In the Garden- Where My Thoughts Roam Free

 

In the mornings before any of my children wake up, I sit on my front deck and gaze out upon the beauty of God’s beautiful earth.  I gather my paper, my pens, my Bible and I sit before the Lord.  I watch His majesty as He displays it before me.  My eyes follow baby bunnies darting through the open patches and weeds as they play tag.  Then when they tire I gaze on in wonder as one little bundle of fluff stretches out in a sandy patch of ground, it’s little white belly stretched up to the morning sun, while his busy little feet kick sand up in great arcs.

My eyes go back to I Corinthians soaking in the powerful word of God.

I close my eyes and listen as hummingbirds defend their territory.  They twitter and buzz a few feet in front of me scolding one another.

I laugh.

I turn my gaze back to the Word.  Soaking up a bit more peaceful assurance, but my attention is once more pulled to the land before me.

 

 

My girls roam through the yard in search of breakfast, quietly eliminating bug populations,  the momma of the black capped chickadee family, that resides in our maple tree, is chattering, not shy in singing her praises to her Maker, and color explodes in front of me.

I am literally left breathless by this hint of His power and glory.

 

 

 

It soothes my aching soul. Tears of gratefulness replace tears of sorrow.

He fills me with His Presence, a comfort and strength, a power and might.  Giving me a glimpse of His glory, his goodness.  The beauty I see with my physical eyes is a smile, from the Lord, replacing the darkness with His Light.  It’s a cool drink, a balm, easing the pain of my bruised emotions.

 

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly

Lamentations 3: 22-26

 

So, I sit.

Quietly. Expectantly.

Soaking in the beauty of His love.

Green Excitement

I mixed things up a bit with my gardening plans this year.  Normally I use my raised beds for my tomatoes, but I’m never quite satisfied with doing the same thing over and over and over in my gardens.  I like to experiment and change things up.  So this year I decided to start my cold crops in one of my raised beds. 

In previous years I had to wait for the ground in the big garden to dry out enough for Joel to disk it.  Then I had to wait for Isaac to rototill it.  This isn’t such a big deal, but in spring it seems like the rains always keep the ground too wet to plant.  Plus this year with our 80+ inches of snow the ground was pretty wet, by the time it all melted.  I have always struggled in the past with getting my cold crops in early. 

Not this year!

This year I was able to plant on Easter weekend.  I had started my kale indoors and it was more than ready to go out.  So I stuck that in around the edges of the bed, built three stick teepees for my peas, and then filled in the rest of the space with lettuces, radishes, carrots, and swiss chard.

And Voila!

It has been a super happy spot and I didn’t require anybody’s help to boot.

 

 

Now I am gathering abundant amounts of Kale and radishes! This is my first year growing kale and I didn’t know what to expect taste wise, but it is so good! 

I have been slicing the kale up in strips( just like you would cabbage for coleslaw, removing the tough center ribs) and using it as the main green for our salads.  All of us like it, which makes me happy, happy since it is SO good for us.

 

 

Currently I have so much kale that I am going to dehydrate some to make kale powder, which I can than use all through the winter to add nutritional boosts to my sauces, meatballs, lasagnas, smoothies, etc.

 

 

My oakleaf and romaine lettuce are just starting to get big enough to pick, and I am super happy to add that to our salads.

 

 

The other item going crazy in my garden is my oregano. It is prolific!  Last year I took out a big portion of my main flower bed so that I could make an herb/kitchen garden.  This year I had Isaac dig out more of my flowers so that I could expand the herb garden.  My oregano is on its third year and doing super. I keep cutting it back and drying it.  I have already harvested two huge bowls full, so far.  I’m pretty sure this is going to end up as Christmas presents for all my sisters this year!

 

 

Little Sis and I have been super excited with all our green stuff.  Each day we go out to take a progress report.  Then we sample a bit here and a bit there.  We’re pretty much just like Peter Rabbit!