an update + garden thoughts

Hey friends! It's been a while since I have taken the time to visit this space. I think I should admit that the idea of blogging on any platform other than tumblr is quite intimidating! There's an unspoken pressure for photos to be edited & lovely. For words to be eloquent & thoughtful. For the layout of the page be simple but beautiful. I can't maintain that kind of blog. I need a space to clear out thoughts, ideas and to keep track of this wild life before it all passes right before my eyes. I need a space to just be real. And that's what I hope this brings for me.

Since the last time I posted we've had some ups and downs. At the end of the summer, about a week after India turned 2, my appendix ruptured leaving me essentially out of service until about mid November. Then came the blur of birthdays and holidays, lots of cold snaps and a bit of cabin fever and now we are here. And after two days of unusually warm weather I am in full spring planning mode! I drew out our garden and made a plan and am about to place my seed order from Sow True Seeds in Asheville.

Here is what we are planning on growing this year:

Vegetables-

Bush beans
Beets
Carrots
Cucumbers
Kale
Lettuce
Peppers
Spinach
Summer squash
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Turnips

Herbs-

Basil
Catnip
Chamomile
Dill
Lavender
Lemon balm
Stinging nettle
Parsley
Sage
Thyme
Valerian

Last year was our first garden and it was pretty okay, in my opinion. This year I'm hoping for more abundance so I can try out preservation skills! Byron is also working on a big screened in run for our chickens since we have lost two flocks to predators this winter. Our first year of chicken owning has been quite heart breaking. I will be glad to get a new flock and be absolutely sure that they are safe!

We also have a lot of new plans & goals that we are working on such as becoming debt free and manifesting that perfect piece of property to purchase so that we can start working on our dream homestead. I also start my first season of leading Tinkergarten classes next month so I'm excited to really be able to contribute to my community through bringing children together outside to learn through play!

I can't wait to share more of what's happening in our lives here. I can't help but feel like 2018 is going to hold great things for this sweet family of mine.

six months old & a breech home birth story

About two weeks ago Aspen turned six months old. She is 19 lbs of squishy, roll-y, smiley baby and thinking about how fast these six months have gone by is really making me feel all kinds of ways. I start to think about how fast the next six months will go and how India is almost two and how Avery is turning five this fall and we will quickly leave the days of diapers, nursing, nap time reading, baby wearing, co sleeping behind us. These days will be days that we will look back on, before we know it, wishing we could see these girls as they are now just once more. So I must stay present and find joy in these days, because I know that is what I want to remember.

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I wanted to share Aspen's birth story, as it is a fairly unique one. She was diagnosed as breech when I was 33 weeks pregnant. She is my third baby, third planned natural birth and second planned home birth. If we had lived in Florida for her birth, I would have had to fight very hard to have her vaginally and even I some how got that opportunity, it would have been in a hospital, for sure. When we first found out that she was breech I tried everything to turn her, short of a moxibustion. I hung out upside down, I put frozen peas on my belly, I walked, I meditated, I talked to her, I went to the chiropractor weekly and nothing was working. I read many many anecdotes where the babies turned after 37 weeks of pregnancy, sometimes even during labor, so I kept my hopes high.

37 weeks came and went, then 38 weeks creeped up fast behind it. This baby was still breech and her turning was highly unlikely at this point. All this time, my midwives were so supportive and helpful and ready to attend my birth no matter what direction baby's bum was facing. Around 38 weeks I got an ultrasound to confirm her position, she was complete breech, what a relief. One of my midwives were not exactly comfortable with the idea of delivering a footling breech baby at home, so to find out that she was not in that position was great.

At 39 weeks and 6 days I had a midwife appointment. It was three days after Christmas, my family had left my house that morning and we were still in the thick of holiday madness with a refrigerator that needed cleaning and wrapping paper and boxes that needed to be sorted and taken out. But I went to my appointment, which I always enjoyed doing (baby was still breech, of course) and when I got home I decided to rearrange furniture and clean everything (I'm sure we are all seeing where this is going). After dinner as we were cleaning up and I felt my first rush that seemed much different than the others and several more followed behind it every 5 minutes for 20 minutes so I called my midwife to let her know what was going on.

