Disconnect to Reconnect?

Strange title, but I couldn't think of what else to write about this movement that feels like I need to take. Some of you are already realizing I'm harder to reach. Not for clients obviously, but I don't feel obligated to answer the phone for anyone and everyone right now. I appreciate my support network, I really do. The wonderful women and men that have held me up when I needed held, the ladies who didn't need to know every detail in the world to hold a space for despair, and those who celebrate with me triumphs and trials overcomes. You matter to me. You matter so much to me that I am slowing down and disconnecting a bit to reconnect to each of you. Stop by, you'll likely find me. I might be on the trampoline with my kids, sitting under the walnut tree with my husband, or perhaps in the basement hiding from the heat. I'm facing an intense on-call schedule and I'm embracing it with excitement after a nice long break! 

Fear not, breaks don't mean we were lazy! In fact, it's quite the opposite. 

My awesome kiddos helped on the gardening front by painting beautiful marker rocks. I love them! They are bright and colorful, a great art project for our resident artist, Daunika. She really excels at meaningful projects and finds enjoyment in helping others. I love her helpful spirit. 

Meet Diamond, Clover and Jack. These lovely goats are 'on-loan'. Diamond is a wonderful mother and is a delight to have around. Her littles are warming up to us and we're thrilled to have them. 

Fear not, our other goats are still around. In fact, while snapping the picture of Diamond and her kids, Mama decided my jeans were the perfect flavor to enjoy. Lettie thought better than eating my pants. Thank you.

Can I just shout from the rooftops how much I love when fresh ingredients are readily available at my fingertips? It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that I'm in love with my herb garden. This lovely garlic and fresh basil went into lasagna lovingly made for a friend who was injured. I love being able to bring a meal to those around me. It's the ultimate community. I have always been so incredibly thankful for those who have helped me so much while in need with meals and extra hands. Giving a meal to others is a bit of prayer, a bit of kitchen magic and a lot of heart all in one act. Wonderful isn't it? 

Our domestic old ornament... I mean, our lovely cat, Livvy, is enjoying every bit of sun she can. This is a very typical way to find her at any given moment. 

Lani and Daddy here in a quick snap shot before he left for work. She is a little sun spot that takes intense amounts of energy and is definitely a Daddys girl. It's adorable. 

My mom is having very serious medical issues right now. She is immobile most of the time due to severe adema and I've witnessed her frustration, her anger, her sorrow at her inability to do anything she wants. This lovely tray of veggies has been her project. I'm thrilled to see her excited to start plants for us right now. I'm grateful for the plants of course but I'm so incredibly thankful for her joy and her overcoming her lack of mobility right now to keep up with this lovely project. I stopped by the other day to find her not in her usual place in the living room but sitting outside in the sunshine with her gardening pots and plants. The look on her face was hopeful and I just pray she gets well soon. 

While I'm jabbering on and on about life... I should introduce our newest members of our little homestead. These lovely turkeys are so fun! Who knew?! I am going to be the first to admit I was a bit nervous about turkeys. They seem scarier than chickens. But honestly, they are so much friendlier and seem much more intelligent. I'm very happy to add them to our home and have high hopes to hatch our eggs from these lovelies. This week I have plans to wrangle my husband into building me a hoop house for them to enjoy. 

With lovely eggs like these collected today, don't worry, this homestead won't likely ever be without chickens again. I'm so incredibly thankful for this patch of earth we call ours right now. It's given us so many great experiences and taught us so much. 

So, why the 'disconnect'? Well, with all these wonderful things going on around me, I find it harder and harder to stay up to date with ten million groups, advocating for every other thing in the world that I really do believe in... but I realized that instead of blabbing about all the things I believed in, I actually had it in front of me to grasp. It's scary to step back from all the things that keep you busy. The stillness is vulnerable and wonderful and scary and exciting. It's never truly still around here - with 39 chickens, 5 turkeys, 6 goats, 4 children, life on call as a doula, a bustling business and a community of friends I count as family, really - it is almost never still here. The stillness I speak of is that of what fills the soul instead of my smart phone. It's the trip to the library alone that fills my cup, or the learning of new skills with wonderful communities all around me to teach me if I would just open my soul. 

