First Signs of Spring

I'm so excited for spring to be here! Usually it's about halfway through spring before I feel this way, once I see the daffodils and tulips in full bloom.

I think I've just been more cooped up than usual, with not wanting to bring Grace into the cold weather. During a typical winter, Luke and I will still do lots of outside activities, such as hiking and ice fishing. This past year, however, it feels like we've been in hibernation mode- we didn't go ice fishing once!

So, I've been long overdue for serious outdoor time, and this past week I finally got it. We've been enjoying lots of time outside going for walks and getting our balcony garden organized. I was cleaning out some rubbish in my herb garden when I noticed our first element of green- chives! Yup, my trusty chives have come back yet again.

If you don't have a green thumb, plant chives. They're practically impossible to kill and come back every year with absolutely no effort required- a real ego booster!

We also have a mysterious sprout coming out from our orange tree pot. I'm not sure if it's a growth from the orange tree or an out-of-place seed, but time will tell.

A hint of good things to come!

 

Chives are seriously the easiest thing to grow.

They come back effortlessly every year!

 

Our mysterious sprout.

It might be part of the orange tree, but I'm thinking it might be a sunflower

from our bird feeder. We shall see!

 

 

Spring, as a season, is very encouraging and inspiring for Christians everywhere. Of course we celebrate Christ's resurrection, but I also love how spring reminds us that:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:

old things are passed away;

behold, all things are become new."

2 Corinthians 5:17

Dead-looking brown straw will become lush green grass, my hydrangea bush (currently a collection of twigs) will produce gorgeous blue blossoms with emerald leaves, and pea tendrils will curl out of brown soil in a tangle of sprouts. These reminders of life will "spring" out of what previously looked dead.

Food for thought for Christians- do people look at your life and see a "new creature"? Can people tell that you are "in Christ" or do you look and act like a pile of dead grass?

Keep Growing!
Jen

A Frosty Fog

If you were able to spend sometime outside yesterday morning in Northeast Wisconsin, (or if you were forced to drive somewhere- eek!) you got to check out a unique occurrence- a foggy winter morning.

A few years ago this winter fog happened; I remember it well, because Luke and I were driving to his parents' house when we passed a woods that was glittering with ice on every branch. It looked like something out of a movie, and I convinced him to pull over so I could snap a few pictures. When I woke up yesterday and saw the fog, I knew I had to grab my camera and go for a frigid walk. The cold was well worth the scenery. Here's a few highlights- enjoy!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The frost coated each blade of grass.

 

 

 

You can see a hazy sun trying to poke through the branches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the bird's nest in the middle of the tree? I'm sure it's long gone

for the winter.

 

 

 

 

 

These poor birds weren't able to fly south before the fog hit.

 

 

"By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened." Job 37:10

 

 

Stay warm!

Jen

 



A Week in the Life of Cichlids

This week I found out that fish and humans are pretty similar. Read to the end for details...

I’ve been spending more time inside lately than ever before, since Grace makes it a little tricky to leave the apartment without three armfuls of accessories. That’s no excuse for not updating this blog, though, because Luke and I have brought a little of the outdoors inside.

Luke has spent a lot of time perfecting his African cichlid aquarium, and it’s one of the most entertaining spots in our apartment. Fish tanks have the reputation for being…well…blah. Let’s face it- fish don’t play fetch, roll over, or chase red laser dots. HOWEVER, our fish are definitely not boring; they're busy little bees during the week.

Below shows you a typical week in the life of our African cichlids. Luke cleans the tank every Saturday, and recently he leveled the sand as well. By week’s end, the cichlids had rearranged it to a setting more to their liking. It's remarkable to see how efficiently they can arrange the sand to create tunnels, hills, and hiding spots.

Day 1: Saturday

(Excuse the cloudy water- Luke had just finished cleaning the aquarium.)

 

As you can see, the sand is fairly level throughout the bottom.

 

 The sand is level, and the rocks are clean. That won't be the case later on!

 

 

Day 2: Sunday

So much changed on Sunday that I took pictures in the morning and again in the evening.

Sunday Morning

 

Sunday Morning

 

Sunday Evening- The front hill has become sizably larger.

Sunday Evening- Not as huge of a change here,

but the side hill is starting to get larger as well.

 

Day 3: Monday

The aquarium light is off, so the lighting makes things look a bit different.

 

 

The hill is about the same, but you can see the sand starting to pile up on the plants. This also is a decent picture of our loach.





 

Day 4: Tuesday

The hill in the front continues to grow. Here you can see a few of the cichlids. The yellow one is a bumblebee cichlid, the blue one is a pindani cichlid, the darker one is a peacock cichlid, and the gray one is a female fairy cichlid.

 



Day 5: Wednesday

Just a little bigger...

 

Day 6: Thursday

The peacock cichlid is out front, adding on to the hill.

 

 

Day 7: Friday

 

Sand has been tossed onto the plants and rocks.

