I’m thinking of those nouns–hope, peace, and joy–in the deep-seated, faith-filled way… the way that calm joy can settle down into your fiber but make no sense in your thoughts… the way that soothing peace can level out your racing heart and slowly end your tears but make no sense with what your eyes, or bank account, or aching heart tells you.

When you have nothing to give

Two Christmases ago was the only Christmas I have lived through that I had no pressents under the tree. And had no tree until hours before Christmas morning when I yanked a broken, pathetic artificial one from the recesses of the barn attic. One I had rescued from the dump years prior, thinking I would set it up on an outside back porch.

Two Christmases ago was the first Christmas I had lived through without a mom, and the loss was fresh and deep.

Two Christmases ago was my dad’s first Christmas in 55 years that he had lived through without his Queenie, as he tongue-in-cheek called my mom since long before I was born.

But we were together. We sang Silent Night elbow to elbow at our church’s candlelight service on Christmas Eve, and prayed that indeed our tears over loosing mom so suddenly to cancer would soon be silent. Then, back home on the couch in his slippers, Dad looked at me with shocked sadness in his handsome brown eyes when he realized, “I don’t have any presents for anyone.” Of course none of us had any gifts for anyone. We had just lived through the most difficult 6 weeks we’d ever navigated.

Dad’s grief over being empty-handed was something I decided I could surely rectify. I rummaged through closets desperate for something, anything, he could give to his 4 granddaughters. I dug out 4 lip glosses and 4 gift bags from odd corners, and my Dad played Santa with great pleasure. When he presented each gift to each granddaughter on Christmas morning, you would have thought he had wrapped up gold jewelry or green-monster-seating tickets to Fenway. Having something to give brought him sincere joy. Watching him slowly place his meager gifts under the crooked tiny (okay I’ll just admit it… ugly) tree and face me with a nod and sly smile brought out my dimples and my tears simultaneously.

Along with Dad’s humble offerings, a sweet neighbor had dropped off small, wrapped pairs of cozy socks for each of us. So with moist lips and warm toes, we spent the afternoon creating a gingerbread farm the likes of which will never be repeated.

The sun began to lower in her course across the Christmas sky. And I found myself wishing the morning that I had dreaded–the morning that I thought would be depleted of any reason to smile–could linger because, to my shock, it was filled with deep-seated hope and peace.

Dad turned to me and said, with a little shock but no hesitation, “It was my most joyful Christmas I ever had.” Dad felt it too. That calm joy can settle down into your fiber but make no sense in your thoughts. A deep-seated joy that is independent of circumstances.

When you feel so alone

Then the next Christmas was the first one I lived through without my Daddy. But that loss had settled in for almost a year by the time Christmas arrived. Dad went to be with his Queenie only days after his most joyful Christmas ever–our gingerbread Christmas–one month after Mom died, and, much more importantly he would want me to explain, he went to be with his gracious God who had saved a wretch like himself and been oh-so-good to him.

Just weeks before, on the oncology floor of the hospital near my childhood home, I sat holding mom’s thin hands and massaging her legs that no longer agreed to hold her weight. Only weeks later, I was shivering in a fluorescent-lit, sterile ER room, after a long ambulance ride, in a New Year’s Eve blizzard. The long dark drive that night from my New England farmhouse, which had become Dad’s home too, ended with me standing over Dad’s tired, limp body. I kissed his cool forehead and said goodbye to the man who still had stories he never told me and songs he never sang me. He was already with his Savior, and I was left standing there in a cold hospital in a pool of pain and loneliness.

When you feel helpless

As I tried to define my days after two sudden losses, I had reason to rejoice when my daughter saw an end in sight to years’ worth of almost-unbearable chronic pain. Just a few months after sitting with Mom as she fought cancer with every breath, I was sitting in a hospital room with Jordyn after her successful spinal fusion. We worked through recovery and physical therapy and were just starting to glimpse a true reason for hope, which was the point when I wrote this article. But then the lowest point of my life crept in.

