Fresh-Baked Bread, Clean Laundry, and Spring in the Air

I had a wonderful day today just staying home and taking care of my sweet little brood. We had our usual Laundry Day today (see LFL website), so all of our clothes are now clean! At least until my boys get outside tomorrow! Ds#1 helped with switching out the loads and folding between schoolwork. After dinner, the entire family (minus the little sleepy ones) had a "Putting Away Party." I love the smell of fresh clean laundry!

Another of my favorite aromas is the smell of homemade, fresh-baked bread. Today, my three oldest and I baked enough bread to get us through the next week or so for sandwiches, a pizza crust for one of our dinners, and a bunch of dinner rolls (my husband and sons can go through these QUICKLY!). See the recipe I use for Quick and Delicious (No-Knead) Whole Wheat Bread at my Recipes Blog.

Another happening around the Treehouse (a.k.a. the Howard Homestead) is that our carrots are coming up (we think)! We knew it should happen sometime in the next week or so, and sure enough, there they were this morning... or at least we hope that's what they are! The jury is still out on this one... more in a later post.

I love Springtime! I hardly know a soul that doesn't. So, in honor of Spring arriving, AND the fact that this month is National Poetry Month (see Carmon's blog), here is a poem for you to start your month off right, one of my favorite poems. Weather-permitting, go outside, spread a blanket on the ground, take some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on that homemade bread!), read this poem to your children and enjoy God's creation!

A Prayer in Spring
by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven..." —Ecclesiates 3:1