The Best Blog Posts of 2016

The Highest Rated Articles for 2016

I can't believe it's nearly March! Again! Time sure does seem to fly these days. Now is as good a time as any to look back at 2016 to reflect on what was in order to see just where it is we're going. Last year was our 2nd full year here in our little farm in South Georgia and the year of the chicken! Farmer Chris built that incredible chicken coop for our flock of six girls - Big Bird, Laverne, Shirley, Loner, Pretty, and Baby Bird. All the ladies started laying in late August / early September! We even experienced a mini molt with a few of them. I haven't bought eggs since August and that is awesome!

It gets more and more challenging to come up with content for the blog and have functional internet to post it! As a family without an iPhone by choice, we don't walk around with a camera in our hands to document every detail of our lives as it appears many people do (just scroll through your Facebook feed). We bake breads, cook meals from scratch, feed chickens, collect eggs, craft handmade items, manufacture soaps and shampoos, plow fields or plant nearly every day of the year. I'd love to hear from my readers - each post has a comment box at the bottom of the page - please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, let me know what you'd like to see or learn about!

Our little blog has had more than 5,000 since it's launch in late 2013!! Nearly 2,000 visitors stopped by to visit this website in 2016 alone! Wow! Thanks for the visits! Most of our readers are in the US, but also people in Russia, France, Portugal, and Germany have read our posts. I'd love to hear from more of you about what information you'd like to see more of on The Simple Life. If you see a blog post you just love, feel free to share it with your friends - don't keep it a secret! ☺

Here are the Top 5 blog posts from The Simple Life in 2016!

Ranked by Google based on the # of visitors. Be sure to check out each article & share your faves!

#5...Mmmmm! In Georgia, pecans are king so if ya got 'em, eat 'em! This post with photos and the recipe for my Georgia Butter Pecan Cookies got a lot of attention. Make these and you will too!

#4...The first peak of the 2016 garden was Garlic stems popping up! We learned a lot of growing garlic last year and in fact, planted the 2017 crop in late October of 2016 for a May - July 2017 harvest. The current garlic has been up and green stemmed for many months by now! 

#3...Canning! The first day of summer included a quick update about the chicken coop, harvesting potatoes and other delicious produce from the garden, and my canning work and plans. This year we sure hope to do even more canning! And we still have beautiful preserved veggies in jars to eat - the pantry is full but the cache is dwindling. 

#2...Our second most viewed article from 2016 is one of my personal favorites! Childhood Creeks captured images of our son (photo cred to my sweet friend & pro photographer, Dallas of Freckles Photography). A great memoir of those carefree summer days of childhood playing outside - a good read if I do say so myself!

And the top #1, most read post out of all the articles posted in 2016...

A Slow Paced Life outlines the beauty of a slower life spent outside, in the garden, in the woods, with less connection to technology and less hustle and bustle and fewer trips all over God's creation in the car. From my perspective, we live in a culture that glorifies busyness (and of course telling everyone all about on all the social media outlets). There is benefit and refreshment in slowing down, listening to the quiet of your own heartbeat, holding hands with the one you love, building something with your own two hands, watching the clouds, and just reflecting and thinking introspectively. Just slow it down, enjoy the moments, it'll all go by too quickly and it isn't a race to the finish line. ❤

The Top Three Blog Articles of All Time!

Because The Simple Life blog has been live on the internet for more than three years now, I like to take a look and see the top articles of all time! Here ya go:

#3...Cold Frame, published over time during the first months of 2014, this article won top post awards in 2014 and 2015. It's a pictorial review of Farmer Chris's building, installing, planting, and growing in a cold frame at the NC house. It is such a great project to help extend your growing season if you live somewhere with colder temperatures! Check it out and if you have a cold frame or similar project, I'd love to see it! Share in the comments at the bottom of this article.

#2...Childhood Creeks was one of our 2016 top five posts. Includes some beautiful photos from Dallas at Freckles Photography and a reminder of how our kids need to put down the digital devices and go outside to play. You only get this one chance to be a kid!

