hi! the weekend was full of absolute love. we spent our days close to family & dearly missed friends. we savored local bakery treats & talked among the many booths of arts & crafts at the fair. there was even a bit of karaoke late in the night- “this land is your land” sang by yours truly!

we managed to get in a bit of relaxing during the long weekend, too. reading the help (love!) & watching little basil in the garden were among two of my favorite parts of the day. enjoy your week. i’m sure i’ll be back soon.

your thoughts on my recent post were such an encouragement. thank you! i have been busying myself with work around the home & finding absolute peace in it all. this week i froze cherries, red bell peppers & tomato soup for the upcoming seasons. i dried some herbs & re-organized the pantry. the flowers are blooming & the light in the morning reminds me that fall is near. luke brought home a basket of pears & my mind is dreaming up what delicious syrups & jams could be made with such delicious local treats.

this weekend we are looking forward to a quiet friday evening, a bluegrass & crafts fair with sweet friends on saturday & a birthday to celebrate 92 years of grandad’s life on sunday! enjoy that extra lazy day on monday & happy friday!

this summer has been invaluable. i have grown, i have stretched. i have cried, i have learned. leaving columbia felt like a fist to my stomach & it sometimes feels like that still. throughout all of those unwanted changes, i have grown a whole heck of a lot. i am proud of that.

columbia was very comfortable. i had a group of women whom i loved dearly. we had a church. we worked at an artisan bakery & coffee shop. we played in our garden & biked everywhere. i was learning in a classroom, earning my degree.

i’ve written a lot about the process of moving from comfortable columbia to the south. biking is non-existent so we were forced to buy a second vehicle. a lot of people in this town are much older, making it difficult to form friendships. we are still looking for a church & sometimes my job is pretty awful.

but throughout all of that, we are finding that we can still thrive. i work part-time (a decision luke & i made together), which allows for me to devote many hours to self-learning & experimenting. we are adding chickens to our backyard soon & harvesting most of the food we eat from the farm where luke works & the garden in our own backyard. we plan to attend a bee-keeping club next month & learn to work a hive come next season. i am adding full jars of pickles, preserves & tomatoes to our pantry daily & have the time to read books & articles of my own choosing.

i recently picked-up radical homemakers & was challenged & inspired in more ways that i can express here. although i do not subscribe to her ideology fully, i believe she has stuff worth saying. time at home can feel so routine sometimes. those dishes are never-ending & the garden never seems to look perfect. it can also feel lonely. i miss luke when he is gone & those friendships in columbia can start to feel impossibly far away.

there is something radical (& i believe that’s what shannon hayes is cluing us readers in on) in removing ourselves from the consumer lifestyle, building up community wherever we are, cultivating the home, & growing to find worth in the day-to-day.

once i figured this out, i sort of felt radical myself. this morning i found satisfaction in making honey peach preserves to be given as gifts & savored during the winter months. i watered the garden this morning & was over-joyed with the ripe tomatoes on the vine. fresh whole wheat banana bread is cooling in the kitchen & home-made butter is ready for eating.

there is just something absolutely beautiful about having time to live in the moment, use what you’re given & spend time with the ones you cherish most.