Family – Page 9 – everything He gives

going on a tree hunt

December 15, 2015 MarthaKimball2 Comments

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Oh the agony + joy of attempting family pictures! And all the mommas said Amen.

A few years ago, when we were living in Brevard we stumbled across this little family-run Christmas tree farm right outside of town. It sort of birthed this dream in us to have a little place like this, a big white farmhouse, quiet hills with neat lines of evergreens where it could feel like Christmas all year long. Space to raise a quiverfull of children and maybe a handful of animals, space to tend the earth. I don’t know if that dream will ever be a reality, but every year since then, we’ve headed back to this little farm that reminds of and beckons us to the way of life we hunger for. If for nothing else, it reminds us of Eden in some way or another, a haunting for that good life that was lost, the good life that will be ours again in Heaven one day. A future hope that makes us smile and remember that while we are here on this terrestrial sod we are here to work hard, our time here is temporary.

We went again a couple of weeks ago with my brother + sister-in-law and niece, took turns snapping pictures of each other, and hunted for a tree. The owners didn’t mind us taking our time, traipsing all over their property with our photo props, and they even offered our kids a fun wagon ride behind their tractor! It’s well worth it to me to pay $30 for a tree to support this little place + family.

As 2015 comes nearly to a close, my heart is full. Though it has been a year full of challenges and stress and strain, I look through these pictures and feel immeasurably blessed. When I fix my eyes on these simple but profound gifts instead of the long list of things I could complain about or worry over, joy truly floods my soul. Nothing can touch the joy I have in Jesus Christ, nothing can ever separate me from Him and all that He has won for me and secured for me by His death on the cross. Second to that, nothing can come close to comparing to the profound depths of delight and joy I have in my little family. What a crazy good and wise God we have to come up with the idea of family!

I know so many dear loved ones who long for this and struggle deeply with loneliness during the Christmas season. Know that I’m praying for you, that I long for you to experience the joy of family this season too, even in the broadest of terms, even in the arms of your spiritual brothers + sisters, mothers + fathers, children + grandchildren. Ultimately, in Jesus, we enjoy “family,” because He is Immanuel, God with us. The God who is always there, always present, among us, within us. The kindness of our God: we are not alone! Praying He satisfies you with His presence this season + always.

pilgrims + feasts

December 8, 2015 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

Finally getting around to sharing some pictures from our Thanksgiving! It was a sweet time gathering with family nearby, playing outside together, watching nieces + nephew toddle about, and cooking, of course, all the women dancing in and out of the kitchen. These little moments, these are the sweetest things. The crazy wild gifts of our God. That we have each other! That we can gather! That we are alive! That we have warm homes, able bodies, full tables! And Jesus, best of all. Our hope in every storm, our confidence in every year, the only rock on which we stand. So very thankful for our bond in Him. Each year brings its own measure of glory + grief, and yet we are always, always rich in Him. Hope yours was lovely!

season of light

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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Our week has been sort of slow, quiet, different. We started off the week with a stomach bug which thankfully didn’t pass through the family as we thought it would, but it took a couple of days for Phoebe to be herself again. And we’ve been battling a head cold. And it rained for half the week. So we have been pretty hunkered down. As much as I hate battling sickness, it has given us some time to just be together and read books, snuggle, knit, watch movies, stay in our jammies. In the midst of it, we’ve been observing Advent together, momma reading this book in the mornings in the early + dark quiet, bent over coffee. Kids gather over this book in the evenings, freshly bathed and coloring ornaments to decorate the Jesse Tree as I read. We’ve slowly been pulling out Christmas decorations, putting things here and there as we have time. Phoebe made my bed for me this morning, and I snapped a picture of that simple grace. In all its rumpled glory, it sings of her sweet spirit, her kindness and the quiet way she serves even at her young age. I hope I can be more like her.