So, perhaps I'll miss the next months of playdates, marches or all sorts of things that I would enjoy. What I will be doing is crawling in bed earlier, reading more, knitting more, laughing more and filling my soul with these littles that bless me daily with the title Mom. I'll be at Eagle Island, in the garden, at the park, the back yard bonfires and early morning hikes. I'll be busy, just differently so. I hope to reconnect with you all but to mostly reconnect myself with the glory that is gifted to me every morning I wake. 

A soothing week for the soul

Ahhhhhhhhhhh............. What a great week. I feel elated and calm after a wonderful week of peaceful enjoyment with my family. I can't say we did anything really amazing. We just practiced the art of 'being' together, it rocked. Sometimes I think in the hustle of life, I forget to sit down and laugh to my souls content. The coming week is already shaping into a busy one but for this past week, I've enjoyed the peaceful belonging of just sitting in my comfortable skin and having a damn good life.

Sunday we decided to walk to church. It is amazing weather out there! 

Close to us, there is a simple catch-and-release pond. This time of year it's full of babies!! Goslings and ducklings are adorable and we stopped to admire them several times over the last couple weeks. The kids enjoyed walking to church and feeding the ducks on the way Sunday. 

We also did the 'ordinary' things, like head to see the dentist! Aurora and Daunika did great. Kalani was very involved and curious, Declan enjoyed the toy room and could care less, go figure!

Tonight we enjoyed planting strawberries (again, darn goats got the first bunch of them this year!). We also planted beans in the garden patch, snap peas, lettuces, lavender and rosemary. 

This coming week, the agenda is full. 

For tonight, my soul delights in the rest of the weekend to come!

It's May already!

I really love these moments. Happy children sitting together enjoying a snack and laughter is alive in them. This was taken 2 weeks ago. I'm enjoying this Spring season to dive in with out an agenda. We're simply being together in happiness. It's a lightness in the air that is almost tangible. 

This is what four kids running down a hall way looks like. A daily occurance, I felt this photo had it's place in history because it's so real. Lani in the middle trying not to get plowed over while yelling at them, Declan "ready to go outside" in his under ware, shirt and don't forget his shoes! Lastly, our big girls leading the pack!

Aurora sported this awesome black eye. I think this is her first ever and she was totally oblivious to it. It was a result of a head crashing good time on the trampoline with friends. Good times end in black eyes right? When we bought the trampoline we had a long talk about were we ok with broken bones... I hadn't expected black eyes!

Kalani decided that this face would be the one most presentable this past week. I had a really super hard week with the kids and well, she added her intensity. Can't be forgotten right? If she's going to scream at me so much... might as well snap a damn photo of it. Framing this for prom and graduation aye? This captures her true hollering face but not the fury that comes with it sometimes. Love the messy hair. 

Despite having a crappy week, peanut butter cookies were in store for kiddos. It was a necessary addition to save sanity and generally re-institute peace when chaos was all around. 

By the end of the week, we were mostly back to normal. This kiddo and me decided to patch it up and not kill each other. At 17 month old, this little one certainly is giving me a run for my money. This is generally speaking my least favorite stage of childrens' development but we'll make it. It's not a bad stage, it's just an adjustment phase. It's where they learn they really demand things and Mom really has rules. No means no, wait means wait, and you have to learn to fit in with a whole family because the world doesn't rise and set always surrounding you. This stage brings tears because they demand cookies for breakfast when they can see them in the jar and dislike the answer no, you can have eggs and yogurt. 

Just a stage that will pass so quickly it almost seems surreal to think back to when we were there with each of our older kids that aren't that much older at all. 

This lovely snap shot was taken by a fellow co-op mom for our TEACH Co-Op family photo for the year book. Not bad at all. All kids looking? That's damn near impossible. Aurora sporting her black eye? Check. Kalani moody? Check. Declan doing is "cheese" face when he sees a camera? Check. 

THAT folks is me trying not to die of pain during a 10K. It was impossibly hard with a stress fracture. I hadn't anticipated how the injury would truly impact my morale and general time. I didn't quit. I threw up from intense pain and felt defeated and frustrated. WHY had I gotten hurt just before this? Why now? BAH! But in the end, I finished with the best welcoming crew that surprised me at the finish line! 3 of 4 kiddos and my husband and Lani cheered me on. 

Bring on a peaceful, relaxing Spring week for all of us. We need it. 

