Telling the story of the Modern Nature House design with updated images, elevations, and 3-D drawings

The images I shared from my last post were screen captures from my phone. The official pdf images tell a more complete story of the house design so far, so I want to share these with you too. 

I've included the elevations and 3-D drawings.

Floor plans

FRONT VIEWS

BACK VIEWS

Back, and Side facing the lot next door

The lot that sits to the right of our property is empty now, but we assume the owners have future plans to build. We're hoping to get started first. :) Both lots are about a half acre, ours is a corner lot and the front and back of the house face a road. The design creates pleasing views of the house from both angles and also creates a shield for whatever happens on the lot next to us.

As much as we love the look of glass houses, our lot isn't set on a wide open prairie or ocean vista, it's hillside looking out over a wooded neighborhood. The windows we do have are strategically placed to provide specific vantage points.

The house is situated on the land in a way that allows for near perfect passive solar orientation so the light will be magical here.

If you missed it in my last post you can check out our houzz.com ideabook to see how exterior materials can be used to convey the natural world in a house this modern.

Exterior Schematics: The Modern Nature Home

The basic floor plans were completed a few weeks ago, but as the house evolves in whole all the parts get updated, like the addition of hatch windows to connect the guest bunk with the screened-in porch, a mini-bar outside the master bedroom, and some reconfigured doorways on the second floor. Note that despite the likelihood of another baby we will be keeping the house design as is with only two kid bedrooms. :)

When Scott first revealed the exterior schematic our initial reaction was to the very modern design.

Whoa. So modern! Are you surprised too?

We liked it but after a weekend of eager conversation we've really grown to love it, and while it's more modern than we had envisioned for ourselves, it is truly what we asked for and is incredibly well thought out.

Entry

Back

The materials we choose to finish the exterior will integrate the nature element into the design. At the moment we're considering stucco, cedar, fiber cement, and metal.

Both the entry and the "back" front a road because we have a corner lot. The patio concept has yet to be developed.

The next phase of this process will include determining exterior materials, developing the construction documents, and a review by the structural engineers.

The budget is also taking shape as we have identified some key materials and products to use for interior flooring and counter tops.

Here are two (skewed) screen shots of the most recent floor plans:

To see how a house like this can be pulled off in the ways we imagine, check out these images from our Houzz.com Ideabooks.

Week 9 Making Do With Seasonal Flair: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living Series

Every week of the last 9 or 10 weeks (I'm not exactly on track at this point!), I've felt more in tune with nature's rhythms and myself, and more appreciative of the so-called burdens of winter: The cold! The bad weather! The limited veggies! All the germs! Oh the darkness!

Each week I have been inspired to make the most of the season through the food we eat, the creative things we make, the way we move our bodies and so much more. As I take time to notice and document I'm made more aware and more appreciative.

To facilitate my journey and spoil myself a little along the way I've made thoughtful purchases to bring a little comfort and luxury in the throes of Winter: new taper candles, a new cookbook, finishing salts, cosmetic organizers and green cleaning supplies, cozy socks, loose teas and a tea filter, pretty decor and DIY materials for my seasonal refuge.

In Week 9 Kathie challenges us to "make do" with what we've got. Whether that means using only what we already have on hand at home in our pantry or craft closet, or using only what the season offers us naturally via produce and weather.

This is an opportunity to save a little money, perhaps, but more importantly an exercise in demonstrating our knack for appreciating what we have knowing we don't need to spend more money or own more things to have a meaningful and intentional home life.

You may have noticed I'm a couple weeks behind on this series. I didn't quite live up to this little challenge of making do and I tried to give it another week to see if I could pull something off.

Sure I didn't buy these cool ceramic dyeable eggs to celebrate the spring equinox, and I didn't buy this handsome cookbook or new workout pants as the weather warmed up and I started dreaming of green.

I did gift myself with other items like this set of Celtic wheel of the year cards to laminate and display, and also a copy of Ostara on celebrating spring. Oh, and I splurged for a seasonal color analysis that has changed the way I perceive and understand color in all its forms in my daily life. Ok, I did not give my best effort.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sentiment of the challenge but I also wrinkled my stubborn nose at it. Maybe because we were on the cusp of spring and I had lots of ideas and plans and well, whatever, it wasn't in me to exercise some restraint to make it happen. How embarrassing that I only held back a teeny tiny bit, and mostly didn't even try not to buy the goodies I really wanted.