And the #1 all time most read blog post from The Simple Life is...

A Slow Paced Life, published here in 2016, beat out previous year's top posts. It's one of my all time favorites as well. A heartfelt, personal article lauding the slower paced country life. No matter where you live you can find a way to slow it down, stop rushing, and find a more satisfying way of life.

Please be sure to check out all this year's winners by clicking the link provided in the article (above). If you enjoy our blog, be sure to follow us so you don't miss anything and also use the comment boxes following every blog post to let us know what you like, what you want to see more of, and if you have questions, suggestions, comments, whatever - we'd just love to hear from you. 

Thanks for stopping by! ~Ramsey

You Cannot Reap, If You Do Not Sow

You cannot reap if you do not sow. Autumn in Georgia. Harvest time. Thanksgiving. So thankful for the life we have, the earth, the river, the warm sun, the pine trees, and blue skies as far as the eye can see. Peace, love, laughter and contentment. There is nothing better that we can reap while we're here on this planet.

Desperately Seeking Rain

Remember the post about Childhood Creeks? Go check it out to remind yourselves of the creek filled to capacity with flowing waters that our son enjoyed playing and splashing in. Go on, look!

Now this is what that very same creek looks like right now:

Drought is taking its toll all over the US. We haven't had rain since early October. The North Carolina and the north Georgia mountains have more than 15,000 acres in flames. We are praying for those people, homes, animals, even the trees. Some hundred+ years of vegetation burned to ash. I pray for the lives and safety of the firefighters attempting to battle these blazes.

Staring at the dry, empty creekbed brought to mind times in my life in which I experienced a drought. No maybe not a personal lack of rain, but a dry spell of life.

Life is meant to be lived abundantly with great relish, celebration, and thanksgiving. It's so easy to live so fast, in such a rush and give so much of ourselves away to work / career, education, church, organizations, friends, family, even to our own children that we find that we have nothing left for ourselves. Where did that other me go? You know the fun, spirited, creative girl with dreams of grandeur and a wild side?

We get so busy with the routine, to–do list, and errands and what we think we should be doing, that we can easily lose track of those little things that bring fulfillment to our lives. Sometimes we must make the time to nurture our inner child, our internal dreamer, and remember all those things that ignite our spirit and soul. 

What was the name of your imaginary friend as a child? When was the last time you lost hours of time doing something you enjoy? When is the last time you played? When is the last time you laughed so hard you fell out of your chair?

Don't let the world dictate what's important to you. Avoid the traps that throw you off track or make you forget those old dreams. It’s difficult to put these things into action. If you aren't intentional about doing these things for yourself, no one else is going to remind you. The kids aren't going to say "hey mom, take some time off of doing all those fantastic things for me...you go on and do something nice for yourself." Nope they will not say that (ever).

Purposefully set aside some time for yourself. Go on a picnic, run wild with your dogs, go find secret gardens or mysterious caves in your backyard, build a treehouse, climb a tree, seek solitude among rocks and trees in a wilderness or state park, go camping, wish on a star, eat cake, watch the leaves glisten in the sunlight, read in your favorite spot, get to know yourself, revive your inner dreams, wishes, and childhood ambitions. Remember who you were, who you wanted to be, and bring that back into who you are and have become. Harness the dreams you may have set aside or forgotten to inspire a life less busy, a life less empty, a life less dry. 

Invest in yourself to find your life's balance. The rains will fall again on the earth, in the mountains, into the creek just like your cup of life can be refilled with love, laughter, light and harmony. We can't be our best to those little kids, bosses, spouses, friends, PTA...unless we balance our lives to live with abundance and joy and remember the wishes and dreams of our authentic selves.

I'm thankful for the balance, the peace, the contentment in my life and the people in it who inspire me to be the best me I can be and that includes knowing who I am, what I need, and what my life means in my terms so that I can be the best in all my roles. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Cheers,

Ramsey

Like this one? Here's some other posts I think you might enjoy too:

• Childhood Creeks (yeah, read it again! It's good!) 😊
• Slow Pace of Life
• Teamwork
• Farm Heart
• Take Time to Smell the Basil

What is Temporary Will Fade Away

Y'all the sun rose this morning just as it did yesterday and a billion days before that. I am no different than I was yesterday; are you? The world isn't even any different. The sky is still blue, the grass is still green, the chickens are still laying eggs, and God is still in charge of this motley little planet. 

