homemade

Welcome 2013

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Our amarylis stretched her pedals wide to greet 2013 last Tuesday.  I couldn’t believe she chose this day to awaken, but it seemed to represent a fresh start  for our family.  We needed a bit of freshness around these parts, seeing as each of us took our turn with the nasty flu bug that has been making its way through our neck of the woods.  My illness and long recovery is the reason it has taken me so long to return to this space.

I am very thankful to be feeling back to my normal self, and to share some holiday images with all of you.  Because of our bouts with illness, this holiday season was very low key, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing.  Instead of the constant buzzing from here to there that often takes place around Christmas and New Year’s Day, we were able to nestle in and just enjoy some quality home-time with one another.

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I hope each and every one of you had a blessed holiday season, and find yourself filled with the sense of renewal this time of year brings with it.  Can you feel it?  As I sit here, clad in wool from head to toe, sipping my morning coffee, writing this post, I can feel the uniqueness of this time of year.  It’s a stirring deep within me, telling me this is sure to be a year filled with many blessings and a whole lot challenges.  I can’t wait to dive into the depths of this newness and get started.

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I wish all of you a wonderful 2013! 

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

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The aroma of fresh pine needles and sweet sap waft through the warm air, as flecks of light play upon the dark walls of the dining room.  The notes of Tchaikovsky serve as the background melody while sounds of giggling and merriment echo from the playroom.  The kitchen bustles with cookie-making and ornament-crafting, while feline eyes peer in the frosty window watching the activity.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year, and we are doing our best to soak up all this season has to offer.

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In our family’s attempt to simplify this holiday, we are trying our very best to slow down and enjoy the moments that can so easily pass us by if we are not careful.  In this effort, I will be stepping away from this space until after the Christmas holiday so that I can fully dedicate all of my time to my little ones during this most magical of all seasons.  I wish all of you the most wonderful holiday season.  One filled with lasting memories and happiness.  God bless.

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Musings

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It has come to my attention as of late, that my blog sometimes leaves moms feeling inadequate in their role as parent.  Please know, this has never been my intention.

Two and a half years ago, when I made the enormous leap to leave my paying job and stay home with my little ones, I was met with reactions that I never expected.  People flooded me with questions like, “Why would you want to just stay home?” and “What on earth will you do all day when you are sitting at home?” and “Why would you want to leave a career you have worked so hard for, and invested so many educational hours and dollars.”  This reaction sent me reeling for a very long time.

Then, as I stated in my “About” page, once I took the step and was enjoying my time home with my daughters, I still felt a sense of isolation because I didn’t feel as if I fit in with many of the moms I came into contact with.  It was at this time that I leaned heavily upon the holistic-momma-type blogs that I regularly follow, for the support I needed to get through the day to day that we all know can seem so very long sometimes.

I then decided to create a space of my own, right here, where other moms like me could go for crafty ideas, recipes, or just plan ole mommy support.  My sincere intention was, and still is, to simply put forth musings that may be useful to others.  And please do remember, this space is offering just that, musings. This is not, by any means, a minute by minute account of my life.  You may see a sewing project I just completed, but you don’t see the enormous pile of laundry that has been sitting in front of my Christmas tree for over a week now, so that I could complete that sewing project.  (I have included a picture of this now for your enjoyment 🙂 )  You may see a yummy home-cooked meal I prepared on a Monday night, but you don’t see me serving up popcorn, apples and cheese for dinner on a Friday night as we rush out the door for a tumbling lesson.  My point being, we are all human, and no one is super woman.  At least I’ve never met her.  We are all just trying to do the best we can for the little people God blessed us with.

And through this space, conversations have been opened up and valuable discussion has flourish in the waiting room of my daughters’ dance school, and in the parking lot of their preschool.  This blog has helped me to realize I am not alone in many of the decisions I make, and there are many people, right here in my very own community, who are trying to live a more conscious lifestyle in which they try to dig deeper and live more closely to the earth.  And I am so very grateful for each and every one of you who visit my blog daily, and for those that just stop by every once in awhile.   All of you have sincerely helped me to feel better in my own skin, and for that I am eternally thankful.

The Gift of Homemade

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The season of gift-giving is upon us, and this year we have decided to take a different approach to our most-loved holiday.  We hope to create many of our gifts with our very own hands, thus giving our friends and family something truly from deep within our hearts.  Here is a bit of what is in the works right now…

Late Fall Planting

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The week of Thanksgiving, we abandoned the warmth of our kitchen to do a bit of gardening.  We recently acquired asparagus and rhubarb crowns, and wanted to get them into the ground before the first major freeze of the season.  So, we took advantage of a seasonably warm afternoon, stepped into our gardening shoes, and dug our fingers into the cool, damp soil.

First on the docket was to sort through our worms from our compost.  The girls and Tyler picked out each individual wormy (as the girls like to call them), and placed them into a fresh compost bin that would be moved inside for the winter.  Then the amazing, black gold was used in the trenches that would house the asparagus roots.

The girls then helped me to separate the asparagus roots, which we concluded look just like how we imagine aliens to look, and placed them deep beneath the surface of the soil.  We did the same with the rhubarb crowns, burying them underneath the black earth in hopes they will produce delicious spring vegetation in a few months.

Thanksgiving 2012

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For about six years now, my hubby and I have been the proud hosts of our family’s annual Thanksgiving celebration.  We prepare for this day all year long, with our next year’s theme in mind before the current year’s festivities have concluded.  We gather the necessary ingredients from farmer’s markets, local farmers and our own garden throughout the year, and take the necessary steps to preserve that food until the big day.

The week of Thanksgiving, the whole family assembled in the kitchen to fashion the meal.  This year we faced a few road blocks, like a daddy who was sick the entire week prior to the feast, and I can’t leave out the fact that my oven broke on Wednesday.  Yes, the oven.  It is a wonderful blessing that I live so close to my parents.  I just strapped on my running shoes and ran pies back and forth the whole day.  So really, it worked out quite nice.  I got in a bit of a work out, so that I could eat more of the pie 🙂

The theme of this year’s event was “An Ancestral Celebration,” so we spent the day honoring those members of our family who are no longer with us.  We feasted upon recipes from their recipe boxes, and relished in the grateful bliss of food, family and fun.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are enjoying this beautiful Christmas season that is now upon us. 

Family

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This past week, I was so fortunate to spend a great deal of time behind the lens to document four days of outdoor fun, crafting, and most importantly, family.  My husband’s cousins from Idaho came to visit and our whole family gathered at my in-laws’ home for an amazingly wonderful time.

The kids spent their days crafting with Grandma Mimi and playing outside, while the adults enjoyed one another’s company, laughed, and cut down some trees.  I mean really, what family gathering is complete without a little chain-saw action?

 

As we move into Thanksgiving week, I am reminded of what really matters in life.  It is not the objects one possess, the clothes one wears, or how much money one has in the bank.  Instead, it is family and the health and well-being of those closest to us that truly matters.

I will surely go into this next week with gratitude in my heart for the family I have in my life.

I wish you and yours the most blessed of Thanksgiving weeks!