garden – everything He gives

spring projects

April 17, 2021 MarthaKimball2 Comments

These pictures are from the past several weeks and it is amazing how much has changed in our garden and in the natural world around us in that matter of time. The early blooms of the willow and the bradford pear have given way to green leaves. The lilac is almost ready to bloom. Daffodils, snowdrops, and crocuses are on their way out. My beautiful tulips and are mostly done. The forsythia lining the neighbors shed, just beginning to be visible in these pictures, has long since brilliantly bloomed and greened out. Now the peonies are beginning to grow, the bachelor’s buttons, mustard greens, and one little beet plant are growing rapidly in the garden. We’ve weeded and prepared the soil, and last weekend I spent the better part of Saturday shoveling compost over the garden and the other beds around our home. Coneflowers and poppies are beginning to come back, the flag iris, and the strawberries. Asparagus have already been sending up their shoots. Such a lively and vibrant time it is. Soon we will plant in the garden vegetables and herbs, but we’re waiting a few more weeks.

Meanwhile, we’ve been carrying on with school. It’s the time of year when we are all feeling really weary and ready for a hard stop. I’m grateful for the garden season which gives us a sense of freshness and an eagerness to learn outside in the growing of things. Philippa and I enjoyed working on her bird puzzle and Noah worked eagerly on his ocean anatomy puzzle. Wren actually helped a lot of with Noah’s puzzle and did surprisingly well finding pieces and putting it together. We’ve pulled out the paints a number of times on rainy days or just for fun. I try to be willing to pull out the paints whenever the kids ask, even though sometimes I don’t feel I have the energy for it. They love it and honestly create such beautiful little works of art. Next week we plan to take a week off for a late spring break and then we really only have a few more weeks until our school year should be done. The end is in sight! Not that I don’t love and cherish these times of learning together. But it is a lot of work for all of us and it’s always so good to step away for a bit.

Another project we began back in the fall but finished up earlier this spring was a small facelift in our bathroom. I’ll share some before and after photos below.

We still plan to fully gut this bathroom at some point, but in the meantime I just wanted to make a few changes to make it more our style. The janky medicine cabinet mirror/light drove me crazy and buzzed loudly whenever it was on. I didn’t love the shoddy paint job the previous owners had done. We had a bit of this dark evergreen paint left from painting our front door and so we used it in the bathroom which I really love. Brandon built the vanity from a piece of live-edge slab that he had, and I picked out the vessel sink and faucet (sink, faucet, light fixture and mirror all from Wayfair). Down the road when we do a bigger renovation of the shower and floor these pieces will still work in the space hopefully. We’re really happy with it and I’m buzzing with all that spring energy, wanting to tackle a lot of other projects around the house.

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.

0-4 0-6 0-2 0-1 0-3 0-5

pickles, flowers, birds, and a schoolroom update

August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 MarthaKimball2 Comments

0-1

0-2

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:

0-7

0-8

0-9

In progress:

0-6

0-4 0-5

Current iteration:

0-3

0-1

0-2

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.

July things + Deer Mouse vs. The World

July 26, 2019 MarthaKimball2 Comments

DSC_0067 (1)

It is Friday and another summer week has flown by. As I type, a half-drunk mug of tea sits besides me, thunder rumbles low in the distance while rain patters on outside. In all my grumbling about summer, the heat, and how deflated it makes me feel, I am reminded of the many things I do really cherish about summer. There are few things as lovely as a summer storm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I treasure their almost-daily predictability and the coziness and reprieve they lend to the hot days. I am grateful for the produce of the garden, though it has reached the unruly stage where I feel like a gardening failure every time I step foot in it. It’s only because I can’t keep up with it and manage it perfectly, but really, is that what defines a good gardener? Perfection? Hardly. We are still harvesting good food for our table with enough to share, and that is a blessing and a sweetness I always miss come cooler weather. I savor the long bright days where children can play well after dinner outside and we can enjoy late walks in the cool of the day. I’m especially grateful for the shift in our schedule, the setting aside of our formal school work and the embracing of the quieter rhythm of learning by inspiration. My mind so needs the break from the churn of teaching, planning, executing, analyzing, and the children do also. Lately they’ve been “playing school” and admitting that they are missing it, and it’s always important for them to experience that, I think. I was reminded at a homeschool conference I attended recently that our brains are able to receive and connect concepts best in our REST. Over the summer our little children’s minds are marinating the concepts we have taught. So many concepts click and seem far easier when we pick up our school books again come Fall.

