more than a month this time...

I go at this so erratically I'm not sure if any of you are still hanging in there. If you still check to see if I'm alive, thanks! I am. Life is...well it's good actually. In fact here's an updated "Speil-photo". In our defence we were in play clothes....

I'm sure you're alive and not living in a deep dark cave so you know there's a recession going on but despite all this, we're good.
God is using this time to teach me something I was not willing or able to learn at any other time. Bad times can in fact lead to good things. That was the Big Revelation from our bible study a few weeks back.

Hard does not equal bad.

Here's one you won't see too often on a bookmark or coffee cup. It's true of everything worth doing. I'm finding this even in my running!

⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Heb 12:7-11

Hmmmmm....I would say that we've all had it so easy and good for so long we've come to take our lives for granted. (I'm speaking to North Americans here. Those people living in the third world who've been paying for our excess, I'm deeply sorry.)
I have to let you know that we in fact are not going bankrupt or making any crazy changes to our lives (well I am growing a garden and for those of you who knew the old me - it's crazy). My hubby owns and operates his own company. It's small but we do have a couple of guys that work for us whose families depend on our company for their income. That is some serious responsibility!

I'm finally after years of my spreadsheet loving husband lovingly emailing them to me, following the budget! AND I'm growing a garden. Guess what? I LOVE IT!
It's truly amazing and I can take no credit. Kev and the boys built it all for me, put the dirt into it and surrounded my raised beds with (hopefully) slug killing rocks. I just put the seeds and tiny plants into it's waiting beds. It's an addiction!

Obviously I didn't line these up perfectly but hopefully you can get the idea of what the view from my deck is...


And I'm growing herbs in boxes hanging from my deck again. I'm so excited about this!
I do have some pretty things growing too but it's all about the food this year.

Speaking of addictions, I'm still running. Or I was running. Today was my first day back after a bout or siatica that chased me to the pool to do this:
Deep water running

(Only without the funky shoes. And I got the pic at this cool blog.)

....With these guys, well not these specific folks but you get my drift....

It's been good for me actually. I was freaking out because I had to drop bootcamp and running and go exclusively for the deep water running. I read some articles that said it would keep me in running shape but I wasn't exactly sure. It seems to have!
I've signed up to do another half marathon in the fall which should be fun. We start training for it in July. I'm in the process of changing up my work out schedule. This is all very exciting for me but not so much for anyone else. I'm going to write more about it though cuz ... hey, this is my blog.

I'm off to check on the kidlets. My niece just turned 10 and they have been enjoying an afternoon of uninterrupted play.