Wild Sunshine and Lemonade

Blueberry Cobbler with Honey Biscuit topping

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My children are wild, untamed animals this time of year, bouncing among the inflatable pool and the berry bushes and the cool air conditioning. I grew up among blueberries. Just six bushes, and they produced more blueberries than we could eat in a summer. I have so many fond memories of gobbling up blueberry cobbler around our swimming pool on hot summer nights, and I’m pretty sure I ate half this pan myself. Y’all. The “quarantine ten” is as real as the freshman fifteen… except that I sweat it all out planting and weeding and doing other farm chores. It’s the truth of life out here.

Here is the recipe we use for an amazing blueberry cobbler. Our bushes aren’t quite producing gobs of berries yet, so we went down the road to Cedar Grove Blueberry Farm in NC to pick a gallon. So worth it! Enjoy!

BLUEBERRY COBBLER BASE

Serves 8. Preheat oven to 350.

  • 2 lbs blueberries
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamonn
  • 2 Tablespoons corn starch

Combine all ingredients in a 9×13 inch pan and mix well. Because the blueberries will release juice as they bake, there’s no need to add liquid to this cobbler.

HONEY BISCUIT TOPPING
  • 3 cups flour (I’ve used Einkorn, Almond, and a combination of the two. It all works in this recipe!)
  • 3 Tablespoons raw honey
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 Tablespoons cold butter
  • 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter. A pastry blender works great for this! Gently stir in the honey and milk until a sticky dough forms.

Glob the biscuit dough on top of the cobbler base. Spread it with your fingers until the blueberries are mostly covered. It’s ok if some is showing through! Bake for 30 minutes until slightly golden on top and the berries are bubbling.

I serve mine with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Amaaaaaaazing! Go pour yourself a glass of cold white wine and gather some berries. Turn your children free and whip up some blueberry cobbler.

Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread

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Ahhh, can you smell it? Banana bread and daffodils and basil?

If your family is like mine, some weeks they roll through a dozen bananas in a few days, and others those bananas sit on the shelf until they’re so spotted even the toddler won’t touch them. Aaaaand then there’s the bananas said toddler throws on the floor to become damaged goods. Ain’t nobody want to eat a bruised banana! This banana bread recipe comes to my rescue quite often in our journey to reduce food waste.

The good news is that bananas can be frozen. I peel them, cut them in half, and add to the ziplock bag in the freezer until I have time for Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread. It’s good, y’all. And for the most part it’s Paleo (simply skip any add-ins containing sugar).

I didn’t have almond butter on hand, so I made my own by throwing about 2 cups of almonds in the food processor with some avocado oil, then blending for a good 5 minutes.

Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread Recipe

  • 4 bananas
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 4 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (these are my all time favorite)
  • 1/2 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash the bananas with a potato masher. I don’t know how I lived without one for so long, they make mashing avocados, bananas, and potatoes a breeze!

Stir in the eggs, maple syrup, almond butter, and butter in a large mixing bowl. Mix the dry ingredients and spices separately with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix. Stir your craisins and chocolate chips into the mixture.

Pour into a greased baking dish or loaf pan (I usually use butter or coconut oil). Bake for 55 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool for at least 15 minutes if you can keep your hands off it. I usually can’t. I burn my fingers and eat it anyway.

We’re Building a Farmhouse!

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I kept telling y’all we had some big news!! Remember back in 2017 when I was Seven months pregnant and we bough 13 acres of farmland? We decided that it’s time to make the big move and build out there. I suppose we’re doing it now because there’s no time like the present, right? But actually, it’s a combination of three main reasons:

  1. Our perk test on our land that runs out in early 2020 and we don’t want to have to re-perk the land.
  2. Sawyer starts Kindergarten next fall and we are hoping to avoid too many school switches. I’m that kid who lived in one spot my whole childhood. The friends I knew in Kindergarten are the same people I graduated high school with. I loved it and want something similar for my children.
  3. There’s that small garden we tilled last spring, planted, and watered at the farm. The one where I drove out to that farm at least once a week during the big drought in June and lugged 5 gallon jugs of water through chest-high grass to water the newly planted berries? Yeah. Almost all of it died. Things got CRAZY in our lives with swim team, summer plans, vacation, school starting (mid-July for us) and I gave up on watering. We decided that if we want anything to grow out there, we need to be present to tend to it.

HOW WE CHOSE A BUILDER

Back in August we started talking to builders. We thought we’d go with a modular build, which contrary to our initial thoughts is actually a cost-effective way to build with less waste. Apparently you can build just about any house as a modular home, but the companies we talked with seemed to have trouble turning plans on their own website into actual homes on our land. Hmmm…

We looked at custom builders, but at close to $200 a square foot they were definitely out of our price range.