The world needs less fear, anger, and hate and more love, kindness, friendship, and compliments. Forget the election. Be sure you smile, laugh with your friends, hug your children, bring lunch to someone at your office, give out a McDonald's card to a homeless person, call or visit someone who may be lonely, sit on a river bank and breathe in fresh air.

Nothing is different; nothing has changed. Tomorrow the sun will rise again just like it will (hopefully) another few billion times.

-I've read the end of the book! Good triumphs over evil every time! Be good to others & be nice to yourself, Ramsey

If you enjoyed this post, check out a few of my favorites:  Childhood Creeks, Teamwork, Shelling Peas, Success, Refocus & Reprioritize

Take Time to Stop & Smell the Basil

Stop & Smell the Basil

Life is terribly fast and short. We live in a society that pushes us to rush through the days. I read humorous posts about friends running themselves ragged to work, hauling kids from lessons to practices to games to parties and appointments and activities or school, running errands, handling life, feeding the dogs, shopping. A life in which we spend two or three or more precious hours of our lives sitting in traffic on an interstate going nowhere - just to get home from work. Every. Day. (Include that time in your salary per hour and see what that does to your calculations!)

It seems we don't value our quiet time, our personal time, down time, and relaxation time anymore. It appears that we must go, do, conquer, and post it on Facebook for the world to applaud our busy hamster wheel accomplishments. How does all this rushing and running and being pulled in multiple directions all at one time help us?

If you’re feeling stressed, busy, harried, anxious, frazzled, exhausted, rundown or just plain ol’ tired. Stop for a minute. Take a deep breath. We usually feel those things when our life is out of balance. If you aren’t taking time to nurture yourself, care for yourself, rest, relax, rejuvenate or simply enjoy yourself and laugh for a little bit. Then stop what you’re doing, whatever else you have to do today – do you really HAVE to do it? (Yes? Okay well continue on, but come back when you’re done with that.)

As women, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends – as women we tend to care take for everyone else. All the time. The thing is if you never take care of your own self then you won’t be able to take care of those other people who count on you – the kids, spouses, clients, bosses, family, friends in our lives. What does the flight attendant tell us on the plane (do you pay attention to that boring lifesaving stuff?!) You have to put the oxygen mask on your face before you can help those around you.

Set an appointment with yourself. Take a time out or schedule a day or an hour later this week to just sit and smell some metaphorical flowers, go for a walk, dig in a garden, stroll through a cornfield or a nature trail, sit under a tree, perch in your backyard, lay back at gaze at the clouds or cuddle up and watch the stars, go for a bike ride or walk the dog. Write a poem, sing a song, do a dance, hum a little tune. Whatever. Put down your phone, turn it off, and spend an hour with you, yourself, and you! Take some me, myself, and I time to reconnect with the person you’ll spend your entire eternity with: You.

Be your best YOU & be nice to yourself,
Ramsey

Big Chickens Lay Big Eggs

We are so blessed with eggs here at the farm! Not only do we have plenty for ourselves, we get to give or sell some to our neighbors too. 

The picture with three eggs shows (from left to right) a white store-bought egg, a Big Bird egg, and another of one of our girls' eggs - very typical of the normal medium-sized brown egg we get daily. Except from Big Bird.


This big girl weighs in at more than 13 pounds of chicken meat. Her feet are huge! She towers over most of the black birds and seems to eat non-stop. 

And she's our only hen to have laid the mythical double-yoker! In fact, she's given us a few of them. Our seven-year-old son thinks it's incredible and declared that he only wants to eat Big Bird eggs from now on. Yeah. Okay. Sure. 


