A Season of Growth
A year and a half ago we arrived to a home I felt led to. With a heap of "issues" upon our arrival in the dead of winter with two kids and a baby, I never second guessed my choice in encouraging our family out of our new construction home in suburbia and into an 1837 farmhouse in the country. I just knew the move was more than having a pond, land, and a big front porch...there was something awaiting us that time could only reveal and only God knew about. Over the past year I have shared about the challenges that arose with home projects as well as unexpected complications from surgery my husband had in the fall.
That chapter shaped each member of our family in various ways which is why we are experiencing and appreciating this year differently than we did the last. A text my husband, Aaron, sent me last night, while he was up at the barn, stopped me from what I was doing and made me realize our family is in another season of growth....
Bear.
Aaron has a beef with the groundhog up in our barn. The groundhog has likely been a long time resident based on his size. So we call him, Bear. You can't miss him when he comes out from a hole between the wall and the foundation. He sits up there on the hill proudly enjoying his view and dinner around 7PM. Every time Aaron sees him he tries to get him. Bear, however, is remarkably fast. More on Aaron and Bear in a minute....
The garden.
I don't like to talk about it and I have even told my friends when they come over not to even look up where it is...and I mean it when I say it. Aaron had said awhile back that even if we got a little something to grow it would be worth having planted the garden. I just kinda grumbled because I felt like I was failing. I felt like it was one more project I couldn't follow through on and it has irked me since the day the rain started and seemed to have never ended.
With everything, tools and all, packed up because of the fire that occurred in the garage, I kinda just told myself to let it go...that this wasn't going to be our year for a garden like I had so wished for in the early Spring....but when you use the method of "plant and pray" I guess I should have known God would show up and he would teach me a little something, too.
Back to Aaron and Bear.
While Aaron was waiting on Bear to come out of the barn again, he started looking around in our garden. At this point I think Bear is probably watching Aaron from back inside the barn or already asleep from his dinner-ha! Anyways, Aaron saw some of the flowers on the cucumber plants and didn't think much of it until he saw a good sized one and then another...and another...and another...and so many more. He texted me to tell me there were cucumbers to get and I hit reply and asked if it was really worth getting the kids all riled up when they had just settled down for bedtime. With country internet, or lack there of, I heard a thump on the back door and Aaron was standing there with his arms full of cucumbers and his rifle. What a sight.
Like I said before. I had written the garden off. Deemed it a failure. When the kids saw the amount of cucumbers and heard that there were still more out there, boots flew on and we all ran out the door. While we might have had to wade through some tall grass, the excitement to see what was under those big leaves under the dusky sky led us on a scavenger hunt. The kids were so up beat, proud of what they planted and told me that it was okay that the garden wasn't picture perfect. They talked about how they couldn't wait to come back the next night to see how many more would be ready to pick.
We brought our basket of cucumbers, an onion and a hand full of beans into the house. The kids orchestrated a system of washing and drying. While there at the sink with all three kids, Landen looked up at me with the sweetest eyes and said, "Mom, we're finally farmers now." While I would never tell him my opinion of how far we are from being farmers, he felt that we accomplished something monumental...and he can sometimes be a bit of a negative nelly....but not last night...last night he achieved something great.
While Landen was basking in his monumental moment, I had no idea he was about to say something that would make my heart grown two sizes. Landen was never a fan of moving here and was vocal about it. But after a year and a half and an arm full of cucumbers, he climbed the stairs at bedtime and said to me that he loved living here and loved that we could have a big garden that would feed our family.
I rarely say this (ha!), but Aaron was right. He was right when he told me it would be worth having planted the garden if just a little something grew....not only is our garden growing but we each have grown because of the garden. While sometimes we may feel as though God may not be present in our lives or in what seems like a small, insignificant situation, time often reveals He was in fact there the entire time.
xo
Danielle
That chapter shaped each member of our family in various ways which is why we are experiencing and appreciating this year differently than we did the last. A text my husband, Aaron, sent me last night, while he was up at the barn, stopped me from what I was doing and made me realize our family is in another season of growth....
Bear.
Aaron has a beef with the groundhog up in our barn. The groundhog has likely been a long time resident based on his size. So we call him, Bear. You can't miss him when he comes out from a hole between the wall and the foundation. He sits up there on the hill proudly enjoying his view and dinner around 7PM. Every time Aaron sees him he tries to get him. Bear, however, is remarkably fast. More on Aaron and Bear in a minute....
The garden.
I don't like to talk about it and I have even told my friends when they come over not to even look up where it is...and I mean it when I say it. Aaron had said awhile back that even if we got a little something to grow it would be worth having planted the garden. I just kinda grumbled because I felt like I was failing. I felt like it was one more project I couldn't follow through on and it has irked me since the day the rain started and seemed to have never ended.
With everything, tools and all, packed up because of the fire that occurred in the garage, I kinda just told myself to let it go...that this wasn't going to be our year for a garden like I had so wished for in the early Spring....but when you use the method of "plant and pray" I guess I should have known God would show up and he would teach me a little something, too.
Back to Aaron and Bear.
While Aaron was waiting on Bear to come out of the barn again, he started looking around in our garden. At this point I think Bear is probably watching Aaron from back inside the barn or already asleep from his dinner-ha! Anyways, Aaron saw some of the flowers on the cucumber plants and didn't think much of it until he saw a good sized one and then another...and another...and another...and so many more. He texted me to tell me there were cucumbers to get and I hit reply and asked if it was really worth getting the kids all riled up when they had just settled down for bedtime. With country internet, or lack there of, I heard a thump on the back door and Aaron was standing there with his arms full of cucumbers and his rifle. What a sight.
Like I said before. I had written the garden off. Deemed it a failure. When the kids saw the amount of cucumbers and heard that there were still more out there, boots flew on and we all ran out the door. While we might have had to wade through some tall grass, the excitement to see what was under those big leaves under the dusky sky led us on a scavenger hunt. The kids were so up beat, proud of what they planted and told me that it was okay that the garden wasn't picture perfect. They talked about how they couldn't wait to come back the next night to see how many more would be ready to pick.
We brought our basket of cucumbers, an onion and a hand full of beans into the house. The kids orchestrated a system of washing and drying. While there at the sink with all three kids, Landen looked up at me with the sweetest eyes and said, "Mom, we're finally farmers now." While I would never tell him my opinion of how far we are from being farmers, he felt that we accomplished something monumental...and he can sometimes be a bit of a negative nelly....but not last night...last night he achieved something great.
While Landen was basking in his monumental moment, I had no idea he was about to say something that would make my heart grown two sizes. Landen was never a fan of moving here and was vocal about it. But after a year and a half and an arm full of cucumbers, he climbed the stairs at bedtime and said to me that he loved living here and loved that we could have a big garden that would feed our family.
I rarely say this (ha!), but Aaron was right. He was right when he told me it would be worth having planted the garden if just a little something grew....not only is our garden growing but we each have grown because of the garden. While sometimes we may feel as though God may not be present in our lives or in what seems like a small, insignificant situation, time often reveals He was in fact there the entire time.
xo
Danielle
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