Finally, friends,

How can we best train our children in the way they should go - speaking to the natural bent God places in each of them (because that really is what that verse is addressing).
This needn't be a long post but here's the scoop. Just as God created our brains to learn in unique ways, He also creates us with a unique purpose. The Bible says, "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord..." And He does know the plans and purposes He has for these babies we hold and raise and teach phonics to and sing silly songs with.

One of our children is very mechanical. He put together furniture as a toddler, explains to us how things work, and tinkers with magnets and gears and batteries and wires (supervised - smile) endlessly. This building, creating, understanding and exploring mind is clearly his natural bent. And so we supply him with mechanical books, appliances to dissect, and put up with lights plucked off our Christmas strands in the attic (he built a light-up fork) and so on.

Perhaps your child does not have such a clear bent, but perhaps they seem happiest in the kitchen, or digging in the garden, or surrounded by tins of paint and rainbows of pencils or talking with people. Encourage this. You can do this even without homeschooling. Plant lettuce by the window in the winter, sprout the pit from your plum, there are myriads of art blogs, art lessons online, books available from the library... education does not have to be expensive! Let your socialite plan the snack menu for having friends over, turn their endless words out onto paper, record family history, write plays and skits and find rhythm in the letters... Let your historian build weapons, sculpt the Great Pyramid in blocks, use paper towel tubes to build a castle, design costumes... This IS education!

And so it goes, I'm told, that little selves enjoy and relish the bent with which they were created, the giftings He gives, on their own way and path to glorifying God with their lives.

And, if someone were to ask you, which I am -what is your natural bent? Please share your thoughts or what you've noticed in your own children.
And what is a post without photos - some tomato puree canning and gluten free cookie baking in the kitchen this evening.

You Were Born for This book review

You Were Born for This is the title and the title sounds wonderful but I sadly found this book by Bruce Wilkerson to be a lot of animated infomercial style hype, secrets to learn, steps to follow, hoops to jump - all in order to be used by God. Something seems askew. As I read Wilkerson's words describing how to make miracles happen, my stomach was turning. Isn't God in control of the miraculous and anything less than divine, contrived?
I understand a bit where he is coming from, wanting people to be open to being used by God *is* good and a right thing to seek but I found his delivery of this message poor and lacking the whole point of miracles being miraculous for the glory of God, not to make people feel good.

I was sent this book by the publisher and in no way did this alter my review.

Not Back to School pt. 5

How can I best give my children a life long *love* of learning?

Now that we are figuring out the way God created each of our children to learn - here are some ways you can instill in them a LOVE of learning! Learning is not mundane and boring! If it is - stop what you're doing, don't give up - there is hope! Here are the basic subjects and creative ways to make learning FUN!

Math - math games galore (and here and here and here and here) practical applications of math, math in the kitchen (I was recently sent an ADORABLE math in the kitchen dvd to review - watch for it soon!), math in the grocery store, visual math, manipulatives! Our younger kids use Flip Over Math books which are very visual and our older kids work through Saxon math. Saxon could be very monotonous, which is why I avoided it for years, but a homeschooling mama friend pointed out to me that I am in control of the lessons and I can work them however I like - and so we do Saxon some days but not all, odd number problems one day and evens the next and so one, with lots of games mixed in. Our kids do their Saxon math work on scrap paper so I can re-use the books. I've also not had to pay more than $10 for their books shopping ebay and homeschool used book sales.