So, those are some of the really wonderful enjoyable parts of summer. Picnics on the parkway, muggy hikes, the way we cherish a breeze. Pool visits weekly, farmers markets. So many things really, why do I complain? But the truth remains that I am a winter girl through and through, and the best part of summer is the anticipating of fall, the turn, the cozy evenings, the camping, the daily fires, the hot stews and soups, the opening of school books, and all such loveliness. I feel more inspired/creative in those seasons, more myself.

I don’t often enroll my children in activities mostly because of cost and secondly because of my own need to keep a simple and open schedule. I am content to keep our running around to a minimum. However, as our children grow, they need all sorts of experience and enrichment, don’t they? We mothers will stretch ourselves so far and wide for these little ones we love so much. So this summer has been busier with activity than normal, and that has been good. I am feeling the adjustment of children who are getting older and needing different things, outlets and experiences beyond what I can provide at home. And I do believe we will be introducing more activity this fall, though I will still fight to keep it simple and manageable for myself.

Phoebe spent last week in Drama Camp and finished the week performing in her very first play. It was truly so special. She is much braver than her mom! She played the part of “the farmer” in “Deer Mouse Vs. The World.” When she was ready to say her first line on stage, she took a big breath with a grin on her face like for a second she was overwhelmed with joy, nerves and excitement. I held my breath, too, wondering if she would freeze or forget her lines, but she dove right in and did such a great job. I am so proud of her and marvel at the way she is changing, growing up, transforming right before my eyes. I can’t help but miss the little Phoebe she used to be but also feel so much joy and excitement about the stage we are in and what lies just ahead of us. Motherhood stretches us in incredible ways, doesn’t it? Always, this capacity to increase, to rise to the next challenge, to expand and make more room, to go farther than we thought we could. Always, this holding of our breath as our child takes a new “first step” and we watch them soar.

words on the wind

June 4, 2019 MarthaKimball2 Comments

On Friday evening, Brandon took the older kids to a baseball game to see our local team play. The tickets were complimentary and fireworks were happening after the game so of course everyone wanted to go. I stayed home with Wren since the game would be starting at her bedtime, far too late to keep the little bird out. (I tried to convince Brandon to take my camera and get some photos but no such luck. Sorry!) After everyone left she and I went out for a long walk and I savored the freedom of walking one little baby strapped snuggly in a stroller. Able to go my pace and distance, we walked to a neighborhood close by that has a lovely, quiet little lake. It has been unseasonably hot and dry here for a couple of weeks, but this night as we were walking the wind picked up and it was cool and blustery. We went all around the lake and the streets up above it while the wind blew wild around us. I felt myself unwinding in the quiet, able to think, able to listen. It sounds odd to say, but as I thought about the people who lived in these homes and how nice it must be to live on the edge of a lake, I felt that someone there must be a writer. I could feel the words on the wind. I used to think of myself as a writer, writing words in journals (and poetry sometimes too) since my earliest years, writing and writing and writing. Yet in this season of motherhood, it all feels so muddled. Even as I type these words little ones interrupt and pull on me. There are almost no times of day without those constant needs and interruptions except for evenings, when I feel totally fried and weary. I don’t journal anymore, really. My most tidy record of these days is this blog, and it is fairly intermittent lately, too. The writing I used to do is more absent from this space. I’ve been missing it, feeling like maybe I had it all wrong and I’m not a writer at all. What kind of writer goes so long without really writing? I mourn the loss, I think maybe its too late anyway. And as I was walking along the edge of the lake, wind blowing wild through my hair, I could feel the words on the wind, flying just over my head, if only I could reach up and grab them with my fingers, but they flew by, just out of reach. Maybe I only imagined it.

With the close of May, and the close of another school year, my mind clears a bit. There is still the tying up of loose ends from this last year, testing to be scheduled, and the planning and researching that already must begin for our next year. I can’t ever really turn that off, but I hope if I get some of it done early in the summer that my mind can rest. In the space in my brain that opens up after our homeschool year ends I find myself thinking about and returning to creativity. I think I will stoke those flames a bit this summer.

