Hello everyone! I’m so glad that you’ve made it over to my blog and I promise to value your time as I share posts about my home, wellness journey, and nourishing fare that fills my kitchen table. I’m excited for the opportunity to share with you wisdom that I have received from generations of exceptional home cooks that have gone before me. I look forward to documenting my ongoing journey of health and wellness as I seek to cultivate and maintain a healthy body, mind, and soul. I also love all things homestead so there will be animals to tend, gardens to weed, and plenty of fresh produce to preserve to sustain us through our long Michigan winters.
About me
I was born at the tail end of a year long family road-trip as the 6th daughter in an amazing Christian family. I guess I was a pretty sweet souvenir.
My sisters and I grew up on our Dad’s Christmas tree farm where my husband continues to work and provide for our family. Our home is surrounded by acre after acre of pine trees that let me reminisce about all those summers I spent working in the fields. Also, my love of these trees is the inspiration behind the name Pantry in the Pines. What could be better than stores of good food and the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree!?!
Christmas is my favorite holiday!
I am a mother of 4 beautiful, amazing, talented children who motivated the birth of this blog. What a neat opportunity we have, in our day and age, to be able to share on a platform the stories of our lives along with all of our favorite things; tried and true recipes, family traditions, life lessons learned, wisdom gained from experience. These are the things I want to pass on to my children. These are the things that are worth remembering.
We have been on a homeschooling journey since our kids have started their formal education and it has been a beautiful and ever refining experience.
I was able to marry the man of my dreams whom I have known since our days in kindergarten together. We have so enjoyed doing life together and dreaming of what is to come.
What you will find on this blog and why.
Recipes: Because I love to eat. Food is seriously one of my favorite things. I love the smells that waft through the house. I love the ingredients all lined out on the counter to be dumped together and transformed into something that gives our bodies sustenance and energy. I love the tastes, feels, and special moments that arise out of a family gathered around the table breaking bread together. I love everything about food!
Wellness: I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2016 and it radically changed my views on what I thought had been healthy living. I may have had my views changed but the implementation of those views was much harder said then done. Just in the last year have I really started to see how we are multifaceted beings and that to begin a healing process it is imperative to address the whole self; body, mind and soul.
Homestead Life: We recently moved into our forever home that we got to build from the ground up. It wasn’t super fancy but it had room to gather those near and far around our table. We started with a completely blank slate on never before cultivated land, which has been a very exciting and backbreaking journey. We have so many dreams for our farmhouse and they will be documented here. That jersey cow and a herd of Katahdin sheep may be a fantasy now but it will come to fruition in due time. For now we have a flock of laying hens, a few beef cattle we raise, 4-H pigs in the summer and our home mascot, a painted pony, Louise. I also grew up with a garden my whole life and, although I do not enjoy weeding, harvesting produce is one of my favorite things. That is, besides preserving it. I love to roll open my pantry barn door and see the canned goods holding all those summer flavors for me to enjoy year round. I have just started fermenting foods as I strive for good gut health, so I will be sure to share my research and experiments with you all. So far the fermented sauerkraut, salsa and jalapeños are a big hit!
That’s it folks!
Be sure to share this blog with friends or on your social media. My goal is to inspire those homemakers, child raisers, farmers and homeschooling moms that life is beautiful. We have so much to be thankful for and I hope this gives you eyes to see the blessings that abound.