Sunporch Chat ♥ with Kim of Field of Dreams ♥

Good morning friends!  I'm so glad you stopped by!  Come on in and join Kim and me on the sunporch for a Sunporch Chat.   I just recently "met" Kim of Field of Dreams this past year.  I'm not even sure how I ever first found her blog, but in her, I instantly connected with her faith, her love of family, and I enjoyed her blog posts about life on her farm and stories about her chickens.  She stands firm in her faith and she is very uplifting to me! 

Today we're having lemon cookies, coffee for Kim, and I'm having my morning glass of diet dew.  So grab you some cookies and coffee (or diet dew if you prefer), sit back, and enjoy the visit!  :)

1) How long have you been blogging and what/who gave you the desire to blog?

Thank you for asking me to be here today Tammy, I have been blogging now for three years. My Mom had cancer and she was sick so I thought if I started a blog for her to read each day it would help her get through the day. After she went on to heaven, I had to decide to keep blogging.

 

2) How did you choose the name of your blog and why?

One of the things that my husband and I was talk about when we would come visit and bring the kids and walk the land we called it that our field of dreams. No matter how much we work on it or do to it we still call it our field of dreams.

3) What variety of topics do you post on your blog (examples - home decorating, family, gardening, recipes, adoption, homeschooling, crafting, etc....)

It is funny when it started it was about our garden. As time as gone on it has changed into the garden, family, home schooling and decorating or what I am thinking about.

4) Tell us a little about yourself and your family.

I have been married 32 years to my husband, even though it still feels like we just got married. We have six children and 7 grand children. I still have four young adults living at home and we are looking forward to having a wedding here in September 2013, as well as my son graduating from high school and my daughter graduating from college before her wedding.

5) How would you describe your decorating style?

Oh, well I have always called it realistic decorating. It will never win a house beautiful award, but I want people to feel welcome and feel comfortable to put their feet up and stay awhile. I think it is called country though.

6) What's your favorite color and why?

I think it changes with the seasons, right now I can’t get enough of oranges and reds and yellows. I love red and white in the winter but in the spring I love purple and in the summer lots of yellows.

7) Tell us a few of your favorite things (collections, things that make you happy, etc.).

What makes me happy is knowing that my kids are good, my husband is good and when we all get to sit around the dinner table together. I love my family and I like cooking and I like cleaning house. After I got over that woman’s lib part of my life, my deep down desire was always being a home maker and making a safe place for people to be able to come home to at the end of the day.

8) What do you like to do in your spare time (hobbies, crafts, etc..)?

I sew and I make rugs. I like working with old barn wood and I like to garden and I enjoy chopping weeds. I know that is a weird one but I get a great upper body work out so I like that.

9) What does your dream house look like? (Describe and/or include photo)

My dream house is where I live now. I don’t think I would ever find a house that I would like any better than this one.

10) If you could visit anywhere, anytime, where would it be and why?

I think I would choose right here right now. Watching my children make choices about life, watching the married ones learn to trust God in so many hard circumstances and watching them be parents has been the most rewarding thing ever in my life. This stage now is like the frosting on a cake. I really am so thankful to have got to be a part of it.

11) Would you share with us a favorite homemaking/organizing tip or recipe, etc..?

Well, I have laundry baskets in all of my kids rooms and my room too, instead of a clothes hamper. That way they put the clothes in there when they are dirty and bring them down on laundry day and as I do laundry I fill them back up and then they take them up when laundry is finished. I think that is the best labor saving device I have. Well and making menus each week. Planning my grocery shopping with my menus.

12) Tell us something about yourself that we might not already know from reading your blog. (something unusual, etc..)

I am left handed but because my Mom was left handed and they used to tie her hand behind her back when she was in school, she wouldn’t let me use my left hand to do anything when I was small, so I use both hands equally as well. In fact I sew with my right hand and hook rugs with my right but when I do needle punch I use my left.

13) I know you have homeschooled a LONG time. (And I would like to plug in here, that I admire you greatly for that)!   Would you tell us a little bit about how that came about, your general thoughts on it and and maybe even a look at what homeschooling looks like for your family?

I didn’t start home schooling because I wanted to, in fact I thought staying home all day with kids would be terrible. I only planned to do it one year. I felt God called me to do it and I wanted to be obedient to Him. When I started home schooling it was the dark ages and I lived in fear there would be a knock at the door and my kids would be taken away from me. We kept the drapes drawn and they never went outside until after school was out. As I had more children and I was teaching more grades life became busier and busier. I taught K-12 in one year. I laugh now because my son who is 17 has been in high school since he started school. Home schooling was our life. At night after dinner dishes were done my husband took over the work we didn’t get finished during the day and so he read out loud in the evenings. The things that I didn’t teach like art and music we took those classes outside. This year when I finish it will be the end of continual teaching my children for 25 years. I will have graduated 6 students on to college.

14) Tell us about your farm, Kim. How long have you lived on a farm? What does your farm life look like? Tell us anything concerning life on your farm here……including funny experiences.

Oh I have to laugh, because it isn’t a real farm. Like I told you we dabble. When we moved here I had a horse and we thought we would get more animals. Then we thought we would just put in lots of fruit trees and grow lots of food. That is why we got chickens. Now it has changed again, my husband grows trees for Bonsai. We grew lots more flowers this year than we grew food. Next year for our daughter wedding we will be growing the flowers, and pumpkins and all of that for her wedding. So each year it is something different. I guess you could just call us hobby farmers. We grow herbs but just for ourselves. My husband is teaching himself grafting too.

15) Tell us a way God has blessed you and/or your family.

God has blessed us by never leaving us or forsaking us as we learn to walk by faith and not by sight. We have lived lots differently than most folks. We have lived very quiet lives. When we got married the Lord gave my husband a verse that said that he was to lead a quiet life and work with his hands. So that is how we have lived and raised our family. Our family is all believers and out of anything I have done, the verse that says I have no greater joy than knowing my children walk in truth. Nothing I do matters except knowing that my children walk with God. Jackie Kennedy said, if you fumble at raising your children, it doesn’t matter very much what else you do in life. That is how I have tried to live.

16) Share any words of wisdom and/or a favorite quote you'd like to leave with us.

Do all the good you can as long as you can in every way you can for as long as you can.

From Tammy:

Thank you Kim so much for joining me today!  I just love your home and especially the atmosphere that I sense there!  I'm so glad to have met another sister in Christ with such a love for home and family (and homeschooling too).  I love your farm life, even if it is a hobby!  :) 

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And thank YOU for stopping by today and joining us!  Of course, I enjoy your comments, and I know Kim would love for you to stop by and visit her and leave a comment too! 

If I haven't been by to visit your blog, please don't give up on me.....life has been really busy around here lately and it seems like I'm fighting against the clock everyday!  I haven't forgotten you though! 

Have a great day, my friends!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