Planting Season continues

Today I planted in flats melons and watermelons.  I planted many seeds of each type.  I planted Orangeglo Watermelons, Banana Melons, Mountain Hoosier Watermelon, Kansas Melon, and Million Dollar Melon.  I think I am a little late getting my melon seeds started, but I don't like them to get very big before they get transplanted.  I need to get my cucumbers and squash started soon, maybe I will get them started today as well.

I also did a flat of flowers.  A couple of types of marigolds, a pansy, and viola.  I also direct seeded some Mother of Pearl Poppies, I hope they come up and are a pretty as the picture.

All of these seed varieties named and the poppy picture came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I like the selection and heirloom seed preservation from Baker Creek.  I wish I could make it out to one of their festivals sometime, I am sure they are fun.  Their catalog is the best I have seen, wonderful pictures and honest, accurate descriptions.  It is such a good quality catalog it is worth keeping around as a reference book.

Everything is looking great so far in the garden, we have some flowers on the peas and have eaten a few radishes.

Happy Gardening

Review: Mighty Acts of God

Mighty Acts of God, A Family Bible Story Book
Written by Starr Meade
Illustrated by Tim O'Connor

Mighty Acts of God is a Bible story book written for elementary school-age children in mind.  It is published by Crossway.  A principle point of the book is to show the attributes of God displayed in the Biblical accounts, not so much about the individuals involved and how they behaved and whether or not we should imitate them.  The overarching theme is to point to God's plan of redemption through out the Bible.  The stories are in chronological order, both Old and New Testament.  Stories include a key verse either from the story or clearly showing a lesson to be learned from the Biblical account.  The verses are in the English Standard Version.  There summary statements in a colored font to easily pick out the major doctrinal point.  A neat feature at the end of the stories are "As For Me and My House" sections, they are practical activities or points of application to be discussed with the children.

I really enjoyed Mighty Acts of God.  I think it will be a wonderful tool to teach my children about God and how the accounts in the Bible show us God's character and demonstrate His amazing love.  I think too often we can get caught up in act like this Biblical person (except when they did this activity) or not like this one.  Showing the consequences of human's actions is a great thing too, of course we would rather our children learn from other people's mistakes instead of making them themselves, but the real point is for God to reveal Himself to them.  I have a hard time calling Bible accounts stories, because children mainly hear stories as make believe and I want my children to know these are historical events.

I really enjoyed how this book didn't put words in the individual's mouths in accounts that scripture does not state.  For example, I don't really enjoy when a book says Noah said this or thought that,  he may have, but the Bible doesn't state that.  Might Acts of God seemed to stay true in that area for me.  I also struggle with illustrations in children's Bible books.  I teach my children they are probably not what Jesus or Moses or anyone in the Bible looked like, they are an idea of what they may have looked like.  The illustrations in this book are a lovely artist's viewpoint.  I think parents will still have a lot of questions to answer and definitions to explain while reading this to their children.  There are some words defined within the story, but the language of this book is more complex for younger children, not that is a bad thing, just something I observed with my young children.  I think it gives opportunity for the parents to further instruct their children and expands a child's vocabulary.  I am thankful that I will have Mighty Acts of God to use with my children, to teach them more about our wonderful Father.

I was provided a free copy of this book for the purposes of review, the opinions expressed are my own.

Planting Season transplanting

Yesterday and today I transplanted most of my pepper and tomato plants, it has been pretty warm here and the weather is supposed to stay that way.  I am going to keep a close eye on them to be safe.  My tomatoes were not doing all that amazing this year, but my pepper seemed to have all made it and are great.  I think the tomatoes will pull out of it once they get a little established in the bed.  I am thinking they didn't have enough room in the peat pots I used.  I don't think I will be using them again. 

The tomatoes that were transplanted were:
Purple Russian
White Currants
Burbank
Wapsipinicon Peach
Kootenai
Mystery Seeds

I am excited about the Purple Russian, I let weeds get away from me last year so I didn't get very many of these, I think they are going to be great.  I did get many of the Wapsipinicon Peach last year and they  were one of my favorites, great taste and just a fun variety.  Last year I received some seeds from Winter Sown since I like to experiment I asked for a mixed cherry and a mixed tomato seed packets.  It was very fun trying to identify and getting to try some new things, so those are the mystery seeds.  I hope to see how the Kootenai taste, I am sure they are going to be better than store bought no matter what, I am mainly growing them because they are so early and originated in Idaho.  I use almost exclusively heirloom seed, but I am wanting to try the new Idaho variety tomatoes that the University of Idaho has been developing.  They are open pollinated and should be great producers in Idaho.

For peppers I have
Jalapeno
Alma Paprika
Yellow Monster
and some more I can't think of off the top of my head

I think I am going to have plenty of Jalapenos this year, they did by far the best seedlings.  I am excited to try some paprika peppers to see if I can make my own paprika.  Yellow Monsters are hopefully going to live up to my hopes for them as well, I really enjoy sweet peppers and these are massive.  See in this picture from Baker Creek!

Happy planting :)

A Great Giveaway I entered today

Hamilton Beach Chef Prep 10 Cup Food Processor would be a really nice win :)

Win a Champion Juicer

   Wow, such a neat giveaway!  Lynnette Kraft of Dancing Barefoot on weathered ground is hosting a giveaway for a Champion Juicer.  This is an amazing juicer, I have heard.  So head over and check it out :)

Review: Plan B

Plan B by Pete Wilson
What do You do when God doesn't show up the way you thought He would?

Plan B is pretty much summed up in the subtitle, when your life takes turns that you would have not seen coming. Mr. Wilson tells stories of these Plan Bs happening in lives of people he knows as well as people from the Bible. Like stories from David, Joshua, and Joseph.

Plan B was an interesting book, it held my attention and had some interesting stories. It is easy to read and understand. I just felt something was lacking. It felt like to me not enough of the story was told or wasn't always clearly tied to the point he Mr. Wilson was trying to make. I guess it seems like to me God is more providential.

There is a story with sunglasses that Mr. Wilson uses in in the end of the book. He is lead to a verse that helped draw him out of months of a hard time in his life. He says "I'm not saying God did that. But I am saying that He could have. He could have." I think that God did, that is one of the amazing ways our heavenly father shows his love for us. To me this speaks clearly of a way God was ministering to him in that moment.

I think I just have a different view of the why some things happen and knowing that God does have a plan, even if we don't understand why things happen. I agree with Mr. Wilson that most of the time in the moment we don't know why , but sometimes God is gracious to give us a view, sometimes much later in life, to know what the plan was or how He used our circumstances. Plan B to me doesn't explore that very much.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." ~Rom 8:28

I was provided a free copy of this book for the purposes of review, the opinions expressed are my own.