About Me

Welcome to my blog, "Hope's Homestead." I'd like to tell you a bit about myself and my blog's intentions, so grab a cup of tea, coffee or a green drink from your garden and sit awhile.

This is a picture of me on the dock at the lake below our home.

My name is Lee and I live in the Okanagan Valley, which is located in southern British Columbia, Canada. We are about a 5 hour car drive east of Vancouver, B.C. which is on the West Coast,(remember the winter Olympics in 2010?) Hopefully, our Province is now on the map of being known around the world.

Our valley is dry and arid and has beautiful lakes. There are abundant orchards everywhere. We grow apples, cherries, and peaches to name a few.

This is our mini orchard

Vineyards dot many of our hillsides and our grapes are starting to be known around the world. We are also fortunate to live about 20 minutes from a world renown ski hill, "Silver Star" and about an hour and a half away from another called, "Big White." Both have ski runs for every ability and a long season with lots of powder.

Needless to say, we are a family of skiers. My husband and I met at the Calgary ski club so it's no wonder we have chosen to live near a few ski hills. For the last 30 years, give or take a few, we have lived in a rural area outside of our small city. This town doesn't have a Chapters or a Costco but we have several Starbucks if that tells you anything. But maybe not, since every town seems to have at least one Starbucks. Regardless, it's just the right size for raising our family.

We live on a 1/3 of an acre above one of the most beautiful lakes in the world,  according to the National Geographic anyway. It's called, Kalamalka Lake, which was named by our First Nations people and means, the lake of many colours."

this is one of' the gates going into our backyard....the little house on the left is the children's playhouse, not our home, if that was what you were thinking, although don't get me started about tiny houses...I could easily live in one of those.

 
We built our home 21 years ago and landscaped our sloping lot with many terraces and areas of lawn. The yard is planted with a mixture of shrubs and trees that mostly require great quantities of water. It has only been in the last few years that we are slowly changing the landscaping to be largely edible. We have evolved and if we are going to use water, we want it to grow plants and herbs we can eat. We envision a yard that can nourish our bodies, our souls and the nature around us. We know that the energy/water demands of the future must change and we want to be that change for the next generation.  We believe that the smallest lot can provide that diversity. My favourite book right now is by Brett L. Markham called,  "Mini Farming".....self sufficiency on 1/4 acre. Check it out if you are a urban/suburban homesteader too.

I'm grateful to be sharing my life with my "zero defects" (my nick name for him) husband, David, but for future blog entries, I will just call him "D" Oh my gosh, he has his stuff together. He's funny, laid back, a great handyman, creative person, a loving father, my best friend and a wonderful provider for our family. I'm a previous career driven woman who has discovered I'm happiest raising our family. Who knew! There was a time that I didn't want any children....that is before I met David.

David enjoying holding Will

Fortunately, with hard work and some good moves we positioned ourselves financially to allow for me to stay at home. (although recently I did work at a garden center for the spring season). I loved it!....but it was hard being away from the little ones.  I won't lie though, it's not always easy and we could have taken an easier path for sure. We have had to be extremely creative at times but this has been a huge part of the journey and so rewarding in the end. I'm grateful that I had the courage to take the plunge to stay home with our children. What is that saying by Mark  Twain?.....

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Well it's been almost 20 years since I quit my stressful, demanding job and yeah, no regrets. We all have to follow our hearts and trust that the life we desire will manifest.

We have 8 children, yes all ours. I say that as some people assume we are a combined family because the children range in age. I was going to call my blog the "GR8TEFUL GARDEN" because so much of who I am and what I do is centered on being a mom to our cool bunch of 8 kids but there is more to me than that. A lot of blogs I read with moms of larger families have content regarding homeschooling and many with a religious bent but that is not exactly the path we are walking.