Byron and I continued cleaning up around the house and getting the kids to bed and during that time I figured labor was not going to let up so I asked my midwives to come. While laying down with the girls my contractions spaced out but intensified. That night putting the kids to bed was much harder than usual, I still think Avery knew what was going on because she was so chatty as we were trying to get them to bed. By the time we got up my doula and the student midwives had already arrived.

The mood was light for a while but labor picked up pretty fast. The details of what was happening around me went unnoticed. I remember drinking a lot of water, smelling a lot of lavender, being comforted by a hot water bottle against my back, peeing a lot and swaying through the contractions. Everything was moving right along, a perfectly boring by the book labor, my midwives could not have been more pleased.

When I was ready to push, we discussed the appropriate position for delivery that accommodated the fact that she was breech. I pushed with all of my might for about 25 minutes before she finally started to descend, which happened rather all at once. Every further inch of her that was exposed brought relief to the room and when she slid out into my midwives hands we knew that we had done it and it went perfectly. I reached back for my baby and was overwhelmed with gratitude for my support team, my husband who was nothing but supportive during this journey, my body for birthing yet another beautiful little girl and my little girl because she knew how she needed to be born. I was also grateful for my intuition, because with all of the fear based information there is for breech births, I managed to listen to myself and know that I had no reason to worry.

Aspen Magnolia was born on December 29, 2016 at 12:35 am and has been lighting up our lives every since. We love her, so.

this weekend, playing with my new lens

It was a slow weekend at home. We spent some time outside, we ran some errands. We did meet family friends of Byron's for lunch on Saturday, which was so nice. These kinds of weekends are the best kinds. I did get a new camera lens though and had a lot of fun testing it out on my favorite subjects.

Oh how I love this family of mine.

This week I have been trying to get us back to our rhythm. Its amazing how new variables can call for such a long re-adjustment period. But these past two days have been full of connecting, special moments and activities together. This life of mine is so full.

things found on a notepad + thoughts about our home

Byron: You know what kind of bugs that I like?
Avery, 4: I like beetles, grasshoppers, worms, ladybugs....

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We have seen turkeys, deer, bunnies, chipmunks and woodpeckers so far this year!

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Avery, 4: Open your hand means hold your hand like you have a roly-poly

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Also, I just wanted to remember that this morning was joyful because I was watching my family run around half naked (or in India's case...naked) in our backyard. I love that we have open space but also privacy. Sometimes I get so antsy to put down some roots, to finally have a home that is OURS, you know? But for now I am so happy that our impulse rental (we put down a security deposit before even walking through the front door but thats a story for another time...) has turned into a slice of paradise for us. I am so grateful to be right here, right now. I am also grateful that we get to experience the cycle of seasons in this home at least once more before departing. Although, not having a fire place during the winter is going to get old and fast!

Happy Friday friends.

blackberry picking

Today I found out that a local orchard had u pick blackberries! And like the totally persistent wife that I am, I begged Byron to let us go when he got off work. And like the totally awesome husband that he is, he agreed! Honestly, I have been really waiting to get my blueberry picking on, but those babies are taking forever to get ready!

So on this particular day, we were that family who showed up 20 minutes before they closed ready to pick some blackberries! Byron had to take a "dirt road detour", which are one of my not so favorite things, but whatever, we all have our vices. A man came out from the beautiful farm house style home on the property and met us down by the "blackberry shelter" tent in front of a beautiful pond with a small area for chickens, goats and donkeys. It was picturesque. 

Luckily he seemed to have no problem with the fact that we underestimated how long it takes to pick a half gallon of blackberries, because we didn't leave until almost an hour after they closed. Which the kind man seemed to have no problem with, he even brought out Scout some water and chatted with us for a while.

Avery had a half gallon basket and I was holding another. I was motivated to fill my basket for fresh fruit, frozen fruit, to try to make some jam and maybe even a pie. Avery was satisfied with searching intently for the perfect berries for her basket (which is why it only ended up about 1/8th full) and India was very content just pulling ripe blackberries right off the vine to munch while following where everyone else was going.

