It was a quietly successful day.

What does that mean?

I usually prefer to get up before everyone else so that I can have some quiet moments alone, even if it’s just to start the breakfast (which means start the broth and veggies cooking, and the eggs, and some kind of meat, and get out all the veggies for juicing). If I’m in the right head space, I’ll do some yoga or breathing before I hear any noise on the baby monitor. Things almost always go smoother on those days.

So it’s not my ideal choice to get up at 8:00 and come downstairs to see my son and husband eating non-soaked oatmeal and know that I still have to do everything to feed myself, and I haven’t gotten any solo time or laundry or email checking done yet.

But instead of grumbling about the loss of early morning, I stayed in bed nursing my congested baby and feeling warm and snuggly. I’d slept as soundly as one can when her daughter cries out for a breast and cries again after nursing before switching from near-wail to “hmph” to sleep. But I was still tired, and she was still tired, so I just stayed on my side until her whines turned to amused gurgles accompanied by bats at my nose.

Then I did all that kitchen stuff. Well, LJ made the eggs, but I fed them and everything else to the baby, started laundry and did a short yoga practice while everyone else ate. I got to actually read and digest after my own breakfast when they went out on some errands. The baby came home awake but fell asleep well, so, at 11:40 a.m. I finally took off my flannel pjs from a chilly night to head out into a now-toastier day for a short, gentle jog under cloudless skies. What a thrill to see the sun and feel its rays warm my skin.

Inside, though, sniffles abounded. The baby had woken and the boys didn’t look so great. The younger one wanted to go buy soccer ball. After some sitting on the front stoop and a fresh diaper, off they all went again. This time I had the luxury of putting away laundry while talking to my mom on the phone and making a little more progress in organizing the kitchen while they were gone and after they returned with a girl who didn’t fall asleep in the car.

She nursed, I read more of my novel. She snacked in her high chair, I folded cloth napkins. She needed to poop, I folded clothes.

Even though I’m not at the peak of physical fitness and wasn’t looking for more exercise, I still hadn’t changed clothes, so I put her in the stroller and headed out into the late afternoon sun to see if she’d snooze. She babbled the entire time.

Upon our return, I declared it time to clear out the garden. Our three tomato plants had taken it over in July and we gave up the fight. Until today, when we reclaimed it for some late attempts at seeding lettuce. We all pulled the vines until E wanted to kick his new soccer ball instead and the mosquitoes scared away his dad and sister.

Then the boys went out for tacos, and I had I think what was my first evening alone with my baby girl. She ate, I cleaned. I ate, she ate. I read, she played with her food. And ate some more.

Somehow, though we didn’t get to the beach, or to a pumpkin patch, or out camping or any of the other many things my son is always asking to do, and I didn’t get  hours of work done, he got his soccer ball, the car got an oil change, and our garden got a new start.

It felt like a good day.

It’s gotten to the point where my son will ask, “What is it?” if I don’t turn his meal into a face or a construction vehicle.

It only takes an extra few seconds to whip up something creative, and it’s a nice break from my rushing around. He sure does chow down more when the food is fun. This morning’s Jackson Pollock-esque scrambled egg breakfast was proclaimed to be “too much food!” Maybe it was, or maybe it was just not cool-looking enough. But last night’s dinner was cleaned up!

Its components: (all organic): local chicken thigh, home grown fresh peas, local broccoli cooked in homemade chicken stock, non-local red pepper, local red pepper, Romaine lettuce (but we do have green leaf in the garden I’ll use tonight!),. tomato (I think local but not sure how – from South Mountain Veggie)  and local sauerkraut from my Amish farmer.

Welcome to the May Carnival of Natural Parenting: Growing in the Outdoors

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how they encourage their children to connect with nature and dig in the dirt. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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I moved twelve houses down the block so that my son could have the woods as his backyard.

Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, as there were a whole lot of other considerations to our intra-neighborhood move two years ago this July. But it’s true that backing up to county property was a big draw over the busy corner where yellow school buses were the most predominant form of wildlife. By contrast, this winter we had six deer looking to nibble on our remaining nubs of kale.

