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.

Updating our Family Mission Statement

You may remember the Mission Statement, Family Rules, and Family Needs documents that I developed leading in to 2012. I had two babies under two years old so you can imagine where we were as parents and people trying to find balance and a sense of organization! These exercises were a great starting place and that mission statement has become a working definition for us that I continue to refine.

A copy of the latest version of our Family Mission, now renamed our Sears Family Purpose, hangs on our dining room wall and has been updated many times since it was first drafted:

Defining Success and Looking Ahead to the New Year 2015

There are many "New Years" for me throughout the calendar year.

Like a blank piece of paper new beginnings are delightful, and I thrive where I have space to dream up all the possibilities. Any place in time where I can envision the next 365 days unfurled at my feet like an unworn path is a promising point to begin.

I can rely on the turn of the seasons, my birthday, the boys birthdates, and of course January first to stir up an invitation for reflection, but any time is a good time if I'm in need of a fresh start.

I chip along at making what's good better, and righting our little family ship back on course in what feels like almost constant iteration, and so the official start of a new year and its accompanying goal setting rituals feels a little ordinary but no less fulfilling.

Last year's transition from Working Mama to Not Working Mama (and a homeschooling one at that), left me feeling a sense of loss for my professional self and a nagging lack of purpose. Despite feeling more relaxed and more present than ever before.

I was so content and yet, I wasn't.

I needed to find my focus so I enrolled in a workshop created by Jen Gresham at Every Day Bright and dug deep for a couple months to articulate what meaningful success looks like for me at this point in my life. Ambitious, educated, desiring adventure and connection and, most of all, striving to be a good mother to my two boys, a good friend and partner to my husband.

I'm sharing my definition of success here because it provides context for my intentions in the upcoming year, but also because it was a transformative exercise that gave the immediate payoff of feeling more peaceful about the decisions we've made for my career and the boys' education and our overall lifestyle. It also helped me to see very specifically how my writing can serve me in a professional capacity, even on a small scale, and without aspiration—or caveat—for getting paid.

I know I am not alone in having to work at finding a sense of purpose in the midst of the huge responsibility and joy and satisfaction that comes with mothering while also desiring to integrate the esteem that professional work can offer, maybe my words will resonate with something that you want for yourself:

Success is a comfortable and low stress lifestyle that allows me first to take care of myself, and then to be the kind of mother my kids deserve and need. To enjoy my mothering experience day-to-day is critical to my perception of short term success and a much-needed affirmation of my personal investment to our collective home-life. To nurture my marriage, familial relationships, and core friendships with intention and care, as well as with grace and generosity. To embody the BoldHeart life** in my decision making, and through our investments of time and money. My writing will complement and extend my desire to live life, and forge meaningful connection. My writing will develop and extend my voice and perspective in a way that penetrates the world outside my home. My writing will connect me to the experiences of others and vice versa. My published writing will provide the personal esteem that I crave and a professional platform for self expression and recognition.

**To be inspired; ask questions; take risks; pay attention to and nurture what I really care about; accept challenge; be a relentless learner: inquisitive, curious, and open to possibility; embrace imperfection; ground myself in nature; rely on creative and resourceful problem solving; seek personal truth and authenticity; stay engaged; listen and act on my own intuition.

________________

Now I'm really showing my crazy side for self awareness and personal growth but lets take a quick step back...

In 2008 I began reading Style Statement: live by your own design, but the workbook was lengthy and Roscoe was born shortly after, so discovering my style statement at that point in time just wasn't compelling.  Eventually though I made my way back to the book and in 2012 I coined the term BoldHeart and began to apply it in my every day life.  

Then, in late 2013—after reading another book by Danielle LaPorte called The Desire Map, a guide to creating goals with soul—I identified a handful of core desires that I wanted fulfilled on a daily basis: 

Nurtured.

Inspired.

Connected.

Peaceful.

Purposeful.

I refer to them often as overarching themes to guide my priorities.

________________

OK back to 2015! Before I share a few of my goals for the upcoming year, I'll tell you a little about what is working for us right now:

• After nearly 6 years I've finally learned how to take care of my mother self; I know what I need, I know how to ask for it, and how to prioritize self care. 
• I have a deep sense of purpose in my marriage and in my relationship with the boys. 
• Date nights have become a regular thing around here, and our collaborative investment in our individual and shared projects is at an all time high. We're keyed into and contributing to what matters to the other, and it hasn't always been that way. 
• Our family priorities and our investments of time and money are well aligned, and our routines are working pretty well for us. 
• We look forward to designing and building our house this year (if all timing works out!), to celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary, and to squeezing in some so-far-unplanned family travel where we can. 

