Growing with our Garden
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
- Back to the Basics! - February 24, 2020
- Blessing Others with a Valentine’s Day Heart Attack - February 10, 2020
- Are You Willing to Be Humiliated? - December 9, 2019
This is from the first year we grew a garden with our children. It was so exciting to make the square foot garden boxes, pick the seeds each child decided to plant, watch the first sprout pop up above the ground, and see the variety of God’s awesome creation. Then, we started harvesting some delectable garden goodness and in the process learned some lessons too!
Taste Bud Treats
Of course, you can just eat most items raw, straight out of the garden but we enjoy exploring different approaches with our taste buds, which brought us to these two yummy sandwiches.
Simple Ingredients: Honey Mustard, Tomato, Cheese and Basil
I love anything with basil, so when I noticed that some basil was ready to harvest, we promptly added it to our sandwiches. After taking her first bite, my youngest daughter shouted in a loud, baritone voice,
“Mom, I love these leaves! They are delicious!”
She should like them. I ate basil and cheese sandwiches every day for weeks when I was pregnant with her!
At a baby shower I attended, the hostesses served these delectable sandwiches. The mixture of herbs in the creamy spread was so enjoyable, I tracked down the person who made it to gather the recipe.
Simple Ingredients: Creamy Spread and Cucumbers
Creamy Spread (can also be enjoyed as a dip):
1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1 Cup Cream Cheese
2 teaspoons dried dill
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Lesson Learned
God uses all his creations to teach us a little more about Him. Growing a garden has helped us grow in our understanding of our relationship with Him as well.
For example, when I was trying to learn how to harvest basil, I found this great video that explained exactly how to harvest the basil in such a way that the plant would continue to grow.
In the video she says,
“If you want your plant to continue to grow you are going to have to trim it down…You want to do it in a way that you don’t damage your plant and your plant can continue to grow.”
This video made me realize that God is pruning us all the time. He wants us to grow in our relationship with Him, but that means we can’t stay the same. In order to grow and be used for His glory, he prunes us in such a way that we may feel the change, but he doesn’t damage us.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
His ways of refining us to make us stronger spiritually may not always feel comfortable at the time, but the growth it produces will bring glory to Him in the process.
Do you garden?
What are some of your favorite fresh garden recipes?
What lessons have you learned in the process?
