This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 171 (Gwen’s Birthday, Honey Flow, and El Salvador)

Welcome to This Week’s Miscellany, the occasional round up of Carrots family updates, photo dumps, books I’m reading, links I loved, and big news. 

“You’re a big four-year-old girl now, Gwen. But you’re still the cutest person in our family,” said the sweetest big sister in existence. That’s right! Our Gwen Stellamaris may still be Thumbelina-sized but my baby is FOUR! How did that happen?

We invited some friends over for a Moana-themed party with gluten-free peanut butter chocolate cupcakes and a roasted suckling pig compliments of Daniel. (Can you see it photobombing on the left with an apple in its mouth?) Having that thing in my fridge for a couple of days before the party surprised me every. time. I. opened. the. fridge.

This fearless sparkle of a girl never ceases to fill me with wonder. As Daniel noted recently, “Gwen has never believed in obstacles.” It’s so true! I would like an ounce of her confidence. I can’t believe she’s ours and I look forward to seeing her turn the world upside down. Her birthday is the feast of St. Joan of Arc and it makes PERFECT SENSE. She may be in the 1st percentile for height (actually she’s not even on the chart) but she’s a force of nature.

In other news, the honey flow has begun. This is Daniel’s first batch of harvested honeycomb from his own hives. These two hives live in a friend’s backyard that’s filled with wildflowers so the honey tastes like flowers and sunshine! Perfect to add to almond butter toast (and everything else). I am so proud of Daniel and all the amazing things he learns to do because of his curiosity and awe at God’s creation and love for beautiful things and a job well done.

He’s going to be in El Salvador for 9 days this summer to represent the farm where he works and partner with a Catholic community there called Valle Nuevo that was displaced during the brutal civil war and has returned to the country. You can read more about the work he’ll be doing here on his Run for Relief page (he’s committed to running a mile for every $50 raised–hopefully 40 miles!). And if you want to share the fundraiser, I’d love you forever.

We haven’t been apart that long since a year before we were married and I’m a leeeeeeeetle nervous about it. So I’ll be excited when he’s home safe and sound.

After a crazy busy season, we’re prioritizing family time right now. Because I work from home it’s easy to let work take up every spare minute when Daniel isn’t at the farm, but we’ve been really committed to taking time to have FUN together. Family movie nights, the occasional taco run, and making use of our zoo and museum memberships. I love this crew.

And Daniel has been spoiling us with good food. Everything we had for Saturday morning breakfast the other day (except for the toast) was from the farm or our yard.

Links:

Making a Marriage Magically Tidy: NYTimes (This one made me laugh out loud. As a recovering slob, I absolutely sympathized.)

The Day I Almost Died in Childbirth: Calah Alexander for Aleteia (Important piece about the shockingly high maternal death rates in this country.)

Beren and Luthien Reflects Tolkien’s Real Life Love Story: NPR

What to Do When Your Child Won’t Stop Staring at a Person in a Wheelchair: This Ain’t the Lyceum

My piece about a pretty awful experience we had at Mass last Sunday definitely struck a cord with a lot of folks.

And this week I shared my personal journey of how I became a work-at-home mom, too.

Podcast:

Our latest Fountains of Carrots episode: Choosing Real Self-Care, Not Perfection with Kate Wicker

We’re planning a low key weekend and I’m going to make some progress on the book (hopefully). Wishing you a lovely Saturday!

Lots of love,

Haley

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