Put on your mittens & cloak because we’re going to go for a lengthy farmgirl sleighride … of sorts. There’s a party to go to and many stops to make along the way. Eventually, we’ll wind it up with an old-time Christmas story. Hop in, snuggle up together under the sleigh blanket and ‘kiss’ Dolly into a nice road-trot…Jing Jing Jing. “Can you see the road before us and sing a chorus or two?”
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”.
Shery,
I’m a 23 year old farmgirl-at-heart in Wisconsin and I love following your blog. This is by far the best blog post about Christmas I have ever read. It made me tear up, smile, and it rejuvenated me. Thank you for spreading Jesus’ message in such a beautiful way! I love all of your Christmas decorations… you are so talented. Also, White Christmas is one of my favorites as well… I just watched it several days ago. And yes, cried when Bing sang to the soldiers. Have a Merry Christmas!
Thank you Shery for yet another inspiring story and shared experience with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
The Christmas rose story is such a great reminder.
Shery, thank you for sharing your beautiful stories with us. Like you I love all the old Christmas movies (White Christmas; It’s a Wonderful Life; Miracle on 34th Street; Holiday Inn) and must watch them every year. And I listen to my Christmas CDs from Thanksgiving on. Thank you for being willing to remind us of the real reason for Christmas. I’m so tired of the politically correct "Happy Holidays". It is Christmas!
The pictures are beautiful, Emmy Lou looks delightful, and I wish I could spend a day with you.
Have a wonderful, beautiful Christmas and a blessed New Year.
—————–
I’ve never seen ‘Holiday Inn’…I’ll have to check into it! Thank you for the kind words :o) Be Ye Merry!
BEAUTIFUL… INSPIRING… CHARMING…. OLD FASHIONED… SPIRITUAL….HEARTWARMING… CREATIVE… GENIUS…LOVELY…TOUCHING…FUN…PEACE… JOY… LOVE… CHERISH… DREAM….BELIEVE… MIRACLES…
Scooch over so I can sit for a spell and take it all in! YOU MOST CERTAINLY ARE hip deep in blessings; and so are we for knowing you!
Happy Holy Days to you too Shery! Pat the horses for me..
Much love and a big ole’ farmgirl hug from your " mushy " beach farmgirl sister in the East!
Deb
———-
Awwwwww, you say the nicest things girlfriend. One holiday hug comin’ right up (((())))) :o)
Your blogs are always beautiful and well done. This one was especially so– thank you for this lovely christmas gift.
Thank you SO much for sharing this beautiful story of the Christmas rose and your inspiring thoughts. Happy Holy Days to you 🙂
Shery, I have never heard this story before of the Christmas Rose and so glad I can now pass it on to others, and I was born back in the 40’s. Thank you for it and those Christmas lights in EmmyLou are just fantastic.
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas Shery. 40 years ago, when we were newly married, on Christmas morning, Hubby and I were supposed to go to his Grandmas for Christmas breakfast along with all the aunts, uncles and cousins. But hubby woke up sick, so we stayed home. I was having my own little party, a pity party. I’d asked for a bird book for Christmas, and received one of those little Golden Press books for beginners. As hubby slept, I heard a rapping outside. I looked and saw a golden-shafted flicker in our front yard Silver maple. I like you knew it was absolutely a divine appointment. That Flicker lifted my spirits for the rest of the day, to be sure.
