Our Garden in June

Summer Garden 1 - slideshow dvd

The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. --Wendell Berry The Art of Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

 If you have not planted a garden or read any Wendell Berry. Stop and do both now. Start with the garden and reward your day's work with Berry. Our first garden was much too large and much too ignorantly tackled but I loved it all the same. Our second garden was much too small to feed our family of three at the time but I loved it all the same. Our current garden has grown to be several times larger than that first one and our family has grown even quicker.  While our garden struggles to keep pace, it has grown larger only because we planted and lost and planted and ate and we continued to plant. We tend gardens and we tend children around this little half acre because we love them both. Our garden is my favorite place. A cup of coffee and the early morning light filtered through the 100+ year old oak trees onto the work of our hands. You cannot imagine such peace until you have planted and lost and planted and eaten and continue to plant. 

snow in summer?

In my continued attempt to make up for the last several months of neglecting my blog I had to document our one and only snow of the year. I believe it was back in February. My kids were asking and asking all winter long when it was going to snow. They automatically think that just because it is winter it MUST snow. The anticipated day finally arrived. It was just a little more than a dusting and was mostly melted by lunch time but they played and had a blast for those few hours. I had to throw in a picture of Addy in her snow suit. Something tells me she doesn't like being a walking marshmallow baby.

A sweet moment between brothers

One night I let the boys watch a movie on our bed. Poor Ezra still desperately needs a nap but he is stubborn and I pick my battles and that is not one I choose. So he falls asleep any chance he gets- mostly in the car if we go some where in the afternoon but this time he fell asleep on Elijah's lap. It was such a sweet moment I thought I would share it.

A Creepy Dream

It has been months since I have blogged but I figured I would re-enter the blogosphere with a laugh. So, this morning when I was doing our routine bible study with the kids I was reading them the story about Samuel when he first hears God's voice calling his name in the night. He thinks it is Elijah and keeps going to see what his master needs but he discovers each time that Elijah had not called him. The kids thought the idea of someone calling out their name in the middle of the night seemed a little bit creepy. The particular book we were reading even asked if they had ever had a creepy dream or experience in the night. I let each kid answer the question but Ezra's (3yr. old)response was the most interesting. He said he had a very creepy dream last night that I went to the grocery store naked. I said "WOW, that was a really creepy dream" and we all started laughing. Usually when people have the "naked in public" dream they have it about themselves...but I guess that was not the case this time:)

Vaughn Family Winter Beach Trip

2011 Winter Beach Trip - Online Slideshow Creator

We had such a blast with Matt's family at our bi-annual winter beach trip. The kids had so much fun with their cousins playing endlessly whether on sand, in water or in the house turning closets into caves and beds into boats, not to mention the daily pillow fights. Nana bought the movie Dolphin Tale for a family movie night, which was a great family film. The last day at the beach we saw dolphins and the kids were chasing Winter (the main character of the movie) down the beach. We collected a multitude of seashells and other beach treasures, made cookies, visited the NC Aquarium, had a beach scavenger hunt, shared wonderful meals together, and made memories that will last a lifetime.

Finding life in the most unexpected places

"Lord, make us mindful of the little things that grow and blossom in these days to make the world beautiful for us."
- W.E.B. du Bois

About a month ago Matt was cleaning out the gutters and he found a flower growing in the top of the chimney. It wasn't a lovely flower by any means; enclosed in a black bud, it basically looked dead. Caleb brought it inside and placed in a flower vase with water. I humored him and kept it in the vase. Even though I thought it was ugly he thought it was special. Then, low and behold, after being in the water for about a week it started to bloom. How extraordinary and unexpected. Caleb was so excited when he saw it, declaring "I knew it would grow"! Isn't that why we are called to be more like children...to have that kind of faith- to look at the future with hopeful expectations, to find life in the seemingly dead. Maybe I am over-analyzing the situation (as I have a tendency to do), but it is amazing how a simple little yellow flower blooming in winter on my windowsill can offer encouragement.




“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful implanted in the human soul.”
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Elijah's first violin recital

This summer some wonderful musicians visited Greensboro for the Eastern Music Festival. Some of the musicians participated in a wonderful program through the public library system where they performed for the children. I took my kids and they absolutely loved it. After watching the strings performance Elijah told me that he wanted to learn to play the violin, so I started looking around for a teacher. With Charlotte Mason in mind, I wanted to pick a teacher that was truly passionate about the instrument, not just someone who could teach him how to play- but someone who really loves to play. I think I found a perfect fit for us. You can check out her studio here. She is also the only teacher that I have found that allows siblings and parents to take lessons together...so in the spring I think I will be ordering 3 more violins!

stick sculpture

Back in the fall we went to explore a free stick sculpture exhibit on the campus of Guilford College. The structure was absolutely fascinating and the kids had a blast weaving in and out of the stick village. The sculptor, Patrick Dougherty, is quite famous in this art and you can check out his website here.


this picture shows what the sculpture looks like from above and how he is inspired by the shape of the honeycomb


this picture shows the size of the sculpture in comparison to Elijah who is over 4 feet tall


Jonas inside the sculpture


Miss Ruthie looking pretty next to the sculpture