The orchard is actually an apple orchard and they open up in August for apple picking. We tried an orchard last year, but I think Byron and I can both agree that this is the one we would like to visit this fall.

We are all loving berry picking season. We have two raspberry bushes in our backyard that Byron and Avery love to collect fresh berries from. Today they brought in a whole bowl-ful! I feel so grateful to live in an area with such abundance. I feel so grateful to live a life with such abundance.

Purple fingers and a purple face, a perfect way to end a blackberry picking adventure!

Thank you to Byron for capturing these wonderful moments that we shared so that I can share them here <3

the fourth of july & some backyard camping

Yesterday was the 4th of July! Aka, a day that Byron did not have to work, wooh!

Avery has been asking for a couple of days for us to set up our new tent since we had mentioned backyard camping. Byron took the liberty of putting it together in the morning so that we were able to spend most of our afternoon hanging out in and discussing plans of camping in the future, possibly the near future? I have actually never been camping so the thought of hanging out by a river all day, roasting smores over a camp fire at dusk and waking to fresh mountain air first thing in the morning sounds SO appealing and I refuse to entertain the idea that camping (with 3 small kids and a puppy) is hard! So, no bubble bursting allowed.

We also grilled out and picked up some sparklers so that I could watch Avery hold one....very anxiously. After dinner (and a big piece of apple pie with a big scoop of ice cream for everyone) we went on a family walk on our neighbor's driveway and the kids did not fight a bedtime that was a little earlier than usual. It is pure bliss when it is 8 pm and the big kids are asleep, ahhhh.

I did not take a single picture of our family festivities but I did manage to get this one of Byron and Aspen during our backyard camping adventures while I was playing around with my camera. Like her mama, she is a cider kind of gal.

Okay, and I also took a picture of this tomato. Because, duh, look at it! It's beautiful.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

afternoon garden walk

This dreary and wet afternoon I decided to break out my Canon that never gets much love and snap a few pictures of our garden. When I walk through it I actually cannot believe that it belongs to Byron and I. While I wish that I could take some credit of how beautifully everything turned out, I hardly can. I was tending to babies while Byron was tending to vegetables. Just to think, I actually hassled him a time or two over all the puttering that he was doing in early spring!

Byron and I are definitely fans of the "learn as you go" method. So with a few seed packets (more like 20) and some seed starter trays we dug in (all the pun intended). There were so many moments that we realized we had no idea what we were doing and also moments of frustration from both of us. But our optimism was refilled every time a plant grew a new leaf.

Now that July is here we are starting to see the fruits of our labor! We have some visible zucchini and summer squash. We have harvested beets and kale. Our beans, cucumbers and more kale are coming along just fine. I cannot wait to see where we are at in another month!

Our wonderful ladies who have added so much joy into our days! We have Greta, Goldie, Pio and Hei Hei. Each with their own personality but all equally silly yet adorable. We are still waiting on them to start laying (tick, tock girls) but hopefully by the end of the summer.

And our herbs, tomatoes, peppers and strawberry plants on the porch. This is my favorite part of our garden, with my especially favorite plant (don't tell the others) being that big beautiful tomato plant in the back. There are no less than 9 tomatoes currently plumping up on that baby. I'm basically depending on that plant for tomato canning practice next month!

There is something that having a garden has brought us that I never considered in my apartment dwelling days where I would dream of having a small patch of earth to call our own. The feeling of sticking your hands right into a big pile of dirt...there is no better therapy. The simple action of watering and nurturing plant life is so fulfilling. And having this experience for the kids has been great, I think that Avery knows more about plant and bug life than i do! Sure, having an abundance of fresh vegetables throughout the summer will be a nice treat, but we have learned that gardening is so much more than that. I already look forward to next spring when I am able to participate more in the creating of the garden if the babies allow me more freedom.

All we know is that we are hooked and we know that gardening will hold a place in our lives from here on out. Now to plan for fall!