Just Remembering the Past & Pondering on the Future

Tomorrow will be my youngest daughter's 36th birthday and my mother's 81st birthday.  It's funny how that happened ~ my daughter was born on her grandmother's birthday and I was born on my grandmother's birthday.  My twin grandsons came 11 days away from being born on my birthday which would have brought that birthday "thing" to 5 generations.
A lot of time has passed since my daughter's birth and many of my loved ones have left this life.  I wish that my in-laws were still here and could have met their 5 great-grandsons.  They would have enjoyed them so much.  My parents are still with us but my father has recently gone into a nursing home because his age (86) and several serious health conditions warranted 24 hour-a-day care which my mother and my 3 brothers and I could not give.  I never wanted to see my parents go from home into a nursing home situation but, after much wrestling with my conscience, I can see that it was needed.  Time passes quickly as you get older and you find that many things are beyond your control.
On to lighter subjects.....our garden is finally flourishing after several days of rain preceded by steamy hot weather.  Unfortunately, the weeds are thriving and I will be spending a lot of time tomorrow trying to remedy that situation.  I found the first tomato worms (Yuck) on my tomato plants today and time will be spent tomorrow stepping on big green worms that, if I let them go, would destroy our plants.
We tried organic gardening (no chemicals in the planting or maintenance of the plants and no chemical treatment of the seeds that the plants grew from) and it has been a slow growing process.  I guess that, because we don't use chemicals, it takes longer for them to grow but it will be worth it.  I hate thinking about the amount of chemicals in our food and water ~ no wonder the number of cancer cases increases steadily.  In this economy, it is very difficult to afford to buy organic food ~ the prices are at least twice what you would pay for genetically-altered or hybrid vegetables.  The cost of organic beef and chicken is exorbitant, too.  When will our FDA do what they're paid those big bucks to do ~ keep our food safe?  We are being poisoned and our government turns the other way.  I bet they eat organic food and not the garbage that we are forced to eat unless we raise it ourselves.  So sad......