Uncategorized – Page 3 – everything He gives

A Shawl for Adoption

September 2, 2020September 9, 2020 MarthaKimball4 Comments

UPDATE: Congratulations to Ginny Foreman for winning the raffle!

Well over a year ago now, my brother Peter and his wife AllieMarie announced that they would be adopting a child to grow their family. We have been so excited to support them in the journey however we can! Immediately the idea came to mind to knit an item to donate. Knitting for someone is one way I pour love out on that person. It was really special to knit on this shawl and be mindful + prayerful the whole time of this baby that is being prepared for my brother’s family and for us all to love on. It was also special to knit on it and wonder who will be wrapped in the warmth of this gift. I hope many of you are excited for the opportunity to donate toward Peter + AllieMarie’s adoption and also possibly win a beautiful shawl!

Most people know it is a challenging and lengthy process to adopt, and cost is so prohibitive for many. However, Peter and AllieMarie’s plans have been interrupted by various hardships including the pandemic which has also caused a strain on their employment. The setbacks are discouraging and frustrating, and I would love to encourage them in this season with a reminder that there is a community of folks standing alongside them and behind them, cheering them on. You can read more about their heart for adoption on their GoFundMe page.

Now, let’s talk about the prize! This shawl is knit in one of my favorite yarns to work with. It is a special blend of merino wool, llama, silk and linen. The shawl is very soft and lightweight, and all the eyelets of the shawl make it breathable and light also, as well as lend an elegance to the piece. I have knitted this shawl once before for myself and it is a good layer for the in-between seasons of spring and shawl when a light accessory is needed. I like to wear mine draped over my shoulders in the mornings and evenings often to warm against the chill of the day, or wear it wrapped around my neck as a scarf when going out. The color of this yarn is called “lady slipper” and I think the soft mauve brown is one of my favorite colors lately. It is very wearable in my opinion and pairs well with many things!

As for cost, I spent about $30 on the yarn alone and many hours knitting the shawl. It is quite difficult to price a hand knitted item because the cost of good materials plus all the time involved knitting is hard to place a value on. All of that to say, your donation will be well worth the cost of the item!

So here’s how you can enter for a chance to win the shawl:

Donate at least $10 to Peter + AllieMarie’s GoFundMe. Make your donation HERE. Every $10 donated will be worth one entry toward winning the shawl. Once you donate you will be emailed with a receipt. Hang onto that email, because if you win I will need you to email that receipt to me as verification of your donation.
Come back to the this page to use the Rafflecopter link below, enter the amount you donated to enter the raffle for the shawl. First you login with either your email address or your Facebook profile. The options within the widget after you login are Donate $10 for one chance, Donate $20 for two chances, Donate $30 for three chances, Donate $40 for four chances, and Donate $50 for five chances. You can select a combination of entry options if you need to. So for instance if you were to donate $60, you would choose the “Donate $10” option along with the “Donate $50” option. Each option can only be selected once per day, so if you donate more than the total options available ($150 per day), you will need to come back the following day(s) and select the options necessary to add up to your total donation. If you have any issues or questions please email me at marthahkimball(at)gmail(dot)com.

**Because of the current pandemic and subsequent strain on the postal service, the raffle is open to US + Canada only.

ACCESS THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY PAGE HERE.

Please feel free to share this post to spread the word so we can raise as much as we can for the adoption. Also, feel free to visit Peter and AllieMarie’s adoption instagram account as well as their GoFundMe.

