Hey! Hi! Hello there!
I’m so sorry I’ve missed our last few coffee dates! Life has been… wild. But I’m grateful you’re here and we have a bit of time to share together!
I’m enjoying hot black tea with milk and honey (per usual), but we have coffee and a variety of herbal teas I can happily brew for you and even some iced tea, if you’d prefer. What would you like?
It’s been woefully hot here the last few days but it’s crisp and lovely out right now… let’s sit out on the front porch while it’s still cool and we can smell the herb garden and watch the pollinators do their thing while we sip our cuppas and talk about recent happenings.
If we were having coffee…
I’d ask you’ve been and what you’ve been up to lately? What’s new or exciting in your neck of the woods?
I’d tell you about my recent trip to Houston to visit my best friend of 32 years, Jacqueline, and how lovely it was to get off the block for a few days…
To enjoy good food, lots of belly laughs, and our favorite band in concert.
I came back from my trip so happy and so heart-filled, it was truly amazing.
I also came back, unfortunately, with a bug that, with the help a perfect storm of factors (molds, wildfire smoke, dust, spring allergies, and general stress…), kicked my Lyme into full gear, turning that little bug into a horrible cough/Bronchitis which then turned into Pneumonia.
It all laid me out for three weeks despite all the OTC meds as well as all the natural remedies I took.
In the end, antibiotics from Urgent Care did their job and I’m on the other side of it all.
Thank goodness!
If we were having coffee…
I’d ask how your garden is growing this season?
Whether you’re growing in a pot on your kitchen windowsill or on your porch, or you’ve filled garden beds with seeds and starts, I’d love to hear all about it!
Getting behind on tending to all our crops while I was sick has been a bit overwhelming but, gratefully (?), our continued extreme drought has made the weed growth largely manageable 😉 Seems strange to say, but here we are.
And so, while my wife kept up with everything as best as she could while I was sick (and did a damn good job of it all), the last week has been spent in an attempt at a bit of catch up.
There’s been weeding, resowing where seeds didn’t germinate, mulching, and making some tentative plans for the rows in the kitchen garden that haven’t been sown at all yet. I wrote more about this here, if you’re interested 🙂
It helps to remember that homesteading is a marathon, not a race.
One day, one step at a time, it either all gets done or it doesn’t, but it never helps to beat oneself up about any of it.
If we were having coffee…
I’d ask how your Summer is shaping up?
Or, Winter, depending on where you are 😉
I’d tell you that Ember and I wrapped up our Homeschool year at the end of May and she’s now attending a wonderful summer day-camp that she loves!
I’d tell you that we’ve decided not to do any traveling this summer and I’m actually feeling OK about it. We’ll hunker down here on the farm with the rhythms of Nature…
We’ll welcome some new goat kids into the world in July…
We’ll sow, grow, and harvest…
We’ll play with our two new barn kitties…
And we’ll plan for an Autumn trip once all the crops are in.
If we were having coffee…
I’d ask how your heart is?
These times we’re living through are wild and intense, no?
It’s so hard to get away from the bad news that bombards us on a daily basis, isn’t it?
And while I believe it’s so important to not look away from the hard stuff (because we have work to do), I also believe it is imperative to practice self-care and tend to our hearts in every way possible.
And so, in between being a wife, mom, and farmer, I’m doing my best to prioritize small moments that bring my heart joy and peace every single day by…
Working on my Temperature Blanket
Each daily row takes me about 15 minutes to complete and is such a nice way to wind down the day before bed.
Reading (and listening to audio) books
I wrapped up the nine written Outlander books last month and am not quite sure how I’ll wait another 2-3 years before the next one comes out! In the meantime I’ve moved a couple of books from my To Be Read pile over to my Read pile.
A River in Winter by Stan Crawford and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters have both been calling my name for years and are completed.
Next up is Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler.
A little light reading coupled with some intensity.
Working on our Family History
As I continue to chip away at the details and documents as I build all the various branches of our family history, I also have a transcription project I will begin diving into again in the coming weeks.
See, my maternal Grandma Eve wrote extensively about our family history beginning with her grandparents (born in the mid 1800s). The writings are a mix of hundreds upon hundreds of handwritten pages and typed pages, all various shaped and sizes and in various states of disrepair. There are also multiple drafts of certain chapters in my care. This is all lovely and also poses the challenge of how to best preserve is all and turn it into a shareable document so it can be disseminated to my cousins.
None of it is conducive to a simple scan.
So, I’ve taken all the pages and put them in protective sleeves in binders and have decided to transcribe it all into a Word Doc. My goal is to work on this for a few hours each week over the next few months.
Wish me luck!
Journaling & Meditating
Inspired by my Grandma’s documentation of her life and our ancestry, I began journaling (officially, in an actual journal) in early 2020. While I don’t do it daily, I’ve found it to be a wonderful way to mark the passage of time.
I’m also making meditation a priority again. As simple as the act of sitting quietly for a few minutes can be, the results (for me, at least) are truly profound.
All of these actions add up within my heart, adding some peace to each of my days.
I wish the same for you!
If we were having coffee…
I’d thank you so much for sharing time & space with me!
I’d ask if you’d like to help me harvest some sour cherries or maybe a few herbs from the garden to take home with you?
Let’s meet again soon, shall we? Maybe the weekend after next?
In the meantime, do be good to yourself! And, if you have a few minutes, please pop over to Natalie the Explorer’s space, where she hosts this lovely virtual get-together and you can find many other, similar sharings.
