When I started dating Keith, I pretty soon realized (maybe absurdly soon) there was a very good chance I’d be following him to Bowling Green. By fall of 2021, I helped him establish the two little garden beds out front. They’ve come so far, and what was once just grass is now a sweet little welcome to our home. We’ve been adding little bit by little bit over the years, and now where there was once not a single garden bed, there are quite a few!

Today’s sunny spring weather was the perfect chance to spruce up our potted plants ahead of Everett’s 8th birthday celebration and to do some mulching. Now in my third trimester, I was less helpful than ever in achieving our goals, but thankfully Keith is quite capable. I still managed to pull some weeds and do a bit of boxwood trimming, even while fighting a nuisance cold (sunshine helps me when I’m sick, and I don’t care how unscientific that may be, I believe it).

I found a few plants for our back porch, which is still in progress after demoing an admirable (but certainly make-do) attempt to convert the porch into a screened-in porch. Regardless, we still enjoy the space even if there are projects awaiting us.

The front porch got a couple of spring touches, too. Most excitingly, the “New Dawn” climbing rose I planted last year is finally big enough to climb up the metal post.

Our semi-scraped cap awaits a finishing paint job (I’ve stopped all my paint-scraping efforts while pregnant in an abundance of caution), and the sweet swing Keith gave me for my birthday last summer could use a protective coat for the new year. But this is a favorite place to rest.

Our front beds have graced us with the return of many late-winter/early-spring perennials returning. Some have been purchased, some have been gifted.

The copper bird bath, a Christmas gift from my parents, received a fresh new filling of water for any birds who come to visit.

Our newest garden bed, planted last spring, is full of three very-happy boxwoods, a couple of hydrangeas whose new leaf buds I hope will not be frost bitten, and, best of all, peony buds!

each of the wire cloches above stood guard to protect peonies gifted from a client of Keith’s. When she heard his wife was a gardener who missed her peonies in Tennessee, she gladly dug up some tubers to share, as gardeners often love to do. Most of these showed no signs of life during the summer (a fairly awful time to plant these), but it appears they spent all winter growing roots deep under the mulch.

It feels a little like a good analogy for life as we know it. Planting some deep roots, healing, growing, starting fresh together as a family of three (plus two pups) and now a little girl on the way. I hope in our own time, we begin to bloom beautifully, too.

As I wrapped up my evening picture walk, these three sweet faces waited for me at the back door. How could your heart not burst?

Then we sat down to a glorious dinner (courtesy of in-house chef Keith).

Nowhere I’d rather be than here, where we believe the Lord has placed us, planting, laughing, growing a little one, and healing together.

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8