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Good luck and thank you so much! I’m so excited to send this shawl off to one of you lovely folks soon!

xo
Martha

pumpkins in august

August 25, 2020 MarthaKimball3 Comments

Well, hello there! It has been at least two weeks that I’ve been trying to publish this post! Its not for lack of trying, but there just hasn’t been a spare moment. It has been a few weeks ago now that we harvested our pumpkins. I haven’t grown them before so I don’t know if we planted them too soon, planting them way back in April when we planted everything else. However, the pumpkins seemed ready, the vine had completely taken over that corner of our back yard and I was ready to pull it out and clean up the garden a bit. Philippa had requested planting pumpkins in the kids little garden box and she tended them carefully over the summer. She was delighted to harvest them. As it turns out, she grew exactly six healthy pumpkins, one for each of us. It really still amazes me the volume of life, plant matter, and abundance that came from one little pumpkin seed. A little bit of investment, a whole lot of yield. It’s God’s way. We may not always see it this side of heaven, but I believe it is His way, and why He asks us to faithfully steward what He gives.

So there are pumpkins in August lined up on our porch and I don’t know what to do with them yet being it is only just barely beginning to feel like autumn. The sun and humidity still blaze hot. I guess it really is possible for me to decorate with pumpkins too early. Now I know. 🙂 But we are trying to enjoy them just the same, and the kids are hoping they last until carving time in October. Doubtful, I know.

Last week we began our fifth year of homeschooling. What a marvel. I never imagined myself doing this, investing my life in this way, yet here I am. I really do love it so much. That is not to say that it doesn’t exhaust me entirely, keep me up at nights with anxiety, questions, uncertainty, or that I don’t fail terribly at it many days. It does do all of those things and I do fail at it terribly and often wonder if it just too large for me. Maybe one day it will be, and it will be time to shift into something else. Yet the reality is, it is truly too large for me and it requires dependence on the Lord and a whole lot of grace and sanctification. I resist that. I imagine that if it is God’s will for us than maybe it should feel easier or more natural than it does. Yet I’ve learned that God equips whom He calls, and not the other way around. I’ve learned that that equipping sometimes comes slow and daily, humbling me more than I’d like.

With each passing year I feel more sure of our approach to homeschooling, I seem to find my way and my confidence a little more. I am learning what everyone has always said, how valuable the relationship and connection is over simply plowing through material at all costs. I am learning to laugh and relax more, to set aside a lesson when there are tears of frustration, to make more time for play, wonder, discovery. I’m seeing the fruits of our labors and it is encouraging! I really hope it is our best year yet. Philippa has begun her first year, what a special milestone. She was overjoyed when some of her new books arrived and she counted down the days until the first day of school last Monday. She could hardly sleep the night before. She asks me for extra work every day and she can’t learn to read fast enough. I hope her zeal never diminishes, what a joy to have an eager student!

I also began weaning Wren this week and it has made me so much more emotional than I anticipated. I cried late in bed last night, remembering how these last ten+ years of almost constant pregnancy or breastfeeding have been the very sweetest years of my life, the work I knew I would love yet never dreamed I could enjoy as much as I have. To wean the little one that will probably be my last, to see my children growing out of the baby years and into the big kid years — it is beautiful but also I don’t want to see this season go. I know so many mothers cannot wait to progress and get beyond these little years, and I can understand. They have certainly had their challenges and they’ve taken a toll on my body. Yet they have been so very, very sweet. And I for one don’t want to let them go.

I was working in the garden the other day and thinking about how we don’t grow food as wisely as we could. We grow mainly for immediate use, we like to basically have our own little backyard grocery. We share the overabundance with others, I don’t preserve much of anything, really. Yet the wisdom in seasons is that one should grow in summer all that they will need in winter. Spring is for possibility, dreaming, beginning, preparing the soil and the elements for a yield. The summer time is the time for growing as much as possible for the winter months so that there will be food when the growing season is done. The winter is for enjoying the fruits of your summer work and resting from the weary toll of all the labor. The ground is iron, the cold makes most growing impossible. It is a metaphor for life and every year we are given a reminder in our seasons of what the trajectory of our life will be. Our youngest years, the preparing of the soil, the planting of the seeds. Our summer years — our middle years — are hopefully our most productive, our time to yield as much as possible and store up for the winter of our life. Winter will surely come, when our strength and resources wane. And these children are so precious, and I just want to give them everything I can, you know? All the summer yield to build them up, spur them out, shoot them out into the world to do mighty things. It’s all I want with my life, to be their biggest champion and advocate on this planet.