We ended up settling somewhere in the middle, with a company called America’s Home Place. They offer quite a few plans, and after you choose your plan you can then customize pretty much everything about it. Even bumping out walls, adding rooms, changing layouts. They cost less than the custom builders, and as of right now I believe our home comes in at about $124 a sq. foot.

 

THE HOUSE

I don’t want to think about how many hours I spent pouring over plans this summer. Too many! Ha! We finally settled on the “Ugly House,” which despite its ugly exterior had an open-ish layout with the kitchen/dining/living areas at the front of the home. The way our house is positioned on our lot, it was important to us that we maximize views out the front (west) and right side (south) to see the pastures (maybe vineyards someday) and the pond. And that we had a long southern exposure for tons of natural light and for the possibility of solar in the future.

farmhouse rendering

You can head over to see the original plan HERE. We jokingly call it the ugly house because the upstairs windows are spaced much too far apart, and it’s generally off center. But no worries, we fixed those minor details by adding a garage, wrap around porch, and re-centering windows. Now it looks like a farmhouse!

There are LOTS more details to share about the new house plan itself, what we added, and what we wanted in a house, but I think they warrant a separate post so stay tuned.

OUR TIMELINE

When we mulled over this decision and when would be the right time, it was a no-brainer to try and time our move between school years. In order to finish the new house by late May/early June, we had to sign off on plans by November 1st. And THAT meant that the entire month of September and October I was consumed by house plans. I drew about 6 different plans on giant graph paper, changing things to meet our needs and aiming to meet our budget (I’ll post more on what we’re looking for in a functional farmhouse in a separate post).

September/October

I spent every evening after the kids were in bed drawing and re-drawing plans. Also meeting with the design consultant about twice a week (sometimes with small children hanging off my legs and spilling candy jars in the showroom) to nail down our plans.

Late October:

The week of Halloween was insane. We were working on a tight deadline to nail down ALL the house details (before the designer had a baby and went on maternity leave for 10 weeks). I lived in Pinterest for a week straight. I’ve never pinned so many photos. Then I compiled them in Photoshop and printed pages for each room: kitchen, bathroom, dining room, etc. with paint colors, floors I liked, fixtures. Nothing kills my soul faster than being buried in a computer or cell phone, and my soul was dying. BUT, these are important decisions! I don’t want to move into a new home and hate the paint colors and cabinets because I punked out of doing my research.

Staking the house site

November:

We’ve been working on getting our loan nailed down. Having never built before, we are in completely uncharted waters. We will end up with a construction loan for about 7 months, then close again on a permanent loan in early summer. And for this to happen, they needed our first born child. Joking! Just our entire financial existence. I scanned files for days. Also, I met the builder at the farm last week to stake out where our home will sit. With two toddlers in toe. In 40 degree weather. For a two hours. STICK A FORK IN ME.

December:

I’m exhausted. Hoping to get some rest and relaxation! The builder should be pulling permits. We closed on our construction loan before Christmas. We debate daily about whether to sell or rent our current home. And we are working daily to get it re-painted, clean, and all the tiny broken things fixed so that we can do either. And in all the hustle to start cleaning up our current home and the mess that four children have brought, we broke the all time record for annual rain. Durham, NC got more rain last year than Seattle. And our backyard is a mud pit. SO… being the crazies that we are, we decided to remedy that problem by digging a new walkway over Christmas break. Yeah…

January-May:

Building. Not sure yet what will happens when, but you get the idea. Hoping to move in late June!

 

 

A Perpetual Mischief Maker Sleeps in our Room

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My older two started sleeping in big beds around age two. They were great! A few nights setting a gate up at the door to the room and they caught onto the rules. But #3? My wild child and perpetual mischief maker? Noooooooo. She has been sleeping in our room in a pack n play for nearly a year. She needs to go. And by go, I mean move in with the big kids. I fear if she moves in with Bodhi she will bother him all night long and that kid will never sleep again.

Problem number one is she’s a terrible roommate and a night owl. Larkin will stay up in the dark, reading books in that pack n play until 9pm every night. We can’t go upstairs to sleep until then, because heaven help us if we walk into that room and she begins the endless cycle of “I’m thirsty, I have to go potty, etc.” This is probably part of the reason we have such trouble moving her to the big kids bedroom.

The offender

Nevertheless, we tried again over the Thanksgiving break. She was so excited to sleep in a big kid bed with the big kids. It all started well… and then we had to go up there because she’s using the potty and the older ones are trying to wipe her. I’m ok with that. Then she wants to drink more water. Then she’s getting in bed with the big kids. We tried to ignore it and let them work it out on their own until SHE DECIDED TO SIT IN THE CAT LITTER BOX. The box that happens to live in the hall bathroom. That girl sat right in the cat litter because “that’s what the cats do.” GROSS. Covered in poo at 9pm.

