And what was said to the rose...

I have been blessed by the colors and smells of Spring. It brings great joy to me to think of the way God makes all things new. I am struggling with selfish emotions and a dislike for disciplining my children. (Being a stay-at-home Mom is hard work!) But, I am often praying and singing out there in the garden. God is working on my sinful heart. I think the garden is a place of renewal, showing me God's ever faithful plan for my heart and for His creation. God is speaking to my innermost thoughts and bringing my sin and selfishness out into the light. So much like He does to the flowers - from seeds to plant to harvest.

It reminds of the song "Here is Our King" by David Crowder with these lyrics:
From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground, From where ever searching comes to look itself
And what was said to the rose to make it unfold, Was said to me, here in my chest
A trace of what we're looking for, so be quiet now, and wait

We've been enjoying the spring temperature climb over the last couple of weeks. We spend most of our days outside, even meals (yeah! less sweeping and mopping the kitchen). The boys love bikes and trikes and ride them all over the yard all day. We've been doing a lot of gardening. Nathaniel has been a cheerful helper with all things concerning dirt. He picked out the seeds for the beets from the grocery store, since he was curious about beets. He wrote his own label for them and planted in them in rows. He even made me a "special plant mixture" containing mud, sand, water, and random pieces of wood and rocks he's found in the yard. He stirred and stirred his mixture to get it just right for the "plants to be healthy" so he says...

Our garden in the back has mostly vegetables - carrots, peas, onions, tomatoes, Nathaniel's beets, lettuce of various kinds, basil, watercress, and parsley. I planted seeds of most plants, but a few lettuce and tomato seedlings. Today we harvested lettuce for our dinner salad! I gave Nathaniel a scissors and some directions, and he became the proud "harvester!" In the front, we have pots of herbs, shrubs, beautiful lilacs, 2 clematis (on my homemade trellis like this), and I have holes waiting to be filled with flowers (they are free to us from our army-self-help store) when they are available. The soil here is light and easy to dig. It seems pretty fertile, since there are plants and trees of all kinds sprouting everywhere around us. I am so thrilled! We are going to be gone for most of May and maybe in July...but I will try to enlist the help of my neighbor and a timer-sprinkler to keep things going. If you live nearby, please come over and enjoy the plants and eventually the harvest =)!

I've included pictures of our gardening process, from start to present state. I had to put up a little fence to keep Josiah from trampling the new little sprouts with his tricycle, but otherwise everything is pretty natural. I used branches and fishing line for the peas to climb; it looks a bit like a spider web, but I think it will be efficient. My hope is that the garden will be pretty minimal expense and minimalist in appearance, but maximum harvest and maximum display of God's creation!

Enjoy spring and be blessed. I am sure God is at work on your heart, too, so keep in touch.