End of Summer – Harvest Moon Gratitude

The turn toward Autumn has me feeling the inward pull to reflect and give thanks for all that has come to pass this summer and since I began envisioning what we would accomplish this year at Imbolc (Feb. 2), the time to plant seeds of intention.

It has truly been a season of abundance — quite a bit of it unexpected — but we are so thankful for all that we have been able to accomplish.

I haven’t blogged about our life/farm in quite some time, but with all the changes and upcoming projects I think this is a nice time to share what we’re up to and the new dreams we have taking shape.

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Our Year on the Farm – 2015

I had fully intended to upload these photos to the blog, but mistakenly uploaded them to the main Light Footsteps website. Instead of doing everything all over again, I hope you’ll hop on over to see this post in its entirety – I think you’ll truly be inspired by our 2015 on the farm!
Come join us next year!

Light Footsteps

I’ve been taking these last days before the New Year to slow way down, reflect, and dream of what I’d like to manifest in the coming year. After the fast-paced preparation for the holiday season, this time of quiet reflection is essential and has been bringing me a lot of joy.

It makes me wonder — how can I keep this appreciation for quiet reflection alive throughout all of next year?

Today I began going through some of our photos from the year and I have to say: none of the reflecting I’ve done comes close to the way I feel after going through our photos.

Wow –  we have accomplished A LOT.  It’s so hard to realize all that is going on when you’re in the midst of life.  Looking back, I feel such joy at what we manifested this year and the beauty of our life.  I couldn’t…

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Three Ways to Feel More Connected with Nature

Today you can find a guest post about my three favorite ways to feel more connected with nature on Dawn Gettig’s blog.  She’s an amazing and inspirational yogini, artist, and feng shui practitioner who will be sharing some of her favorite feng shui tips with us here in a few days.

Please hop on over to my article on her blog: Three Ways to Feel More Connected with Nature.

We also love to connect with nature by visiting some of our favorite natural places.  Holden Arboretum had its annual Arbor Day Festivities over the weekend and we had a wonderful time searching for wildflowers (I found some gorgeous bloodroot and twin leaf!) and playing in Buckeye Bud’s adventure area for kids.  Continue reading

The most wonderful time of year….(spring!)

Each season has its highlights, but I don’t think there’s anything quite so wonderful as Spring.
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Everything has me speaking in exclamation points.

Did you HEAR the spring peepers?!?!” I bound through the house asking Mr. Light Footsteps while doing a few twirls.

“You wouldn’t BELIEVE the plants we saw on our walk today!” I exclaim as I fail to contain my enthusiasm and speak through jumps.

I doubt everyone gets quite so excited about such spring-things, but these are the finer points in life that I believe in celebrating.  Continue reading

Scenes from (Early) Spring

It’s starting to feel more and more like Spring on the farm!

…And it’s starting to feel more and more like we actually live on a farm!

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Maple production has continued.  We finished our 3rd batch this past weekend and it was the best one yet.  This week we’re in the midst of the fastest rushing sap we’ve seen so there will be at least a 4th (and probably a 5th) installment of our syrup!

We’ve tried boiling the sap down a number of ways – a grill, a rocket stove, and this last time we used a portable electric cooktop that we placed outside.

I think the rocket stove was the most fun, but we had a hard time keeping the sap boiling and it took a lot longer than it should have (like, 10 hours!).  We finished the last bit of sap on the kitchen stove and ended up with a decent amount of syrup.

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A dose of sunshine

We recently returned from visiting family in California for a week.  We had a wonderful time sharing in each others company, and it was fun for Baby LF to play outdoors in a different climate.

Here in Ohio, we still try to get outdoors every day even if it’s snowy and cold, but she really enjoyed this new type of outdoor play.  When temperatures were last warm here, she wasn’t quite old enough to enjoy sitting with a shovel and bucket.

She especially took to the ocean water and it had me wondering if she might be part mermaid.

Maybe some of you who are also in the thick of snow will enjoy seeing the sunlight and warmth.  (Which, funny enough, we often heard was “cold” to them – in the 60s at times – ha ha!).

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Celebrating Fall: Apple Spice Bread & Corn Necklaces

The Fall Equinox occurred on Monday and we’ve been finding ways to celebrate this change in the season throughout the week.

Although Baby LF isn’t quite old enough to really engage in crafts too deeply, I don’t think it’s ever too early to begin new traditions (plus, I’d do these things even if I were just on my own!).  We tried out two new activities that were inspired by a really wonderful book about celebrating the Earth’s seasons: Celebrating the Great Mother.

The first activity was baking a delicious apple spice bread.  Mmm…fall in a loaf.

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Gratitude Sunday {9/21/14}

I haven’t done a Gratitude Sunday for some time, but I think taking time to feel grateful is such an important practice.  As I was taking some photos this morning, I was inspired to share my recent gratitude list.

{Joining with Wooly Moss Roots}

Today I am grateful for…

~ Leaning in to the changing seasons and beginning to decorate in celebration of the Fall Equinox (Mabon)

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