pretty things...

My sage is growing abundantly this spring. I planted it last spring from seeds I had started indoors, and it is doing awesome. Sage is a perennial in the planting zone where I live (Zone 5), but when I planted it several years ago it only lasted one season and never came back. I had it planted in a different bed, one that received less sun and more shade so that's the only thing I can figure for the lack of success I had with it. Sage likes lots of sun and can tolerate a drier soil, so it a very easy herb to grow, especially for those who live in drier areas.

I noticed last weekend that it had bloomed. Anytime an herb blooms, the yummy part that is usually used for culinary uses (the leaves), decline in productivity. So when growing herbs it's really important to keep the plants from flowering in order to keep production up. Anyway, I noticed that it had really bloomed so earlier this week I took my shears and went out to trim off all of the flowers. I took half of the flowers out to the chicken coop and spread them in the nesting boxes, and then I tied the rest of the sage blooms into little bundles and hung them over the door in our kitchen. There's something very lovely about dried herbs hanging in the home that delights me. I've made herb bundles with lavender before, but this was the first time using sage, and I think that this will be a nice way to use the blooms I cut during the growing season. And, of course, I will be back out there with my shears when my lavender blooms!

I went to our local nursery on Wednesday. I love this little place. I've been going there for years. It's owned by a sweet woman and her husband. She is such a delight and so helpful which is why I keep going back. And there is something so satisfying in buying my plants and flowers from her rather than a big store such as WalMart or Lowe's. It's good to know that my money is going to a hard-working family who really prides themselves in the product they are providing to the public. And you can really tell that they take great care of their plants.

So I went and got these gorgeous (and I mean gorgeous) hanging baskets as well as another flat of various flowers, both perennials and annuals. My kids are just like me and really enjoy going to the nursery, walking among the greenhouses, admiring all the beautiful colors and amazing scents. They each picked out a few different types of flowers for us to plant. Most of these flowers will go into our landscaping, and then I bought my favorite, begonias, to plant in pots for on our decks. I just love this time of year. I love beautifying our decks with all the flowers and plants. And I love going out and sitting on the decks, enjoying the view! This warm season is my most favorite time of the year.

Next week, I will be sharing some of my favorite homeschooling resources for any of my readers who are homeschoolers. I always appreciate hearing what other people enjoy and find helpful, so I plan to share some of those things with you. I also plan on doing  a post on "laid-back summer homeschooling" for those families who hope to encourage the learning to continue over the summer months. I have several resources that I use for summer learning that I'd love to share with you all. And also, next Wednesday will be the third installment of the "How We Homestead" series I'm participating in. Next week's topic is "Real Food" and I will be discussing how we grow and preserve our own food.

And today? Well, it's chilly, cloudy, and a bit damp. I'm hoping the sun pokes out a little later today, but we shall see. But for now, we've got school lessons and a few other things to keep us busy inside. As much as I love sunny days, these last few rainy days have been great for watering the gardens. And it's also meant that I haven't had to go out and water them which saves me time!

Well, I pray you all have a lovely day!

the art of simplification

I am by no means an expert on keeping things simple. In fact, being quite the overachiever and perfectionist, simplifying has, at times, been quite a challenge for me. It's something that I have to refocus on frequently and be really deliberate about. 

I think that the need to simplify a bit first crept its way into my mind shortly after I began homeschooling my oldest. I realized how time-consuming homeschooling was and realized that the current way I was living was not very conducive to the homeschooling lifestyle I was picturing. All of a sudden, I realized that my desire to keep my house immaculately clean was completely unrealistic because my kids were home 24/7. I realized that there really weren't going to be many moments in which everything was put away and in its place. And I was stressing myself out, either constantly picking things up myself or nagging my kids to do so. I was a tyrant. And, quite honestly, my tyrant personality still comes back to haunt me quite frequently, and I find myself needing to squelch it quite often. And here's why I don't want to be a tyrant ~ I really don't want my kids' biggest memory of their mama to be a yelling, nagging woman who was more concerned with the state of her house rather than her family.

So, now I try to maintain a happy balance. I wrote a post about my thoughts on cleaning here. You can go read it if you like, but basically, to sum it up,  I clean when it needs done. I do not dust and mop every week anymore. I dust when it needs done. I sweep the kitchen floor a couple of times a day with the broom. I vacuum the carpeted areas once a week, sometimes more if needed. And I always clean the bathroom once a week. But I never take one day to do a great big cleaning of the entire house like I used to. I tried it. It stressed me out and made me grumpy. I have found that by not focusing on cleaning so much, I have more time to spend with my family, and I'm much more likely to allow the kids to do various experiments and art projects and make more messes knowing that those messes can and will be cleaned up. Perfection is not realistic. Nor can it be maintained in a happy home.





