The Drew Patch: April 2011

A time to stop blogging regularly

>> Saturday, April 16, 2011 – Blogging, motherhood

It is a comfort to know that God has created a time for everything, as Ecclesiastes 3 expresses so beautifully.

To everything there is a season,

      A time for every purpose under heaven:
       A time to be born,
And a time to die;
      A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
       A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
      A time to break down,
And a time to build up . . .
      A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing . . .
      A time to keep,
And a time to throw away . . .
      A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak . . .

Maybe God had busy mummies in mind when he inspired the writer of these verses! There is a time for everything, but not all at once. A couple of months ago, I realised that one person working full time and another person combining chronic pain and motherhood were going to have a hard time keeping up with two babies, a large vegetable garden and two lots of cloth nappies! The baskets of washing were mounting, and Dave doing a pile of dishes in the evening was becoming a regular occurrence (we don't have a dishwasher). It has been a huge blessing that God has provided a couple of teen girls who are willing to work cheerfully in our home. We employ each girl once a week after school for a couple of hours and it eases the workload.

Still, my opportunities to concentrate when I have two hands free are limited and unpredictable. There are many things I would love to do with that time. Often I will begin to imagine what I am going to do with these quiet moments (think sleep, Zulu, cross stitch, patchwork, scrapbooking, blog, emails, phone calls, volunteering for Choices of Life, tummy exercises, sorting papers, finding songs and activities to do as a family, and on it goes) then I'll hear a "WAAAAA" that cannot be ignored! At times I have been frustrated, self-pitying, and even angry. Writing praise points at the end of the day has been a great way to recharge my attitude. Often the praise list took up a page or more! This is much more motivating than writing a to-do list! I aim to love the little years, and part of that is being content with fewer quiet pursuits. This is not the time to blog regularly.

"The Drew Patch" will remain online and I will post our yearly September newsletter here, plus some birthday pictures over the course of the year. Our newsletters are written each year after our wedding anniversary, August 18. I have counted it a privilege to be part of the world of online encouragement, especially with this template designed by Hannah of Graceful Designs. I want out lives online to be a testimony to the abundant grace of God, so that anyone who drop by will see His work in our lives. It is God who has answered my mother's prayers in surprising ways, shown me his mercy in suffering, answered my prayers for a husband and given us the happiest of wedding days, revealed to us the gospel which is God's answer to racism and all other sin, made us passionate about avoiding a wasted life, and gives me the strength each day to keep trying to be a fearless mother.

As I have watched my babies grow, and the garden's summer beauty fade, I have felt sorry that Mercy's chubby hands will thin out and soon the corn plot will be empty. Part of me wants to hold onto the baby fat. God has reminded me that He gives in abundance. My tiny baby will grow up, but there will be other babies even if not my own. The tomatoes will die off, but there will be another year. I will not blog regularly right now, but there will be other opportunities to share and to write, and lots of wonderful blogs to read. Even when God does take all our earthly blessings, it is only to give us something better! Better than a baby's laughter, a sweet home grown corn cob, and the timely encouragement of a friend, yet somehow the fulfillment of all that is good here on earth. God first gives us Christ, and then He gives us all good gifts!

Thanks for reading, commenting, and praying!

Summer crops near their end

>> Saturday, April 2, 2011 – cold weather crops, corn, Saturday's backyard bounty, tomato

This afternoon we were thrilled to still be harvesting some lovely heads of corn. Our staggered planting has worked well this year, giving us fresh corn for nearly two months. We ate these with guests tonight after cooking them in foil on the braii with some butter, salt and pepper. Delish!

Maybe Mercy Joy is thinking "Hmmm . . . should I start solid food?"

"What do you think?"

One of the challenges of autumn is deciding when to pull things out to make way for new crops. Today the patty pan below got pulled out, as it looked like it was coming to the end of its life. I am learning to be more ruthless.

It is always a challenge to find space for winter crops because summer plantings like squash, pumpkins, and tomatoes last well into autumn. The broccoli and beets pictured below were planted as seeds in January to replace spring crops of peas and broad beans. They will provide food in late autumn and winter.

Today we bought seedlings of parsley, coriander, celery and spinach, which we will need to find space for. I like to grow from seed, but it has been challenging this year due to lack of space in the garden and the many threats to seed pots from toddlers and chickens :)! There have been many successes (broccoli, kale, turnips, silverbeet) but some notable failures, particularly cauliflower! We are still getting heaps of tomatoes, and the vines pictured below will probably be taking up space in our garden for another month. Nate is enjoying a tomato in this picture. He is still learning to choose the red ones, a good lesson in colours!

Here is our bowl of food after wandering through the garden some more . . . chives for potato salad, our last patty pan for the braai, capsicum and radish for a green salad (and lettuce still to be picked). There are lots of tomatoes hidden away below there too - this week has been busy again working out how to use those! We have frozen some plain (peeled, diced and cooked), and others made into a sauce.

That is our garden in pictures for this week. How is your garden going? Are you nearing the end of summer/autumn crops like us or starting a fresh spring? I am so grateful to God that we can look forward to the seasons each year and the different crops they bring.