138 Days ’til 40: Unexpected Blessings and Surprises

 

Often the best surprises, the ones that can touch us the most, are the ones that come in completely unexpected places or unexpected ways. Today, we had one of those surprises at home – GRAPES!

When we were walking into our apartment building this afternoon, the girls called out to me, “Mom, look, TONS of grapes!” They were right. Growing on a vine that had wrapped itself around a tree in our driveway were tons of grapes. The grapes came from our old neighbor’s yard and decided to give us a visit. The neighbor was an older gentleman who loved to tend his garden and he had many gorgeous flowers, grapes and other produce he nurtured daily. When he lived there he always pruned back the garden and kept it very pretty. The new renters do not care about the property – nothing is taken care of or pruned back properly. As a result, this grape-vine from next door decided to visit us. It grew onto the tree in one yard and then the vine continued to grow across a branch into our yard. Today we picked over 8 kilos (17+ pounds) of these grapes – three huge grocery bags.

Now we are really going to have fun! These grapes are ripe, really ripe – so we will be sharing our discovery with our friends and neighbors over the next few days before the grapes all whither and turn into raisins (not so great, as these ones have seeds!) Our next door neighbors were so excited to get the grapes – it is so fun to get to share our surprises with others!

Today, 138 days ’til 40, I am thankful for the surprise gifts from nature – they made my entire family smile today!

~400daystil40