What about you, do you appreciate the idea of making do? Would this be an easy or real challenge for you in your life and why?

Floor Plans: The Modern Nature House

Our Modern Nature house has an official floor plan! 

The house is larger than we had originally imagined at 2450 sq. feet. I suppose that's still "modest" by today's standards, and the second floor was constrained by the footprint of the first floor so everything up there is a little more roomy than we may have made them otherwise, but still cozy and I think it will grow well with us. 

Furniture in the rooms serve as placeholders for now. 

First Floor:

Garage

Andy's Workshop

Entry with Bench and Storage, half bath

Eat in Kitchen

Living Space and Project Space

Deck

Second Floor:

Guest Bunk

Deck

Master Bedroom 

Laundry/Storage Room

Communal Bathroom

Kid Bedrooms

There's a lot to be said about this floor plan. So many exciting subtle and not so subtle architectural features have been discussed but because we aren't really there yet in the design phase I will save them to share later. There is a connectivity and flow between the different areas of the house, which can't easily be appreciated from the plan alone.

The lot sits near to an abandoned rock quarry from which granite was gathered in the 1800s for use here in Richmond (buildings and monuments, etc.) and cobblestone streets all along the East Coast. We discovered the remains of an old cobblestone quarry road at the front of the property and the whole lot is very rocky (as I learned watching the soil sampling process). Hopefully there aren't any big boulders in the area where we plan to nestle the garage. Soil samples were taken from the lot yesterday to be analyzed and the results will inform the kind of footings needed for the house as it is currently designed. 

Exterior schematics are next and in the meantime we're obsessing about kitchens over here. These two photos continue to inspire the direction of our kitchen design.  

Layout:

Soapstone counters and driftwood cabinets:

The thing I'm excited about right this moment is we didn't build into the design a "home" for the TV. We're going television free in this new house, something I've wanted to do for years!

Week 8 Seasonal Healthy Living: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

"Good Health" recommendations are always changing and remain not only tiresome to keep up with but also contradictory in nature. It really depends on who you ask, right? Current health recommendations and practices aren't necessarily backed by good science either so, if you're like me, you pick and choose from myriad sources what resonates with your own world views and then you apply it to your life in ways that work for you.

This week let's not get bogged down with what's "right" for our health, but instead turn inward to listen to what our bodies need and want for food, movement, and mental clarity.

Let's look to nature to ground ourselves. Let's look to the seasons to inspire the way we feed ourselves; the way we choose to move our bodies; how and what we seek for self care.

I had a year of Self Love therapy the year we moved back to Richmond. The boys were two under two and I had just left my DC job on the verge of launching MamaBorn.

"So what do you do for yourself outside of the gym and taking care of the kids?" my therapist asked. I sat there staring at her, unsure what she meant.

While listening to and trusting my body and the natural process of birth had always made so much sense to me, and Attachment Parenting's philosophy of listening to my mother intuition and trusting my baby had come very naturally to me, I realized then in the context of this new role and these new relationships that I had learned to power through instead of taking care. In lack of sleep, emotional stresses, and the very physical relationship that is mothering babies and toddlers, I had all but tuned out my own needs as a person—for hunger, for fullness, for movement, for rest, for solitude, for sleep—and it wasn't working for me anymore.

Adopting the Intuitive Eating* philosophy in particular changed my life and helped me over the course of a year to redefine my relationship with food but I couldn't stop there and have since expanded the concepts to encompass exercise and other aspects of my self care routine. Sometimes it feels indulgent, yes, but being in tune and able to provide myself with what I want and need to be a sane healthy human mother with plenty to give back to the people who matter most to me, well, justification isn't necessary.

This week the weather turned to the cool 60s and we wanted to be out in it so I'm focusing on the ways I moved my body this week.

The Sears Brothers in their signature embrace. Post dinner walk at dusk on a warmish winter night and the river is high. 

My sister and I made it out on Sunday for an hour hike around the marshland near our house. 

We went for what turned out to be a muddy marshland schlep this morning but the sunshine and cool air felt too good. As Spring nears I have renewed energy for what the rest of the year may bring. 

Another morning the weather demanded a change in plans from what I had penciled in as a treadmill run.