Just as snow was melting and spring buds were filling the horizon with faint colors, Jordyn started screaming with pain that doctors seemed unable to define.

Then they put a name to her agony–Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, from surgical nerve damage–and she and I both entered a long, dark night that stretched from spring into summer.

I didn’t notice that maple sap supplies needed to be cleaned, garden seedlings tended to, and rows of vegetables planted.

Jordyn was experiencing pain that words can’t define.

I was experiencing the hopelessness of a mother who can call experts around the globe, yet have no way to offer her daughter any relief. I make notes, read medical journals, insisted on personally speaking with head surgeons, and had pharmacists on speed dial, all while living in the ICU with no sleep, no showers, and little food, yet I could do nothing.

When you don’t know if night will end

It was a long, dreadful, deeply dark night that stretched across two seasons and ended with a 10-day clinical trial 400 miles from home. The trial offered Jordyn some relief and the ability to return to a life outside of an ICU. Her life will never be pain-free, and college, which she had worked toward so eagerly for so long, is now a severe struggle. If you’d like to know more about Jordyn’s battle with an uncommon neurological syndrome, you can read a little more on her Go Fund Me page.

When life is painfully raw

That Christmas… last Christmas… I was a different person. I welcomed the Advent Season as a woman who had seen how brutally, painfully raw life can be and who also had seen and felt the raw sovereignty and love of God co-existing with the dark pain.

That was the point that I sat down and wrote the little Advent ebook that is available in my Subscriber Library (download my 7-pg pantry checklist there as well): Hope, Peace, and Joy, Even in the Midst of Tears.

This Christmas? I was overjoyed to welcome this Advent Season.

The first day of Advent, I attended an elaborate, gorgeous Christmas Gala. The vaulted-ceiling sanctuary was filled with the sounds of the orchestra and the melodious voices of 5 college choirs.

The next night I had the joy of decorating our own simple, tired church with my teen daughters. We put up a diminutive tree and simple wreaths that we accented with pinecones, red berries, and burlap for ribbon. The church bells tolled 7, then 8, and all the while our humble efforts were serenaded by Christmas iTunes, stories, and giggles.

Both evenings were a perfect way to usher in the Advent season, one reminding me of God’s majesty and the other of the humbleness of the first Christmas and the importance of quiet moments, free of clutter, with the ones who are imprinted on my heart.

I truly wish glimpses of both for you this Christmas season–glimpses of the indescribable majesty of a God who goes to unimaginable extremes to build a personal relationship with you. And glimpses of a God who wants to be in the small, simple moments that define your day and your life.

Stop over on my winter-themed pinterest board for lots more winter-themed reading.

Take a second to stop over in my Subscriber Library and download the advent ebook.

Not a subscriber? It’s easy peasy to access not only my little book Hope, Peace, and Joy, Even in the Midst of Tears, but all my ebooks and resources, by signing up right here (and snag my 7-pg Pantry Checklist too). I truly hope it is a blessing to you this holiday season.

When you have nothing to give…

when you feel all alone…

when you feel helpless…

when you don’t know if night will end…

and when life is simply and totally painfully RAW…

Please, friend, know that you are not alone. Know that you are loved with an undefinable, indescribable love. I can’t tell you the “why” for your pain. Life is so painful and hard. It always will be, on this side of heaven. But it offers deep, simple joys as well.

I can assure you that I’ve been at the bottom of that black, dark, bitterly lonely hole of helplessness and sheer “alone.” And even there, there was a glimmer of hope, peace, and joy.

This post is the last in my 4-part Grief Series. I wrote about the stages of grief, resources that comforted me in my grief, and questions I wished I had asked.

Other holiday-themed articles:

Reflections on why nativity scenes should include muddy cows,

Christmas “riches” to a homesteader,

How to make a gingerbread farm, and

How we decorate our old farmhouse with all-natural choices.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. Psalm 34:18

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

And hop over here to find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get! As soon as you subscribe (in the box at the end of this post), you’ll have immediate access to my Resource Library, which includes my FREE EBOOKs, and amazing recipes for things like whoopie pie cookies, maple sap switchel, and my grandmom’s perfect pie crust.

