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Welcome to Bringing Life! You have found the slightly crowded corner of the internet where a large family, an unfinished house, a garden with opinions of its own, several businesses, too many projects, a whole lot of "what if we just..." and a Christ-centered family all somehow live under the same roof. We are Tim and Rachel, and while neither of us fits neatly into just ten or eleven job descriptions, we have managed to divide the chaos just enough to keep most things moving in roughly the right direction.
Tim is very much the hands-on type. Whether he's reselling, building, running YouTube and social media, teaching the kids, going to auctions, gardening, or buying storage units, he is going all in. And, since apparently that isn't enough to keep him busy, he also makes time for fishing, writing devotionals, photography, foraging, poetry, and hunting. He feels deeply and thinks even deeper and is often halfway down three research rabbit trails at once. He loves to find new ways to make old things or systems work better and more smoothly. He's not a jack of all trades yet, but I think it's on his bucket list. His sense of humor likes to sneak out at the best or worst of times!
Rachel is gardener, cook, storyteller, artist, designer, and the one constantly turning ideas into something useful, beautiful, or at least interesting enough to try once. She shares the cooking and business work, tends much of the garden and food preservation, paints figurines, writes fiction, develops projects and products, and spends a fair amount of time in the kitchen turning ordinary ingredients into meals that are usually far better than they had any right to be. Recipes are treated more like suggestions than contracts, leftovers are liable to become something entirely different by supper, and “I wonder what would happen if…” has launched more than a few family favorites.
Much of what we do overlaps in many ways. We share the work of raising a large family, running too many businesses and startups, cooking, and then cooking some more with all these hungry mouths around, building, creating content, learning new skills, and turning a barely started homestead into the life we want to build for the long term. Underneath all of this, and most important is our faith in Christ and the desire to build a home and life that honors Him and gives our children something worth carrying forward. Bringing Life is where all of those pieces of life meet, including the successes, the mistakes, the projects that work, the ones that make us wonder what we were thinking, and everything we learn along the way.
Micah is the kind of kid who seems to assume that if something can be learned, built, figured out, climbed, repaired, read about, or attempted, there is really no good reason not to give it a try. He is exceptionally bright, endlessly curious, and rarely satisfied with knowing only the surface of something. Once a subject catches his attention, he wants to know how it works, why it works, what else connects to it, and a million details about it! Recently we were reading the Chronicles of Narnia as a family. He latched onto one point and spent about twenty minutes asking questions on that one little question that just hadn't been answered to his satisfaction in the book!
Books have always been one of his favorite ways to feed that curiosity. He reads voraciously, several hundred pages each week, and will happily disappear into a book for hours, especially when it involves history, heroics, or old Christian biographies. That love of learning carries over into nearly everything else he does. He is willing to tackle unfamiliar jobs, work beside the adults, learn new skills, and keep going when something takes more effort than expected. He is not afraid of hard work, and being told that something may be difficult is generally more likely to interest him than discourage him.
He likes to understand things for himself rather than simply being handed an answer, and he has a habit of noticing details and asking questions that make the rest of us stop and think too. Whether he is helping with work around the house and homestead, exploring outdoors, reading everything he can get his hands on, or deciding that today would be an excellent day to learn something entirely new, he brings a combination of intelligence, determination, and enthusiasm that keeps life interesting. He is looking forward to learning how to tan hides and is already working on plans to build a smoke house for skins so that he can learn to make leather items from scratch.
Micah is ten and in fifth grade this year. While reading and history are his favorite subjects, he also does very well in math and science. He is growing into the sort of young man who does not just want to know things, he wants to do things. And around here, with no shortage of projects, experiments, work, books, animals, gardens, tools, and questionable family ideas beginning with “What if we just…,” there is usually plenty available for him to get his hands on.
Alayna is nine years old, in fifth grade, and also loves to read. She was reading at four years old and can often be found in any book she considers interesting, usually either animal stories, historical battles, or generally anything that is not just facts. Though she is content with books at times, she is happiest when she has somebody to take care of, something to cook, or a small creature to investigate. She genuinely enjoys helping in the kitchen and is perfectly willing to take breakfast into her own hands. She has pretty much mastered the art of making homemade bread and tortillas and is almost offended if Rachel decides to do it herself. Coffee is part of the fun too, and if Tim mentions being hungry, there is a very good chance she will immediately volunteer to run off and make him a sandwich or quesadilla. Feeding people is one of the ways she naturally shows that she cares, and she never needs much encouragement to do it.
That nurturing streak carries straight over to her younger brothers and sisters. Alayna loves babies and little children and looks for opportunities to hold them, help them, entertain them, or generally make herself useful whenever she can. Having several younger siblings means there is rarely a shortage of volunteers needed, which suits her just fine.
