Pardon my Southern, but ya’ll is such a friendly word, don’t you think? And I sure want ya’ll to feel welcome.
For the longest time, living in Idaho for nearly two decades now, I’ve squelched my Southern drawl. Not everyone seemed charmed by it (if anything, the opposite), and I didn’t like drawing attention to myself. But lately, I’ve felt the need to get back to my roots.
One way I’m doing that is by getting back into blogging, and while I thought it would be hard, it feels more like coming home. I hope this place feels a little like home to you, too. And if you’ve been following me awhile, welcome back!
If you happen to be new here, though, you might be wondering about the name. Well, before I married my husband, Ben, he once baked me a delicious peach cobbler and dropped it off on my doorstep as a surprise.
I answered him with a sweet potato soufflé (my grandmother’s recipe), and that pretty much sealed the deal. I think we both knew we were meant to be together.
I’m from Georgia. He’s from Idaho. Peaches. Potatoes.
And we’ve been “Peaches and Potatoes” ever since. I started this blog when we were first married to share our new life together with loved ones far away. Now here we are, over 15 years later with five kids!
I sorely miss the South, but I also love our “home sweet Idahome”—the mountains, the river, the trees, all the farm fresh and easily foraged foods (especially peaches and potatoes, of course…and in fact, the picture above is by a creek near our home where we like to gather grapes and wild blackberries). Our home in beautiful Boise has been a little piece of heaven for us and the perfect place to raise our family.
And like my grandmother’s sweet potatoes, which are now a favorite with my in-laws, we’re still cooking up good food for each other, too, only with a lot more dirty dishes!
That’s actually one thing I want to share here. Not the dirty dishes. (Ben’s the one who takes care of most of those anyway—thanks, my love!) I mean good food. It’s been a big part of my healing.
Because life hasn’t always been so sweet. For years, I struggled with health problems like infertility, repeated miscarriages, kidney stones, staph infections, cystic acne, food sensitivities and hair loss—some of which was triggered by stress, including almost losing our daughter as a baby.
All of this was even harder with Ben working long hours and no family nearby for support. I often felt stuck at home, alone and overwhelmed. I wasn’t the wife or mom I’d always hoped I’d be. And I wasn’t doing the things in life I wanted to, either.
Because of that, I took a long break from blogging to focus on my health and family. Now I’m back—and, by the grace of God, healthy again—but going forward, I want this to be more than just our family blog.
Here I want to share all the things that help my family and me live healthy and feel our best. Some of those topics close to my heart, which I’ll be writing about here, are:
- Natural health
- Real food and Bible-based nutrition
- Non-toxic home, garden and DIY
- Motherhood and marriage
- Homeschooling (We’re just starting out, so you can learn with us.)
I truly believe each of us can find healing and feel our best naturally, both inside and out, simply by nourishing and caring for our bodies well. And while diet and exercise, along with modern medicine, have their place, I also believe we have the ability to be healthy without extreme fitness routines, restrictive dieting, expensive therapy or relying only on medications. It’s a matter of giving our bodies what they need to function the way God designed.
Our bodies are sacred, beautiful gifts from God. Above all, I’m so grateful for the chance to give birth to and breastfeed five babies, which I couldn’t have experienced without the knowledge that’s been shared with me. Now I want to share it with you, to help you and the people you love enjoy the health I believe God wants for all His precious children.
I hope you’ll follow along and keep in touch! You can sign up for my mailing list here or with the form below so you don’t miss a thing.
If you’d like, take a moment to visit my about page, or reach out to me anytime at peachesandpotatoes@gmail.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. And please feel free leave a comment or question below. I’d love to hear from you!
Thanks again for being here. I’m truly humbled and so happy to have you join me.
Take care ya’ll,
P.S. If you’re here from my other blog on Wix, you’re in the right place! I was there for a short time under a different name, but I’m back to blogging here now, for good. I also switched to WordPress with Bluehost. It’s an easy way to get started blogging for just a few dollars a month. If you’re interested, you can use my link for a discount on hosting with Bluehost. (The WordPress platform is included for free.) Please reach out if you have any questions!