———–
SO good to hear from you my dear old friend! Just when you need it the most a kind little blessing can fall into your lap. I believe there are superstitions that suggest that birds are often used to deliver such messages. A few years back when we were riding during calving season, I was feeling sorry for myself and I was weary. I just happened to be riding through thick sagebrush and I spied a Golden eagle’s primary wing feather sitting right on top the brush. The chances that I rode by and found it when I so needed such a thing has gotta be a million to one. The feather fell from high in the sky and landed in such a way that it didn’t fall down into the thick brush. Eagles shed feathers like all other birds do. The feather was laying on a particularly tall sagebrush – I didn’t even have to dismount to fetch it. Now, that is key in all of this because the reason I was feeling down was due to the rather sudden onset of arthritis. It hurt to get on and off my horse. The moment I laid my hand on the feather, the scripture verse about relief for the weary came to mind: "Those that trust in the Lord will be strong again, they will rise up like the eagle, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not tire." Isaiah 40:31 I wept with gratitude and felt humbley grateful for that much needed cheery-upper. You see, I pick up found feathers with the excitement of a child ANYway, but to find an EAGLE feather was a real & true endorphin rush. I’ll remember that moment all the days of my life. shery
Thank you Shery, for another of your ‘best ever’ blogs. You made me tear up, with happy tears, smile and helped me remember my Christmas’s of long ago and of the ones not so far gone. Memories — aren’t they the best — they are what we give to ourselves after having lived in the moment. I have the English 12 days of Christmas figures and LOVED seeing the Partridge – oh what a wonderful experience you had. And the Rose – your Christmas dishes are so very special. And Emmy Lou what a wonderful happening she is. Have your self a Merry little Christmas and a wonderful New year. God Bless
———-
Thank you, Joan. The dishes aren’t mine…but they fit into the rose Christmas theme :o) I believe they’re a Royal Albert pattern … and very expen$ive!
Sheri: You have the gift of writing from the heart and also the gift of photography. Merry Christmas to you and keep on giving the gift of your blog. I wish you could be with us at one of our meetings. Farmgirls meet at my house on Saturday. Blessings to your group from ours. Bonnie
——-
Hi Bonnie! Thank you for the kind words and for the In-vite…I’d love to meet you and your farmgirl pals. Please wish them all a Merry Christmas from me.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and all your farmgirl friends! I enjoy your blogs and your photos, you are a very good photographer and when I read your blogs its feels like I’m there to! I enjoyed the story about the Legend of the Christmas Rose. It was my first time hearing.
Hi Shery,
I hope this finds you well. I would like to thank you, SO much for sharing your gift of words. I love your writings. This one touches the heart so deeply. I would love to visit you and your farmgirl friends in Emmylou. : )
I have never heard the Christmas Rose story before. It is truly beautiful. Again, thank you for sharing this. I will reread it over and over.
I hope you and your loved ones have a beautiful, blessed, happy, Merry Christmas.
Take care.
Peace & Love,
Karen
Sheri, When I was growing up, a lone solitary Hungarian Partridge found its way to our house out in the middle of practically nowhere. Every day for an entire season it would appear and come within yards of our house, looking in the sliding back doors. It was such a friendly little creature, totally curious and wanting to make friends! At the end of the year he vanished, never to be heard from again, but over the many intervening years I have thought of him often. Thanks for another wonderful post, and for reminding me once again of my long lost feathered friend!
——–
Thanks for stopping by Sister Cathi :o) I haven’t checked into it yet, but I’d like to raise some partridges if the eggs/chicks are available…ya know, like some other game birds. I’m smitten. Lots of merry to you & yours in my 2nd favorite state. Theres gotta be a corner of Heaven that Vermont was modeled after ;o) shery j
i just want to say that if life could just be the way you have it for me i would never want any thing again. i love the simple life but dont have it.. i am sure GOD has a plan for me. but i love the way you write and the picture you post thank you for being who you are and writeing how you do.. yvonne
—–
Dear Yvonne, Few of us have ‘simple’. Finding quiet in the middle of a noisy life is possible…but not always easy or simple. Hang in there, my friend…because the plan for you is ‘a future of hope’. There was a time in my life that I couldn’t feature hope, much less a future with hope. And then, there it was…enough light to show me the way and always enough hope to keep me going. ‘The way I write’ is the result of hope that I have to lay claim to every day….every day. You go get it girl :o) shery
Shery, A blessed and Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for making my afternoon perk up a bit with Christmas spirit. What a great reminder to us all that we are about to celebrate a birthday of epic size. EmmyLou (also my fav) looks wonder-full! thanks for sharing her with us. cora jo
Thank you, it is blessing to read you articles. They always make me feel good. It is also a blessing in the world today that there are people that still praise God. That is one thing about the Farmgirls. I love the simple things in life and I am a farmgirl in my heart all the way.
Hi there!I am new to your website!I found it through Sugarpiefarmhouse!Love to read your beautiful message!I too am a farmgirl at heart and will be living the dream on my 26 acres in Idaho!The farmhouse will be built this coming year!A very long time in the making!!!Lots of planning and hard work!Thanks for all the inspirational words of goodness and love. God Bless,Cindy