June begins. I find myself standing outside our little stand-alone garage with the peeling white paint, spraying water over bare dirt. This side of the garage faces our neighbors home and borders our yard and theirs, and I imagine they wonder what on earth I am doing on this neglected side of our garage watering dirt. I feel a little silly. I defensively want to them them that I’ve planted sunflower seeds here and I can just see them waving tall in August heat, brightening up this little drab side of the building. I’m full of hope that my daily watering will bring something beautiful out of this barren dirt. I can see it just there, in my mind’s eye, and so I stand here and do this work though I look a fool.

I hope to show you those sunflowers one day, the fruit of toiling over scraggly dirt and neglected corners. For now, photos of our garden.

spring energy

May 20, 2019 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

DSC_0004 (1) DSC_0007 (1) DSC_0027 (1) DSC_0030 (1)

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago already. My, how the days are flying by. We have so enjoyed these spring days with cool weather and have all been outside as much as possible. We’ve had a few short trips in the last month which is a bit uncharacteristic for us — a visit to Brandon’s parents in Myrtle Beach, SC, and an anniversary getaway to cabin in Banner Elk, NC. In the midst of that hustle and bustle, we’ve felt that burst of spring energy (and exhaustion!) that everything seems to have this time of year. You can nearly hear it if you listen close enough, the eagerness of shoots burrowing up from soil, the rustle of leaves sprouting out from limb. It seems almost audible, the hurry of everything in nature to grow and produce. I feel it, too, every spring, that sense that we are behind, that we need to hurry up and grow things.

We aim to improve and work on our small little garden spot every year. This year, it was to put in soaker tubes for watering and to set up a rain catchment system to feed the soaker tubes. We used an old barrel that was on our property when we moved in and it has worked really well thus far. Also, we made more established walking paths between rows by laying landscape paper down and we are waiting on a drop off of (free) wood chips which we will cover the walking paths with in an effort to cut down on weeding.

We didn’t expand the garden area at all this year, but I did plant lavender and rosemary and a whole host of flower seed around the property. Here’s to hoping it all comes up and does well! Sunflowers, cosmos, bachelor buttons. I have zinnia seeds as well but no more ground space, so I think I will plant a full raised bed of zinnias (maybe arugula too if its not too late to start it) because truly the zinnias brought me so much joy all last summer. There are things to love about every season, to be sure, but summer is just not my favorite. Keeping a garden and anticipating the growing of things helps me survive the summer heat, I’ve realized.

Brandon tackled a project for me updating/redoing our front door area (replacing the door and trim, painting, installing a new light fixture and house numbers) and we have quite a few other projects we hope to have time to work on this spring/summer. Slowly, ever so slowly, plugging away on this little old home.

Also, I had Brandon take some photos of my finished Tales from the Isle of Purbeck shawl. I finished it a little while ago but wanted to share it here with you. I knit it with some local yarn from a nearby sheep farm I visited in the fall, so it just feels extra special. Knitting is such a joy and comfort in these days where projects pile up and no end is in sight. It is good for my sanity to work on small things and see them to completion.

Speaking of finishing, we are nearing the end of our third year homeschooling. I feel so weary and I know the children do, too. But I was reflecting this morning that I often think of summer break as just stopping and then in the fall picking up where we left off the previous year. However I had to remind myself that no, in fact, I have successfully moved Phoebe through second grade and when we finish, she will be ready for 3rd grade. And Noah will have completed Kindergarten. I felt humbled and grateful to remember that — this isn’t just an endless work, though it is continuous and maybe the lines between grades are a bit fuzzier than in traditional schooling. The years blur into one another and it all can feel a bit endless, but in fact, we are slowly plugging along and completing our work, bit by bit.

I hope you’re enjoying some of that spring energy today. Maybe even some clover + chive tea made by chubby hands and offered to you in love.

sweaters and sunny days

February 14, 2019 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

DSC_0019 (1) DSC_0003 (1)

We recently had a string of sunny, incredibly warm and spring-like days. It was in the 60s and 70s and everyone in our home wanted their skin in the glorious rich sun. So we spent as much time as we could outside, playing, picnicking in the yard, trying to soak it up. I love winter so much and I don’t mind the cold and gray days, but it was a gift to have a short reprieve and remember what is soon coming. The air held that smell of warming soil and all of us began to think about planting and growing things again. Buds are forming on the trees and some of the bulbs we planted in the fall are beginning to send up shoots.

