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My First Photo Shoot

May 1, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

I am incredibly lucky to have some trusting friends who placed their family photos in my hands last fall. It was my first official photo shoot, and I LOVED it! It may be my last for awhile because (ahem) life is just a bit crazy at the moment. But I would absolutely love to do more of these a few years down the road! These photos were taken at West Point on the Eno park in Durham, NC in the middle of the afternoon. The light was filled with the rusty colors of autumn, but it was BRIGHT and direct and basically terrible for portraits. Fortunately we were able to find good bits of shade.

 

*All photos are copyright Amanda Clark 2017

 

Thanks for checking out my work!

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Filed Under: Arts and Crafts Tagged With: family photography, West Point on the Eno

One of THOSE days

April 27, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

Tuesday was one of those days. THOSE days. We were in the middle of day 3 of torrential rains in NC. I avoided schlepping three kids into the rain and through the grocery store yesterday, yet today I have no choice. Because we are out of food. This morning, my oldest looked at the baby (who is only 12 months) and said “my gosh, Larkin is going to be bigger than the sun!” After the child ate two eggs, an orange, and half a banana. AT 12 MONTHS!

And the child who said it had just consumed three eggs, two oranges, and an entire banana. This is it, folks. The beginning of our financial downfall. How on earth can we feed them as teenagers, if among all three they eat 8 eggs, 4 oranges, and 2.5 bananas for breakfast? That’s not counting the request for a snack that followed an hour later. And they eat like this all day. So it was Tuesday and we were out of food. And our local Kroger was out of at least 7 items on my list (which is the worst, because you know you are not going to make it out to the store again for another week and you’ll have to improvise all kinds of things. Really? Out of 7 items of my list of maybe 25?).

Larkin fussed almost the whole time and couldn’t be consoled by the bag of pretzels we grabbed off the shelf. And once we put everything in the car and attempted to walk to the pet store, I realized she had a poop blow out alllllll down her pants. So I changed the screaming baby’s diaper in the back of the van, her screaming while I was getting poured on. And we drove home because the kid had no pants.

Then at rest time my 5 year old comes downstairs with a new haircut. Business in front, party in the rear. Greeeeeeeat. The kid had no hair until she was 18 months old, and it took 4 years to get to her shoulders. So I cried. Hormones. And felt bad about it later as I told her that we had to trim up the rest and that she was beautiful no matter what her hair looked like. Then we cut it into a short bob. Cute, but SHORT.

And the baby took a 10 minute nap. What’s with my babies and refusing to sleep?

This mama needs a glass (bottle?) of wine. So I have some chocolate and pretend it’s wine. Tell me I’m not the only one who has these days!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: baby poop, bad day

Beach Bums

April 20, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

For almost ten years we have been so fortunate to have family at the beach. We get to see the barren sand of January bundled beneath hats and jackets. The first warm breezes near Easter when the water is too chilly for anyone. And the special Thanksgivings we get to spend there, playing football on the wide open, empty expanse of sand while our kids strip down to their undies and get in the water.dsc_0882-copy

But the week-long vacation is still my favorite. In recent years we’ve been taking our week at the beach in the fall, when the tourists are gone and the days are just warm enough for a bathing suit, yet the water is still warm enough to enjoy. This past trip we were chased out two days early by Hurricane Matthew (PS: can you believe I am just now posting this trip from OCTOBER 2016??? Goes to show how crazy life is with three kiddos! I dearly love photographing the adventures of their childhood). Pippa finally decided she was not afraid of waves, and that kid went out to the breakers with a boogie board (and a parent close by) for HOURS each day. She is going to be my little surfer girl, and I can’t get enough. dsc_0872-copy

This big girl of mine, covered in bug bites from camping the weekend before and bruises from being knocked down again and again by the waves. She would tumble beneath the water and pop back up smiling.

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Sawyer is still in love with pushing a truck around the sand and running away from the waves. And Larkin, well, she just observed and got her toes wet with Meme.
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The three Clarks

Until next time, beloved beach!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: beach, family, photography

Cranberry Orange Energy Bites

November 14, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

A favorite festive holiday snack for us: Cranberry Orange energy bites (Paleo and Vegan)

Any/all of the links on this page are affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you.

