The Habit of Thankfulness: A Few of My Favorite Things

 Mar 2nd- A few of my favorite things...

~Stacking up my love of history

~Setting it up in my new office

~Being able to share my love of history with others as the official Village of Jordan Historian

The Habit of Thankfulness: A Few of My Favorite Things

 Jan 7th- A few of my favorite things...

~Finally having enough snow to try out my cross country skis

~Getting to the towpath before the snowmobilers

~Spying that others have been out on the trail too

If life gives you snow...Enjoy it!

The Habit of Thankfulness: A Few of My Favorite Things

May 20th- A few of my favorite things...
~Old albums to inspire the music you could play one day...
~New music to learn to make music today...
~And a new case to take your love for music and share it with others

The Habit of Thankfulness: A Few of My Favorite Things

Apr 20th- A few of my favorite things...
~A new year to jump...er...dive right into
~Reflecting on watching the years slide by so quickly
~13 years of blessing others with her loving and adventurous spirit...Happy birthday once again Shaniah! We love you <3

The Habit of Thankfulness: A Few of My Favorite Things

Feb 12th- A few of my favorite things...
~The surprise of milkshake to sip between stitches
~Watching my ideas begin to set sail...or at least float
~And inspiring others to let their ideas sail too <3

The Habit of Investing

My garden is a collection of native and non-native plants. One plant I have fallen in love with growing is native Canada Goldenrod. The bees love it because of the flowers and my girls love it because of its height. And no, it does not cause allergies this time of year...that is caused by ragweed--a far less showy plant.

This year I was surprised to find these bulges in my goldenrod.

They are galls caused by the goldenrod fly.

The goldenrod fly (aptly named) lays its egg in the stem, 

then the plant takes over from there. 

It provides everything the egg and larva need until it hatches as an adult fly.

 It provides shelter. It provides protection. It provides food. It provides a home. 

It didn't ask for this job, but it does it anyways.

It continues its growth and allows the "intruder" to continue to grow.

The irony is that long after it is has died out and dried out,

it still lives on in a way...through this little fly.

The following spring,

a small fly will eat its way through toward the galls edge

 and emerge ready to fly on its own.

Investing in people is like this sometimes. 

God places people in our lives that we didn't ask for 

and we may not want. 

But we need.

But He knows that through giving of ourselves to others, 

they will grow and so will we.

And after we are gone, 

our investment in them will live on.

What if when people come into our lives,

we take time to invest ourselves into their lives...

...not seeing the bother, but seeing the brother?

We may never see the end result, 

but we know the legacy will continue.

And some else will be ready

to fly,

too.