Then there is the slightly less delicate side of Alayna. Bugs, snails, and other little creatures fascinate her, and the garden gives her plenty to work with. While most gardeners are not particularly excited to discover squash bugs or Japanese beetles, Alayna is delighted to have a job that involves hunting them down and picking them off the plants one by one. Apparently pest control is significantly more enjoyable when the pests have six legs. She has already decided she wants to hide dry cicada shells in the flowers at her wedding and see how many people she can get to scream during the wedding! She also is working on saving money to build bee hives, get some colonies going, and sell honey. Any chance she gets, she will try to get honey bees passing through to land on her hand so she can hold them for a bit. They will usually oblige. There has only been one time that one has stung her, and when it did she cried because it was going to die.
She has a wonderful combination of tenderness, toughness, and plenty of pranks to go around. She is perfectly happy caring for a younger sibling one minute and digging through the garden looking for insects the next. Whether she is making breakfast, bringing Tim something to eat, helping with the little ones, inspecting a snail, or protecting the vegetables from their latest invasion, Alayna has a way of finding something useful to do, and usually enjoying herself while she does it.
Kaitlynn is eight years old, and though she is going into only her second year of school, she tested at a third-grade level, so she is already moving ahead with third-grade work this year. She likes feeling big, capable, and included, especially when there is something new to try or a project that lets her work alongside the older kids and adults. She, along with Micah and Alayna, has been taking guitar lessons and is learning very quickly in both standard and classical styles.
She loves being outside and is especially happy when she gets to take a walk through the country with Tim. There is something about being out on the road and in the woods for a while that seems to suit her. She is always ready to jump in to move and stack firewood, help bring ceramic molds home for eBay, or help weed the garden. She also takes special responsibility for Willow, our German shepherd, and enjoys anything involving furry animals. The future rabbits already have a very enthusiastic fan waiting for them.
Kaitlynn enjoys helping and being part of whatever is going on, especially when the job is interesting enough to feel like an adventure instead of just another chore. She is curious about new projects, eager to try things she has not done before, and loves the feeling of being trusted with something that seems grown-up. She does not necessarily want to spend all day doing the same thing, but she is usually very ready to jump into something new with both feet.
Kaitlynn has a quick wit and a fast comeback speed that will even send Tim reeling from time to time! When she was just four, Tim was working hard as always, and when he is working fast and hard, he does not always pay really close attention to what he does, so he ended up slipping his knife into his pocket instead of laying it down on the table. Everyone spent a few minutes looking for the knife until Tim remembered it was in his pocket and everyone had a laugh. Several hours later, Alayna walked out into the living room and asked if anyone knew where her hair bow was. Without skipping a beat, four-year-old Kaitlynn looked up from what she was doing and said, "Check Daddy's other pocket!"
She has a lively personality, a sharp sense of humor, and a strong desire to be right in the middle of things. Whether she is walking with Tim, looking after Willow, waiting impatiently for rabbits to arrive, or finding some new project that looks interesting enough to claim as her own, Kaitlynn brings plenty of energy, humor, and a surprisingly quiet personality wherever she goes; at least until she laughs, at which point she may be the loudest person in the family!
Harold is six years old and, though quieter than some of his siblings, there is usually a great deal going on behind that calm expression. He is very intelligent and, after testing at a third-grade level, is already working well ahead for his age. Reading and math are particular favorites, and he tends to enjoy anything that gives him something interesting to think through.
Harold is much more of a thinker than a doer. While some of the others are happiest with a tool in hand or a project to jump into, Harold can be perfectly content sitting quietly while an entire world is unfolding in his imagination. He can play for hours without needing much in the way of toys at all, because whatever he needs is apparently already taking place in his head.
That imagination comes with a definite sense of humor. He may not always be the loudest person in the room, but he pays attention, thinks things through, and can come out with something unexpectedly funny when the moment is right. His humor tends to sneak up on you, which makes it all the better when it lands. Not too long ago we were at a dinner on Sunday afternoon after church with everyone else from the church. The kids were running aroung, playing, just generally having fun. Tim noticed that Harold was standing off to the side with his hands in his pockets just watching everything. There was not an unpleasant expression, or anything that looked like a problem, but Tim went over to check on him anyway. He walked over and asked, "What are you thinking?" Harold smiled, sighed, shook his head, and said "Way too much to talk about!"
Hands-on work is not usually the thing that draws Harold in first, and he is far more likely to be found reading, thinking, imagining, coloring, writing, or quietly entertaining himself than looking for another chore to tackle, though he is also happy to jump in and help when asked, but it will be at a slower pace than many of the others. His thought-filled nature is very much his strength. He has a mind that is always working, a rich imagination, and the ability to be completely absorbed in all kinds of ideas.