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else and what a perfect holiday treat! 

The post Surviving the holidays when you’re burdened with grief or depression first appeared on Souly Rested.

Heirloom pumpkin treasures draped over our garden fence mean homemade pumpkin bread in a few weeks. (See this post for my family’s favorite pumpkin bread recipe.)

Just-picked apples are a downpayment on fresh apple cider. (I share my recipe for Amazing Apple Cider, made in a slow cooker, right here.)

Marked maple trees on our New England farm promise yummy possibilities of winter syrup. (My posts about maple syrup are itemized here.)

This post breaks down all the steps you’ll need to know if you’re ever interested in making backyard maple syrup.

And this article and podcast will inspire you to consider a simple little step toward healthier living–> Should You Consider Swapping Out Sugar for Maple Syrup?

While our apple harvest was tiny this year, due to our bad summer drought, some yummy cider is in the works. I share our cider recipe right here.

So, yes, fall has settled in, in delicious ways, and winter is on her coattails.

But before I start working on the yummy posts that are on my mind and in my kitchen, I wanted to share with you the 10-page printable and complete unit study I just released today on Proverbial Homemaker. I started writing it as soon as Tauna asked if I’d like to share my thoughts on one of my favorite children’s books of all time, one that recalls sweet tastes of summer.

When my teen homesteader was a toddler, I had no inkling that the little one with bouncy blond locks and a deep fascination for Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey, would one day traipse a New England mountainside to fill her own pail with juicy blueberries that she planned to can for winter.

But she does. She and I pick for hours, with no signs of bears, only our content pooches running beside us and nestling in the coolness of the bushes. Back home, we can the deliciousness.

We will enjoy the sweet wild blueberries on a cold winter’s day when the sap is running, the winter wind is whistling, and our memories are crisp. . .  Memories of the warm kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk of the blueberries dropping in our pails. . .  Memories of the sweet times we curled up and read of Sal’s adventures oh-so-long ago. . .  Memories. Delicious every one. Every last kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk. 

Take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested for yummy recipes for every season, as well as a downloadable book about Nature Journaling with children.

And make sure to snag the Blueberries for Sal printables  I’ve written for you to enjoy with a child or grandchild as you read the book together. I truly hope you love it.

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources Page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get! As soon as you subscribe (in the box at the end of this post), you’ll have immediate access to my Resource Library, which includes many useful printables, my FREE EBOOKs, and amazing real-food recipes for things like whoopie pie cookies, maple sap switchel, and my grandmom’s perfect pie crust.

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If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

The post Fall deliciousness & Blueberries for Sal first appeared on Souly Rested.

The lake who stretches her clear waters out northward from the base of our slopping property supports an array of wildlife and picture-perfect sunsets…

Our magic little lake attracts majestic morning mist.

The fog surrounds any neighbors we happen upon during an early-morning skiing session.

Numerous aquatic flowers stretch out through the calm summer afternoon ripples while paddle boarders and kayakers enjoy the serenity.

And our little lake is a perfect backdrop for nature study in our homeschool.

But some inhabitants–the loons, whom we learned more about this summer–come in minuscule supply.

In fact, loons define the term “territorial bird” to an extreme. The 400 acres of water that our monochrome feathered friends call “home” each summer–the lake waters that stretches out northward from the base of our driveway–aren’t expansive enough to host more than one pair of loons.

The larger bodies of crisp, cool water that are spotted all across New Hampshire’s Lakes Region can support hundreds of loon pairs. In fact, alcoves on Lake Winnipesaukee alone provide nesting spots for more than 280 of the feathered, polka-dotted couples. By the way, if the curious lake name, a Native American name meaning “beautiful water in a high place,” sounds familiar to you, maybe you’ve watched  What About Bob?

