We have been swimming in strawberries lately as our transplanted patch is growing amazingly well. It’s hard to get out there and pick with a baby on my hip, and she never seems to nap when I need to get all the things done. I know this is only a season, (one I have been…

Ecclesiastes 11:6 “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” Sow your seed in the morning, then again at night….we were able to practice this fun scripture first hand…

Are you familiar with scope creep? It’s something I am all too familiar with. I am learning to embrace it. If I had everything laid out ahead of time with the details, timelines, and financials, I doubt many of the projects that I undertake around here would ever even have gotten started. A couple of…

It’s almost time to plant the garden! Can you smell it in the air? If you used the fertilizer we did, you would definitely be smelling us springing into this garden season. Get yourself garden ready with my recommendations for the top garden tools. Find the printable list in the free resource library. It’s time…

After we planted our fall garden I soon realized why we usually skip this second garden round. It was truly a season of survival. We were so busy once school started up that we were really out of garden tending mode. Even in this year of quarantine, the busy schedule took over. I like to…

What is an Osage Orange tree? We have a somewhat random product for sale! It’s Osage Orange trees! Read on to discover some of the mysteries of this unique tree. So exactly what is this tree like? Well I had to do a little research on the matter, as it turns out this tree is…

Adding Personal Touches to Family Celebrations One of the reasons I like having a Cricut cutting machine is the ability to make personalized decorations for celebrations & gifts at a moments notice, because often times I only have a moment to prepare. One might argue that I can plan ahead to have more than a…

This weekend we celebrated the start of less sweaty hiking and muscadine picking season. It’s been so hot in the Upstate of SC, but with this weekend’s promising cooler weather forecast, we headed to the mountains with our little family. We were debating on driving to the mountains or the beach, but hiking in the…

Shout out for Local Businesses!  So now more than ever it’s important to support your local businesses. Amidst so much uncertainty with what the future brings, let’s band together to help our community out. I had two great experiences with some local businesses this week and I just wanted to give them a huge shout…

The fall season is here! Well it’s almost fall. The early start to school in the south makes it feel like fall, but the 90-degree weather not so much. Growing up in Michigan Labor Day always signaled the end of summer and start of school. It’s hard to get used to the August start of…

Back to school time! Are you ready? It was our first full week of school! Our little one was so excited for meet the teacher and her first day of school that she woke up before 7 am on each of those mornings! At meet the teacher she received a balloon with this cute little…

There are affiliate links in this post. I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Okay, so this isn’t really a eulogy, but it is a commemoration of sorts…of harvest! What do you do with wheelbarrows full of fresh corn on the cob? Here we eat steamed corn right…

About the same time the garden was in full production mode I had a summer creative camp at church for 3rd-8th grade girls to prepare for. So in between making pickles, tomato sauce, and freezing corn & green beans I was perfecting the crafts I intended to share with my young ladies. Besides crafts, the…

We have had a number of volunteers around here recently. They range from people and plants to poultry. I made the very hard decision to step down from a volunteer post of 11 years with the AWANA Club. I loved my time dearly with those girls and wonderful leadership, but I felt called to volunteer…

Homeschooling vs. School at Home blog post on bartoncraftbarn.com

Summer is upon us and in full swing! Not calendar official yet, but with school being out and the garden up and running it certainly feels like summer around here. We started our summer break with a week of slothfulness. It gave my kids time to recharge from their school-at-home, constant screen time schedule into…

There are affiliate links in this post. I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Just a little update on the farm & family side of things; the garden is finally taking off! I hesitated to give an update too soon because it was a pretty frustrating start over…

There are affiliate links in this post. I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. So I was looking for something to fill my spare time, you know the time I had when all the kids were in school. Wait, where did that time go? It’s sort of ironic…