Language - journaling, journaling! Journaling covers spelling, language, vocabulary, creative writing! You can either choose to give your children a journal assignment or let them choose what to write about. We switch things up. Some of the things my kiddos have done is: make an acrostic using the letters of their name that describes who they are....write a poem covering their recent Bible reading - Andrew's recent poem was a hoot! All about a wise man who chose to read his Bible. The kids have been reading the a chapter of Proverbs each morning...they've copied portions of scripture of their choosing, illustrated something from our history reading....illustrated a verse from Proverbs.... give the kids some fun vocabulary words, explain their meaning and assign them a number of sentences to write using them. These short stories always come out funny. Our younger kids also play a lot of word and letter games and puzzles but each have their own journal because they want to be like their older siblings. So sweet. :)

Now for the spelling portion, read over the journal entries, no red lines or marks on it, please, just re-write the misspelled works correctly at the bottom of the page and ask them to look them over and see how to spell them properly, if a grammar rule has been ignored you can look up the rule and have them write it out in their journal. We can encourage our kids to use colorful and descriptive language and if they've written rather plainly, suggest some more descriptive language that would convey their thought.

History - If your state doesn't dictate what they have to learn - ask your kiddos what they want to learn! Our kids chose ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and ancient Rome and so we've hopped into ancient Egypt with a mess of library resources and books found on the cheap via half.com. We have hieroglyph stamps and a book that shows in detail a pyramid, a story about a slave girl seeking freedom, and reading about the Egyptians fear of their many gods has brought to life so much from the Biblical account of Moses. Greek food and Egyptian food and Italian food will find its way to our table. We're making maps and finding where ancient cities were on the globe and curling up every afternoon with pillows and reading aloud. We're also wandering down rabbit trails, specifically a book my dad loaned us, a true story about a French boy who was captured by the Mohawk natives in New York, which covers our need for covering New York state history (a state requirement).

Science - when I asked our kids what they wanted to learn about, they asked to look under our microscope more, study rocks and fossils, paleontology, and inventors. And so we're using Jonathan Park for paleontology, visiting a local cave next week, reading biographies about inventors, collecting rocks, and using books from half.com and the library. Rabbit trails abound in science, empty cicada shells are brought inside, a mama duck on our little homestead successfully hatches her eggs, a grub (shudder) is found in a chunk of firewood... Follow every rabbit trail.

Music - we have an ancient piano for lessons and have been listening to some great stories of composers with their music from the library. We're reading about orchestras and I can't wait to get the kiddos to a production of the local city's symphony to see and hear it in action.



Art - I earmark art projects I find online (another reason pinterest is awesome!) and we do one a week. We did this project last week and they came out awesome! So much fun! We also live in an area with several colleges that have art galleries which are free to visit. With a quick check online I can see what artists are being featured and whether the exhibits are kid friendly and appropriate.

Language - for now we're teaching our kids German, since Sean speaks it fluently. We use Pimsler cds, which are very good, in the van on road trips and lots of colorful German picture dictionaries and online games (and here and here and here, also here). We're thinking of having our kids learn another language also, something more culturally useful like Mandarin Chinese or Arabic. That decision is still up in the air but once we decide, we will invest in a Rosetta Stone homeschooling course.

Do you have a favorite resource or method to instill a love of learning? Please share!

Not Back to School pt.4

How can we best incorporate our goals as a family into our children's education?

Or perhaps, more specifically, our goals as parents.
Here are a few things my husband and I would hope for our family, and perhaps you can refer to the goals specific to your family.

We want our children to enjoy life-long friendship with each other.
This is especially poignant for me because my relationship with my siblings has been often strained. However, I must say, when our sixth amazing, incredible miracle Addie was born, my younger sister was the only family to come. Our kids had an awesome time with their aunt. She took them to the park and cooked oodles of food in my kitchen for us all (no small task when you're used to cooking for two!) That was so special and such a blessing to me.


Home education is great because our kids don't have the mindset that anyone is less interesting or less smart or more smart or more cool because of their age/grade. They relate well to people of all ages, from infants to great-grandmas and yes, they fight and quarrel like all kids, but they are each other's best friends. When one of them is away at a friend's for the day, or at work with their papa, all I hear is, "when is ________ going to be home????" This makes this mama's heart very glad.