Phoebe set to work on planting a little “garden” in a corner of the mulch of their play gym. She transplanted various weeds and onion grass from the yard and I even overheard her singing to her little plants. I kept walking through our little garden plot, thinking and planning. I’m excited for those planting days that will soon be upon us, but I know how much work it adds to our plate as well. Also, I’m just not quite done with winter yet. I’m still hoping for a few more snows!

I finished up Phoebe’s flax sweater (with a good few modifications). Despite my best efforts to modify the neckline and ripping it out a couple of times, it still turned out quite large. She doesn’t mind it but I wish it wasn’t quite so boat necked. I shaped the arms a bit more drastically than the pattern called for and also cropped the sweater. She has been wearing it constantly in rotation with her other hand knits, and I so love that about Phoebe. She is always so grateful for anything I make for her. The yarn is some rustic farm yarn from our recent visit to a local sheep farm called Bovidae Farms. The yarn is dry and toothy and very lanolin-rich. I loved knitting with it, it’s incredibly warm and every time she wears it she smells like a little lamb. She’s also been wearing the sweater inside out and it looks just a good worn on the wrong side! I hadn’t blocked it before taking these pictures of her wearing it and it looks a bit better after blocking, of course.

It has been back to feeling like winter again, as it should for just a bit longer. We have days of rain ahead of us in the forecast so we are missing that warm sun but we know it’ll be back soon. In the meantime, we’re happy to have woolen sweaters to snuggle up in.

planting days

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018 MarthaKimball1 Comment

DSC_0003 (1) DSC_0011 (1) DSC_0016 (1)

The last couple of weeks have been busy prepping and planning for our vegetable garden. We had prepared the ground and then had about a week straight of nonstop rain, as did most of the eastern US I believe, and then we thought we better get things in the ground when we had a few sunny days while we were able. We are very amateur gardeners really, and still learning a lot as we go. Last year we did maybe a third of the plot we prepared this year and had an over-abundance of veggies. (We had just moved into the home and rushed to get a few things in the ground. Then I found out I was pregnant and was so super sick I couldn’t go near the garden or smell or even look at any of the produce from it. So weird, I know, but when I’m pregnant all vegetables and basically anything food related make me sick. 😉 SO we ended up blessing our neighbors with all of our organic produce.) This year we wanted to expand the garden and grow some new-to-us things, branch out a bit from our usual swiss chard, zucchini, herbs, cucumber and tomatoes. We went a bit crazy at the garden store, as we usually do, finding things we were excited to grow. Phoebe also wanted a square of the garden for her very own and when asked she mainly wanted to grow strawberries and flowers. Her science segment for this part of the year has been plant life so this is perfect for some hands-on learning. We’ve done a few things together from this book and then found this cookbook from the library, which has been fun to read together and pull some lessons from and also learn about as we plan what we want to grow. Phoebe is the pickiest eater I’ve ever known and we’ve tried many things to get her to branch out in her eating (including occupational therapy, etc). Growing our own food is somewhat of a necessity because of the cost of feeding a family of six on a mostly grain-free diet, but also we want our picky eaters to maybe be inspired to try eating the things they’ve grown themselves (one can hope!). Last summer when I was spending most of my days alternately gagging and laying on the couch, noah and philippa spent hours every day in our tiny garden plot picking all our ripe produce for me. I couldn’t believe how much they loved it and took ownership of it when I was laid out.

Phoebe and I planted a few things from seed which really intimidates me because I’ve never had great success from it. I feel like planting from seed should be intuitive and primal but somehow I really fail at it. Maybe this will be my year?! I’ll keep you posted. I had seeds for carrots, dwarf kale and purple top turnips, so phoebe and I planted those, along with a few pots of herbs. They’ve been sprouting up abundantly and that’s been so neat for the kids to see! And me! Every time it feels like a curiosity–this tiny seed, buried in the dark soil, this miracle of tender sprout and leaf. Now, for transplanting things and hoping they take off well from there.

Brandon and I spent much of last Sunday getting the bulk of it in the ground, and I’ve been sowing the remaining seeds with the children during the week when we’ve had bits of time. We’ve planted a couple varieties of cucumber, some yellow squash and zucchini, green and red bell peppers, sugar snap peas and regular peas, sweet potato, a plethora of strawberry plants, swiss chard, beets, romaine lettuce, asparagus, fennel, basil, chives, oregano, sage, cilantro, (our thyme and rosemary came back from last year), marigolds and nasturtiums for pest control, and five different varieties of tomatoes. Phoebe planted purple coneflowers and zinnias as well as strawberries in her corner of the garden. All of the children have been so interested in helping plant and weed.