But if you’re a local, you know Bill Murray never filmed anywhere near Winnipesaukee. (And the deception is compounded as you watch the characters refer to the town of “Winnipesaukee” throughout the movie, which of course makes no sense since the name itself means “water,” and everyone knows Winnipesaukee is a big, beautiful lake, not a small town.)  The truth is, the leaves were turning fall colors in New England that year before the producers were ready to start filming the movie, so a lake in Virginia provided the warmer temperatures they needed as a summer backdrop for Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.

Another nearby New Hampshire lake, Squam, was truly the sight of a classic movie that even starred some of the very breed of birds my daughters and I studied this week. Mind you, you may remember Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn a little more than the loons, but all were important characters in On Golden Pond, filmed on Squam Lake in 1981. Squam doesn’t boast the hundreds of pairs of loons that the giant Winnipesaukee can claim, but it does home a few dozen more pairs than our diminutive lake.

Along with the fact that they’re not good at sharing a small body of water with other loons, these spotted fowl are also not good at walking. God designed their feet placement–far back on their body–to be perfect for swimming, but it happens to be impossible for walking. If loons are ever spotted on dry land, they are seen pushing themselves along on their bellies, which is surely why they were originally called “loons,” meaning “lame.”

But there’s nothing lame about their majestic, dashed and dotted, beauty on a lake.

And there’s nothing lame about nature study in our homeschool–at least not this week. Our local loons gave one daughter plenty of material for a new page in Our Backyard Book. If someone in your family would like to learn more about a bird in your backyard, feel free to enjoy this free printable resource–a Backyard Book page that’s truly for the birds.

Any day now the loons will be heading south, and we will move on to a new page for Our Backyard Book. Then nature study in our homeschool–and our next Backyard Book page–may focus on fisher cats, since my daughters believe a fisher cat was the eerie soloist screaming outside their bedroom window last night.

Be sure to follow along right here, on SoulyRested.com, for more nature study resources!

As soon as you do, you can snag another FREE printable that will get you started on an unbelievably easy, unlimitedly rewarding journey of nature study with a child. And even the least science-oriented parent (or grandparent) ever can dive right in.

And love it.

Really.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Romans 1:20

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Read More About Nature Study …

How we Create a Family Book About Our Own Backyard

Helping a Child Discover what They’re Passionate About

3 Simple Steps to Get Kids Excited About Nature Study

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Find out why SoulyRested is considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs … year after year.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Looney Nature Study first appeared on Souly Rested.

I think Robert Brault, an American operatic tenor who must create melodies in a garden as beautifully as he does on stage, answered that question well with a query of his own: “Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden?”

A few days ago, I shared 5 Simple Steps to Garden From Seeds, and today I’m sharing 5 Tips for Gardening With Your Kids over on Proverbial Homemaker.

There’s nowhere I’d rather be than in the garden with a daughter. Or two. Or all four. We share our thoughts, anxieties, and daydreams right there between the beans and the tomatoes.

Plus, if you plant a garden together, you can reap the harvest together. You can even preserve it and enjoy it all year round. You can grow and preserve your own herbs. (All you need is a little patience and a few paper bags. Really. Check it out here.)

You might even have enough veggies to can a few jars.

Or enjoy some quick-and-easy berry desserts I posted last week. Better yet, you can preserve your fruit.

Then the cold snowy January night that you pop open a jar of jam and slather it on biscuits, you’ll enjoy the rewards of gardening with your kids even more. (Be sure to snag the Amazingly Easy Freezer Biscuit Recipe I shared on a previous post.)

If you need any more inspiration, glance at these 10 Reasons to Make Sure You Play in the Dirt this Summer and–if you do nothing else–be sure to join me over on Proverbial Homemaker today for some inspiration!

Then go dig in the dirt somewhere with someone who looks up to you, someone who just might want to share with you their thoughts, their anxieties, or their daydreams while you’re gardening together. Here on our homestead, I can honestly tell you, we plant much more than seeds, and we harvest much more than produce.

In my far-from-professional opinion, I imagine gardening has always had that effect.

Take a second to read more over on Proverbial Homemaker, and be sure to snag the FREE PRINTABLE I uploaded there for you!

