June 22, 2013
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summer on the farm
(Gah– I don’t like that title. Any title I come up with just sounds cheesy.)
It’s a wonderful warm day here in Alberta, the kind where the true northerners start complaining about the heat. But I just want to sit in the sun and say ahhhhhhhhh.
I’m taking a break and eating some watermelon, trying to forget about supper and the messy kitchen and what’s for lunch tomorrow after church.
Since the rain is over I’ve been living down in the garden. The other night I was down there with Dan at 10 p.m. The children were playing and the sun was still high. We were talking about life, inching along the carrot rows. The carrots are ridiculous this year, just a carpet of weeds. You basically have to lie down to get close enough to sort out the carrots and they’re in amongst a whole whack of camomile, which looks a lot like a carrot in its beginning stages.
Anyway. I thought that I would rather have a weeding carrot date than steak on the ocean front. Puttering in the garden together is highly underrated.
On second thought, I’d take both dates. Once the garden is clean (it will be a while), I’d pick relaxing by the sea. In a white dress. With a good garden tan. And him in khakis. Ahhhhhhh. More realistically, Dan will be haying and I’ll be starting over on the weeding.
On Saturday morning likes this one, when we have pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and sausages and we all sit down and it’s sunny and June, I get this sense of frantic pressure that says, “there’s got to be a way to share this goodness. This food. This family.”
And I feel ready to adopt about four more children. I’m that ready to call an agency and get things started. Because adoption is something that has always gotten to me and I can’t stand to read of all the needs and sit here and do nothing.
But then there were other moments this week where I knew that if we can make it through by the skin of our teeth with this whole parenting thing and the six God gave us, I will be overwhelmingly grateful.
So this post is to let you all know that we’re doing fine up here. I know you’ve been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for news. There’s a lot of sticky tea on the floors and I guess I mentioned all the weeds already. I get quite addicted to weeding and I’d be happy to just camp in the garden, but everyone still needs to eat and bathe and stuff. The lilacs and peonies are blooming magnificently this year and it makes my cup of happiness overflow. Our school walls got painted and the deep, warm, brown-orange that Vivian and I picked out looks wildly pumpkin. Unsure of what else to do, we just cleaned up the mess and moved on.
One day this week we were tourists in our own town, which was fun. I took pictures and planned to blog about it, but I don’t know if I will. Maybe if it rains. The youth group and a few of the rest of us cleaned up the garden and lawn last night for neighbors who are gone on a trip. It was a good evening and a fun way to spend the longest day of the year.
Liesl was playing nurse the other day and told me in sepulchral tones that she was performing a blood surgery. Andre wishes he was a bumblebee so he wouldn’t have colds and allergies. And I still haven’t changed blog sites or done anything about archiving my blog.
I’ve been thinking about popular people like Jen Hatmaker and I have this post about popularity and pride (my own) and jealousy (mine too) and other things that I want to write and I even keep finding good quotes from whoever writes Katie John and Donald Miller that I want to use. But it will probably go the way of all the stellar posts that happen in my head in the garden. Drowned in the reality of sticky floors and chickweed and church cleaning. Xanga is so quiet these days. I miss all of you who used to blog here.
Happy summertime!
Comments (22)
In my dreams, I’m buying a plane ticket to fly to California. Then I proceed to rent a car, in which I drive up the coast until I reach into Canada. I visit every single beach and stay as long as I want to. I visit all of my friends and then….I come home, all skinny and tan and happy. I would love a garden full of carrots and chamomile! One of these days, will you take paper and pen to your garden and just sit and write and then go into your house and type it onto xanga? I would love that.
@Richgem - When I started to read your dream, I thought that after coming into Canada you would come north and visit me. I was disappointed that you just went home.
But it sounds like a wonderful trip. Oh…I just reread your comment and maybe it could include me after all.
The notebook in the garden is a good idea. But then I wouldn’t get the weeding done and it is HUGE this year.
Oh, no, no, no, my friend. You misunderstood. COming into Canada meant I would visit you!!! You ARE one of my friends, and you ARE the ONLY one in that part of Canada (the western part). SO, I’d visit you, and THEN, ONLY then, I would come home. I’d probably want to kidnap you and take you with me, until you begged me to let you go back to your beautiful family! <3 Goodness, I hope you haven’t had a heartbreak. I feel terrible that you didn’t know YOU were the reason I’d go into Canada!
It’s kind of sad, the mass exodus of xanga. Everyone is so scattered.
Your ”summer on the farm” title isn’t cheesy at all…and your summer on the farm sounds lovely.
I too would love to live in the garden. At this time of year I wish I had someone to take care of the inside of my house and do (some) of the cooking (I do love to be in the kitchen) so I could spend all day weeding and planting and transplanting and playing around with flowers and plants and herbs. I would only come in on rainy days….then I would cook and clean.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
- @Richgem - You’re sweet and funny. I feel much loved-thanks!
