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?

Inspired by the Season: February 3

I'll be back next week with another post from the 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living series, and in the meantime I want to share with you a few seasonal inspirations.

I'm enjoying this Moon Phase wallpaper on my desktop so much. I love the night sky and the cycles of the moon. Ez Pudewa has a series of 6 different seasonally inspired themes on her blog from the Fall, free for download!

Speaking of the moon, a good friend shared this Infographic on Lunar Abundance with me last night. What a fun framework for setting big and small intentions throughout the year.

I've also been exploring the Sun Calendar App, which is how I know tonight is a full moon!

What season are you? (You might like this one too.) I'm a Deep Autumn and I've been on a quest to bring more color into my wardrobe. Today I bought a couple of these spectrum tees in peach and gold to add some warmth to these February days.

Finally, I'm delighting in the writing and the photography that so well captures the season in the Winter 2015 issue of Bella Grace.

BoldHeartMama Instagram Photo Challenge

Instagram is my favorite social media channel, a mini-log of time well spent and a great platform for sharing the story of our days through the photos we capture. Instagram offers a more intimate portrait of life and I enjoy the telling as much as I do the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what life looks like every day for the other mamas I follow.  

In honor of all the BoldHeart Mamas out there I thought it would be fun to host a #BoldHeartMama Instagram photo challenge for the month of February.

Are you a BoldHeart Mama? I think so!

The BoldHeartMama seeks to be inspired. She is a relentless learner—curious, inquisitive, and open to the possibilities of her life and of the human condition. She asks questions that dig deeper.  

She pays attention to and nurture's whatever it is she really cares about, and she lets go of the rest knowing that she can't do and be everything all at once.  

She embraces her imperfections—her imperfect self, her imperfect home, her imperfect mothering, her imperfect desires—and yet she doesn't stop evolving. She is authentic and true to herself. She relies on her creativity and her resourcefulness to solve the big and little challenges that she and her family face together as they navigate their relationships and their world. She is willing to take calculated risks to make her biggest dreams come true. 

She is present and engaged and makes things happen. She knows there's only this ONE LIFE and she's all in. Her intuition is her guide. She is a BoldHeart and she's living in the moment, making small moves and taking little steps that add up. She's cultivating a good life for her family and she's living her best life in the process.   

Will you share what BoldHeartMama looks like for you, in the little moments that add up to a life well-lived?

To join in just save the #BoldHeartMama theme list on your desktop, phone, or tablet, grab your camera and start posting! Don't forget to tag your photos with #BoldHeartMama so I can find you.

You can find me at @MarblesRolling. 

How we spend our days, is how we spend our lives. -Annie Dillard

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.

We are featured in Home School Life Magazine's Winter Issue!

We are thrilled to be featured in Home School Life Magazine's Winter 2015 Issue!

Amy and Shelli created an issue sampler to share and included our spread in the sneak peek.

You can read the full interview here.

For all my homeschool friends who may be interested in learning more about the magazine and/or subscribing (digital subscriptions are available now but PRINT will be happening soon) you can check out their website at homeschoollifemag.com.

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?