red light girls

Watch all the way to the end.

Trust me.

Reposted from this girl who got it from this girl.

grad speech for everyday life

I want to highlight this entire piece written by one of my faves,

but that would just be silly.

Instead I thought I'd just link you right to it.

For those of us graduating from season to season in our everyday lives...

liquid gold

There is just no substitute for organic fruit (and veggies) that gorgeously ripen on the tree/bush/vine/stalk as they bask in the morning sun to soft, succulent perfection. Tree to table. To think that luscious, dripping, chin-wiping, juice-slurping goodness happens naturally when we don't pick fruit prematurely all hard and green only to spray it with chemicals that make it ripen artificially in the back of some super big box store semi-truck which will unload it into the produce section where it will have a shelf life of way-longer-than-it-should.



So what if I'm a little romantic about my produce...

 

This morning before school we went to a friends house and collected two Trader Joe's bags FULL of deliciousness from her family's four year old peach tree. Four years old. There were hundreds of peaches clustered on this drooping tree and it is relatively young! I decided right there in the filtered light of the branches... I'm totally planting a peach tree. We always want to go to the u-pick grove this time each year but so does every other peach-loving person in the valley. With the residential sprawl there just aren't many places left to pick .









The kiddos were in tree-shimmying heaven.

They know goodness when they see it.

 And when they pluck it from the branch with their own little hands and beg to slurp it right down... it is well with my soul.

 So much gratitude. Thank you Alex!

Got a good peach recipe? Hook a sista up! Even better if it's GF/DF!

spring photo bomb

This Spring I was pretty quiet around these parts as I had a lot of listening to do. I needed clarity and confirmation and those things rarely go hand in hand with output. I often can't hear answers because I spend so much time blabbing about the questions. So I took some extended time to just listen. We listened together. What came as a result has rocked our world and yet is exactly what we've imagined. Part of that is the kickoff of our adoption process. The other part will get written about later this summer (how's that for a teaser!) when I have a little bit more brain space. For now, I'll leave you with our Spring in photos...


First Eric tore his shoulder playing Ultimate...

Then we all went two rounds with the stomach flu...

...right before Eric's birthday...

The garden was planted...

 

We spent my birthday on the lake with friends...

Soccer season started...

We celebrated my dad's birthday...

G broke his elbow...

 Eric had shoulder surgery...

Garrett turned 4...




and we had a backyard BBQ party with some of our favorite families...

And then came our favorite holiday...

 

The garden's arugula and swiss chard were to DIE for...

We met Arijit at the ASU Farmer's Market...

G got cast #2...

Carsyn and her friends had a bakesale to benefit Arijit's colon cancer treatment... 

We took Carsyn to hear Bethany Hamilton talk about how much she loves Jesus...

 

And G got his cast off...

We received our first adoption fund donation!

And Carsyn turned 7...

We had a pool party for her and bunch of her friends...








And then it was Mother's Day on the lake with friends...







Well hello there handsome!