Food Not Lawn

When we bought this house we went from a tiny brick ranch with an acre and a half of lawn, to a large bungalow and .3 acre of lawn. I love my house but my heart has yearned for years for five to ten acres somewhere, so that I could grow our food. I've been learning a lot about contentment and for the first time in about 7 years I can honestly say, I am content and it is well with my soul. 

My biggest step in that journey was deciding I would just be faithful in this little bit of earth that I have. I got very interested in the notion that you can grow a lot in a small area and that I could do this instead of mow grass. 

A few years ago we lost several big trees in a bad storm so that really opened up our yard to more sunlight. I went with the maxim, if you're eating the leaves or stems it can be partly shady, fruit or roots grow in full sun.

This is the front yard. It is a mass of acorn and butternut squash, watermelon, cucumber, cantaloupe, tomato, cayenne and bell peppers, pepperancini and cabbage. It's also full of sunflowers and black eyed Susan's as well as lemon balm and peppermint that is plainly Out. Of. Control.  I have an herb bed somewhere on there as well. 

So in this garden I would say the most successful crops have been the cukes, tomatoes, peppers and acorn squash. We've been mulching with old straw but we didn't keep on top of this area so now we have to really search weeds for squash :/. I have a gallon jar in the fridge and we just drop cukes into brine and eat pickles every day. 

So the side yard became the new big garden this year. It has a row each of: kale, cabbage,  sweet onions, red onions, Swiss chard, broccoli, Italian beans, green beans, zucchini, red okra and green okra. The 4 raised beds have asparagus, carrots, lettuce, peas and now cantaloupe. The flower garden along the fence has, basil, cilantro, blueberries, raspberries, parsley, sage, dill and a fig tree. The cilantro and dill have died along with my second attempt at rhubarb. 

I've had a terrible time with worms on the cabbage, broccoli, beans and zuchini. I'm not doing broccoli again. I've just served broccoli with unknowing worms too many times. My family won't eat broccoli now!

The onions were a great success! This is the first year I've grown them and we harvested a huge basket full. The okra is really starting to produce and we ate our first cabbage. 

I've really been amazed at how much food this small yard has given us! 

On My Heart

OThe last day of the Charlotte Mason Institutes annual conference, Dr. Smith spoke about the importance of story. We organically are made to learn through hearing and telling stories. 

Christ taught the disciples with stories. The bible is full of stories that pierce our hearts and change our lives. That's what makes the methods of education that Charlotte Mason proposed work. They aren't necessarily her invention. She was just pointing to our design. Reading and narrating are at the heart of her educational method. That and our personhood. 

He also spoke of abstract time and narrative time. Merrium Webster defines abstract as:  having only form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content. For example; life being measured by clock or calendar. It defines narrative as thus: : to tell (as a story) in detail ; also :to provide spoken commentary for. So, for example; Grandmother comes when the crepe myrtle blooms. 

I really pondered where I want my children to grow up. Haunted and driven by the clock, or slow and intentional measuring life's great events by seasons and blooms. You can guess I'm sure. 

Charlotte Mason Conference

I spent most of the days last week at conference. Listening, nature walking, speaking, catching up with kindred spirits. It was exhausting! Grace and Silas came with me. They were precious. Grace was a huge help with him and I compensated her with books!

Someone gave away craft supplies so Grace began a scarf.

Her nature collection. 

The Moms :) This is Kaley's lovely m-i-l, Nancy.  I am really looking forward to attending her Living Education Retreat at the end of July. 

I'm starting to feel a little excited about planning next years school. But for this next week, my plans include sun, garden and reading. 

Silas discovers cookies

Boys

Boys are so different than girls. I spied Max sweetly playing with a little baby doll. I looked closer and realized there was a rope around the dolls neck! I was a little disturbed!

Me, "Max, what's your baby's name?"

Max, "Prince Caspian!"

Me, "Ooohh. Who are you?"

Max, "I'm his horse. "

Now it all makes sense!

End of school

This week marks the end of our third term, the end of our school year. The end of my 16th year of teaching my children.  Wow. And I'm looking at the future, and seeing 17 more. Could it be I'm half way done with educating my children? My thoughts on that feel like, but wait! Every year I'm getting better, I can't be half done. I'm finally "getting" it. I love this lifestyle! 

Last week we had a week of vacation with daddy, this week we are tying up loose ends and going to doctor appointments. The younger kids and I are finishing An Island Story, Curtiss finished The Birth of Britain today. Our chapters corresponded so we had a great discussion about Richard the Third.   

In the late afternoon I worked in the garden and picked kale for dinner. It's so tender and yummy!

While I was killing squash bugs, blasted cussed things, I found baby broccoli! In this season of having a very high need baby, sometimes weeding or harvesting in the garden is the only few moments I have in the day to find....I don't even know. Just peace or a moment to focus in a singular thing that is productive. So much as what we do as mothers is incessant and gives nothing show for what was done. That's really hard some days. To remember that loving and nurturing people is a life's work worthy of doing without day to day returns. 

Here are a few pictures of Shakespeare On The Green. Taming of the Shrew. It was very funny and we all enjoyed. 

Day Trip

With Daddy working a summer job while school is out, we are having a different kind of summer than we are used to. He has this one week at home so we planned some fun things to do. 

Today was a day trip to Stone Mountain State Park. We wanted to go somewhere within a couple hours of home and somewhere we'd never been. Perfect!

          Lovely cumulus mediocris

Stone Mountain was originally part of the Hutchinson homestead, made into a state park in 1969. We began our visit with a picnic and then moved on to hike to the falls. 

You actually start at the top and work your way down, quite opposite than usual. 

From here we walked down a million steps. 512 to be exact. 

And ended here:

How cool is that?! It was amazing and beautiful. We loved playing at the base of the falls. The water was still cold! Grace held a salamander and Curtiss saw 3 water snakes. 

We then began the exhausting hike back UP all. those. stairs. But we made it back to the van and drove to the homestead. Where I had my husband drive to the handicap parking lot. Cause we were all not up to another 2 mile hike. 

Three generations lived in this cabin, built in 1855. The first generation raised 8 children in the original section, in just three rooms. One of their sons added on a bit and he also raised 8 children here. As we walked through the farm we realized what was in their backyard. 

I thought of my son-in-law, who likes to rock climb, because they allow that here. I can't imagine! We did a very scaled down version of that at the base. 

That blurred image is my son and all the rock climbing I want to witness! We headed back to the cabin for a last look. 

As I took this picture I thought of all the children this porch has seen. I wondered about all the memories made on this homestead. Did someone write them down? Or are they gone from this earth, like their creators?

 

It was a lovely day. 

Around the house

We are currently turning our lawn into food!

Our first tomato...

Zucchini 

Swiss Chard is yummy, we are eating it almost every day. 

And the first echinacea. 

Someone else is growing, too.