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Do you follow along on SoulyRested.com? Just click “FollowThisBlog” in the right-hand column, and you can snag a FREE 7-page, chock-full-of-information printable that will get you started on an unbelievably easy, unlimitedly rewarding journey of nature study with a child. The free printable even includes another ID page! (This one is for studying mammals.) And even the least science-oriented parent (or grandparent) ever can dive right in.

And love it.

Really.

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Another post you’ll like–>

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The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58: 11

“Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.” Jeremiah 29:5

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

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To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post 5 Tips for Gardening with Kids first appeared on Souly Rested.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. 

When I think of Irises I think of a day when there were three guys. And three flowers. But no one told them which flower was for which guy.

One white rose and two violet irises arrived that sunny June morning at the church on the hill with the tall white steeple. They had been boxed and delivered to the groom and his two groomsmen. For some reason, at least according to my husband’s memory, they just dealt out the flowers randomly, not giving much thought to who should wear the most unique flower.

All I know is that in my elated wedding stupor, standing in the outdoor courtyard, in front of the pastor, I never recognized the mix up. Holding hands with the man I’d been holding hands with for seven years, but this time doing so with rings and a lifetime commitment exchanging between us, I remember thinking how beautiful his boutonniere was in the morning sunlight. How glad I was that I picked the stunning periwinkle iris for him.  (Never mind that I had actually picked a single white rose, which was gracing one of the groomsman’s lapels.)

It was a fun memory to share with a daughter this week, who enjoyed musing about how clueless men can be over certain issues.

She and I, both with dirty knees and dirtier fingernails, were weeding the rows of beans and corn, with the promise of irises nearby, just beyond the garden fence. And the 23rd anniversary of that day of mixed-up flowers and a far-from-perfect-but-yet-so-blessed union was looming only days away.

I’m sure Siberian Irises have graced many other grooms over the 500+ years since they became a cultivated bloom.

Their name comes from the fact that they were first collected by monks in Siberia in the Middle Ages. They were grown in monasteries and distributed around Europe.

I’m thankful that someone once cultivated them in bucolic spots around our 200-year-old farmhouse.

They’re perfect expressions of a beautiful commitment I made to my high-school sweetheart who has humored my cravings for reading, writing, and chocolate for 23 years, as of tomorrow.

And they’re vibrant amethyst reminders of God’s provision…“Consider how the flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you!” (Luke 12:27)

You may enjoy my Open Letter to my Mother-in-Law as well.

Then there’s what I told my Father-in-Law too.

And I wrote about our marriage and how it survives the 3 Secrets Old-Farmhouse Owners Might Not Tell You here.

A Dozen Fun Facts About Irises

1- Irises have been cultivated for thousands of years.

2- They’re predominantly found in dry, semi-desert, or colder rocky mountainous areas–thus I now know why they survive on my New England homestead. (Although other habitats do include grassy slopes, meadowlands, bogs and riverbanks.)

3- There are almost 300 different species of iris.

4- The general name “iris” is from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.

5- Irises have long, erect flowering stems that may be simple or branched and solid or hollow.

6- Flowers consist of three upward turned petals (known as “standards”) and three downward turned sepals, which actually look like petals (known as “falls”).

7- The downward sepals (“falls”) are the “landing pads” for pollinators. Notice how the falls on an Iris have bright lines (called “guide lines” or “nectar guides”) leading an insect right to the flower’s nectar.

8- A single Iris flower only lasts about three days.

9- Once the flower has died, the ovary produces a seed capsule, which opens up in three parts to reveal the numerous tiny seeds within.

10- Indian and Egyptian ancient cultures used Iris rhizomes for medicinal purposes and for making perfume.

11- During the Middle Ages, Irises became linked to the French monarchy, and the Fleur-de-lis eventually became a national symbol of France.

12- Apparently, the iris is the flower of February birthdays.

I’d Love to Share my Resources With You

If you too have a flower in your backyard that’s blooming with a story, or simply one you would like to get to know a little better, please follow along here on SoulyRested. You will immediately gain access to my subscriber library, where I have a very helpful blank identification page you and a child can use to record all you want to learn about your backyard flowers.

