Happy (belated) Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

A few weeks ago my parents celebrated 34 years of marriage. I cannot believe it, and I'm so proud of them. To have a model of godly marriage lived out before me is such a blessing that I do not take for granted.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for loving each other. I praise God for you both.

Being an Aunt

Even though Easter has already come and gone, my sister Rebekah posted several pictures of her family on Facebook, and I just had to share them. I just love my nieces and nephews so much, and I'm so proud of my sister and Bryan for how they are raising their children. 

If anything, being an aunt provides a bit of perspective. I think, as a parent, it must be hard to see change from day to day. You're too in the middle of raising them. Often I hear parents say, "One day I blinked, and my children were grown!" Aunts, on the other hand, get to watch the progress more gradually... and, like grandparents, we get to see all the good things without having to deal with the bad. Ha!

But anyways... here are some of the pictures of Micah, Nathan, Chloe and Jane taken this past Easter Sunday.

I won't lie. I love this picture. Rebekah said Jane was having an especially difficult day, because she hadn't had her nap yet. Isn't she adorable (in a tragic sort of a way?!) 

Here's Bryan with his boys.

The kids have several aunts and uncles, actually. Five uncles and four aunts, to be exact! Here are my sister Anna and my brother Luke. :)

A bit of a view of the front yard. At the house there are chickens, horses, llamas, cats... and much else, I'm sure! What a fun way to grow up.

Poor, tragic, sweet, adorable Jane. 

Bryan with his girls!

The four kiddos

The boys

Gardening

This year I have embarked on this wonderful adventure called square gardening. Have you ever done it before? I haven't, and thus... here I am - a novice attempting to grow a garden in a desert climate. Ha! So, a friend told me that the best approach to gardening is as an adventure. She said not to expect anything, and just maybe you'll be surprised. What a downer, huh? But I appreciated her honesty, and it has helped me not set myself up for a disappointment. So, down to the nitty-gritty....

 an example of a square garden

As the soil in Colorado is poor and our backyard is fully concrete, I have opted for a few "squares" - wooden bins that are filled with dirt, like in the picture above. They are about 5 ft x 4 ft and about 6 in deep. Why did I pick those measurements? Well, I didn't. The wood was pre-sized that way, and hey, beggars can't be choosers. To allow for drainage onto the concrete, Jody drilled holes throughout the bottom  and the gardens rest upon bricks above the ground. So we had to get a bit inventive.

Financially, it was minimal. I am so grateful. The wood we got from the scraps behind the house. The dirt was a gift from a friend (Who knew that usually you have to PAY for dirt?!) And so all that was left for me to buy were exciting things like a trowel, gardening gloves and a watering can. I mean, you're not officially a gardener without one, right?! And then there was the purchasing of the seeds. A few were gifts from the Englewood garden. The others I bought, and what fun I had selecting them!

Bell peppers.

Jalapenos.

Zucchini

Spinach

Carrots

Tomatoes

Herbs... cilantro. basil. parsley.

And so, on April 21, Jody and I decided to plant our seeds. The tomatoes, peppers and herbs inside. The others outside. What an act of faith! It launched me on a deep internal dialogue between God and me about faith, about planting and harvesting. Now I know why the Lord made such parallels; they make total sense to me after embarking on this experiment.

But then it sleeted. And snowed (the end of April?!). And then the next day it would be so windy that the beds would completely dry out. I had no idea if I'd killed them all. Then, at work, everyone told me, "You're never supposed to plant before Mother's Day. Didn't you know?" Ha. Nope, didn't know that.

And then yesterday, what did I see?

Little sprouts!!!!!