Peaches, Purslane, and Petunia!

Yesterday was a day of "Ps" if you will. First, I learned a new thing. I canned peaches. The whole 6-hour process was new actually, from picking up the peaches at a local market, to blanching them, peeling, slicing, filling the jars, and getting them cooking in my canner, all the while referring back to my "canning peaches" instructions, assisting my 2-year old with her art project, and occasionally getting her down from her chair when she yelled "pottyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" (That could be the 4th "P" if I wanted to be really cutesy.) You should have seen this kitchen, it was a disaster zone! But by 9:30 pm it was cleaned up, and I had 8 quarts of canned peaches plus 1 ziploc bag full to throw in the freezer. Mission accomplished.

Then my husband came home from work and immediately set forth on his mission: finding and transplanting some purslane into our yard. For those of you who don't know what purslane is, get ready for some new wrinkles in your brain (when I was a kid I thought that learning something new meant that you got more wrinkles in your brain). My husband's latest passion has been looking up information on edible plants in the wild. He loves learning survival skills, and I think his greatest dream in life would be to get dropped off in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness like he was on that Survivor Man show. He'd have to survive on fish caught with spears and squirrels caught in deadfall traps. He'd live in tents made of sticks and leaves, and start fires with a piece of flint and a rock. I guess I wouldn't really want him to be in the Alaskan wilderness though....I did see "Into the Wild." Not cool. Anyhow, he is becoming quite the expert on what you can or can't eat that comes from the wild, or your own yard! Purslane, for instance, is considered a weed here in America, although most countries eat it because it is one of the most nutritional greens there is! We're talking Omega-3s, Vitamins A & C, iron, magnesium, potassium and more beta-carotene than spinach. Apparently it's good every which way you can eat it: raw in a salad, cooked up in a soup, or even pickled! It also seems to be everywhere once you start looking. After picking it at the park, my husband has now transplanted it in several locations in our yard so we will have free salad greens for years to come. Don't tell him I was accidentally pulling it up as a weed in our garden....

And finally, Petunia came in the mail! It's not the official, finished version of my book, but it is the final proof, which in essence is a true representation of what my book will look like. It's also my last chance to catch any obvious mistakes before they send it to the printer for the official version (to be out soon, this fall!). For those who haven't seen it yet, here is a picture of what the cover will look like. I am thrilled with how my book has turned out! My illustrator has done an incredible job at capturing the "essence" of Petunia. It is a small book, thin, and paperback, and I have to say I'm glad of it. It's simple and sweet, with a big message, and I like it that way. After all, the Lord's message to me all summer has been simplicity, and although I've had a difficult time simplifying, I think I am finally getting it! At first I thought that I needed to simplify my outward circumstances-which is always a good thing, especially when you find yourself overloaded and stressed-but now I'm starting to see that God wanted me to simplify my faith in Him, and to simplify my overwhelming expectations of myself. To briefly explain, I'm a goal-oriented person, and this summer I've had a lot of personal goals that I've just, honestly, flopped on. I've felt constantly disappointed in myself, and unfortunately I've translated that into wrongly thinking that God is disappointed in me as well. NO!! God has reminded me of that damaging lie, and to simplify my faith is to remember that I can't earn favor with my Lord! He loves me in an unchanging, unconditional way, and even if I do fail myself I don't fail Him! I was saved by God's grace-by what's He's already done rather than by what I can do-and that grace doesn't end, I just need to keep walking in it!

I could expand on all that, but I'll save it for another day. For now, I'm just amazed at how God can use anything to get a message through, even a little character named Petunia that I wrote over a year ago! He is faithful and will bring to completion every good work He has begun in you! (Philippians 1:6) He has also been faithful to bring to completion this book. And maybe I did fail on a lot of my other personal goals this summer, but I did get my peaches canned. Also, I'm pretty excited about those free super-greens in the back yard. So all in all, I'd say it was a great "P" day.