In fact, I offer a wide assortment of nature ID pages in my subscriber library. Because I thoroughly believe that a child will be mesmerized by creation for a lifetime if they are immersed in nature investigations at a young age. 

My daughters and I have loved making the acquaintance of many flowers, trees, birds, mammals, and amphibians in our back yards over the years. In fact, one of our family’s most treasured projects ever–it’s become a family heirloom really–is now 13 years in the making and still going strong: Our Backyard Book. 

And Here are More Nature Study Resources for Your Family

If you’d like to read more about our family’s unique way of memorializing all we learn about in nature, you may like these posts:

One about heart-shaped lessons learned from white tailed deer that visited our gardens.

Another about the many reasons everyone should take time to play in the dirt.

One of my favorites, about spring peepers and 3 Simple Steps to get any kid excited about nature study.

There’s this one filled with neat Loon facts and details on how we document our findings.

And, of course, some all-natural bug spray comes in handy when you’re knee deep in nature studies.

I’m Immensely Thankful

But, as thankful as I am for our family’s love of nature study, I’m immensely more thankful for my husband who has taken on the project of humoring me as a lifetime project. He may not be a boutonniere connoisseur, but not unlike that iris I admired on his lapel in the church courtyard that warm June day, he’s colorful and truly perfectly placed by my side.

Happy Anniversary to my high school sweetheart.

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Pin this for later!

Just hover over this image for the Pinterest logo.–>

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

And please follow along!

The post Blooming With a Story first appeared on Souly Rested.

I’m learning to enjoy a lot of things these days that are… well… pretty unenjoyable.

Cow patties, for example.

They smell awful.

But the lady who produces them–Scout, our sweet dairy cow–also produces wonderful milk, which in turn helps me produce some amazing ice cream. So I’ve learned to enjoy cleaning out her stall. To be totally up front, though, Scout belongs to my 15-year-old farmer, Kayla, who saved up for Scout, and her hay, and her fencing, since she was 9. So I honestly don’t do the bulk of the cow-pattie removal. That of course also makes it more enjoyable for me. (If you’d like to meet Kayla and all of her farm animals, plus get a little insight into her entrepreneurial spirit that helps run our homestead, take a peek at Kayla’s endeavors here.)

So studying slimy amphibians is a walk in the park after doing the hard work around a farm. But this whole homesteading life is still new.

So it’s still an exhilarating sensation to me (aka a born-and-bred suburban girl) to slowly pull giant, two-story-tall doors across their squeaky track. It’s an amazing thing (at least to a mid-atlantic, grew-up-in-a-chain-linked-fenced-tiny-yarded-development kinda girl) to say “I… Own… A Barn.”

But last month, while closing those difficult doors, I had an extra treat. I was serenaded with a soothing song. The spring peepers were back in our neck of the woods, and in actuality of course the males weren’t singing to me, but to the females, doing their best to attract one with all their melodious charm.

So over the next few days we pulled out some books (see my list here for our favorite you-can-hold-it-in-your-hand, real book resources for nature study), pursued some websites, and added a new page to Our Backyard Book—a treasured homeschool heirloom that I’ve written about many times before.

If you have an aversion to “slimy things,” Mom, you really need to read my post that Tauna asked me to share on Proverbial Homemaker today. If you still believe that old wives tale about getting warts from frogs, trust me, you’re safe. If, on the other hand, you think kissing a toad will turn your husband into prince charming, well, I can’t help you with that one.

But I can help you with:

5 reasons you really should study amphibians, slimy or not…

3 simple steps to start your study today…

8 of my family’s favorite nature study books, and

my FREE, printable amphibian ID page that you can enjoy completing with a child who would like to learn about slimy amphibians… in fact, I bet you’ll wind up enjoying it too.

So take a second to peruse my amphibian-affiliated musings as a contributing writer over on Proverbial Homemaker today. I’m gonna go clean a cow’s stall now… and enjoy it.

Meanwhile, if you and a child or grandchild try out my FREE printable amphibian ID page please let me know some slimy facts you enjoy learning together!