Every hen has a fairly distinct egg shell pattern and egg shape. They are quirky in that they like to lay their egg in the same place day after day. Loner Bird still lays her eggs in a little nest she remakes each day on the floor inside the coop. The other girls all have their favorite nest box. 

Each egg is facinating and unique - a tiny organic work of art. They are beautiful. And delicious! It's so exciting to grow your own food and raise animals that provide more food for our family!

Get on out there & find what excites you, ignites your spirit, awakens your passion! Live life as though it may end soon - because it might! Live your own life, don't worry with what other people say or think you should do. Live your best life. Be your best YOU! 

Love, 
Ramsey

The Finished Deluxe Chicken Cottage

Finally I have gotten to the photos of the coop! 

Construction / groundbreaking began on May 18. 


The girls moved into the run around June 18 and got moved into the coop side of the Deluxe Chicken Cottage about a month after that. 


We put all the finishing touches on the coop and it was officially complete on August 14! 

So here are the first released photos of the completed Ramsey Farms Deluxe Chicken Cottage! 

Remember you can see all the coop pics right here and also pics of our chicks and other fun stuff at the Facebook page.

 Thanks for dropping by the blog!

The Ramsey Farms Deluxe Chicken Cottage!

What Do You Feed Chickens?

Laverne chilling on the temporary roost in the run

We love our chickens! Who knew they'd be so much fun?! Really they are fun to sit by the chicken coop in a shady spot and laugh at their crazy antics, they greet you with such admiration and idol worship, they are gorgeous creatures to look at, you can pet them and hold them (someone told me the other day she used to have a chicken that would just hop up in her lap!)...ummmmmm plus they give you food i.e. eggs!

Finding eggs is the trophy of chicken ownership of course. Each egg is unique in size, shape, shell color and design. I've enjoyed a little chicken-study the past few weeks as the egg laying began to figure out just which of our six girls was laying which egg. I'm a little nerdy that way, but it's been a fun endeavor and now I'm the resident expert on "who laid this egg?!" A title I've really always dreamed of. LOL Yesterday was our first half dozen day - all six hens laid an egg yesterday! The final one to lay (I feel sure it was Shirley) dropped her first egg several days ago and it takes a few egg cycles to get regular. Our Black Stars should lay about every day taking one day off every week or so. Big Bird, the yellow Red Ranger might only lay every third day give or take. At least that's her M.O. so far and heavier birds tend to be less prolific layers. The Black Star variety were bred to lay daily.

Once they awaken at sunlight, these funny birds spend their day eating, drinking, scratching, dirt bathing, egg laying, and general chicken silliness. And pooping. Oh yeah, don't forget that - they seem to poop all the time. But all that vitamin-rich chicken poop can go straight into the compost (unlike other fresh manure) and composted for our garden. So they are like little wild squawking compost machines! It all begins with commercial layer feed.

The girls have all day access - an all you can eat buffet - to their commercial layer feed with it's 15% protein and high calcium to help with the formation and production of eggs. Without this stuff, we could make our own but you want to ensure a healthy flock and this is a key step in that. Much of the commercial feed also has medication to help prevent common bird issues.They also have all day access to water in their run.

However, just like all animals, they love food and treats. And just like all pets, chicken owners want to give their girls yummy snacks in appreciation for all those eggs! My girls see me coming with a bucket and it gets loud and rowdy up in the chicken run - all of them hollering and singing and declaring their deservingness of a snack! These girls love acorns, blackberries, muscadines (unripe, ripe, peels only, and dried), strawberries, pears, apples, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, basil flowers, acorns, marigolds - all healthy, nutritious snacks if given in moderation. They also love bread and cooked pasta but don't get much of it since it lacks much nutrition. (One cannot live on junk food alone, even if they are a chicken!) There are a lot of other great food treats chickens may safely have and I'll be working on getting them some fun, delicious recipes!

This is a gigantic zucchini that hid from us in the garden until it was way past the size we want to eat. So instead of just tossing it in the compost, I scooped it out and ran the pulp through the food processor along with some other veggies like cucumber and squash ends. Added the puree back to the zucchini shell and topped it with breadcrumbs, chicken feed, and dried marigold flowers. Garnished with leftover corn on the cob (unsalted, unbuttered) for a perfect chicken snack feast! Needless to say, it did not last long!

