These wonderfully full spring days...

Last night I was looking back over all of my photos from the past month, and I realized how busy we've been lately. We've taken many day trips to some of our favorite places, we've done quite a bit of hiking through the forests of Western PA, we've learned a lot of science and history pretty much right in our backyard. And then mix in all of the gardening and yard work, and we've had a very full spring so far. But it's been good. Not crazy and hectic. Just good time spent together, savoring these warm, sunny days that we had missed so much over the winter. 

Although we have formally finished our official, state-required 180-day school year, the learning still continues. Just how I like it. Ian has taken an interest in wilderness survival while Lily has been busy collecting rocks and minerals. And we've checked out quite large piles of library books on both topics. (Oh how I'm thankful for our much-used library membership!)

My raised beds are in full production right now. I've got lettuces and radishes growing like crazy, as well as many different herbs. It's been so nice to be able to eat right from our backyard. This is one of my favorite things about summer. Our big garden is doing wonderful as well, besides the eggplant which seem to be suffering from some kind of small black insect. We're still trying to figure out this whole organic gardening thing. It's easy to prevent pests if you're willing to pollute your plants with chemicals, but that's not what Brad and I want. So we're going to continue pressing on, researching, and trying to figure out what will work for the various problems/annoyances we face as gardeners. 

 All this wonderful busyness means it's rare for me to find as many moments to enjoy crocheting and knitting. I try to grab these moments here and there, but progress is much slower now that we spend much of our days outdoors. I picked up some new yarn recently to start a project I'm doing as a gift for a friend. That will probably end up being a road trip project. The nice thing about our upcoming eight hour trip to the beach is that it will give me a lot of time to knit. 
 

We're trying to squeeze some family trips into these next couple of weeks. Sergei leaves next Saturday for the summer. He's serving as a volunteer at Word of Life Bible Institute's summer camp. He'll be doing maintenance work around the campgrounds (which is right up his alley), but the wonderful thing is that he'll also be attending discipleship and growth classes and studies while he's there as a volunteer. I think that this summer has the potential to be life-changing for him. So you can keep him in your prayers. I do think he's a bit nervous about leaving for the whole summer. 

So our life has been full and sunny and busy. And, as happens every year during this season, our minds are spinning with the possibilities. Both for summer as well as our little homestead here. Honeybees and wool sheep are on the close horizon of our minds as we read and research and save our pennies. It's exciting.

I pray that you all have a most blessed day, wherever you may be. And I invite you to join me back here tomorrow for part #4 of "How We Homestead." Tomorrow's topic is entitled "Our Daily Life," and I'll be sharing a glimpse into what our days look like here.