when it finally rains

After weeks of hot weather with only a tease of rain here and there, we finally had a real set of thunderstorms this weekend.  While it made both of us tired, it was wonderful to take advantage of napping weather, and you know, nap :).  In the past few weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of thinking.  Something about turning 27 has made me reflective about life so far, and the ways in which I want my life to be in the future.  We have had a Waffle House Sunday breakfast tradition for a few months, and last weekend, we took my new Urban Homestead book and planning journal with us.  After reading and learning about all the different types of ways one can live off the land, we talked and thought a lot about what we were doing to live sustainably, and what stories we wanted to be able to tell our children about life as it’s meant to be lived.  Story-telling is such an important tradition, but one which seems lost these days, especially in the midst of the petty discussions occurring at the federal level as we try to figure out our national debt crisis.  Nevertheless, I want my children to have a story of food and of life that reveals a real sense of relationship with our land, with the people on the land, and with the things that come out of the earth.  While I may be only 27, I feel like now is the time to begin crafting that story.

I just love the way he sleeps.

a hot, hot summer

It’s been so hot here in the last few weeks that it’s been hard to feel motivated to do much of anything.  But, we are slowly getting better at figuring out ways to live in the heat.

We take advantage of the cooler temperatures in the early mornings and late evenings to water our plants.  Hot peppers apparently thrive in this heat…

We made a little nest in our living room under the ceiling fan to curl up in during the day.  It is wonderful to sleep under my great grandmother’s quilt once we turn the air conditioning on in the evening.  This past weekend was also my birthday, and I sweated out the heat from the oven to make a delicious peach-blackberry pie, with fresh fruit from the farmer’s market.

But do you know the best part of a hot summer? When it finally rains…

There is nothing like watching a succulent collect rain water—even in the heat, it’s the little things that make it possible to “live.”