It’s not dead yet!

Sometimes, when life is difficult and you don’t feel like you can do “all the things,” you have to let something go. We have had so much on our plate lately that I really thought the garden would suffer, but I’ve managed to keep it alive and thriving and even weeded! I chose to let the website and social media go to keep the ultimate dream alive.

In this day and age, you feel so much pressure to have a virtual presence that it can make the goal overwhelming. The goal was never to have a million followers, it was to share the journey, but if it makes the journey more daunting, why do it? So I’ll post as able and start a social media presence when appropriate, but just not yet.

The important thing is to continue working toward the goal. For me, it is to have a successful vegetable and flower farm. For you, it could be to lose 20 pounds. Just because my journey to reaching a goal doesn’t look like someone else’s doesn’t mean I’m taking the wrong path. I’m just taking the one that best fits my life. I hope you are doing the same.

Remember, you aren’t them. You don’t know all of their circumstances, and they don’t know yours, so make your path your own! Don’t judge yourself because you can’t make room for “all the things.”

I encourage you to stay focused on the ultimate goal or the mini goal, whichever is less overwhelming and more realistic for you. Lately, my goal is just to keep it alive… It’s not dead yet!

And the first seeds are in!

Every time the husband gets on the tractor, it seems like the garden gets bigger and bigger. Our little guy helped till it one last time before we planted the first seeds of the season. A border on one side of cut flowers to help deter the deer from getting the things they like most in the center.

Things are happening!

While we have been quiet, we have been diligently working at the farm. Cleaning and expanding the garden, registering the business, and learning about everything we need to do to be in compliance with the State. One of those items was needing to register a Farmer’s Market! For some reason this idea greatly excited me as it could grow into so many possibilities including the potential for a larger market down the road for my community and add a venue for other small businesses like ours. Exciting, potentially much bigger stuff is happening indeed!

Growing season has begun

Literally and figuratively. We have gotten our seeds planted for the items we wanted to get an early start on, as well as offer for sale as plants. We have also taken the steps to apply as an actual business with the State, so if things go well we will be able to grow our opportunities to sell plants, produce, and bouquets both locally and online. It’s an exciting, anxiety laden time. Watching and waiting with bated breath for the seeds to sprout. Finally, today, the first one appeared.

Welcome

Welcome to Cedar Brook Farm! It’s a rainy Sunday here and no one wanted to go out in the gloomy weather, but since I had to come out here to feed you, you have to come out to eat. Funny thing is, I’d feed them in the barn, but they can’t figure out how to eat in there. They are conditioned to hear the chain rattle when we open the gate, come out of the barn or wherever they may be grazing in a field, and go stand at their spot on the fence and wait for their food. Even in the worst weather conditions, even when alternative accommodations are offered, they go to their spot and wait to eat. Sometimes humans are just as set in our ways, even when it is to our own detriment. Breaking the cycle of a behavior can be hard, but it can also be necessary to obtain our goals and better our lives.

Since my last post, our lives have changed immeasurably. We inherited the family farm and the care of my late mother-in-law’s horses. We’ve been fixing up the farm property and envisioning what it could be in the future, and, of course, we’ve been adjusting to life with an extremely active little boy. So while this page started as a leaping point for my writing and life coaching, it is morphing into where we currently are in our lives to fit my needs and those of my family. I hope you’ll join us for this new journey that will more than likely still include a little of the old.

Hey there…it’s been a long time…how’ve you been?

Soooo, yep, I totally ghosted on you guys.  I was posting at least once a month and then bam!  nothing.  See this funny thing happened in January… Here I was minding my own business and I started feeling bad at the end of December.  Not horrible, just blah and not myself.  Early in January I went to Urgent Care and walked out with a sever sinus infection diagnosis and was informed that I had entered menopause.  Ok.  I was 40 at the time so I thought it was a little young, but not out of the realm.  Fast forward to mid January.  I still feel like crap and I started getting sick every morning, so I peed on one of those magical little stick tests, and yep, pregnant.  Holy Crap…I’m 40!  I may have shared with you guys that I struggled with infertility and had experienced two miscarriages, so while excited for another shot at expanding our family, I was also scared of what might happen, so I went radio silent on my life with everyone.  With my advanced maternal age, came a litany of extra tests and extra doctor’s appointment.  I was also just always tired and was barely doing enough to keep the day to day life going much less anything extra.  We were 20 weeks in before we officially announced the news to the world and I am happy to report that a very healthy little boy joined our family earlier this month.  I’m still tired because…well…newborn, but I’m back.  Hoping to be a lot more active while on maternity leave and perhaps even get to work on my side projects a little more.  So that is what has been going on with me.  Anything new and exciting in your world?

Enjoying the Silence

I write to you from the couch in my quiet living room, while the rest of the house is still asleep.  I will be in a similar position tomorrow morning as I have not been blessed with a child that wakes me up at the crack of dawn.  I will more than likely have to wake her up so that we will have plenty of time to open presents at home before the craziness of the day begins.  For many people, that is what holidays are like.  Not the silence, but the loud, bright, craziness that comes with having family all in one place.  For many this can be an extremely overwhelming time.  We feel the need to make everything absolutely perfect, which is impossible because we are not perfect and that makes us forget about the true purpose for the season.  There is the religious reason for the season, but then there is also the reason of family togetherness.  While I have always dreamed of having a child that wakes me up in the middle of the night to excitedly tell me that Santa came, I have also began to enjoy my tradition of sitting by our Christmas tree with a cup of coffee enjoying the beauty of the lights and the calm before the storm.  I have started to take the time to reflect on the pass year, memories of Christmas past and those who are no longer with me, and to just breath.  So this Christmas, I encourage each of you to find that moment.  You do not need to reflect on  your life if you do not want to, but take that moment to enjoy the holiday and breath.  If your house is too crazy to do it in the morning, stay up for a bit after everyone is asleep.  Can’t find a quiet space inside, wrap up in a blanket and sit on the porch.  You will be amazed what just taking a few moments for yourself during the busy time will do.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Merry Thankmas?

Do you celebrate all of the holidays in your house or do you jump straight from Halloween into Christmas?  With retailers rolling out decorations for each holiday earlier every year, it seems like people are feeling like they need to follow suit.  I have a co-worker who has already started putting up her Christmas decorations.  I am a strict weekend of Thanksgiving (or later) Holiday transitioner.  My tree stays up until at least the middle of January and anything that can pass as a winter decoration will stay up even longer.  We do agree on the transition out of Christmas, but it is that transition in that causes a lot of good natured ribbing between the two of us.  My husband, knowing my stance and upon seeing a Christmas ad, attempted to “innocently” ask why our Christmas decorations were not up yet.  He received the death glare and was curtly reminded that we celebrate all of the holidays in our house and the Christmas ones would make their appearance appropriately AFTER we have given thanks.

Where do you fall?  Are you in such a rush to get to the end that you miss out on too much of the stuff that comes in between or do you make sure that you savor it all?  Actually, now that I think about it, that is a good comparison for my co-worker and I.  She is in such a hurry for the end result that she sometimes misses some important stuff on her quest to complete the project.  Where as I try to always take my time so that I can make sure that I have everything covered as accurately as possible.

When we are hurtling through this ride called life, we are already traveling fast.  Don’t make it go any faster.  Slow down.  Smell the roses.  Celebrate the little things life has to offer (as well as all of the holidays that are meaningful for you).  Because when you reach the end, you aren’t going to wish that you did it faster, you are going to wish that you savored the time you had.

The same is true for obtaining our goals.  Don’t be in such a rush to get to the end result that you set yourself up for failure.  Plan it out.  Make sure that you take your time to do it the right way, so that your goal has a chance to be a successful one.