Mid-Week Links

I was cleaning up some old posts and checking the drafts folder and have no idea why I never published this one, but wanted to share now. Because jars in a row and bees and hapiness with what we have right now make me happy:)

From mid-April:

Strep is kicking our rears. We thought we were finally good and responsibly made it through 10 days of twice-a-day meds, only to have Mia wake up with a fever and sore throat on Thursday and me with one by Thursday afternoon. But we at least have a long weekend to kick the germs to the curb and not spread them to anyone, so hopefully they'll be gone for good.

Why Are We Soothed By Jars All in a Row? at The Kitchn - I don't know, but it definitely motivated me to get mine in order this week!

The Other Bees at Modern Farmer

"But Maden says that this is one threatened species story that can easily have a happy ending: Just plant wildflowers."

Why I'm Not a Full-Time Blogger at An Inviting Home - Yes, yes, a million times yes to almost everything she says!

"Why can't they just stay away from these doors I'm painting like I told them to?" You know, those MAIN doors in the CENTER of our house that lead to EVERYTHING." I just don't understand why they can't just leave them alone?!? I have a deadline and I need to get this project done ..."

Stop Waiting for the Next House at The Nesting Place

"I wasted too many years waiting for the next house. The next house held all of the possibility. The current house was just temporary. I felt like I could never truly settle whether it was a house we owned that was far from perfect or a rental that felt too temporary. It took 13 different houses to teach me what home really was."

Top 25 Read Alouds(Ages 5-12) at Simple Homeschool- I'm such a sucker for lists of books and this is a great one!

"Why did these books make the list when dozens of others didn’t quite qualify? These are the books the kids remember with almost a tender fondness and sometimes almost awe. These were books we lived in, the ones that do, indeed, seem like part of our family."

Simple Ways to Garden Without Spending Money at Old World Garden Farms

"Whether it is buying or renting a rototiller to prepare the soil, or purchasing expensive wood or stone to build raised growing beds – if you let it – setting up your garden can be expensive and time-consuming. The good news – you don’t have to do any of that to have a great looking and producing garden."

Happy Kids Are Overrated:

"But teaching gratitude is a complicated, slow and repetitive process that often involves not giving your kids what they want and sometimes involves allowing them to be unhappy (ironic, right?). My generation of parents isn't known for tolerating anything slow, complicated and repetitive. "

Weekend Links

What I Do Have at Assortment:

"Not creating wasn’t an option; finding a way to create was, even if that meant becoming outside-the-box thinkers, and looking at everything that we did have with possibility."

Because Sharing the Imperfect is Worth the Risk at The Nesting Place:

"You are the ones saying YES, let’s stop pretending that we need to impress each other. None of us is perfect and I’ll take that risk and be the first to admit it. And it can start with a pair of mistreated, hot glued drapes. That actually look pretty good."

What Would Happen if You Just Let Go? at The Minimalists

"Look around your home, your car, your office. Why are you holding on to so much stuff that doesn’t add value to your life? Now, what would happen if you just let go of the excess? What benefits would you experience? How would it feel to have more time, more money, more contentment? How would it feel to have a cleaner home, a clearer mind, a less stressful life?"

Simple Ways to Garden Without Spending Money at Old World Garden Farms

"When it comes to gardening, the simple fact is that it’s only expensive if you choose to make it that way. There are many ways to create, grow and harvest your own food without spending a bushel-full of cash." 

Weekend Links

Violet's Words at Rare and Beautiful Treasures

"Well I had a washing machine in the basement. I didn’t have a dryer. We had a clothes line in the basement to use during inclement weather. Sometimes I would hang the babies’ diapers on the line outside and they would freeze before I could get them down! It was a lot of work, yes, I don’t know, we just did it."

Yeah, I Was You, and Now I'm Her...While Working on Me at Tales from the Motherland

"I've said it before: it’s so easy to notice the years rushing by on the faces and in the movement of our children, in the lives of my friend’s children, in the aging and loss of our parents. But somehow the years sneak up on our adult brains. It’s as if everyone else is getting older, and we’re not. Until one day, you throw on a cardigan, glance in the mirror and you've gone from there to here– poof!"