Science loves Spring!!

The change of season always brings about a serious love of science. It's the time in the world when the earth comes alive and we marvel and wonder that everything didn't die without the heat and shelter we need as humans. We praise green shoots that bring flowers and food. We admire birds and hopefully feel enthusiastic as we seek energy after a resting winter. The natural flow of the world just drives my kids to ask a million questions - and what home school mother wouldn't use this to her advantage?!

We're planting things left and right, raising baby chickens, baby goats, and studying water cycles. It's a very fluid study that follows their demands and expands far greater than I expect.

Have I mentioned I love Spring?!

Daunika, Aurora, Declan and me set out to full understand how the rain comes to be. Enter these nifty little bags of water, sealed of course, and sharpies. Now, Aurora wrote the cycle as Clouds > Rain > Water  and Daunika and I discussed it further and she wrote Condensation > Precipitation > Liquid form > Evaporation.

And of course, I made one for Declan to "experiment" with us. He was thrilled and in true Moose fashion, he held his own with asking his questions.

To further develop this - we heated up the bags with a hair dryer to create evaporation. Once enough evaporation had occurred  the water droplets became heavy and began to fall creating precipitation. The kids were THRILLED!!!

So, for hours, our kids ran around yelling "I can make RAIN, I can make real RAIN!!!!!" What a success. Getting kids excited about learning is amazing and Daunika can recite the cycle and explain it fairly in depth without skipping a beat because her learning was fun and that helped her really remember it. She wrote a beautiful journal entry about rain helping our earth too.

Letti is our remaining baby goat. She is so loving and free spirited. She is getting big fast too!

Our lettuces, despite complete and total neglect (literally!) they are surviving. We placed several seeds all in the planters and set them outside. I haven't covered them up because I wanted to see how they would fair honestly. It's so early in the season, I am seeing what a few seeds do in response to cold. So far, our peas are grumpy and only a few sprouted but our lettuce and spinach is rocking it!

I'm getting ready to move our chickens over into a new set up, I'll update soon loves!

Mornings

I always chuckle when I hear people who rave about "eating dinner as a family" is essential to family unity. Well, we're screwed if that's true! I absolutely love eating dinner together as a family, don't get me wrong, but in my own home - dinner is often rushed, forgotten in the midst, and often easily thrown together in the crock pot for the simple fact that I know I'll completely forget it the rest of the day! So in my own home, dinners are not our meal - nor is really breakfast - but actually mornings.

We begin our day together. Unified. No two days ever exactly look the same but our mornings include a variety of activities such as snuggling in bed (this usually means a giant dog pile that crushes all important organs, but who cares?!) Damon and I are polar opposites in snuggling. He could have all of us sit on him and snuggle forever. I can NOT stand to be squished long. I'm always the first to jump out of bed... Damon mosies out of bed. We start a pot of coffee, or a pot of tea, and usually tackle some dishes. We feed kiddos, sit together in the comfort of our couch or in the sun shine outside. We slow down before the day begins because we understand that the moment that it starts, we don't get another chance to truly BE.

This morning I got up and worked out a bit before waking my dear husband. When I checked in to see where everyone was... this was what I found in my bed. Pretty darn perfect huh?

Daunika has been enjoying having junk food for breakfast this week. Usually it's something more than cereal, but these past few weeks are seeming like a complete blur to me and I admit that the break from cooking every meal is much needed right now.

This was us this morning. Our nifty big-kid snapped this for me <3

And how I ended my morning.... In the sunshine with kids running around me and loud music while hula hooping? Pretty much perfection! 

Spring Spring Spring!

Oh oh oh. I love Spring.

Truth be told, I actually love all seasons. Growing up in such a wet and rainy area, I didn't realize what I missing out on until 9 years ago when we decided to be weird and move to Idaho. At first, I hated the changes. I wasn't used to them. Now, I love them. It's amazing how your body begins to long for the sunshine and warmth in the midst of winter and then in the fall, you long for hearty soups, fireplaces and snuggling. It's really fascinating!

Around here, we're enjoying Spring!

Kalani enjoyed her first egg hunt. Every year we do one Easter egg hunt with dear friends. It's a good time for the kids and great fellow shipping with yummy foods and great conversations! 