We want our children to learn about God in all of daily life so that they can develop their own relationship with Him.
This means God isn't relegated to Sunday and church and the rest of our lives a separate category. The Bible says, "In Him we live and breath and have our being", and this is the way life can be. If the sunrise is gorgeous, we praise Him. If a child loses their temper and speaks harshly, they can be encouraged by a reminder of He who is always ready to come and help when we ask. Clothes are folded, and neatly arranged colorful pencils in a jar can be appreciated because God is a God of order and beauty. The living nature pages of our science lessons fall under His domain too. And math. The thought that, "this is a bit of the wonder by which God makes the universe work", makes memorizing times tables and the way to find circumference more enjoyable (tolerable?) for all.

We don't want to send our children mixed messages.
I'm a faulty human. I fail. I ask my kids to speak gently with each other but when I'm tired and have a headache or am just being a bad mama, I raise my voice, or say "no" too quickly and then get to practice humility and repent. We want our kids to see a genuine faith lived out, with all its ugliness of life overshadowed by incredible grace. We are thankful that we don't have to worry about teaching our kids about faith for a few moments a day and what is squeezed in on the weekend, hoping it *sticks* as they are in a secular environment which is contradicting us for the majority of their moments in childhood. I know there is no formula guaranteeing that a child will love God but I do enjoy knowing that my cards are not stacked against me.

Now, these aren't exactly the reasons why we home educate our kids but they are, hopefully, an example of how homeschooling can be a blessing to the vision of a family. The above photos are from our first official day of lessons. Blueberry pancakes and decaf coffee. My kiddos are nuts about coffee!

Sponsors

I'm booking September and October sponsor spaces now so send me an email if you'd like more information. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Cultivating Home's current sponsors and affiliates on the side of the page because they really do have some beautiful things.
Enjoy your night!
Hannah

Not Back to School pt.3

How Does this Child Learn Best?

Amazingly and wonderfully, God created us with and gifted us each with a unique learning style. I for one, cannot follow written directions very well. I can look at an item of clothing and figure out how it was constructed or look at pattern pieces and see how they go together, but the written instructions I always toss to the side. When I'm out and about, I mentally re-arrange the furniture wherever I might be and I notice things like the lighting and the colors and font used in marketing.

I came across this quick test which can clue you in to how you personally learn best. I learn best visually, no surprise there. The book on my Amazon sidebar Every Child Has a Thinking Style is great for helping understand the way God has gifted your children. You can probably order it from your local library or find it on half.com.

So why all the fuss about learning styles and how does this play into home education? Simply put, we believe that a learning style is a gift, not a problem to be worked around or a glitch that needs to conform to one style of learning, such as workbooks or note taking off a blackboard. While life certainly doesn't cater to my particular learning style and I don't expect my kids to think it will to theirs, at this young age when there is SO much learning and absorbing taking place, it absorbs so much easier when we can identify the learning style God gave them and use it to His glory and their benefit.

Any idea what your learning style might be?

Not Back to School pt.2

What is our Biblical responsibility towards our children regarding education? Does the Bible even address public vs. private schooling? Did Moses forget the 11th commandment "Thou Shalt Homeschool"? (giggle)

The Bible is silent regarding phrases familiar with our modern modes of education but it is not silent on feeding us principles that we can use to direct our decision making. It is late on Sunday night and I have so much readying to do to make our FIRST. DAY. AWESOME! (of lessons tomorrow) and so without delving into a huge three layer Hebrew or Greek study, I'll toss some nuggets I hold dear your way and urge you to continue the study on your own.

First, we can read scripture (because it is life GIVING!) and see that God created a basic unit of society called the family. A man was to leave his parents, love his wife, have children and this was how life was to be. A family. Living together, children under the care of their parents. All God's design. Then we skip forward and see that children are clearly a gift from the Lord. God gave children to parents, not to a village or a school board or even to a church. Let's consider together: right now if you were given something you absolutely desire or need, perhaps a dream vehicle, a new post baby wardrobe, a farm (!), or so on, how many of us would really even consider saying, "thanks, but you know I think so-and-so down the road would take better care of this vehicle so they can use it all day, or she would wash these clothes more carefully so I think I'll let her wear them during the day, or I don't want this farm during for eight hours of the day because it might be too much work" - what???? How ridiculous do these scenarios sound to our ears? How much more precious gifts are our children than things.