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Hope you have a wonderful week full of rich experience. Be nice to yourself ! 

Cheers,
Ramsey 

Canned Goods & Eggs

The photo shows some of my canning work this summer! Everything was grown right here with our own hands, except the strawberry jam. We drove about 50 minutes to another farm to pick the red lucious berries to make our homemade strawberry preserves! It goes fast, but we have a few more jars left that I'm hoarding for winter. Nothing better than the taste of fresh Georgia strawberries in the dead of winter!

We (grew) and canned potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, peas, squash, two types of cucumber pickles, spicy squash pickles, corn, and squash relish! We were able to also freeze a lot of our farm produce. Our freezer is full of onions and more tomatoes, peas, green beans, and corn. I was also able to dry several jars of dill and basil so far!

There's nothing better than a meal with a table full of your own homegrown veggies, herbs, bread, and now...eggs! YAY! YES! The girls (or just one) started laying Thursday or Friday! We believe the one we call Loner Bird laid one on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Baby Bird made a deep cozy nest in one of the nest boxes and about two hours later, there was an egg in there! The one we call Pretty Bird made a nice little nest in another nest box this afternoon and I thought for sure we'd find another one, but at last check around 7:15 or so there were no more and it was getting dark.

Progress on the run section of the Chicken Cottage

Chickens lay eggs about once every 25 hours unless it's dark outside. So we expect at least three more eggs tomorrow and hopefully one of the other girls will start laying tomorrow as well! The first three we found were in a corner of the coop, two were pushed under the straw, and one was actually cracked (probably from laying on the floor and got stepped on or kicked by a bird). The broken one looked more white, but all the others have been a light, light brown nearly pink. One had white speckles like splatter paint. They were all very small in comparison to the large grade-A eggs from the store, but I suspect the eggs will grow larger as the girls get more proficient (and bigger themselves).

Anyway, it's so egg-citing (lol) to finally have a few eggs from our girls! WOW! It's exactly what I have been dreaming of...a little piece of dirt in the middle of the countryside, a garden, some chickens, and farm fresh eggs! Here's to dreams! Keep dreamin' them and keep reachin' for them!

Dreams to Goals to Reality! You can't there without a plan...dream it all day long, but until you set solid, actionable goals it'll always stay just a daydream! 

Have a beautiful day,
Ramsey

Success

Dreams to Goals to Reality! 

Success does not happen accidentally. You don't just accidentally trip over the finish line at the Olympics and win a gold medal. 

Real success - living full, content, happy lives - comes through strategic planning, hard work, dogged persistence, indelible determination, and an unwavering faith in ourselves and God's plans for our lives. 

What do you dream of? Is your life aiming towards a personal dream or are you just wandering aimlessly through life hoping to just get by? Are you settling for less than?  Success will not happen by accident. Get off your ass and do something!

Cheers, Ramsey

Lemons, Romas, Beefsteaks, Muscadines & Chickens...Oh My!

The Meyer Lemon tree my mom gave me for Easter is doing well! There are about five or six green, golfball-size lemons on the little tree right now! Though I don't expect to actually get any edible fruit until next year. I need to transplant the tropical tree near to the herb garden just to get it out of its plastic pot.

The garden is slowly waning in the 110-degree summer. We still have some potatoes and onions in the ground that will all come up in the next week and plenty of roma tomatoes There are a few sandandy peas drying on the plants as well as basil seed drying to a crispy brown on the plant. A few rogue overgrown cucumbers will delight the chickens plus they will get a ton of dried marigold flowers sometime soon as we prepare to till under the front garden for the next planting.

We've canned or frozen what feels like a ton of tomatoes! We've enjoyed them fresh cooked or raw, fried green, roasted, stuffed, baked, grilled, sauteed, peeled and sliced for jars or freezer bags, pureed, made into salsa, pasta sauce, and ketchup! Next up will be some tomato soup to can for the pantry to enjoy later this winter.

