gardening

I woke up early this morning to get a great start to my day...going plant shopping with my mom!

Sal and I live in an apartment, so there are some things that home-owners/renters have the luxury of that we do not. For example, growing a large garden. Well, we are lucky enough to have a balcony off of our living room that gets lots of sunshine during the day! That means we can at least do some potted plants.

So today, I went with my mom to a gardening store to pick some out! :). We also went to Big Lots to find some inexpensives containers and supplies.

I ended up purchasing lemongrass, spinach, cherry tomatoes, green beans, red pepper, green pepper, cucumber, and two kinds of flowers (can't remember what kind at the moment) for a decorative flower hanger I have. I feel like I am forgetting something? Maybe not. I can update later when everything is sorted out (it's all at my parents' for now, I am planning on potting tomorrow at their house and then setting everything up since there is really nowhere to prep here).

There are so many other plants I'd like to grow, but since this is my first garden on my own, I figured this was a good place to start! Some key things I'd like to add are onions (sweet or green or both!), carrots, and lots of herbs. I was actually very tempted to buy a ton of herbs, but I don't have enough recipes and I didn't want to be wasteful. I just get very excited at the thought of cultivating this all myself that sometimes I feel as though I might go overboard... :-P. So I convinced myself not to buy tons of herbs yet until I have an idea of how I might use them.

I think I will really enjoy gardening. There are a bunch of reasons...I like doing things with my parents and they have been awesome teachers of things like this, it saves money, home-grown vegetables taste infinitely better, I can completely control how they are handled and grown (trying to be cleaner/organic/no chemicals), I can pick at optimum ripeness instead of what is offered at the store, I can share with friends so they can enjoy the goodness, it's relaxing, etc etc etc. I run the risk of screwing it up or just having a bad season because of weather or something, but I think it's worth it. I'm sure it's a very rewarding process and I look forward to experiencing my own harvest.

inferiority

Stepping up and trying to take matters into my own hands.

People will manipulate me or make me feel inferior...because I let them. I only feel less than others because it's how I perceive myself. I think I was born more of a leader, and it has shown to be true in how I get treated when I am in groups with people. People just tend to look to me. I don't believe I am out-spoken about things. I just wind up falling into that role.

Anyway, like I said. I need to stop being so hard on myself, and rather proud of my talents that are possible only through Christ who grants them to me. I will use them to bless and teach others. AMEN!

God's plan

I gotta put more faith in God's plan.

Overall I am not worried about how my career will end up. Honestly, I don't care...I will be happy with either outcome I am optioned with right now. But it's the day-to-day wear and tear that destroys me quite a bit. I need to pray about it and trust God with what will happen. So far up to this point, I've received pretty clear answers on what I need to do because usually one thing will work out and the other thing won't. However, this time I have a choice and it could go either way. I don't know how to do this.

questions

I have so many questions about my faith. Not that I am questioning my faith...I know whole-heartedly that Jesus is the only Savior and King, and I am his. But that doesn't mean there aren't questions about certain things. I think that God gave us the Bible to know what we need to know. Anything the Bible doesn't address, isn't something that is necessary to have the answer to (otherwise he would have told us). And I'm not talking about abortion or something, I know the word "abortion" isn't in the Bible, but I think things like that are still very clear. I am talking about deeper things about God outside of our time of chronos. I am interested in things I can't even convey in words but make sense in my head. That is something I plan on working on soon...writing out my thoughts and trying to convey them the best I can. I can start to try and have sensible conversations with people on these things. Sometimes when we can get our thoughts and questions out, we often stumble upon the answers on our own.

budgeting

So a little while back (3 weeks ago) Sal and I set up a budget plan. We realized how important it is to have one: that we should always understand where our money is going and how much we have. I know that sounds incredibly obvious, but it's so easy to lose track. Not that we were or are super spenders, but almost just as bad, we are (were!) mini-spenders. Spending dollars here and there, seemingly innocent. However, it was a little more than we should--and that adds up. So the past three weeks we've kept a tight watch on our money, being frugal and smart and basically, we're owning it!!! I am excited. Stuff is going to be tight for a few months since we sorta left ourselves with no other option until Sal gets his next fin-aid return. But hopefully with his next allowance of aid and my (hopefully) new job, we can keep this budget and do a great job of pushing our overflow onto credit cards (mine are almost completely paid off! Then on to conquering Sal's...not an insane amount, but definitely enough to roll your eyes at and want to push to get those suckers knocked out), and saving for a few things: namely, for a used car and car repair $. My Civic is in great shape, it's just that I like to have some buffer money in CASE of repairs. They come out of left field and hit you and it's so nice to have money set aside for those little (or BIG) inconveniences.

Anyway, this is a long, boring post about budgets, for goodness' sake. HA! I am an old, married lady. But honestly, I think it's been an exciting experience to mature in this way. It takes quite some effort to keep up with it all, but it's well worth it. I like setting spending amounts and then seeing how we are UNDER for the week or month and can put the excess towards our debts (for now) and vacations (eventually! haha).

I feel like I should end this post with something less boring, serious, and old.

Umm...just beat the second temple in Legend of Zelda: WindWaker. So far so good! But not my favorite of the series. Many people said it was their fave, so I am just trying to feel it out. So far I still like Ocarina of Time with a very close second with Skyward Sword...