So the seasons shift again, ever so slightly. We ease slowly back into our structures, the anchors for our days rocking us back in their steady rhythm. We welcome pumpkins earlier than we’d like, we return to our homeschool co-op and savor gathering with friends to learn again, for however long we can. I end my days bone tired with a to-do list longer than I can ever conquer, work always brimming up and over, spilling into tomorrow. Such good, weary, long, hard, beautiful days.

Welcome with me our newest little 4th grader, 2nd grader, Kindergartener, and littlest mischief-maker sidekick. If you have children in your life who are in the school years, I pray a special blessing over them right now. May we do our best for our children this year and every year.

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yarn along

August 13, 2020 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

Just popping in here briefly to share the progress on my hansel hap shawl! I flew through the colorful portion and am now working on the edging. It is much slower going but I have so, so loved working on this project! I don’t want to rush it but I also can already imagine wrapping up in it often as the weather cools. Oh, to think of that–the weather cooling. We’ve reached that time of year and heat when I can hardly imagine the need for bundling up and waking up to a chilly house and the need to light the fire.

I should mention the yarn was a kit for this shawl which Brandon gifted me for Mother’s Day 2019, purchased from Ginny’s etsy shop. Ginny’s yarn is something special! I was worried I would run out but even though I modified the pattern to extend the size, I still have had enough yarn so far.

Still reading Home, enjoying it a bit more as I get deeper into it.

Joining Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.

yarn along

August 5, 2020August 9, 2020 MarthaKimball8 Comments

Slowly, slowly through the book Home. I can barely read a few pages after crawling into bed at night before my eyes are too heavy. Maybe I’ve been having a little trouble getting into it but I’m not far enough in yet and I bet that’s why. I’ve begun the practice of beginning my morning quiet time with the lighting of a candle as I read and pray. It has become a tangible reminder to me that I’m meeting with God of very God and it has been so sweet.

I finally cast on a Hansel hap (half version) with a shawl kit I purchased from Ginny over a year ago. I’ve been sort of saving the yarn and also trying to work through projects I needed to finish first. Now is the time to knit it! I am enjoying the yarn so very much already, rambouillet is one of my very favorite fibers to work with. It is so bouncy and soft! I am following another knitter’s notes for making the shawl a bit bigger and I’ve calculated and I should have *just* enough yarn to do so, but it will be cutting it really close.

Oh friends, these simple joys (knitting, reading) seem so small and insignificant in the face of so much pain, suffering, uncertainty, and need in the world at large and in our own homes today. Yet I hold firmly to the reality that the places where we can find and make beauty are places where light breaks in the dark, where we remember that all is well, all shall be well. We create in the image of our Creator God who also loves to make, who continues to make all things new. We read good stories and the ultimate Story to find our place in the world, to remember both our humanity and the fact that Jesus Christ came in human form, and continues to choose to work in cooperation with and through human kind. These simple good things can ground us, inspire us, encourage us, and bring a little joy along the way. I hope you make time for some creativity and for reading good, nourishing books. Share with me what you’re up to, if you want!

Joining with Ginny’s Yarn Along and Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.
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pickles, flowers, birds, and a schoolroom update

August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 MarthaKimball2 Comments

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It never fails to surprise me how quickly the summer weeks go by. It seems we barely have anything going on, this year especially, and yet somehow it feels full and busy. Then all of a sudden it’s August and we are nearly ready to begin another school year. It may have something to do with the fact that I put off a lot of bigger projects until the bigger breaks (Christmas and summer) and then suddenly I feel like I have a small window to get a lot of things done. I want to clean and tidy and reorganize all the chaos that has spilled out over the last several months, but attempting to do so with four children underfoot is challenging and feels like an exercise in futility. I realized this summer that since we will be adding another student this fall (yay, Philippa!) I need a bigger work space to gather children around and sit by them to assist. I have been cramming myself into a kiddie chair at a very small kiddie table for the last year when I’ve worked with Noah and it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t going to work any longer. Praise the Lord. Environment does make such a difference.

