Spring has come...

...as has Holy Week.  (Okay, I know it is Easter, but I started this post last week...)  

We are reading through the events of Holy Week together, but with a garden to be started and a baby to prepare for (and I'm talking basic preparations like finding him/her a place to sleep and finding some infant clothes - not fun sewing type preparations), and energy going into the nurturing of this wee babe who is readying him/herself to join us, there isn't much left for creative new Holy Week ideas.  So, I don't know that much (if anything will be posted here.)  I still have a couple ideas for projects I haven't totally given up on, so we will see if they can happen.

The word Lent comes from the Old English word Lencten, which comes from "to lengthen" and thus, was used to mean spring.  I think the discipline that has shaped me the most this year during Lent is watching our wee plot of ground come to life.  There were moments in the winter that I found myself dreaming of the mini-farm that we think of as our ideal home.  And in those moments I would look at our pathetic grass and city lot with a bit of sadness, but oh, spring has changed that as I've (for the first time) watched our dogwood blossom, the violets appear, the fruit trees and vines come to life, the forsythias shout 'spring' with their yellow radiance...  I had no idea how much life could appear on a quarter acre.  So meals have moved outside and our days are spent in the garden.

(Don't mind the coloring in a couple of these.  I have a new camera lens and was messing with the settings a to figure it out, which resulted in some odd color and less than perfect focus.)