We can see God's view of teaching taking place in the family unit in Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (also see Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 11:18-21) , Isaiah 54:13.

How might these scriptures direct our education decisions for our children?
2 Corinthians 10:5
Romans 12:2
Psalms 1:1-2

I'd urge you to read the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. I like that there are 31 chapters in proverbs because it works easily to read one a day and countless nuggets to include in our walk with Christ.

Sean and I agreed that we could not read what scripture has to say about friendships and push our children out of our home at their most impressionable ages, into an environment where their peers would be the most influential people in their lives. When American children go to school, they are not thinking, "I must get the most education I can today and learn to love learning...", they are anxious to see their friends, wondering what so-and-so will be wearing, waiting to hear about the weekend, wondering if that boy or girl will talk to them...

Finally, friends, there is no place in scripture where we are taught or where we can pull principle from regarding sending our children out as little missionaries, as salt and light, so the saying goes. I suppose some parents might have well intentions to send their children into public school hoping to enlarge their own area of influence and to reach out, but I would venture to state that visiting the same library every week, choosing the line with the same clerk at the grocery store, inviting neighbors over for coffee, volunteering together as a family - any of these would be much better ways to make an impact on our community without sending our children away for the majority of their day.

It is late. Thankfully, my stepmom made me a beautiful iced coffee a few hours ago and I'm ready to tackle what I need to. I hope these thoughts find their way gently into your hearts and give you food for thought. As always, nothing I write here is representative of the church we attend and where my husband is on the board of elders. Our thoughts and conclusions are our own.
Have a beautiful night,
Hannah

Not back to School part 1

We receive a lot of questions about home education in emails, from strangers out in public, and friends at church. Every home educating family is different, but here is how homeschool *goodness* works for us.

First, we've had to unlearn the public and private school standard ways of operation. There is a reason, besides crammed classrooms, that students aren't learning in America. Two great books on the topic of teaching and learning are A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille and Every Child Has a Thinking Style by Lanne Nakone. You can find these on my sidebar along with some of my other favorites for giving our children a love of learning.

We live in NY and have pretty stringent laws governing our home education. We send in quarterly reports and lesson plans for the younger grades and begin standardized testing starting in third grade. This is our fourth year having completed standardized tests - we've used the PASS test, the CAT test and the TAKS test and I find them to be a hoop to jump through and a poor judge of what a child has learned. My public school teachers literally taught from the test the last month or so before it was administered and I am always shocked at how dumbed down the actual tests are. Every homeschooling mamaI know loves it when our kids ace these, I must admit. The current TAKS test, which we've been using because it is available free online, actually gives math formulas at the beginning of the math portion of the test to refer to in problem solving. I don't let my kids refer back to these 'cause I'm such a mean mama. Actually, my kids don't even know they are there.

As Christian parents, we ask ourselves a few things.

1. What is my duty before God regarding my child's education?

2. How does this child learn best?
3. How can we best incorporate our goals as a family into our children's education?

4. How can I best give my children a life long *love* of learning?

5. How can we best "train our children in the way they should go" - speaking to the natural bent God has given each of them.

Those are heavy questions and involve a lot when multiplied times the number of children in a home. But God doesn't call us to the easy and when He sets a job before us He is faithful to equip us. So it is even with home education.

Here's the good news: learning does not have to be boring and repetitive as it was when I was doing year after year of ABEKA (so sorry ABEKA, nothing personal, the appeasing part of my personality reeeaally wants to like you) in private school or either too easy or too difficult, as it often was when I was in pub. school.

Over the next week, I'll share a bit about each of the above questions we ask ourselves and I'll also share practical ways that work in our busy home. I hope you'll all join in the conversation!

We're gearing up here for our *official* start to lessons. I chuckle writing this and even planning this because we never stop learning, just because it is summer, and math books still get pulled out and lessons sorted through, even in between summer swim lessons and garage sale-ing. But new books to read together, the smell of newly sharpened pencils, fresh glue sticks, and crisp new notebooks for journaling -we all love these things.

I spent last evening printing and laminating our new chore chart, which I'll share here just as soon as I finish with it. If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, I highly recommend it. I have found such wonderful ideas for fun lessons, organization tips, photos of how to arrange my mass of hair, quick recipes and such on it. Best of all, you can share your finds and photos with friends and see theirs.

We haven't any plans for moving yet, still praying for a buyer for our cabin, but the sorting and donating and tossing continues. I AM enjoying this *less* of things. How about you - any end of summer activities and planning going on your way?

Loving Our Children

Today, six friends and I are writing a series based on the biblical principles taken from Titus 2:3-5. We pray that the topics discussed will inspire and encourage you to draw closer to God and His plan for womanhood. My small part of today's study is on loving our children.

I tend to think loving our children is something that comes naturally, don't you? Because inherently we believe it should. No doubt the first time we held our warm babies we felt a rush of emotion that we tagged as *love*. But then, perhaps, as long nights of teething came and during our wearing of a groove in the floorboards we realized - love is not simply a feeling, love is a verb. It is more some things we must do, then something we feel. Hence why over 400,000 kiddos end up in our nations foster care a year and why so many adults who never were relegated to foster care still have mommy or daddy issues. Love is a tricky thing.

I imagine Paul leaning back against the hard, damp stone wall of a prison cell, his wrists red and raw in chains, his voice parched, slowly dictating a letter to Titus, thinking of all he had seen and heard, prioritizing what needed to be said to this Gentile he considered a son. I don't believe that if the young wives were already properly loving their children, Paul would have valued including these words, "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." NASB

As mothers who follow Christ, we have available to us a continual, never ending, bottomless spring of life giving love to draw from and use in ministering to our children. It doesn't matter if we had disaffectionate mothers, or absentee mothers, or mothers so broken they were or are unable to minister love to us. We know the true source of LOVE and can dip our hands in it and fill them up to pour out throughout our day. Our own mothers are not our source.





Let's love our children for valuing who God made them to be.

Each one of my children is different and unique. They are funny and serious and meticulous and soulful and fearless in their own right, because God has gifted them as He saw fit. Loving (the verb) our children might mean we take time out of our stuff-we-have-to-get-done to sit with our soulful child who feels everything and help them process through their feelings, highlighting the positive ones and helping them surrender to God the ones that are overwhelming.

It might mean we-who-like-to-be-serious and savor quiet instead turns on a lively tune and dances with the child who's heart is moved by noise and movement. It might mean sitting and explaining a math concept two more times, even though there's other things to be done, because this is important and being available without being annoyed is important - our hands dipping and sloshing into the available waters once more.





Let's love our children by being faithful to discipline them.

We do this because we are urged and encouraged through scripture to train our children , to teach them, to remember that disciplining our children is an act of love. We do not hesitate to follow God in this because of our own past abuses, but put our hand safely in His. We love (the verb) our children by not being too slow to discipline when it is needed, not frustrating them and making them angry with our scolding, yelling, scowls and anger because we do not feel like getting up or putting aside what we are doing to go upstairs or outside to deal with the issue at hand. Instead, hands submerged and soaking deep into the endless well, we reach up and pour out, letting our children know what is expected of them at each unique age and ability, what behaviour is acceptable or unacceptable in our homes, again according to age and ability, thus giving them the safety and security of boundaries.





Let's love our children by letting them see where our own hands and hearts are being filled, by letting them see us hiding God's Word deep within us, by asking their forgiveness when it is due to be asked, by choosing not to lord over them in an air of superiority but remembering always that if even Christ came to serve then we can stoop lower still, to wipe up vomit from the floor without complaint, to pick up yet another toy or shoe, or mud ground into the rug and never be in err. Stooped lower, arms submerged into warm grace, let's love our children (a verb!) by teaching them to value the Word of God, to hold it in high esteem. Let's love our children by showing them that following Christ is the only religion (relationship!) that is a gift, while all other are dues to be paid. Let's love our children by not expecting them to give us what they are not required by God to give: success, happiness, fulfillment, applause, satisfaction, recognition, a sense of self-worth or esteem...

Finally, let's love our children by pointing with our acts of love, not towards ourselves for our own glory, but granting everything to the glory of God. Let's fold laundry to the glory of God, explain that math concept a third and fourth time, cook another meal and wash more dishes to His glory because we can, because we're already aprons soaked in His freely available love and goodness.





For more ideas on how to love your children, consider these verses in I Corinthians 13.
You can read more and soak in more on Titus chapter 2 from these lovely ladies:

TheModest Mom - Chaste.
Our Simple Country Life -Loving Your Husband
The Legacy of Home - Being Obedient to Your Husband
A Wise Woman Woman Builds her Home - Soberity

Raising Mighty Arrows - Discretion
Far Above Rubies - Busy/Keepers at Home

Titus 2 Mentoring Series

Next week I'll be joining some sweet sisters in Christ, sharing on Titus chapter 2:

June at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Being Sober

Jasmine at Far Above Rubies
Keeper at Home

Heather at Raising Mighty Arrows
Being Discreet

Mrs. Sharon White at The Legacy of Home
Being Obedient to Your Husband

Caroline at The Modest Mom
Being Chaste

Esther @ Simple Country Life
Loving Your Husbands

And I'll be sharing some of what God has revealed through scripture on loving our children! Join us on Monday!

What she made

We recently celebrated Sean's birthday and each of our kids had a wonderful time coming up with ideas for his gifts. Ella requested candy making for her papa and to see what she made, click here.

(think peanut butter and chocolate goodness!)

Simplifying

Do this with me.
It really is wonderful.
With even the slightest chance of moving *sometime* in my future, I've begun ruthlessly going through the attic and tackling each of the rooms in our home one by one. I've sorted endlessly and made quite a few trips to the little thrift store (I dropped off so much that they asked if I was ditching my life and starting over) and have a stash here for the consignment shop. And do you know.... I miss none of it. I can't even imagine why I kept so much *stuff*. It was definitely owning me and not the other way around.
I still have shelves and shelves of books to sort through. Oh why, oh why do I have to have such affection for books?
So far we've ditched over 55 bags and boxes of *things* in our lives that we didn't need.
It feels great.

Ooohhh! Ahhhh!

Grandparents brought fireworks and sparklers when they came for a visit. :)

A Summer Walk

The Papa had a meeting for church, Addie was restless in the heat and couldn't fall asleep and at the end of the day the older kids were still brimming with energy. So we went for a walk.

His sister is his "Buddy" and he loves holding her hand when we walk. Even when I ask to hold his, he'll usually scurry over to Annaliese and grab hers. Much love there. Yes, we use the famous large family buddy system. It is fabulous and my kids love it even more than I do.

Addie settled right down, carried on my front, and gifted me these endless gummy smiles all the way up the hills.





Gathering wild mint.

Taking time to roll drop apples from an old tree by the roadside down the road and see whose could roll the furthest. Andrew came in first place and Ella came in second with honorable mentions all around. Thank you to our neighbor, Mr. Dever, for filling us in on this necessary game.

We happened upon a spot the kids named *Berry Heaven* and we picked a basket full. There were so many juicy ones left, I'm hoping for a visit again soon. We ate handfuls and Chase just positioned his little mouth by a laden branch and quickly popped them in one by one, juice dripping down his chin. This morning we feasted on berry and white chocolate scones.