Although I admire those who home-school, our children range from age 24 down to our twins who are now 3.. If I did home-school and believe me I have thought about it, as we have a 5 year old who is amazing and would probably benefit greatly from an unschooled approach. (that is a blog unto itself, suffice it to say that his heart is endless as is his imagination and I am concerned that he will be limited in a school setting...we shall see as he starts kindergarten soon)

That may well be the path we take in the future but in the past we found that due to our children's various ages and developmental stages, we felt that a formal school approach would work best for our family. I'm not good at letting them go every day though. I miss them. I'm certainly not one of those moms who has a big smile on her face at the end of summer break. Again, another blog about letting go and trusting that the path we have chosen with regards to education is best for our family. Here is a picture of our family Christmas.(2013)

Back, from left to right, Grace Elizabeth, just turned 11, William Seaton 4, Me, holding Kathryn Mira 2, Victoria Hope 2, David, and fianally our 23 year old oldest, Alyssa Rae.
In the front row from left to right, Clark Douglas, who was about to turn 21, Harrison Drew who was about to turn 15...they are Christmas babies..and Mitchell David who was 17 in this picture....about to turn 18 in January.
That's us...the Reynolds family 2013

   

Sadly,our school system (another blog post) is not prepared to provide our children with the kind of education that we would like to offer them so we make sacrifices/choices to supplement their learning desires with a lot of extra curricular activities.  An example of this is that most of our children are proficient playing several instruments, such as, piano, cello, violin, guitar, flute, sax, drums, voice, to name a few. We are also big believers in directing our children to find something physically stimulating so they can stay fit all their lives.

Harrison and Mitchell played on the same soccer team this year and are also accredited referees

Our children have participated in almost every sport and activity from ballet to tae kwon do over the years. My posts will probably talk about finding a balance when raising children. It's tough but our older kids are turning out to be multi-talented, and interesting so something has been working.

Mitchell is our cellist....oh my this has to be my fav instrument

Another aspect of me is that I'm spiritual....VERY but I'm not religious if you know what I mean.

 
I was born in a Christian home but my whole life I have been a seeker. I have been trying to figure out who I am and what I'm meant to do while I'm on this earth. When I was active in various "religious" settings many questions arose with conflicting beliefs so I have continued my quest to find what resonates with my soul without formal religious ideas defining me. The other day we had people come to our door with religious books they wanted us to read. When I told them that I would be happy to read their pamphlets but I had my own beliefs. The man then said, "oh yes, we saw that when we came to your door."  I blinked a bit confused. I didn't at first know what he was talking about and then it dawned on me that he saw our Buddha statue sitting in quiet meditation beside our front yard pond and assumed my beliefs.

Buddha statue in quiet repose beside our pond.

 And that brings me to my basic philosophy in life.

Some have been formed after reading the book, "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz.   These teachings resonate with me and best describe my intentions.

1. To be Impeccable with my word.

2. Don't take anything personally.

3. Don't make assumptions.

4. Always do my best.

It's where I'm at right now. Over the last 20 years my beliefs have evolved to a large extent while bringing our children to the earth. A lot of people look at our family and assume fertility issues were not an issue but they would be mistaken.

Our first four children did come easily, although there were serious health concerns with our oldest child. Still, many assumed we would call our family complete when we had four children. When I was close to turning 40 I heard a whisper from our soulbaby saying, 'can I join you too?" And so we started a totally new journey trying to conceive another child. Some people would think we were crazy. My best friend at the time said just that but we all have lessons to learn on this earth and mine came while on the "journey to Grace."

Those years the lessons flowed steadily. They were fraught with loss, pain and isolation because who in their right mind intentionally has a large family as this goes against the norm for a family in our current society. This is certainly not a normal green path either. Add having children later in life and you have some serious debates about ethics etc. As our family slowly grew and the lessons were taught, immense gratitude was overwhelming and my soul soared. I longed to make connections. Last year, I started a book club called, "The Sacred Circle." Perhaps you would like to join and read along with us. Our book selections for the fall will soon be under my Soul Work page.