‘Tis the season to boost my willpower and not eat all things sugary, then feel like crap come January 1st. It’s easier said than done. About three weeks ago, I went to my college homecoming. We ate pizza, burritos, drank copious amounts of wine, and had a good time reminiscing until the wee hours of the morning at the home of one of my college roommates. Two days later, Larkin broke out in a weepy red puffy rash on her entire face and her legs. WTF. She’d always had a bit of baby eczema on her cheeks, but this was bad. Long about a week after my dairy-free diet, I was really wanting something sweet. I scoured Pinterest for energy bites, and played around with several recipes until I came up with something easy that tastes a lot like my mom’s homemade scones. The combination of orange and cranberry sings of Christmas morning rolls and special weekend breakfasts. Although we don’t eat these things often in our household, it’s funny how a combination of flavors can take you back. The Cranberry Orange energy bites were a holiday life saver!

After our pediatrician assured me it was eczema and that I should put hydrocortisone cream on it, I smiled and thanked him and did what I normally do. Go into psycho mom-with-a-sick-kid mega geek mode and spend all day on the internet researching alternative remedies. Because I really do not want to use a steroid cream on my 6-month old unless it’s absolutely necessary. It turns out that no one knows what causes eczema, although many folks have a good idea. Anything from an allergy to dust to a food sensitivity can cause the skin to react. Usually the best natural course of action seems to be to heal the gut (hello probiotics and bone broth… oh wait, my baby is breastfed so this shouldn’t be an issue) and keep the skin comfortable.

Since the end of October I have not eaten dairy or gluten or sugar (and I even went a week without eggs to see if that made a difference — I was starving so eggs made a comeback). Larkin gets 1-3 doses of probiotics a day, and her usual 1/2  tsp of cod liver oil plus vitamin D drops. She has not eaten dairy or eggs since. I have bathed her in epsom salt baths 1-2 times a week, I wipe her face down with saltwater twice a day, and at night I lather her cheeks with Lanolin (it helps!). So far I’ve kept the major outbreak from returning and I’m hoping that as her gut matures it disappears because I have no idea how people deal with life-long eczema.

My kids LOVE these! Dates, orange peel, craisins, nuts, spice.

 

A favorite festive holiday snack for us: Cranberry Orange energy bites (Paleo and Vegan)Did I mention these are super easy? Just throw the ingredients in the food processor, blend, and roll into balls. Happy early holidays!

CRANBERRY ORANGE ENERGY BITES

Place into a food processor:

  • 1/2 cup craisins
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • grated rind of 1 small orange or clementine
  • pinch of sea salt

 

Blend until everything is chopped and sticky, about 2-3 minutes. Roll into 1-inch balls and store at room temperature. I’m sure these would last a week, but in our house we’re lucky to have them for two days. I usually double this recipe.

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: cranberry, energy balls, healthy eats, orange, paleo

Camping with babies

October 14, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

Call us crazy, but we took our 5 month old camping. I often feel like being the third kid has a lot of downsides: not as much mommy time, nothing but hand-me-downs, etc. But among the positives are all the cool things this baby gets to do. In her first five months, Larkin has been to the beach twice, spent hours out on a motorboat on a lake, had bonfires, and gone camping. Lucky girl!

Pippa and Sawyer are really into camping. We took them for the first time last year when Sawyer was almost 2 and Pippa was 3.5. For them it was great fun. For us it was a disaster. Sawyer thought it was hysterical to run towards the road and throw his toys towards the fire. Lil’ stinker 😉 But now that he’s a year wiser and Larkin is too small to crawl, we had a blast. And good thing, because before kids John and I were avid backpackers. We camped all the time to avoid pricey hotels. We camped on our honeymoon (ha! look at us, all young and 20-something and covered in sweat as we climbed peaks in Kauai).

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Backpacking in Kauai

We camped most nights of a cross country road trip. And someday we hope to take some amazing trips with our kids that involve lots of nights in a tent. You know what that means…

START ‘EM YOUNG.

This fall we went to Mayo Lake in northern NC for two nights. The kids had a blast. We were the only ones there because we went on a Sunday/Monday night and they spent the entire time running around the large camping area, throwing rocks in the lake, and just being kids. The first night we set up camp and cooked hot dogs over the fire – obviously a win for everyone. They were so excited to get into the tent that the big kids asked to go to bed when the sun disappeared. Not that they went to bed, but hey.