And at that point we moved her back to the pack n  play. She won’t still be in that thing as a teenager, right?!?!?

Fall Break Roadtrip

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You say fall break started the first week of October? Hmm, so it goes with our crazy life, but I want to make sure I write down the details of this fall break roadtrip before I forget them. This was the first road trip we’ve taken with four kids. Years ago when Pippa was three and Sawyer was an infant we dared to drive to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland to stay in a lakehouse with my inlaws for a week, and then we took the mountain roads down to the NC mountains for a vacation with my family. At the time we didn’t realize the reason Pippa screamed in the car since she was a baby was because she was getting carsick. BUT… all it took was ten hours on winding roads and several stops to clean up puke to realize why that girl hated car rides. Man, that was a BAD road trip.

Maryland

Cunningham Falls park

We have since taken much shorter vacations (to the beach, anyone?) but finally decided to make a longer trek this fall. Remember that we are in year round school, so our fall break is three weeks long. It makes for amazing travel opportunities when the rest of the world is in school! First we headed north to Maryland to stay with my inlaws for six days. We took the kids hiking at Cunningham Falls state park — a place John and I both went to a lot growing up (we’re both MD born and raised).

Then we did something I never thought I’d get to do: visit John’s grandparents house one last time. We went down there to pick up a box of his dad’s things. I have such great memories of his grandparents, because they became my grandparents at a time when all my grandparents were already gone. I lost my last one when I was in college. So all those beautiful moments when we were engaged and we would sit on the couch for hours listening to stories about the war, and how they lived in military housing in Europe, and how they worked in the factories outside of DC. Grandparents have the best stories and I wish my own had been alive when I was just a bit older.

I never thought I’d get to see that house again. And then, we were there. The place was completely unchanged! The walls were still mint green, the original kitchen appliances from the 1940s still in place. I admired how small it was compared to today’s homes and how three kids grew up there, and I felt a little silly for thinking I need a bigger kitchen.

I think of all the places I would love to visit just one last time.

We took the kids to the Enchanted Forest (another place from my childhood – ha!) although it’s been relocated to a farm. The kids rode ponies, played with goats, got foam swords. We went to the local farm – Larriland – to do an awesome hayride and pick out apples. Man do I wish we had stayed just a bit longer to pick pumpkins and apples from the fields. Sometimes being a slave to nap times makes me a grouch.

Pippa and Sawyer spent countless hours riding skateboard scooters down my inlaws’ driveway, and honestly I’m surprised it didn’t end with a trip to the ER with how fast those wild things went! Wish I had a video of that.

Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns…pre screaming toddler

We left Maryland and drove the mountain road through Shenandoah, and guess who didn’t get sick! Three cheers for a car trip without puke!!!! We stopped in Luray at the cutest deli for lunch, then took the kids on a tour of the caves. When you have four kids, you worry that the oldest will miss out on fun things if you always wait for the youngest to be age appropriate for something. So the heck with it, we thought. Pippa and Sawyer will love to see a cave! So we signed up for the tour. And then there we were… stuck with a group of 60 year olds on a one hour tour where we couldn’t leave the group behind for fear we’d get left in the dark in a cave. Larkin was laughing hysterically. So much so that we couldn’t hear the tour guide. We faded to the back of the group when Bodhi started fussing, because EVERYTHING ECHOES. It was bad. Then they went to play this underground organ that echoes over three miles of caves, and THAT is when Larkin decides to scream and run away down a side cave. It was super embarrassing, but we were stuck. Those poor people. We won’t be touring anymore caves for a few years!

Watauga Lake, TN

After Luray, we drove south and stopped approximately every 20 minutes so that Larkin could use the bathroom. PS: don’t take a long road trip with a potty training toddler. YOu’d think we’d have learned that by kid #3! At dinner time we decided to stop and grocery shop, because the cabin we rented was in the middle of nowhere. We grabbed a rotisserie chicken, chips, and veg tray and headed to a park for a picnic. Then after two more hours in the car (and a total of 12.5 hours from Maryland where we started our trip) we arrived at this super cute cabin.

The cordwood cabin in TN

The owners lived down the lane, and their four sons had built this cordwood cabin from scratch. How cool is that? It was beautiful and rustic and the kids loved climbing up to the loft and playing in all the secret nooks. We were there while Hurricane Michael was coming up the east coast, and of the four days we spent here it rained three of them. We lost power the first day and those sweet owners invited us down to their home to play with toys. They had chickens, peacocks, miniature horses (which we spent the better part of three days feeding), and a dog named Lollipop (which Larkin talked about non-stop for the rest of our trip). We cooked dinner on the charcoal grill in the rain until the power came back on.