DIY Concrete Plants at Little Green Notebook:

"If you're lucky enough to live in a place that actually gets moisture (slow single tear for myself), you can grow moss on your concrete planters with a little bit of moss from your yard thrown in a blender with buttermilk for a sec. You paint the mixture on the planters and the moss should grow pretty fast. "

Little Girls, Get Up! Get Up and Eat. at Momastery

"Then she added: “Everyone at my table wrote ‘I want my mommy to be happy!’”Oh, I said again.You guys. They want us to be happy.They’re not saying:My dream is for my mom to be perfect.Or my dream is for my mom to be thinner or better looking."

Heirloom Kitchen 01 > Make Soup at dig this chick

"This is how intuition is developed. It is not biological; it is inherited. Cooking confidence is gently handed from one person to another, a kitchen heirloom."

Weekend Links

I've been waffling on when I want to post links, but I always have so many that I NEED to share them at some point! This week it's some Saturday morning ready for you:)

Pro Organizer Tips: What Not to Do When De-Cluttering Your Home at Apartment Therapy:

"But here's the crucial part: Once you have decided where something is going to go -- take it there. Never keep bags for charity or boxes for friends in your home to deliver later. Do it now. Finish the process."

The Solution to American Poverty at Flower Patch Farmgirl:

"The problem is, I know names now. The whole (airquotes) poverty issue isn't hypothetical or theoretical anymore, and it can't be squashed with a mouthful of social science jargon."

I Choose Slow at The Nesting Place:

"Slow is a choice. You choose to be okay with the imperfection now because you trust things will change in the future. Choosing slow isn’t giving up or backing down, it’s usually not being lazy, maybe intentionally slowing down is an act of hope, rest and trust."

In Which I Don't Mind if My Tinies See Me On the Computer from Sarah Bessey via The Art of Simple

"Early into our family arrangement, I had to take a long hard look at the narrative that it was a shameful thing for my tinies to see me on the computer.And then, thoughtfully, prayerfully, we decided to call complete and utter crap on any more needless mum-guilt."

Let the Camera Testify: Roger May’s Photographic Hymn to His Mountain Home at Bitter Southerner via life {in} grace:

"Both outsiders and native artists continue to perpetuate those notions of depravity today. Others insist on only recording the amazing physical beauty of the region, even if that topography is disappearing more and more each day. But romanticizing a place is just as bad as vilifying it.Roger May insists on doing neither."

Happy Weekend, hope you have lots of sunshine and springtime wherever you are!

A Few Favorites For Saturday Morning

A few quick favorites/links/recent phone photos.  Because it's Saturday morning and my kids are with the in-laws for the weekend for a Grandparent Christmas Extravaganza and John went to a concert last night, so I didn't think he'd be up early.  We were supposed to go here on a date today and I was so so so excited to finally check it out, but it's supposed to snow again, so we don't want to make the drive and get stuck in snow.  So instead our date will be cleaning bedrooms and the bathroom (and it'll feel like a luxury to do it without stopping 50 times for snacks and questions and games!) and going out to lunch and I rented 4 movies at the Redbox and got steaks out for dinner and I plan to do nothing which makes me all sorts of happy. 

Hope you're all having a fun weekend and doing cozy, holiday things! 

This pretty post led me to this one and I've been finger-knitting like a crazy woman to make garland for our tree and love it so much!  We're still slim on ornaments because we put all of the kid/unbreakable/school-made ornaments on the little tree in Mia and Nick's room, so our few breakables are at the top of this one and we may or may not make some of those cornstarch clay ornaments and/or some cinnamon and applesauce ornaments and hang some pine cones and call it a day for this year.  I'm not the kind of person who will go out and just buy ornaments willy-nilly, especially knowing that they'll cost a fraction of the price in two weeks and we can have some good stuff for next year.  

These are on my list of things to be made a.s.a.p. This, too. 

12 Things You Should Tell Your Daughter Today

What to Get For the Person Who Has Everything

I don't usually do things like these, but Heather at To London With Love was so nice to add me to her list of blogs she enjoys and it was so fun to look through hers and find some new, fun blogs that I wanted to share some favorites, too.  I always feel so self-conscious answering questions about myself, so I'm cheating and skipping that part, but I wanted to be sure to share some blogs I've been enjoying lately.  I also shared some here during my 31 Days of Documenting the Everyday,  so check those out, too! If you're on the list, feel free to participate, too, if you feel up for it and share some of your own favorites and go visit some others! If it's not your things, no worries:) 

6512 and Growing

Assortment

Following the Way Home

Jessica

Moments & Impressions

New Momma Notes

Pigtail Pals and Ballcap Buddies

Seed and Feather

The Storywood

Tales From the Motherland

Toward the Stars

Day 12: Weekend Links

"And I don’t want to be scared to tell you how motherhood looks for me because I never want you to be scared of being able to share how it looks for you." -When a Blogger Gets Stage Fright

"I guess this means we should cancel trick-or-treating and eat organic apples while watching depressing documentaries, eh?...I’m a realist, and I get that many of you still want to take your kids trick-or-treating (or rather, your kids would be heartbroken to ban the holiday). Here’s what we can do." -Chocolate: the industry’s hidden truth (and the easy stuff we can do to still enjoy it)

I need to make these a.s.a.p. 

