our garden: seedlings

A few days after we worked the soil, it was finally time to open all those packets of seeds!
While the crew enjoyed digging up the grass, collecting worms, and working the soil, this was the part they had long awaited.

The leader of the pack, obviously knowing more about plants with her two years of science experience at school, oversaw production.  She modeled proper seed planting techniques and came up with homemade plant markers using toothpicks and recycled paper scraps.

Everyone enthusiastically pitched in and with four sets of hands dropping seeds and creating identification markers, the actual planting went rather quickly.

Within a matter of about 30 minutes there were sugar pea, snow pea, pole bean, bush bean, Asian eggplant, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, beet, zucchini, two types of cucumber, and four types of tomato seeds safely deposited into two trays full of little seedling cups.

Next step, waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting some more for tiny green leaves to emerge from the soil.

our garden: preparing the soil

In anticipation of creating a garden, we started composting our fruit scraps and vegetable peelings about a year ago.  And with the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed in our home, we've built up quite the compost pile.  Over the months, that pile broke down to create some rich compost soil, which of course we shoveled and spread in the garden the first day.

But after Ian and Caleb shoveled all that was ready, we just didn't have quite enough...so off to Lowe's we ventured the next weekend to purchase a little extra.  After all, even kindergarteners and first graders learn that good soil is key to growing plants in science class!

I won't soon forget one of our emerging readers mistaking a few letters on one of the bags of moisture control soil and asking how dirt could control monsters...

No fear, the only monster in our yard that day was the monsterous amount of work that was done, moving bags of dirt, breaking them open, and then mixing our compost dirt with the "monster control" soil.

Our backyard should be monster free ~ but hopefully full of produce ~ all summer long!

Wordless Wednesday {our garden: collecting aerators}

our garden: cultivation

Long before we were the M6, when we were just a couple, Ian and I decided to do a little gardening in our backyard.  Our efforts at the old house weren't huge, but we did manage to provide ourselves with all the tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and snap peas we (and several of our neighbors) could eat for the summer.  

We had talked about having a garden again since we moved from our previous city.  But life...well, it happened...and we just never got around to it.  It simply wasn't high enough on our priority list.

Then we added the wee one to the family and a garden came back on our radar.  You could say growing some of our own food became more of a pressing need.  After all, nearly 70% of our grocery budget goes to produce, much of that thanks to a little guy with an amazing appetite for fruit and raw vegetables.

This spring we decided to go for it.  

I wish I had recorded the excitement the kids expressed the Saturday morning we announced our day's goal of creating a garden space in the back yard.  They were thrilled...but I have to suspect they had a different picture in mind for creating a garden.  We spent about four hours in the yard that day, without one seed involved ~ for that was the day we prepared the ground.

cul*ti*vate

to losen or break up the soil about (growing plants)

First item of business in setting up our garden made the kids question our methods.  They couldn't believe that we were going to dig up an area of perfectly good grass (with very few weeds and no dirt spots showing).

You see, we were blessed with a large back yard, providing plenty of space for the kids and our dog to run and play.  In the very center of that yard stands a huge pecan tree that gives shade in the summer.  But because of the shade canopy, there are only a few places in the yard that grass grows well...and the garden area was one of those spaces.

That day we attacked the sunniest corner of the lovely yard, tearing up a sizable area that grass actually grows.  The action seemed counterintuitive to the kids, so we found ourselves explaining that yes, while we were ripping the grass out of the ground, we were making way for a new, even more desirable, type of growth.

digging up the grass

And in that explanation, I found myself pondering some of the painful times in life.  Some of the times when I felt that life was beating me down.  Times that now, with time and distance, I can clearly see as cultivation.  I believe there were many times that I was being "broken up" in preparation for better things to come.

turning up soil

[For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.] ~ Psalm 66:10-12 (NIV)

And our yard is much the same.  We may have broken up some of our only good grass and left the area barren.  But we were getting the ground ready for new things to come...

just two wheels

It seems like just yesterday that he could barely reach the pedals on his new bike...

december 2011

...yet tonight I watched ~ and of course documented ~ a few adjustments that he and his daddy made to that bike.

Then, with just a hand to steady him as he started motion, he was off!

Tonight I stood in the same cul de sac, watching the same kid on the same bike...just minus two wheels.

We figured for a while now that he was ready, it's just that the right moment just hadn't presented itself.  Until today when he asked his buddy Elijah ~ a new two wheeler himself ~ if he could try to ride his bike.

