Ever lost anything that made you ill to think about it? Something special, dear to your heart, you knew couldn’t be replaced? It’s an awful feeling. I’m very organized, but can be absent-minded, especially when I’ve got a laundry list of deadlines, dates, and chores on my never-ending to-do list. Recently, I misplaced something that got me thinking just how quickly time passes when you’re a mama.
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”.
Morning from the Ozarks,
Loved your post, the beautiful butterfly picture brightens my day this morning.
This morning I have John Denver songs going, have been for the past week or so, they bring back precious memories of raising our children in the mountains of Montana.
I now journal for my children, years of precious memories in little books stacked away in my hutch’s bottom cupboard, where they will someday read
all about our every day lives, all the dreams that have comes true in our lives, a few sorrows and tears, and prayers for their future.
Sentiment is grand, it wakes us up to realize every day is sentimental and to becherished…….Hugs from the Ozarks…..Diana, Noel, Mo.
Diana, your comment is so beautiful and moving. Thank you. Hugs, Nicole
Nicole,
I was so glad to see that you found the tote bag. Whew!
I can totally relate as a mother of two, I have saved SO MANY things from my children in the Hope Chest that my grandma gave me, which sits at the end of my bed. Every once in a while my kids and I will open it up, which is like going back in time. It is so full now, it barely shuts, as they are almost 15 and 13 years old.
I cherish looking back through the drawings, notes, cards and such that they have given and made over the years. There are sweet necklaces that say "Mom" which they bought at the school holiday fairs, their baby shoes, school yearbooks, all sorts of treasures.
I too am a very sentimental person. There are little things that belonged to my grandparents that I was given which are simply irreplaceable.
The memories that certain items bring us, are simply priceless.
So glad your lost and found had a happy ending!
Hugs to you my friend!
Laurie, I love how you have so much put away in a hope chest. I have lots of things packed away for Audrey, and now I think I should start putting them in one place like a hope chest. From my childhood, I have my first doll, my hand print in clay and yearbooks going back to kindergarten that my mom saved for me. I also have my Brownie and Girl Scout uniforms. When Audrey was a brownie, she wore on her uniform the Brownie pin that belonged to my mom, and then I wore it. She will be going to the "Bridging Ceremony" soon for the next level in Girl Scouts. We are going to pin that pin to her uniform. Yes, I am extremely sentimental. Glad to see I’m in such great company! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Our little birds DO grow up fast. I’d had a Christmas tree on my deck that we scrounged from the landfill AFTER the holidays for some magazine photos (we shoot holidays a year in advance). After we were done using our tree as a photo prop, I left it on my deck all winter. Unbelievably, it stayed green until about a month ago. I went out one day to move it and noticed a robin’s nest being built in it. So instead of moving the tree, I sat on my couch with tea and watched a robin’s home being built. Eventually, I took a photo of 3 blue eggs. I watched the mother come and go and brought my grandgirls up for regular inspections. One day they hatched and started to grow. Mother AND father brought worms. I watched them every day so I could take a final pic without them looking so frail and hairless and well, odd. On the day I thought I better get that photo taken, I brought my camera and tri-pod to the deck, loaded the battery but they were already gone!
Hi MaryJane! I love that you left the tree so the birds could go undisturbed! We have a lilac bush right below the deck in front and last year had a nest of bluebirds, too. We got to witness the babies from eggs to flying birds. We checked on them every morning and evening, and even mama bird got used to us. When they flew out of the nest, we all joked about literally having "empty nest syndrome"! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
I was an every-other-weekend-and-every-other-holiday stepmom so I saw our daughter regularly but infrequently. After she turned 7, Mothers Day arrived and we picked her up on Saturday. She gave me a card and when I opened it, she had chosen a very pretty design and crossed out "Mother’s." She replaced it with "Friend’s" because she said, "I have a mommy but you’re my friend first, then a mommy. Is that all right?" I still have that card.
