Thoughts on Mowing

Our back yard has a definite slope to it, and our lot is not square.  I know these things about our yard, and I appreciate them for different reasons, but when it comes to mowing the back yard, the odd shape of the lot drives me crazy!  I like the nice neat lines the lawn mower creates, but it takes some creativity to get them to line up neatly from any angle...not that I have too much energy to waste working on that!  

I like those nice neat lines for two reasons.  They look neat when I'm done, and when I'm in the process of mowing, they give me guidelines to follow; I can see where I've already been.  This morning, as the lawn mower was bouncing crazily over the roughest spots, and I tried to keep my lines straight, it struck me how much mowing my back yard has in common with my walk with God.  

We have trees in the back of our lot.  They are not evenly spaced by any stretch of the imagination, but they make excellent focal points nonetheless.  When I mowed uphill toward the back of the lot, I could fix my eyes on a tree, and no matter how crazily the mower was bouncing around, I could easily keep my lines straight.  Going downhill towards the house was easy going.  The mower still bounced over the rough spots, but it was downhill, and I felt like I could relax a little, at least enough to check on the kids playing on the back deck.  The problem came when I reached the bottom and turned around to go back up again.  The lines going up were as perfectly straight as I could make them, but the lines coming down were completely uneven and crooked, because I didn't have a focal point.

So I tried a new strategy.  Going uphill, I picked a tree to keep my eyes on, and going downhill I found something on the house or deck to focus on.  That worked pretty well, but looking back up from the bottom of the hill, again I could see crooked lines.  This time, the crooked lines were caused not by not having a focal point, but by taking my eyes off of the focal point to check on the kids or to throw a stick or rock out of my way.

I was reminded of Philippians 3:12-14.  "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Now don't get me wrong!  When mowing the lawn, it is important to throw sticks and rocks out of the way, and to check on the kids every now and then.  It's even okay to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and to relax a little on those downhill slopes.  Those actions, on the other hand, made me realize how often I focus too much on the things of this world and neglect "pressing on toward the goal."  

I spend a lot of time thinking about things like how to raise my children properly, how to teach them, what we are eating, and what needs done around the house, which are all good and necessary things to consider.  However, I should not be focusing on those issues to the point where I no longer have time or energy to read my Bible, pray, and "strain toward what is ahead".

It is hard work mowing uphill, and it is hard work following God's ways, but they are both made easier by keeping my focus in the proper place and on the right thing.  Often my walk with God is comfortable and easy, as is mowing downhill, but when I look back, I find that I have neglected something, or become complacent about something I shouldn't have. 

I need to apply these lessons I've learned today about mowing my back yard to my daily life, and do as Hebrews 12:2 says:  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  

When my eyes are fixed on Him, it doesn't matter how rough the ground is beneath my feet.  When my eyes are fixed on Him, the lines of my life will be as perfectly straight as I can make them.

Just like my back yard.

Not My Mother's Yogurt

I have never really liked yogurt.  Especially the homemade plain yogurt my mom used to make in the hotbox when we lived in Peru, South America (Sorry, Mom!).  So I simply avoided eating it.

When my two oldest girls were little, I used to buy them those special baby yogurts.  I figured that I should at least taste what I was feeding my kids, and what do you know?!?  They were pretty good!  I started buying yogurt for me, too, in all the fancy flavors I could find.  After a while, the girls were both eating yogurt at least once a day, too, and it was cheaper to buy them the same kinds I was buying for my husband and I.  When my youngest daughter graduated to eating "big people yogurt" too, it got to be a little bit expensive.  We were going through at least 25 yogurts a week, usually more, and the commissary doesn't carry any (cheaper) generic brands.

When I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes, and I had to pay attention to how many carbohydrates were in each thing I ate.  Just one of my favorite yogurts filled my entire quota of carbs for a snack, (and it was too many carbs for my breakfast), and I began to examine the label a little closer.  Sugar. Lots of sugar.

So I borrowed a little trick from a friend who is a registered dietitian and mother of four, and began mixing the sugared, flavored yogurts with plain yogurt for the kids' snacks.  Three scoops of plain yogurt for each kid, and one scoop of flavored came out perfectly.  We used only one yogurt a day (for the kids, anyway) and they no longer complained that their yogurt was too sweet.

When my husband deployed again, and I quit buying yogurt for his lunches, the kids and I started mixing other things into our plain yogurt for snacks.  We've had it with raisins, frozen fruit, honey, jam, brown sugar, and granola.  Most recently, our favorite way to eat yogurt is plain...and warm.  (I can hear you now..."Eww!  Warm yogurt?!?  That's disgusting!"  Bear with me...)

I was now buying plain yogurt in those two pound containers, and we were eating so much of it  that I was beginning (again) to question the cost, not to mention the fact that two times out of three the commissary was out of it when we needed it.  So I looked online and found a recipe for making yogurt in the crockpot.  And it actually works!  The first time I tried it, it was ready right at breakfast time, and all four kids practically inhaled their huge servings of warm yogurt, and then they asked for more.  Well, except for Mr. Adorable.  The only words he said the entire time were, "Mmmm.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.", and then finally he asked for more too.  "Mo, Mama!"

Yesterday I made it again in my new crockpot, but a double batch this time.  I had also found a recipe for vanilla yogurt, but it called for almost as much sugar as it did milk, so I decided to just try adding vanilla to the milk and see what happened.  I made the vanilla yogurt in my old, smaller crockpot.  I started both batches yesterday morning, and by 9:00 last night they were done.  I waited until 11:00 to put all the yogurt in jars, and I ran out of jars before I had emptied the crockpot of vanilla yogurt.  There was about 3/4 of a glass left over of the most liquid-y of the still-warm yogurt.

So I drank it.  It was so good that I mixed a little milk into another glassful of yogurt this morning for breakfast.

It is definitely not my mother's yogurt.