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Monday, March 23, 2009

Inch by inch, row by row

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It is funny to me, how often I forget things that I shouldn’t. I forget lessons that I’ve learned and then I have to relearn them. Life would be so much easier if I could only remember everything I’ve ever learned.

Andrew planned Family Home Evening for tonight. He bought a pot and some dirt yesterday so that we could plant the basil seeds that we brought with us. The basil seeds that we bought last year to plant and never did. Those seeds.

We found an Italian shop yesterday, but they don’t have pesto…and since we had the seeds we figured that we may as well plant them. So we talked a bit about why we’re supposed to garden and about all the beautiful things Heavenly Father has created for us.

It was interesting to list the plants that Rachel is used to seeing. She loves apples, but she’s never seen an apple tree. We do, however, have a mango tree right outside our window.

After we had talked about gardening, self-sufficiency, and faith, along with anything else that has to do with planting a garden, we went out on the balcony to our “garden.”

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Rachel had fun playing in the “dirty” dirt and she even got to put some of the seeds in. Then we covered the seeds with more soil, watered them, and set them up where they can reach the sun. We laughed about that warning to wait until after the last potential danger of frost to plant. There is little danger of that here, especially now.

After we were finished planting we came inside and made peanut butter rice krispie treats together. We cleaned up the toys while they cooled and then we ate them (well, some of them) and started Rachel’s bedtime routine.

When she was in bed, I took out my scriptures. Sometimes it’s hard to find time to read during the day. Rachel will bring one of her books the minute she sees that it is reading time. Or she won’t even notice it’s reading time and will sit in your lap, positioning herself between your book and your line of vision.

I’m at the Vision of the Tree of Life right now in 1 Nephi, chapter 8, which I’ve read several times before. I’m often guilty of skimming over lists of things in the scriptures: the “begats,” explanations of currency, packing lists, etc. I haven’t ever found them all that interesting, truthfully.

But today when I read that they “gathered together all manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of the every kind, and also of the seeds of fruit of every kind,” I realized something.

First, that the counsel to plant a garden is an ancient one. It’s not like preparation and saving for a rainy day and being self-sufficient are new ideas.

Second, I was reminded that the scriptures, even the preamble packing lists in verse 1, have answers to every question. Even questions like, “What in the world am I doing in Egypt?”

I’m here because I’m supposed to be.

Even though I didn’t have to pack seeds of every kind (we only brought basil), I did bring things from home that are familiar to me and everything is going to be just fine. We brought taco seasoning and maple extract (among other things) so that we can cook things that we’re used to eating. When I want a taco or maple syrup, I can have my taco or maple syrup, and I don’t have to spend a fortune to have it.

We also have good friends here who also packed things from home and who so lovingly share those things with us. So sometimes when I want to make peanut butter rice krispie treats I can, even though that should be virtually impossible here.

And for some reason, that made me feel better.

Here’s hoping we can make our garden grow. We have no idea where to buy seeds here so I’m currently trying to dry my own tomato seeds. It’s an experiment.

3 comments:

  1. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? :) I'm sure your garden will grown just fine. And if Egypt is anything like Turkey, you'll have several harvests! hehe

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  2. :) I can't wait to hear how the tomato seeds work out!

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  3. i love this post.. that insight you had into the scriptures is great :) i've got the scriptures on my ipod and i started in the old testament.. i finally finished the first 5 last week and it got monotonous at times.. so and so begat so and so and these were his children.. but it's like.. those were real people, and maybe people who don't know us wouldn't be interested in looking at our ancestry, but it's important to us so we should be grateful we have the resources to do it. i've even already chosen my first daughter's middle name: mae :) it's all through my genealogy and i love it!

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