Thanks for stopping by! I'm Magi, a scratch cooking, homeschooling mama, learning to raise good kids, good food, and good fun on our teeny-tiny little farm!
I don’t know if my kiddos would agree with me, but isn’t one of the best things about summer all the extra time you have for reading?! To kick off Summer Reading I’m hosting an online Usborne Books party through facebook! Of course you don’t […]
When I first started this blog it was mainly about how we were trying to lead a more self-reliant lifestyle. Chickens, gardening, and old-timey skills were always on the menu! We’re nowhere near doomsday preppers, but we do recognize that stuff happens and it’s […]
Can I confess something?
I’ve been giving myself a lot of grace lately.
After all, I have three kids (and all their activities), twelve chickens, two cats, a dog, a rabbit, four side hustles, AND I homeschool.
When I put it that way, it’s easy to understand how I might be exhausted both physically and mentally. It’s easy to play the grace card and let the laundry pile up for one more day, or step over the scattered shoes and coats instead of picking them up, even though I’m on my way past the coat rack.
It’s also easy to say I don’t have time to clean up even though I just spent two hours pinning No Fail Housekeeping Routines, and lurking on Facebook home management pages.
The internet is super supportive of us moms who can’t quite keep it together.
Wearing third-day yoga pants and a messy bun when you screech into the drop-off lane at the last minute?
Casually shoving the laundry pile aside to give an unexpected guest a place to sit?
No problem!
That’s modern motherhood!
You’ve got your priorities straight!
You don’t have to try to impress us!
Really, you don’t.
And you shouldn’t.
But there is a line, guys, and I think I’ve crossed it.
Read more at Her View From Home
We schedule the entire month of December as our homeschool Christmas Break, but if we don’t have something planned, I find we get irritable and worn out. So instead of loafing for an entire month we take a casual approach to school, join our library’s winter reading […]
If I scroll back through my messenger feed I have a minimum of one or two friends PER MONTH ask me about which curriculum we’re using for homeschool and how we like it. And I kind of panic every time. I should have a good […]
I don’t even actually know what season it is. I typically consider it fall up through Thanksgiving, but we awoke to three inches of snow and counting this morning. So I guess Winter has arrived on the Half Acre.
Whatever the weather is telling me, my tummy is telling me it’s time for all things seasoned and spiced.
Hearty stews, roasted fruit and vegetables, a fire on the hearth and a mug of something hot in my hand. Yes. This is fall.
Here’s a roundup of some of my favorite fall recipes from Pinterest.
I hope this gets you on your way to enjoying a warm and tasty season! To get a peek at the other fun things I’m pinning follow me on Pinterest.
Enjoy!
I’ve become an older mom. Ugh. I didn’t see that coming! I first realized I’d rounded the bend when I was reading a book by an even-older-than-me mom who reflected that she would love to sit and visit with young moms, but they seemed to […]
We all know by now how important time spent in nature is for our health, and especially the health of our growing children. Not only is fresh air and exercise essential for healthy bodies, more and more studies are linking time in nature with mental […]
Hi there. I’m a homeschool mom. I haven’t quite gone over to the denim jumper side, but I’m pretty modest. I think it’s more a mom thing than a homeschool mom thing. I only bring up clothes because I took my kids to the water park the other day to commemorate the end of summer, and take advantage of the short lines, since public school started backup. While we were there I noticed my kids snickering at something, and following their gaze I saw you. I saw a lot of you.
Oh. My. Gosh. Becky!
I have to admit my first instinct was to put on my McJudgy britches and look down my nose at your complete lack of modesty, or at least join my children in giggling at your naked buttocks. And I also have to admit that if you had been Brazilian Butt Lift perfect, or airbrushed clean of any hint of cellulite, I probably wouldn’t have resisted the urge to scoff at you. That is a failure of my character, and I’m working on it.
But you weren’t bikini model perfect. Don’t get me wrong. You have a better body than my mirror has seen in the last decade. Still, I could tell you don’t deny yourself the occasional carbohydrate. Maybe your desk job has taken a little toll on your figure. But there you were. Wearing whatever-the-heck you wanted, and not worrying about a few extra pounds. You were laughing and splashing with your friends. I even saw you eat ice cream, and you didn’t seem worried about it.
You were so confident!
Now I have never been one to let my weight dictate how much fun I’m going to have. Life is too short for that. So I’ll jiggle my thighs all around the water park, plop down in the wading pool with my two year old, and eat the damn ice cream too. But I do think it bears mentioning that I do this while brushing aside worries about how I look and wearing a bathing suit that is basically a dress with a built in girdle.
Physically that bathing suit is not what I would call comfort wear. It actually feels a bit like steel-plated armor. But it is emotionally comfortable. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
I remember being you.
I remember a trip to Hawaii, in my late twenties. We didn’t have kids yet, but I had put on weight and certainly wasn’t an airbrushed looking 19 year old anymore. But I wasn’t going to go to Hawaii and NOT wear a bikini! In fact I bought two new ones just for the trip. I wore them pretty much the whole time. I climbed up a waterfall confident of my body in a stringy blue slingshot I called a bathing suit.
Where is that girl? I haven’t seen, or even thought about her in ages.
She got buried in mundane tasks, and heavy decisions, and big ol’ cotton granny panties.
You reminded me of her.
Of myself.
A self I need to find again.
So I want to thank you. Thank you for reminding me that, while I’m doing okay in the fun department, I need to be a little kinder to myself in the confidence department.
Motherhood has changed my modesty settings. I’ll probably never wear a bikini again. But I am definitely going to loosen the ratchet straps on the girdle of my soul.
All because you wore a thong bikini to the water park.
I don’t know if it’s a Mom-Thing, or a crisis of faith, or both, but somewhere along the way I got the idea I should be able to sort out my own problems, meet my own goals, and provide all my own needs without any […]