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Larkin and I shared the second tent with our battery powered noise maker to drown out the squealing, but otherwise it was so quiet! The second day we spent hiking to various playgrounds, playing soccer on the huge grass field, and even a sunset kayak trip as rain clouds rolled in. I spent the day before we left chopping and wrapping some bbq chicken packets that we grilled on the fire, followed by a dessert I learned a loooooong time ago in girl scouts. Banana Boats! These were a huge hit with the kids, they even said they were better than s’mores. I’ll post more on how to make them soon, but they are so dang easy.

dsc_0603Night number two was not so nice. The tent Larkin and I shared had a hole in the rainfly, so we had to cover it with a tarp (hey, it is almost 15 years old). And boy did that tarp sound like being inside a popcorn kettle when it poured all night long. She couldn’t sleep. It was ridiculously loud. I spend the night awake nursing her so that she could (sort of) sleep. And in the morning everything was covered in mud. The other tent had leaked and all the pillows were wet. At least it was memorable and the kids can’t wait to go again (hence the whole point of camping with young-ins). Because this mama spent the entire next day guzzling coffee and doing laundry and drying out camping gear. That is a chore I do not enjoy.camping-tips

While we are by no means experts at camping with kids, I figured I’d share some of my tips:

  1. Age matters. We found that babies up to crawling are easy, but that from about age 7months – 2.5 years old is a nightmare. They are into everything and are constantly trying to kill themselves. This is a no fly zone for us, lol.
  2. Go for at least two nights. Y’all. I spent at least four hours prepping food, packing bins and bags, etc. Then it took us a solid 1.5 hours to haul it all from the car to the campsite and set up two tents with approximately 421 interruptions along the way. And then another 4 hours to clean it all and put it away. We’ve done a single night, and it’s just not worth the effort.
  3. Take a noisemaker, especially if sleeping with a baby. It helps drown out noises of other kids/campsites.
  4. Slow down your mornings with cocoa or tea. Our kids are up at the crack of dawn. They want to scarf down some food and get going on a hike, to the playground, etc. Which is great! Except that one of the camping luxuries for us adults is lounging around a hot fire drinking a hot beverage in the morning. Next time we will come prepared with cocoa – a good bribe to get them to chill out for an extra 30 minutes.
  5. A flashlight for each kid. We made the mistake of bringing one for each tent. The older two fought over who got to play with theirs for HOURS. The dollar store sells them, so next time we will have plenty.

Have you been camping with young kids? Please share!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures

Wrangling Chickens Down on the Farm

September 16, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

We eat a lot of eggs. For the most part we eat a paleo diet (no wheat/little dairy), which means that 6 days of the week our breakfast consists mainly of eggs. We go through a good 4 dozen a week (!!!!). And since eggs play such a huge role in growing my little people, we are willing to pay top dollar for pasture raised.

Fortunately, there is this amazing little place called Blue Whistler Farm just down the road from us that has a flock of pastured chickens, meat birds, meat rabbits, lambs, and pigs. The owners are awesome: young and passionate about local food. Y’all know about my dream to have a few animals and lots of land someday, so I head on down the road every week to grab our 4 dozen delicious eggs and stare wistfully at all those beautiful farm animals doing what farm animals do when allowed to roam on a pasture. If you’re near central NC, you should definitely check them out.

Because they have open farm days where you can visit the animals. And they just had two litters of piglets! I do not envy those pig mamas and all that nursing, but boy are those things cute! They are about one week old in these photos. We were in love.

We fed the pigs some carrots. Fed the chickens. Petted a baby rabbit. And got to hold some hens. The next night on John’s birthday, we smoked a rabbit (tastes a lot like chicken) and it was AMAZING.

Love some small local farms, and these adventurous kiddos of mine.

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Petting the baby rabbit

Petting the baby rabbit

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Here chicks!

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Piglets!!!

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Pippa and “farmer Amy”

 

Sawyer holding a chicken

Sawyer holding a chicken

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: blue whistler, chickens, farm, farm dreaming, local food, piglets, rabbits

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake

September 13, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

My kids thrive on eggs a thousand different ways, they snack on dried anchovies (yeah, crazy, I know!), and don’t flinch when we say baked peaches are dessert in the summer.

BUT…

We take birthdays very seriously. There ain’t no way we are behaving ourselves when it comes to dessert! This past weekend my husband got another year closer to 40 and declared that he wanted dirt cake. Not just any dirt cake, mind you, he wanted chocolate peanut butter dirt cake. When I was growing up, I loved dirt cake. I requested it for at least a few birthdays, complete with the foil-lined flower pot and fake flowers on top. Boy was I excited to make this for him!

kids making dirt cake

kids making dirt cake

I set out searching Pinterest for a peanut butter chocolate version, but found NONE. Can you believe that? In the world of pinterest, what I wanted apparently didn’t exist. So I invented. I based this on an Original Dirt Cake recipe and made several changes, including real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, and a 50/50 split between vanilla and chocolate pudding.