So with some moving around of furniture that we already had and buying a few new items to spruce up our school room, we’ve slowly been making changes over the summer. After three years of living in this house and the prior owners leaving the wood windows half painted in the schoolroom, we finally painted them and the laundry room door also. It is amazing how something so small makes such a nice difference! It just looks tidier. We were given a couple of old hutches and I decided to use one in the school room as a homeschool cabinet. I will probably paint it in the future, but I do like the original wood. We’ve been filling the glass top part of it with nature finds that we’ve been saving. The bottom part will hold puzzles, manipulatives, books, and whatever else we need to keep organized in there. Brandon put better lighting in also (can lights) because this room is the darkest in the house and that doesn’t make for a great school space. It has been fun to focus on just one room and make it suited to our needs. It’s amazing how the kids are drawn more to this space now and I think it is going to work better for us this school year. I used to spread out and do school at the kitchen table or in the living room, and we still do that for some subjects. But it has made a big difference for us to work in a dedicated space and keep all of our supplies handy. It makes it easier for me to grab what we need and helps everyone’s attention spans.

Meanwhile, the garden has been growing, growing. I’ve neglected weeding it for the past couple of weeks with the high heat, humidity, and the more pressing projects in the house sorting curriculum, planning, and reorganizing. It’s a bit wild out there now as one can only expect it to be come August. Our cucumbers continue to abound so I made a batch of refrigerator pickles using this recipe. (I didn’t use as much sugar and used more peppercorn and mustard seed.) So good and easy. We are able to share a lot of what we grow with others and that is always a joy. I’m thankful for all the flowers, enjoying watching them bloom and cutting some to bring indoors. Noah has been obsessed with drawing birds from this atlas, he has done at least twenty different drawings by now and they’re really good. He told me tonight that he wants to set up a stand tomorrow by the road and sell them.

The kids seem relatively happy but I wonder how all of these changes in our world are affecting them. Noah said at dinner tonight that he wondered when the virus would be over and all the stores could open up again. I realize we forget to tell them some of the updates happening, that many places are open again but there are still restrictions in place. Still, it doesn’t feel “normal” to them yet and it’s uncertain for all of us what normal will be from here on out. Our homeschool co-op will begin in a few weeks, it is a very small group and we are able to continue meeting. Hopefully that will restore a bit of normalcy for them, but who knows what this fall and winter season will hold?

Some “before” shots of our school room:

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In progress:

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Current iteration:

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I will share a few more photos maybe as I finish up in there. I am still organizing the shelves and my desk area. Little bits of work in little chunks of time. I hope in the next few weeks we are well prepared for a new and maybe altogether different school year. I’m beginning to feel excited about it.

yarn along

July 28, 2020 MarthaKimball4 Comments

Another week gone by. The crepe myrtle are in full bloom, the heat and humidity also. How about where you are in the world? I bound off the antarktis shawl that I’ve had on the needles for over a year! It feels really good to finish it. I’m also very nearly done with this tegna, a top I’m knitting as a commissioned project for my friend Jessica. On Sunday I finished shaping the shoulders, seamed them together, picked up and knit the neckline, then cast on the first sleeve. That was a lot for one day! I am eager to work on my fleuriste cardigan but I’ve realized I’ve been knitting the wrong chart for the last 11 rows or so and I’ve got to figure out how to rip back and fix it. I think I know what I’m going to do but it will require a good chunk of uninterrupted time to concentrate on it, and I just don’t have very much of that these days. I’m eager to cast on another summery top i think for myself soon, and that may override my desire to fix my mistake on the fleuriste! We shall see.