XOXO,
Melis
Thanks for the coffee and tea…so sorry you got sick but glad you were able to spend time with a friend. That’s always nice. I hardly ever watch the news anymore. It’s just so much Stuff, and always one sided it seems. The temperature blanket is pretty and so interesting…I’ve heard of those only recently.
No garden for me this year. Maybe next year. however my husband bought 8 large containers from Costco so I’m going to plant some flowers in those.
Hi Kirstin! Thanks for stopping by! Having a bunch of flowers growing in big containers sounds absolutely lovely! Then, it’ll all be ready for some veggies next year 😉 Hope you’re enjoying a lovely week!
What a lovely coffee (tea) share. I was so happy to read about your trip and visit with your friend, and so sad to hear about your illness. Wonderful that you are feeling better now.
I totally get your decision to stay at home until after harvest. So much exciting stuff going on at a farm during spring/summer/fall.
We’ve had a colder than usual spring, and I took my seedlings (that I started indoors,) out to my balcony garden too early. Some of the tomato plants closer to the edges of the balcony were affected by the cold nights. We had freezing nights in the middle of May. That is unusual. I’m going to harvest the tomatoes on those plants within the next coming weeks, and then replace them with new plants. You see, I reused some soil from last year that I topped of some of my other plants with, and when the days started to warm up they offered some surprise plants! Their seeds must have been dormant in the soil over winter, and woken up by the warmer weather! There is actually much more seedlings than I can keep, I’ll gift some to friends. Some of them I don’t even know what they are yet. I love this kind of surprises!
Have a wonderful new week!
Hi Maria! Thank you so much for stopping by! Ah! Volunteers are the best kind of plants to have! Especially after facing some damage to the tender tomatoes. I can’t wait to see what’s decided to gift you with their abundance this season!
So much to talk about here, but first things first, glad you’re on the other side of the unwellness and beginning to feel like yourself again. I love the temperature blanket (and, of course the kitten) but that family history project really got all my little antennas up. What an amazing treasure trove! And how fabulous to be honouring it.
Hi Joanne! Thank you for your kind words! And yes, a treasure trove, indeed! My Grandma was a great storyteller and her writings have been such an amazing gift! Her talent + the amazing access to documentation online now has really helped me round out our family tree. Now to get it all sorted so it can be properly shared 🙂 Hope your week is off to a great start!
Oh my goodness, sorry to hear that you were so sick. It is great to hear that you are feeling better. It sounds like there are a lot of wonderful things going on in your life and that is nice to hear. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the virtual coffee. Have a great week.
Writing Sparkle recently posted…Chaga Tea anyone?
Thank you for popping by and for your kind words! Focusing on the positive is the only way to go these days, we must find a balance to all the challenges, you know?
Hi Melissa – sorry to hear that your lovely catch-up ended up with a 3wk bout of illness. I’ve just had a weekend of headaches and nausea, so 3wks of being sick would have sucked. Loved your barn kitty and I bet the new baby goats are gorgeous. You have a big job ahead with all that transcribing, but it will be an interesting and engaging task for you I’m sure. Winter here in Western Australia and it’s raining.
Hi Leanne! Thanks for popping by and for your kind words! I do hope you’re feeling better! Yes, the kitties are adorable…ridiculously so 😉 I’ll be sure to post lots of goat kid photos when they arrive, it’s impossible not to! Hope you’re staying cozy and have a wonderful week ahead!
Lovely catch up thank you…but sorry to hear of your illness..thank goodness for anti biotics and time to heal.
What a great time you had with your friend.
I am sorry about the heat where you are..we here in Australia get that but right now its winter and we are having a rather unusual cold snap!
Take care,
Denyse. #weekendcoffeeshare
Hi Denyse! Yes, modern medicine is quite fantastic, isn’t it? My little trip was truly fantastic! There’s nothing quite like designated fun time with my bestie 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful week ahead! Stay cozy!
Hope you are feeling better and what a cute cat!
Thank you so much!
Hi Melis. It’s nice to meet you. Sounds like you have so msny goals. I like how you break them into small goals instead of becoming overwhelmed.
Hi Laura! Thank you for popping by! Yes, breaking down my goals is the *only way to make them feel attainable to my concrete/sequential mind 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying a lovely weekend!
Glad you got to visit your bestie, but sorry you came home so sick! Sounds awful. Glad you are on the mend.
I agree that it is hard to not hear all of the bad news out there. We can’t just be oblivious to it and pretend the world is perfect, but we do have to live our lives and try to keep a smile when we can.
Anyway, besides the recent heat and sickness it sounds like things are going well on your ever growing farm. Hope you are having a great weekend and have a wonderful week ahead!
Hi Trent! Yes, the trip was a breath of fresh air! I know you know all about focusing on the positives where we can. It’s not always easy, but it’s so important 🙂
I am so happy you got to enjoy time with your long-time friend in Houston, but so sorry you got sick once you came back home. That being said, it sounds like you keep a very positive attitude and that certainly helped you get through it. (Of course, the antibiotics took care of the actual infection.)
Astrid recently posted…#WeekendCoffeeShare (June 11, 2022)
Hi Astrid! Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I’m in deep gratitude for modern medicine, especially when I’ve tried everything natural and just need an extra boost! I’ve been practicing being kinder to myself and that’s helped a lot with staying as positive as possible. If I can’t change something (like being sick), being upset about it surely isn’t going to help 😉