The morning of daddy’s birthday, I told the kids we were going to eat dirt and worms for dessert. They didn’t buy it… at first. Then they said they were ok trying some dirt and worms because, let’s face it, in a household where true sugar-filled sweets are rare these kiddos cannot wait to get their hands on some homemade goodies. Of course once they started helping me make the “dirt” and saw the “worms,” they laughed. And begged to try a gummy worm.

But the BEST part of making daddy’s dirt cake was watching him eat it. When the man pauses multiple times and says “dang, this is amazing!” you know it’s good. So I wanted to share.

 

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake: crushed cookies, cream, pudding, and PB cups make this a hit


CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER DIRT CAKE

To make your cooking experience easy, I’ve included a few links to items I use and love. Please note that I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you. 

INGREDIENTS Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake: crushed cookies, cream, pudding, and PB cups make this a hit
– 1 full package of oreos
– 1/3 cup butter, softened (I use Kerrygold grass fed butter, available at Costco if you consume it like we do!)
– 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
– 3/4 cup powdered sugar
– 1 package 3.4 oz. instant vanilla pudding
– 1 package 3.4 oz. instant chocolate pudding
– 3 cups of milk (I use whole)
– 8 oz. whipping cream
– 15 Reeses peanut butter cups minis unwrapped and quartered
– 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
– Gummy Worms (these are awesome if you’re looking for something dye-free)

 

1. Crush oreos in a food processor until they resemble dirt.
2. Beat together butter, cream cheese & powdered sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk vanilla pudding mix & 1.5 cups milk.
4. In a small bowl, whip the cream until it forms peaks. Fold into the vanilla pudding mixture.
5. Fold together cream cheese & pudding mixtures together until smooth.
6. In your whipped cream bowl (for the sake of dirty dishes), whisk the chocolate pudding and 1.5 cups milk. Set for 5 minutes. Swirl your peanut butter into the chocolate pudding.
7. Layer! I am slightly obsessed with my triffle dish because you can see all the amazing layers (snag one here) but you could go fancy and line a flower pot with foil. Always start with about a third of your “dirt.” I then used 1/2 of the vanilla pudding mixture, a few gummy worms, another 1/3 of the dirt, all of the chocolate pudding, sprinkle Reeses cups, the remaining vanilla pudding mixture, and top with what dirt is left and a few worms. Phew!

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: Substitute a GF oreo and you should be set!

ENJOY!

 

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: chocolate, dessert, dirt cake, paleo, peanut butter, recipe

My crazy life with three littles

September 7, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

first day preschoolI have been attempting to get a post up here for about a month, I kid you not. First things first —  I re-vamped my blog page so that I am now self hosted, which is pretty cool! But this mama of three thing is no joke. I can barely find five minutes to throw the closest pile of dirty looking fabric into the wash, let alone form a coherent thought and type it onto a page.

And that, my friends, is exactly why I need to write this down. So that one day when I look back and think “it wasn’t that hard…” I can read this and remember that oh, it sure was that hard.

Take yesterday for instance. We dropped Pippa off at preschool (she started last week and loves it!), then headed to Costco to buy a ridiculous amount of groceries because with two kids who eat more than the adults, that’s what you do. I remember after college when I could eat on $30/week. Ha! Larkin takes a 20 minute nap on the way.

Unpack groceries in record time and attempt to empty the training potty upstairs before Larkin’s cries reach unbearable, and trip on the bathroom rug sending a potty full of pee flying all over me and everything in a 5 foot radius. Curse profusely and mop up the floor, toilet, etc. as I add another load of laundry to the list.

Go get Pippa from school, eat lunch, and put all three kids down for “naps.” Not really, because the 4 year old won’t actually sleep and the 5 month old will nap for 20 more minutes because apparently that’s all she’s capable of doing. I finally get my clothes out of the dryer, get the hiccuping baby, and on my way to the computer to *attempt* to work on a much more interesting blog post, Larkin spits up on the fly and it lands in my basket of clean laundry.

Dammit.

After nap time I chase the older two outside to play and yet again find myself uttering a phrase I never thought would cross my lips. “Buddy, we don’t lick worms!”

When my husband texts to see how the day is going, I actually reply “good” because compared to the last five it is a good day (LOL!! Right?). And the evening is filled with spaghetti stained shirts, a walk with neighbors, and Sawyer locking himself in his room as DSC_0414 copywe scramble around the house to find a key and save the little rascal.

