Glimpse of Gratitude

{I have changed Glimpse of Gratitude to Mondays.  Come check it out and be grateful!}

"Have an attitude of Gratitude" is one of my favorite sayings.  It's simple and to the point, kind of puts you in your place without ever having to say a mean word. :)  Or at least it puts me in my place.  Anyway when times get rough around here I start counting my blessings.  Some days I find little to be grateful for and others I see the abundance everywhere.  Being grateful in times of stress or unhappiness can be the biggest challenge and yet when we take a few moments to be thankful for what we do have we can feel a peace that rarely comes.

So on that note I want to start a little tradition of sorts.  Each Friday I will post one simple picture of something I am grateful for, something that has blessed my life in the past week, with no words to describe it.  I want the picture to speak for itself.

Feel free to join in the Glimpse of Gratitude challenge and post one on your blog.  Leave a comment here so we can see who you are and what you are grateful for.  This is a great way to build a community that encourages each other so join in and let your friends know about it too!



Have a lovely weekend!

Currently Loving

 ~Strawberries, Bet that comes as a surprise huh?

~Fresh salads from the garden

~Cabbage, trying my hand at Sauerkraut this week

~The sounds of  sprinklers and crickets

~The cool night air (low 40's around here lately)

~Good books

~A working computer after a rough couple of days without one

~Usborne books

~The feel of summer that soaks right in, nothing can beat it

 

What are you currently loving?

Strawberry Jam

Every year I put up lots of strawberry jam.  We used to live by an organic strawberry farm that sold their berries by the gallon.  Oh were they sweet and juicy, loved those berries!  Here the seasons are cooler and strawberries don't come on until mid July.  We don't have an organic farm anywhere near here but we do have a family that grows berries vertically.  I have never seen a more cool set up!  Hundreds of vertical styrofoam growers contain over 16,000 plants!  Amazing! 

I visited this mini farm Monday to pick of 5 cases of strawberries and headed back home to start the sticky mess of jam making.  We wiped down the kitchen, made a quick lunch and launched into the process.















I didn't have a big enough pan out for the first batch and nearly lost the whole thing!  It was a great day that I look forward to repeating for raspberries and peaches.  Oh how I love canning season!

Create!

(Regardless of what religion you are watch the video above, the message is wonderful!)

A friend sent the above video to me this weekend knowing that I often say "I'm just not that creative."  Her rebutle is always "I can't sew a straight line but you can whip a dress out in an hour."  True.  I can create and sometimes forget that fact because I get wrapped up in what I can't do.  I can't create beautiful music with my voice or an instrument, I can't create a painting, sculpture or mural.  There are so many things I can't create because of lack of know how or ability.  And while it is easy to dwell on that I have decided to think of all the things I can create.  I do create with my sewing machine, I create with food when I cook for my family, I create when I fool around with all the behind the scenes geekery of blogs.  There are a lot of things I do to create and really that is an amazing gift to be able to create something.


 

A friend of mine is a self proclaimed craft failure.  She can sew a couple lines but aside from that every single craft she has tried has failed.  However that wonderful woman has a mind for numbers and she simply creates order with numbers.  It's amazing to watch.  Each one of us has a gift for creating, the goal is to find what it is we create.

My goal this week is to create (or start) a more calm, mellow and supportive home.  I am tired of worn out attitudes.  It is in my power to create an environment when these little people can thrive and I am able to preserve my hair a little longer ;).

So what do you create?  What's your goal this week, what will you create?

 

A Family Affair

I come from a large family, there are 7 of us,  spread out over two generations.  Most of us talk on a weekly basis.  We know each others faults, likes, and important life moments.  We share and fight and get pissy with each other.  There is something so right about having family, even one as hugely flawed as my own.   



Today my baby brother was married.  Today I gained another sister.  She is sassy, sweet, and loves my kiddos oh so much.  Today I looked around at all the friends and family gathered to celebrate these two, and I had to smile.  The emergency flowers purchased, the wind-blown decorations, dirty kids, or old hurts all fade away and we all just basked in the love that these two share.

Family is the greatest blessing.

Welcome to I'm Naturally Simple

Welcome!  My name is Kimberly and I am the founder of this little slice of the blogosphere.  I am a mom to 4 rambunctious and enthusiastic kids and wife to a fantastic man.  I wear many hats around here and enjoy many things.  Over the last year our lives have taken turn after turn until we have found ourselves sitting in a place that is entirely different from what we ever expected.  For me (and lets face it, everyone in the house!) the last year has been a roller coaster of emotions and over all a really rough time.  I have found myself hysterical with laughter and completely drained of any emotion.  I have fought hopelessness, depression and anxiety. 

