spring – 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.

spring energy

May 20, 2019 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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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.

hello, again

April 16, 2019 MarthaKimball1 Comment

hello, dear old friends. 🙂

I’m so sorry for my unannounced absence in this space. I haven’t posted in a bit over a month, the longest this blog has ever been silent I do believe. As I shared on my instagram account, there have been some personal things going on that have been difficult and discouraging, and I haven’t felt much like myself.

I also wanted to step away from social media for a few weeks, at least the producing of content side of it, and see what it did for my soul. I guess I’ve needed to sift why I keep this blog, what my hopes and intentions are. As a busy mother, it is hard to justify what feels like the extravagant wastefulness of keeping a blog, knitting, reading, editing pictures, etc. etc. I often hear from other mother friends “I don’t know how you have time to x y z..” and maybe in part because of the other personal hardships we’ve been facing these last number of weeks, I wasn’t sure that I did in fact have time for it. My home is seemingly always in varying states of disarray, there’s always work I must neglect in order to pursue creative endeavors. I often feel guilty because of that. I wondered if I’ve said everything I’ve needed to say, if I’ve begun to just take the same photos again and again.

Anyway, I can’t go into it all now because I only have a few minutes to write here today. What I can say is that I thought it would be harder to go without sharing and posting much. It wasn’t actually very hard at all. In fact, it felt surprisingly good to be silent and private. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would miss taking photos and keeping a record of our daily moments. I did keep up with taking pictures here and there, but I was mostly just still and quiet. It made me sad, and that surprised me. Keeping the blog somehow helps me stay present and awake to my own life. It helps me pay attention and keep a record. It brings focus and a bit of purpose. It forces me to process, in a way. I don’t know all of the reasons why I feel compelled to keep on, and I don’t know that I will forever, but for now, I’m back and it feels good.

I’ve missed you, too, reader, and hope you know that I do so enjoy connecting with you and hearing from you.

So while my soul was feeling the very heavy weight of grieving some losses, winter gave way to spring in our little part of the world. I noticed it more intently this year than I have ever before in my life. Every day I have walked around our home, looking for the bulbs we planted last fall to sprout and bloom. They have! I can’t quite express the ministry it is to the soul to watch green things come out of the ground, but I know many of you know just what I mean. I’ve also planted new things in the soil. During the last few weeks I’ve had some time convalescing and haven’t been able to do my usual physical labor, so Brandon faithfully prepped the garden soil, tilling in our compost from the last year, while I sat near him knitting in the sun. We’re making better walkways between rows this year in a hope to minimize weeding. We’ve planted strawberry plants and more asparagus, even as daily there are shoots of asparagus popping up from what we planted last year. We’ve planted lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, edible flowers, beets and sunflowers all from seed and are hopeful that we will see them sprouting soon. It has been so lovely spending time each day out in the sunshine, enjoying the cool mornings and warm afternoons before it is unbearably hot and buggy.

The kids and I are all feeling the itch to wrap up our school year. Our homeschool co-op finished up this week, and we have about 5 weeks of curriculum to finish up before we break for summer. We’ve done some fun simple field trips, like visiting the Biltmore House (local to us historic home) to see the horses and animals and gardens. We have a field trip to a museum later this week and hopefully a couple little getaways are in our near future as well.

I hope that spring has come your way, too, and that you are experiencing the ministry of new green things, sunshine, honeysuckle and lilac on the breeze, buzzing bees. Sending much love to you today. ❤

planting days

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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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.