Adrienne, how sweet! What a little angel. That card is a treasure. My daughter has step-grandparents and I tell her she is lucky…children can never have too much love! -Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Oh Nicole, I know exactly how you feel – sentimental! I know they are just things but THINGS ARE LOVE too. Am so happy that you found your broach and THE BAG. Holding dear to the childhood of your daughter is just what a Mother does and the special gifts from family and friends. I once thought I had lost 2 thimbles – not that they were very expensive gold and silver BUT because they were my special Grandmother and Aunt’s. They used them almost every day of my remembering life, my Grandparents and Aunt raised me, to make many things for many family and friends but also used them as teaching me how to stitch and embroidery. My wonderful sister, we live together, didn’t make a big deal of it but LOOKED continuously without letting me know and yes SHE found them. They are now in a very special place where we can enjoy them daily. So as for me – SENTIMENTAL is just the way I am. Thanks for sharing.
Joan, what a great story! Thank you for sharing it with me. I am so glad your sister found your thimbles. Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Hi Nicole, There is nothing like the panic of losing something that means so much to you and that cannot be replaced. The joy is in finding it with all the wonderful memories it brings. There is nothing more precious then our family and those momentos they present us with. There are things I would hate to lose that my children’s small hands fashioned for me, because we all know they don’t stay small long. I’m glad you were blessed with finding those things that meant so much to you.
Farmgirl Hugs
Merrilyn
Thank you, Merrilyn! When we watch our children grow, we understand our parents even more. I think it is really cute that I am over forty years old and despite the fact that the house has been remodeled and updated, my dad’s fridge at his farm still has a clip with two, yellowed drawings I made for him as a child. Big hugs, Nicole
Nicole,
I keep every gift and card you and Audrey send to me. Our growing children are our greatest treasure, and looking at the things given to me by my loved ones brings back so many good memories. I left Texas and moved to Georgia, and the sentimental things help with loneliness. They remind me that I am loved. Glad you found the bag Audrey gave to you, and the brooch is beautiful. The red candle holder is something my mother gave to me from her heart and glad you enjoy it.
Last year I threw away a box with other boxes in the closet and had forgotten I put pictures from the 1960’s in it to mail. It makes me feel ill every time I think about it.
I love you,
Mother
Hi Mom, I know the photos make me feel bad, too. I’m sorry that happened. I keep a note you wrote me in my wallet, along with a small note from Audrey, too. Love you, Nicole
My son made me a pin in preschool, I never wear it because I can’t stand the idea of losing it. Zoe gave me a little case Mothers Day when she was 4. It holds my rosary in my dresser.
Hi Heidi, precious momentos for sure! -Nicole
Hi Nicole,
I do know just how you feel… So far, I haven’t lost anything the kids have made for me… I have a drawer full of painted shells, macaroni necklaces, first tries and beaded bracelets and safety pin jewelery, and yarn necklaces and notes all made by our daughter. Our son isn’t one to be fiddling with those sorts of things but even at 17 I still get several hugs and I love you’s from him. One thing I have lost that still haunts me to this day is a birthstone ring one of my Aunts gave me when I turned 12. It was a beautiful square cut topaz stone in a pretty gold setting flanked by two small little rosettes. I took it off to do dishes one day when I was a teenager and it went missing… Never to be found…The ring was special not just because it was so pretty, but because my Aunt, her daughter, my mother and I all share the same birthday month and it was my turn to have the ring. It still bugs me to this day that it is gone. For years I would look for it in Antique stores thinking it might turn up. I’m so happy for you that your broach was just hiding out in your daughters winter coat! Great story!
Hugs!
farmgirl sis
Deb
Oh, Deb, I am so sorry you lost that ring! I really know how you feel. My parents gave me an aquamarine ring set in gold when I was a about the same age (12). It was oval with a vintage setting. It was one of the last things they picked out together for me, as they divorced when I was thirteen. Later, my ring was stolen from my first apartment. It still makes my stomach flip to think about it.
I love that your son is 17 and still gives you hugs and I love you’s, so special. Big hugs to you, Nicole