Amazon Jungle

Something strange is afoot.

June 10 073

Remember the kind, sweet, garden we planted a couple months back?

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See? There’s my tiny, little chamomile and my one, solitary petunia growing bravely by the rose bushes.

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And remember the polite little peas all growing in a row? And the radishes? Well, never mind about the radishes.

Moving on…

May 31 047

Remember the pumpkins and the watermelon and zucchini and tomatoes?

Well, I do. They were all right here when we left for New York. Yessiree…right here where we put them.

We were told there was an unusual amount of rain while we were gone…

but we were NOT told  that some strange creature crept into the garden and planted the entire  Yucatan Rain Forest in our back yard. Yeah, that was a surprise.

No lie. We came home…

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to this…

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and this…

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and THIS. What the HECK! How did this happen?!

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I’m told that there are likely zucchini the size of sea otters buried in this forest–and I’m gonna find ’em.  It may take muscles of steel and possibly sturdier knees than I currently possess, but we have to try.

So, we’re soaking down the jungle and I’m off to buy more gloves… and possibly a machete. For all I know, there could be man-eating pythons out there mingled with the pumpkin. I’ll bring pepper spray.

Do wish me luck…

…I’m going in.

Recycled Thought Process…

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When you look at a typical pile of cast off clothing, it’s likely you have the same conversation going on in your head that a lot of us do.

“Can someone else wear that?”

“Should I just donate it to DI or Good Will?”

“Is it unwearable?”

“Should we throw it away?”

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But lately–since my beloved sewing machine has made it’s way home, every too-short shirt and badly fitting sweater has begun morphing in my mind–to something…

more.

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Suddenly, I’m seeing the dreaded, disturbing collection as a fabulous store of potential—spread out in front of me…

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waiting to see what’s next for them in the universal “repurpose” life plan…

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My head seems filled with 10,000 little sticky notes…

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giving a new direction to something old or torn or droopy or faded or just plain ugly.

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It feels good to recycle paper and plastic and unplug the cell phone charger and turn out the lights and use less water and sew pretty handbags out of evil plastic sacks and make things we need right now out of things we thought we were finished with.

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This all may seem like tiny drops in the big, huge world bucket—but doing something always beats doing nothing. So, because we honestly really love this place, this pretty, little planet…we choose something

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and it feels very right.

{ Embrace }

Lyndi's Cruise Pictures (58)

“…Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”

– Charles Swindoll

Ooooh August

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I set my beautiful, See’s Butterscotch sucker down…while I ran in the store…

just for a second I tell you.

sigh…

Pretty sure it’s hot outside.