Our farm

Pete and Leeann come for a visit

 

Where do I store the memory?

My girls are very nostalgic. Hannah especially. About a year ago, we decided we needed to throw away this garbage can from their room. They didn’t want to let it go. So we decided to take pictures. But then where do I store these? I’ve decided to store them on my Blog. 

Time, slow down. 

Release please

Tuesday Truth

Oh so our Hannah

So can relate

Advice from a Bat

What I want

First day of fall

Getting ready to say good bye to another fantastic summer here on the farm. Dropped under 50 overnight. It was over 90 degrees just a few days ago!

What we want for our children

 

This is what I want for my children. John and I have discussed this. We must allow our kids, especially our Sidge who has a great propensity for nature, to dilly-dally. Sometimes, we get outside, and we are on a mission to get this farm chore done. Or that farm chore done. But Sidge never is. He's enjoying being outside. He's looking around. It's about the journey. Not the destination.

This story reminds me of a trip I took with three friends. Angelica (from Spain), Rana (from Turkey), and my friends Sarah and I (Americans.) We were in DC. Sarah and I wanted to get to our destination. We could stop and talk once we got there. But for Rana and Angelica it was about taking the trip, making the walk, enjoying the time together. When Sarah and I (sort of) said: "Let's keep walking!" they were like, "Why? We can stop and talk! It's about enjoying the journey to the spot."

Such a different perspective that I think parallels how Americans just ARE about things sometimes.

God Truth

This is what I feel right now ...

 ... I feel God needed to wake me up. The anxiety/panic attacks I dealt with for only a few days really hit me HARD, and I realized I was coasting and on a path I couldn't keep up with. Thank you Lord for giving me the opportunity to regroup and RELEASE.

Friday Funnies

While showing Sidge to load the dishwasher, he was on the verge of complaining about how hard it was. I told him that I load the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. He said “I’ve done it a few times.” 

I laughed about this. “You’ve done it a few times, and I do it a few times? I think we definitely need you to be practicing more.”

He paused and said: “I’d like to strike that comment from the record.” 

When I started laughing, he said: “Was that funny? You can put it on your ‘Friday Funnies’ if you want.”

I laughed again. 

RELEASE

RELEASE

That is my current word. I suppose I should have a "word of the year." It's already nearly October. But either way, this is what I am working on doing from this month onward.

BEING.

ENJOYING.

LIVING.

BEARING FRUIT.

RELEASING ... the things that I don't NEED to be worried about. The things that do not truly, matter in the temporal world we live in now.

Only God, our Creator, can truly give our life purpose.

What do people do who do not have JESUS?

I am working on SELF-CARE. I am taking the time to: 

• Do a 10 minute app each morning and evening reminding me to benevolently detach  from things outside my control and give them to Jesus.
• Be outside in the morning and evening as often as I can and just BE. Sing a song. Sit on the swing. Lay in the grass. Swing in my hammock. Enjoy this beautiful world God gave me. 
• Do a BSF Bible Study. I've never done BSF. I purposefully chose a group of 20 women who are not the same color or age as me. They are so diverse and from all over the USA. I hope to learn and grow with them via zoom every Thursday.
• Rest. 
• Eat well. (Trying!)
• Skip things so that I can REST.

I am feeling SO much better than I had in the previous few weeks. I am working to grow in Christ and in my life and to be the woman JESUS wants me to be.

Wee-wind Wednesday

Wee-wind Wednesday

By herself

All of a sudden, Abigail is doing her own hair. She’s doing her own ballet buns too! She still asks me to do them for “big dances” like a tryout. But otherwise, she’s doing it herself. I find tons of pictures on my phone of her checking out her hair looks from the side she can’t see. Another thing we old folks couldn’t do easily when we were kids. 

Sewing sister

This is Hannah trying to fix a hole in her brother’s shirt before co-op Monday morning. She ended up not liking the result, but she tried. It was so sweet to see her trying to sew her brother’s shirt while he sat there without a shirt on, waiting for her to give it a try. 

Dog sitting (briefly)

Today was a busy day. But it was a good day. I have been feeling so much better emotionally, am really focusing on my relationship with Christ and the beauty of the world, and remembering that life is messy. 

Today, the kids had ballet for most of the day. I took the eight kids (my four and their middle four) in the Kotynski’s big red van. The boys were meeting Walker’s family at ballet to go to his house to play Air Soft. I was doing the first 2/3 of the ballet day. The girls (and Isaac) are in Genesis in January and the Nutcracker in December so there were two different rehearsals. 

During a lull in the action, I ran down the road to meet an old high school classmate: Chris Cusmton who now lives a few hours away and wanted to get two of our turkeys. I have not seen Chris since the day we graduated high school. Chris is in love with the Lord, and he and his wife are raising their two adopted children and homeschooling them! In the midst of this conversation, Chris said to me: “What is normal in life?” 

