I saw this today and thought it was so worth sharing. What an amazing statement. Sometimes I believe we glorify the busy. I think most people wouldn't call my life calm, but I strive for it to be that way. So much is lost when your stuck in a car taking your children from one event to another constantly to the point you zap the fun out of where your destination is. When you push so much, so consistently that you have lost the point of being present.
I've had some time off call and I admit that it's been so glorious I consider never going back on call again. I know in my soul that I am called to serve but this break is just exactly what I needed. Did you know? I really have the best children. I cannot tell you how in love with them I am, they don't make words big enough to fully grasp the depth of the joy they bring to my life. In the last couple years, I've been so busy that I've begun to drop balls. I'm not an expert juggler but when I'm over stretched, I'm even worse at it. As I prepare for a new arrival, I have had the pleasure of taking some balls out of the things that must be juggled and that's given me so much more time to really truly enjoy what is on my plate!
Fear not, those really amazing children I spoke of are not without their issues. I think sometimes we forget they are people. They have bad days. Off days. Days that totally suck and they need to go the heck back to bed and get up on the right side. They also have dreams and goals and more than anything - they want you to listen to them. They want to be heard when they are having one of those really crappy days AND when they have developed a plan for feeding all the starving children in Africa while making millions and having 16397 pets that they named in alphabetical order. I'm learning so much about how little they need. And yes, I'm aware that other children might be different but for us, this calming slow down has brought so much clarity to the time I need to dedicate to just listening to them.Wow.
I'm scared, elated and everything in between to keep my schedule calmer. Instead of interviewing for more clients right now for going back to work so soon after my own baby, I'm looking forward to fully trusting God that our business is where it needs to be and I can just BE. Oh what a marvelous thought.
Fear not, calm isn't boring around here though. Some might think that calm means boring but to us it's really not. It's just steady....... steadily chaotic in a great way!
Some of the "calm" things I'm enjoying is raw milk and all I can make with it. I've felt moved to do more than just be a consumer in life. While raw milk doesn't seem like that much to someone just thinking I want a healthy drink, to me it's a lot more. That raw milk supports someones family and in turn, gives us something wonderful. I've committed to making butter every week with the cream and freezing it like I would our stock pile from Costco. While I have been fine for years with the stuff at the store, I realize how much packaging, industrial waste, potential animal degradation happens from buying factory farming items. I can't replace everything, but this simple act of making butter and building a stock pile of fresh-from-the-farm wholesome items in my freezer is really awesome. I'm blessed by this "chore".
We are the lovely new owners of a whole heck of a lot of DIRT! Like, 14 dump truck loads full. It's clean fill dirt, so lots of rocks and stuff but it's perfect to create our berm in front. This picture shows our south west corner of our lot. We plan on adding some top soil to the top of these and planting some privacy landscaping. I'm so excited!! Until then, the kids are in love with this new addition.... and holy heck are they DIRTY lately. We had more brought into the northwest corner of our lot for another berm on that side (much smaller than this) and 4 loads in the middle of the south side of the property to spread out to get rid of this damn cheat grass!!!!!!
It's full blown canning season here... We had some fun turning blueberries into syrup! Next up? Apricots. We're going picking tomorrow morning. Yay! I'm planning on canning : apricot syrup (did I mention we like pancakes?!), halved apricots, and likely some jam because it's easy.
I love this tired little face. She is growing up so incredibly fast it catches me off guard sometimes. Can I mention how much we love our sun hats around here too? They are a life saver in this Idaho sun beating on us. Our kids are certainly tan but never burnt because of good genetics and these amazing sun hats. I'm so thankful we invested in good kid gear. We've had several years use out of these and they are SO worth their money. At 30$ a hat x 4 children, I admit with out budget we were hesitant but they have been used everyday this summer. I even bought one for me this year because the only person that was burnt this year swimming was ME. Ouch.
Since our kids are constantly dirty, this lovely 28$ of sanity is a great addition to our yard. I think they have been in it daily since we bought it. It is really peaceful to sit out and watch them splash, have fun, etc. We've been going to Eagle Island, our local "beach" too but even on days we swim at EI, the kids still jump in the pool at home.
They are still amazing little kids with the most active imaginations <3
Yes, I know the sheets are missing. Long story. This is what I woke up to this week. Not one but two little girls crawled into bed with us in the middle of the night. Silly kiddos. I'm so glad I could snap this photo. They are so peaceful looking.
Wishing everyone happiness with their version of calm <3
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