Things That Are New {Best of the Season, Installment 2}

Parker has reported several times recently that it looks like winter is coming!

I can't blame him for being confused, as he goes barefoot one day and the next has to wear a winter coat, but I am happy to report that indeed, what he is seeing is actually winter receding!!!

A brief tromp through my herb garden today showcased some pleasant surprises by way of tender little plants bravely pushing their way through our unwieldy soil, and they were both proof of the season and proof that there are actually some plants out there hardy enough to withstand this mediocre gardener!

I love herbs and flowers, and get quite inspired by their variety of colors and textures and uses, but sometimes I think I enjoy them the most when they're still sitting all perky and lovely at the greenhouse!

Once I get them home and planted...well, that's when the mediocre part starts coming out and when they become susceptible to my neglect and to certain other acts of terror in the form trikes and little feet in boots.

Therefore, the chives & lilies & hydrangea & Russian sage and other little plants yet to be identified that came up bravely and of their own accord in my garden have just earned a special place in my heart!

In springtime, the prospects of playing outdoors are fresh and new all over again, and I love how the children can go outdoors again and run off their access energy.

I am learning that you don't need acres of lawn or a huge pasture to grow children! Rather, it's the small things, like turning a piece of land into a hand-dug crater, climbing the small Japanese Maple until you can consider yourself a tree-climbing pro, playing shepherd and shepherdess with imaginary sheep, and going barefoot for the first time in the season that children thrive on!

We're not quite at the time of year yet when we can expect and enjoy fresh, local things off the land, but I am enjoying some new inspiration in the form of a new cookbook that the mail truck just delivered today!

Food for Life is compiled by Margaret Raber, and is in keeping with the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating, although it is not affiliated with them. The thing that is interesting about this book is that since the compiler/contributors are Mennonites, the book has a definite Mennonite flair to the recipes, with dishes like Poor Mans's Steak and Fruit Pizza that one would expect to see in any good Mennonite cookbook- only these have been "healthified!"

I broke in my new cookbook by making a recipe for baked macaroni & cheese for supper, and I think we all enjoyed the comfort of this good old standby! The children certainly didn't mind that there was no new, exotic recipe being placed on the table! Rather, they were probably just thrilled that I didn't dig out of that big bag of kale sitting in the fridge to make something for supper!

I took a rather extended break from Trim Healthy Mama (which I wrote about here) over the time that I was too sick with this pregnancy to care that such things as coconut oil and defatted peanut flour existed, much less cook with them, and I am just now getting back into it in the last several weeks, albeit with a few modifications to suit what works for me at the moment, so having some new recipes to muse over should be just the ticket...

(I hope!)

Two successful days of  Youth Bible-school have been completed now (you can see the messages as they are updated at shippensburgchristianfellowship.org), and after tomorrow the week will be half-way through! I am not sure if Wesley will know what to do with himself once he doesn't have all this studying to do, but one thing is certain: our van is making strange and ominous sounds in the front end quarters and we're just hoping it can limp through another couple of days until it's owner can give it some much-needed attention again!

The best news of the week is that my nephew, Cedric, became a Christian this past weekend, and while he has a whole new reason to enjoy Bible-school, we have a whole new reason to rejoice in the goodness of God, who is in the business of making all things new.

And we never get a better view of that than in springtime.