Ok, hi!

Hi, guys! Sorry I've been gone so long! Way longer than I had planned. Why is it so hard to sit down and blog in the beginning of June?! Every year I can't imagine that I'll be too busy to sit at the computer and at least write a short post. But this year, I actually have a really good excuse.

The day after we got home from our vacation in Washington D.C. (which was awesome! we've got a little video to show you guys soon!) Grant got seriously injured while working here at camp. He was on the mower and a rock ricocheted off a tree and hit him square in his left eye. For awhile that day, we were afraid he wouldn't be able to see out of that eye again. We've been in and out of doctor appointments over the weekend and the past few days, and are so thankful to the Lord that the internal bleeding has stopped and everything appears to be healing. Grant is not in pain anymore and although his vision is still very hazy from the trauma, it's slowly improving each day. He's supposed to lay low this whole week to prevent pressure building in his eye, which could cause a re-bleed. Hadley and I have been keeping the shades pulled and the bright lights off, and we're trying to take good care of him. We'd love it if any of you guys would pray for us!

I won't post any pictures, just in case any of you have sensitive stomachs when it comes to eye stuff (that includes me), but if you want to get an idea of what's happening in Grant's eye you can google "hyphema." :) More soon! Just wanted to give you a little update.

Ok, bye!

Whew! What a week. It felt like it crept by soooo slowly, full of things that can't fit into a blog post, but somehow it's Friday already. This should be the last day of school for Grant, but it's not now- because of all those surprise snow days we got in April!

Well, my house feels... weird. There are clothes everywhere and a stroller on the table and still lots of food in our fridge and dirty dishes in the sink. Every year, when it's time to move out to camp for the summer, it's tough to know how to make a clean transition. I should have it down to a science, since this is our 6th year to do it, but I don't. What should we bring? Yes, pack some of our food, but not too much. No need to bring toilet paper, but remember to grab the laundry detergent and my favorite lamp. And the computer, bedding, and alarm clock. When do we stop life here and get out there? We still need to eat meals, but we need to be wrapping things up... but every year it gets figured out and all happens somehow! One year I even did it a mere 8 days after giving birth. That was... good, but I never want to do it again. :) Switching to camp life really is such a fun adventure. And working at Camp Shetek every summer of our married life has been such a blessing to us. Oh, and have I mentioned that I still haven't packed a thing! Ha! Today will be spent finishing up laundry, cleaning toilets, and deciding which clothes to bring out for the summer. Tomorrow morning: we move. Goodbye, house! I still can't believe it's really time. This year we get to have Grant's brother and his family come stay at our house while we're gone, so the house won't get as lonely and dusty. Yay!

Well, I better sign off and go tackle my messy bedroom. There are piles of clothes everywhere. I've just sort of stopped putting things away... since I knew they'd be packed soon :) Last post until we get to camp! See you out there!

All Out

Well guys, the 50 Promises memory cards are all gone! I've sold out and re-ordered about 5 times over the past few months, but I'm going to take a bit of a summer break and will wait to stock up again in the fall. Thank you to everyone who has been buying them up and sending me to the post office again and again! You guys helped my little shop reach from sea to shining sea- so awesome!! There were only a handful of states that I didn't hear from. Check the map below to see how y'all represented:

If you are one who would be interested in more 50 Promises after the summer is over, please let me know! It will help me when it's re-ordering time.

Moving on, I've got a bundle of new assignments on my plate for the upcoming weeks... plans and design work for my little sister's bridal shower, packing up our house and moving out to camp for the summer (Happening next week, but I cannot even think about it yet!), putting the finishing touches on the agenda for our Washington D.C. trip, a couple secret projects that you'll hear about later, doing a little devotional at a Ladies' Camp weekend retreat, and starting my typical camp responsibilities. So, rest assured, this "summer break" won't be an actual break. :) Summer is without a doubt the busiest time of year for me, but I'll still be popping in to blog and you can follow me on instagram to watch my summer adventures unfold! {@summerharms}

Thanks again, to all of you guys who have encouraged and supported me in my teeny shop venture this winter/spring! More soon!

Outside world

Who would believe only 2 weeks ago our yard had 6 inches of snow? And now the grass has already been mowed- twice.

We are still loving the newness of being able to go outside. I forget that it's an option and then Hadley will run over to the front door and I suddenly remember, "Oooh, it's not winter anymore! Let's go!" This morning we were out the door by 8:30 am. Hadley can't get enough of the outside world. She loves to help me water the flowers, blow bubbles, collect rocks, sit on daddy's shoulders while he mows, or cautiously watch the pigeons that hang out at the end of our driveway. I'm just spending every moment while we're out there being thankful for the sun and trying to store up enough vitamin D to last me through another 7 month winter next year. :)

What do you guys like to do outside? Any ideas for 2-year-olds are especially welcome! Hadley's other current favorite things: olives, her new booster seat, wearing shoes all the time, raw goat's milk (she begs for it), and drawing on her mini Magna-doodle.