happy may

May 5, 2018 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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Fairy houses in the nook of the great big maple, sprinkling of flowers in the new grass. Shade beginning to dapple the yard once again. Skeins of wool snuggled next to one another in a row, projects ready and waiting for time. Already a couple of weeks have gone by since these photos were taken, our property bursting with blooms and bright green. I feel like if you listen closely, you can nearly hear shoots breaking through soil, leaves fluffing out on tree limbs, everything eager to live. The weather this week has been downright hot at times. I’m trying to wrap up our school year and make garden plans, going through the kid’s closets and organizing clothes for the warm season. May and June are fun months, with some celebrations sprinkled in, and everything feels buzzing with busyness, plans, and activity. I’m trying to be gentle with myself as I try to keep the plates spinning. My mind is tired and I have a good bit of work ahead of me today, so I will leave it at that. Just wanted to pop in and say hello, and happy May.

signs of life

February 16, 2018 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

Last Friday as well as today we’ve gone for little hikes because both days have been unseasonably warm, sunny, and beautiful. Actually the last few days this week have been so spring-like and warm, it’s hard to believe it’s mid-February. Part of me is enjoying it, because who can resist being outside on days like this? Part of me is a bit sad.. it feels too early, and I still wanted a few more blustery winter days. Maybe we’ll still have some. I know everyone seems to love spring the most, and it is irresistible with its bright colors, blooms, sounds and abundance, but I still love dreary winter most of all. I guess I was assuming this baby would be born in the midst of cold days and nights and somehow it feels wrong for everything to be so warm already.

Anyway, the children are loving it and have been outside as much as they are able during the day. I’ve noticed the days slowly stretching longer and longer, and what a good effect it has on all of us to have a little more light to enjoy.

Last Friday we went for a short, easy hike at a place nearby called Jump Off Rock. It was truly beautiful and a great picnic spot, so I was glad I had packed our lunch. Afterwards the kids stretched out with bare toes in the sun and then climbed around the rocks, finding a little passageway/cave through them.

Our weeks have felt really busy lately, even though I can’t say we have a ton of “activities” going on, per say. Weekly OB and chiropractor appointments for me, as well as trying to get in our weekly grocery trips (I usually go to at least 3 different stores), homeschool co-op, library trips, other random errands, and school work/house work seem to fill up our days to the full. I’ve been nesting like crazy, too–working on finalizing things in Noah/baby’s room, like having Brandon make and hang those shelves for me (which I haven’t finished organizing quite yet), organizing boxes of stuff in the school room, etc. You know, the important things. Meanwhile, the car seat is still not installed in the car and I don’t have a hospital bag ready or anything like that. We are delivering at a different hospital than we have with all the other children, and we still haven’t done a hospital visit. I think we vaguely know where to go. I’m still trying to knit a few items before baby comes, too. I feel like my brain is all over the place and I only have 10 days left before due date. Nothing much is happening yet and I feel mostly normal, just increasingly tired and big. Something must have changed because now everywhere I go people look and smile and somehow know I’m due any day. Lots of “ready to pop” comments from strangers.

I am trying to get as much school work done with Phoebe as I can before baby comes and throws a wrench in things. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be able to accomplish or how much time we’ll need to take off before I can get back in the rhythm with her, so I’m trying to diligently get in a good solid 4-5 days a week while I can. She and I seem to have hit a hard spot with math, which has historically been her favorite subject, but as it gets harder she has been “dreading” it, she tells me. We’ve started doing it first thing in the morning versus the copywork/language arts we normally focus on first thing, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Maybe having Brandon teach her and fill in a bit while I’m recovering with new baby will be refreshing for all of us? Reading with her, history, science, art–these are all a breeze and enjoyable for both of us. Hoping she and I can still spend a good bit of time snuggled up reading while new little baby girl sleeps.