I wasn’t raised growing vegetable gardens so I don’t have much working knowledge, but I’ve always been interested and awed and somewhat mystified by it all. Many summers when I was growing up we would drive up as a family to my extended family in Ontario, Canada and usually would spend a few days with my grandparents on their cozy little farm before heading up to the Muskoka lakes. As soon as we would arrive usually we would take a walk through their extensive gardens, go visit my grandpa’s beehives and workshop where he extracted the honey. I wish I had paid more attention to it all and asked more questions and soaked up more of their knowledge. I felt somehow daunted by it all but drawn to it. Already today I’ve seen all our sweet potatoes tender little leaves have been chewed off and a good portion of our lettuce plants too, so I think John the Rabbit has been visiting when the children have left the yard vacant. Onto the task of protecting and nurturing all that we’ve planted and hoping for a happy yield! Right now it is all looking so tidy and sweet, but it’ll be a lot of work and come July it’ll be downright unruly, I know.

this cup

June 14, 2017 MarthaKimball1 Comment

DSC_0010 (1) DSC_0022 (1) DSC_0002 (1) 18954969_10155189840537605_1021681662419971881_o DSC_0015 (1)

Well, we are starting to feel like summer is here. Last Friday we celebrated our last day of school for Phoebe’s kindergarten year. I still want to continue reading and writing work with her over the summer to keep things fresh, but really, our homeschool co-op starts up again in August so we only have a few weeks (!!!) before we’re back in the swing of things again. I think both of us need to feel like we finished before we start up again. I need time to plan for the next year, order books and resources, make a calendar of sorts and have a plan in motion. There’s a big homeschool book sale here this weekend so I’ll be pulling together my list in the next couple of days in preparation for that but I know I will need some time to plan out the next year as well. Beginning “first grade” feels a bit more serious than kindergarten! There are so many directions we could go in, and I feel that pull as a homeschooler to try to do everything and go in a hundred directions, but I know I need some time to seek the Lord and His plan for us for the next year. There is a lot of freedom in homeschooling and so many worthy approaches that its almost overwhelming for me, someone who likes to be told the rules so that I can follow them! Its a good challenge for me to stay small, simple, focused, and dependent on God’s leading.

Phoebe has been listening to audio books constantly on the little music player in the sunroom, coloring and having tea and flying through the Little House series. She’s relistening to the Penderwicks book because I haven’t checked out the next one from the library yet. Her last day of school she cried a bit, saying reading is just so hard for her. She failed her eye exam at her recent physical and she goes to see an eye doctor next week to see if she needs glasses, which may explain why she gets super tired/frustrated when we work on reading. She loves books and being read to, and she is starting to read everything she can around her, but she says it is her least favorite subject. Who knows, I’m not too worried about it because she has been a book lover since she was 6 months old. I do want to cultivate her continued love of it though and not frustrate her.

We celebrated our end-of-year with a yummy skillet chocolate chip cookie and a batch of coconut ice cream, and we all cheered as a family for the way each of us worked hard this year to make school happen. Noah and Philippa were huge helpers to me, doing their best to stay out of the way while we did work, and a really close friendship developed between them as a result. I plan to have more activities ready next year for them to engage in so that they can be included if they want to be. Brandon supports me hugely, encourages me when I feel like I’m not doing enough, and helps out sometimes in the evenings with Phoebe’s work. He and I both get excited thinking about him taking on some schooling in the future, too–teaching skills, doing field trips with the kids, or helping by reading or listening to Phoebe read books. Homeschooling really is a family venture!

Summery things are blooming in the yard, butterfly bush and the last of the poppies, and our little garden is starting to produce. A robin family built their nest in the tree by our porch so we’ve had fun peeking at the little blue eggs. We have a huge rosemary bush by our mailbox so I’ve begun drying clippings from it to store up for the winter, which makes Phoebe extra happy since “it is just what Ma would do,” she says. So we enjoy these little things, the markers of time passing, the liturgy of the ordinary, small shifts and small moments. Life.