P.S. Extremely grateful that my allergies seem to be getting better every year. Thank you, Lord! This time of year used to be rough for me, but ever since I stopped taking medications and started eating real, whole food (and way less sugar), they have radically improved!

Sugar cleanse: week 1

A few of my Instagram friends have been doing a 3-week sugar cleanse recently and last week I decided to join them. It's a great time of year to do it! And a good break-up with sugar was just what I needed. Why did I want to do it? Because I was feeling like I needed something sweet after every meal. And I wanted to stop the cravings for bananas and chocolate chips throughout the day. I want to be free to enjoy sweet stuff when I want to, but I don't want to be a slave to it! And I could feel that coming on. I also wanted to give my body a boost to fight a bug I've had for a couple weeks. Pathogenic bacteria feeds on sugar, so it's always nice to starve it out and replenish with plenty of good bacteria (via fermented foods and a probiotic supplement) when you're fighting something.

I wasn't sure about the rules of the 21 day cleanse my friends were doing, but maybe something like this? I decided I would just make up my own plan, since I know what my normal diet is already like and my own weaknesses. We don't have any actual white sugar in our house anyway, so I knew the main things I'd be cutting out were honey, maple syrup, and fruit.

Here's what my plan/rules look like:

1. No fruit for the first week. Then slowly add back in small amounts as snacks. (Still try to hold back on dates and raisins and other super-sweet dried fruits)
2. No baked sweets, no honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar for the whole 3 weeks.
3. Only eat whole grains that have been soaked or sprouted. (brown rice, quinoa, gluten-free sprouted oats)
4. No processed stuff. (For me, this meant tortilla chips.)
5. No peanut butter, gluten, soy, or conventional dairy. (I don't eat these things anyway, but just wanted to mention that they are avoided.)
6. Eat plenty of sauerkraut to stock up on probiotics.
7. Follow these rules when I'm at home. I knew I was going to be eating meals with other people during the 3-week period, so some small cheats would be inevitable. But I still skip things that are easy to avoid- like dessert and fruit salad.

Well. There you have it. It's been going really well! The first few days were tough. Last year, I did a sugar cleanse and didn't have anything sweet, even honey or fruit, for 4 months!!! So going into this, I thought it would be a breeze. Because I had all that practice last year, you know? Nope. It was so hard. Giving up fruit felt like a huge sacrifice. Every time I went to the kitchen I felt like I had nowhere to turn without fruit! But I figured out some options pretty quickly. If nothing else, doing a cleanse like this is good for me just to get out of my snack rut and remember how much variety we have in food. I don't need an apple every afternoon. I also quickly learned that I had to make heartier snacks, with whole grains and healthy fats, to keep my energy up. The things that really came to my rescue were:

• dirty rice with an egg on top
• quinoa with super-soft kale, garlic, and a fried egg (recipe below)
• warm brown rice with coconut oil, salt, and a drizzle of almond butter
• a cup of thick squash soup with grass-fed beef and rice
• almonds and cashews
• celery slathered with almond butter

Quinoa with tender kale, garlic, & a fried egg

1 T. coconut oil

1 egg

1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped

serving of soaked and cooked quinoa (directions below)

1/4 to 1/2 cup stewed kale*

*Rip kale leaves from the thick stems and rinse thoroughly. Place in a pot and cover with chicken broth, bring to a boil, and then turn to low. Let simmer for 20 minutes, or until very tender. 

In a small skillet, melt a tablespoon of coconut oil. Add soaked and cooked quinoa and stewed kale to the skillet and toss until warmed through. Chop one clove of garlic and add it to the pan. Lay a fried egg on top of everything. Season with sea salt and pepper.

How to soak and cook quinoa: Rinse 2 cups of quinoa under running water for at least 1 minute (it has a bitter coating). Add to a glass bowl and cover with 2 cups warm filtered water. Stir in 2 T. of lemon juice, whey, kefir, or raw cider vinegar. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours. Drain and rinse well. Add quinoa to a pot, pour water in until quinoa is covered by about 1/2 an inch and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and let simmer 15 to 18 minutes, or until water is absorbed. 

Overall I feel really good. Even in between meals! I always feel good when I'm eating nourishing food and keeping sugar in it's rightful place; as a treat. And I've gotten to the point now where I'm fine with just a bit of fruit here and there, so that's a good sign! How are you guys feeling about sugar lately? I think I may do this more often!

Mrs. Meyer's and the post that started it all.

