A Pause in Waco: Magnolia and the Dream of Planting Roots
Road trips with five kids require a certain rhythm—long stretches on the road punctuated by stops where they can run free, play, and refuel. Waco, Texas, wasn’t on our list for any grand historical significance, but we needed a stop for dinner, and Magnolia turned out to be just the right kind of pause.
Nestled in the heart of Waco, Magnolia is more than a marketplace. It’s the realization of a dream—a vision brought to life by a local couple who transformed an old set of silos into a gathering place of creativity, food, and family. Our kids know Joanna and Chip Gaines not from their home design empire or TV shows, but from We Are the Gardeners, a book that has shaped their love for working the land.
We first read We Are the Gardeners years ago in Virginia, when we were living in the countryside, trying our hand at growing grapevines, fruit trees, and tomato plants. Like the kids in the book, we learned that gardening is a story of persistence—building fences to keep out the deer, releasing ladybugs to fight off aphids, and spraying chili powder to deter caterpillars. The book is a lesson in patience, teamwork, and the joy of watching something grow.
At Magnolia, the kids barely waited for the car doors to close before kicking off their shoes and running straight for the open lawn. Lorelei flipped into back walkovers. Jack and Carolina immediately started fighting over the soccer ball, neither willing to let the other have control for more than a few seconds. James, in the beauty of a 2-year-old, collected the cornhole bean bags—in the middle of someone else’s game. Adeline, always one to invent something new, made up a game entirely in her head, narrating as she played. And Poky, poor Poky, watched it all unfold with pure desperation, as he wasn’t allowed on the child friendly astroturf lawn.
The food trucks served up pasta dishes and Asian fusion. The kids played until the sun started to set, and the Texas sky turned soft with evening light. Artists painted in the open air, their canvases catching colors of the sky and the movement of families passing by. It was a reminder that even the most ambitious dreams can start with something as small as a family planting a garden together.
In Australia, we haven’t had the same connection to the land—our years there were filled with coastline walks and city parks, but not tending to fruit trees or battling garden pests. Yet the kids are asking for it again. The nomadic life still holds its pull, but we know that soon, there will be a time to plant roots again—not just for us, but for the plants that will need tending, just as we do.
For now, we’ll keep traveling, gathering inspiration along the way. But when the time comes to settle, We Are the Gardeners will be on the shelf, waiting to be read again—this time, with dirt under our nails, seedlings sprouting nearby, and Poky finally free to run.