Today we went to a local historic home, the Carl Sandberg home, which we have really enjoyed visiting in the spring/summer months for picnics and to see new baby goats. With all the flu going around rampant in our area, I’ve been trying to avoid public places so our hikes and walks have been more in the woods and less at parks/playgrounds. Our hike today was just lovely, and I told the children to be looking for signs of new life. They saw a pilated woodpecker, new little buds forming, and heard lots of birds singing. The first set of twin kid goats are due in about a month, so we’ll be back soon to see and play with them. We’ve been seeing daffodils and crocuses pushing up through the soil on our neighborhood walks, too. Just before I snapped that picture of the three of them holding hands, Noah had asked Phoebe, who had come back to me to tell me something, to keep having a little conversation with him, and they ran off holding hands. A sweet little moment. They spend a lot of time together and there is always a lot of friction between them because of it, but they really adore each other too. Its always encouraging for me to see the good moments happen. Don’t worry, the hike ended with its fair share of whining and weariness, and we squeezed in a library visit afterwards, which was probably pushing it being everyone was already “starving.” But we survived and recovered this afternoon with naps + quiet time spent with fresh library books.

projects

May 16, 2017 MarthaKimball3 Comments

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A couple of weekends ago, Brandon and I took the kids to a local historic home, the Carl Sandburg House. It is peaceful and quiet there, with easy trails to walk. We went on a Sunday afternoon, packed a picnic lunch and spread a blanket under the shade of some great trees in the gardens. Afterwards we went to visit the baby goats. I had already taken the kids on a previous weekend when Brandon had been working on the flooring in our laundry room + kitchen. (More on that in a minute.) Brandon has talked about wanting goats for years now, so I knew he’d enjoy visiting with them. I’m not ready to own goats right now, but maybe down the road? I love the Nubian goats with the long ears the best, I think. The nubian kids were the cutest running around, just like puppies. We got to see Nellie, the grandma goat of the crew, who was laying in the grass one day past her due date with multiples. I felt sorry for her! She looked weary. Philippa dutifully checked all of the goats ears, noses and mouths for them. 🙂 By now, I’m sure Nellie has brought a new litter of kids into the world. Savannah, the goat with the little hand-knitted sweater on, was just a few days old, and we all loved meeting + petting her.

It was good for us to take a day and set aside projects, enjoy a little bit of the quiet of the outdoors, and just be together. The last few months have felt chaotic and we’re just starting to feel like we can find a new normal again. Phoebe’s good test results have made us feel like we can breathe a bit in terms of worrying over her. She goes for another general check-up in six months, unless we see something that concerns us. So for now, I’m trying to allow myself to rest in those good test results (versus worry and be fearful which is my MO) and allow myself to believe/hope that the worst is behind us. I was talking with a friend recently whose daughter has just come out of having brain cancer–obviously a far scarier ordeal than Phoebe’s in a lot of respects. But we both agreed and understood one another in how hard it is to hear GOOD news after hearing a lot of bad. In order to survive you begin to stay in a continual place of bracing for the next disappointment/bad result, and it’s very hard to shut that off. I don’t know how people walk through things like this without knowing the Lord. I don’t know that I would have made it through without Him! Even still, I look to Him for rest and healing and hope. I lean on Him to carry me now into this new season with its own set of joys and challenges.

Much of our “free” time in the evenings or weekends has been taken up with little projects here and there, fixing leaky faucets, replacing broken things, finishing the flooring job, etc. I am thankful Brandon is so good at all of these things! The flooring we put down was to cover a section of the home that had asbestos tile in it (the laundry room was the worst, as you can see that part of it had been disturbed). It brings me a lot more peace of mind knowing we have covered that area and I’m really happy with our flooring choice!

We borrowed a neighbor’s tiller (after I attempted to till by hand) and are preparing a small little portion of the yard for a garden. I know, we are late!! I was debating putting off a garden until next year, since we still aren’t even fully settled or unpacked! It seems silly to start another time-consuming outside project when we have so much work to do inside. However, we have so missed growing a portion of our own food the last couple of years when we were renting (and had ZERO sun in our yard). We just couldn’t resist, and I’m glad we are going for it! I picked up a few things from the garden center today and hopefully things will grow well, despite our late start.

carrying on

March 6, 2017 MarthaKimball2 Comments

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Buds rise quiet and swell on the branch. It’s the first week of March, everything and everyone is anxious for spring. Some days it’s already been in the low 70s, sunny and warm, and the next day it’s back in the 30s. It’s still technically winter, but spring presses in, trying to burst forth.

