Wednesday  August 26, 2015  DESIGNS OF INCREDIBLE WONDER

As my regular readers know, my husband and I have been given the gift of two wonderful days with our two grandsons (who find us quite boring at times).  Today was one of those wonderful days.  Our friends, Sherrie and David, brought their identical twin grandsons (mirror twins) to meet us at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison.  Olbrich is truly a beautiful garden, a combination of God’s miraculous creation and man’s artistic eye.  Whoever designs the flower bed of this garden is very talented.  When walking through the gardens it’s as if you are in many different gardens.  I have a few pictures I plan to upload on the site before I publish the blog.  Some are pictures of leaves that I thought were exquisite, others to show off some of the flower bed arrangements and others to show off my grandkids.

Some of the photos I plan to share were taken with my Iphone camera lens up against a kaleidoscope viewer looking down into a bowl of a variety of plants on a turntable.  If the turntable was turning it looked like a moving living kaleidoscope in action.  I took some of the photos through the viewer with the bowl of plants still.  I will put a few of them on the blog.  I also took some photos with my phone video camera and caught some unbelievable moving kaleidoscope designs of incredible wonder.

DESIGNS OF INCREDIBLE WONDER

By Kathleen Martens

August 26, 2015

No design is greater

Than what God has created.

Beauty of such splendor

Keeps my soul elated.

A simple flower fashioned

By God’s spoken command,

Unduplicated by man’s effort,

Through all time withstands.

Only God’s magnificence

Can create perfect attire

Such as what grows in a garden,

Year after year untired.

One little blossom

Expands itself untold.

The mystery of a tiny seed,

A marvel God unfolds.

The earth so full of wonder

Exquisite, delicate, fine.

A plan so meticulous

That man can’t cross the line.

So when my eyes behold

A gorgeous little flower,

It’s as if I’ve seen a miracle

And my faith renewed with power.

No thing quite as wondrous

As to view God’s amazing art.

Not only pleasing to the eye,

But sustenance to my heart.

I love it when my poems just come like the one above.  I hope you enjoy my walk in the garden today through this poem.

My friends grandsons are Ali and Yusuph.  Yusuph looked up at his grandma while we were walking in the garden and said “it takes three things for a flower to live, WATER, SUNSHINE, AND LOVE”.  Only a five year old has such beautiful wisdom.

We had a beautiful wonderful day and a great big meltdown when we arrived home.  Xander fell asleep in the car.  It was dinnertime and we did not want him sleeping through dinner and then staying up until midnight, so we got him out of the car and “helped” him wake up.  He was not a happy camper.  He did finally calm down, ate a reasonable amount of dinner and has been his sweet little self since then.  This is the first time he has ever had a meltdown when he has been here, and we know most of it was our cause due to waking a tired baby (3 year old) up from a perfectly wonderful nap.  This is movie time and is always like the greatest treat that could ever be.  And…to top it off, they have the promise of a fruit smoothie for snack before going to bed!  It will be Banana, coconut water, small amount of yogurt, and strawberries.  They will also eat a big hunk of peanut butter (my Amish kind ground fresh from honey roasted peanuts) to go with the fruit smoothie.  It is Zach’s favorite!  It makes for good kids with a promise like that to look forward to.  OH THE POWER OF WORDS!

Again I will repeat what I wrote in one of my recent blogs, God is so wise in designing young women to be the mothers of young children.  When someone asks me if I have any children, I enjoy answering, “No, I have no children, just two adults”.  I love having adults!  It took a long time to get them there. (Actually I now have “middle aged” adults”.  Eee-gads)!

Dave is gone on his Wednesday night ministry meeting.  The boys are showered and settled in the living room enjoying the video, and I am here in the sun room writing my blog, half listening to what is going on in the adjacent room.  I can see both the T.V. and the boys from where I sit.  I do not want you to think I am being neglectful.  I may be older, but I still know the shenanigans of little kids.  And…the eyes in the back of my head are still in working order!

Tomorrow their mom and dad will pick them up!!!!!  I plan to have soup and salad and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.  Tomorrow is also food delivery day so I know it will be a busy Thursday.  And Friday…I, no make that we, COLLAPSE!  We’ve already decided not to attend what we thought we might go to tomorrow night.  What’s that old saying, that “when you get old your back goes out more than you do”!

I thank God for a perfectly delightful day.  I hope all of you took time out today  to do something you enjoy doing.  I absolutely love gardens and it made it extra fun to see it through the eyes of little people.  Zach wants to go back tomorrow.  Who knows, maybe we will.

Good night.