Finally! A "kid" setting for your iphone/ipad! 

Looking for a photo challenge to inspire you to take more pictures? Get yourself in front of the camera!   I know, easier said than done.  But it still inspired me to get at least one photo on my phone this week with my actual face in it with my kids. 

Just because it made me smile: 27 Hours to a Hat

Happy weekend! 

I'm spending 31 days writing and sharing a series about Documenting Your Everyday this month.

 Click here to see all of the posts as they're added and follow along.  

Day 5: Weekend Links

"Women – mothers – increasingly seem to feel like it is our fault if anything goes wrong with a pregnancy, or with our children.  Forget about going wrong, we blame ourselves if our kid isn’t perfect in every way." On Trying to Be Perfect While Pregnant

If you still have the sweetness of Grandparents in your life, PLEASE go and take lovey photos like these as soon as you possibly can. I got a bit teary reading that post. 

How Are You Currently Simplifiying? Reading all of these comments makes me want to be friends with everyone who replied! 

The Almost Extinction of the Drop-In - I'm so bad about this and I think one of the first commenters summed it up perfectly, "It seems people are hesitant to even come through the front door when picking up their kids because we are always rushing to the next. Or in a world of perfect images online, the palpable wall of people’s self-consciousness at their own imperfectly kept homes often stops me from even trying." 

"You will never see a post that reads, “I yelled at my kids today for no reason. I am worried about finances, my husband and I are not on the same page, and quite frankly sometimes I don’t enjoy the duties of being a mom.” I feel pretty sure that has never been on a Facebook page."   What I want you to know: All moms struggle with parenting 

I'm spending 31 days writing and sharing a series about Documenting Your Everyday this month. Click here to see all of the posts as they're added and follow along.  

Gratitude and Weekend Links

(Instagram from the week) 

I should probably not have flip flops on today, the weather is chilly and calls for a cup of tea snuggled on the couch while watching a movie this afternoon.  Just my kind of day and weather! 

Gratitude this week:  Time spent meal planning that saved me so much time and energy and 4pm panic, the first full week or preschool that meant 7.5 whole hours without kids this week, everyone beginning to finally adjust to our new schedule, chilly weather, time to blog, time to take more photos, chicken snuggles, $1 and $2 frame sales at AC Moore that means I finally got some photos up on our photo shelves that have been waiting for months, those silly rainbow bands that are entertaining us (me included as I search for designs on yourtube!) more than I'd like to admit. 


:::I'm reading Tamar Adler's book, An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.  It's one of those books I've owned and not read for way too long and, even more, one of those books I'm kicking myself for not reading sooner! This interview with her is a breath of fresh air.  "In order for that to be true, we need to know how to cook, and the kinds of cooking that are not time-intensive and denatured — like the stuff on Top Chef or Iron Chef — but the quiche which uses leftovers. "

:::Do you like to get an early holiday start, too?  It made me happy to read this and know I'm not the only one trying to plan a bit now to save some room for more family time in December! If you want to plan but don't even know where to start, it's a great resource! 

:::I've been following John Krakauer and his writing for as long as I can remember, or at least since high school when I first read Into the Wild, and this new information about how Chris McCandless died is fascinating to me and makes me glad to know that there's something a bit more conclusive. 

:::How would you do if a health inspector visited your kitchen? Here's a hint: they wouldn't care nearly as much about your counters and floors as you might think! 

:::"Adults sag. It doesn’t matter how fit they are. Every decade, an adult sags a little more. All of the tissue hangs a little looser. They wrinkle, too. I don’t know who put about the rumor that just old people wrinkle. You start wrinkling when you start sagging, as soon as you’re all grown up, and the process goes its merry way as long as you live. Which is hopefully a long, long time, right?"  This post made me smile:) 

:::"Keep the car keys under the front seat so they don’t get lost." This obituary also made me smile, a lot:)