The fish have finished their hill. They've also dug out underneath the rocks

all the way to the bottom of the aquarium.

 

 

So, to recap:

 

 

    

 

 Day 1                                                Day 7

 

Not bad for a week's work!

 



It's amazing how hard the fish work to arrange the sand structure, and how easily it is destroyed. It definitely reminds me of when Jesus talks about the importance of a strong foundation. Jesus says when we hear the truth, but choose not to act on it, we are building on a foolish, "sand foundation." Just like these fish, all of our "good" works will easily wash away, regardless of how hard we work to keep them.

 

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

 

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Matthew 7:26-27

 

However, the rocks in our aquarium stay in the same place all the time. Just like Jesus- He's our unchanging Rock. We can trust Him; not our good "sand" works! What we try to do ourselves will just collapse around us.

 

What foundation are you depending on?

 

Have a fishy day!

Jen

 

 



Grace is Born (Well, for the first time at least!)

My blog has been a bit quiet lately, as my little one arrived! Just 5 hours short of her due date, Grace Jean Cortright made a prompt appearance into the world. Luke and I couldn’t be more overjoyed.

I have to spend at least one blog post talking about Grace, since becoming a mom is one of the biggest events in my life. Grace’s birth is also the perfect timing to talk about a subject more personal and meaningful to me than anything else- the biblical idea of being “born” and being “born again.” I know that this is a somewhat taboo topic, but with Grace having just gone through her first birth, it’s been on my mind a lot.

The idea of these two births comes from John 3. A man (Nicodemus) comes to Jesus and tells him that he knows that God is with Him. Jesus then answers by saying, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This stumps Nicodemus. He knows that he’s been born once, but the idea of a second birth makes no sense to him. He asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb, and be born again?”

John 3:5-6

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Now, flashback to Grace’s birth. I went into labor late Sunday evening into Monday morning. I had been going through mild contractions for many hours when my doctor decided to break my waters. That was the most unique experience of my life. I won’t go into the gory details of water breaking, but let me assure you- when Grace was born, she was born “of water.” Lots of it. All over the place. The first birth that Jesus talks about here is being born “of water.” Nicodemus must also have understood that the first birth was referring to a physical first birth, since he doesn’t question that aspect of what Jesus says.

 

Someday, though, I hope that Grace will be born again. No, I’m not hoping for her to crawl back into my womb (like Nicodemus proposed). Once was enough for that. She’s already been born of the flesh; eventually, she’ll need to be born of the spirit.

Right now, Grace has a dead spirit. That sounds incredibly strange, given the amount of time she spends wiggling and crying, but it’s true! She has a soul and a body, but she has a God-shaped hole in her heart. Someday, when she’s old enough to understand spiritual ideas, I hope that she will recognize that she has sinned (hey, we all have, after all!), that there is such a place as hell, and that she doesn’t have to go there if she accepts Christ as her savior. When she does this, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of her. She has a spiritual birth!

I know this is a tricky and complicated subject. Feel free to email me, comment on this blog, or contact me whichever way works best for you if you have any questions.
 

Grace- 5 pounds, 11 ounces. Sunny- 8.5 pounds.

 

Grace trying to eat her towel after her first bath.

Quality time with dad.

This is her favorite activity...

As is this...

But sometimes she wakes up....

And she's a happy little girl! 

 

A Local Marsh with an Exotic Twist

 

This past weekend, I went out with the family to a waterfowl preserve in Oconto, WI. Along the way, we encountered a plant very familiar to our area.

 

This plant grows everywhere, and it is especially prevelant along the edges of Highway 41 or 29. It's taken over many different areas, but until recently, I had no idea what it was. I always just thought it was a pretty, marsh-y reed. Its scientific name is phragmites australis, but it's better known as a phragmite (or common reed). You can read more about it here. And, like so many plants in our area, it does not naturally come from Wisconsin, or even the United States.

Scientists think that they came from the Middle East, and now they have spread to North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

They grow to be quite large. Here's the head of the plant compared to my hand.



The Wisconsin Wetlands Association is concerned; not only do these plants spread like wildfire, but they are drowning out cattails, which ARE native to Wisconsin. Even worse, they cause a greater fire risk than other plants. You can read more about how they are observing and containing this problem at their website.  This website also gives great information about how to identify the native versus non-native species.

At the marsh, we were able to see this problem growing before our eyes.

By this pond, the phragmites were definitely outnumbering the cattails.

 

 

They are beautiful plants, however, and we enjoyed our afternoon outside. We will only have a few more days like this before the snow flies!

 

 

 

 

 

This goldenrod wasn't ready to admit that winter is coming.

 

 







Of course, my blog post wouldn't be complete without tying it in to a biblical topic in some way. This one was easy, since reeds are mentioned frequently in biblical times. Whether being used for arrows, baskets, measuring sticks, roofing, or pens, reeds were a frequent tool in both the Old and New Testament.