I just received this lovely gift from my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. A bottle of rosemary (find this scent if you haven't already!) Mrs. Meyer's dish soap. This is what luxury looks like to me. And it even smells like luxury, which, if you were not aware, smells uncannily like an Aveda salon. As I look at this bottle perched on my sink, it has me reminiscing about how Mrs. Meyer's started me blogging 5 years ago. Yes, it's true. Have I ever told you before? Here's the story of how I started blogging.

One sunny September morning, in the fall of 2008, a young bride woke up in her new (old, tiny, quirky) apartment. The young bride was me. A blonder, less foodie-fanatic version of me. After breakfast (probably a bowl of sugar cereal), I sat at our old iMac computer googling Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products. I was new in town, a rookie homemaker, and newly moved far-far-away from the place that has all the answers, aka, Target. I didn't really know where you find things outside of Target, or which store in our teeny town would carry Mrs. Meyer's, but maybe I could find it online somewhere. My recently acquired cleaning responsibilities in my very own home were thrilling to me and I was ready to take them seriously. Dreams of a fully stocked cleaning bucket danced in my head.

I clicked on the next link on the google results page, not knowing that it would lead me to a land sparkling with possibilities. On the other end of that link was... a blog. It was this very post in fact:

I don't know if I had ever truly seen and read a real live blog before that morning. But what I saw, I loved. I wanted in. It was a blog meant for someone like me, talking about things I was interested in or soon would be. I made plans to come back the next morning to read more. She promised pretty things updated daily, which sounded like an invitation. Count me in. Jordan Ferney's space (which had a different design back then) was neat, clean, and smart. I loved how she shared tidbits from her life and experience as she listed out things she liked. It had everything necessary to captivate and convince me that starting my own blog was not only essential, it was overdue. Time was wasting and creating a blog became the day's priority.

I think I had my little bend in the blog world set up by the time Grant came home from work that day. When he sat down at his desk I proudly announced, "Well, I started a blog today." And he probably said something like, "Really? What are you going to write about?"

Good question, Grant. I'm still figuring that one out day by day.

ps. It's funny how my relationship with blogs has morphed over the years, from being a faithful drop-in to a regular reader to making friends in the comment box to Google Reader to a handful of favorite must-reads. Nowadays, my blog reading time is much shorter and my comment voice has been reduced to a whisper. But I'm happy with all of that, and glad for the things I've gleaned from blogging and reading blogs over the years. 

5 years married.

Last Friday (May 10) marked 5 years of marriage for Grant and me! Isn't that unbelievable? I can easily remember blogging about our 6 month anniversary, and now we're entering our 6th year. Crazy! Of course, time flies when you're having fun. And clearly, I am.

I'm such a different person now than I was 5 years ago, and I often catch myself wondering what it was about me that made Grant sure I was the one for him. He really liked that immature teenager who slept with music on every night and didn't like cilantro and counted calories and complained a lot? That's amazing. I've grown by leaps and bounds since being Grant's wife and have become better suited to being a good companion for him. He has grown a lot too. But something back then convinced us both that we were perfect together. It's so mysterious, and can only be attributed to the grace of God.

I also think about all the little incidents that had to happen just right for us to ever even meet. If my friends from youth group didn't know about this certain summer camp out of the hundreds of camps in Minnesota, if they hadn't asked me to go with them the summer of 2006, if Grant hadn't been working there during the week that I came, if I never overheard his name from the girls in my cabin, if Facebook hadn't been invented yet, if I had never asked him to be my Facebook friend, if he had never initiated our penpal relationship while he was living in California and I was in Nebraska... and so on. Man! It's a miracle that we ended up together.

I'm so thankful to the Lord for our marriage. I love Grant, and everyday I am still amazed that this is all real... I live with a man, a super handsome and smart man, we're best friends, we serve each other, we share everything, and we're going to be together forever?! It's evidence it is that His plan and timing are immeasurably better than anything we can ask or imagine.

God made moms!

Happy Mother's Day, mommies! 

What an awesome plan by our great God. I love that He designed moms and laid out how it's all going to work so beautifully. A mother. For each one of us. And I get to be one! Such a great grace from the Lord. I'm thankful to Him for giving me this gift, and thankful to my own mom, who shaped me. To Hadley, who made me a mom,  and to Judy, my wonderful mom by marriage, and to every mom who has helped me grow in grace and love Him better.

A couple years ago, before I became a mom, I wrote a few goals down on notecards- a few things that I wanted to strive to do when I became a mom.

Be gentle and patient.
Speak with a calm, matter-of-fact tone when I need to discipline.
Let your little ones see you pray.
Have a reputation for being cheery. 

They are good reminders to me today. And this year I'm adding Don't tune out. If you're a mom, I know you understand this. It's so easy to get distracted or sometimes even to want to be distracted. I pray the Lord will keep me passionate for mothering every day.