It’s been sweet, savoring this season of light so far. Remembering our Savior, the hope of His birth, the way it proclaims the Gospel to us: Jesus came, even in the midst of a very broken and fallen and evil world, a wicked generation. He still came. He didn’t just come to visit us, God visiting man, He came as one of us, God and man. The hope in this! The glory! That He knows our frailty in an experiential way. He knows our need. Our weakness. He offers Himself to us. I pray for you and for myself this season that above all else we open our hearts and hands to receive Him.

the baby is one

November 23, 2015 MarthaKimball2 Comments

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We celebrated with family yesterday afternoon, opening gifts, enjoying a meal together, and feasting on cake (gluten-free + vegan!). Our sweet babes are so blessed to have aunties + uncles and grandparents nearby who will love on them in this way and bless them with sweet gifts. Phippa, as we call her, received some warm clothes, a new bike, and a doll from Brandon + I. She was the first of our kiddos to not cry during the first-birthday song/cake experience, and to actually eat and enjoy her cake! So I think she loved it. We all did! What a treat to be together with family and to all love on this sweet little gift from God to us, our precious girl. We adore her! My heart is a little sad that she is already one and moving on up, but it’s good to remember all the fun things that are ahead. Her first steps, words forming into sentences, more + more that she is able to do and that we are able to know of her. Her little party was a great way for us to begin Thanksgiving week. Our hearts are ever mindful of the great kindness He has shown us in these little souls entrusted to our care!

Psalm 91 has been on my heart the last few days, these verses in particular my prayer for our little Philippa Ruth:

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”
(Psalm 91:14-16 esv)

philippa ruth

November 21, 2015 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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My dearest little Philippa Ruth
The littlest one, the lovey of our hearts. You are just pure delight. There was nothing like seeing you for the first time. You were born in laughter and momma was full of indescribable joy. A shock of the darkest and softest hair, eyes so intense and grumpy looked at me as you guzzled milk for the first time. You just stared at me as if you never wanted to look away. You were the softest and pudgiest and sweetest little bundle. Big sister couldn’t wait to get her hands on you, big brother was filled with wonder. You were the sweetest Thanksgiving marvel. We loved bringing you home, it was a time filled with all the usual difficulties of adjusting to life with a newborn again. But in many ways, it was the sweetest newborn season we had experienced thus far. We knew by now how fleeting this time is, and we didn’t mind spoiling you. We snuggled with you and held you all the time. We let you sleep in our bed. We let you nurse even when it wasn’t quite “time” yet. We broke all of our own “rules” with silly grins on our faces. We savored you with great joy. It has been so fun to get to know you, to see your little personality shine forth. How you love your older siblings. How feisty and determined and stubborn you are, all the while being sweet and completely lovable. Knowing you and loving you and the great + high privilege of raising you is the supreme joy + honor of my life. You, along with brother and sister, of course. I am so happy to celebrate this first birthday with you. I hope it is the happiest birthday! Know, my sweet girl, how deeply loved you are, especially first + foremost by our great God who with tender foresight placed you in a family where you would be taught the glories + wonders of the Gospel. I hope we will always be faithful to point you to Him in every year along the way. Where we fail, He is perfect and unchanging. May His love for you in Christ Jesus be what undergirds every day of your life and may you shine as a bright light in your generation.

With all my love
Momma

(Pictures taken by my sister-in-law Addie + my friend Elise)

the bond of sisters

November 20, 2015 MarthaKimball1 Comment

How did this happen, that you are already days away from being O N E, my littlest one? I love these ordinary days with you. Ordinary, and yet when I look closer, when I quiet my complaining and squint past the piles of mess and the squabbling, days that are heavy with glory. These days are full and exhausting, but I think they will always be my favorite.

Older sister clambers over crib rails into bed with the younger. Giggles and laughter and momma rocking quiet with camera in hand, freezing ordinary glory into little squares.

settling into winter

November 13, 2015 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

We’ve been happily busy with lots of THIS lately. My older brother + his sweet family have been in town, and we’re so enjoying having the opportunity to be with them. I’m loving the chance to get to know my nephew a bit and it is precious to me to see all the cousins play together and build little bonds. I know from my own childhood years how special cousin relationships can be! It’s like having extra siblings. And I’m thankful for more time getting to know my sister-in-law and reconnecting. Our hearts are full!

