March has been bursting with all the life that comes with springtime. The flowers are blooming, the leaves are unfurling, the chickens are laying eggs again with gusto, and the scent of jasmine from our front gate’s trellis wafts through our screen door every evening.

Our days have been very full, spent outside with all the house’s windows flung wide open to bring the smell of spring inside. I’ve been writing, gardening, making, and trying to live life as presently as possible, focusing on the little world within my garden gates.

The March issue of HERLIFE was released, and I’m very proud to say I wrote the cover feature on my favorite local restaurant and the family who runs it. You can read it (and the other article I wrote on a local nursery) here.

Our sweet Bea celebrated her 2nd birthday earlier this month! We had small celebrations with family — dinner on one day and brunch on another.

She is such a fiery delight. Her words continue to develop rapidly, and she speaks her mind without hesitation. She’s fearless, climbing everything and following her brother wherever he goes. She loves watermelon and berries, helping mama in the kitchen, dancing and dress up shoes, snuggles and swinging on the swings. She hates being left out, snails, apple peels, crusts on her sandwiches, getting her nails clipped, and having water poured on her head.

Mostly we’ve been focusing on the garden and clearing our front yard. I’m determined to stick with my garden and see it through a successful harvest (it’s my third year attempting…we will see if I follow through). I often lose steam in the hot summer months, so I’m trying to plan ahead by building in shade/irrigation. So most of my mornings and afternoons have been elbows deep in the soil, battling crabgrass in my neglected beds and slowly planting seeds and starters as I get spots cleared.

The kids have their own strawberry patch on the porch which they water religiously, checking to see if any of the tiny berries have begun to ripen. They’ve also been helping me harvest our abundance of herbs: most recently we’ve been making sun tea from lemon balm and sweet mint. Every time I have a spot clear to plant, they excitedly rush over to help me pop the tiny seeds in the ground and cover them lovingly with dirt.

We’ve been weathering a heatwave the past two weeks: the temperatures have been in the high 80s, which is 20 degrees hotter than usual. It’s made playing outside and gardening in the afternoons a bit more difficult, but the mornings are very pleasant. The kids really love playing on their play set, and Michael recently learned how to climb up its fireman pole — he is very proud of himself. We also put up a saucer swing on the nearby California oak tree, and it’s a beautifully peaceful addition: I love laying back and looking at the slivers of blue sky between the unfurling oak leaves and twisting branches.

I made some painted rock food for their little mud kitchen in their playset — they were very excited and are now requesting every fruit and vegetable they can think of. I’m not sure my painting talent can keep up — though I did really enjoy the process.

Of course, there are more quotes from the ever-quotable comedians which are my kids.

Me: Hi, cutie!

Bea: No, I Beatrice.

Michael: When will I have EIGHT siblings??

Michael, over an hour into bedtime, holding his eyes shut: “So they don’t open again!”

While driving, at a red light I redid my pony tail and suddenly —

Bea: MAMA! Hands on WHEEL!

Me: Hey Bea, what do you want to listen to?

Bea: my MOOSIC!

Michael: *helping Bea take off her shoes* Bea, we’re gonna walk around NAKED!

Me: *quickly* Barefoot — barefoot.

I’ve slowed down on reading because of how much my attention is currently directed outside. However, I picked up Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and I’m greatly enjoying it. One of its reviews calls it a “hymn of love to the world”, and I agree. It’s been helping me reevaluate my relationship with the world, helping me be more intentional about the things I take and the things I give.

Making has also slowed — I’ve been using old shirts and yarn scraps to make a crocheted rag rug, and knitting a few lightweight head kerchiefs to hold my hair back, but that’s about it right now. To everything there is a season.

Mainly, I’ve been trying to focus on enjoying motherhood and being as grounded and present as I can be for my children. The things happening in the world right now are dark and scary, but there’s not much I can do about them (besides vote and boycott and be intentional about nurturing my local community).

So my day to day is focused on these beautiful souls entrusted to my care. Focused on creating a haven where they can learn to love goodness and truth and beauty, seeing them in every person, place, and thing that God created. And focused also on reminding myself of the beauty of the world that still exists, untouched by corruption or greed.

The sandhill cranes flying overhead. The softness of a sunset on cherry blossoms. The giggle of a child discovering a butterfly. The scent of jasmine. The first green leaf of my nasturtium poking through the earth.

High beauty, beyond the reach of evil. May we love it and may we cultivate it in our own hearts and homes.

For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King