But man do I love these crazy three of mine!

 

And I do have so many fun ideas to share (kitchen renovation and farmhouse pallet sign, anyone?) if only I can get a chance to breathe. Someday 🙂

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: costco, crazy, kids, naps, preschool, three

Sunshine & Lemonade Pallet Sign

July 14, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

FULL DISCLAIMER: I first tried to write this post as I was making this sign back in JUNE!! Larkin was just 2 months old, and she did actually sleep on occasion and I could do certain things. Then she stopped sleeping. Seriously, she often napped a TOTAL of 20 minutes a day and was screaming and crying another 6-7 hours. I almost lost my mind. I still don’t know how I made it out alive. Months later (as you will see in the photos, lol) I finally had some more time to photograph my summer project… in the fall. And here I am, at the end of January, finishing this post. And darn it, I sort of liked reflecting on the details of my life that I’d included — I’m enjoying thinking about the heat of summer and how I love fall– so I left it. For the life of me I do not know how mom bloggers with young children get anything accomplished. I realize I do have an extremely difficult baby right now, but my lack of any time for myself is ridiculous. Ah, the season of motherhood! And if you are still reading and interested in this cute little pallet sign:

****

I’m slightly obsessed with the Fixer-Upper style.

It is hot down here in the south. Summer only officially began on Monday, but it is 97 degrees and HUMID today. I think I may be melting. Thank goodness baby Larkin was an April baby. I would die being preggo in this heat– how do people do it?!

DIY pallet sign

DIY pallet sign

And the heat has me daydreaming of quintessential summer: sunshine and lemonade. I have a pile of pallets by the driveway that have been beckoning me to make something out of them. I asked the hubs to bring them home two years ago so I could dismantle them and make this typography sign of one of my favorite quotes. It now hangs in what should be our dining room (and is currently full of kid clutter and a changing table. Sigh, someday…). Obsessed with rustic pallet goodness.

Then I read about pallet gardening on Mavis’s Garden Blog. I had leftovers and gave it a try. It worked really well for our strawberries, but alas this mama did not get netting up in time and the squirrels had a blast eating our crop. Then we had a copperhead decide he liked living in the little gaps under the wood. Nooooooo thank you! I love me some snakes, but not copperheads and not where my kiddos play.

So these bad boys were decaying nicely beside our driveway for over a year when I hit Pinterest for some inspiration. After finding a lemonade sign I loved (made by @thecreativepallet but there’s no longer a picture available. Sorry!!), I sketched my own. Want instructions to DIY? Here ya go 🙂

  1. photo 6Decide how big your sign will be. Mine is going above my fireplace, so I wanted it to be approximately
  2. Find some pallets and dismantle them.  It should be ugly if you’re going for the rustic
    look. Expose the rusted nail holes. leave rips in the ends of the wood planks. If you can’t get enough ugly pallet wood, you may have to purchase thin boards from your local home improvement store to reach the size you want.  As long as you’re going to paint the sign, you’ll never notice the difference.

 

 

 

 

3. Cut at least two (maybe three depending on your sign’s size) cross pieces for stability. I had some leftover wood from photo 7our playground and cut it to size. You want these to be thin pieces of wood too. Keep in mind that once the sign is complete, all the wood together makes it rather heavy.

4. Screw the support pieces to each horizontal  piece. This isn’t supposed to be precise. I used one 3/4″ screw per piece.

photo 4

 

5. Paint it. I used an exterior white paint I had sitting around. Again it should be ugly painting. Leave dark edges unfinished. Don’t even try to paint the rusty nail holes.

 

photo 16. Sketch your letters first. In pencil. I’ve been obsessed with lettering and hand-lettered wall prints for years, and every time I’ve created a sign like this I’ve relied on fonts found on my computer. If there is not one I’m looking for, I download a free one (just google “free fonts). Type the word(s) in a word document and copy them (for those who are comfortable free handing) OR print out the letters in the size you need, cut them out, then trace them onto the sign. To get the curved look of my Lemonade sign below, you can either use a photo editing software like photoshop to curve the letters or draw a bottom line curve on which to place/trace the letters.

Remember: it’s supposed to look like a vintage hand painted sign. Don’t sweat the pencil lines, they give it character.

 

7. Paint away. One thing I love about beat up old pallet wood projects is that if there is still pencil showing, it’s ok! If you can’t quite stay in all the lines, that’s ok too. It’s supposed to look beat up.