That venture went amazingly well and then all my little one could talk about at dinner tonight was, "I ride  bike wif juss two wheels!  I no need train wheels now.  You take of my train wheels Daddy?  You take them off night?"

 We knew he was serious about his request when he asked if we skip going to get ice cream (family date night) so we could ride in the "cul sac."  There was almost mutiny before Ian promised to take the wheels off when we got home so he could show off his new skill tonight.

True to his word, even though dusk was falling when we got home, Ian and Daniel worked together to remove those training wheels.

And Daniel never looked back.

Guess my baby boy is growing up just as fast as the rest of them.

Sigh.

held

Ever had one of those days when nothing seems to go right?  When everything, even the smallest thing has you on the verge of tears?  When you just feel lousy all day?

I have them from time to time.

My littlest had one recently too.

For some unknown reason, he woke up on the weepy side of the bed that morning and from the second his eyes opened, he was on the verge of melting down all day.  Getting in the van to go to church, stopping at our favorite Mediterranean place for a quick lunch, choosing a game to play on the Wii...all were close calls with the tearful side.

Later that afternoon I ran to the grocery with my big girl for some rare one on one time.  While I was gone he reached his breaking point.  Ian said he had spent much of the time crying over the simplest things and eventually took himself to his room to "let it all out."

I wanted to hold him and try to quiet his heart, but in the moment he wasn't looking for consolation and brushed me off, preferring to sulk in his sorrows.  Hating to see him in that state of mind, I simply scooped him in my arms, despite his initial protests, and went to sit on the couch.  Ever so slowly the full body heaving sobs gave way to tears which eventually passed into sniffles.  As each stage subsided, I felt his little body relax and then before I knew it, he was sound asleep.

I closed my eyes and soaked in the moment...holding a sleeping child in your arms, this is really good stuff in this crazy role of motherhood.  Sure I had about 50 things that I could have been doing...laundry, meal planning, house work...but right then meeting the emotional needs of my child took top priority.  For that 45 minutes as I held him, drifting in and out of sleep myself, there was nowhere else that I wanted to be.

And just before he woke up, as I held him close, feeling the rhythm of his heart beating, and listening to Ian and the big kids doing experiments with eggs in the kitchen, I was washed again in the goodness of understanding the father's love for me.  I reflected on how He calmed my heart just a few days earlier in the midst of my struggling to hold it together as we wait for Natalie.

Just as I wanted nothing more in that moment to comfort and hold my child, so God wanted nothing more than to hold me in the midst of one of my tough days...it's what He wants in any of my tough days.

But lately, instead of stopping to rest in Him, to be held in His peace, I have pushed away with my distractions, with all I see in front of me that I feel I need to take care of.  What I just needed to do in those times is slow myself and be willing to be held.

Just as Daniel eventually calmed when he submitted to being held in my arms, so my soul was restored when I trusted Him and sought His peace instead of trying to manage on my own.

Now just to remember that lesson the next time my heart is troubled...

[Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. 4) Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.]  Isaiah 46:3-4 NIV

******************************************************************

I find it fitting that the same day He spoke into my heart and calmed my anxieties during this mind-numbing wait to get Natalie home is the day that our dossier was logged into the system.  We just found out that our log in date (LID) is April 25.  

Now we wait for our letter of acceptance (LOA ~ the official notice from her government that we will be allowed to adopt her).  This stage of waiting is currently running anywhere from 30 to 90 days.  At that point we reapply with the US immigration to ask for permission to bring Natalie into the country to become a US citizen.  From there the US consulate in China gets involved to give preliminary permission for her to receive a visa to enter the US upon her adoption.  And then we wait for our invitation to travel.  Best guess at this point is travel in 14 to 18 weeks.  Ever closer...

Jesus look-a-like

"Hey Mommy, Mommy.  Nook, nook at me.  I nook just like Jesus!"

love this kiddo and his imagination

Need help with that visual?

And there you have my little Lightning McQueen clad, old bicycle tire tube sash wearing, Asian Jesus.

...and that would be the hungry brother, finishing off his THIRD egg ~ after eating a full bowl of Life with yogurt, in the background.  hoping for some egg and cereal miracles that resemble the loaves and fishes.

See the resemblance?

I guess it's not so strong, so we'll just work on having our actions look more like Jesus instead.