We’ve got a new thing going in our neighborhood: a community vegetable garden. With old houses on small lots, everyone on our block has minimal room for planting vegetables. Enter the old Zion (now Redeemer) lot that is empty—full of potential, but empty nonetheless. So with the blessing of our pastor Tobey, the neighbors came together and planned a large garden plot to divide among five of us.

And now we’re geeks, garden geeks. Hovering, nurturing, worrying garden mamas, if you will. We’ll meet each other in among the tomatoes and cucumbers, and converse aloud about what type of mulch to use, who last watered, and how often you have to do some weeding. (I’m using grass, I’m grateful for a neighbor whose sprinkler hits my patch and to God who watered for me last night, and my husband is my hoeing hero. If you were wondering.)

I decided this morning that the term “geek” applies because we all get so excited about the progress of our little plants. Today I’m astounded at the pumpkin seeds that were planted last in my space. None of the little gourd seeds grew, but I’ve got a few amazingly healthy blue pumpkins whose leaves are bigger than my hand. I fear they will dominate my patch and perhaps some of the closest neighbor’s, too, but for today I’m just excited at how healthy they are. The Roma plants are all doing well, including a recently transplanted seedling. The broccoli and cauliflower plants, courtesy of the Wittmanns, are strong and sturdy. The cucumbers demand a strong tower to climb, and numerous pea plants are already climbing… on the weeds and grasses nearby. How funny to see their small tendrils curling around a stalk of grass that crept onto garden turf. Clearly, I need to get some stakes in there pronto.

I love our gardens. I love the gorgeous perennials and annuals Jeremy has carefully encouraged into bloom—and that Liv has assisted in planting—and I love the growing vegetables in my garden patch. I may not read a book all summer (another post for another day), but I will be outside, rejoicing in the beauty of God’s growing things.

I love peonies. Our light pink blossoms opened last weekend and I’m enjoying freshly cut flowers indoors right now. I’m slightly entranced by the layers and layers of petals; they remind of extravagant princess/ballerina costumes with a bit of sweetened scent thrown in for good measure.

In St. Louis, Jeremy and I were leaving a friend’s home when I stopped at the front stoop and exclaimed to her, “Are those your peonies I smell?!!” Jeremy, not knowing I was referring to flowers misinterpreted things a bit and thought I was inquiring about underwear. He about dropped dead in shock. I still laugh about it today.

Peonies, peonies, peonies. If they held their heads upright instead of dragging on the ground, I just might think of them as the perfect flower.

The garden produced a radish. I was pretty excited and then surprised myself by how much I enjoyed photographing the sole veggie the garden has produced (so far). Jeremy and I split the radish. It was spicy.

Shiloh visited the vet’s office for some vaccinations. During some sort of fecal, er, retrieval, I was reminded why I didn’t want to be a veterinarian: Shiloh’s pathetic puppy cries from the backroom were hard for me to hear.

Mom took Liv for the afternoon and gave me some delightful rest.

While Mom had Liv, Jeremy had a kidney stone. Still has it, as far as we know. A visited to LincCare confirmed the little bugger and at the moment, Jeremy is managing the pain. We appreciate prayers for the stone to pass quickly.

We’re moving on to watch a little Deadliest Catch now that Livia is asleep. ‘Night, y’all.

It is 68 amazing degrees outside right now and I am in love with spring. The warm sunshine on my bare shoulders, the clean breeze running through my hair… I get more freckles on my nose and cheeks by the minute, I think. Spring makes me happy. My whole family spends hours outside digging in the dirt, picking out weeds and coddling the baby plants that are stretching toward the sun. It’s spring, “Lallelujah!” as Livia says.

I’ve surrendered part of my sunny kitchen counter to future hopes of tomatoes and radishes, zinnias and marigolds. It still amazes me that tiny seeds can yield a seedling, and then a large plant with flowers and maybe edible fruits and vegetables. A little moisture, a little sunshine, and there they go, the seedlings unfurl their leaves towards the light. Livia tends to these babies with great care as well and it’s fun to watch her excitement at the new life.

Spring is all about new life. I found myself explaining to Liv the difference between Easter Sunday and our Easter/spring celebrations of bunnies and eggs. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve loosened up about a lot of things, but I still believe it’s very important to teach my child the importance of Christ’s resurrection apart from the hoopla of colorful eggs and chocolate. Some folks do their egg hunts and baskets on the first day of spring to separate the concepts for their children (great idea, by the way). So far we separate them by repeated conversations about Jesus’ death and resurrection—and by holding our egg hunts on a day other than Resurrection Sunday (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!).

Livia learned the real purpose of the cross as I explained Jesus’ death to her. It’s amazing how the cross has become something we talk about and refer to with casual ease, and yet it was an instrument for a horrific death for criminals in the past. As a Christian, I can see a certain beauty to the cross in the same way I can refer to tomorrow as “Good” Friday. Still, I struggled with sadness as I explained how the Son of God was hung on a cross to die. At times in parenting, you wonder if you’re explaining too much. But Liv grasped the concepts in a very easy way and moved on to laugh out loud at a silly picture of Doubting Thomas pointing at Jesus’ scarred hands. We talk more about Thomas’ gaping mouth now than we do the cross. LOL.

Bring on the bunnies and eggs—we certainly have fun with them. Come Sunday we’ll be celebrating the resurrection of Christ and the truth that our awesome God has conquered sin and death.

The redbuds in North Carolina were phenomenally beautiful.

It feels like 21 degrees or so outdoors in Lincoln due to wind chill. Brrrr… Think I’ll keep posting photos of spring on the east coast until the weather warms up here.

These shots are for my mom and dad. Though certain types of dogwood plants grow in Nebraska, the type pictured below do not. We scoured Lincoln, Nebraska, for dogwoods like these and haven’t found any. They must need a warmer clime to grow in. Nonetheless, I have two dogwoods in my yard. One is a red-branched bush that grows like crazy—it’s the happiest plant ever, I believe. And the other is a small tree we planted a short time ago; I’m excited to see what it will do this year.

We’re expecting a spring snow storm tonight in Lincoln. Perfect timing for posting more Chapel Hill spring photos.