Yesterday I spent a beautiful sunny afternoon in the garden planting pansies.

I had some very eager little hands helping me.

Galen planted yellow and white pansies in pots to decorate the area where we are planning on holding the blessing. After that we planted a bunch of purple ones in the gardens.

It was so satisfying to be out in the sunshine, working with the earth and green living things!

Galen has been insisting on bringing everyone around to see every single little green shoot just starting to poke it’s way up. He never tires of looking at them, checking their progress and sharing his progress reports with the rest of us.

The new growing season has inspired Iain and Elijah also. They both spent a good portion of their afternoon doubling the size of those garden beds that they made a couple of years back. And of course there were pansies for them to plant too.

I’ll admit to having spent a lot of time just sitting around, drinking it all in. Often times I feel frustrated by the slow pace of our home building progress. I want to feel settled, and I want to feel it now! But yesterday as I was looking around and becoming reacquainted with the area surrounding our home, I found myself in awe of all of the things we have accomplished.

(It’s amazing what a difference a couple of days makes!)

When Galen was Màiri’s age, there was no sandbox, no swings, no playhouse, no benches. There were no garden beds. There was no house! Just the “Little House” in a most unlivable state. Perhaps we aren’t moving so very slowly after all.

It’s comforting to know that things are filling in, and filling out, a little bit here and there. Every year we come a little bit closer to our vision, the detail work in the tapestry fills in a little more. We move rocks and move plants and put down roots; our connections to each other and to our home growing ever stronger.