The Sowing of Seeds

This weekend marked the very beginning of our journey towards

a fruitful and abundant crop come the sunset of summer.

Of course, being the honest blogger I am, I should insert here that

all previous house plants and gardens under my care have suffered a similar fate

 as any craft that has been started by my hands...

Take for example this cross stitch project, started with great enthusiasm in the fall of 2003. I even bought a ratchet frame, as to ensure ease of stitching on blustery winter evenings by the non-existent fireplace in my home. It was to be such a cozy, housewife-ish past time....

Since July's bunny is the only (half-done) representation of this twelve month sampler begun eight years ago, you can understand my misgivings about a flourishing garden by one summer's end.

With each new year comes not only renewed hope for overcoming my poor follow-through tendencies, but also (and more importantly) sense that this is an important part of parenting our children. My husband and I both feel it important to teach our children to learn to be sensitive to the fact that it is God who lovingly provides all things, and at the same time, know how to work hard with at least a small knowledge of how to live off the land. We hope that the sowing of the fact that hard work is a part of life will reap benefits for them in their adulthood. I hope we will all find satisfaction in the rewards of our small labors in this garden. (Please, dear God, let at least one tomato plant survive under my green thumb!!!)

We began with the yogurt containers we saved through the winter, which I pierced at the bottom for drainage and gathered the helpers for the soil dispensing and seed sowing.

Tomatoes and peas are planted, the peppers, corn, cucumbers and melons will be forthcoming.

We shifted the chicken run area to the back of the barn, and brought out the real manpower to break up the earth next to the coupe where the garden will be planted.

The blackberry bushes have been trimmed and tied up.

Their blooming buddies, the Strawberries, are already showing signs of life

underneath their scrawny branches.

The chickens enjoyed a little free-range time this afternoon. We most often refer to them as 'the ladies'. Our four year old will go out to gather eggs and I'll hear him exclaim, "Why hello, ladies!". I truly cannot imagine eating any one of our current flock. Particularly the ones named after my parents. How would that be for a traumatic dinner...'Children, i present to you MAMAW!!! Dig in, don't leave any skin on the bones!!!'.

We did eat the ducks...but that was easy, as they were bullying 'Papaw', nearly pecking her to death. Those darn ducks deserved to be roasted! Allrecipes.com came through yet again.

As I'm writing this, I think back to my early twenties, when I sure my future held marrying a Senator and hosting myriads of elegant dinner parties while our au pair watched the two boys I was going to have. How God must shake His head at our notions...not in a condescending way, but with a loving, knowing smile. He knows how considerably more FULFILLING His plans are for us. Fulfilling us in ways we did not even suspect there was a hole, a gap or a longing. Sometimes letting fog linger for longer than we would like, until the time was 'just right' to blow it away. Clarity usually comes with retrospect.
Looking back, while there are still plenty of foggy areas, I can clearly see how much better the road HE led me down was than the one I envisioned going.

As I'm typing, I hear my husband praying upstairs with the children. As he's trying to get through it, various children call out for extra prayer requests and this one stood out...

"Dad...pray that Jesus will make a back seat in my Jeep"

(His 'used' battery operated, beat up jeep that we found along the road started loosing it's luster when he saw his best friend's double-seater one last summer). It should be interesting to see how Jesus answers that one. One thing for sure, He is creative!

Well, I'm off to enjoy the post-children's bedtime part of the evening with my one and only. Last night by 8:30 he was snoring erratically beside me on the couch, and I was leaning against my heating pad thumbing through a magazine. Hardly life on the edge, but a life held dear nonetheless.

***

I am thankful for the seeds we sowed this weekend... for the ones we took out of the Burpee envelopes and for the ones we unknowingly dropped into the wells of the miniature, but mighty hearts and minds we tend to every night and day.

Goodnight!