Pippa loved those mini ponies!

Larkin and Lollipop

Roan Mountain views

Watauga Lake after the storm

Trying not to blow away

Day two we drove to Johnson City to a children’s museum. Finally the rain stopped enough for us to have a campfire, so the rest of the nights we ate s’mores for dessert looking up at the mountain. The kids played nonstop in the mud puddles and we took lots of baths! The last day here we were supposed to go to Tweetsie Railroad, but the weather was going to be super cold and windy! So instead we drove to Roan Mountain and hiked up to the grassy bald. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve been on in the Smokies, but it was about 35 degrees with constant wind. It was so gusty that Larkin kept getting blown over. We didn’t have winter coats with us so we were bundled in 3 pairs of pants and blankets to make the half mile hike up there. The kids were such good sports! And afterwards they agreed that it was a really cool hike. We hit up the state park playground after and warmed up.

Carowinds

Then, because we are crazy, we decided to make up our trip to Tweetsie (that the kids had been bummed to miss) by stopping at Carowinds amusement park on our way home… which really was 2.5 hours out of our way. The day was beautiful, but it was so dang crowded! I think everyone was there for the fall festival stuff they had going on. And watching three kids (wearing Bodhi in a carrier) was super stressful. We waited about 40 minutes per ride, which we thought was long and torturous. Is Disney this bad? Hmm….

The highlight of the day for the big kids was definitely riding on the wooden “kiddie” roller coaster. I had fun on it, so it wasn’t so little 🙂 We didn’t realize how early the park closed for their scary nighttime event, so this mama was bummed to not get to hop on just one big roller coaster. Next time, right? Ha! We drove 2.5 hours home and got home well after bedtime, which brings me to the worst greeting ever upon returning from a road trip….

Mold in our House

Yep. We had lost power for 48 hours because of the Hurricane, and before that I had set our AC to come on at a higher temp THAT OUR HOUSE NEVER REACHED. Then we got all the rain and no power for two days. Anyway, everything felt damp. We went right to bed, and the next morning as I was sitting on the couch nursing Bodhi I noticed that everything was GREEN. Mold was everywhere. We spent a crazy two days cleaning everything in sight and renting the upholstery cleaner… the whole nine yards. It was terrible. As if gobs of laundry isn’t enough to handle after two weeks away!

Wow, that was a long post. I’m trying to be better about documenting things like this, because it is so fun to look back on all the details. Thanks for joining the journey!

Drowning in a Sea of Toddlerhood

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Yes, you read that right. Drowning. Can we just be honest for a minute about kids? I believe there may be no other tried and true path to losing one’s mind. If you, like me, have several young children, you know what I’m talking about. I have four kids age six and under, including a 12 month old and a 2.5 year old. It’s killing me.

Can we just commiserate for a moment? You’re a parent, surely you can relate. And even if you can’t, I feel like I need to record this snippet of my life. It won’t be like this forever. They will grow up and I will scarcely be able to imagine that it was actually so hard when they were little. Hopefully I can read this post years from now and laugh… perhaps cynically… at how somehow I managed to escape parenting young kids with my sanity.

I do want to mention that I am forever grateful for my babies. I have friends who struggled with infertility. Several who won’t have kids. I had a miscarriage before my first and know that pain well, although it surely pales in comparison to what others face. Gratefulness aside, my reality right now is that of a stay at home mom of four kids.

I’m ragged.

I’m exhausted.

I wake up in the morning to smiling faces that I love dearly. They beam smiles full of sunshine, give me giant hugs, and are filled with a joy that makes me happy to be alive and even happier to call them mine. Then about 10 minutes after breakfast, they start in on the “I’m hungry, I need a snack” brigade. It lasts until lunch. I do nothing with my morning except prepare snacks (does dumping pirate booty out of the bag count? It should…), assist the toddler in pulling down her pants, getting on the potty, and if I’m lucky I get to wipe her bottom before she scoots off the toilet leaving poop marks everywhere. Because she’s the child who will be the next CEO of a large business. That kid knows exactly what she wants, she’s persistent, and doesn’t accept anything less than perfection. If we venture out of the house, I can guarantee we stop at every bathroom along the way and I then have to do the potty routine while also holding a wiggly 12 month old.

I hate public bathrooms.

By the time lunch rolls around, I’m done. I’m trying not to cry tears of frustration because I have gotten nothing accomplished. Not even a single thought to myself. Although I have usually succeeded in hiding in the pantry (thank God it’s a walk in) and I may or may not have eaten an entire bar of dark chocolate while hiding from the incessant screams of the CEO toddler. Another day will pass with no workout, although I had fully intended to go running when I woke up in the morning with so much hope for the day. If I’m lucky, I can find a few minutes at nap time to make a cup of coffee (decaf- caffeine and I don’t get along) with collagen and cocoa powder and fresh cream, because it makes me feel human.

