Monthly Archives: November 2012

Just a Girl and Her Saw

This past weekend was our annual Christmas tree hunting trip. Anita, Michele and I bought our permits and then headed to the nearby hill-country to find Fir trees. C’mon along!

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Thankful for Cliches

Happy Thanksgiving Farmgirl Sisters! I hope your days are filled with delicious foods, wonderful company, moments of nostalgia and the giving of many thanks. Since I have been one of the Farmgirl bloggers for less than a year, this is my first Thanksgiving as part of the crew. That means that I get to write about all of the things that I am thankful for in life! Next year or years to come I can write about the perfect Turkey preparation or an awesome carved out pumpkin pot; but for now, it’s a cliche “What I am Thankful For List.” I highly recommend making one of these, yourself! I think that a hard look at what is really great in our lives is so necessary sometimes. This is such an opportune time to do this and to think about our gratitude more than the obligatory declaration of thanks around the dining room table (which has its own merits!).
Bringing Home the Turkey, ca. 1910-1915

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Gatherings For A FESTIVE And FRUGAL Thanksgiving

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie

Dear Sisters,

Happy Thanksgiving from the shorelines! By the time some of you read this you might be diving into your leftovers already but let’s not jump too far ahead, I haven’t even roasted the turkey yet! Yep, you read that right… I’m hosting dinner this year for the first time in years and while I’m always grateful to be a guest my heart sings when we have our family and friends over for the holidays. I’m not one to go over the top with lavish decorations but I do love a warm, cozy, and festive atmosphere during harvest season. But, I don’t want to spend a lot of money creating it. So, what’s a farmgirl to do? Go a gathering that’s what! Come on in and let’s talk turkey and decorating and shopping and sweet potatoes and, and, and…Oh, just come in already!!!

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The Seat of My Pants

“I did everything by the seat of my pants. That’s why I got hurt so much.”

Evel Knievel

I usually write these blog posts as they are due: live in time. However, my new life on the farm is interrupting that usual course of action. It is Saturday night, going on 9:00. I am headed out in the morning to go to our old house to do some packing. And I decided about an hour ago to take my daughter with me. It’s been hard on us to live so far away from family, so she’s coming to visit while I work.

So I had planned to sit down today and write a blog post a few days early since I’ll be gone when it is due.

But noooooo. My farm had other plans for me….

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Peace, Love, Dove

Converging. Convergence … multiple things making their way toward a single point … like a flock of birds lighting upon a fence … all with the same intent, being of one mind. At the onset, you may not realize that seemingly unrelated ‘things’ are laying claim to the words ‘intentional design’. One by one, the messenger birdies line up. Have you ever observed and experienced this phenomena? Many cultures believe that the unusual appearance of a bird(s) is a sign, a message. The old testament and the new testament of the Bible offers the dove as a loving example. This troubled old world could sure use a message of hope, wouldn’t you agree?

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A Close Call

It happened again. After Hurricane Irene, we thought we wouldn’t see another major storm in the Northeast for a long time. Then the forecast showed Sandy, calling it names like “Frankenstorm”, “Storm of the Century” and “The Perfect Storm”.   After the damage we suffered a year ago at Irene’s hands, I thought we’d be safe and better prepared.  After all, we made it through 2011 with Irene and Winter Storm Alfred, and the major ice storms and blizzards of 2010.  Who knew Mother Nature could show such wrath to the tri-state area with Sandy!  The Suburban Farmgirl and her family are thanking their lucky horseshoes for surviving such a close call!

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More Than A Keeper

Dear sisters,

I hope this pre-Thanksgiving note finds you all well today and that our Beach sisters along the Eastern Seaboard are getting the relief they need from the wrath of hurricane Sandy not to mention the ” no name ” Nor’ easter storm we are smack dab in the middle of. We’ve lost power twice today and many more North Eastern communities have been hit with record snow fall over the last two days. MaryJanesFarm has created a Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief fund and offering a percentage of all sales to the victims of Hurricane Sandy and this Nor’easter! High winds and heavy rains are my sound track today but snow is not predicted for us further up the coastline. I think it’s going to be a doozy of a winter! That being said, seasonal changes abound for better or worse. After all, as a “stay at home mom” I take my role as “the keeper” of our home pretty darned seriously! It’s part of my job description to shore us up during stormy weather and to do my best to keep things running smooth as the bay on a flat calm day. Come on in out of the sleet and snow for a hot drink and a nice long chat about keeping the harbor light burning in a modern world.

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Battleground

Okay Farmgirls, election season is over! I, for one, feel a bit bittersweet about this sudden drop in constant, politically driven anxiety. I’ve told myself over the last few presidential elections that it’s just politics. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. But, you know what? It does matter right now, and it will matter for the next four years.

Women’s Suffrage Hay Wagon. Thank you AMAZING women for fighting for our right to vote! ca. 1910-1915

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Transformations

Do you believe it?

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s sentiment that “Life is a journey, not a destination” ?

I was going to wait until I’d fully reached my destination to share some parts of my life with you. I figured who wants to hear about the journey? Ho hum, right? Well, it’s going to be a while until I reach my destination. I may never. So, here’s my life as is.

Small things are changing with me. Things like what I keep in my front right pocket at all times. I used to keep nothing there. I mean, why would I put something in my front pocket that could actually create a visible pooch? But now. I have something in there that is the first thing in, the last thing out every single day.

What is it?

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