@Elizabethmarie_1 - I miss reading your blog. I have found your new one and need to put it in my favorites. But it’s so much easier to follow when it’s right here. Yes- a summer maid sounds marvelous!! Thankfully we have kids to do some of the work, eh?
Happy weekend to you too.
Hey, I want to hear your thoughts on popularity and pride and jealousy. Write it! (that’s a direct order. ha ha)
You need to use feedly to keep track of the blogs you want to follow- it kind of keeps things together like xanga, although it has a less personal feel.We need to have a date weeding in the garden- that way I don’t have to do it myself! We had so much rain for awhile that the weeds grew like crazy. The garden was finally dry enough to till yesterday- now I need to get out there and chops those weeds before they completely take over. Maybe Monday’s project, if it doesn’t rain!
@richlyblest - same problem here. LOTS of rain and so many weeds. It gives one a frantic feeling. I read about feedly on amber’s blog last night. I need to check it out. Thanks for reminding me.
And I do hope to write that post, but I have so many good intentions that never materialize….. Happy weeding!!
Great post! Loved it all. And I hope you DO post about your tourist trip to your local town. And all the other posts rolling through your brain…
As always I enjoyed your post… especially the comment about being addicted to weeding and you could be happy to just camp but “people need to eat and bathe and stuff”. HA. That made me laugh out loud. I wondered what all the “stuff” was? Likely it would be different for different people. My “and stuff” is very different than your “and stuff” but that’s what’s makes blog’s so fun. I like to read what makes people tick. Happy Alberta Summer!
Actually, I HAVE been wondering what Luci is up to, and hoping you’re getting lots of sunshine. thanks for the update.
I enjoy reading your blog. I felt sorry for you in weeding your carrots. I use preen on the row that I plan to put the carrots in. It is a weed preventer. It works very well. I don’t have very many weeds in my carrots. I’ve used it for years. You can use it for other vegetables but read the label. Hope you try it next year.
@timeforarest - Thanks for the tip! Is Preen organic? Because my husband is kind of minded that way….
No it is not organic but it is a time and back saver.
Good to hear about your summer Luci. Also- I’m wondering if your going to hang around Xanga and see what happens or if you are going to start blogging somewhere else??:)
love the butterfly shot.
)
and write that end part you talked about..
i have a feeling you and i have some similar feelings on all that.
AND. archive your blog already. haha. that makes me nervous for you that you’ll lose all these memories you’ve recorded here!!!
@writersblock02-I’ll do what you do.
I think it will be kind of like starting over either way. I don’t actually know. Have you decided? I know Xanga isn’t the fad anymore, but either way, my blog will never have the look and feel of classiness, so I guess it doesn’t matter where I put my words. I just feel tired when I think of a new community. I need to set things up so I can follow my favorites more easily on other blogs. But it all takes time and I’m busy weeding. ha.
@grace_to_be - At 1:00 the other morning I saved a bunch of stuff, so you don’t need to be nervous for me.
I do hope to write that post some sweet day. Not that I have the inside track on anything. But just because I know my own heart on some of these matters.
@minniesonora - yes, I suppose my “stuff” and yours are different. My stuff is making sure little teeth are brushed and hair is clean. Making sure there are snacks around and semi healthy foods for meals. And that the toilets don’t get too dirty. And you name it.
Your words always tug on my heart strings. I wish you could blog every day but then what would happen to the garden?
Mine is small, so it doesn’t take much to weed. My husband is enjoying the peas, which are coming along nicely.
I love the image of your beach-date. So romantical.
I laughed out loud at the blood surgery news. I LOVE KIDS and the funny things they say!!!
@quiet_hearts - Good one! I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’m actually getting the “writers itch” scratched with our writers group thing. So I think maybe I will discontinue blogging until I get (Magically!) more time in my life. I wouldn’t be surprised if say in a year or so I would start back up–on wordpress for sure, that much I know.
Like I don’t want to maintain a blog with my current style which is blog whenever with no schedule–and I can’t see myself buckling down and being all disciplined about it anytime soon. and TIME!!! I don’t have time to spend a couple of whole days just to set a blog up and get it all organized. ARG. Ok did I say anything in this whole paragraph? ramble ramble…
Don’t these northerns make you so maad this time of year?? It’s so hot-grrrr. I always say “hey, wait a few weeks it will be cold again”
So relating to life on your farm and often think about you-we farm by the Smoky north of Bezanson. Love hearing from busy (sometimes actually frantically hectic) moms who are doing their best to hang a funny farm together, be a happy mom, take time for the Lord, be there for hubby, schoolteachers, friends, parents, etc. etc. And it’s not always in that order either, we wake up each day never knowing for sure, right?
@riverTop1 - Good to “meet” you!
We are practically neighbors. I wish I had more time to write, but then when I do I’m not necessarily inspired. It sounds like you have the same love/hate relationship with the north that I do. Though in the summertime it’s mostly love. Except for the crazy busyness. Blessings to you and yours.