The hardest part of the day is yet to come… the two hours between when all kids wake up around 3:30 and when we eat at 5:30. Somehow I’m supposed to make dinner with two children crying and hanging on my legs, a first grader who I need to assist with reading, and a preschooler who is good as gold and gets nothing for it because I have nothing left of myself after dealing with the demands of the CEO toddler. It breaks my heart. Yet somehow we eat dinner every night, together as a family. At least eating is a requirement for our survival, otherwise I’m not sure we would accomplish dinner.

Mama needs a beer. Cold and dark and of the stout variety, please.

We recently got back from vacation (need to write about those adventures in a separate post) and the lady who owned our VRBO rental was a saint. She had raised nine (9!!!!) children and invited us into her home when our cabin lost power, let our kids snack and play with their grandkids toys and visit with their farm animals. She texted me later that I was a supermom and doing a great job taking my kids to do these things, and to never let anyone tell me otherwise.

I cried. Because as parents we are not told nearly enough that we are doing a great job. We all feel like failures. There is just so much we are told we should do and should not do that the standards for being good are simply unattainable. I cried at the kindness of a stranger, because I need those words in my life waaaaaaay more often.

Particularly more often than the crucifying “enjoy them while they’re little, they grow up so fast.” Don’t say that to me. It makes me want to punch you. Kidding (sort of…) C’mon. We all forget the bad and remember the good. You’re forgiven. But you know your kids drove you nuts when they were little. Keep the reminiscing to yourself and show me some compassion, because if you dig deep down, you will remember these trying times and not just the snuggles and smiles.

So the next time you see a parent with young children, look them in the eye and tell them they are amazing. They are doing a great job. That they will (I hope?) gain their sanity back someday and that their children will turn out wonderfully even if they eat pizza for dinner sometimes. Maybe offer to watch their kids so they can be alone in their own house for an hour. Gosh how I would love that. Offer some adult conversation over coffee. It’s a lonely world when you’re drowning amid toddlers.

You’re doing a great job!

 

Five Herb and Berry “Swamp Water” Recipes from the Garden

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I’m not exactly sure where the name Swamp Water came from. Perhaps because it sounds like something we dredged up, which I suppose is correct in a way. It is certainly a concoction of random greenery from the garden, but unlike the name implies, this refreshing summer treat is beautiful.

Swamp water is a summer tradition in our home. It’s cold. It’s refreshing. It’s hydrating. It has zero calories or sugars, and yet is a simple garden fresh treat. My husband is one of those people who, in his own words, “just has to have something cold to sip on” in the evenings. Often it’s a beer or wine, but he’s made an effort lately to grab a glass of swamp water.

Sawyer eating the goodies

And our kids? Those rascals love this stuff. Bonus – they love to gather goodies from the garden to create their own recipe. And anytime I can convince at least two of them to scamper into the backyard, baskets in hand, to gather food, it fills my heart. There is nothing like seeing kids romping through the grass and mud, barefoot and giggling, to see what treasures await them in the summer garden. That is a pure joy of summertime for a kid I tell you!

Perhaps one of the best qualities of Swamp Water is that you can make it with pretty much anything. In case you’re itching to try your own, here are five Swamp Water recipes we’re loving to get you started:

Five Herb and Berry Swamp Water Recipes from the Summer Garden:

Lemon + Basil + Mint

1. Lemon slices/basil/mint – Is there anything better than lemon and mint? PS: if you’re looking for an amazing homemade ice cream flavor, this is it.

2.Tomatillo/parsley/cucumber – 2018 was the first year we grew tomatillos, and we were surprised by how well they did in the garden. Just two plants made waaaaay more than we use for guacamole, so this is a good way to use some extras. If you’ve never tried a tomatillo, they are in the tomato family but are green with a slightly citrus-y flavor.

3. Rosemary/cucumber/basil- Again, by mid summer the basil and cucumbers are abundant!

Raspberry Mint

4. Raspberry/mint – our garden is usually overflowing with raspberries come late May, so this is a perfect early summer sipper.

5. Raspberry/Blackberry/mint – Yum!

Homemade Grass Fed Yogurt

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I am a firm believer that almost anything can thrive with LOVE & SUNSHINE. You see, I’m having one of those days when I may as well be drowning in toddlerhood. The little one wants to potty train herself, yet wants to scream bloody murder when poop comes out.

(Is this even an appropriate convo to start a post on yogurt?). Probably not…

Oops.