I’m still reading Home, though ever so slowly. The children and I have been reading Tuck Everlasting after Ginny recommended it a little bit ago. We are all really enjoying it. The chapters are mercifully short which is good for the evenings when I don’t have much energy left for a read-aloud. They always beg me to keep reading.

joining Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.
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yarn along

July 23, 2020July 23, 2020 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

One constant in these strange days has been knitting. Of course there have been some days that I haven’t felt up to it, or that it’s required more brain energy than I have. More often it is a comfort and a happy distraction at day’s end. I always have a few projects in the works that I’m actively working on. After a very long hiatus (nearly a year?) I’ve picked back up this Antarktis shawl to knit on and finish up. It is nearly done, only needing the last lace section or so before binding off. I made it larger than the pattern called for so I’m just improvising pattern repeats at this point and I like how it’s turning out. This yarn is one of my very favorites to work with and this color is truly enchanting and lovely. I can’t wait to see it when it’s done, it will be beautiful. My plans and hopes for this shawl were to knit it to sell/raffle off to help raise money for my brother and sister-in-law’s adoption, and I still hope to do so! I’ll share more about that soon.

I’ve been reading Home after finishing Gilead recently. I’m just a few pages in, enjoying it as before bed reading.

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hello, again

July 17, 2020July 17, 2020 MarthaKimball4 Comments

Hello, again, friends. It has been a long time! I’m so sorry for my absence here. In some ways, it feels arbitrary — I’m not sure who even reads these posts, these snippets of words and photos strung together. Blogging really can feel a bit like talking to oneself. But if you are there reading along, hello! How have you been? I’d love to hear from you.

A good many things have happened in all of our lives since April. It’s a comfort to know we share in a lot of it and we understand the strain, stresses, the collective grief we’ve carried. We’ve been walking through some personal storms also, which have taken a toll. I haven’t felt like writing, like sharing, even much like taking photos. Days have slipped one into another, taken up with the necessary tasks. Space to be quiet has felt appropriate, necessary for survival. I’ve weighed whether or not to carry on with blogging, sifting my reasons for investing time and energy into it. Maybe the season for it has come to a close, I don’t know. Sometimes you carry on with the practice of a thing even though it doesn’t seem to have a great purpose or bear measurable fruit, and it feels hard to give it room in your life simply because you enjoy it.

Weeks have slipped by into months. We’ve mostly stayed home and enjoyed the solace of escaping to the wilderness when we can. Come spring we planted a garden, maybe all a bit too early in a bit of an anxious rush to get food growing. Our spring was colder than normal and our garden took forever to take off. It’s mid-July now and just this week our zucchinis, squash, and cucumber are harvestable. I’m still waiting on tomatoes to ripen, it feels so late. Summer is my least favorite season, though I don’t despise it. I just feel more cooped up because of the heat, humidity, and bugs. I feel less able to enjoy the outdoors and I think that’s why I dislike it. Keeping a garden brings so much joy to me in part because it gives me a good reason to savor summer, to be outside and to see the benefits of all that humid heat in the swell of red tomato skin and crisp bite of cucumber. Zinnias, calendula, cosmos, coneflower, and poppies are blooming and filling up the drab beds, a quilt of color. These garden photos are from some weeks ago, now. Before long the tidy rows will be an unruly jungle.

I’ve been catching up on children’s dental and annual doctor well-checks. Noah and Phoebe did their annual academic testing (required by the state) and both did so well, I was immensely encouraged. The last months of our school year were so difficult and distracted, we were all so burned out. Yet I see their scores and I marvel at how well they are learning. It’s all worth it to see the fruits of our labor on paper, to see that the sacrifices and inevitable exhaustion (for me) involved in homeschooling still outweigh the other educational options available to us. A good break from our homeschool routine also gives much-needed perspective and refreshment, and already I can see that we’re getting hungry to return to our studies.