I drove to the gym this morning and hopped on the treadmill to run but then decided three minutes later to leave and drive all the way back to my neighborhood and down to the river for a nice long nature walk because it's 53 degress outside, my body is so sore and tired from my workout last night, and the James is just what I needed. I've been on a couple year journey relearning how to trust my body's need for things like food, and rest, and sleep. I think I'm getting pretty good at it. 

I workout Monday-Friday with a long outdoor walk or hike on Saturdays with my sister. (M/W mornings cardio and weights, T/R/F evenings personal training and long steady cardio.)

Now that the weather is warming up I'll be heading back to SealTeamPT, an outdoor fitness program I've enjoyed for the last year and a half. I took the winter off and hired a personal trainer instead, but I cannot wait to get back outside with the group. Rain or shine. It's a snapshot of nature every day of the year and it's a great workout. Spring is almost here and I'm done hibernating!

Does your current health routine serve you in the ways you need and want it to? 

In what ways can you look to the weather, the season, and the natural world to further inspire and guide your routine for fuel, movement, and self care? 

*To eat intuitively is to eat only what you truly want, when you are truly hungry, and stop when you are physically full. For more reading: The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating. Through intuitive eating I have found my happy place where food is both fuel and pleasure, freely and shamelessly.

Intuitive eating resources:
Are You an Intuitive Eater? Quiz
Intuitive Eating Primer
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole (book)
The Emotional Eater's Repair Manual by Julie Simon (book)

If you want to check out the 12 weeks to Homespun Seasonal Living workbook that I'm using for these weekly prompts, check out Kathie's blog at Homespun Seasonal Living.

Week 7 Finding Seasonal Resources: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

This week in The Home Spun Seasonal Living Workbook we're asked to consider the resources we might gather to make our Winter intentions come to life. (PS. There are only 16 days until Spring!)

Resources may include: tools; skills; information; community events, classes, clubs, or organizations; and experts.

This week I'm seeking:

Babysitters:
We have always had great luck with Care.com. Yes it's a lot of work to find good childcare but the interface is so easy and we have been lucky to find exceptional women to nanny the boys over the last 5 years. I have three interviews scheduled this week!

Inspiration in the kitchen:
I am mesmerized by cookbooks of all kinds and add a few new ones to my collection every month.

These are next on my list:

 Of course a new month brings new veggies to the table too:

Makeup organizers:
Since switching to mineral makeup I have a lot of little jars rolling around in my makeup bags and they are multiplying because I can't stay off Alima Pure's website. I have three small zippered pouches in which I try to contain all my makeup and tools, but digging through them every morning to find what I need leaves something to be desired. My decluttering and cleaning frenzy has extended into the closets and I would love to streamline the way I store my makeup. These acrylic cosmetic organizers would be great to keep the powders neat and upright, but we don't have room for countertop organizers right now and we've put a hold on most home purchases because we're in the home stretch now of temporary living. I'll probably just settle for a bigger zipper case that can hold everything, but which one? If you have a favorite I'd love to hear!

Candle Supply:
With my new fixation on candlelight I've been looking for a place to conveniently, and regularly, buy pretty candles. Big Dipper Wax Works looks great for beeswax candles and Terrain has a new Spring inspired palette of candles available. Southern Season has a pretty selection for every month of the year and I bought some creme and light green sets there for March.

Cooking Classes:
The cooking schools at Southern Season and Sur La Table will release their Spring cooking class schedules soon and I would love to learn some new skills in the kitchen. I have a little vein of Castilian Spanish roots I'd like to be in touch with, or perhaps a class focused on Virginia or Southern heirloom recipes. I'm excited by the possibilities.

Community:
I met with a writer mama over the weekend and was reinvigorated to write again at RichmondMom.com. I needed that little push. I love to talk writing and I want to get together with other writers more often. Especially mama writers.

This Winter, and through this series of posts, I have enjoyed a deeper connection with some of my girlfriends over our shared interest in seasonal living and intentional mothering. I appreciate these friendships so much because they are effortless, border on ridiculous sometimes (Ah but have you seen Fifty Shades of Gray yet!?)—humor is so essential these days—and also inspire, validate, and encourage my process. I need to lean into those friendships more.

What Seasonal resources do you want to gather this week to help you on your way? 

Week 6 Planning For Growth: 12 Weeks of Seasonal Living

I had a phone conversation with a girlfriend last week where I lamented frustration about how difficult the days have been as February brought snowstorms, stomach bugs, and pink eye. Merritt hasn’t been to preschool in 3 weeks and time for writing has been hard to come by. Another storm brews tonight as I type!

