View fullsize first day of school, Little Phlox Folk School, 9/5/22 // late raspberries, blooming sumac, goldenrod fields, sandhill crane migration // heron selah, 14, grade 9; shepherd zuri, 12, grade 7; peregrin jude, 9, grade 4; poppy evangeline, 6, grade k/1st
View fullsize gwennie gave birth in a makeshift nest of leaves and tuft under our side porch early tuesday morning. heron and josh pulled up some floorboards to get them out, and moved them to a safe, quiet location in a tulip crate in the milking barn. we’v
View fullsize sometimes gardening from seed to bloom feels like way too much time spent keeping a whole lot of extra things alive (in addition to five kids and twenty four animals!) for way too long. it is totally worth it in the end (for color palette and variety
View fullsize easter weekend 2022 : homegrown tulips and daffodils, hot cross buns, family portrait // i can’t always access deep feelings when i’m “supposed to,” like birthdays, anniversaries, and holy holidays. but this week this truth wa
View fullsize i loved talking with @paigegeidel on her lovely @loveinacottagepodcast — a podcast for creative christian women in their twenties on homemaking, entrepreneurship, homesteading, etc. paige and i enjoyed chatting so much it became two episodes, a
View fullsize it was a total joy and privilege to be interviewed by paige on @loveinacottagepodcast ! we truly enjoyed talking so much, it became two episodes—part i is now live. we talk through the early years of meeting and marrying josh, having babies, wa
View fullsize maple syrup season 🍁// snow one day, bare feet the next—we’re savoring these liminal days of winter-spring ❤️
View fullsize a very merry christmas from the garrels family! 🎄
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View fullsize josh was gone last weekend, so for church we stayed home and i shared a testimony with the kids. we prayed, sang, and read verses about the Lord being our portion and reward. earlier that morning the Lord had brought to mind a memory from twenty year
View fullsize it’s that time of year! ✨// #theboarshead ♡
View fullsize thanksgiving 2021 // it was just our little big family this year, but it was truly sweet ❤️
View fullsize autumn harvest (drying for winter wreath-making) 🌾// we harvested all the lingering amaranth, celosia, and bells of ireland for drying and seed-saving. i used to use the margins of my time for these things, but more and more the kids are joining me.
View fullsize meet gwen, and heron’s homemade cat village 🥰 // #latergram from 9/1/21
View fullsize thanks for sticking with me through my #latergram photo-sharing spree. we’re almost up-to-date 😅 // we have four autumn birthdays in our family : josh turned forty-something on 9/25, willow turned three on 9/28, perry turned nine on 10/19, and
View fullsize at summer’s end our dear friends the schafers were here with us for ten delightful days. sarah had been driving their sprinter with their four kids, all the way from oregon, for three weeks on a roadschooling adventure; ray flew into chicago to
View fullsize various arrangements from the summer, a mix of casual & formal. most of these i made in a weekend for my friend @iamleah.rachel ‘s 40th birthday/20th wedding anniversary party. josh took the kids away to chicago for the weekend so i could p
View fullsize COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BEGINS AT HOME : when i was twenty i spent a semester at the HEART training institute in central florida, studying small animal husbandry, intensive gardening, appropriate technology, small engine repair, permaculture, etc. this
View fullsize i was flipping the beds in the hoophouse yesterday, pulling out summer’s blooms, when poppy and i stopped, transfixed by the humble beauty of bells of ireland’s dried lacy umbels. we spent the next half hour collecting the best ones for a
View fullsize CHICKEN LOVE // though in reality it’s been a story of both love and loss—our introduction to life and death on the farm, of grieving children yelling, “i wish we’d never even gotten chickens!” when we lost five chicks i