Growing Gardens and Children

Hello, friends.

I realized, I've gotten a little lazy with writing.  It's become quicker and easier to write up a quick FB post and be done with the thought.  So, I figured today, I'd try and share an actual blog post.  (I'm squeezing this in as my husband helps get kids to bed...)

We're in the thick of summer around here.  That time period where the fun of summer is starting to take it's toll.  I'm also in the thick of Motherhood, where I have both older kids and little babies, and I expend every ounce of energy on them and on maintaining the household every single day.

Every day, I roll the stone up the hill.  And every day, I wake up to the same tasks needing to be redone.

It's exhausting.

One of the fun projects I did this summer with the children is we started a garden.  It was spur of the moment.  On Memorial Day I grabbed some seeds from Home Depot on a whim and by the afternoon, the kids and I were busy turning the incredibly rocky, clay soil of one corner in our yard.

It was hot that day.  I remember after the first two shovels full thinking "what have I gotten myself into."  I also thought of my master gardener father who I watched turn soil every night after work....How much harder the work was to do than to watch being done by someone else!

We did managed to get the soil turned and the flower seeds planted, just in time for a three-week long monsoon that graced Western Pennsylvania this summer.  It was wild and wonderful, however, it washed away a majority of the seeds.

So, I decided to buy more seeds and even threw in a few bulbs that I found on clearance and see what happened.

I also made several trips to a park the next town over to haul home some free compost offered by the city.

It made a big difference.  

Between the constant rain, intermittant sun, and the added nourishment to the soil, my garden emerged.

The animals noticed as well and started to make nightly visits to my garden.  We put up a deer fence and then a rabbit fence.

I now have flowers in abundance.  And my kids, Honor especially, and I have spent many precious moments enjoying and marveling at the emergence of each leaf, stem, bud, and flower...every butterfly, bird and bug.

I said to my husband and kids, "Who could have envisioned the beautiful garden that would emerge while we were turning over the rock hard soil that hot, hot day in May?  Or when the seeds initially washed away?  Who would have predicted the joy this little garden has brought us?  Yet, had we not taken that action in faith, had we not put in the work then, we would not have the beautiful flower garden that we enjoy today."

This is so much my parenting experience right now.  

I am turning over the soil, hauling in nourishment, guarding against innocent-looking beings that would destroy my crop...thanking God for the heaven-sent rain...and doing it day after day...with the hope that one day we will experience a similar joyous outcome in our children as we have in our garden.

Until that day, I work and pray with relentless, albeit exhausted spirit.  (And that's pretty much why there have been way less blog posts here...but perhaps that will change!)