The View

I've been saving these up for awhile, I don't think any of these are "hot off the press" posts. Some have been starred in my reader for months. Others I've discovered through the comments left here. 

I'm clearing out all my end of winter favorites and getting ready to read and savor spring inspired writing.

Mama Speak

• Right now we have an inspiration board with written notes but after reading Lusa Organics blog Clean what I really want is a manifestion board.
• Thank you Hillary for reminding me to stand back to witness and not always rush to fix my children's emotions. 
• I loved reading Kate's thoughts on love and marriage. I especially appreciated that this was a story of love for her husband and not some 4 point how-to have a good marriage post.

Creative Homestead

• You know I just love homemade skin care stuff so I enjoyed simplify your personal care from New Urban Habitat.
• In a similar vein The Homesteading Apartment posted homemade laundry and dishwashing recipes. These are worth a look-see if you don't make your own bar soap to use for cleaning ie: they use all store bought ingredients.
• Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op always has such good stuff (2 posts in this round up). Do you grow comfrey? You should. It's one of my favorites in my herb garden.
• I'm not sure how I stumbled across Old Recipe for a New World but I'm glad I did. This family is quitting plastic for 4 months, ie: not buying anything with plastic (they do a tally each month end and I must say they've been doing very well). As we aim to rid the plastic from our own lives, at a much slower pace I'm afraid, I'm humbled by their efforts.

Beyond my Backyard (Dreams) 

Pursuing our dreams is a big theme for our family this year. To see others do just that is so encouraging and inspiring.  

• I love what Erin at exhale. return to center is doing to follow her passions and support her community.
• The Organic Sister and her family have just left their home to travel the country in a converted bio-diesel Winnebago.  This is not my dream but watching someone else live an intentionally unconventional life makes for a good read. 
• Of what do you dream? at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op.

Gallery

• A great how-to take photos in low light with a point and shoot tutorial at Wisdom of the Moon.
• Capturing children create is one of the most beautiful things to photograph.
• While we wait for spring to really happen here I'll enjoy these last shots of winter; leaf in the wind, chickadee wings and frost on a window pane (with apologies to everyone who is already reveling in spring).

No Homeschool Sweet Stuff this month.  I've been expending a lot of mental energy writing for Simple Homeschool and you can find my posts (all one but very soon to be two) here.  The contributions by all the writers have been really good.  I think it's a great go-to source for homeschoolers or would-be homeschoolers. 

Over the past year as I've started to share more about our family's outdoor adventures I've gotten questions from people asking how we do this with our children.  

I think the overall vague question of "how do you do this?" can actually be broken down into several questions.  Two of them being, "how do you make the time?" And "how to you get multiple family members on board?"

As we have time to articulate our thoughts (we're actually quite busy having adventures and making time to write about having adventures is challenging) we plan to answer these questions fully. Here at FIMBY, our home blog, and ADVENTUREinPROGRESS, our adventure blog and eventually in a book devoted to that very topic, hiking with your family. 

But before we ever publish a book with gear lists, menu plans and clothing guidelines we would like to help families get started by addressing a few of the basics, one of which is making the time.

Damien just published a fantastic post on this subject. Time is such an important topic to discuss because if you are wanting to be outdoors more with your family finding the time to do so will be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.   

Damien's post, One Day A Week, explains in some detail our family's experience with setting aside one day a week to be outdoors, all together, for the better part of the day (ie: morning till supper).  I plan to follow up on his post with more practical tips from a homemaker's perspective.   Let's just say actually getting out the door is the hardest part of the whole adventure.  Never mind hiking up the actual mountain!

When I get around to writing that I'll be sure to give you a heads up.  But to get you started you can read what Damien has to say about how to make family day a priority.

PS: With this recent "new look" you'll notice at the bottom of the FIMBY main page that you can read the titles of the last 10 posts written at AdventureinProgress.  

You'll be starting to notice a few changes around here. Gone is the old FIMBY and in it's place is what you see. (Of course if you're stumbling upon this post sometime in the future, say spring 2011, you're probably looking at something altogether different yet again).

This was not quite what I had wanted to present when unveiling my new blog theme. That statement is not at all a reflection of disappointment with all the work Damien has put in behind the scenes. I was just hoping to have more creative energy and personal time to get the look and feel "just right" and then publish it with much fanfare (my own to be sure).

But you know, life just doesn't work that way. And when I started to consider how long it would take me to get this space exactly as I envision it I started to get discouraged (I still am discouraged), so instead I decided to leap and fix it up as I go. Always a difficult thing for me to do.

house in process but still beautiful in the light

This blog is like my home. It's tidy but it's not finished yet. It's not everything I hope and plan for it to be. It's a work in progress, just like me.

I really enjoy publishing on this blog the simple, beautiful and put-together parts of my life. When real life is messy, tiring and sometimes disappointing this space is pretty, clean and well crafted.

But really, my life is just one giant work in progress. Full of projects, big and small, that are on the go:

• renovating our dining room
• learning to make homemade toothpaste
• educating our children
• de-cluttering the girl's room
• simplifying our household possessions
• making plans for a summer of hiking, camping and backpacking
• finishing the guest/sewing room
• becoming a better photographer
• re-organizing our blogs
• growing in my faith
• loving my family and friends
• writing blogs and (someday) book(s)

Some of these are discreet projects that yield a finished product though most are on-going, slow but steady wins the race type of endeavors. That's why I love writing blog posts and making this space look pretty and clean. It's one thing in my life I can wrap up and package. Done.

taking a break from a hike in process

But right now it's not done. It's simply another work in progress which is growing my patience. Have I mentioned before I don't like the difficult life work of becoming more patient?