Living With Kids: Design Mom

Remember way back in the day when I had a post on Design Mom about my pregnancy with Isaac? Click over today to see my full home tour. So exciting! I loved photographing my home for this piece and really thinking about how it functions best and all of the things we have done to turn our house into our home. And I'm so honored to be part of her Living with Kids series!

Guest posting

Woo-hoo! I'm guest-posting today over at my dear friend Jen's blog. She's been running a series on marriage to celebrate her 7th wedding anniversary. You can visit Jen's blog at Nothing Comes of Nothing to read my musings on knowing who to marry, facing trials during your marriage, and how to strengthen your relationship with your spouse.

guest-posting

Catch me over here today talking about some really key things I've learned as a mother--I'm guest-posting for a friend on maternity leave.

canning

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by our local paper about food preservation.  We spent almost half of the interview talking about the Church (because honestly, that is the main reason why I can--we're supposed to have food storage and gardens and all that).  The journalist was really interested in how the Church has influenced me as a homemaker and mother, and it was a neat experience talking with her and with the photographer, who is friends with our stake president.

The article came out today--I was sad to see that there wasn't anything about the Church in it, but it was still fun to read (although I was kind of bummed that the main focus of the article was about someone who was just canning that day for the first time--but oh well!  Maybe it will get more people into canning.  Plus, they asked me if I would be willing to can stuff so they could come photograph it and I just looked out the window at my frozen garden, gray skies, laughed, and said it was late October and I was done for the season!  So I guess they went with someone who was willing to go to the grocery store and make a mess.  :-) 

Anyway, I am not linking to the full article for privacy reasons (if you're friends with me on Facebook I posted it there), but here is the bit that has to do with me:

"For Rachael (last name), canning is less about food and more about family. From start to finish, her children are a part of the process. They help pick the seeds, weed and harvest, and their little fingers are eager to help when the canning process begins.
"Working together for a couple of hours, peeling peaches or smashing strawberries gives us a forum to talk and teach our children not just about food, but whatever it is on our mind," said the 28-year-old mother of four. "We're raising children, not just vegetables."

Canning camaraderie

While many new generation canners first got the inkling from being around it while growing up, some taught themselves or were taught by others.
[Rachael] and [other person] both had exposure to canning as children but didn't fully grasp it until they were young mothers.
"I learned a lot from other moms when I started doing it on my own," [Rachael] said. "We are taking the best of old-fashioned methods and making them work for the modern generations."
The end.  There is more but that's all I'm posting here.  Sorry!  :-)

And if you're concerned with journalistic integrity and proper citing of sources, please contact me at theirchronicles@gmail.com and I can give you the publication info.  There, have I covered my bases?

elsewhere

Over at Bloom today talking about my favorite vegetable and what to do with it (any guesses what it is?)

last one at Bloom

My final exercise post is up at Bloom today.  And since my sister Elise says it was too easy to miss the announcement in the last post, we're expecting our fourth baby in May.  (Happy, Elise? :-)

Interview for the Mormon Women Project

For the past four or five months, I've been working with the Mormon Women Project, which seeks to record the diversity and faith among the women of the LDS church.  If you're not familiar with the project, it is a collection of interviews (which we were just told will eventually be harvested for the Church Archives, which I think is so exciting!) with women all over the globe.

This week's interview is one I conducted with one of the women I admire most.  About five minutes after I first met Catherine, I thought, "This is what I want to be like when I grow up."  She is brilliant, witty, spunky, courageous, and very chic.  She has also had some incredibly difficult life experiences and come through them with so much faith, grace and dignity. 

It was an incredible act of courage for her to share her life story.  (I don't know that I would have been able to in her place--I cried throughout the last half of the interview.  So professional, right?!) 

I would appreciate it SO much if you would take a moment to not only read the interview, but to leave a comment--this was something that was difficult for her to do, and I would just love to have a whole bunch of kind and supportive comments.  Please. :-)

Oh, and since I didn't ever link it yesterday, you can read my latest exercise post at Bloom here. 

elsewhere

Over at Bloom again today on exercise.  I find this somewhat ironic since I had to give myself a serious pep talk to crawl out of bed this morning for a freezing-cold 6 am run.  Nothing quite like being scared silly by waving grasses and blowing leaves--talk about adrenaline!

guest posting at Bloom

Today I'm over at Bloom with another exercise posting--check it out here.

guesting at Bloom

So excited to be guest posting again today at Bloom!  Today's post is the first of a five-part series on creating an exercise habit--check it out!

And if you're coming over from Bloom, welcome!  :-) 

And speaking of exercise, guess where I'm running 10 miles tomorrow...the Chicago lakeshore!  I am SO excited!!  (Is it really goofy to be excited about that?)

PS

have you been over to Bloom this morning?  I was happily surprised to see that a couple of my favorite recipes had been featured there today. 

elsewhere

read me here today on starting your garden!