In the Garden 6/21/22

 

It's only mid-June but already starting to feel like those late summer days - hot, sticky, never-ending. When I haven't been trying to plant all of our starts I've been inside trying to figure out how to feed everyone without turning on the oven or stove. This is the first time in a long time we've committed to a garden of significant size, the last time being maybe 2015? I honestly can't remember! We sectioned off a large spot for a container garden to the side of our house and I uncovered the old garden (it's been covered with landscape fabric and cardboard for years), cleaned up its borders, weeded it to the best of my abilities, and planted it with squash.  I'm really excited at the prospect of a pumpkin patch!

The newly planted apple trees are doing OK.  One set seems to be thriving, the other set appears to be recovering from shock so we'll need to wait and see what happens there.  The raspberries are taking off and I decided to re-use the landscape fabric to start expanding for future raspberry plantings.  

The yarrow is doing well but the lavender is on the way out as it barely survived winter. I have a few cuttings I'm rooting to see if I can replace the parent plants, but I don't know how successful it will be.  Like so much with gardening, we just have to wait and see. 

What are you growing this year?

A Word for 2022

Weeks before Christmas I saw someone on Instagram paraphrasing something said by Elisabeth Elliott that amounted to "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet". I'm paraphrasing a paraphrase here, but it made me really think about our current surroundings and yes, our comparatively tiny house. Although the quick line initially smelled a bit prosperity gospel to me, it gave me pause over my own surroundings because for years I've either poked fun at, complained about, or flat out disparaged our house. 

It's a small mid-century ranch home built in the late 50s with questionable design choices, and a tight 1200 sqft with 7 of us living here so it's easy to become frustrated when you legitimately need to change things about your home but you can't. Like when you finally have enough money set aside to put on a desperately needed addition and a global pandemic hits, followed by shortages and inflation that at least treble the cost of the work. That's when seeing the sentiment "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet" really hit me. How can I expect to be granted the opportunity for more in my life, if I'm not taking care of what I have now. Much like how I'm always on my kids to appreciate what they have or they will lose it, why haven't I appreciated our home more? 

Moreover, I realized I'm a terrible at taking care of things given to me in general. Frankly, I half-ass housework and it's not like I have a booming business, or beautiful artwork, or a hand knit/sewn wardrobe to show for it; I'm just lazy. Similarly, I half-assed home school for a couple years partly with legitimate excuses (Covid/virtual schooling difficulties in a small house packed with kids) and partly without. 

All of this was on my mind when I chose my word for 2022.  In years past it's been a fairly passive word; simplicity, intentionality, joy. The most active word I've had recently was in 2020 and that was hospitality. This year I decided on a active word, something to help me make real strides as a wife, mother and woman. My word for 2022 is Stewardship. I am moving forward into this new year with appreciation and care and momentum. I am working toward a rule of life in our home so that I can better care for it and the inhabitants therein. I will be practicing stewardship of self not only through diet and exercise but also in scheduling (and adhering to!) time for creativity and learning new things.  I will be a better steward of time this year, and hopefully a better steward of our finances. I must better guard our home and prayer life and I'm looking forward to saying no to the world. Finally, I will endeavor to steward my relationships better; those with my husband and children as well as my friends. It will be interesting to see where I am a month from now, 6 months from now, a year from now if I really work on taking care of things I've neglected in the past. I'm excited for that. 

What's your word for 2022?