Week 13

This week had several important days in it.  First my birthday was on Thursday on which I turned 42 years old.  I am happy to be this age for the alternative would be sad.  I don’t know what you are supposed to feel like in your forties, but my brain doesn’t feel old.   I think I’m just starting to get smart and truly appreciate life and my body despite its ah… shape.  I would like to inform you that round is a shape and that roundish people are nice to hug and cuddle with, no bony parts to poke you.  I can look in the mirror and not hate who I see, not because of who I am but because I know that I am loved and that is more than enough.  This idea of knowing that I am loved has helped me choose to live.  I can now say I want to live and that is an amazing feeling.

The other more important dates this week were Passover, which we remembered and celebrated on Thursday evening, and the First Day of Unleavened Bread, which fell on Sabbath.  Traditional preparation for Passover and Unleavened Bread includes removing all food items with leavening (yeast or a rising agent) and spring cleaning to get all the crumbs out too.  It has been suggested that people who practice this in the past have avoided plagues because their houses were too clean for rats to be attracted and thus no infected fleas.

The spiritual understanding of this physical preparation is to clean your heart of leavening (sin) too.  I asked the Heavenly Father to show me where I am lacking, what I need to surrender and then work on what He tells me.  This year I was convicted to apologize to someone I had wronged and to be more encouraging to those around me.  Both mean that I have to humble myself and kick pride out the door along with the crumbs.  Pride definitely puts a damper on my light.

We celebrated Passover with a group of family and friends during which we remember the great deliverance of the Hebrew people and the great sacrifice of my Redeemer.  I wanted to bring a gift to each household that attended that evening that had relevance to what we were doing.  Since I think a plant is the best gift ever, I decided to make a small reminder of the miracle of the Resurrection.  I found cute pansies at Bill’s Greenhouse (along with some cool tillandsias) and had a nice chat with Calvin who is the owner, along with a tour of what he is growing this spring. 

Aren’t they sweet?  It took me awhile to find 2 four packs of plants with a bloom on every plant.

Sir T and I have recently found a yogurt with excellent ingredients that does not bother my insides and I have been saving the cups from them.  They would be perfect for this little project.  I figured out what I wanted to say, designed how it would look and then took up a sharpie and wrote it out eight times.  By the last two cups, my hand was getting a bit shaky from my concentration but I got them all pretty much identical. 

I decided to put drainage holes in the bottom and the first attempt with a corn cob holder didn’t work so well.

Hammer and nail to the rescue and rather appropriate for the season.  Three holes per cup should work well. 
The key is to support the plastic cup while tapping the nail in with the hammer.

My flock of rejoicing pansies ready to be given away in celebration.

I don’t know if you caught it or not, but I bought some plants for me at Bill’s and I needed to give them a cool home.  I had recently bought a neat hanging glass prism terrarium (on sale of course) and needed to fill it so it wasn’t clutter.  I also had a small glass dish with various sea shells, a candle and Florida beach sand given to me by a sister several years ago which sat on top of my toilet tank that I was tired of picking up daily during my swish and swipe cleaning of the bathroom.  I grabbed my assorted plants, the terrarium and the shell and sand dish and created this cool ocean scene.

I love how the colors of the shells match the plants.
Sir T said that the plant in the shell looks like a squid.  He likes it so that is good.

I hung the terrarium from the towel rod over the toilet from a shower curtain clip so there are no worries of it falling off.  I take the plants out once a week and soak them along with the other ones that are scattered around the house.  I just make sure that I don’t get the bases wet when I put them all in a bowl of water.

I’m really happy with how this turned out.

 
Um, tillandsia are definitely a collector’s hazard.  You just can’t stop at one, kinda like succulents and orchids.  I have six orchids, over twenty-five succulents and now seven tillandsias along with my various other plants and indoor trees.  Maybe I shouldn’t write out that list, Sir T reads my blogs. 

Orchids are so beautiful… never mind the snow, Michigan’s spring program has failed to download.
Rooper’s orchid on its third year of bloom.

So to finish off this blog, I’ll show you a small project I did for a young lady who goes to my parents' church.  She shot her first turkey and is going to mount the tail feathers.  She wanted her name and the year on the wooden mount.  I used chalk to lay out the name and date and then filled it in with a gold sharpie.  I thought it was pretty cool that she is learning to hunt.  Someday I hope to have a crossbow to hunt venison and while I don’t think I will have any heads mounted in my house, I’m sure I’ll take a picture.

This is “easy” for me and it is a blessing to be able to do this to bless other people. 

While we remember and celebrate this week of Unleavened Bread and the sacrifice and resurrection of my Messiah by intentionally eating “flat” bread, I hope that my heart will be purified as well.  I am loved.  I am saved and I am a child of The King.  That is worth celebrating and all my gratitude.

The group that hosted the services for the First Day of Unleavened Bread had gifts for the attendees there. 
I chose this sign which hangs in the dining room next to my plants.