Busy

There's a post I started a while back called, "Simple Living." It's a draft and I never got around to publishing it, and now it seems a little silly. Life right now seems anything but simple.

For the past two springs, life has been extremely busy. We own a landscaping company and as soon as the weather warms up the work begins. For better or worse, we are successful - people love our work. We even have to turn business away at times in order to get done what we have already scheduled. It's a good place to be in, business-wise, but it often ends up being stressful for us, the owners!

I have spent the past two weeks driving back and forth from our home in the country to the suburban city our business operates out of. The kids have spent a lot of time with my parents (they aren't complaining - well... the kids aren't, I don't know about my parents! ;)). Adam and I were conducting interviews nearly every day for the past two weeks. It was exhausting! I think we have found a decent team, though, and we have been pretty happy so far with the guys we have hired.

My out-of-the-home work is limited - I help interview people, I conduct orientations for new hires, I run errands occasionally. I also take care of some emailing, updating routes and schedules, turning in payroll, and a few other "office" type things from home. None of it is a huge deal but it can feel overwhelming when piled on top of all the other normal mom, wife, and homemaker duties I have.

So I end up wondering how I can *l i v e  s i m p l y* when life feels anything but simple! Here's what I've come up with:

Slow down. Rushing around doesn't accomplish much at all (usually). It makes me feel like life is chaotic and crazy and I get a lot less done. I like to take time in the morning to do absolutely nothing but drink coffee and read my Bible. Slowly starting my day tends to work a lot better for me than waking up and diving right in.

Find beauty.  I buy a bouquet of flowers at the store and put them in a jar on the table. I stop and look at the sunrise (if I'm out that early) or sunset. I notice that the trees are starting to leaf out, the daffodils have bloomed, and the grass is greener. I look at how the sun shines through the trees or how I can see through the clear water to the bottom of the pond at my neighbor's. Finding beauty in the normal, every day things keeps me from feeling total overwhelmed by the daily grind of owning a landscaping business in the spring.

Plan. For me, part of living simply means planning. If we have a plan for our busy day or week, and a plan for our meals, it makes things a lot more simple. A meal in the slow cooker means we don't stop for dinner on the way home if we are out in the late afternoon and evening. Planning out what needs to be done each day, means we aren't directionless but we can accomplish what we need to.

I've always thought that simple living and busy are mutually exclusive, but I think that I can still stick to the principles of simple living even in seasons of busy-ness.

(I have to say, though, that I am so thankful that we generally make our own schedule since we are able to homeschool and that makes things a lot easier! I like having the freedom to set our own plans - Lord willing - and not have to follow some government mandated schedule).

This Year:

I've come here several times since my last entry, wanting to write a post and the words either don't flow or I don't have enough time.

The last time I wrote in here was nearly two years ago. We had just moved to our little farm and we were excited to begin our homesteading adventure. The first year went really well - we had a garden that produced well and lots of chickens. By then end of 2014 we had made the decision to greatly expand our landscaping business and so 2015 found us too busy to plant anything at all. We still have chickens (and eggs!) but the garden and just about every other homesteading activity took the backseat for much of 2015.

As I look ahead to the rest of 2016, I'm already thinking about goals I want to achieve. I want to be intentional about each of these and I've been considering what is important to focus on this year. In the past, I've chosen a word for the year - kind of like a theme or something for me to focus on. This year, for 2016, the word that keeps popping into my head is:  d i s c i p l i n e .

Discipline. It's such a harsh sounding word. I actually don't even like it. I don't like that it's *that* word that seems to be my word this year. I mean, who wants to work on discipline?

I've found that this past year was difficult because I lacked discipline; in routines, meal planning and grocery shopping, budgeting and spending, exercise, homeschooling the kids, and cleaning the house. Nearly every day was so free-flowing that I felt stressed by the disorganization and lack of routine and planning.

2015 felt chaotic because I have pretty much failed at being disciplined about all that stuff - all that really important stuff - for a long time.

So, this year I hope to be more disciplined overall but there is one main area I will focus on: finances. I want to take that very seriously this year. I would like to be disciplined with budgeting and will probably move to a cash-only/envelope system for things like groceries, clothes, homeschool supplies, etc. I'll write more soon about that (hopefully!!).

