and said, "We have to build an apartment/library in the shop...fast."  So, Lord willing, if we can somehow manage, we plan on doing that.  We joke it'll be the frat house.  If we can pull this off, we'll scoot the older two boys who will be in school out there.  They can work in RM's office for their courses and then in the "youth room", they can sleep, even eat, have a pool table or something like that, and just have a quieter place to hang out.  All this to say, it's another reason we have to make money - to pay for these insane renovations.  This is better than a reality TV show, I'm serious.

The next verse is awesome, too, "And Sarah said, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.'  And she said, 'Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?  Yet I have born him a son in his old age.'"  This is a great encouragement to me as well.  God shows He has a sense of humour by allowing this couple to have a baby in their old age.  He even gives Sarah the perspective that this is not just amazing what has happened to her and Abraham, but that it is FUNNY!  I don't think people were ever going to laugh at her and make fun of her.  My feeling is that it was more of a "No way!" type of feeling.  My guess is once people heard the insane news of a new baby at 100 and 90 years old, they would laugh and smile and be joyful in absolute awe of God and His goodness to them.  It was an encouragement to me as I, too, have this feeling, that in our old age, as we take on more crazy things that people are going to hear and potentially laugh at us, or worse, make fun, or even judge or criticize.  However, when I read this story, it reminds me age doesn't matter when God is on your side.  It really encourages me to keep going....the older we are, the nuttier it may appear, the more it has to be God behind it all.  There is no way we can get any credit if anything that actually works or takes off.  It'll have to be God, just as it was with Abraham and Sarah.

Just by way of an aside, it's neat to notice that is says, "God has made laughter for me...."  Isaac's name literally means "laughter".  So if you insert his name there, it could read, "God has made Isaac for me..."  Isaac and laughter are one.  I wonder if he was an actually funny kid.  As I thought through this verse yesterday, it made me think of my own kids.  They are funny!  I have two in particular that have me laughing all the time.  I could have the same verse written for me, "God has made (insert name of child here) for me....."  I love to laugh.  I love humour.  I love funny people.  I'm convinced I have more laugh lines than the average person.  I love that God gave me laughter through my children.  I love that God is the creator of laughter and that He uses children to bring laughter into our lives.  I love that laughter can exist and be one in the same as a child.  Laughter.  Child.  Same thing.  Synonyms for one another.  And Sarah added, "...for me".  God gave her laughter.  God gave her a son.  Just for her.  She had laughed when she heard she would have a child.  She didn't believe God.  As a funny, ironic little reminder, God not only gave her a child, but with a twist gave her a son whose name will always remind her, "Every time you laugh or you hear him laugh or he makes you laugh, remember to believe me and my promises."  Isn't it amazing how God just ties everything together? It's all one gigantic miracle and God doesn't miss a thing to show His providence and how He's the master planner behind it all.

So today, it's wet and rainy.  It'll be a day of tree making (I have so many splinters and pokes from the staples I use).  It'll be a day of paperwork as we are trying to document everything we do so that we have records for the future.  It'll be a day of catching up on regular stuff.  So I don't mind the rain....And, as I go about my day today, I'll try to see my kids as Sarah saw Isaac....God has made laughter...for me.