awakenings under my nose

You would think that being outside for a few days, feeding a fire, cutting wood, transfering almost finished sap to be boiled down to syrup that I would have caught all that I have been waiting for since winter.  Somehow I didn’t notice all the green things that have been pushing their way up through our soil.  It took Livie to come in to the kitchen with talk of little purple flowers.  Indeed there are little purple flowers and daffodils coming up.   It is coming.  All the awakenings are starting and I couldn’t be more excited for it.  Yesterday all of a sudden, every turn I took coming down the road to our homestead, it was as if those daffodils were jumping up from their hillsides to say “hey, look at us”.

How have I missed all of these little plants coming up?  I guess I’ve been running around here and there so fast that taking time to look around did not happen.  It is time to slow down a little and take it all in.  Cherry and plum trees are starting to bud out.  The chickens and ducky are loving our little running creeks and soon we will start prepping the garden.  Its getting so close.  I really need to put my plan on paper.  Planning the garden makes me so excited and at the same time it makes me feel like the rabbit in Alice and Wonderland, I’m late, I’m late!

I can’t wait for the redbuds to come out, violets and dandelions,  the feeling of crisp cool air on sunny spring mornings.  Walking around the garden in bare feet with a watering can.   The spring flush of growth, this is what makes me happy.  The days are coming where I will get to spend my days outside with my babies.  It is such a blessing to me and one that I cherish and never want to take for granted because having a daughter with children and two guys here who are on the cusp of being adults, I know that they won’t always be here with me in our garden.

My to do list is so long that I have to look at it and take it little by little and know that everything will get done when it needs to be.  My heart says to play with seeds and seed starting trays, my brain says that soccer practice, cleaning out the hen house and laundry must happen first but somehow I hope to fit everything in at some point.

It is so hard to keep inside and the kids have been doing their school work in the breezeway since the ground is still cold, soggy and quite muddy in many places.  Snow is expected on Sunday.  Hard to believe with all this warm sunshine everywhere but I remind myself that this is life in the Ohio Valley.  We will play this winter, spring dance all the way until the end of April.