There are many times each week when I am glad Amanda chose to marry me. Saturday was another, because she made me rest.

We have been watching our little stand of corn each week, hoping to see signs of tassels forming at the tops of the plants. We spotted them this week, and they announce that our corn plants have entered a new phase of their lives.

Experienced gardeners will laugh at my ignorance, but I’ve never seen a squash grow. Now that I have, I realize squash must be related to kudzu. You check progress and then, while you look away, it grows another inch.

As you probably know by now, we’re moving from a 2300 sq. ft. house in Vestavia Hills to a 600 sq. ft. apartment in the pole barn at Longleaf Breeze. That’s the scariest way to say it. Now let’s flesh it out and make it less intimidating.

My brothers all put cages on their tomatoes, and they grow magnificent tomatoes. I say that even though my middle brother Ruffin watches in frustration as squirrels run across his yard with their evil rodentian jaws stuffed with Ruffin’s and Cathy’s prize Sweet 100s.

We have prayed about it, we have dreamed and schemed about it, we have sacrificed for it, and yes, we have argued about it. This weekend it happened. We tasted the first fruits from our first ever vegetable garden.