Another thing I try to do is keep clutter to a minimum. We're all bound to have clutter. I sure have it, but I try to keep the clutter confined to only a few areas of the house, and then I try to tackle those areas on a relatively consistent basis so the clutter doesn't become overwhelming. 

One thing that has really enabled me to maintain this cleaning style is keeping my possessions to a minimum. A couple of years ago, I totally cleaned out my house. I got rid of everything that I didn't absolutely love. I went from ten bins of Christmas decorations to three bins. I got rid of all of my other seasonal decor. I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and kept only the things I really loved or really used quite often. And since that was about three or four years ago, I'm about due for another cleansing spree. It really does feel good to feel lighter. 



Having said that, I am not an extreme minimalist when it comes to decorating. I do like to decorate. I like antiques and old things. I have a small milkglass collection displayed in my hutch. I have old wooden bowls and crates on the tops of my kitchen cabinets. I have a collection of vintage hankies and linens. And I have thought of getting rid of some of those things to make my life even easier (less things to dust around), but I do want to allow myself to enjoy some things that make me smile. I guess it's all about balance, as most of life is about. I wrote a post last year entitled "The Problem With Stuff" where you can read more on my feelings about this topic.

I have also learned another lesson about simplification: A simplified lifestyle does not necessarily equal an easy, kicked-back lifestyle. 

For instance, we garden BIG TIME here. Multiple gardens. Fruit trees. Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, and wild blackberries. And gardening is hard work full of planning and then action. And it take maintenance work such as watering and weeding. But it is simpler in the fact that I don't have to mentally stress out about not being able to afford to buy the organic produce all the time, because when you grow most of your veggies and a lot of your fruit, you know exactly what you're putting into the mouths of your family members. It's also simpler because growing your own food makes you less dependent on others (a.k.a. the monopolized food industry.)





The harvest months are grueling. I go to bed almost every night completely exhausted (but a good exhaustion that comes with hard work and fresh air) and aching feet, but also with a sense of feeling independent (from the food industry) and satisfaction knowing that our can cellar is going to be lined with rows upon rows of canned food and the freezers are going to be jammed full of frozen produce that will last until the next year's harvest. It's a good feeling. And it may be hard work, but it's simpler. It's healthier. And it's most certainly more economical. 



Now, on to shopping. Hmmm. I'm not a big fan. Oh, I used to be. Looking back, I can't believe how much time I wasted walking through malls and spending money on things I didn't really need. And I guess I still do buy things I don't necessarily need, but most of that spending is done at thrift stores. And I really do weigh the purchases I make even there because I know that every new item brought into our home takes up space. 

When I shop now (besides grocery shopping), it's only every now and then. Most of the time I'm shopping on a mission rather than for pleasure. Not that pleasure shopping with your girlfriends is a bad thing. In fact, I'm planning on one of those such shopping trips in a couple of weeks. But, for me, it's very important that I keep those such trips to a minimum. I also prefer to purchase handmade items rather than mass-produced department store items because in that way I'm getting a more special product, and I'm supporting an actual person rather than a huge business.

And when it comes to grocery shopping, I've written several past blog posts on that subject that you can read here, here and here. I feel most at ease and the least stressed out when I meal-plan. Then I know what to buy each week and what I'm making each day. Unfortunately, I've been kind of sporadic with meal-planning for the last year or so. I also used to do one huge shopping trip once a month. Anymore, planning a month's worth of meals and shopping for all of those meals on one day overwhelms me. So for my life right now, I feel that planning and shopping for a week's worth of meals fits better and is more manageable.

So I suppose that I could go on and on about my thoughts on simplification. And, honestly, I think it will look different from home to home.  I guess the important thing to remember is that you need to keep certain areas of your life simplified so you can expend more time and energy on the areas that are most important to you. In our life, that happens to be home life, homeschooling, and growing/raising our own food.  (I wrote a post about the reasons to grow your own food here.)




So where do I suggest you start in your simplification journey? Well, I guess the first thing you would want to do is evaluate your priorities. What is most important to your family? What would you like to spend more time doing? Start there, and then figure out which areas you can cut back so that you have more time freed up to spend pursuing activities or a complete lifestyle that is important to you. 