The leaves are mostly off the trees, a cold front moved in with a wild gust last night, and we’re settling into winter slowly. Things can begin to look dark + barren, like the black-eyed susan stalks, shooting their bald heads into iron sky. All can seem lost, empty. Yet hidden within that flower’s cone are all the seeds for next year’s flower, each cone containing dozens of potentially viable seeds. All this glory and beauty and light bottled up in that dark little bumpy-looking ball, just waiting for the right conditions in which to burst forth. The same stalks that wave cheery yellow wildflowers in the summer, we pass by, or even trample underfoot in these winter months, assuming it’s all dead anyway. Winter is full of promise and waiting and hope in small, hidden places. There is all manner of beauty in those barren places, if we’ll look. There is all manner of potential.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.” (Psalm 130:5)

thankful tree

November 9, 2015 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

The holiday season is so busy for us, with Philippa’s birthday the week of Thanksgiving, and Noah + Phoebe’s birthdays the week of Christmas, along with all the other usual holiday hectic! We press in hard to some intentional habits during this busy season to keep our hearts tuned to God’s grace and to keep ourselves rooted in the soil of our simple everyday lives. We started the habit of intentional thanks during the whole month of November a couple of years ago. Our children love doing this! When they saw that I had turned a corner of our living room into a little corner of praise + thanksgiving, they were literally squealing and jumping with joy. I grab a branch from the yard (or in this case from one of our favorite picnic spots) but you can also just tape cut-out branches to your wall or draw a tree on a chalkboard (as I did last year, see pictures below) and tape your leaves to it.

I fill a bowl with cut-outs of colorful leaves (though you can print free thankful tags here) tied with baker’s twine, put a footstool nearby so little feet can clamber up anytime to bring their thanks. I make it a point to let them interrupt whatever I’m doing to come over and help them add a leaf to the tree when praise strikes their hearts. Yes, child, come boldly to the throne of grace! Ordinary footstools become altars of praise.

We started this a couple of years ago after reading beloved One Thousand Gifts author Ann Voskamp’s posts (look here + here for lots of ideas + free printables!) about making a thanksgiving tree a sweet family tradition, a way to focus our hearts toward Thanksgiving and to remember that this is how He tells us to enter His presence: enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Ps. 100:4).

We carve out a space right in our living room, the gathering room, the room where most of our life happens: the reading of books, the cuddling around the fire, the sibling fights, the teaching + disciplining, the laundry-folding + the vacuuming. Right in the mix of it all, we plant our own little tree and as the leaves are daily all falling outside our windows, this little tree is gaining leaves day by day, until the end of the month when it will be full of color + singing of all His goodness.

Don’t get me wrong. We are not a super-holy family over here. We fail a lot, daily. We argue too much. We worry about money. We lose our tempers. We are too harsh with one another. Our selfishness comes out in a million little ways. Isn’t this the strangest miracle of all, the most beautiful of all? That He beckons us, even us, to come to His table? To feast on His goodness? His mercy + forgiveness for us in Christ Jesus? This little altar isn’t for the self-righteous. It isn’t for the Sunday-best. It’s for the meek. The ones who know they are unworthy, dirty. Undeserving. The ones who know that the good things alone aren’t grace, but that all is grace. It’s for the penitent. It’s for the failing + flailing families, just like ours.

And that’s reason for the highest praise of all. God giving us the greatest gift when we are least deserving!

Our challenge for each other this year is to find new things every day to praise Him for (last year most of our tags said “cars” + “lights”), and thus teaching our kids + ourselves to hunt for His manifold grace.

It’s not too late to start your own Thanksgiving tree. It’s never too late to give thanks! Here are some pics from our “tree” last year.