While I'm not working now, my writing pulls at me. The more I try to reach for it the harder our days are because I’m trying to do too much; multitasking, juggling their needs against mine.

Sometimes the most obvious answers come to me while I'm processing out loud with my girlfriends. 

"I guess I just need to let go of trying to do anything I want to do when I’m with them,” I said. A familiar surrender.  My friend—also a homeschooling mama with a brand new baby—said, “YES! Don’t try to do anything! It will be so much better.” Exasperated with knowing I said, "Of course it will. 

The next day I let go of the doing and embraced the being and it WAS so much better.  Their squabbles and requests didn’t feel like a burden or an imposition. The pace was slow and easy.

Was it that simple? After seriously MONTHS of frustration? Yes it was. 

Bottom line: I still need to separate my work form my home time—I thought we were passed it but I think I jumped ahead of myself. Tis' the season. This week I've been working on hiring a few sitters to cover four or five hours during weekdays. Time I can rely on to do my writing thing. 

***

This week the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook asks us to reflect on the intentions we set six weeks ago. To take a look at what is working and what more we can do to extend those successes. To consider what is not working and allow ourselves to let go of those intentions that no longer serve us, just as easily as we picked them up—no self judgement. 

Looking back to Week 1 my intentions included:

Source Local Foods, Prepare Meals to Highlight Seasonal Availability, Tend a Year-Round Garden.  This is natural and easy for me and sticking solely to in-season produce has simplified my shopping and meal planning tremendously.  A little meal inspiration from our table:

• Greek Chicken and Pilaf/whole chicken cut-up, skin on/brown butter, onion, long grain brown rice, pine nuts, currants/ arugula salad with garlic balsamic dressing

• Pastured pork sausages simmered in chicken bone broth with kale, sea salt and garlic/ whole wheat bread loaf with unsalted butter

• Chopped potato soup with onion and kale/ chicken stock, large couscous pearls and bay leaf/ soft boiled eggs/ oranges

• Chicken adobo with soy sauce, garlic, bayleaf, apple cider vinegar/ brown rice/butternut squash and apple mash 

Spend Time in Nature Often, with Appropriate Dress: It has been unusually cold the last couple weeks, many days with lows in the teens. We had a great snow day a couple weeks ago but the boys lasted only 20 minutes and their frolic ended in tears over frozen toes and fingers. Next year I’m going to invest early in real snow boots and full snow bibs for the kids because even though it doesn't snow much here, they need that extra warmth to incentivize their time outdoors. It will be worth it even though they will outgrow them by season's end. They'll get a lot of use out of them and Roscoe's can become Merritt's the following year.

Let the Temperature of Our Home Reflect the Season. Our heater just can't keep up with these recent winter temperatures so we've been surviving and thriving in a cooler house. I received a pair of these weekend socks for Valentine's day and it's cozy to have special pieces to reach for when I want to be warm. 

Merritt turned 4 last week! These kids cannot be bothered with winter clothing.

Plan for Activities and Crafts Inspired by and Reflective of the Season. I'm growing to appreciate the fact I'm more spur of the moment than I am a planner in this realm. I would much rather stock our art shelves with supplies of all kinds and then pair what we have on hand with whatever idea strikes our fancy in the moment. It's not quite as relaxing or as finessed a final product as I imagine it could be if I had a plan to go by, but for now it suits me fine. 

Let the Seasons Renew: Quarterly Cleaning and Organizing. I can't stop won't stop on this one! It's too satisfying to make progress on all the little piles and closets and spots that gather and accumulate the stuff we don't need to keep anymore. Whenever I think I'm done I find more little stashes to unpack, it's why I'm still going 6 weeks later! The trash bins are filling up as is the attic where I store the stuff I don't have a place for. Thank goodness for that extra storage space in an otherwise tiny house.

I'm adding an intention to my list!

Use Light to Cue our Daily Rhythms. Using light to cue our daily rhythm makes sense and is instinctually calming. Early mornings and late afternoons are more peaceful with quiet music and turned down lights. Candle light cues the kids to quiet and wind down as bedtime nears. Friends of ours use light to herd their kids to the rooms in the house they want them to occupy by turning off the lights everywhere else. It's brilliant and it works for us too.