It seems like a fitting analogy for my own season. For this wait. Last weekend we packed our home into a large box, essentially, and closed it up, everything on hold for now until we close on our home at the end of this month. We moved our bare necessities into my parent’s home nearby and have moved in with them for the interim. Such wild grace to us, this welcome mat extended to our family, the carving out of space and sharing of everything so that we can walk through this transition with as much normalcy as possible. Because we are here with them, my mom has been helping out even more than normal with my day-to-day tasks. She watched the kids while I went for a run the other morning–such a gift to a momma who normally squeezes in my workouts in the house during the kid’s nap time (necessary but terribly boring sometimes). It does my soul good to get out on a quiet trail and have the solitude of the woods. As I was running, enjoying the movement of feet and legs, the filling and emptying of lungs, the way the wind sounds moving through winter limbs and pines, I was aware of a hush of waiting. I don’t know really how else to describe it, only that I felt my own soul’s wait as I felt the natural world waiting in the dormancy of winter for spring. Everything is still alive, though it has the appearance of death. Everything is holding life though it has the appearance of barrenness. But the life cycle demands that death and dormancy must happen so that new life can burst forth.

We resist our own winters. We resist periods of death and dormancy and waiting. We resist pain of any sort, of course. Yet it is good to remember that it is necessary, this winter, so that spring can come. And spring will come.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19

We are in this beautiful and awkward season of in-between. Our home packed up, waiting for the word that this home we have been working toward will in fact be our own. We haven’t shown the home to the children yet. They’ve ridden out this transition well, but not without some tears and questions and some “I wanna go home!” Meanwhile we are in a period of waiting for answers on Phoebe’s health. She is nearing the end of this three month elimination diet, and soon we will do more blood work and likely another endoscopy. All around the same time as our closing on the home and moving in.

How appropriate it seems, that our own family story would coincide with the seasons, the melting of winter into spring. I can’t help but also think of this lenten season, the time during the church calendar when we remember Jesus’ death and sacrifice for us so that we may that much more enjoy and celebrate the resurrection (Easter).

So we embrace this season of holy hush, the waiting, the discomfort of it, because we know that our own spring is coming. All of the details of our story may not work out perfectly and our circumstances may continue to prove difficult, but we know that somehow God will be faithful to us and will provide all that we need.

And so we carry on. We receive the gifts of this winter season as it comes to an end. We enjoy this special time with my parents and sharing life together. We keep on with school, with our piles of library books, with knitting and other little family rhythms. The kids find new trees to climb and places to make a fort. We look for the early signs of spring, the blooming forsythia, the green pressing up through soil. We pay attention to the birds, noticing how gladly they sing.

spring at the farm

May 14, 2016May 14, 2016 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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A couple weekends ago, Brandon was working and I was feeling antsy to get the kiddos (and myself!) out of the house and doing something fun so that we didn’t mope around. We headed to one of our favorite local farms in nearby Fairview. There are a couple of farms on that stretch of road, and one of them has fields of u-pick wildflowers. I was hoping and itching to see some fresh blooms but not much was growing yet. We did, however, buy a couple pints of their fresh organic strawberries. The day was a bit overcast and chilly, so the Hickory Nut Gap farm was nearly empty, which made it especially fun. It kind of felt like it was ours for the day. We saw the new chicks in the coop, and Philippa LOVED seeing the goats. She calls any and every animal a “goggie” (doggie) and is the most animated when she sees a goggie. She was trying to go up to the goats at the fence and pet them, but when one bleated she was so startled and came running back to me terrified. They have big culvert slides for the kids, and a little picnic area by the creek. They played in the water and we had lunch, and headed home wet, tired and happy.

