_{read time 3 minutes}

Happy Monday, y'all! We finally did something we should have done years ago, and it's become the heart of our days together. I can't wait to tell you about our porch table. Also: ornament madness, eggs, and why your business should be a garden, not a basement.

This past week in a minute:

Overwhelmed by ornaments

Thank you all so much for your support in my ornament launch this week! Both my fine art ornaments and the kids ornaments (my first time releasing those!) sold like crazy. We're honestly a little overwhelmed trying to help our team catch up on all the orders and ship them out as quickly as possible.

So please be patient with us. We're working as fast as we can to get them to you in time for the holidays.

And if you weren't able to grab one this time, don't worry. I'll definitely do another release as soon as we catch up. I promise we won't leave you hanging.

Thoughts from the family business

This past week, Jordan wrote about how we think about business integration with our family and our kids, versus separation or balance. It's such a good reflection on what we've learned over the years.

I love this quote in particular:

"Your business is a garden, not a basement. Don't build in the basement. Don't tuck it away from your family because you think it'll protect them. Bring it up into the light... into the garden."

It's exactly how we try to live and work together. If you're curious about this approach or building something with your family, you should read the full issue [here].

On the farm

We're finally getting eggs again! Nowhere near what we should be getting, maybe two or three a day, but it's at least helping me justify keeping them all to Jordan.

We've got about 40 birds right now, and they're slowly (very slowly) re-earning their keep. I'll take what I can get at this point.

❤️ Tabitha

This old porch table

I don't know why it took us this long. We've been toying with the idea for years, talking about pulling a table and chairs out onto our front porch for family dinners and slow meals together. We finally pulled the trigger last week, and it's been so much more than we imagined. So much sweeter with the kids.

It's become a place for art lessons, creative time, slower evenings…. just being together. It's also become the favorite perch for our 100-pound Great Pyrenees to jump on and scare the living daylights out of us through the window in the early mornings. We're still working on that part.

Since we added it, we've had dinners out there with the porch fire crackling nearby. We've done homeschool lessons in the fresh air. We've painted and created and just sat. It's been such a sweet, unexpected gift, and I honestly can't believe it took us this long to make it happen.

Picture this with me: I’m painting at the table (it was actually for work, but it didn't feel like work at all), Jordan just sitting beside me, enjoying the moment. Which he rarely does. Evie pulled up her chair and joined in painting with mommy, her little hands carefully choosing colors. Ducky on his swing nearby, drifting in and out of sweet little naps. Lacey in the rocking chair, calming her hands and her soul with some crochet work. And baby Isla? Scooting all around the front porch, figuring out her world, occasionally needing to be saved from diving off the edge.

Our family spends a lot of time together in our normal day-to-day, but we're often moving about in our own spaces, doing our own thing. Bringing this table outside to our favorite place, where we can watch the sunrise in the mornings or the sunset in the evenings, has really grounded our family in a special way.

It's given us a place to land. A place where we can breathe in nature together and reset. A place where we can work side by side as a family, each doing our own thing but still together.

I'll take this any day over a concert, a trip to a theme park, a football game, or any other expensive "experience" the world says we're supposed to want.

Sometimes the sweetest moments are the ones that cost nothing at all. Just a table, some chairs, and the people you love most gathered around it.

 — Tabitha Paige, Author/ Illustrator, Speech Therapist & Mom

Sometimes I make books & other pretty things…