The post How to Enjoy Learning About Slimy Amphibians first appeared on Souly Rested.

She asked me to help her turn over some more of the garden bed. But I didn’t wanna.

She flashed a winsome smile and shook the Silver Queen seed packet in my direction. But I was tired. Errands would be eating up my precious afternoon. I had an office full of boxes to unpack. A floor half sanded, needing refinishing. A life in desperate need of order.

On top of that, the sky was a deep penetrating-kind-of blue, and the lake was dappled with mini firework flashes of sun kisses. I asked her if we should kayak out to the sandbar instead. If I couldn’t refinish another strip of flooring today, at least I could relax on a quiet beach.

But the soft rattling of seeds in the package was impossible to ignore.

So I put on dirty tennis shoes and our homemade bug spray and half-heartedly strolled down to our garden glade.

Only 10 minutes worth of rich soil under my nails, only 600 seconds worth of  “play in the dirt” time, and I knew she was right. This was exactly where I wanted to be. Elbow to elbow with my daughter, investing in our land, our relationship, our harvest.

Read here about the one thing every gardener should do (that many don’t!).

And check out my favorite plant, all year round!

So we discussed the top ten reasons we think everyone should make sure they play in the dirt this summer…

# 1. Gardens are venues of daily miracles, one tiny green sprout at a time. The “promise” of May blooms and bears fruit in August…

# 2. Gardening just feels good. Warm brown dirt on your palms is as rejuvenating to an adult as squishy play dough is irresistible to a toddler.

# 3. It offers a good return for your investment. For $1.35, we planted enough rows to produce 30-40 ears of corn. Today at the market, ears were 2 for $1. That’s about 28-38 ears for free.

# 4. Truly nothing tastes as delectable as fresh-picked, sun-warmed vegetables carried from your garden to your table. A cucumber that is stretching in the sun’s soothing rays one minute is in your kitchen the next, washed, peeled, and offering chunks of summertime goodness from a cool pottery bowl.

# 5. Surely the satisfaction of growing it yourself is part of why it tastes so good. Or, as Miranda Lambert croons, “what ever happened to… doing it all by hand, ’cause… it’s only worth as much as the time put in.”

# 6. Delayed gratification is sorely lacking in our lives today. Sometimes having to wait ninety days till harvest is good for our soul.

# 7. You never know what unexpected botany lessons may resonate with your child forever. You never know what life lesson may result from just minutes you give her to play in the dirt. How magical is the day when one realizes that the fruit is truly the swollen ovary, which is expanding to protect the seeds developing under the beautiful bloom, which attracted the insect, which pollinated the plant, which has the ultimate purpose of providing us with wholesome goodness.

# 8. You never know what you might notice when you take time to slow down and, well, smell the daisies.

I’d love to share with you a great resource for all gardeners—a free printable page to help you document all the important information you might like to know about each plant in your garden! My printable Garden Plant ID Page is just one of many awesome resources in my subscriber-only library. Share your email with me in the box at the end of this post, and I’ll send you the link and your password immediately!

#9. Your dog would love the chance to spend more time with you outside. If he’s like Bixby, our sweet, rescued Labradoodle, he’ll regally guard your garden plot with a watchful eye while you labor. Or… finally…

# 10. If nothing else, gardening will give some dogs a very good excuse for a nap in the early morning sunshine.

Meet Bixby & see him “perform” for his favorite treats–>

Regardless of the reason you may decide to play in the dirt this summer, if you’re elbow to elbow with a child basking in the summer’s morning glow, listen to them talk about what’s on their mind, and take advantage of those few fleeting moments to impress on their heart the depth of God’s grace and the beauty of His provisions.

My family enjoys adding ID pages about our garden plants to our  Backyard Book, our heirloom book of nature memories. If you’d like to access your own printable Garden Plant ID Page in my subscriber-only library, subscribe at the bottom of this page. 

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them, for this is their reward.

Ecclesiastes 5:18

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The post 10 Reasons to Play in the Dirt first appeared on Souly Rested.