The Utensil Drawer

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The Utensil Drawer

Giving You the Tools to Grow a Healthy Life

10/26/2025

Today, I had the honor of speaking at a small seminar put on by in a room of about 15 doulas to share Noah’s story alongside 5 other families. I’d love to say I was strong and said his story with confidence, but the second it was my turn I melted into a puddle. Revisiting his story comes easy some days, and on others it can shred me into sobs.

But, the beautiful part of telling his story is the telling of the incredible good that has come from the grief. Telling people about his garden, the buckets of sweat and love poured into building his space, the hundreds of pounds of vegetables that feed our community, and now, the beauty of helping other people create spaces in their yards that spark joy.

As I was working on a client’s design tonight, our daughter grabbed her notebook and began drawing her own design. Unprompted, she drew the arch that we planted with morning glories this year that serves as the whimsical entry to Noah’s Garden. A small reminder that he is here with us every day in ways big and small. ❤️

10/07/2025

Hi everyone! My name is Kaitlyn Scheuermann, and I own The Utensil Drawer, a small custom gardening service and foodscaping company. I’m a Registered Dietitian by day, and a gardener by nights and weekends.

I am offering 2 of my services at a discounted rate this fall:

1. Fall garden clean-up - Whether it’s to prepare perennials for winter or clean up leaves, let me be your extra set of hands!

2. Custom garden design services - I will come to your space, measure, and discuss your goals for your garden or yard this fall. I will create and share a design and planting plan with you for a thriving outdoor space.

If you’re looking for a little help with your outdoor space, fill out this form, and I’ll be in touch! https://forms.gle/ovn7TzGKAxpitoiz6

09/22/2025

Enjoying many soft, quiet moments in nature right now. Seeing butterflies, tagging a couple, releasing a couple more, and visiting some of our favorite natural spaces. This is the peace everyone should get to feel.❤️

09/01/2025

“It’s never fun to lose, especially when the loss involves not just some seedlings, but the brilliant future they once contained.” - David Tracey, Guerrilla Gardening

While David was referencing a city crew ripping out a planting in a public space, it struck a cord as I listened to his audiobook. This is why loss and grief are so hard. It’s loss of what could have been.

Today grief hit a little extra hard as one of our daughters became ill, and our plans to have picnic at Ledges State Park to celebrate Noah’s 6th birthday were sidelined. But instead we had a 6 year old’s dream dinner, Paw Patrol Mac and cheese (plus some cherry tomatoes and apple slices because, balance 😆). We sang happy birthday and ate the homemade cake that I worked very hard to bake this morning (I am NOT a natural-born baker).

Rewind to the other day, while picking up our daughter from her first day of school, a boy walked out and the teacher gave him a high five and said “Great job, Noah!”. Immediately tears formed in my eyes as I know I’ll never hear that phrase said to my Noah.

I will forever look over when someone says his name or let my eyes linger an extra moment on the four letters that make up his name when I catch it written down. Each birthday will be a celebration of the joy you bring to our lives and how much your life mattered no matter how short. Happy 6th birthday buddy, we love you so much. 💕

06/10/2025

Soaking in a month's worth of sunsets, sunrises, and the beauty that surrounds us. ❤️

05/12/2025

A beautiful Mother's Day weekend with a pancake breakfast at the airport, a market, a class at and a trip to Holub's Greenhouse with my own mom, and lots of time spent in the garden.
This weekend will always have a slight shadow cast on it because there will forever be one less hand to hold, but Noah was sure to let me know he wasn't far. One of the swallowtail cocoons that had formed late last summer and overwintered hatched today, so we had the gift of releasing the first butterfly of the season into his garden. 🦋
I feel a lot of motherhood can be described with this: "The world is a place of suffering...a garden full of weeds we tend the best we can." ~. I will tend this life and this garden to grow good - good humans, good food, and goodness for our community.

04/15/2025

"When we practice pur capacity for joy, may we be shocked that in a world of heartbreak that we can be shocked at all." ~ , Everything Happens podcast
Dandelions bring me a new kind of joy. The bright yellow pop against a green backdrop. The knowledge that this will be the first nourishment for our bee friends. The heart swell when my daughters pick one for me. The love for the wild unkempt landscape where nature thrives.
This weekend left me feeling content, even in the grief-filled spaces where contentment isn't supposed to live. ❤️

04/07/2025

A weekend of joyful local things...
Kicked off leading Seed Survivor lessons at one of our local elementaries on Friday to teach kids about soil health.
Saturday was a fun filled day with our oldest:
-An class about urban chickens
- A stop at and for lunch and a new book
- A visit to greenhouse to get some ideas for our front garden bed and for the class I'm leading at Wheatsfield in May
- Finally a stop at to wrap up our adventures
Sunday our youngest and I stopped out at the for some , puppy chow, and a grazer.
- Plus a visit to Bomgaars to look at chicks and dream a little. ;)
Wrapped the weekend with a little grocery shopping, time at the park, and supper at .
These are the moments I can rest in. ❤️

04/01/2025

Today, there should have been a toothless little boy sitting at our table excited to eat birthday cake. But instead, it was two little girls eating the leftovers from last night like any other average Monday. 6 years has gone so fast and so slow all at the same time. And the winding journey of grief always finds a way to creep back in when you least expect it.
But even on a day where there is sadness, there are the whispers that you are never far away. Like the butterflies decorating a school kitchen I stopped at or a colleague's desk in our office. The perfect new butterfly dress at the store for our older daughter to wear as she starts to understand more about who you are. Or the last bottle of butterfly sprinkles on the shelf.
So tonight, I'll be Noah's mom by watering the seedlings that will soon be tucked into his garden and redrawing my plans for the space for the 3rd time. It's the best way I know how. ❤️

03/31/2025

"Today only 2 percent of Americans live on farms or ranches, but we have not lost our need to be among green things." - Margaret Renkel

Last week, cut yet another highly impactful program for next year with uncertainty for future funding: The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant program. These grants encouraged schools and non-profits to teach kids about one of the few things that everyone needs to survive - the food they eat each day. This program has been around since the Obama administration - it is not new like the and programs.

While some will argue grants are not a sustainable way to run a program, it is the nudge to plant an idea. To give the right conditions for that seed to take root and grow into something beautiful. These grants are why the district I work for has a Farm to School program that continues to this day - even though our grant funding ended 2 years ago.

I can not and will not stop talking about Farm to School. When we talk about what matters in education, it is this. It is exposing kids to new foods they may never try at home. It is giving kids the confidence to grow their own food. It is teaching them the foods that will nourish their bodies. These are skills and knowledge kids will carry with them for the REST OF THEIR LIVES.

I feel Noah's nudges every time I meet with a school building who wants to start a garden or when I teach students about nutrition in gardening. I know in my heart this is the right work. Even when everything stands in opposition.

"In almost every situation where something is loud, obnoxious, and seemingly ubiquitous, resistance is an option." - Margaret Renkel

We must be louder than the noise being created right now. For the sake of our kids.

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Boone, IA

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http://www.theutensildrawer.wordpress.com/

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