Only a few more weeks and it will be muscadine season round here! The chickens are already enjoying lots of fallen grapes as snacks, but they do prefer the softer raisin-like texture or purple ripe texture as opposed to those green ones. We pick them off the ground by the bucket full for the birds to enjoy! A raccoon and other little animals love to eat them too so hopefully there will be plenty left for us. Last year I think we made about 20 some jars of jelly. To make at least that will be nice and feels like "free" food when you didn't even have to plant it and grow it!

Speaking of chickens, check out the Ramsey Farms Facebook page tomorrow for more construction-stage photos of the deluxe chicken cottage. They gals are 17 weeks old tomorrow, but so far no eggs. We placed two golf balls as egg decoys in the nesting boxes in the back of their coop as helpful hints. They could lay at any time now, but it may still be as many as seven weeks before we get fresh eggs. Stay tuned on that!

...Until then, smile as much as you breathe, wear sunblock on your face, give generously, and dance like no one is watching!  

Cheers,Ramsey

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear sister today! She's such an inspiration in my life and I'm glad we have one another for when we need strength, craziness, live musicals, tears, ideas, inspirations, or memories. Love ya MSP! 

A Slow Paced Life Means Lots of Hard Work

We did trade in long, daily commutes, interstates, traffic jams, sirens, convenient stores, nearby hospitals and doctors, five or six Walmarts in a 20-mile radius for life in the country. A slower pace of life is how I billed it. Hahahahahahaha!

Though we don't spend hours commuting to city jobs on an interstate or wasting time idling in snarled traffic or awakened in the middle of the night to firetrucks speeding down a city street near our house. We don't spend hours running around from errand to errand, or activity to activity, heck, we rarely even eat outside of a homecooked meal. I haven't had a manicure in more than two years. However, I'm not sure it's quite a "slow paced life".

Farmer Chris jamming out with the old jam box keeping cool as best he can

We spend most of our days outside in a field (Farmer Chris) or a combination of writing at the computer and in the kitchen (yours truly). Though I do spend ample amounts of time outside working in my herb garden, planting, weeding, harvesting, and helping Chris in the gardens and he spends a good deal of time helping out inside or tackling indoor maintenance projects.

Temperatures in late April topped 100 degrees in the afternoon. But sitting indoors in the AC isn't an option when there are seeds to be planted, weeds to be pulled, trellises to build, chicken coops to construct, grass to mow, and gardens to tend. And the trash just doesn't get magically picked up at a curb either and the dogs won't feed themselves and the chickens sure go through a ton of water!

Life is much slower in many ways, but still busy in much more fulfilling and gratifying ways. Our children get to have both parents at home each day when they get home from school. We eat dinner together as a family every single night. We read, play games together, work together, enjoy one another's company, help each other, respect one another. We aren't hurried by the rest of the world or by outside schedules or demands. We are urged on by our needs, desires, and dreams.

Self-sufficiency, farm life, rural life is not easy. We didn't move out to the middle of nowhere to kick back and watch TV. We work hard to produce our family's vegetables, fill our table with home-baked breads and desserts, fresh veggies, and meats from the local abattoir. The hens just moved into their beautiful new chicken run and within a couple of months we'll add fresh eggs to our table. We make jams and jellies, pickles and relish, canned green beans and potatoes, 24-hour chicken and beef broth and everything we eat is homemade. I buy cans of tomatoes from the grocery store until we have our own stock, but other than that there are no cans or boxes in our pantry. Today I will make up new batches of bodywash, shampoo, and conditioner. I love concocting our own bath and body products using natural ingredients and herbs from my garden. If something needs building or repairing, we do that ourselves rather than calling in a plumber or contractor. It's amazing the things we've learned to do simply by trying.