Though the path has been a difficult one it has also been highly rewarding.  During these struggles I have often found myself pondering what it really means to be happy, what it really means to be content.  Just when I think I have found the answer something else comes my way that challenges my new ideas. 

And that is how this blog came to be.  Over the last year I have realized that contentment and happiness are such personal experiences for everyone, no two perceptions are the same.  Somehow we all look for contentment, simplicity, and happiness in some form or another.  I want to celebrate that, encourage that growth, and continue to find it for myself.

I want this blog to be a celebration of that deep part in ourselves that searches for a deeper meaning, that longs for a quiet soul, that nurtures our very selves and makes us feel whole.  Please join me here for thoughts, quotes, and ideas to make life a little more simple.  Join in the comments and help uplift others in their search for what makes them tick.  Join our Facebook page, twitter, or subscribe to us if you so desire.  Anyway you decide to do it, we are glad you are here.

Here's to simplicity, happiness, and contentment!

Kimberly

Putting by

Putting by

Holiday camping- Yellowstone Park

To celebrate the 4th of July we packed up the kiddos and headed to the mountains for a little R&R.  We met some our favorite friends and proceeded to have a chaotic ball.  It was great, seven kids under 8, good food, good friends, and fantastic scenery.  It really was the perfect weekend.  I still smell like campfire, sunscreen and bug spray, I think its my new pheromone.  At least that's what I am telling myself since it seems to be embedded in every single pore on my body. 

Anyway we spent most of our time in Island Park, ID with a very hot day spent in Yellowstone National Park.  It was wonderful.  We all walked away with sunburns, bug bites, and enough s'mores in our stomachs to float us home.  I love vacation time!

::The air was FILLED to the brim with pollen, really the sky had a yellow haze, that coated my camera lens making a lot of these pics pretty grainy looking.  Just a heads up!::

 {The colors found in Yellowstone are unlike anything else. Breathtaking!}

 {Bacteria mixing with the high thermal heat make some pretty shocking color displays.}

 {Old Faithful in full splendor}

 {Pulled Pork sandwiches that were perfect.  Cast iron is great and BBQ sauce is my love.}

 {Ahhh aren't we just a cute pair of love birds..}

 {Lou and her fishing pole.  The girls world was completed when she received that.}

 {The passel of children that accompanied us, listening to the park ranger talk to us about natures mosquito repellent....pollen.  It coats their wings and they can't fly, it also coats the water so the mosquitoes can't hatch.  Brilliant!  Can you tell Ian had a little visit in the pit from said little bug?}

{Beauty is everywhere!}

{Remember when Smokey the Bear was so awesome?  The kids got to meet him and they thought it was the coolest thing on the planet.  The learned the real story of Smokey, earned a few prizes, and got to say cheese with the bear.}

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  The smells, laughter, friends and of course food.  I am so thankful for the freedoms we have here in this country.



Holiday camping- Yellowstone Park

To celebrate the 4th of July we packed up the kiddos and headed to the mountains for a little R&R.  We met some our favorite friends and proceeded to have a chaotic ball.  It was great, seven kids under 8, good food, good friends, and fantastic scenery.  It really was the perfect weekend.  I still smell like campfire, sunscreen and bug spray, I think its my new pheromone.  At least that's what I am telling myself since it seems to be embedded in every single pore on my body. 

Anyway we spent most of our time in Island Park, ID with a very hot day spent in Yellowstone National Park.  It was wonderful.  We all walked away with sunburns, bug bites, and enough s'mores in our stomachs to float us home.  I love vacation time!

::The air was FILLED to the brim with pollen, really the sky had a yellow haze, that coated my camera lens making a lot of these pics pretty grainy looking.  Just a heads up!::

 {The colors found in Yellowstone are unlike anything else. Breathtaking!}

 {Bacteria mixing with the high thermal heat make some pretty shocking color displays.}

 {Old Faithful in full splendor}

 {Pulled Pork sandwiches that were perfect.  Cast iron is great and BBQ sauce is my love.}

 {Ahhh aren't we just a cute pair of love birds..}

 {Lou and her fishing pole.  The girls world was completed when she received that.}

 {The passel of children that accompanied us, listening to the park ranger talk to us about natures mosquito repellent....pollen.  It coats their wings and they can't fly, it also coats the water so the mosquitoes can't hatch.  Brilliant!  Can you tell Ian had a little visit in the pit from said little bug?}

{Beauty is everywhere!}

{Remember when Smokey the Bear was so awesome?  The kids got to meet him and they thought it was the coolest thing on the planet.  The learned the real story of Smokey, earned a few prizes, and got to say cheese with the bear.}

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  The smells, laughter, friends and of course food.  I am so thankful for the freedoms we have here in this country.