We all have our own story, facing infertility is one of my many. If you stay long enough you may hear of the others, for who I am is certainly a result of my past life lessons. We are what we experience for sure but I have found we don't have to stay walking in that rut. It doesn't have to define us. We can release the pain of any difficult experience and learn to walk a new path. One full, rich and peaceful. I'm a BIG believer in dreams and holding the vision of what you want. I know that when you live with a trust and surrender attitude, we can create anything. We are limitless!

Christmas Blessings 2013

I have been writing and sharing a bit of my life  on some of the trying to conceive over 40 support boards for years and I have been told  my way of looking at life inspires others so I hope to bring that to the table here as well. I'm a warrior as we all are. We just forget to use those muscles and we allow fear to create all sorts of walls and barriers. I'd like to inspire others to rise up and live their best life. Whatever you dream can come true. Definitely, I would like to be an advocate for others who are trying to conceive a family. It's a lonely journey that feels hopeless but we don't have to be alone. Looking at my family isn't always what it seems. Again we make assumptions. If you are facing fertility issues and the next time you see a pregnant person or a van full of kids, hopefully you will be open enough to realize that that person may have had her own struggles getting to that place in life.

"Allow Miracles to Happen" means thinking outside the box with regards to how your children will come "and" when. This is a picture of our baby son Will.  He taught me to believe outside the box.

Enough about my fertility journey, which will surely come up in future posts. As our family grew, we realized that we would be taking up an even larger footprint on the earth, We have consciously been very aware of how important it is  to teach our children to walk the path gently and as greenly (is that a word?) as possible. I have always loved to garden but as  our family grew to 10, it became very important that we produce as much organic food for our family (and others) in our back 40, our back 40 meters that is...that is why I have called my blog, Hope's Homestead.  I want to be as self sufficient and sustainable as possible while optimistically growing as much food as we can on our little piece of earth. It's not there yet, but it's coming and I know I'm not alone, In this way I'm helping our planet earth. There are many families living in an urban/suburban setting wanting to do this same thing and maybe we can share the journey.

We have been looking at farms to purchase and this blog will probably share that journey as well but I really want to live fully in the moment and not be looking at what I don't have. Also, moving isn't always the greenest thing to do, instead it's wiser to bloom where you are planted and make what you have work for you and your family. So a lot of my posts will talk about growing food and creating an environment that is healthy for us and our mother earth without a lot of land.

This is a snap from the back of our home. This is one of our veggie gardens that I have created in the last few years. By amending the soil I have been able to garden intensely producing a lot of food for our family. My vision is to build raised beds throughout our backyard so I can rotate our crops to avoid disease and for optimal growing conditions.

Finally, I love to cook, care for my family and our home, so a lot of my posts will talk about creating a healthy, sacred place for our family. Also, give tips on how to live frugally. I love my homemade dishwasher recipe for instance and it's so easy. Check that future blog post

I have found over the years that we are happiest when we are living as clutter free and simply, even though we live in a very materialistic society.

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
~Henry David Thoreau~

Our little princess Victoria sitting on her pumpkin in our backyard patch

For me, less is more and I gently try to stay on that path. It's really hard though when you have teenagers as they are influenced by what everyone else has at school. I often think it would be much easier for us to home-school so we don't have that battle but for now, it is what it is. At some point in our children's lives, I hope they will remember that sitting out in nature is the most prosperous place they can ever reside. I'd like to believe  they are already rich with that knowledge. We are ALL in the process.

We love pizza and since I started making it from scratch we have saved tons of money plus it's healthier and more delicious...add my kale salad and I know I'm feeding my family a good meal. Stay tuned in the recipe section.

I have found that as I grow as a soul, as a mother, as a wife, as a homesteader, I desire connections with other people who are walking the same path. We are at a place in the world where vibrationally we can connect quickly and can change rapidly. I hope with these connections, we can alter the world to be on the channel towards peace and wholeness. We are connected.

Please come for a visit and share the path with me.....or just sit awhile.

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love" ~Mother Teresa~

Blessings from Hope

P.S. I would love to hear from you....check out the comment part of my blog.