I have really loved this winter and I give a lot of credit to Kathie's workbook for inspiring me to make an effort to be in the moment and to document all there is to love about it. Spring will be here in 4 short weeks but I'm not in a hurry. It feels like Winter now and I am happy.

A simple life is easier and in the end more luxurious. —Terance Conran

Massing Schematics to Floor Plans: Our Modern Nature Home Design, an update

We went from massing schematics to floor plans this month!  

It’s crazy to think we ever considered going it alone to forego the expense of an architect. I'm afraid to wonder how that from-scratch design might have translated into a real life home! Scott and James surprise, impress, and excite us with their practicality, expertise, and seemingly unlimited reservoir of creativity.

After reviewing near 20 different schematics in two separate sittings to refine and combine concepts, we're now waiting on the final.

In the meantime, Andy and I are focused on getting serious about the finishes and details in the rooms we know are going to demand big allowances from our budget: the kitchen and master bedroom. We need a realistic ballpark estimate to begin to allocate the rest of the budget. This is the fun and overwhelming part! 

While we have a general idea for the look we want, there are so many ways to piece together flooring, appliances, and countertops and shelving and storage—I'm feeling a little paralyzed by the possibilities. We're hoping to snag an appointment this weekend with a kitchen and bath design company to solicit a little advice on sourcing and costs.  

We're also ordering another soil study that will inform the structural engineer on how best to design the footings. Bad soil could change the whole architectural design but hopefully everything will look good. Better to find out now than later!

Week 5 Creating a Seasonal Refuge: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

This week's challenge in the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook is to find and claim a special spot in your home as your seasonal refuge, or a place you can retreat to reflect on your intentions in whatever season you're in.

I knew my refuge needed to live somewhere in the main part of the house so it could be easily enjoyed throughout the day—when I try to hide away or find a place of solitude the kids are distracted to seek me out and it ends up being disruptive. I also want to do the things I love to do in plain view of them.

I couldn't decide between the very cozy arm chair in the living room and staking claim to a little corner of the dining room table. I avoided my office, the most obvious opportunity for a special retreat, because it has been abandoned since I stopped working last year. For a long time it was piled high with all the random things I thought to save "just in case" I might need them at some later time, but probably wouldn't. It had become a collecting ground for miscellaneous things without a home.

After procrastinating for a couple days I decided the desk had to be it and grabbed a trash bag to begin sifting through it all.

I cleared away all the junk, wiped away the dust, unwrapped a desk caddy that I received as a birthday gift last year, and found a new light bulb for the lamp.

Then I went to Michaels for some foam board, fake flowers, and a pennant banner.  Similar to the office revamp from 2011 I used the same tutorial and made another desk blotter with the foam board. (Same fabric as last time too!)

How about you? What space will you declare your seasonal refuge and how will you claim it? 

Week 4 Creative Seasonal Grooves: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

This week The Homespun Seasonal Workbook discusses ways to “honor our creative tendencies by indulging in what we enjoy and connecting it to the season.” 

My creativity is expressed primarily on the page and in the kitchen, which was addressed in week 2 and week 3.  

In week 4 I honored my creative side by doing the following:

• Continued to blog this mini journey to seasonal living
• Expanded my interest in documenting and taking photos with the #BoldHeartMama Instagram Challenge, which feels just right for February.  (Want to join us? Start anytime, post some days or all the days!)
• Dusted off my bread maker, which I thought was broken, and made two crunchy, chewy loaves of bread to soak up all our soups and stews.
• Practiced my barista skills every morning to learn how to make a heart in my latte foam. There is still so much room for improvement but this is really fun!
• Ditched my gym workout one morning to run outside when the sunrise called me to the river and the temps were warmer than usual. No mittens or hats required!
• Encouraged the kids to join me in writing letters, love notes, thank yous, and Valentine's by setting up a little writing station and inviting them to decorate shoebox mailboxes to give and receive notes.  
• Made valentine cookies on the fly, by request, even though we had to sub some ingredients and only made a teeny tiny batch of teeny tiny hearts because we only had 1.5 sticks of butter. 

It feels like a simple concept to do the things you already enjoy doing and tie it to the season in whatever way feels right or within reach in that moment, doesn't it? 

This week's prompt gives us permission to indulge or step away from our hobbies and making endeavors however it strikes our fancy, and energizes us to honor our impulse to engage our creativity in different ways throughout the year. 