This was the second in a five-part series I'm participating in called "How We Homestead." Please be sure to visit these other wonderful bloggers who are sharing their thoughts on simplifying today as well...

Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm
Meg at Little Homestead
Daisy at Maple Hill 101
Tammy at Our Neck of the Woods

planting (and a bit of gathering)...

We've been busy with our hands in the soil, the good pure dirt of God's planet. And we toil in the sun, sweat dripping down our backs, because we know the many blessings that grace our kitchen table from the soil God has blessed us with. 

It's early yet. We put in. We plant. We move the dirt, place the seed, and lovingly cover it back up. The practice of gardening is a very spiritual practice for me. I feel very close to my Heavenly Father when I spend time tending to this little plot of land He has gifted to us. He speaks to me in the quiet places of the earth, when I'm alone putting little seeds into the earth, covering them, sprinkling down the life-giving water they need to sprout forth and grow into something that will sustain our family.

For me, this quiet, spiritual time is not a time of worshiping nature or the Earth. Rather it's a time of reflection on the great miracle of life and its cycles, its ebbs and flows, its periods of rest and rebirth. And it's most certainly a time of quiet personal worship of the Creator of all of these wonderful things. 

Gardening is an act of worship for me. It's a time when I feel ushered into the presence of my Savior, when I reflect on how amazing and awesome He is, when I reflect on the multitude of miracles He has given us. For a seed planted tenderly in the earth, bringing forth new green life and sustenance is nothing short of a miracle. As is all life. And all life is from Him. 

Father God, I do thank you for the blessing of gardening and growing our own food. I thank you for the provisions. I thank you for the earth to plant in, the rich matter to feed the earth with, and the new life you lift up out of the soil. I thank you for the full freezer and the rows and rows of preserved food that feed us from summer to summer. Father, I pray that during this busy planting, growing, and harvesting season that is coming upon us, that I would not neglect my time with You. And I pray that You would continue to meet me right there in the garden. Amen.

a summer sweater

I'm so thankful that I have a little girl to dress up in the handmade clothing that I knit and crochet. I'm afraid my boys are a bit too old to agree to wearing a handmade item. Nor would they fully appreciate the value of it. But this little girl (who also crochets and does all other kinds of crafty things) knows and appreciates the time and love put into each little sweater her mama makes for her.

I made this light summery cardigan this past week out of necessity. She needed a summer sweater to wear over her dresses, and rather than buy one, I had the privilege of crocheting one for her. I used this simple pattern, adding an extra trimming of single crochet and then slip stitches along the edges of the cardigan. I also used a more lightweight yarn than the recommended yarn to make it more lightweight. I just made it one size larger to make up for the finer yarn and smaller hook.

I finished it Saturday night and blocked it overnight, and she was able to wear it to church yesterday. This pattern was simple and worked up so quickly that now I'm trying to decide what other colors to make it in. She spent quite a few moments last evening scanning all of the colors of my yarn as she is quite excited for another one.

How We Homestead Series: How It All Began

Perhaps it was in my blood before I was even aware of its existence. My maternal grandparents  moved from the city to the country and purchased a working farm when my mom was about seven. My paternal grandparents were always heavy into gardening and preserving, even at one point, owning a greenhouse and nursery as a business. 

Yes, now as I look back, my itch for self-sufficiency and dirt and land and lots of green and growth was definitely planted in my genetic material, right down into the very fiber of my being. That seed has grown into a deep-felt love for the rural life and the many possibilities it holds. 

Farming and gardening was at one time so much more than trendy. In fact, it wasn't trendy at all. It was essential. If you wanted to have food to eat, you planted a garden or butchered your animals. If you wanted milk, you had a dairy cow. You farmed, you planted, you kept animals in order to sustain your family. It was a matter of survival.

Now it seems that homesteading and self-sufficiency has become trendy. It's the cool thing to do now. So farming and gardening has gotten a new name stamped as "homesteading" on the header, and self-sufficiency has gained a whole new recognition and attention. And whether it's considered trendy now or not, I'm praying that this movement to grow and plant and provide in an independent way continues far into the future.

So how did we get started on our homesteading journey? You know, it's funny because we got married at age twenty. And by age twenty-two, we had built our home smack dab in the middle of an old pasture on my grandparents' old farmland. Thankfully, both my father and my mother grew up in this neighborhood, and both families owned an abundant amount of land. So when it was time for us to build, we got two acres of old farmland off of my parents. 

