“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”
John Muir
“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure some of them are just for YOU.”
Me
It’s almost time to get your MAY BLISS on!
In a few short days, on May 1st, the 4th Annual YOU Challenge will begin! And for 31 days, you’re going to do something just for YOU, YOURSELF, AND YOU!
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”.
Dear Rebekah,
This is so wonderful! Thank you! As I finished reading this, I realize, quite honestly, that I never really put myself first. I am burned out right now and I need some refueling. Being a mama to eight and tryout to manage a very full household, the empty tank is real. Thank you always for your wonderfully crafted words that touch so many :))
I’m in! Let’s do this! ❤
We’ve been watching our 4 & 5 yr old granddaughters 50 hrs a week for the last 8 months, with 4 weeks to go. We know this is where we’re supposed to be but me time is just a memory. At 72, I prayed for purpose – God has a sense of humor for sure. I will appreciate that me time more than ever – probably in June. Mornings are my favorite.
This was such a great read!!! Wow, let’s do this!!!!!!
I remember this from last year. Unfortunately, I never followed through. But this year I will make an effort to do so. Now that I’m busier with life this year it’s all the more reason to do something for me! I already have a few ideas growing that I would love to do for ME! I’m glad this came around again. I will be participating this year for sure! Thanks for keeping this going and reminding us all of our worth!
I’m in,already lining up some ME time. Enjoy y’all. God bless
Well, I’m in ! I have tulips on my table; I’m reading a few books by a wonderful Canadian mystery writer, Louise Penny, and I walk around my neighbour’s field (which he very conveniently keeps a clipped path all around the perimeter) every day; my black & white cat called Puddy keeps me company when I work in my garden and after a busy day planting and pulling weeds and having meaningful conversations with Puddy I have a lovely lavender-scented bubble bath. May Bliss starts in April !
Was just checking my emails this evening, or I should say morning, and was reading this post and it hit home for I have so many friends that are always telling me I need to put my self first. Well, May is the month to do just that and I am excepting the YOU Challenge! This will be hard to do, but who knows, maybe it won’t just be for the month of May… I’ll look forward to your post during the month to help keep me on track. Thanks and have a wonderful new day,
Always wanted to do this , Thanks for the incentive
I’m ready! I’m more than ready! I’m getting excited just thinking about it. My legs need it. My brain needs it. I do a lot of sitting in front of a computer – family research, genealogy, crafts research, and many other things and it takes a toll on the body when you’re my age (72 on the half way mark toward 73) so yes I am more than ready. I was walking up to a couple of months ago when something detoured me away from the walk and back to the chair – finding ideas for our remodel of our home; that has been exciting and frustrating as well (some of the ideas were for bigger homes than we have) but I am still working on that too. That and the weather kept me inside a lot. But it seems like Spring went by so fast and summer is fast approaching. My flowers beckon me outdoors – daffodils have come and gone, lillies are beginning to bloom, peonies are budding and the lilacs came and went already. I still drink the lemon water every day. It has kept me healthy throughout the winter – no colds this year at all where previously I would get sick between Thanksgiving and Valentines Day. It has been, along with my Lord, a blessing to me. Just as MaryJane’s Farm magazine and the blogs online have also been. Because of them I keep chickens. Because of them I will do more crafts this year – have many ideas I want to try. Because of them I feel connected to so many people and I am ready for so many things this summer. Come on Let’s Walk, Stroll, Meander, Kick up our Heels?, uhh, maybe not but let’s get moving. Time to let the chickens out. Y’all have a great day.
I love this post and am really looking forward this this month of walking just for me. And I had to laugh at your cat’s CADD…I understand. My husband tells me that walking with me is like walking with an untrained puppy, but instead of stopping to sniff things, I’m stopping to snap a picture of a weed, a flower, a cloud or some seemingly ordinary something. I can’t help it, but walking and SEEING go hand in hand for me. I was able to discover so many amazing places on my walks last year. I plant to discover more this year.
I’m so excited to do this again for myself. My family are always telling me to slow down when I walk, I naturally walk at a reasonable pace, my strolling pace, their too fast pace. I’m really looking forward to walking by myself, for myself. My family supports me and remember how much I enjoyed last years may walks. I just have get some lemons today so I can begin to have my lemon water every morning again. I’d forgotten too, just how calming and healing it is to be outside until having a conversation about it with a patient yesterday, reminded me how good going camping is for me, not just my family, but me. And I thought, wow! Your so right. So I came home yesterday and grabbed a spot of sunlight to have my afternoon cup of tea, and saw the most glorious rainbow, so bright it was incredible and called my family out to see it. On the opposite side of the sky the sun was so very bright behind some clouds, it framed them in brilliant heavenly light. I just love it. After doing dinner and today’s lunches, I and my kids sat down and watched a couple of episodes of “little house on the prairie’. I love that show.
Aahh, me time is so soul restoring. The other me time I do is sketching and drawing out of my head. It brings me joy too. Stopping not just to smell the roses, but also to look in the beauty of them and savor it, these are all places that bring me joy.
Thanks again for this Rebekah. I love this time of year, autumn for me, and the support we have together in this group. I’m in with bells on.
The down under girl
I always think that if I don’t start on the day everyone else does, its too late! So not true – the goal is for 31 days and I certainly plan on fulfilling that — but if I miss a day its OK because tomorrow will be here soon enough to begin again. Thank you for your encouragement to keep going — we all need that! I am a full time caregiver to my almost 100 year old mother so free time is not readily available. But I have decided to walk around the school yard across the street from our house while she is eating breakfast and looking at the morning paper. That way I can keep an eye on the house — where there is a will, there IS a way! After 5 years of the loss of freedom as I once knew it and almost 70 years old next year, I have decided I DO need to put myself 1st for my health and so that I can be a nicer person to be around! Thank you Rebekah for telling us about this challenge again! (why is it so hard to put ourselves first? Do we think we are being selfish?)
Definitely in! Put it on my calendar to get outside every single morning for a walk 🙂
I love it…yes, count me in, the Manager of this little part of the Universe is ready for some TLC! Thanks for the motivation and inspiration!
I’m in! So inspiring and much needed….If the sun doesn’t come out in New England soon I may just go back into hibernation! LOL!
Wonderful! I just found this post, and your lovely blog, today. I’m starting the challenge a little late, but better late than never, right? Outside is where I love to be!