What about you? What are your creative outlets and how can you tie them to the season? Are there activities you only like to do in the Winter?

Week 3 The Seasonal Kitchen: 12 weeks to seasonal living

Week 3 of the HomeSpun Seasonal Living Workbook is all about the magic we make in the kitchen, and raises awareness for incorporating seasonal ingredients into our meals each week.  

Seasonal foods are local foods harvested in season. There are different definitions used to define the term “local,” and even the “seasonality” of foods can vary depending on where you live and how far from your home you are willing to source your food. 

Within 100 miles? Within the State? Within the Region?

This week I revisited my own definition of locally sourced. I generally consider regional sourcing to be sufficient, where the bulk of our meat, vegetables, and fruit come from in and around the greater Richmond area, as well as anything else produced within the state, and sometimes including neighboring states like DC, MD, and North Carolina. 

So what is in season in Virginia this time of year? After sifting through a range of different sources I found these state specific seasonal produce guides to be the most helpful. I was surprised by the variety considering Virginia has a pretty dormant Winter growing season. 

I reorganized the list by month so I could print out and easily reference what is in season when meal planning and shopping each week. 

Lately we've been shopping at Whole Foods, RelayFoods.com, and Elwood Thompson's, which specialize in doing the admittedly harder work of sourcing and labeling local seasonal foods for us. I based my shopping list last week off of the seasonal food list above, which simplified my options and streamlined my shopping experience.

I made a hearty vichyssoise soup of leeks, onions, and potatoes; roasted and caramelized sweet potatoes; spinach salad with boiled eggs, apples, and chicken; roasted butternut squash and mushrooms with pork tenderloin; another smokey potato soup with carrots and fennel; and roasted beets with olive oil and sea salt. Plus whole grains, pastured meats, pears, and lots of citrus—cara cara oranges, satsumas, grapefruit, meyer lemons and limes. 

(Oh wait, citrus isn't local to Virginia? I'll get back to that in a minute!)

Our food was simple, and delicious, and vegetable centric. It truly felt like Winter in my kitchen.

So what about citrus fruits that are technically at peak sweetness in Winter, and in season with the nation-wide harvest, but definitely not local to Virginia? I don't know. Right now we are devouring them. And what about eggs and chicken, and bacon? When we shopped at the Farmers Market almost exclusively we could not get eggs in the winter, or bacon whenever we wanted it, even chicken year round. There is a season for animals too and it has been largely lost or bypassed through technology and factory farming. These complicated issues make the challenges of eating seasonal fruits and vegetables seem easy in comparison.

A few good resources for sourcing and cooking seasonal foods:

At localharvest.org you can look up local CSA’s, farmer’s markets, and farms by zip code. 

Find local farms at PickYourOwn.org.

The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters 

Simply In Season, Mary Beth Lind

A Year of Pies, Ashley English

Winter Harvest Cookbook, Lane Morgan

Moosewood Restaurant Favorites, the Moosewood Collective

Salad Samarai, Terry Hope Romero

How did last week go, did journaling help connect you to the season? Share some of your captures of winter. I would love to go there with you.

Week 2 Journaling as a Way to Connect with the Season: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

In Week 2 of The Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook Kathie suggests journaling as a way to connect with the seasons and the rhythms of our home. She challenges us to notice and record what nature is doing outside and what we are doing inside. 

When I am in nature I know that it feels really good but I don't usually stop to put it to words, or write it down. I have tried on occasion to capture a moment of the season as I remember it (Fall, Summer) but I haven’t before sat under nature's eve and taken notes in the moment. 

When I went to my favorite spot on the river to do this exercise I was excited to feel it all and try to capture it in my journal. 

A few excerpts:

The ground is saturated, soft and imprintable.  

Fall’s leaf litter is a blanket on the trails. Broken down by rain and foot traffic, cellulose frozen then unfrozen, disintegrating into slime and mud.  

The banks are bare of leaves; skeleton trees rise up twisting and leaning into the path of the low sun, their trunks and bark a thin winter coat.  

The water is slow, burdened by the cold but persisting downstream nonetheless.   

Blue, gray, and white hues cast over the water, the chilled earth. 

Birds. The only brave souls still singing, merry by instinct and making the most of lean times. 

The people pull at their collars, wrap their sweaters a little tighter at the waist. They pull their hands into their sleeves like turtles in shells. The wind certainly finds a way inside anyway.  

