Pruning Time!

Well, we’ve been having technical difficulties over the past week or so.  I’m so thankful that Papa the Farmer is also a software engineer!  He can always fix our computer troubles!  Sometimes it just takes him a while to find the time to do it.
In my cyber-absence things have been progressing around here.  I have involved myself in a huge whole-house de-cluttering project.  I’m not sure if this is last year’s spring cleaning just extended to now, or if this is next year’s spring cleaning done early!  Cleaning and de-cluttering is never done for a mama with small children!  I think I’ll chalk it up to next year.
In farm news, this is the time of year to prune trees.  Many people don’t think of it until spring or autumn, but in fact, winter – when the tree is dormant – is the best time to prune.  So this week one of the things Papa the farmer did was prune the trees in the orchard:
 
It always makes me sad to see the trees being pruned.  I am looking forward to having an orchard full of large trees that produce beautiful fruit!  It seems so counter-productive to cut the trees back when we want them to grow!  But in fact, if we don’t cut them back, the tree puts all its energy into growing branches and leaves.  It doesn’t become well-established and it doesn’t produce as much fruit, so the pruning process is necessary in these early years. 
It makes me think about how the Lord prunes our lives.  This whole farming-adventure has been a pruning experience for me.  I can see that God is already using it to produce good fruit in my character and I hope that it is producing strong roots as well!