Little Kids, Cows, & Keeping Bees

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“Today on the hill road toward Belchertown I came across an old farmhouse in an old field with stone walls all about it and a great elm above it, and lilacs at the doorway. I stopped for a long time to look at it. In some other time… I shall choose just such a small place as this, a small quiet place. There will be trees in it, and little fields, and hills not far away, and bees and honeysuckles and lilacs in the dooryard.”

~ David Grayson, The Countryman’s Year

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Good things from the month of March:

Monday lunch on the riverbank and coffees outside in the sun, people biking and walking by

Visiting with Mema on the porch while Papa raked moss off the pond in his hat and green gingham

Starting lettuce seeds, drinking kombucha, baking bread, and grilling

A walk down to the pond at sunset, then a long supper with Noah & Hannah

My 23rd birthday—a day of whole grain pancakes & bookstores & earl gray & Jared reading Francis Shaeffer aloud to me & a walk through the burnt, hushed prairies & how the wind and sun were in the blowing grasses

A new, much-much-needed laptop that my whole family pitched in to buy for me, and how they stood around more excited than even I was to open it

Elanor in pink overalls and bare shoulders

Quiet, end-of-winter hike

Mexican food and an escape room with everyone and Mindy

A sunny drive south, Subway sandwiches, and teaching Jared how to sing

An afternoon college baseball game in the hills

The brown cows and purple clover in the pasture behind Vesta Baptist Church

A Puzzle Tea Party in a corner of the fellowship hall with Violet: Friendly Village dishes, apple cider, cookies, and matching flower crowns

Monday work among the bees, and holding frames heavy with nectar that smelled faintly of flowers

Driving the tractor in a bee hood, Jared riding on the hitch

Nursing home and hospital visits

Jared cutting me a bouquet of wild daffodils

Breakfast with Joe and Jill, who are wise and kind and have long been each other’s best friend

Playing DJ’s fiddle along with him on guitar

Mopping to swing music

Jim’s kindness (and big pecans off his tree)

Rain in the afternoon and reading aloud while we waited for the meatloaf to smoke

Family ping-pong in the kitchen

Powerful preaching and rich hymns and kind people who made soups and salads for the Applied Word Conference

Destinie sitting on the piano bench beside me, watching me play

Walking downtown past the antique shops, vinyl store, and through the bookstore, waiting to meet my family for dinner reservations

How spring comes sooner to Arkansas, so coming back north is like living to see everything bloom all over again

The first spring storm rolling in at dawn, dark with wind

Janaya’s spring cookie bake with the kids (and neighbor kids who found their way into our kitchen)

Four-part harmony singing Barrett to sleep

A long morning run with Janaya, Alli, Natalie, and her dogs

Picking out dress material

A Sunday afternoon to celebrate Becca The Bride, pile in the van, eat her favorite cupcakes and snacks, shop used books, buy coffees, shoulder through St. Patrick crowds, reserve a dinner table, and search the store to pick her out a new dress

How my friends have grown up into the maturity of Christ, and how we can now exhort one another from within our unique seasons of life, and how God gets all the glory

Washing and brushing goats and a pig and a miniature horse for the Easter EGGstravaganza’s petting zoo

An afternoon out with Esther, drawing pictures at the coffee shop and playing badminton on the river front

Bennet tying his sweater to the picket fence and crouching to weed the zucchini patch for me

Pushing Elanor in a wheelbarrow all the way around the pond and up the hill

Two little boys and a big pile of dirt

 “Be where your feet are, not your feed. Do things that teach you to wait well – for the starter to foam, for the dough to rise, for the seed to sprout, for the ink to dry, and for the Kingdom to come.” – from “Baking Bread and Analog Acts” by Emily Charlotte

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