The untamed landscape gives me a sense of courage in the dead of Winter. An impulse to leave the coop—our dizzying shelter after short day after short days of light— and strip of clothes to run through the chilled air, so crisp and dry.  It is almost irresistible because the outside is so lovely and bare at this time of year, but also for knowing it’s not possible now. That impossible cold. A Summer memory creeps into my mind and I recall the burning heat of sunshine, pink on my shoulders. 

I enjoyed writing poetry verses with my nature observations but it can be more realistic when short on time to write only the adjectives that describe, without the narrative. It takes just a few minutes to make a list like this, which I think nicely illustrates a version of Winter in Virginia:

The listing of adjectives reminds me of a happy children's book that we read together regularly: The Cozy Book by Mary Ann Hoberman. It's a perfect book to read in the Wintertime.

Instagram can also serve as a nice way to keep track of seasonal moments too:

Keeping it warm inside with big socks and big hats, and big foamy lattes

After "harvesting" icicles the boys took their microscope into the backyard to investigate ice crystals and other nature finds. 

A few other goodies I documented this week:

The recipe for Vanilla Milk can be found here!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about how life will be in our new house and curious about the different ways I will be able to connect with the river on a regular basis. After this week's exercise I'm convinced that journaling will be one easy and satisfying way to do it. 

If you are doing your own version of 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living, what did you take away from last week's lesson on seasonal intentions? Please share in the comments. Let's discuss!

Week 1 Setting Seasonal Intentions: 12 Weeks To Seasonal Living

Intentions are goals with a little heart thrown in. They focus on the present and help to guide our decision making in the moment. 

The first week of the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook challenges us to think about what we desire right now around seasonal living.

While Kathie offers a few different creative ways to get in touch with our desires, mine were already at the forefront of my mind and it took only a few minutes to get them down on paper in the form of a good 'ol list.

What does seasonal living mean to me? 

Source Local Foods, Prepare Meals to Highlight Seasonal Availability, Tend a Year-Round Garden

We are mindful of how and where our food is grown and raised. We source as much as we can organic and local but I'll admit to buying strawberries in the dead of Winter and quitting root veggies when I get bored three weeks into Fall. Instead I would really like to limit the variety of foods that we buy to the in-season variety. I want the limitations of that intention to inspire my creativity in the kitchen and build anticipation for the nourishment that next season offers. I want to feel the seasonal fluctuations of having and not having. “Suffering” through late Winter’s turnips and carrots and potatoes while holding our breath for the bright green shoots of asparagus and the first blush of strawberries in March. The pain and pleasure of knowing both extremes and feeling okay with the coming and going.

Spend Time in Nature Often, with Appropriate Dress

We are big fans of the saying, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes." We believe it and we try our best not to let the weather dissuade us from our outdoor pursuits. Over the years we have built up a pretty hardy collection of outdoor wear, particularly for the rain and colder weather although not so much for the snow (as we get only a few days of it a year). The kids keep growing and every year we need to update their stuff, and as they get older we're able to do more with them outdoors so our gear needs have changed some too. My intention here is to continue to be proactive in gathering gear and to not let my own uncertainty about getting outside in really cold weather—that's the hard one for me—hinder our family's outdoor adventures. 

Let the Temperature of Our Home Reflect the Season

My parents are Southern Californians at heart, and they love to bask in heat and humidity. Virginia Summers are sweltering and in mid-August, 90 degrees outside and with 100% humidity, the windows of our house were always wide open, kitchen air the same as the backyard. I hated that as a teenager but I kind of get it now. As the temperatures have dropped this Winter I have noted big and little people in bare feet, t-shirts, and not enough clothes complaining about how cold they are and running to turn up the thermostat. Well, I'm done with that. If it's cold enough for snow it feels a little more true to pull up some big socks, throw on a couple more layers, and snuggle up with a blanket. I like how we gravitate toward each other and the warm spots in the house seeking heat. 

Plan for Activities and Crafts Inspired by and Reflective of the Season

This point speaks to my personal intention to plan ahead: documenting our ideas in advance and gathering any supplies we may need so when we find ourselves with time I have everything on hand and our activities have a little more meaning, or tie-in, than just grabbing odds and ends from the art closet and inviting the kids to make something. I think there is room for both art and craft. This year we made snow flakes and I really liked how they turned out. They became a centerpiece decoration for our kitchen/dining room, and remind us everyday it’s Winter! More projects like that can help to bring the house into the season and connect us in some small way to the changes happening outside. I started a Winter Activities Pinterest board as one small step toward this goal.