We are just entering our second summer in this house, and the effects of this location are pretty powerful for me. The ability to look out and watch the seasons change so clearly and profoundly makes me feel so much more in tune with nature. We don’t have acres in the country with a corn field, fruit trees and two huge vegetable gardens like my parents did when I was young, but we do have a nice slice of non-suburbia to retreat to every day. Since we’ve chosen to live in the hectic, Type A, chaotic area of Metro D.C., I hope the site of our home helps my son feel grounded in the natural world.

Even before we moved, I was determined to find my green thumb so my son would not grow up afraid of gardening. I hadn’t absorbed a whole lot of knowledge since we moved to the suburbs when I was ten, so it really has been a full learning curve for me and my husband both.

Picking a strawberry with grandpa in 2008

Dressing the part (age two)

Playing with water, er, container gardening at the old house (age two)

Now that we have a more secluded space (and since this summer, I’m not pregnant!), I’m finally breathing into filling that space not just with some veggie attempts, but with beauty, too. I knew I couldn’t plant any flowers in concrete-like clay beds, so just this past week I’ve gotten help to turn them over.

In preparation for that, for the past few weeks, my son and I have been planting all the wildflower and sunflower seeds I had lying around in pots to transfer when they are big enough. We also started lots of peas inside a few months back and some other veggies. Normally the type of mom who takes months to send thank you cards and says the phrase, “Yeah, we really should finish…” way too often, this year I am walking the walk and literally getting things off the ground by getting them in the ground.

I’ve also started participating in a Waldorf-based homeschool group called “Nature Place” so that I can start to really live into some daily songs and rhythms and seasonal rituals that will help us feel connected to nature in our daily lives and our larger lives. Maybe by the time my daughter is her brother’s age (5), I will have less to learn and more to just enjoy with respect to a home life of calm that is based in a reverence for nature.

As for food, this year we have fenced off the garden so hopefully we’ll feed ourselves more than the wildlife.

Our garden this year, in front of the forest back yard

Throughout the year, we buy about a third to a half of our produce from a local farm that delivers once a week, which I find works a little better for me right now than a CSA. Our meat, milk, and eggs come from a local farm (a collaborative delivery/drop service), and last year my son and went to visit Polyface Farm to see a truly sustainable operation. It’s important to me that he knows what a farm should look like and how cows, pigs and chickens can and should live: out in the open, on pasture.

Having been a vegetarian for a long time, I now think it’s important to support sustainable farms that produce meat, especially since the genetically modified soy and corn and the mass-produced grain I consumed by the boatload to my detriment as an undiagnosed celiac are not doing any favors for the planet, either.

My husband and son do occasionally eat out (I can’t right now because of the GAPS diet I’m on), but when we talk about meat and vegetables we bring into the house, we try to point out when we know the farmer. I also sometimes refuse to buy food if it comes from too terribly far away (especially if we can get them locally) or really isn’t in season. We’re not purists, but eating seasonally and locally is certainly the goal.

We seem to have had some pretty busy weekends lately and have been missing the farmer’s markets, but I hope that the summer months will find me there more than the grocery store. I love for my son to talk to the people who grew his food!

Although I thought I was a conscious consumer before I had children, it was the goal to overcome infertility that got me to make changes in my diet and it was the goal to grow a healthy family that has helped me find my way to making the kind of natural home that sustains me body, mind, and spirit.