At that time, homesteading was not on the radar of my mind. I wanted a house and a family. And, I'll even admit that much earlier in our marriage, I even envied the life of suburbia. Now I wonder what I was thinking at that time. Neighbors so close together. No land. Having to be accountable to a homeowner's associations? Ugh! I'm so glad we didn't up and move to suburbia!

I would say that I became very interested in living more self-sufficiently about five years ago. We've always been big gardeners. That was passed on to me by my dad who has always planted and tended a large garden. But then I found myself starting to get interested in keeping chickens as well. It took a good year or longer before I got my sweet husband on board with that. It wasn't that he was interested, it was just that the thought of putting up a coop and taking on another financial responsibility was a little overwhelming since we had just returned home from adopting our oldest son from Ukraine.

But we put the idea on our homesteading "goals" list. We knew we eventually wanted to dig deeper into self-sufficiency, but we also wanted to be smart and not get in over our heads. I guess that's kind of become our thought on the whole thing: take things slow and consider all points but don't let fear hold you back from actually jumping in. And in that time of waiting, I do what I always seems to do: devour as many books as I possibly can on the areas that we're interested in.

So our journey started with gardens and green things and lots and lots of herbs. It started with rows and rows of canning jars filled with yummy things from our garden and a full chest freezer with frozen vegetables and berries. And then we threw six chickens in the mix last spring, adding another six over the winter (that we hatched ourselves) and then another eighteen earlier this spring. We also keep rabbits. We sold two earlier this spring, and now only have two, but those are more of pets for the kids than any kind of functional animal. 

So that's the skinny of how it all began. We're still very young and tender in our homesteading journey. We've got the gardening and food preservation down pretty good since I grew up doing those things, but we do have future plans on adding more animals to our homestead (which I will be talking about later in the series) and, hopefully, eventually honeybees. 

Oh, and I have named our place "Windy Knoll" because it is, in fact, very windy up here on this knoll of ours. Since we built in the middle of an old grazing pasture, all of the trees that are on our property are small because we planted them after building our home. So there is no natural windblock, and things get pretty windy up here. So it's a very fitting name. Ian made the "Windy Knoll Chickens" plaque last week with his new woodburning pen. Brad's going to hang it on our chicken coop. I love it. 

Now that you've read our story, go check out how these other bloggers began their homesteading journey: 

Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm
Tammy at Our Neck of the Woods
Daisy at Maple Hill 101
Meg at Little Homestead

Have a blessed day!

Time Away

Brad and I took the first of our semi-annual trips north this past Sunday and Monday. We stay here, and if you're local I highly recommend the Gateway Lodge. It is so quiet and cozy and relaxing (kids are not permitted which is why it's so quiet and relaxing!) We've been staying here for probably five years now, and it's always such an awesome time to reconnect and recharge. It was quite cold this past weekend, and we even experienced snow flurries. We were able to fit in a nice hike (although a very cold hike) yesterday before heading home. And the rest of the stay, the cold, rainy/snowy weather gave us a good excuse to stay cozied up in front of the fireplace in our suite. :) (Like I really need an excuse to do that!)

I just wanted to remind you that if you are interested in learning a bit more about our family's homesteading journey, the first of the five-part series "How We Homestead" starts tomorrow. The first week's topic is "How It All Began." I will be writing about how our journey into homesteading started, and I'll also be linking up to the four other bloggers that are participating in the series.

Have a wonderful day!

New Homesteading Series

Good Friday to everyone! This has been kind of a trying, challenging week for us, so I'm really very happy that it is indeed Friday!

I'm writing to invite my readers to tune in each Wednesday for the next five weeks for a homesteading series that Staci from Life at Cobble Hill Farm has organized. The official title of this new series is "How We Homestead."

If you're thinking about starting up your own little homestead or are simply interested in learning more about this lifestyle, I encourage you to tune in each Wednesday and read the stories of five different bloggers and their homesteading/self-sufficiency journey. We're all at different stages in our journeys so I think it will offer a nice variety of information.

In addition to myself, four other bloggers will be featuring homesteading-specific posts at their blogs each Wednesday.

Staci from Life at Cobble Hill Farms

Meg from Little Homestead

Daisy from Maple Hill 101

Tammy from Our Neck of the Woods

The first post of the series starts next Wednesday, May 15th. Hope you join us!