Sorry friends. It’s all poop and potty talk in this house today. And I’m trying my hardest to get rolling on this blog again. We’ve been soaking in these days of summer – as much pool time as we can squeeze in, mixed with a beautiful hike in the woods yesterday and bike riding and tree climbing. I love when Pippa asks me to spend “Mommy-Pippa time” with her up high in the branches of the Magnolia tree. That is the best spot EVER to spy on neighbors as they stroll by our home! Ha!

And then those glorious weekend days fade back into the school week, and here I am with the fussy toddler trying to tread water. And potty train. And meal plan. And sort of clean up the house. And pay bills. And get back to this blog, dang it, because I enjoy writing about life.

Just as the gardens (and weeds!) are thriving with love and sunshine, so do we all. We soak it in and become happier people. On days like this I must remind myself that even my babies just need more time in the sun and grass between their toes. More eating raspberries off the bush. More hugs. More snuggles. For it’s the only way to keep from drowning sometimes.

Do you know what else thrives on love and sunshine? Food. The cows thrive on sun-fattened grasses and give luxurious milk. I make it into yogurt and nourish my family (and save money!). Win-win. Nothing but love and sunshine.

Grassfed Yogurt – How to Save Money while Making the Best

Back when I first quit my job to stay home with my then 1-year old (with #2 on the way) we were cutting corners wherever possible to save money. As we grew to a family of four and both kids and I ate yogurt every day for lunch, it was getting expensive. We would go through 2-3 quarts of yogurt a week! This equated to anywhere from $10-$15/week of our total grocery budget for yogurt (I think we were budgeting $70 at the time, yikes!) So I did some research and started making our own homemade yogurt using whole grass fed milk, and discovered that even by using the best quality dairy available we were saving money!

When we eat dairy we try to always eat it in fermented form: cheese or yogurt. This cuts down on sugar consumption from the naturally occurring Galactose in plain milk. Not only do we try to get a significant amount of calcium from yogurt, but we only eat whole milk products, and when it’s in the budget we aim to purchase grass-fed dairy such as Grass Milk for our yogurt making. Have you checked the price of grass-fed dairy lately? Around us it clocks in at around $5.99 per half gallon. Not cheap, but definitely the best choice (unless you’re in the raw milk camp, which we are not).

For that price I can make a gallon (4 quarts) of yogurt for $12. If we go with just organic whole milk, the total cost is about $7. Grass fed whole milk yogurt in the grocery store is notoriously hard to come by (unless you frequent a Whole Foods), and the typical Dannon or Chiobani whole milk yogurt with probiotics runs on average $4-$5 a quart.

Why spend $16-$20 per gallon on store bought yogurt when I can make it for half that price?

It’s surprisingly easy to make if you dedicate about 3 hours to being at home (most of that is just wait time) every two weeks. Here’s our fail-proof recipe:

Homemade Grass Fed Yogurt Recipe

*I’ve included links to ingredients I use and love. When you purchase something via one of these affiliate links, I receive a small commission but the price is the same for you*

Makes: 4 quarts of yogurt       Time required: 3 hours total (about 15 minutes hands on)

Materials Needed:

  • 4 glass Mason jars with lids and rings
  • A large stock pot that will fit all jars and is at least as tall as the jars
  • One washcloth (to set on the bottom of the pot and keep the jars from rattling as the water boils).
  • Yogurt. *If this is your first batch, purchase a small container of store bought yogurt that has the strains of probiotics you want. I use Dannon for mine, but be sure to check the label. After your first batch you can use starter cultures from your existing yogurt.
  • 1 gallon of milk. I use organic whole milk, grass fed when possible.

Instructions:

  1. Place a small washcloth on the bottom of a tall pot. I use our 10 gallon stock pot. Set 4 quart sized mason jars in the pot.
  2. Fill the mason jars to about 1 inch below the top with the milk of your choice. We use whole milk, grass fed when possible.
  3. Fill the pot to about 1.5 inches below the top of the yogurt containers with HOT water. I’ve found that if I fill it with cold and heat the pot too quickly, I’ll occasionally get a broken jar from the temperature difference.
  4. Place on the stove over medium heat with a thermometer (I use a candy thermometer so it can hook on the edge of the glass). If it begins to boil, turn down the heat so that the water doesn’t “jump” into your yogurt.
  5. Heat for about 30 minutes, or until the milk reaches 185 degrees F.
  6. CAREFULLY with an oven mitt lift the jars out of the water bath. Occasionally one will have broken during the heating, so I always do this part slowly and let it drip over the pot for a few seconds. Better to have it break over the pot than your stove (trust me!). Place jars on a heat proof surface (or stovetop) to cool. Place a lid on top to keep dust out and set a timer for roughly 2 hours. If this is your first batch, you’ll want to check the temperature sooner so that it does not cool too quickly.
  7. When the milk has cooled to between 100-110 degrees, take a spoon and skim off the layer that has formed on top of each jar.
  8. Scoop 2 Tbsp of your starter yogurt (either store bought with probiotics or from your last batch of homemade yogurt) into each jar. Stir gently, being careful not to overstep. Place the lid and ring back on each jar.
  9. Place jars into a cooler. I always heat up a rice sock in the oven (200 degrees for 10 minutes) to help the yogurt maintain a slightly above room temp for a bit during fermentation. Leave it for 20-24 hours and then refrigerate. It will be set at this point, but you will get a much nicer consistency once it has had a chance to sit in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