Later Phoebe helped me make gluten-free strawberry oat bars. I adapted this recipe from these applesauce oatmeal bars, but have changed it so much that basically it’s my own recipe now. Because Phoebe is not eating oats right now in addition to being gluten free, I substituted almond meal for the oats (i’ve heard you can sub quinoa flakes too, but haven’t tried that). For the flour I sub some kind of gluten-free flour mix. I use about 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead of brown sugar. And I use my own homemade strawberry jam instead of applesauce, which is from my favorite grain-free cookbook, the Grain-Free Family Table. I think you can see the recipe for the jam scribbled above. I l o v e these bars, they are not too sweet, the strawberries give them a hint of tartness, and they can serve as a snack or a dessert. They were a bit crumbly, I was thinking I may add a teaspoon of grass-fed unflavored beef gelatin next time just to help them hold together a bit. We’ll see. Anytime I can sneak beef gelatin into my kids, I feel very accomplished. 🙂

It was a really beautiful, serene day on the farm and I so love where we live and finding free fun nearby.

*Affiliate links included in this post.

spring things

April 11, 2016 MarthaKimball2 Comments

I’m behind it seems on posting lately. I’ve been dealing with some vertigo on and off and looking at the computer screen has been messing with my eyes and giving me a headache so I just haven’t been able to be on for long periods of time.

My youngest brother’s wedding was on Easter weekend so after we all got back home from Virginia, we had an egg hunt for the kids at my parent’s house. It was pretty special because we had *almost* all of the nieces and nephews together for it. We only hid a couple of eggs per child so it was kind of short lived.

These spring days have been so lovely. I’m enjoying this year’s spring more than any I can remember, I think. We’ve had some really warm days, lots of time to be outside and thankfully no mosquitoes yet. It’s been good to be able to throw the windows and doors open and have the kids outside more than in. Phoebe is bringing me bundles of flowers for my kitchen table or for her mud pies or bride bouquets. We gave them each some wildflower seeds and their own set of garden tools in their Easter baskets so we have been waiting for the “last freeze” so that we can plant together and see what happens. We don’t have a yard with much sun, so I tried to choose seeds accordingly.

I’m attempting to potty train Noah again, and this time my mindset has been different. He is just not going to get this quickly, and so every day its about doing our best and sticking with it and dealing with a lot of messes and laundry, but keeping it light for him. I introduced the kids to that old movie from my childhood, the Adventures of Milo and Otis and they loved it. They’ve been requesting it nonstop on the rainy days, in which they inform me that movies are the best thing to do. Philippa has been talking so much. Well, she’s always talked a lot but we are starting to understand her more. She is affectionately called the “boss lady” around here, and she loves to tell everyone what to do, though we can’t understand half of it. She is saying “nur-ning” for nursing, “naugh-knee” for naughty, and loves to yell “don’t touch!” or “no, no!” She says “EYE da-doo” for I love you. She loves playing “pee-boo” (peek a boo). She is observing all the potty training business going on and is very interested herself, and already runs to the potty if I ask her if she wants to try. She will probably be done by this summer, and its hard for me to imagine life without someone in diapers! Crazy!

We’ve been getting out on family adventures again, always so happy when the parkway is open. Last weekend we hiked up to a fire tower we’ve always wanted to check out, then had a picnic on an overlook and let the kids run around and play while I squeezed in a few minutes to knit.

Phoebe is not really napping anymore in the afternoons the last few months, though she still has quiet time while the younger kids sleep. She has a big stack of books and a doll and is content for a couple of hours, but I let her get up a good hour or so before the other kids. I’ve been trying to make the most of this time with just her, sometimes doing a little craft, having tea, baking something together, or doing a little bit of “school.” I’m trying to wrap my mind around starting school in just a few months and I don’t have it all figured out yet (ha!) but it’s pretty much constantly on my thoughts.

Anyway, thats a bit of our random current life lately. Off to play with the kids outside a bit before dinner!

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