I can’t believe it’s aready time for another Things I Love post! February is almost over, and March is just around the corner. I don’t know about you, but although I always look forward to winter, I ALWAYS look forward to spring. Warmer days, flowers blooming, birds chirping, playing outside… I can’t wait!
Anyway, I’m back today to share some of my favorite things from the past month with you. As always, thanks for letting me share bits of life with you. Without you, Growing Up Herbal would not be the same.
xo, Meagan
Favorite Project
We’re constantly fixing things up around our house, trying to make it more of what we want it to be, and our kitchen countertops have been our most recent project.
When we first began fixing up our house four years ago, we only focused on the big projects… the ones we needed to complete so we could move in. When it came to the kitchen, we painted and distressed the cabinets, built an island, and tiled the floors. Eventually, we wanted to replace all the countertops with wooden ones. We did a test countertop with our island, and after 6 months, it was apparent it wasn’t going to hold up. So, Dean rebuilt it using different types of wood and a different technique, and a year later, it’s holding up very well. So now, it’s time to do the rest of the countertops, and I’m so excited! I’m really ready for the kitchen to finally match!
Not only are we finishing up the wooden countertops, but we replaced the sink with a sturdier one, we added a new dishwasher (yes, I’ve been washing dishes by hand for four years!), and we’re adding a tile backsplash. I can’t wait to share more of this project with you… maybe in a separate House To Home blog post. We’ll see!
Favorite Book
My herbalist friend, Rosealee de la Forêt, recently wrote a book, and it’s A-MAZ-ING, y’all. Seriously. I’m not just saying that either because I have a lot of herbal books, and I don’t even make money by telling you about this one. I’m simply telling you because it’s a great book.
For the longest time, I had been searching here and there, looking for a way to make herbs click with me. You know, just something simple so the vastness of “learning herbs” wasn’t so vast. Does that make sense?
Several years ago, I took a course from Rosalee that changed the way I viewed herbs. It actually took the focus off of studying herbs and what everyone else says about them and forced me to taste the herbs myself and to see how I felt about them. Now Rosalee has done it again. She’s written a book called Alchemy of Herbs, and it’s just as good as her course… maybe even better because I can pick it up in my two little hands and read it without logging onto the computer.
That’s all I’m going to say about this book for now, but I’m planning to give you some details about it in my Letters To Natural Mama emails and in an upcoming blog post. Until then, you can learn more about her book here and the really cool bonuses you can get when you pre-order it. I’m on the list already!
Favorite Photo
Pictures like this one simply make my heart happy. I love seeing Dean with his boys!
Now that the boys are getting older, they’re able to go with Dean to do more things… just the guys. They go to the hardware store to buy things for projects around the house, and then they come home and work on it together. A couple of weeks ago he had them fixing a leaky sink in our bathroom! They’re getting big so fast, and although it makes me happy to see them growing into fine young men, it also makes me a little sad.
There are no babies in the house, and I’m so used to always having a baby. Part of me feels a bit more free now that the boys are getting bigger and we can do more things that we couldn’t with a little one, but there are days that I miss carrying a tiny baby around in my handmade Moby wraps, nursing them off and on throughout the day, and watching all the milestones they go through in the first year. I wonder if I’ll ever stop missing those things, though. Do you, mama? Do you ever get used to not having a baby? Will I miss homeschooling my boys once they’re all grown up even though I have days now when I wish it was already over? Will I miss having them running through the house, being loud, acting goofy, and taking care of their boo-boos when they’re off on their own? I imagine so.
Sorry, y’all. I totally didn’t mean to get all sentimental and sappy on you here. This picture does make me very happy, but it also reminds me that the days are fleeting.
Favorite Memory
This month, Judah participated in his first spelling bee with the homeschool co-op that we’re a part of. He studied for three weeks and learned to spell around 100 words. He didn’t win the spelling bee, but he did an excellent job and had a lot of fun in the process. He stayed in for 11 rounds before going out on a word he knew. He was so bummed, but he’s decided he’s going to do it again next year to see if he can win.
I was totally nervous for him. I’m assuming this is normal for all mamas watching their kids do hard things that stretch them. Part of me wants to protect him from doing hard things or failing, but I know that will only hinder him. He needs to experience difficulties in order to be stronger. It’s just so hard watching it happen though! And this was just a spelling bee! Oh my word.
In the end, I was so proud that he attempted it. He worked REALLY hard at it, and did so well for his first time. Plus, he fun just being with his friends, and I think it’s actually caused him to enjoy spelling!
Favorite Person
This past month, my second child, Isaiah, turned 7 years old!
Between our immediate and extended families, we celebrated his birth on several occasions… which was a lot of fun for him! For his birthday we took him to Lowes so he could pick out a ton of gardening stuff. He’s really been itching to get outside and plant things lately so we bought him some seed starting supplies, a variety of vegetable and flower seeds, and pots to put his plants in once they’re ready to go outside. He’s really excited!
Isaiah is a great kid, y’all. He’s a bit wild, but he loves to learn and he has a kind, compassionate heart. He is definitely a joy to Dean and I, and we’re so grateful to be his parents!
If you want to read more about Isaiah and his personality as well as see some photos of him over the years as he’s grown, I shared some more about him recently in this post here.
Goals To Shoot For In March
Goals, goals, goals. Sometimes I feel like it would be nice to simply not have goals, but I know myself enough to know that I like working towards something. So… I got around to completing most of the goals I set for myself in February, but some things fell through the cracks. My Herb Folk launch has been pushed out until April (hopefully!) as there was a lot of behind-the-scense designing that I needed to have done. I did finish one of the books I wanted to read, we got all of our Valentine’s Day celebrating done, we’ve almost finished our kitchen remodle, I finished Gilmore Girls (tears), and Judah did great with his first spelling bee.
Okay, so, onto March goals.
This month I’d like to:
- Finish getting Herb Folk ready to go for it’s April launch
- Start some vegetable and flower seeds indoors with Isaiah
- Purchase some indoor plants for the house
- Paint and get outdoor containers ready
- Tile the kitchen backsplash
- Finalize the big parts of our August vacation to Maine (book house and rental car)
- Take the boys to a pottery class
- Get all of the boys spring and summer clothes bought and sorted
- Get ready for St. Patrick’s Day (fun homeschool lesson, art project, and green food recipes)
- Complete another unit of the Advanced Herbal Study course from the Herbal Academy
- Go fishing with the boys!
- Start planning for our spring/summer landscaping
Alright, friend. I hope you had a great February, and thank you SO MUCH for reading Growing Up Herbal!