I’m knitting away as usual, and trying to squeeze in reading always. I’m working on a hat for a loved one. I have some “homeschool mom enrichment” books to read this summer, as I’m calling them. A few things I want to refresh on as I look ahead and plan. I have been wanting to read this book, Mere Motherhood, for a long time, and I’m excited to dig into it. I plan to review The Well-Trained Mind again, as well as Teaching From Rest. I hope to also read A Charlotte Mason Companion. There are so many other good ones out there, but a few is probably all I will realistically accomplish.

It’s my birthday today and it’s been mostly a usual sort of Wednesday. When you’re a momma with little ones underfoot, there isn’t much of a break from the daily tasks. Spills and messes still happen, children squabble and need parenting, dishes and laundry pile, meals must still be made. I really don’t mind, though. I’m happy right here. I mean, I’ll take a stack of books, a long bath, some knitting time, and a good long run on a mountain ridge any day, don’t get me wrong! I’m learning to lean into the fray a bit more instead of just trying to survive it until the break comes. I realized last night and this morning that I kept humming Sara Groves song This Cup.

How many hours have I spent
Watching this shining tv
Living adventure in proxy
In another person’s dream
How many miles have I traveled
Looking at far away lights
Listening for trains in the distance
In some brilliant other life?

This cup, this cup
I wanna drink it up
To be right here in the middle of it
Right here, right here
This challenging reality
Is better than fear or fantasy

So take up what we’ve been given
Welcome the edge of our days
Hemmed in by sunrise and sunset
By our youth and by our age
Thank God for our dependence
Here’s to our chasm of need
And how it binds us together
In faith and vulnerability

This cup, this cup
I wanna drink it up
To be right here in the middle of it
Right here, right here
This challenging reality
Is better than fear or fantasy

What if my whole world falls apart?
What if my life could be different?
What if I sat right here and took you in
Without the fear and loved you whole
Without the flight and didn’t try to pass

This cup, this cup
I wanna drink it up
To be right here in the middle of it
Right here, right here
This beautiful reality
Is better than fear or fantasy
Is better than fear or fantasy
Is better than fear or fantasy

We’re all hemmed in by sunrise and sunset, our days all have edges, our life is limited by bounds. Another year passes, another year comes. We can fight our limitations, grumble about our reality or surrender to what God has given us and say, this cup I will drink. To be present, right here in the middle of this moment–that’s what I want.

a mother’s day garden

May 13, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

DSC_0031 (1)

Brandon has been working such long hours lately, working most Saturdays to make some extra income, which is a blessing, but we are definitely feeling the strain of it. There isn’t a single morning that we have together to just be home with no agenda and have a slow morning. This past Saturday, the kids and I went and picked out a few plants for a very simple, small container garden for the porch for my mother’s day gift. Basically, greens, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and a pot of herbs. The barest of essentials. I really miss having the space and light at our last house to have more extensive beds. For now, though, this is about the only spot of full sun we have in the summer. We planted together late Saturday afternoon before Brandon pulled in from work. Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, I was still feeling pretty icky from a nasty chest cold I had been fighting, so we decided to stay home from church. It was the most glorious morning, a nearly perfect Mother’s day. Brandon let me sleep in (till like 7! haha. i kept thinking “hurry, go back to sleep! this is your chance!” and eventually gave up), then brought me coffee and my bible/journal and knitting wip basket. It was heaven to just stay in bed, linger over the Scripture and not have children clambering over me and asking me questions before my coffee has even brewed. It didn’t last too terribly long before little curious feet found their way to my bed, but how can you resist snuggling with your babes on mother’s day, of all days? Brandon made a fancy breakfast and we ate on the front porch by our little garden, with bouquets of peonies placed here and there. We had another cup of coffee together (well, chai for him), and read, knitted, snuggled the rest of the morning. My parents dropped by to bring a little mother’s day gift + fresh tulips and we hung out for a bit. It was such a peaceful day, breezy, sunny and perfect weather. It was a rare extravagance to have a morning like that after our endless morning bustle lately. What a gift it is to be a mother to these three little ones. It really is my favorite thing ever, and their ages right now are so fun I don’t want any of it to change. The days are long and crazy and tiresome and I usually feel completely pushed to the end of my limits at day’s end, but somehow I still would take it over any other job. It’s good to remember that when I feel prone to complain.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: