My Essentials

I recently got an email offering potentially free products should I blog about 'What's Essential'. Well,  I love the products already (Nordic Naturals), and I really liked that theme. So, I'll take inspiration wherever I find it!

 As a homeschooler, person of faith, and parent there are so many times throughout any given day when I question whether what we're doing is an essential part of our lives--if it's something that truly matters; something that has real value to our family. Is the curriculum we're offering challenging enough? Is the food we're eating nutritious enough? Are the programs we're involving the kids in important enough? 

We find ourselves often boiling things down--trying to shake off the 'cultural stigma' that envelopes each of these questions, to strip off the layers of indoctrination that are impossible not to have. There are so many levels of baggage with somethings. For our family there is a constant evolution of removal and addition; taking away the things that aren't essential but are inherited. Often, I pick certain times in history and think, 'would Laura Ingalls have had that toy?', 'would the Israelites have spent 6 hours a day doing school work?'. Sometimes I look toward the future and consider, 'will it matter when she's 23 if she could read chapter books at age 7?'

 

Ultimately, these questions are just a gauge. We are not the Ingalls--no matter how much we dream. We are not living in ancient Israel, and the future is really out of our control. But, it puts things in perspective; it helps me remember that the focus, the essence of our days should be: love, joy, fun, and gratitude. Shedding everything else, if we can't laugh together at the dinner table, bake cookies for friends, dance for no reason, swing for hours, have tea parties to our hearts content, and constantly offer thanks to the Creator for the bounty of goodness in our lives...well, nothing else really matters. 2 plus 2 will equal 4 whether my three year old agrees or not, the order of the presidents will go unaltered should we save memorizing them for another day. These four words are our essential things, these are the fundamentals that we want to build our family foundation on. So, all things, from how we eat, to what we wear, to gardening and our work, how we spend our money and how we spend our weekends, they are all measured by these essentials.

If everyone spent their days focused on these 4 things, if education encompassed these ideals primarily--books second, if our nation were filled with people who craved these things over riches and power--well, that's the world I want to live in, be a part of. The most powerful way I can make it happen, that anyone can make it happen is to keep them from being secondary as they often seem to be. Imagine if they were everyone's essentials...

 

Planning the Plot

There are 2 types of gardeners, perhaps even more. In the two I know there's the folks that look at a piece of land, want to tear it up, get their fingers as dirty as possible and plant again, and again. Some plants not doing exactly what these folks hoped, or as quickly as they'd liked, get ripped out and replaced, thrown immediately to the compost heap--no questions asked.
Then, there are folks that plant and wait. They tend the garden in a totally different fashion: they assist it, they'll water when need be and maybe even pull a 'weed' here and there, but overall they are more pleased by the organic beauty that evolves the less you interrupt. A little browning on the leaves doesn't provide this second gardener type an opportunity to remove it, but to gently nurse it knowing it could pull through--sometimes perhaps when hope really should be forsaken.

the manila envelopes hold the seeds we saved from last year's crop. our first real effort at saving our own seeds. Can't wait to see what magic they'll hold!

Our home holds both. Now, generally type 1 does the lion's share of the gardening because he is much more forward, gung-ho, up-n-at-em. So, type 1 would probably pipe in here to mention that if it was left to the type 2 gardener we wouldn't get as much produce. Well, type 2 disagrees; type 2 thinks there can be bounty in her methods.
It's in type 2's nature to let type 1 be a sort-of inseparable part of the garden--like a ceramic gnome holding a thermometer, or a glass mosaic frog slowly decaying under the sunflowers--an artifact that makes her garden what it is, she pretends things get torn out and tossed aside as a natural part of type 1's inseparability from the plot. She'll keep an extra eye out for that rare corner left alone for any given period waiting to see what magic it holds--rogue tomato plants, stray nasturtiums, unplanned marigold bushes, a come-back-kid rosemary bush...she'd rather not quit a plant. Not to say type 1 never relinquishes and allows such naive hopefulness, and not to say all 'dying' plants have miracles in store.
Neither type 1 or 2 is right or wrong, better or worse. The fact is, it may be the 2 are the perfect pair for a successful garden, and beyond.

This all comes to mind as we pull together our planting plan for the upcoming growing season. What a thrill to start back at the beginning each year. Type 1 has ordered compost, type 2 thinks our dirt could work. Type 1 wants to toss seeds from years past, type 2 thinks there's hope for them yet. Type 1 wants to restructure the garden beds to keep the raised bed boards from rotting, type 2 thinks a rotten board here and there might be romantic...

gardening in the year twenty-twelve involves an iPad. there's probably an app for that...

The list goes on and on, and though it can cause an argument here and there with these two naturally opposing types, we both still love to garden--together.

Anything like this going on in your garden?

Winter Beach Trip

Thanks to one of Drew's customers we had to make a relatively impromptu trip to the coast. As of last Thursday there was no plan, but we threw something together and had a really great 'journey'--as Naomi and Leviah kept calling it. A few days in Eastern NC with nothing to do turned into 2.5 days packed full of fun, learning and even a quick visit with our naturopath/chiropractor. Not bad at all. And, can I just say that NC never ceases to amaze me? I had no idea New Bern was going to be such a beautiful place! Just when you think you know the state you live in...

First, the hotel was great (thank you Amex business card points!) The girls were thrilled to have an indoor pool, especially since swimming in the ocean was out of the question--not that they didn't stick their toes in...Naomi thought we gave up too quickly; she seemed to think if we'd just stay in the water we'd get used to it.

this turtle had his eye on leviah. we just watched this movie on netflix--a great one.

Then, thanks to our new membership at the local science center, we got in free to our favorite aquarium--sweet surprise--that has already paid for itself! Then, back to New Bern for dinner and pool time.
Sunday we spent the day walking around historic New Bern and a visit to Tryon Palace which was really neat! The guides were dressed in period clothing and it was all set-up like the Governor still lived there, I think the girls were really impressed. Though it was a little chilly, it really wasn't too bad and the sun was shining. Drew may have complained a bit, but he was raised in the South; it was late spring weather by western New York standards...barely needed a coat.

Anyway, that wore everyone out making pizza and a movie in the hotel the perfect way to round out the day. Then, home on Monday via Martin Luther King, Jr. Highway--what better way to commemorate?!

January?

Today is sort of a nasty day. Still, the high is 50. Not what one would expect mid-January. Naomi wakes up every morning with a glimmer of hope in her eye--in fact, Friday of last week, before she looked out the window she convinced herself, and Leviah of course, to dress for snow. Well, it reached 60 that day, and then on Saturday we spent a lovely 70+degree afternoon at a local park hiking around, looking for signs of wildlife and enjoying an oddly warm January afternoon with a picnic lunch.

"that's a big one"--Drew

where the 'big one' snacked on some acorns.

our view looking up from our picnic lunch.

So, Naomi's dreams of snowmen seems distant. Not to say they won't happen this year, but it's feeling less and less likely as the weeks pass. We've barely had need for hats or gloves! I won't complain, we love having days where playing outside is comfortable in a light jacket, but it feels like someone is screwing with my internal seasonal clock. I like at least one good snow storm for fireplace and cocoa nights; it'd be a shame to get to March and not have enjoyed at least one night huddled together with a blanket, our warmest socks and the thrill stomping down snow covered streets surrounded by blue skies and muffling white heaps of clean white snow on the ground and branches above.

Rainy will not fill this craving. It is not acceptable winter precipitation.

In spite of it not being a Nordic winter around here, Drew has picked up the decidedly Scandinavian past time of whittling--spoons. Don't get me wrong, I love feeding little Eliza with one of these delightfully charming and rustic applewood utensils, but I can see an obsession evolving and it's a smidge unnerving...

Hello Twenty Twelve! And, A Vintage High Chair

So, there's always potential that the fresh, clean, new year is full of promise. It is, as was last year. I don't want to forget or think that it's time to start over--last year was great. We had a baby, who is amazing. We, well...we had a baby. Really, anything else pales. We had fun, lots of it. Friends getting married, celebrations, holidays, business growing, vintage boothing, markets, shabbats, countless hours spent lolly-gagging and dreaming together. All in all 2011 is and was exactly what I hope every year is: joyful.

That said, there's always room for improvement. I don't have a long list of things to change, but things are always moving and shaking around here. Like rearranging furniture, there are certain habits that can use a good dusting, places that could stand a meeting with a vacuum. Our rhythm needs some fine tuning...again.

We are taking deep breaths and thinking about all this. What parts of our daily lives are important to us? What aren't? What are beneficial to our children and ourselves? What dust bunnies need to come out of hiding and where should we re-settle the furniture in the coming months? It's all in my mind.

One thing that I've determined important to me is this space. This little nook of the web where I deposit thoughts, photos, inspiration, dreams and sometimes even pain. This hidden alcove of intimate Grim moments is a sort of refuge where I know I can share something and come back to it, often I even get feedback. Though it doesn't encompass the entirety of us, it is a log of where we've been and looking over the last 3 years of postings is unspeakably meaningful for me. I thank God for the friends who encouraged me to join this 'blogging' world (and out of it), when I scroll through old posts there are bits and bobs that would be forgotten if not documented. A million pictures can't always express the thoughts that go with them...So, my hope is to be more diligent and focused with this space. Maybe a little more frequent, a little more personal, a little more of the kids...that's a goal.

I'm not entirely sure how well I mesh my vintage life with this blog, but I sell vintage stuff. It's a habit that can really help give us some extra money and it's been growing, particularly these last few months. Well, if you come to my house you'll see quickly that vintage is more than something I sell, it's something I've surrounded our family in (sometimes we're bursting at the seams with inventory!). Decor, furniture, clothing...there are a lot of ladies like me out there, filling their homes with goods that aren't new, but come pre-loved, broken in and somewhat free of the guilt of consumerism.

For example, we needed a new high chair. We bought one for Naomi at Ikea SEVEN! years ago. well, the tray broke, the plastic is grubby, the buckle frayed and fell off--hardly a stand-the-test-of-time article. So, instead of rebuying one from Ikea, I did a little hunting. It was inconvenient and required the compliance of my parents who picked it up for me, and the lady in Raleigh who was willing to take it out of her way...but, we have a superbly adorable high chair that has years on our cheap Ikea one, and will be adorable long beyond Eliza is through. It's fantastic, (and it was cheap), and I just have to share a picture...

This is most definitely something a little ordinary about our lives, the addition of something vintage that makes me smile. But, it's a little miraculous. I've also set my mind on--coming out of the season of miracles--not to overlook the little things that bring joy into our lives because I'm sure that they are gifts from the One who loves us. Not every miracle needs to be headline-news-worthy. But, the more I open my mind to noticing them, the more I allow myself to realize the many many miracles that fill up our days, the more delightful life is.