Growing in the kitchen

This sprout-grower has given me many moments of happiness this month.  I love having things grow in my kitchen (things I want to have growing that is).  Between these sprouts, the yogurt-maker and the bread machine, I can almost have a whole meal developing on my counter-tops while I'm off doing something more fun!

This week has had plenty of frustrating events (mild in the grand scheme of things, I know, but still)...  There have been many, many spills (an entire bag of popcorn kernels, several cups of dry oats, 2 bottles of spices in my spice drawer, red paint all over the floor, ETC.!); many thwarted schoolwork attempts (including this project failure); and many, many occasions in which disobedient children needed attention. 

(Miles singlehandedly has provided my exercise regimen for the week.  He repeatedly and carelessly disobeys to the point that I have to take him upstairs to his crib.  But if I leave him there for longer than 3 minutes, he tries to take a nap, which would mean disaster for our night-times.  So I go up and down the stairs approximately 36 times each morning.)

So watching the little green sprouts in my kitchen just easily growing up nice and straight -- without even having to repeat myself -- gives me bright spots in the midst of the other little storms of the day.

I read in my Bible study book recently about how the greatest growth in our lives takes place in times when we're feeling the heat, so I guess it's possible that even I myself am "growing in the kitchen" -- since it seems I spend most of my time in that room, and inevitably the crises follow me there.  I think I could learn a thing or two from the sprouts, though.  My growth pattern is not nearly so simple and upward.  How I wish it was!