I am having a difficult time accepting that it is August, that summer is slowly closing up shop for us northerners.

Gluten Free Weekly Menu

I'll work on answering all the recent questions on hot dogs and bathing suits :()
and here is my menu for this week, all gluten free, of course but definitely not flavor free.

Monday am - blueberry cornbread, orange juice
lunch- Greek yogurt with honey
dinner- chicken quesadillas, corn on the cob

Tuesday am - strawberry yogurt smoothies, puffed rice with honey and milk
lunch - apple slices with peanut butter, oatcakes
dinner - Pioneer Woman Easy Sesame Noodles, green beans, blackberry tart

Wednesday am - cereal with bananas
lunch- tuna salad with pineapple, nachos with salsa
dinner- hamburgers with peppers, caramelized red onion and horseradish sauce, greens from the garden

Thursday am - pineapple zucchini bread with raisins and choc. chips
lunch- pepper jack cornbread, baked beans
dinner- fish tacos

Friday am- scrambled eggs with breakfast sausage and potatoes
lunch- Greek yogurt with granola and jam, popcorn, carrot sticks
dinner- pepperoni pizza, salad

Sat am - pumpkin pancakes
lunch- rice salad, baked zucchini fries (substitute cornmeal/buckwheat for the flour)
dinner -antipasto with crab cakes

Sun am - blackberry white chocolate scones, chocolate milk
dinner - homemade fettuccine with pesto sauce

Berrying

After the rains and the weeks of endless heat baking the earth, comes the time for berrying. Not the cultivated berries like blue and strawberry, with the loading up of the van and buckets and bowls, but the kind where you throw on a sturdy pair of shoes with a sole thick enough that briars can't pierce them and even though it is ninety, you pull on jeans and your husband's long sleeved cotton dress shirt for protection.

Blackberries. Mouth dripping with tart juice berries, the bigger - the sweeter.

Wish you could all come berrying in the fields with us.

Which just might be the grossest thing I've ever seen:

Sean was splitting wood when he found this grub cozy at home in its midst. You can see how large it is compared to Andrew's finger in the background. {shivers}

Homemade Hot Dogs

Painting

With our downstairs bathroom almost completed, the only thing left to do was paint our eighties splatter painted footed tub and install it's beautiful self. I'm working on it.

Zucchini

Between the whir-whir-whir of the paddle of the Kitchen Aid this morning blending eggs and sugar and zucchini with coconut oil, I find them on the front porch, a cloud of tiny bubbles floating up from their pursed lips and bubble wands. They are more than happy to accept the empty bowls I offer and run out to the berry patch to fill them for breakfast.

Today we put in our first offer on a farm and I want to play the part of Thomas. I want to doubt. Doubting is safe, a form of protection. If I don't expect it could be possible and it ends up not to be, I've lost nothing. If I believe all things are possible... well, there are a lot of crazies to be believed in here... that in the middle of a housing market crisis we just might get a buyer to pay a good sum for a bit of pretty wilderness and a cabin, that we just might be able to buy a 61 acre farm debt free and with money left to improve upon it... well, yes, those are crazy thoughts to me. Believing that we could have a family business, that my husband wouldn't have to work in a hot office with stale air all day forever, catering to clients who care nothing about our livelihood - those are wonderful thoughts I have faith enough for.

My heart cries, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief". He is sovereign.

I hear the noise of kids pushing their way through the back door and a scrambling of chairs and seating as I pull a pan of zucchini bread from the oven, a zucchini I rescued from a plant thriving outside one of the empty barns, the land missing it's owner since he passed last winter, his barns full of the scent of drying garlic and herbs, his apple trees brimming with reddening fruit.

I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds my future. I've heard that faith and farming go hand in hand and it seems it is true before it even starts.

Have a beautiful day!

Hannah