For the next season of life, be it the first few months of 2015, or until I get the urge to reflect and revise again, here are my opportunities to improve: 

Nurtured: In 2015 I will continue my slow trek back to my pre-Merritt weight (oy!), and we will to continue to reduce our consumption of plastic as well as find greener alternatives to our favorite cosmetic and sundry brands. I look forward to applying a more significant and tangible approach to seasonal living. (I'm one week into the HomeSpun Seasonal Living workbook, if anyone else is interested.) 

Inspired: I plan to take a few local cooking and writing classes this year, and to attend the James River Writers Conference in October, and the VAHomeschoolers conference in March. I will also continue to improve my PBH mentoring skills and approach my role with even greater intention so that I can help the boys to make their ideas happen, achieve their personal goals, and develop as learners.  

Connected: I will continue to build relationships and community for myself around homeschooling and writing. Andy and I both want to invest a little more into our couples friendships, so we hope to add into our regular date night rotation some double- and family-dates with a few folks that we really want to get to know better. DIS-connecting from aspects of social media and simplifying the ways that I access information.

Peaceful: I will continue to work on modeling healthy ways to manage negative emotion and resolve conflict, as well as facilitate and support Roscoe and Merritt's sibling relationship. 

Purposeful: I'm going to write more! And work on making those latter aspects of my success definition fall into place. My first 5.5 years as a mother have been a whirlwind, but I have high hopes that 2015 will be the year that I really settle into and enjoy where we are in life and the choices that we’ve made to get here. 

Little Luxuries Bring Comfort and Joy: Winter Edition

I'm enjoying some of my christmas gifts so much that I thought I would share here in case you are in the mood to get yourself a little something to ring in the New Year. These are the little luxuries in life that bring comfort and joy to every day.

I followed Baron Fig's Kickstarter campaign last year and really could not wait for their Confidant journal to come to fruition. Baron Fig makes sketchbooks & notebooks designed with an underlying philosophy of simplicity, usefulness & community. I love the dimensions, the fact that it lays flat so you can dig into every page without a margin getting in the way, and options for blank, dot grid, or ruled pages. I also got a pack of the apprentice pocket notebooks so I can record all my little fly away thoughts before I forget them. I journal daily and I'm looking forward to filling up this pretty one with new ideas and memories in 2015.

Good travel writing is a fantastic way to get lost somewhere far away when you have only a few consecutive minutes to spare at any given time. Better than Fiction offers the unique twist of short nonfiction travel stories written by great fiction writers. I'm just a few stories in but look forward to being captivated by a new travel adventure each night before bed.  

My all time favorite Capri Blue's Volcano scent IN A SOAP! What a happy surprise under the tree. Volcano is the scent of tropical fruits, sugared oranges, lemons, and limes, redolent with lightly exotic mountain greens. What more is there to say? Well, it makes the whole bathroom (and nearby bedrooms) smell delicious, and it has a luscious lather. 

One of the big decisions I happily make each year is to choose an agenda. I am serious about my calendars and I heavily rely on them to stay organized. I enjoyed the Day Designer last year but decided on Emily Ley's Simplified Planner for 2015. It's full of color and downright cheerful, and it has all the space I need to keep track of my most important stuff: our daily routine, to-dos, and what's for dinner.  (She's sold out right now of all her planners, but I hear she has three new additions coming out in May and September.) 

This magazine makes me happy to tears when I read it. The writing is excellent, the photos are breathtaking, and every issue simultaneously stirs up and satisfies a mean case of wanderlust. The stories and highlights give an intimate perspective on some of the world's better known destinations but it really caters to the more obscure parts of the planet that I never knew I should consider visiting. When I want to be inspired for future family travel or just escape into dreamland the treasures inside make the vast world seem a whole lot smaller and accessible. 

Our personal philosophy and beliefs about food have been highly influenced by Sally Fallon and her book Nourishing Traditions. However, that text can feel a little overwhelming and without modern appeal. The Nourished Kitchen by Jenny McGruther bridges the gap for me with photography that invites and entices, and seasonally inspired traditional foods recipes that I want to cook and eat right now. This will likely become my next cook-through cookbook!