 

Plain yogurt is amazing with some unsweetened applesauce mixed in (I’m personally in love with Trader Joe’s version), or with Homemade Paleo Granola on top.

How about you, what are your favorite yogurt toppings?

 

Love and sunshine, my friends. Love and sunshine.

Nine things that summarize this season of life – 2018

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I came across a great idea in the blog 71 Toes. Every year the author creates a post on a summary of life for that year, what her kids are up to, etc. She’s done it for awhile, so I can imagine how cool it is to look back and see what their life was like ten years ago. Sometimes I look back on photos from one year ago and I am just amazed at how different our life looks! And how different my kids look. It is miraculous to see them grow into such amazing little humans, yet I’d be lying if I didn’t also mention how sad it makes me that those sweet days of last year will never be here again. My babies will never be that little again!

summary of life popsicles

Oh, time! The one thing that we often try to wish away when the days are tough, yet it marches on through the good as well. The only thing we cannot gain more of. I am going to try my darnedest to remember to write a similar post every spring when the world is fresh and new, so that I, too, can look back at this family of ours in ten years and reminisce on what has changed (and try not to forget the important little details along the way!)

Nine Moments that Summarize our Life in 2018

  1. Pippa is in Kindergarten and loves her teacher, Ms. LaRue. She can’t wait for first grade and is reading everything. That girl wants to start a business selling things every time I turn around. First it was painted rocks. Lemonade. Seashells. Most recently its been plants she dug up from our yard and re-potted. Anything to make money! But then she turns around and wants to buy approximately 1,000,000 stuffed animals with it, which is super frustrating for us. I created online kids savings accounts for the two big kids where half of their allowance now goes (all 25 cents a week, lol) so they can see what happens when they save it. Pippa has lost 4 bottom teeth and her top two front teeth and I finally snapped a photo of that toothless girl! She also loves soccer swimming and I think her favorite part of school recently was making the little clay bowl in art class that she talked about for a month straight!
  2. Sawyer is in preschool one day a week. He colors in the lines better than many kindergartners I’ve seen and truly loves to draw – it is beautiful to watch! He wants to play soccer with me every afternoon after the littles are down for their naps, in the cool shade of our little backyard. And darn it – he is getting really good! I can no longer beat him while holding a baby, ha! He can walk to his best friend Jay’s house by himself and is really good at crossing the road. He antagonizes Larkin constantly and also loves guns, dinosaurs, and blowing things up. He hates getting his face wet, but swim team starts next week and he promised me he would put his head in if I signed him up.