Bunnies, Chicks, and a Birthday

We've significantly added to our number of living beings on this little farm!

Earlier this week, we picked up our chicks - 20 total - from our friends who so kindly incubated eggs from their chickens for us. They are currently in our house in a bin, staying warm under a heat lamp, eating a ton of feed, chirping, and sleeping. They're pretty cute and fun to watch!

The kids had been asking - no, begging - us for rabbits since they saw them at Rural King a few weeks back. The owners of our house left a rabbit hutch so we said, "Sure! Why not?" Last weekend we stopped to get eggs from a guy down the road ($2 a dozen for HUGE eggs - awesome!) and he sold us two sweet little bunnies for $6 each. It turns out Rural King sells his rabbits, but for twice what he sells them for. The kids absolutely love them. The bunnies are also currently in the house in a cage, at least until they get bigger and the weather warms up a bit more. They get cuddled and loved on quite a bit.

Jude's bunny is named Skittle. Audrey's is Marshmallow.

And last but certainly not least, our little Luke had his 3rd birthday yesterday! He's such a sweetie - and such a stinker, too... basically a typical three-year-old boy! :)

Planting

The number one reason we want to live on a homestead is so we can have room to produce a large percentage of our own food. Every week, half of our grocery cart is produce! In an effort to save money, reduce the number of trips to the grocery store (thus saving on fuel costs), and be more self-sufficient, we are planning to have quite a large garden this year. I'm also planning on canning, freezing, and drying everything we don't consume right away.

We have a bit of a head start - we aren't starting from scratch, like some homesteaders. We moved onto a well-established one acre farm. We'll already have strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, horseradish, mint, lemon balm, echinacea, and more! We don't have to build a chicken coop, there's one here that just needs to be spruced up. The garden area is set - all we need to do is till and plant it when the time comes. We also have a greenhouse/hoop house with raised beds, though the cover isn't on right now, to extend our growing season into the fall and winter. Our neighbors have fruit trees - apples, pears, and sour cherries - that they don't even harvest so we are welcome to it. They also have a pond with bass that we are welcome to fish from.

Even though all that is here, we still have a lot of work to do to get the garden ready for planting. There is a TON of thistle out there, which I've read is nearly impossible to get rid of, plus the garden was overgrown with grass and other weeds last year and we need to get all of that out of there. We're excited about our garden dreams so don't mind the work it's going to take to reach them.

Today the kids and I started some seeds in plastic cups and old egg cartons. Adam and I realized that most of the seeds we have are too old and won't germinate, so we took a trip to the local farm store and stocked up on seeds. We got all the basics but there's a few more things I'd like to get including some medicinal herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. The possibly of making our own herbal teas and remedies is so exciting! I want to learn as much as I can about herbs and how they can be used to maintain health, and treat and heal illness.

So, tomorrow the weather is supposed to be quite nice, so the kids and I will be outside in the garden getting as much done as possible, as well as starting some more seeds indoors. We had a hard freeze last night and snow the night before so I'm wondering if our "last frost" will be later than usual. I guess we'll just have to see!

Evening

Above are a few photos I took on my stroll around the farm yesterday evening. It's so beautiful out here. I really can't quite get over how peaceful it is, even with the kids running around and playing.

Yesterday was sunny, warm, and windy. The way the wind was blowing through the giant pine trees reminded me of ocean waves. This is all so new to me, having never lived out in the country before, and I'm constantly noticing the quiet, or the little patch of green moss, or the way the sun shines through the trees at sunrise or sunset, or that silly thing the chicken does.

I hope I never forget to pay attention, to stop and look and listen. Being present in each moment, using all my senses to experience this place, has made me incredibly grateful. I've always been one to be discontent - to wonder, "What is the next thing?? Surely it's better than what I have now!" But now. Oh, now. I'm living in the moment! I'm happy right here, right now. I'm so thankful for what I have right here, right now. It isn't perfect by any means - in fact, *right now* the smell of cow manure is coming in through the windows! Blech! - but it's my life and I'm choosing to live in gratitude and contentment. I mean, if I'm smelling cow manure, then it means my windows are open because it's finally warm! It means we live on a farm and next to a farm! It means our dream of homesteading has come true - at least for a couple years.

I love this place. I'm so excited to really begin gardening as we near the last frost, to learn how to can our fruits and vegetables, to grow culinary and medicinal herbs and save them. So many things to learn, and I love that the kids can learn right along with Adam and me.

Oh! And chickens! Our friends who own a little homestead in our old town have offered to incubate eggs for us. We should have at least 15 chicks in a few weeks! So exciting! The kids have already named them all. :)

On a Sunday in April...

We had an exciting Sunday morning around here! Our neighbors have three cows that live just on the other side of the fence.

Getting ready for church, Jude says, "There's a cow in our yard!"

"No, there isn't. It probably just looks like that," said I.

"Mom, there's a cow in the yard. Really! Look!"

Sure enough, there was a cow in the yard. The clever thing had realized the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence - at least on this little farm.

Adam ran out and tried to shoo the cow back which caused the cow to flip out a little. We have zero experience with cows so I yelled out the door to walk up to the neighbors and tell them their cow was out. They didn't answer the door.

I called the owners of our house (also our friends) and asked for the neighbor's number. I called. No answer. So I left a message.

By now, all three of the cows had figured out how to get through,

and there they were, grazing away. We stood outside and watched them, thankful that we hadn't actually planted anything in our garden yet, which is very close to where they were grazing.

The (very nice) neighbors finally came down, after listening to my message, and herded the escapees back into their pen. They apologized, and we said, "No worries! It was funny and now we have our first farm-living story!"

We chatted for a bit and they offered us use of their pond and said we could fish anytime. Adam and Jude were especially excited about that, so last evening we went over and fished for a couple hours. Jude caught the first one and ended up catching three more. Audrey caught four and Adam caught a few as well. The kids were pretty excited about it all and got very adept at taking the hooks out. We released all the fish at the end, though I'm sure in the summer, as the fish get bigger we'll keep some bass and cook them up.

Adam said on facebook last night that he could get used to this way of life - it's like a permanent vacation. There are plenty of interesting things to do, and it's obviously never a dull moment!

Moving Day

Moving day has come and gone. It was a whirlwind! For starters it rained - and I mean it RAINED all.day.long on Saturday before turning into a frozen mix in the late afternoon. I'm thinking it was probably the worst day weather-wise to move to a farm with no driveway! The yard was mostly mud as you can see in the photo and the U-Haul got stuck as Adam was backing it in. This is as close as we could get the truck to the house so everything had to be carried quite a ways. After unloading and as Adam was trying to get unstuck, a kind man in a heavy duty pickup was driving by and noticed we need help. He was able to use his truck to pull out the U-Haul and we were good to go! God sends people to help at just the right time. Much like the guys from church who came to help us move even though the weather was awful. They sacrificed their Saturday afternoon to carry furniture and boxes in the cold rain.

We are on Day 5 at the homestead and I finally feel like we are getting to a place of normalcy. We are mostly unpacked (except for the homeschool room/office which I will be working on some more tomorrow) and we are feeling quite at home here. We've had some good weather days with warm air and lots of sunshine, and today it poured down rain most of the day but was still kind of warm.

We've started to work in the garden. I planted peas and cabbage already. We've dug up weeds and are planning to plant some more cool-weather veggies over the weekend. We have raised beds and a regular garden. We're starting with the raised beds because the garden is absolutely covered with weeds. It should be interesting trying to keep the garden weeded this summer!

Another adventure in the last five days has been technology related and not all that fun. We finally got all our internet stuff squared away after a couple frustrating days. But the worst was dropping my cell phone in the creek on Sunday evening when we were taking a walk/hike. It spent a long 10 minutes submerged in water before Adam found it. Fortunately, I had a Lifeproof case on it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the headphone jack cap on it and some water got in. It spent a few days in a bowl of rice and all is mostly well with it now. The only (seemingly) permanent damage is that it no longer rings and I can't use headphones with it. Oh, well! I'm just thankful I didn't need to buy a new phone.

Being without my "lifeline" for a few days was nice. Like, really nice. I liked being disconnected. It was more of a relief than an inconvenience. I'll have to write more of my thoughts about that another time.

Anyway, I'm glad to be here. Really, really glad. It's awesome being out in the beautiful country. I don't know how many times a day I catch myself just gazing out the window, breathing in the fresh air, and listening to the wind and birds. It's peaceful and pure loveliness.