Happy Anniversary, Kate and William!

Four years ago I got up very early and had a party. Friends came.  

We had lots of tea.

Of course we had a professional cake made.

Quiche, fruit and cheese, Allison's scrumptious scones, etc!

A champagne toast at breakfast because why not?

My dear Allison is excellent at flower arrangements. 

We sat and feasted and drank tea and laughed for hours after the wedding. It was a great party and so much fun to do something so out of the ordinary!

Spring Dinner & Asparagus

This afternoon I harvested asparagus!  I planted this asparagus when my daughter was three months old, so tired and so hopeful. Here's the asparagus root before I planted it....

 It was fun to harvest the delicious vegetable today with that baby who is now so big--she held the spears.

So tonight for dinner we are having--

roasted home-grown fresh asparagus

roasted local potatoes

and a big pot of black bean soup, because although I can happily eat asparagus and potatoes for supper, my husband and children need a little more in the way of calories!

Spring is here.  The asparagus is up.  I am happy.

The Revolving Door

Today was a fun and happy day in our household: the Revolving Door day.  A friend arrived in mid-morning with her daughter; another friend came fifteen minutes later with her son.  We visited, then the first friend left and I babysat her daughter. The four children played and ate lunch, then after lunch another friend came over with her two children.  And finally in mid-afternoon an additional friend came to drop off three of her children--I had said I'd babysit them while she took her other two children to the movies!

So that means in and out of our doors today rotated five adults and seven children.

A whole pan of gingerbread was consumed and lots of tea......and we adults tried to solve all the world's problems around my dining room table while the children played in various locations all over the house, dug holes in the unplanted part of the garden, used the swingset, chased each other around the yard.....

At one point,  my friend Allison laughingly said she was going to re-name my house "Polly's Drop-Off Day Care, Tea Room and Mobile Therapy Unit."

I love having people visit and feeding them lots of food and many pots of tea and hoping that they leave refreshed and energized to go out and tackle Real Life.  Life can be challenging, and true and honest friendship restores our souls!

All We Have to Decide

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times.  But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

--Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The New Leaf Scarf: My Alabama Chanin Workshop Project

This is my project from my trip to Florence back in February.  Here's what it looked like when I was working on it. I finished it around Easter. I love the muted, natural colors. 

I named it the 'New Leaf" scarf and am giving it to a dear friend who has many new leaves budding on her tree right now. 

I love the way a project looks after the cutting-inside-the-stitching is done!

Parenting and Gardening: Acts of Faith

April means working in the garden and flower beds.  My husband takes over the vegetable garden (kale, cauliflower, cabbage so far) and I work in the flower beds.  This month I have been rearranging flowers, transplanting grape hyacinth because I want them to create a border, not a fuzzy mess between the lilac and the rosebush. Our daffodils have faded.  The tulips are noble and beautiful now and Finn pointed out the other day that the peonies have budded.  The azaleas are going to be bursting forth any second now, and the snowball bush is just starting its show.  

Over the 14 years we have lived here I have done a lot with the flower beds, but they are all still a work in progress.  Ripping out extremely large plants (at least 8 large bushes--including forsythia--were ripped out because I felt they were too cumbersome, too close to the house), planting smaller ones (azaleas, lilac, hydrangea, lots of peonies, variegated liriope, irises, black-eyed susans....)

It's a work in progress.  But I like the work.

Gardening is just like parenting!  It requires work, thoughtfulness, planning, cultivation.  Every winter I have absolute faith that last year's work will show in the spring flower beds, and every spring I can see the fruits of last year's labor.  

Parenting is an act of faith.  Every day when we invest in our children we are doing invisible work.  No one usually sees this work, these quotidian tasks--reading books, washing laundry, making meals, cleaning messes, correcting attitudes.  Sometimes you don't see the fruit immediately, either.  A child may act out in a public place, a toddler may throw a tantrum that humiliates you in the grocery store...add to this any number of other issues!  During these hard moments having faith in the process is so important, and the process itself is also vital.  I can't leave my flower beds up to nature because they'd be overrun with wire grass, thistles and other weeds within weeks (I know this because I have done this).  Similarly children cannot be left up to themselves to grow; they need cultivation, attention, care and work. 

As I try to create a beautiful garden outside my home I must try even harder to create beauty and foster a life-giving environment within my home, even if I do not see the fruit of this work for months or years.  

And that's just my little April-evening encouragement to any parent (or gardener) who is feeling weary with the work!

The Most Noble Life

Sally Clarkson has long been my go-to source of inspiration for parenting.  I just read this: 

"...when a mom or dad determines to live the most noble life possible, to be the most like Jesus in every situation, to choose to live righteously, the child's soul is planted with seeds of truth and nobility, the child's appetites grow from tasting goodness and excellence in the oxygen of his home, and the vision in the child's heart is to want to become the best person for Christ he can be, because this is the truth lived in his home."

May it be so.