Monday, February 6, 2012
First Merit Badges!
I was very excited today to earn my first set of MaryJanes merit badges! I now have ten badges just ready and waiting to be embroidered. I applied for a couple more at the same time. I'm not sure if the online entry form only accepts ten at a time, or if I'll have to resubmit my applications. Either way, I'm very excited and finally feel like a Farmgirl Sister. :-)
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Roots
I'm a city girl, at least by birth. I was fortunate to grow up in Austin, which has lakes and rivers and trees trees trees. The Austin of today is certainly not the Austin of my fond memories, but at the time it was a perfect smaller city. My favorite place in the world, however, was Bivins, TX, specifically my Grandma and Grandpa Mahaffey's home in Bivins. Nestled in the Piney Woods region of Texas, a trip to Bivins was an eight-hour drive full of the Alphabet Game, the license plate game, and renditions of "Found a Peanut" with my dad.
I couldn't describe at the time why this place meant so much to me, but as an adult looking back I realize my grandparents had the life I now desperately crave. I have no idea how many acres it was, but it was a simple home built by family and friends. It was heated by a huge fireplace in the great room and space heaters in each room. It was cooled by a ceiling fan and open windows. The front porch was a gathering place with a view of the big tree and the washer pit. The back porch was stacked with firewood and offered a view of a large grassy area that I remember being a garden until Grandma had trouble maintaining it. Her pantry was filled with glass jars of her fruits and vegetables.
The loft over the kitchen was the favored place to sleep if you were a grandkid, niece, nephew or cousin. The woods surrounding the house were always beckoning, and a favorite past time was walking out to the railroad tracks to flatten a coin. Easters at Bivins were amazing. The adults were very creative with egg placement! The memories were painful for a time due to the disillusionment that comes with growing up, but I can now look back and remember everything that made it great. I loved my Grandpa and Grandma Mahaffey, and I loved their little piece of heaven.
I found the kind of love they had together. Now we just need to find our heaven on Earth as well.
I couldn't describe at the time why this place meant so much to me, but as an adult looking back I realize my grandparents had the life I now desperately crave. I have no idea how many acres it was, but it was a simple home built by family and friends. It was heated by a huge fireplace in the great room and space heaters in each room. It was cooled by a ceiling fan and open windows. The front porch was a gathering place with a view of the big tree and the washer pit. The back porch was stacked with firewood and offered a view of a large grassy area that I remember being a garden until Grandma had trouble maintaining it. Her pantry was filled with glass jars of her fruits and vegetables.
The loft over the kitchen was the favored place to sleep if you were a grandkid, niece, nephew or cousin. The woods surrounding the house were always beckoning, and a favorite past time was walking out to the railroad tracks to flatten a coin. Easters at Bivins were amazing. The adults were very creative with egg placement! The memories were painful for a time due to the disillusionment that comes with growing up, but I can now look back and remember everything that made it great. I loved my Grandpa and Grandma Mahaffey, and I loved their little piece of heaven.
I found the kind of love they had together. Now we just need to find our heaven on Earth as well.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
New Beginnings 2012
It's funny and a little sad how hard it is for me to follow through with certain tasks, no matter how much they mean to me, or how much "pillow planning" I put into them. One of my nagging goals was to start a blog. Not because I believe anyone is actually all that interested in what I do, but rather as a way to hold myself accountable. I have big dreams I want to pursue, but I keep putting them on the back-burner because they're so far away from being reality that I find excuses to put them off.
My biggest goal is to live a self-sustaining lifestyle. I want to learn to spin fiber and to make clothing from the yarn. I want to learn to grow organic foods that I can feed to my family. I want to bake a cake with eggs I found in the coop that morning. I want to walk out my back door and hear nothing but the birds and the wind in the trees and smell nothing but fall leaves burning.
But how? My husband and I are so far from being able to buy our land that it's easy to procrastinate learning the skills necessary to maintain it. This blog will be my way of documenting my progress and mistakes, as well as my ultimate successes. I will learn to do these things, and I will be ready to start the day we finally have our land. It will happen, and we will be blessed.
My biggest goal is to live a self-sustaining lifestyle. I want to learn to spin fiber and to make clothing from the yarn. I want to learn to grow organic foods that I can feed to my family. I want to bake a cake with eggs I found in the coop that morning. I want to walk out my back door and hear nothing but the birds and the wind in the trees and smell nothing but fall leaves burning.
But how? My husband and I are so far from being able to buy our land that it's easy to procrastinate learning the skills necessary to maintain it. This blog will be my way of documenting my progress and mistakes, as well as my ultimate successes. I will learn to do these things, and I will be ready to start the day we finally have our land. It will happen, and we will be blessed.
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