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Get Out! — Momma Jorje gives reasons she doesn’t think she gets outside enough and asks for your suggestions on making time for the outdoors.
• How Does Your Garden Grow? — The ArtsyMama shares her love of nature photography.
• We Go Outside — Amy at Peace 4 Parents describes her family’s simple, experiential approach to encouraging appreciation of nature.
• My Not-So-Green Thumb — Wolfmother confesses to her lack of gardening skills but expresses hope in learning alongside her son at Fabulous Mama Chronicles.
• Enjoying Outdoors — Isil at Smiling like Sunshine describes how her children enjoy the nature.
• Five Ideas to Encourage the Reluctant Junior Gardener — For the rare little ones who don’t like to get their hands dirty, Dionna at Code Name: Mama offers tips for encouraging an early love of dirt (despite the mess).
• Connecting to Nature — Mamapoekie shares how growing your own vegetable patch connects your child to nature and urges them to not take anything for granted.
• The Farmer’s Market Classroom — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction shares how the Farmer’s Market has become her son’s classroom.
• Seeds — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment’s hubby Ken shares his perspective on why gardening with their kiddos is so important . . . and enjoyable!
• Toddlers in the Garden — Laura at A Pug in the Kitchen shares her excitement as she continues to introduce her toddler and new baby to the joys of fresh veggies, straight from the garden.
• Nature’s Weave — MJ at Wander Wonder Discover explains how nature weaves its way into our lives naturally, magnetically, experientially, and spiritually.
• Becoming Green — Kristina at Hey Red celebrates and nurtures her daughter’s blossoming love of the outdoors.
• Little Gardener — Rosemary at Rosmarinus Officinalis looks forward to introducing her baby girl to gardening and exploring home grown foods for the first time.
• Cultivating Abundance — You can never be poor if you have a garden! Lucy at Dreaming Aloud reflects on what she cultivates in her garden . . . and finds it’s a lot more than seeds!
• Growing in the Outdoors: Plants and People — Luschka at Diary of a First Child reflects on how she is growing while teaching her daughter to appreciate nature, the origins of food, and the many benefits of eating home-grown.
• How Not to Grow — Anna at Wild Parenting discusses why growing vegetables fills her with fear.
• Growing in the Outdoors — Lily at Witch Mom Blog talks about how connecting to the natural world is a matter of theology for her family and the ways that they do it.
• A Garden Made of Straw — Kelly at Becoming Crunchy shares tips on making a straw bale garden.
• The Tradition of Gardening — Carrie at Love Notes Mama reflects on the gifts that come with the tradition of gardening.
• Gardening Smells Like Home — Bethy at Bounce Me to the Moon hopes that her son will associate home grown food and lovely flowers with home.
• The New Normal — Patti at Jazzy Mama writes about how she hopes that growing vegetables in a big city will become totally normal for her children’s generation.
• Outside, With You — Amy at Anktangle writes a letter to her son, a snapshot of a moment in the garden together.
• Farmer Boy — Abbie at Farmer’s Daughter shares how her son Joshua helps to grow and raise their family’s food.
• Growing Kids in the Garden — Lisa at Granola Catholic shares easy ways to get your kids involved in the garden.
• Growing Food Without a Garden — Don’t have a garden? “You can still grow food!” says Mrs Green of Little Green Blog. Whatever the size of your plot, she shows you how.
• Growing Things — Liz at Garden Variety Mama shares her reasons for gardening with her kids, even though she has no idea what she’s doing.
• Moments — UK Mummy Blogger explains how the great outdoors provides a backdrop for her family to reconnect.
• Condo Kid Turns Composter and Plastic Police — Jessica from Cloth Diapering Mama has discovered that her young son is a true earth lover despite living in a condo with no land to call their own.
• Gardening with Baby — Sheila at A Gift Universe shows us how her garden and her son are growing.
• Why to Choose Your Local Farmer’s Market — Naturally Nena shares why she believes it’s important to teach our children the value of local farmers.
• Unfolding into Nature — At Crunchy-Chewy Mama, Jessica Claire shares her desire to cultivate a reverence for nature through gardening, buying local food, and just looking out the window.
• Urban Gardening With Kids — Lauren at Hobo Mama shares her strategies for city gardening with little helpers — without a yard but with a whole lot of enthusiasm.
• Mama Doesn’t Garden — Laura at Our Messy Messy Life is glad her husband is there to instill the joys of gardening in their children, while all she has to do is sit back and eat homegrown tomato sandwiches.
• Why We Make this Organic Garden Grow — Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares her reasons for gardening with her three small children.
• 5 Ways to Help Your Baby Develop a Love of the Natural World — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama believes it’s never too early to foster a love of the natural world in your little one.
• April Showers Bring May PRODUCE — Erika at NaMammaSte discusses her plans for raising a little gardener.
• Growing Outside — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante discovers how to get her kids outside after weeks of spring rain.
• Eating Healthier — Chante at My Natural Motherhood Journey talks about how she learns to eat healthier and encourages her children to do the same.
• The Beauty of Earth and Heavens — Inspired by Charlotte Mason, Erica at ChildOrganics discovers nature in her own front yard.
• Seeing the Garden Through the Weeds — Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro talks about the challenges of gardening with two small children.
• Creating a Living Playhouse: Our Bean Teepee! — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings shares how her family creates a living playhouse “bean teepee” and includes tips of how to involve kids in gardening projects.
• Grooming a Tree-Hugger: Introducing the Outdoors — Ana at Pandamoly shares some of her planned strategies for making this spring and summer memorable and productive for her pre-toddler in the Outdoors.
• Sowing Seeds of Life and Love — Suzannah at ShoutLaughLove celebrates the simple joys of baby chicks, community gardening, and a semi-charmed country life.
• Experiencing Nature and Growing Plants Outdoors Without a Garden — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares some of her favorite ways her family discovered to fully experience nature wherever they lived.
• Garden Day — Melissa at The New Mommy Files is thankful to be part of community of families, some of whom can even garden!
• Teaching Garden Ettiquette to the Locusts — Tashmica from Mother Flippin’ (guest posting at Natural Parents Network) allows her children to ravage her garden every year in the hopes of teaching them a greater lesson about how to treat the world.
• Why I Play with Worms. — Megan of Megadoula, Megamom and Megatired shares why growing a garden and raising her children go hand in hand.