I recently switched all my makeup over to Alima Pure and I have never had this much fun, or felt as comfortable and confident in what I put on my skin every day. The colors. The brand. The products. Oh they are amazing, and these brushes make applying my makeup every morning effortless and even more merry. 

All year I have been documenting and displaying Roscoe's ideas, play, and process on our walls throughout the house as a way to reflect and share his learning.  I've found, however, that photos just aren't quite as illustrative in black and white. Nope. They are not. In times like these a laser color printer is pure joy! 

Envisioning our Modern Nature Home, first meeting with the architect: schematic design

We kicked off our home design process with a meeting of the minds last Friday night. We were asked to prepare in advance a document that would articulate what we want for the look and feel of the house (Vision), the primary materials we want to use, and the living spaces and their functions as we envision them (Program). 

Our vision is this:

A modestly-sized, environmentally sensitive, low-maintenance home that effortlessly integrates into its surroundings. Industrial and natural materials.  

A comfortable—sometimes luxurious—technologically enhanced, light-filled spaced inspired by modern design that melds minimalistic architecture and natural family living in fascinating and surprising ways; a relaxing retreat that invites nature to come inside.  

A floor plan that fosters intimate family interaction, and accommodates larger gatherings for entertaining. Spaces that serve a clear function and purpose. 

Transform the land into a sanctuary for good, easy living that brings us in tune with the river, ourselves, and each other. 

Materials: glass, concrete, wood, metal.

For the Program (a list of every space to be included in the house plan) we drafted detailed descriptions of each room's purpose and the elements we want to incorporate, from the guest bunk room to the vegetable garden and everything in between. 

Right now I'm most excited about the kitchen and project space: 

Kitchen/Dining 

A chefs workspace with high-end appliances and custom details like a larder, spice drawers, open display shelving, cookbook shelves, ample counter space and storage; room to accommodate lots of cooks and spectators in the kitchen and at the large family-style table. The feel of an eat-in kitchen with an expansive serving table for 12+. Under counter refrigerator and freezer.  

Project Space 

A designated project space that can evolve with the kids’ play/work, and that can serve the adults in the house equally well. Natural light. Multiple work surfaces: work bench, computer/desk counter space, open floor space for working on larger art projects. Wall and shelving display areas for posting ideas, storing art work and 3D representations. Built-ins: book shelves, and other shelving for ease of access and storage of art supplies. Not static. 

We've shared a lot of photos that illustrate the "style" of house that we want, but the schematic design process actually works in reverse order. They will first look at the Program we created and then, taking into consideration many factors from the land (solar orientation, slope, setbacks and easements, etc.), a floor plan will be configured. The floor plan will then dictate the shape of the house, and the exterior elements will come last.

The design process is so interesting!

It's humbling too because while our ideas may be big, our budget will be another factor to help constrain the design. I really love the look of glass-faced fronts but, not only is that impractical for our particular piece of land, it is cost-prohibitive. Same with cantilevered dwellings and concrete floors; they just don't go together unless you have extra money you want to invest in structural support. Getting real about cost and design makes me feel like this is really happening, and the tremendous value of hiring an architect is apparent already.

Based on our Vision, Program, and Houzz.com ideabooks, by early December we should have a few first-draft floor plans that we can begin to work with and refine!

Halloween 2014, vamps and ninjas

Roscoe and Merritt each made very detailed and specific lists last month of what they wanted to include in their halloween costumes. We went shopping together for a few key things and gathered the rest from home, checking off the lists as we went. The boys were very happy with their costumes and Merritt was shocked and thrilled when he won first prize in his age group for "scariest" at the SOTJ Homeschoolers Halloween party. I was so happy for him because he had a strong vision for his vampire ensemble and, as Roscoe's little brother, he's often in the shadow, but yesterday Merritt got a little recognition just for being Merritt. I wish I had captured his incredulous face when the judge witch rode by on her motor scooter to gift him with the prize box!

Later, my sister stopped by with a special delivery of potted venus fly traps and cotton candy, which made their day, and instead of the usual block party we opted for a downtown trick-or-treating event at the Children's Museum of Richmond—a perfect madhouse for these two.

Halloween this year was our best yet, we all agree—new joy and new surprises for all of us, which feels like an incredibly impossible thing but I'm beginning to see the pattern as time passes.