growing up

so pleased with how my tomatoes and sweet potato slips are growing . . . up, up, up! and look at those ducks; they are huge!

over the years i've been blessed to work with a wide range of people from different ethnicities, countries and walks of life. it's always interesting to hear about their lives as children, their traditions and how those backgrounds have shaped their lives as adults. i had a happy, blessed childhood. my 5 siblings and i were loved, well-tended and nurtured. we were expected to be polite, respectful and obedient. (some were more obedient than others. smile! ) growing up, we had a huge yard to play in and an equally large responsibility to weed the garden, harvest the vegetables, paint the fence posts, rake the leaves and do the dishes. to this day, i'm transported back to my childhood every time i hang clothes on the line or mix up a batch of pie dough. summer twilight found us playing kick the can or hide and seek. sunday mornings we often joined our numerous farmer family cousins in a rousing chorus of "brighten the corner where you are" front and center in church. life was wholesome and healthy and safe. blessed. and i thank god for every moment of it every day of my life.