We’ve been keeping up with piano lessons and swimming lessons weekly. I’m beginning to plan out our next school year, while still trying to tidy and put away work from the last. I feel horrible in that area, but really when we wrap up our school year I’m ready to not look at curriculum and papers to file for quite some time. I never can believe how fast these summer weeks fly by. I’m also making some improvements to our little school room, always trying to find ways to better organize books and materials while also creating an inspiring space for learning. Knitting and reading fills my evenings, bringing calm, a creative outlet, space for my mind to grow and wander as the day winds away and fireflies flicker like embers rising from grass, cicadas singing evening songs.

I hope you are well. I hope you are savoring the summer abundance and rhythm. I hope you are your loved ones are well. I hope you are pursuing the things that are life-giving and refreshing to you amid the mundane. I hope you sense God’s presence with you, His everlasting arms underneath, upholding, undergirding it all.

xo
Martha

p.s. I’m playing around with a new blog layout. I hope you enjoy the freshening up and can be patient with me as I continue to tweak it!)

a different Easter

April 17, 2020 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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Beautiful, sunny warm Saturday was filled with productivity and work. Early morning grocery shopping, lawn care, cleaning floors and bathrooms, all the house work tended to so we could enjoy a restful Sunday. We thought about doing an egg hunt on Saturday while it was sunny out, knowing Easter Sunday was slated to be rainy, but it just didn’t feel like Easter. We finished that day with dinner outside under the budding Crepe Myrtle and with a large bonfire. I made gluten-free cinnamon rolls that evening to bake on Easter morning.

I think we all fought some sorrow on Easter due to the fact that celebrations are overshadowed somewhat by the corona virus. How we miss gathering! But our hearts fought for joy, also. We were thankful for the simple graces of family life: the warm smell of cinnamon rolls as children colored in early light. Squeals of children’s laughter and screams of delight as they dodged raindrops and hunted for eggs in the yard. Morning worship that was so very sweet with our church family via the internet. Then a restful afternoon amidst pouring rain. An Easter feast with lamb my parents had given to us, the scriptures read over us by Brandon.

We rejoice now more than ever in the hope we have in Jesus, the Savior who conquered death and took away all need for fear. Sending you lots of love in these sometimes dismal days, hoping you are all well, body and soul.

yarn along

April 14, 2020 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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I cast on this little Sunday Sweater for wren because her birthday sweater that I knitted for her in March was way too big and will need to be tucked away for another year. She has outgrown most of her other hand knit sweaters, and though we don’t have many chilly days ahead, I still wanted her to have an option for when we do. She loves when I make her anything because she happily tries it on anytime I ask her to and says “ooo, pwetty.” She loves dress up and clothes, which I’m grateful for because Phoebe did also, but then Philippa has really never been into anything too girly. I’ve missed having a dressing-up kind of little girl around. Anyway, it has been so nice to work with Wisconsin Woolen Spun and makes me want to work on a larger project with it.

The kids and I watched the documentary on Tasha Tudor last week (thank you Ginny for the recommendation!) and they were absolutely enamored and transfixed. Phoebe said that is exactly how she wants to live when she is grown up. Noah asked if he could send her a letter telling her that he loves her and her drawings are so good. This week Phoebe has read and re-read all of her chapter books and though I’ve had books on hold from the library, things are moving so slowly. So, I ordered a few new books to delight these little bored scallywags and I thought they’d love to have a couple more Tasha Tudor books. Pumpkin Moonshine I bought for Wren, and Around the Year I bought for Philippa. Wren sat down to read hers with me right away, she is becoming quite the book lover already. Philippa however declared that she didn’t like her book, in fact she “hates it” (though she hasn’t even cracked it open yet) and she wonders why didn’t I buy her something about dragons or a sticker book? 🙂 I love that she feels free to be honest and her “hate” for certain things is still cute at this point. I suspect she’s just a bit grumpy and will come around, but next time I’ll bear in mind her suggestions.

I finished Adorning the Dark last night and really enjoyed it. It was a bit of a lighter read than I expected, and focused more on songwriting than creative work in general, but I still recommend it and found it helpful and thought provoking. I am missing the library so much right now… any one else?! I’m not sure what I will read next.

Joining Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.
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