invitation to be beautiful

my little moonpie is sick. she has been running a really high fever since last night. poor thing. in the midst of her falling in and out of sleep today, she rolled over and announced "i'm gonna look really good in my costume tomorrow" and then off to sleep. i love this about her. she unashamedly finds herself to be beautiful and will agree with anyone who thinks the same.

this idea of beauty got me thinking of a song by my favorite, sara groves. it is called 'add to the beauty' and speaks of adding to the beauty of what god is doing in the world. i recently attended a concert put on by sara and my other favorite sandra mccracken. they played along with derek webb, charlie peacock and brandon...i can't remember. the point is they were going on a tour to raise awareness of different social justice causes in the world, like slavery and the sexual exploitation of children. this night was heart wrenching and empowering. i left feeling like there was something i could do, i HAD to do. but by the next day i was disheartened and confused. there is so much hurt, so much injustice, what can i do? being a mom to small children is not something i take lightly, and not something that i can sacrifice. but there has to be something that can be done while i am in this season of my life. i have one very tangible idea that i am cooking up. i've sent off the idea to some who are wiser than i, and i'm waiting to hear back. but in the mean time, this is what i'm doing. i'm talking to my children, a lot, about our world. and we have decided, as a family, to make homemade christmas gifts this year, and then use the money we would have spent to buy a goat for a family or put towards digging a well. (john is actually planning a trip to honduras in the spring to dig a well for a village- i'm so proud of him!) and little moonpie, who knows a thing or two about beauty, has accepted the invitation to get her preschool friends at church involved. she wants them to raise money to buy 2 chickens for a family through world vision! man- my heart is full!

the thing about hurt is that it is every where. i think it feels more noble to go to africa to help, but honestly what we ALL can do is attend to the hurt around us. i am a firm believer in living locally. and part of living locally is to care locally. i know that it is ok for me to want to go to far off places and share the love of god, but i'm really missing it when my eyes are set on such far away places that i can't see what is all around me.

"I want to add to the beauty

To tell a better story

I want to shine with the light

that's burning up inside

This is grace

An invitation to be beautiful"

-sara groves

one crunchy mama

alright- it's official. amy and i have launched our granola business. or, we at least have sent some very professional sounding emails back and forth in which i have limited myself to only 1 smiley face/email. that's how you know it's professional. we are very much in the beginning stages here, but i'm so excited! i love to bake and granola proves to be less labor intensive than other endeavors i've attempted (ie bread baking for the farmer's market- that idea lasted all of one day). we have perfected 3 recipes thus far. right now we are working out the financial end. and can i just say, that is where things turn less fun. nevertheless, we are happy about offering a product that is loaded with nutritious ingredients. we even soak the grains- holla! so if you're in the area, give us a try we are:

Crunchy Mamas Soaked Granola

a day with buddy

"hey buddy, put your shorts on"

"otay momma"

"momma, da moon is in my mouf"

"where? show me"


"right dere...aah"






precious dirty feet

incredible, edible bird feeders

last weekend moonpie wanted fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast. after we had squeezed all the juice we could manage out of 7 small oranges, we had 14 lovely inverted orange halves left.

we set them aside to compost, but i kept thinking that there must be something better to do with them. then it hit me- bird feeders. we headed outside to create completely edible bird feeders and gained a few more crafters!

we had so much fun building these feeders. they also gave us a great opportunity to continue to build friendships with our neighbors. over the summer i knew that god wanted me to be a better a neighbor. to reach out to our community and be a friend to all the mamas around me. i, of course, thought this meant that i needed to do a week long kid's club for a few hours a day. and it never happened. i was too tired and too overwhelmed by the hectic schedule john had (making my load heavier). but it dawned on me mid-bird feeder. this is all it means to be a neighbor. nothing fancy about it- just having friends over to do a craft or jump on the trampoline. what a relief! i felt myself thinking 'this is what you meant? oh, i can do THIS!' why do i always make it harder than it really has to be?

after we finished, we went out back to hang them up.


this gave moonpie the chance to introduce our chickens to our neighbors and to show them freshly laid eggs still in the nest. they were terrified of the chickens (see, i'm not the only one!). i'm talking tears, screams, all of it. i'm hoping we can continue to give them, and other kids from around the neighborhood, the chance to feel comfortable around animals. when we got the chickens i had hoped that we would be able to show others 'see, if WE can do this then you can too!'. that it would empower people to make proactive choices about their own nutrition and living sustainably. every time i get starry eyed, dreaming about acreage i think, not now. now is our chance to teach- in this way- that you start where you are.

Red Riding Hood Jacket GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Red Riding Hood Jacket GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

If you have not been over to Grosgrain yet and seen her amazing giveaways- you must! She is so talented! Check out this adorable red riding hood jacket. Kathleen sews all of these beautiful fashions and then gives them away weekly! I've never entered to win one before, but I know that Moonpie would love this! I'm torn, I want you to see it, but I also really want to win it. Ah shucks, go ahead, enter yourself. I'll be a big girl about this.

Speaking of craftiness, I have made an autumn resolution- to learn how to knit. And this time I really mean it...

moonpie, chicken midwife

This morning Moonpie ran into the kitchen holding a beautifully tinted green egg.

Moonpie: "Look Momma!"

Me: "Oh, good job babe, you found another egg" (her 3rd of the day)

MP: "Yeah, Goldie was just sitting in my lap and then she started laying this egg"

M: "She laid an egg, IN YOUR LAP?"

MP: "Yeah, and when I saw it coming out I just went ahead and pulled it a little- like this" (demonstration ensues)

M: "Wait, the chicken was in your lap laying an egg and then you pulled it out?"

MP: "Yep!!!"

There was more, but you get the gist. That crazy girl, delivering chicken eggs. She has a future as a midwife- a chicken midwife.

This incident solved a mystery for us. We thought we had one serious producing Arecauna, but it turns out our Wyandottes lay tinted eggs as well. Good to know, I was feeling a little sorry for ol' Lucy, thinking she was turning out 3 a day!

Upcoming post: our trip to SanFran. Oh the anticipation!