I didn’t get a real garden going this summer, since we were in the middle of a move. That’s a bummer.

But, I do still — in November — have fresh rosemary, sage and thyme growing in pots on my porch. I loved that I went from plant to pot in a few steps. They were great on the turkey the other day and tonight when I whipped up some leftovers. Deck gardening at night!

This morning, I picked parsley to put in my fresh juice with beet, carrot, celery, a little lettuce, lemon, ginger and garlic. It was awesome, and my brother-in-law enjoyed it, too.

Now if only I’d remembered to pick some oregano when I was cooking the eggs.

Food is good if it’s good and fresh. Thank you, earth and sun!

We just realized that our new home has an apple tree in the back yard. It’s probably not going to get a whole lot of light, and I doubt the apples will fully ripen, but we’ve enjoyed using the apples in the juicer with carrot (and some beet, celery, parsley and ginger). Since organic u-pick seems impossible to find in this part of the mid-Atlantic, I’m thinking now that we should consider transplanting the apple — or planting another apple tree in the front yard.

We didn’t plant a whole garden this year because of the move, but at least we’ve got a little bit of a harvest on our patio and in the yard. At least my kid knows what green beans, peas, blueberries and black raspberries look — and taste — like in their original home.

Now if I can just get him to stop picking sage all the time.

So, we might be moving – nearby, but still. A move is a move. It’s hugely exciting to think of having a house that works better for our family, but it means I’m not sure what to do about planting anything. I don’t want to invest in creating a big raised bed (a la Square Foot Gardening) if we’re going to be having to show our current house in the next month. Even if we didn’t mind the look, could we move the garden to the new place? I don’t think I’m up for the investment of time with so much else going on.

Still, I want to have my son see things come to life, so we’ll at least do some container gardening again. We started some seeds a few weeks ago, and I decided to try some more after transplanting what I had. After a ton of rain the next day, I’m pretty sure we’ll be starting over from scratch and hope the next batch of seeds take off in the yogurt cups as well as the first ones did. Not sure if these efforts will yield anything, but at least we’re digging in the dirt and creating green.