Even in the midst of hard weeks, even in spite of our unholy moments, we want to remember we can come + give thanks.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thess. 5:18)

a home weekend

October 19, 2015 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

This weekend we had our first frost, and some of our coldest temps yet. It was a “home” weekend for us, getting some projects taken care of here, like finally turning our empty raised garden bed into something useful for the kids: a sandbox. (Unfortunately at this house we have no full sun in the yard and thus didn’t attempt a little garden plot this past summer.) The little ones have really been into making mud pies lately, and we realized we don’t have a ton of things for them to do outside in the yard. Part of me wants to say I believe that gives them more “scope for the imagination” (as Anne Shirley would say), but part of me knows that is just laziness/cheapness on our part. We do want to encourage them to play outside and be creative and interact with the natural world as much as possible, so a sandbox/mud pie kitchen is a great option. Maybe it wasn’t the best weekend to make a fun play area outside, being frigid and all, but the kids loved it! First they went to Lowes with daddy + helped pick out the sand, then they helped unload it and spread it in the “sandbox.” Meanwhile it was cold enough to warrant a big pot of chili + some time spent knitting (I’m just learning!) and some hot tea. Sand can now be found in all sorts of cracks + crannies, but I guess it’s worth it. 🙂

away together

October 16, 2015 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

So, we spent the very last week of September as a family at one of our favorite getaway spots: Isle of Palms, SC. This place was where Brandon and I honeymooned over nine years ago, and we come back to it whenever we can because there’s something about the power of place. Do you know what I mean? There’s something about certain places that help us remember who we are, what we love, why we are alive. There are certain places that call us back to ourselves when we’ve lost our way, that call us back to the Lord when we’ve trailed off. You see this all over the pages of Scripture, the importance of the Promised Land as the place connected with the Israelites identity as a people. You see it in the way God had the Israelites set up monuments and stones of remembrance as they traveled through the wilderness so that when they visited these places, it would trigger for them memories and milestones in their walk with God.

What are your places? Places that for others are ordinary, but for you are profound, like balm for your soul amnesia? I think for our marriage, Isle of Palms will always be a simple but powerful place for us. It’s nothing special, really. It’s quiet, home to only a couple of hotels, boasting a tiny strip of shops and restaurants, and a destination spot for more surfers and paddle boarders than big loud vacationers. Which is precisely why we love it. It has a quieter and simpler and smaller feel, and we’d rather see bare coast line and wildlife than a cluster of resorts or attractions any day. Plus its only a four hour drive from our home in the mountains of North Carolina.

This time was special because it was our first chunk of time off together as a family in two years (and Brandon’s first week off in two years, except for the week he took when Philippa was born, which you all know is no vacation). Also, it was Philippa’s first introduction to the ocean! She absolutely loved it, crawling straight into the waves, fearless.

We also got to spend a couple of days with family, some time biking over to Sullivan’s Island and back, watching sunrises and sunsets, reading + painting alone on the beach, fishing, visiting our usual spots in Charleston, watching dolphins, running through the rain to Ted’s Butcherblock for lunch, staying up late to see the Super Blood Moon + capturing it (though fuzzy) on camera, experiencing the highest tides of the year on the island combined with the heavy rains from Hurricane Joaquin. We stayed in a little yellow house and had to leave a day or so early because of the heavy rains + flooding. We realized on this trip that it’s really not easy to go the beach with three children ages 4 and under and have the kind of relaxing vacation we were imagining. The sooner we adjusted our expectations and communicated really clearly with each other what we needed to have happen to feel rested + refreshed, we enjoyed our time more. The reality is, this season is busy and a ton of work, no matter where you are (maybe even more work when you’re not at home). But it is still good and important for us to get away to a place that reminds us of the early days when we were brand new and so in love. Somehow it always makes us fall in love all over again. It’s a fight sometimes to really r e s t, but such a thing worth fighting for.

So now, I feel I can officially say goodbye to summer + hello to the glory of fall in these beautiful mountains we call home! Yay!

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