Me, checking for green beans

We see the sunrise and set most every day. We all work hard, play hard, and sleep soundly. We are blessed with a clear, planetarium-like view of the stars and planets each night. Deer, turkey, and hogs run through our woods along with armadillos and opossums and we often have up close encounters with wildlife. A river and a creek run alongside our property and trees as far as the eye can see. The sounds that surround us now are bird song, cattle lowing, crows calls, crickets, tree frogs, bull frogs, river splashing and the wind rustling the leaves. Oh yeah and plenty of gunfire from hunters off in the distance of the thousands and thousands of wooded acres around us. Best of all, we have time to think, to reflect, to just be with one another and enjoy this life.

It's a long ride to the store, but I wouldn't trade this life for anything!

~

Photo credit: Freckles Photography

Other posts I think you may enjoy: The Beginning, You Can't Build Your Dreams Stuck in Debt, Childhood Creeks and the Top 2015 Posts.

Childhood Creeks

Do you remember the creek of your childhood? I sure do. Ours was in our backyard with a huge "jumping rock" and secret tunnels. Maybe your's was a creek or a river, pond, lake, swamp, or even the ocean?

I think that little stream that ran through a culvert and through our woods then through a couple of tunnels under driveways is called Avon or Duhart Creek, but to us, my sister and me, it was just our creek. We spent many hours exploring, jumping in, skipping rocks, playing in the water, creating worlds of magical mysteries and stories.

Childhood should be full of creeks. Fewer video games, more creeks and rivers. Our six-year-old son has loved water all his life, swam in the bathtub as an infant and now loves his backyard creek. You can bet that if he's getting his feet wet, he will "accidentally" fall in and be soaking wet within three and a half minutes. Besides when it's 102 degrees in the shade in April, a kid has to find a way to cool down and there are only so many cherry-cola popsicles!

There are sea monsters and hurricanes and shipwrecks in the imagination of a six-year-old in our creek. There is insane splashing, jumping, water dancing, and rapids riding. There is much laughter and squealing and giggling and hollering and smiling.

Could there be snakes or hidden dangers? Well, of course there are. Where are there not hidden dangers? But would our kids be better off stuck in their rooms watching a screen? Or outside playing in the creek amidst the sea monsters, pirates, shipwrecks and buried treasure? Those will be the memories on which they look back on fondly as adults. Those will be the moments of genuine, pure joy that will buoy them in life. Those will be the moments in which they learn how to live - full of joy, laughter, creek stomping, sea monsters and buried treasure.

We can learn a lot by watching kids play in the creek. Remind ourselves to do something simply for the sheer joy of it, to laugh out loud, to splash ourselves and our friends, to fall down, to play outside, to use our imaginations, to talk with our inner self, to get a little sand in between our toes.

This summer get outside, play in the dirt, take a hike, fly a kite, run through a field of wildflowers, splash in the creek, chase lightening bugs, catch frogs, float down a river, watch the stars. Maybe you don't have a creek, but find something outside to spark your joy, make you feel alive inside. Put down the phones and follow your children outside (or push them out the door) to find a little simple joy.

All photos in this post by my dear friend, Dallas at Freckles Photography who finds her joy in the stands of a ballfield and behind the lens of a camera.

###

Other suggested posts: Slow It Down, Work Hard Play Hard, Teamwork, Shelling Peas, Ridding Your Life of Negativity

Photos Around the Farm

My friend since the sixth grade, Dallas came to visit us a few weeks ago. She's an awesome woman, genuine, enthusiastic and in love with life! She's got a great husband and two active boys, a full time job and a passion for photography. I am so grateful she could make the time to travel four hours south to see me and enjoy a food-filled fun weekend at the farm! And bonus...did I mention she has a talent and a passion for photography. Photo-artistry actually! 


So I've only unpacked a few of the 77 final pictures of our weekend shoot, but they are awesome! We haven't had a professional family shot made with all four of us since...well since there were only three of us and those were made inside a Walmart photo center. (I.e. not photo-artistry at all.)

So here's a few of the "around the farm" pics Dallas took! This is the first "public" reveal, so enjoy them! :) Chickens, dogs, potato flowers, blackberry stained hands and all...

Photo Credit: Freckles Photography

https://www.facebook.com/Freckles-Photography-214368251931730/?fref=ts