small beginnings.

Meyer lemon blossoms...looks like hope to me.

Over the past week I have been reminded, on several occasions, that you have to start somewhere. I have been reminded to start small...take that first step...and just start.

I have always had this habit of seeing something I want to do...and then thinking I need to do it all at once.

I can't just start a little garden, trying my hand at a couple tomato and zucchini plants to get my feet wet...I need to build a 50-acre homestead where I grow ALL our own food ALL the time.

I can't just learn to bake bread and commit to a fresh loaf once a week...I have to bake all our own bread, every single day using yeast I make myself (or grow? I don't even know how that's done!) and flour I've grown and harvested and milled myself and then bake it over an open flame in a brick oven I built myself out of bricks I fashioned out of clay and...whatever else you use to fashion bricks.

I can't just...well, I think you get the idea. Don't you? I have this "go big or go home" attitude...but going "big" is overwhelming! Especially when you don't know what you're DO-ING. And...I don't. Not yet, anyway.

Our hope is to one day have a larger home situated on usable acreage. It's been a dream for us for years. So we've been waiting and waiting for the time to be right for this dream to become a reality. Waiting is the key word here.

One day I was driving Ian to school and I saw a garden flag in someones front yard that had the familiar saying on it..."Bloom where you're planted." I'd seen it a million times before but this time I knew that God was letting me know that we needed to stop waiting...we needed to do some things right here, on our own little city lot to get started. We needed to take some time to experiment...and learn. How on earth did I expect to care for acreage when I couldn't even take care of a small, suburban lot?

Good point...why didn't I think of that?

So, bloom we did.

We expanded the garden from a couple of small planting boxes to a full-fledged fenced off garden area. I taught myself to can peaches and beans and how to make jam. Two years ago we got The Girls and they've been supplying us with fresh, delicious, beautiful eggs ever since. We plan on getting rain barrels and collecting rain water...and planting some fruit trees and grape vines. We are using our time here on our small city lot, our small beginning, to learn and gather knowledge and experience so that when that dream does come true, we'll know where to start and what to do.

This series of small beginnings will eventually add up to big changes in our lives. No more waiting...it's time to rejoice and "to see the work begin"! And I know it will be worth the wait...anything done in God's timing and in God's direction always is.

Zechariah 4:10

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin...