Happy New Year friends! Isn’t there something about a new year that is so refreshing? I’m not really one to make resolutions but I definitely make goals and this year is no different.
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The last week or so I’ve been looking back at the previous year and trying to find the areas where I made PROGRESS in the goals I had set for myself. Obviously there are some where I feel like nothing changed but there is one area where I’ve made great PROGRESS and this post is about that.
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
What amazing progress you are making! I am going to work on changing my diet a bit this year and working to a little less weight.
Thank you for the inspirational post!!!!
I copied the ingredients and look forward to making some for myself and gifts for others. My husband just retired. Yay! So today I was praying for ways to save $$. And I wanted to make almost ALL my gifts this year. So this was on “ on time” post!!! Happy running! I’m trying to get back to my walking …. again..,,
But may try a bit of running also.
Blessings!!!!
I loved your inspiring story and the bath salt recipe! You go girl!!
So proud of you Dori! You have a lot of determination and you are an inspiration! It’s so easy to give up. I changed my way of eating-no sugar, starches, white flour and have dropped 20 pounds since August. It’s not a diet, but a life style. Now if I could just firm up! I do some stretching exercises and use weights but with scoliosis, even walking any great distance is difficult. I have a treadmill and have been trying to increase my time walking on that. Being able to hold on is helpful. So my goal is to be able to strengthen my legs and increase my time on the treadmill!
Thank you for your blog – it’s one of my favorites. We seem to share a lot of the same love of crafts – sewing, quilting, stamping.
I am so proud of you…you represent us all. You are awesome!
Dori, a great big huge CONGRATULATIONS on your run. WOW! And on healing so well and fast after your surgery on the knee. I agree with the doctor, being in good shape always helps to heal faster and better. It is great reading about how well you did and how your family joined you in running the half marathon. That makes it so much better with support from the family. The pictures are great and you look amazing. I am so happy for you. Can’t wait for your next adventure and post.
Congratulations on your progress. Continued success.
Marilyn
A half marathon is in my plans for 2019. I’ve never done more than a 5K but I’m confident that this is going to be my year.
How inspiring you are! And I am proud of you pushing yourself to get into condition. I’ve worked out in some form or fashion ever since I was 28 (I’m 68 now, lol). I work out at the gym on nautilus weight resistance machines…….but, after reading your article I think I should step it up with more aerobics. Thanks for helping me get motivated!
I feel silly asking this, but can you explain how you make tags like those on your bath salts ? Co grays on your personal besting !
You are inspiring! I quit making traditional New year resolutions because I could never keep them. This was very depressing and I would fall right back in the same hole. For the past two years I told myself just do better, whether it was eat better, move more so I felt better, do things differently so the end result was better,whatever just do better. It really has worked for me. Baby steps were as important as leaps and bounds and were acknowledged as such.
Things are better!
You are always and all ways my inspiration, Dori.