Taught by Tomato

Our vegetable/herb garden not only produces lovely green peppers, basil, parsley and several varieties of tomatoes but it has taught Jackson how to care and nurture something.
He helps weed and water on a weekly basis.
It has taught him his colors as he waits for the tomatoes on the vine to ripen.
He tries to be patient while he stares at the in between tomatoes resting on the window sill. He checks every day, if not several times a day, to see if they have turned a bit more red.
It teaches him how to be gentle as he places each tomato into his basket to carry back into the kitchen. Even tiny leaves of basil are sometimes carried directly to the kitchen counter with great reverence.
But to learn that the results of his hard work are so tasty in his spaghetti dinner may be the biggest pay off.
Caring for a growing garden - a classic learning tool.
I highly recommend it.
What did you grow this year?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I was never thrilled to have to weed in the garden. It was particularly unfun when it was hot or wet or buggy, but I loved having helped grow food. And looking back, it seems one of the very significant memories. Gardens also smell wonderful and I guess the worms deserve a little something to eat too.
September 14, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grace

The boys say the best graces before dinner.  Yes, the boys. We have multiple graces at our mealtimes. Everyone wants a turn. Sometimes they are sing song, sometimes they are short and silly and sometimes they will melt your heart. The other day, Jackson was mid-grace and thankful for food and family and force fields. Yes, he ended his grace by asking if God could put a force field around our loved ones. I'm hope God is a Star Wars fan.
Read more

Eli Fletcher Copley

Things can change in an instant. Our baby boy was born Nov 9 at 10:35. He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces. He arrived three weeks early. But appeared to have enough poundage for a safe delivery. He arrived with quite a healthy cry. His healthy cry gave everyone a sigh of relief. We were thrilled to hear those healthy sounds. Eric stayed with him while the doctor finished my surgery. We would all meet up in the recovery room. When I was wheeled in to the recovery room, no one was there. I was told Eli had to be taken to the special care nursery because he had started grunting to get the fluid out of his lungs. Everyone remained positive. After an hour the nurses came back to explain he was not absorbing the oxygen he was receiving and they bumped his intake. Eventually they would put him on a cpap. He was taken to the NICU. By the end of the night he was put on a ventilator. Things can change in an instant. That night he was monitored and it appeared he was going to be able to be weaned ...
Read more

Saturday

Eli's numbers, machines, blood gases, pulse ox and oxygen rate have had no change. We have been told this is a good thing. While there have been no major improvements...there have been no further deteriorations. This is how we get closer to stable. The long term goal is to get him stable and then eventually wean him off his numerous medications and machines. But for now, we focus on the fact that his information stayed the same throughout the night. It is difficult to see him like this. Every time we visit him we want to scoop him up into our arms. It is impossible to believe that I have yet to hold my baby. But I know he is where he needs to be. Those machines are tiny miracles. The nitric oxide is our miracle. We have even heard the NICU nurses refer to Eli as The Nitric Baby. So far it appears as though the nitric is working to relax his artery. Our happiest moment came early this morning when we learned they had decided to start giving him small feeds of breast milk. We would ...
Read more