This really resonated with me. Life is crazy. Period. Everyone has their own crazy. I have my own crazy. 

Today’s crazy included a run to Hobby Lobby with Gen and The Pomegranate for knitting needles and yarn. (They are taking a knitting club at co-op which Starts Monday.) We were also able to help my friend Kelley by letting her sweet Finley out for a walk!

Children

Lately, the amount of things I have to do with my kids feels SO big. We have tried to create a slow and simple life. But children, by nature, are not simple. And they are definitely not slow. I'm trying to remember this. Constantly. Life has been tough for me lately. I'm doing really well, but definitely not completely myself depression/anxiety-wise. And every little thing my kids do and need to do feels like a TON of stuff. 

John keeps telling me: one day at a time.

My reader

Baptism (and 9th birthday)

 

Our Hannah Joy Pomegranate turned 9 years old on September 4, 2022. On her birthday, John baptized her in Seymour Lake in Vermont. We thought this was just a perfect "thing." Lake Seymour is so special to us, and we really thought being there on Hannah's birthday was just perfect. 

Hannah continues to THRIVE in life. She is the best team player. She gets excited about nearly anything you can come up with. However, John did tease her when they were going out to Colorado together. He told her he had some "fun" activities for them to do in Colorado. What he really had was White Water Rafting and Horse Back Riding. What he told Hannah he had was a "Rock-Counting-Contest" and an opportunity to watch a Chess Tournament (where they couldn't really see what was happening, but it would be fun to be there nonetheless.) Hannah really tried to be a good sport about these things, but John said it was quite obvious, we had pushed her a bit past a reasonable "Team Player" allowance.

She is wicked smart. She is a good writer. She's creative. She likes sewing, and really enjoys cooking with JB and baking on her own. In fact, some days, at the house, she will simply say: "I really need to bake something." Genevieve is her best friend (although she gets along great with Eoin too.) She is a little bit messy, likes ballet, and is enjoying her co-op classes this year (Botany, Theater, STEAM, and Knitting Club.)

I adore this child. I am so glad God gave her to us. She is silly, spunky, spirited, sweet, independent, and not afraid of most things. 

Wanting peace

I hate mental health. I hate dealing with adrenaline and anxiety and depression. I want to feel completely like myself. I feel like I’m 45 years old and still can’t get my act together sometimes. I have learned SO much about anxiety over the years. To be honest, John is thinking about writing a book about how this manifests in people. He likes to use the word "adrenaline" instead of anxiety. The adrenaline fires, your mind searches for a causes, and wha-la ... you have mental health issues. 

But there are so many happy moments … like this one.  Little Theo during homeschool day yesterday.

There is so much going on in our lives right now. Life is busy. Here's a typical week for us:

Mondays:

Co-op (8am-2pm)

Isaac Voice lesson (during co-op)

Ballet for the Abigail (evening)

Tuesdays:

Piano and karate for all four kids 

School work at home on their own 

Wednesdays:

Big school work day at home with Kotynskis

Youth in the evening (4:45-8:30)

Isaac on worship team for youth (keyboard)

Life group (2 Wednesdays a month) 

Thursdays:

Piano at our house 

School on own at home 

Isaac guitar in Johnson City (2x a month) 

Girls ballet in evening 

Fridays:

Big school work day at home with Kotynskis

Ballet for Abigail in evening 

Karate for boys in evening

Saturdays:

Ballet rehearsals 

He’s becoming Elijah

Sidge is asking us to introduce him as Elijah mine. He said it’s okay if we still call him Sidge, but he thinks he’ll need to be Elijah in a lot of places. It’s emotional to watch your kids grow up :(

The boys have been giving away their stuffed animals to their sisters. They are teenagers and becoming men. Hard to imagine …

Laughter from the Pomegranate

Man, I cannot BELIEVE how many days go by between Blog posts for me. I truly feel I was better at it when the kids were little. I think a lot of that is due to the fact that when kids are older, issues are BIGGER. However, there are still some funny things I think I can share. 

Like last night. Hannah (age 9) decided to drink water non-stop while using the bathroom to see if she would pee non-stop. She is completely full of herself and SO much fun. 

I often wish I could capture her personality in words. It's hard to do. She is so full of life. So fun. So BIG. Such a spit-fire. Starting to really pop back with the talking back lately too. But this picture captures why she just makes us LAUGH!

Vermont take 10!

There are always so many pictures from our vacation time in Vermont. It’s impossible to just post a few. We are having a wonderful time relaxing and unwinding. This is the 10th straight summer we’ve (or someone in our family) has spent time here during the summer. 

Kelsey has joined us for the second year in a row which is a fantastic gift for us and her. 

Kelsey leaves tomorrow, and we will have a few more days together as a family. Our little Hannah turns nine tomorrow. The years of parenthood are just flying by …