We've also spent time prepping our garden area. Early in the morning after spreading several yards of manure, Damon got up and rototilled this awesome area. We're hoping to have a rocking garden this year!

My AWESOME brother and his lovely wife welcomed their first child 2 weeks ago. Athena is a tiny peanut and I am enjoying snuggling a tiny babe on Monday nights for family potluck! 

Warm weather always brings the loading up on all veggies!! Last week we ate 3 bunches of spinach, 1 head of lettuce, 4 bunches of bananas, 10 lbs of apples, 7 bell peppers, 3 heads of cauliflower, and 5 pounds of carrots. Can I tell you how excited I am to be growing a GARDEN again?! We eat amazing amounts of veggies. 

I'll be the first to admit I have absolutely no idea what my husband and girls are doing in this picture. I snapped it because it shows our typical life! I was cooking pancakes and looking out the window and saw our kiddos with shovels and my husband out there digging to his hearts contentment. Leveling the ground by hand? Sounds fun right?! 

I drove 170 miles round trip to bring 1000 lbs of chicken food home. I've been frustrated with my options in the valley for GMO free feed. What's so interesting to me is that people will rave all about their healthy chickens and fresh eggs, but are feeding them cheap chicken food that has gmo corn and gmo wheat and worse, some of the cheap brands directly add in "fillers" that just makes me want to hurl thinking about it! So, I was thrilled to post up on facebook a group run to Wieser Idaho for GMO FREE chicken feed!! I came home with 1000 lbs of feed. WHOO HOOO!!!! 

This weekend we watched the LDS General Conference. It was a wonderful experience for us as a family to unify ourselves to slow down this weekend and rest after a hectic week and another one right around the corner! 

We printed some little work books for the kids. We sat around, listened, enjoyed, reflected, colored, ate, and then for Sunday afternoon we joined some wonderful people in the ward for lunch and watching conference with them! It was great :)

We're carrying on around here indeed, I love Spring! What are YOU doing this Spring!? 

Folks, it was in your back yard.

Can I hear a AMEN!? Joel Salatin is a great inspiration to my soul. In the wake of hearing that H.R. 993 passed silently without a fight, I am battling being defeated. Another name for H.R. 933 is the Monsanto Protection Act, it's a rider in the bill that slipped through congress while my heart sank watching it. 

Well, there's two things I can do - I can bitch, moan, and whine about it. Or I can DO SOMETHING myself. Therein lays the power I want to spread - This idea that food comes from stores and that we are helpless whimps that have to whine all the time like spoiled children is complete shit. We ARE a beautiful, powerful, hard working, dedicated species. We aren't mindless nor helpless. Let me encourage each of you to enact change. Start small. 

Well, beyond my crazy activism by taking control of our lives - here's a peak into what else is going on around here :)

That gorgeous piece of man swinging that friggin sledge hammer would be my awesome Mr. A la Carte is certainly growing!

Aurora waited almost a full 7 weeks for her birthday party but had a BLAST! Such a fun group of ladies came to celebrate with her. 

Other than a birthday party, there was one thing she had asked for : her ears pierced. So, we said YES! This lovely 5 year old girl is sporting a lovely pair of purple stars now. We did them in front of her friends, which cured them of wanting their ears pierced (nice side effect, your welcome mothers!) and made her so brave. She looks in the mirror about every 5 minutes or so to stare and admire. She is SO proud of them!

The barn fridge is full of life these days. Between eggs fresh from our hens to milk directly from the farmer, it's a bustling little place! We've been blessed to use our barn as a drop point for this milk for not just our family but several other families! 

Those are organic yukon gold potatoes starting in my window sill. The fully developed one in the back is a yam :) Oh SO excited spring is here!

And what would 70 degree weather bring but a baby in a new white dress enjoying the dirt? 

Yep, REALLY enjoying the dirt. Bath time is a daily must now. 

All this playing in the dirt lead to Declan getting his hair chopped off last week. It was getting long, which he loved, but I was hating trying to tackle him to brush it and it was impossible to keep him any where close to clean. This should be much easier to shampoo... 

That's the back of my suburban the day I picked up Daunika's girl scout order! She rocked it indeed :)

This week I have hopes to plant strawberries, host Easter dinner, play with my kids, deliver a mountain of girl scout cookies, make soap, plan a biology class, and fully enjoy my life. 

Blessed Day.