 

Pallet sign and fall mantle

Pallet sign and fall mantle

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Filed Under: Arts and Crafts Tagged With: diy, fall mantle, farmhouse decor, farmhouse sign, lemonade sign, pallet sign

The hard is what makes it great

July 13, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

Didn’t Tom Hanks say this in A League of Their Own? I should know, I only watched that movie about 1,276 times growing up. I have never once done something easy and reflected later that it was great. The “great” moments in my life have all been hard-won (or lost) attempts to do something I was never confident I could do.hard is what makes it great pic

Like that time I was a crazy college student studying in Africa and we decided to climb Mt. Kenya during our fall break. Ill prepared, with little cold weather gear I shivered the sub-freezing night before our summit in a hut at something like 14,000 feet. Then got up at 2am to trek miles and miles up snowy, rocky cliffs to watch the sunrise. I’m surprised I didn’t fall off the edge to my death.

Y’all. There is something so incredibly wonderful about attempting something hard. It draws me in. Beckons me to try. For if I fail, I will know just how hard I can really push myself.

But when it comes to adding another baby, another life to our family, failure is not an option. I can fail at all kinds of small things. Forget to change a dirty diaper in time. Leave home without a change of clothes. You know. But  in the grand scheme of things, I have to love this little bundle (and the older two bundles) above all else. Hold them close when they’re being awful. I will my patience to grow more every day because lawdy I need oodles of it.DSC_0618

So this is my motto in these early baby days with Larkin. This kid had so many days of non-stop crying in her first six weeks I thought I would go insane. Pippa was the same way, but she was my first (and hey, she turned out ok right? Only a little crazy…). I could just deal with it. Now I have to lay this baby down to deal with the older two fighting, make 12 meals a day (no joke, my kids eat a LOT), do laundry. Anyone else have a colicky baby that was not their first? Now she is 13 weeks and our fussy days are fewer… but out of the blue we’ll have one. And it stinks.

Yet I know that this crying will come to an end and that the older kiddos will stop fighting. Deep down I know that when I look back on these days, I wouldn’t wish away the hard times. Because the hard is what makes it great.

photo signature green bee

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Hey Y’all!

I'm Amanda, a mama of four wild things and a growing herd of animals. We just built a farmhouse on our 13 acres of countryside in North Carolina, and are on our way to transform worn out tobacco pasture into a diverse landscape of animals, veggies, orchards, and grapevines. Join me on the farming journey! Read More…

Recent Posts

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Pulling carrots from the garden in January is such Pulling carrots from the garden in January is such a gift! We are down to the last few, and they are so sweet! Over here we are big time garden planning, both with veg and flowers, and designing pathways and patios and arbors! We still don’t have a sidewalk, and the ground is a mud pit every time it rains. Any guess how many muddy dog footprints are currently on the floor? 😂😂😭 Sidewalk is at the top of the list. #wildsunshinefarm #wintergarden #homesteading #homesteadmama
Sometimes you don’t realize how much you miss ha Sometimes you don’t realize how much you miss having a dog in your life until you have one ❤️#puppylove #mochadoodle #farmdogintraining #wildsunshinefarm
If you haven’t had the pleasure of spending the If you haven’t had the pleasure of spending the past 10 months of quarantine with a toddler, allow me to present today’s mess. A half devoured bag of marshmallows along with a pan, several smashed blueberries (in the new cabinet), and some rogue pistachios. Pretty certain this three year old cannot survive without his daily dose of mischief 🤯 #soreadyformycovidvaccine #mamabecrazy #letmeout #wildsunshinefarm #farmlife #homesteadmama
After the hustle of Christmas and a month of relax After the hustle of Christmas and a month of relaxing (and if I’m honest, baking cookies and taking way too many baths to wash off 2020), the farm is awake. It’s awake and beckoning with her many projects that must be done before spring... which means I have to finish this beauty that I didn’t get around to last year. I’ve had the wood since June, and am finally building us a larger dining table. Hoping that 2021 brings the return of friends around this table and dinners with family! 

#farmhousetable #trestletable #wildsunshinefarm #winteronthefarm
Any guesses at what we’re up to? #homesteadadven Any guesses at what we’re up to? #homesteadadventures #wildsunshinefarm
We grew by four paws this Christmas 🐶💕 #wi We grew by four paws this Christmas 🐶💕 

#wildsunshinefarm #girlsbestfriend #sheisafamilydog
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