Happy Holidays Farmgirls! It sure is feeling Christmassy around here. Our tree is up, our stockings are hung (Santa even visited the stockings early…) and there are scraps of wrapping paper accumulating here and there. I’ve sent off most of my gifts and have been contemplating what treats we should start baking.
Ava hangs her first ornament on our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.
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”.
Alex: What a sweet letter to your next babe. You are such wonderful parents and your children will be loved and cared for forever. I hope your delivery goes well and say hi to your mom from Minnesota, I’m from Minnesota too. Merry Christmas.
Thank you, Bonnie! I will definitely send her some Minnesota greetings. She is happy to escape the “Seattle-like” weather of Minnesota and get some good ol’ snow. Merry Christmas to you, too.
Dear Alex,
The letter made me cry. Then smile. Then cry some more. So very precious!
And you look FABULOUS!!!!! I can’t wait for little baby Wilder to come and I’m so happy your own Momma is there with you. How long does she get to stay? I’m hoping baby comes soon!
Big Christmas hugs!
– Dori –
Thanks, Dori! My mom is here for awhile–she doesn’t have a ticket home yet, so she can be here for at least a few weeks after the new arrival. I am so grateful. Christmas hugs to you and yours, too!
Eek! This made me a little verklempt, and not just because I miss you all so much. I cannot wait to meet the newest addition. You will be the best mama x2!
Aww, thanks Emma. We can’t wait for you to meet this little one, either. Soon you can e-meet him or her. Yay!
Sweet post! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Thank you! Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well!
That was one of the most beautiful letters I have EVER read that was to a child!! I have printed it out and I will read it to my two boys who are now 19 and 13 years old. I remember being pregnant and thinking, feeling and doing all of the things you mentioned in your letter. Congratulations to both you and your family.
Have a beautiful Christmas and Happy New Year and I will be thinking of you when I re-read this again tonight!!!
Blessings,
Deborah Anderson
Wow, Deborah–Thank you! I appreciate it. I hope your boys like it as well. Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope it is cheery and bright!
What a lovely and loving letter. Wishing you and yours a Blessed and Merry Christmas. December babies are special. My older sister is a December baby as was my late mother. i have a lot of December birthdays in my extended family. God Bles s you and yours.
Marilyn and family
Thank you, Marilyn! I think December babies are special–but maybe I’m a little biased because I was one, too :). I also have many good friends and some family who are December birthdays. Perhaps the goodness comes from all of those winter snuggles as newborns!
Dear Alex,
Well, you did it to me again. First, with your letter Ava and now this one. Tears are rollin! My baby turns 18 in February. I’m gonna write a letter.
You look absolutely radiant, even in your goofy picture! 🙂
Many blessings to your sweet little family… Cannot wait to to meet Wilder # 2…Not that you asked or anything, but I think it’s a boy…:)
Big hugs,
Deb, ( Beach Farmgirl )
Thanks, Deb! I have a slight inkling it’s a boy too…but I thought Ava was, too. We are excited to find out! I love the idea of writing letters to children–they are little time capsules of emotion, what could be more beautiful? And thank you for your compliments, always!
Beautiful! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your new arrival! God Bless!
Thank you, Cindy! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Well, I read this for a second time and cried again. What a beautiful letter and I love the photos. I’m so glad that “Sampa” Mickie is there. Please tell that Sampa to give lots of extra kisses to Ava’s little brother or sister. Love Sampa and Sampa Pederson
Thank you, Sampa Gail! I think you are now officially “Gamma Gail.” We are grateful for gamma Mickie, too! Ava sure loves her grandparents. Love you!
I am so excited for you….it will be a very special holiday! You look great. All of your healthy farm girl living shows.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your family. Can’t wait to hear the news of the birth!
Thank you, Pam! You are right–this lifestyle is conducive to a healthy, more-comfortable-than-expected pregnancy. I’m feeling pretty good despite feeling huge! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too!
It is the 23rd and I hope all is well!!!! Your post is simply ‘PRECIOUS’. God bless, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!!
The best Christmas present I received this year was finding a letter my mother wrote to me on Christmas Day, 37 years ago, while I was still in utero. She has been gone from this world almost a year now and this was written before the demons that plagued our lives had even come ’round. It has been immensely comforting to know, even for just the past couple days, that my parents loved me and wanted me absolutely. That the beginning of me was happy.
I pray that your babies and you and your husband, too, know that about yourselves all the days of your lives.
Sorry I’m late reading this…. You should be a writer! You write so elegantly. Im hoping all goes well with your pregnancy and the little guy is not so restless. You might want to eat peanut butter and an apple with a glass of milk in the afternoon. It has a way of calming the baby at night inside you…as they get what their mommy eats. There’s plenty of magnesium and calcium in those, ehich helps restlessness i. You and the baby. Hope jt helps you. May your fsmily be blessedwhrn he comes….im pretty sure its a boy as your bearing down much….boys are restless too. Good luck with staying relaxed.Susana