Let the Seasons Renew: Quarterly Cleaning and Organizing

A turn of the season is a natural impetus to change the decor, throw things away, get organized, clean and simplify our spaces. I want to continue that instinctive rhythm and improve on it in a way that I can look forward to and plan for. 

What does seasonal living look like for you right now? What intentions would you like to set for your family moving forward? 

Twelve weeks to Homespun Seasonal Living

If I can recall any one thing that served to initially inspire my appreciation for seasonal living it was Barbara Kingsolver's audiobook Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

It was 2008 and I was late into my first pregnancy. In the evenings I walked a three mile loop through the black top of our barren housing development just savoring Barbara's soothing narration of a year of food life on a small farm in Southern Appalachia; a locavore year that came after her family's decision to move from Arizona to a place where they could be fed and sustained off the land by their own hands.

Her writing brilliantly illustrated the very intimate relationship they forged that year with the land and their food, the interdependence they shared with the earth, and the weather, and the crops, and the animals.  Her story became a strange juxtaposition to how disconnected we had become in our suburban existence.

I really loved what she wrote of butchering her chickens and the spiritual perspective she held acknowledging the respective roles they each filled at that time of the year. I wanted to feel a sense of purpose like that, a level of responsibility, an awareness for nature's timing and of the gifts and burdens that accompany it.

Her family's experience inspired me to more actively engage with my own food chain in a way I hadn't considered before.

With time it became our goal to more closely align the direction of our entire life with our true desires. Actively sourcing and preparing our food through farmers markets and CSAs and a garden was one important aspect, as was seeking out the (limited) natural landscapes that existed nearby, but there was much more.

Small steps over the last six years have brought us to a place where I do feel sufficiently in-tune with the seasons as we devotedly seek out the natural world to ground and inspire our every day life, but I crave more.

More than seasonal eating.

More than daily outings into nature.

I crave a more intentional embrace with nature and I want for seasonal change to cue our rhythms and routines throughout the year. To let daylight and weather and temperature and the natural cycle of life and death as we circle the sun every 365 days guide the goings-on in our little household in a more fluid and organic way.

Last year a friend and I discussed seasonal planning as one way to better organize our homes and family lives, to alleviate a tendency for overwhelm when thinking too far ahead, and to simplify our intentions thereby making them more effective. It feels natural to approach time in this way, whether for a season of life or a season of year.

Recently, I found Kathie's HomeSpun Seasonal Living Workbook:

In the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook, I’ve created 12 weekly lessons to help make seasonal living a priority.  The lessons are short and designed to help you get in touch with the season as it presents itself to you in your part of the world and help you achieve your own homespun seasonal living goals.  The lessons can be used and repeated in each and every season.

Each lesson is geared to help you achieve your goals and live a seasonal life in your home and with your local community. The workbook is perfect for the novice and experienced alike as it is designed to help you seek new inspiration and resources while building each and every week on what you’ve already learned and accomplished. 

I'll be completing the workbook over the next 12 weeks and intend to report back here on my progress and what I'm learning.

If you are interested in joining me, or just curious, you can check out the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook here.

I'll be posting the first week's lesson later this week.

Meeting with the Architect: Massing Plans for our Modern Nature Home

Yesterday morning we huddled with our architect over the four concepts that he and his team have developed for our modern nature house. In the corner of a crowded coffee shop we pored over the designs, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each in detail.

We liked one especially, as well as elements of a second, and roughly merged the two concepts on paper, in red over the original draft.

Massing refers to the general size and shape of a building. 

Afterward we walked the lot and tried to envision the size and shape of the various elements on the site: where the driveway will come through, on to where the master bedroom will look out, how our home might interact with the yet-to-be-built structure that will live next door to us. (The land adjoining ours recently went to settlement). We considered the views and vantage points, discussed which trees will need to be removed, which ones will stay, and a plan to bring an arborist to the lot at some point in the Spring to confirm.

This photo is toward the top of the lot looking down the hill.

A meeting with the City early this week will clarify the environmental restrictions mandated by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, required because of the lands proximity to the river's watershed.

Revisions will be made to reflect today's discussion and in the coming weeks we'll meet again on the lot to stake out the actual footprint.