Elsie is four years old, and if the rest of the family is the normal current, she is the rapids. Walking is apparently far too inefficient, so she runs nearly everywhere she goes, usually with a smile on her face and a song trailing somewhere close behind. She knows her alphabet and the sounds they make and has already been playing around with trying to read. She loves to sing, color, draw, and generally bring a great deal of motion and cheer into whatever room she enters.
She has a strong little personality to go with all that energy. Elsie usually knows exactly what she wants, and if life happens to disagree with her plans, she has been known to make her opinion on the matter a bit too clear. Fortunately, the storm tends to pass quickly, and before long she is back to smiling, singing, or racing off toward the next thing that caught her attention.
Elsie also has a very generous definition of the word "cute." Frogs, fish, bugs, and assorted creepy crawlies all qualify, and she is rarely bothered by the things that make other people hesitate. If it hops, wiggles, crawls, or looks slightly alarming, there is a decent chance she would like to get a closer look, and of course has to touch it. Recently we were fishing, and as Tim would bring in a bluegill, he would drop it in the cooler on ice, which Elsie was opening for him. Finally she made the comment, "These fish are so happy! They're jumping up and down!" (Flopping in the cooler, of course.) Tim asked her why they were happy, and she looked at him like she couldn't belive he didn't know, and said, "Because all their friends are coming in with them!"
For all her speed and independence, Elsie still loves nothing better than climbing onto Daddy’s lap and settling in for a while. She is affectionate, joyful, imaginative, and just unpredictable enough to keep everyone paying attention. She also holds the family distinction of being the only child who has ever sent us to the emergency room; which, considering the competition, is honestly impressive. She decided to try using something for a swing that was never meant to be a swing, resulting in a large gash in her forehead. Five hours and eighteen stitches later, her comment as we pulled away from the harrowing night was, "That was fun!"
Niel is three years old and can probably best be described as highly activated sunshine. He is usually cheerful, busy, observant, and very interested in whatever everyone else is doing. His giggle is enough to set most others smiling, if not joining in...
His greatest love, however, may be food. Niel does not just like to eat; he pays attention to what food is, how it is made, and what goes into it. A trip to the grocery store with Tim may include requests for squash or mushrooms, and he can already come up with surprisingly sensible ideas about what seasonings belong in different foods. Taco's, homemade pizza, and liver and onions are all near the top of his favorites list, and he believes that mushrooms go in almost anything he eats.
He also loves writing, coloring, and counting, and he has a way of noticing the small details that everyone else overlooks. That same attention shows up outdoors, where birds have become a particular favorite. He is beginning to recognize some of them by their calls and gets genuinely excited when he hears one he knows. His current favorite is the mourning dove, or, as Niel calls it, the “Mourning Glove.”
His favorite toys say quite a bit about him: toy cars and cookbooks. He can often be found sitting on the floor with his cookbook open to a favorite page of food driving some car across the page, or when he gets a chance he can be found enhancing the laundry stack by playing in the mud or dirt.
Niel brings a bright, enthusiastic curiosity to nearly everything he does, and whether he is counting, coloring, listening for birds, inspecting groceries, or studying a cookbook, there is usually a lot more going on in that little head than his age would lead you to expect.
Judah just turned one and is our strawberry-blond, blue-eyed cuddle bug. He certainly has his fussy days, but most of the time he is busy smiling and doing his best to make everyone around him smile too. He is usually equally happy in the arms of Mommy, Daddy, Alayna, or Micah, which is convenient in a house where there is almost always somebody nearby willing to scoop him up.
His love of the outdoors showed up almost immediately. On his first trip outside at just two days old, he listened to the birds for a couple of seconds and then broke into a huge grin. That fascination has only grown. Birds, flowers, trees, and just about anything outdoors can hold his attention, and he seems perfectly content inspecting a leaf, destroying a flower, or playing with rocks. He is content with inside toys some as well, but will often get someones attention and point at the door requesting a reprieve from being inside.
Judah does not have a huge vocabulary yet, but he has already mastered one very important review of family cooking. After the first bite of nearly every meal, he announces, “I like it!” Apparently one year old is plenty old enough to establish yourself as the household food critic. If the food does not come fast enough though, everyone knows it.
For now, Judah is still very much the baby of the family: happiest when he is cuddled up with somebody he loves, carried outside to see what is happening, or sitting somewhere he can watch and experience the activity around him. With his ready smile, love of creation, and cheerful little “I like it!” at the dinner table, he has already found plenty of ways to make himself a very important part of the crowd.