    Easter 2018

  3. Larkin is still difficult. Remember back HERE when I lamented how difficult this girl was as an infant? She’s changing… ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y. She will squawk all day long with such intensity it nearly drives me mad. I just keep telling myself she won’t be this way forever! She does love books, and would rather have Napping House and Little Nutbrown Hair in her bed than a stuffed animal. Lately she’s been “reading” Fancy Nancy, which just cracks me up. She loves to swing and out of all our kiddos is just the most obsessed with water!
  4. Bodhi is my little blessing. I was scared to death to have 4 kids, and he is the happiest little thing! Just giggles and smiles constantly. He is 7 months old, sits by himself and is getting ready to crawl. He loves bananas and carrots but won’t touch egg yolk yet (we feed our babies a whole foods diet, no cereal or rice) 
  5. The moment I’ve been dreading with four kids happened – the STOMACH  BUG. In mid-April, Pippa woke up puking and it continued for 10 hours. Three days later Larkin had diarrhea all over the floor. As soon as John got her scrubbed in the tub, she started projectile vomiting (exorcist style) and running scared all over the dining room. Did I mention we have WHITE CARPET in our dining room from the previous owners? She’s running after John, who is running away from her yelling “you’re contagious!!!”  and I am chasing her with a towel trying to contain the vomit. He of course came to his senses and grabbed her, but it was the most disgusting/comical scene looking back on it. Sawyer and John and I eventually got it, but not before our TV broke and the van battery died and upon replacing the battery, the stereo wouldn’t work because we were never given our magic anti-theft passcode. Riding in a car with kids and no music is awful. I don’t know how people used to do it. It’s been a month I tell you!
  6. I’m trying so hard to start this little art business of mine on Etsy (well, re-start but in all honesty I’m creating and selling watercolor prints and cards, which is completely different from the surfboards I used to make). I spend my evenings after 8pm painting and nap times sketching and sort of got burned out last week. I haven’t sold a thing and it’s been discouraging (but I promised myself I would stick it out. It may take awhile to get a sale, and that’s ok). Finding balance between my creative side and being a good mom is a big challenge for me.
  7. I have an ongoing mental battle with technology. On one hand, it’s integral in this time if I want to sell anything artistic. And it’s not enough just to occasionally post something to Instagram. I have to commit to several posts a week to promote myself and my art. On the other hand, I hate phones. We don’t own a tablet and out kids’ access to screens is very limited. Yet they see me on my phone posting things “for my business” and I struggle with what example I’m setting. Lots of thinking to be had on this one, and it probably deserves a post of it’s own.
  8. Vacation dreaming, folks. Right now the idea of a road trip with a baby and 2 year old sounds like a night mare. But my heart can’t wait to show these kids more of the world and I think the older two are ready. (flying is too expensive for us, so car trips it is!). Maybe next year will be the year we venture outside the NC/VA/MD area we’ve stuck to for the past 6 years? I daydream often of Texas and the northeast and even Florida.
  9. Farm days are the best! We head out to our 13.5 acres (more on our crazy farm purchase HERE) about every other weekend to plant raspberries and blackberries and hunt for tadpoles. John sprayed a ton of poison ivy. Last weekend we went, we took a push mower and tiller and dug up a tiny bit of a garden inside one of the pastures. Hoping to get some bigger vines (watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin) to grow in the abundant sunshine. Also daydreaming a lot about if and when we should build a home out there, and how that would affect our lives. Love this photo with the dark clouds over the trees – wind blowing their hair!

    Windy Farm Day in March

That’s it, my friends! Can’t wait to see what’s changed when I revisit this post in 2019!

That time I was Seven Months Pregnant and We Bought a Farm

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I think we might look back on 2017 as “the crazy year in my mid-30s that we said to hell with doing it by the book.”

Go big or go home, right? Sure we had a FOURTH baby on the way (umm… still not entirely used to that one!) but last summer we took the plunge for something we’ve been saving towards for years. Years my friends!  WE BOUGHT A FARM. And we didn’t buy just a little bit of countryside (although it is undoubtedly small compared to a true farm!), but 13.5 ACRES.

At the moment I can’t manage my .5 acres of suburbia. The weeds overtake the veggies every summer in the only garden that gets full sun. It’s about 7×17 feet. How on earth do I plan to take care of 4 kids and farm/homestead/manage 13.5 acres? I haven’t the slightest idea. My mom once bought me a drink coaster that said “jump and the net will appear” and told me that was me in a nutshell. Funny, right? Because it’s true. And here I am waiting for my net … the one that can save my sanity from four kids age six and under … the one that can magically reveal a method for managing this dream farm.

When we bought the land last summer it was unimproved. It has a 1.5 acre pond and .5 acres of woods down by the road, but the rest is pasture. And I mean ZERO trees or big shrubs except for the big Cedar tree that marks the corner of the property, and that Cedar tree is pretty stoic out there between our fields and our neighbor’s tobacco. In November we planted three Maple trees on top of the hill, and last weekend we loaded up the kids and planted about 20 raspberry canes and the six blackberries that made it through winter. We’ve been out to the farm several times since Bodhi arrived for picnics and camping and because running through an open field is so amazing! Someday we will probably build a home there, but for now we are going to try and plan the property’s future and tend it when we can. That said…

I have big dreams!

We’ve tossed so many ideas around for years and years, based on “what if” we ever buy some land. There’s wine grapes and a small winery since we’ve been making wine here at home for about six years. I’ve always wanted some farm animals, but then again I love to travel and want my kids to see the world and don’t want to be tied down to the demands of livestock. We do eat 5 dozen eggs a week, so chickens are probably a definite. Maybe some sheep? Because hot dang, that is a large amount of pasture to keep mowed without large livestock. Lately I’ve been falling for the idea of pick your own berries. There are two PYO blueberry farms a mile up the road. Blackberries? Raspberries? A permaculture orchard? Or maybe lavender. For cutting/selling and for photography, because who can resist taking photos of their kids in a field of lavender.

Do you want to take a tour? Of course you do! Here are some photos from right here in the beginning. Follow along as we decide what on earth to do next!

PS: Below is a Mimosa tree in one of two fenced pastures. We were SO excited they had something to climb on!

A two month old Bodhi. The only thing between us and the distant road.