Nineteen. That’s how many days stood between me and my ability to claim I was mom to four teenager daughters at once. You see, my eldest crossed the threshold into 20 nineteen days before my baby turned 13. I was disappointed when I realized that never would all my daughters officially be “teenagers” at once.

I truly loved parenting in the teen years. The hard work of continual discipline and morality lessons had been done in the toddler and middle school years. My teens were so much fun to be around. They were independent teens who filled my days with deep belly laughs and my evenings with long, thought-provoking discussions. (Disclaimer: not unlike toddlers, teens still zap your sleep. The best talks aren’t even initiated until after midnight.)

But others don’t seem to agree with me; some feel it’s torture to have any teenagers under their roof. When did raising teenagers get such a bad rap?

The word “teenager” didn’t exist before the 1940s

Believe it or not, the answer is in this book. Or actually the answer is in what’s NOT in this book:

I became the new owner of this amazing old treasure at our library book sale. It’s dusty. It’s huge. It’s a tome of words… a dictionary printed in 1920.

A daughter sauntered over to me as I perused the historical fiction table and announced I had to see THIS. She knew I’d love it.

In excitement she pulled me–literally pulled me–three tables down and a row over. “Look!” was her one-word invitation to glance at the richly marbled end papers and water stained, worn, embossed cover as she gingerly turned some of its thousands of pages of vernacular expressions, idioms, and agricultural and botanic terms from 1920.

I knew one particular entry I wanted to look for immediately. I’d heard this word didn’t exist prior to WWII. I’d heard this word was simply never a thought in a parent’s mind. It’s a word I use sparingly. It’s a word I dislike because of what it stands for.

Before telling you the word I was looking up and why, I have a family photo to share with you.

This photo of my granddad and grandmother was taken around the same time that this amazing dictionary was coming off the printing press. It’s of my Dad’s parents and his oldest sibling.

My grandparents are 17 and 19 in the picture, with their first of 10 children sitting on grandmom’s lap. They knew how to raise food and make meals from scratch, or “off the land,” as my dad always said. They knew true adult joys and hardships and responsibilities.

What does this have to do with my daughter’s wonderful dictionary find? Well the word I immediately went looking for was one that didn’t exist when it was printed or when this sweet photo was taken of Jim and Rosa and my Aunt Pauline. (Read this post if you’d like to know more about Pauline, that captivating little girl in the photograph.)

You see, the dictionary printed in 1920 has no entry for “teenager.” The term wasn’t coined for quite a few more decades.

Why I don’t use the term “teenager”

To be honest, I don’t use the term “teenager” often. I despise what it stands for.

You see, the word “teenager” evolved in our society after WWII, in an attempt to let children stay children a little longer, after witnessing too many youth go off to war and never return.

So young people who used to long to be mature and work side-by-side with adults, learning adult skills, were encouraged to hold onto their childhoods and not worry about responsibilities or independence.

But soon adults started lamenting the irresponsible “teenagers” that resulted. In truth, young adults don’t want to be indulged and given more time to be kids. Young adults enjoy working elbow-to-elbow with skilled adults who can teach them life skills.

Young adults crave life skills. Young adults crave independence. Young adults long to gracefully slip into adulthood. But they can’t do that if they’re ill prepared to do so. They can’t do that if they’re overprotected as “teenagers.” 

Why I do work hard at relationships with my young adult children

I recently interviewed Chris Coursey, author of 4 Habits of a Joy-Filled Life, on the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast and learned something fascinating about the young adult brain.

We all–at every age–need moments of high-energy joy and low-energy rest throughout our days. They are two sides of the same coin and both are necessary. But young adults, in the 13-16 year range specifically, have a lot of trouble with resting. The hormones keep the brain very active, and without the much-needed counterbalance of rest, young adults often need reliable, caring relationships with parents more than ever.

Listen in to the episode here: How joy fuels our brains & improves our health, with Chris Coursey, Season 5 Episode 14 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast

Or here:

Or watch the full episode here:

Why teens shouldn’t “embrace their childhood”

So, no, my heirloom picture boasts of no “teenagers.” Jim and Rosa would have would have surely scoffed at the idea of “embracing their childhood a little longer.” There were farm fields to tend, food to can, clothes to mend, and a fulfilling life to live.

And my home didn’t really ever boast of “teenagers” either.

I choose to not use the word if I didn’t have to.

When each daughter turned 13 we actually sat down (usually over a mom-daughter lunch at her favorite sandwich shop) and talked about this little history lesson and I assured her I was there to help her gracefully slip into adulthood in the wonderful 5 years ahead.

I assured her I had no intention of coddling her or asking her to stay my baby (not that we couldn’t reminisce and pull out that adorable baby book any old time she wanted to, mind you), but instead I was eager to help her develop all those amazing talents and skills she was discovering that she had.

Mind you, I didn’t tell her to follow Rosa’s example with a husband beside her and a babe on her lap at 17, but I did encourage her to know that she had great abilities already and we would hone those skills in the years ahead and she would be taking the world by storm before we knew it.

More about parenting (and “teenagers”)

Encourage your child to be an entrepreneur

Help your children be philanthropic

Your child’s “small” interests can make a big impact

Free resources to Help you Homeschool Children Who Change the World

Tips and Life Hacks from 11 Encouraging Moms, including Michelle

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Col. 3:23

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Menopause hit early and suddenly for me 6 years ago. I’ll share more of my story over on the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, in S5 E1, but for now let’s just say it pretty much hit me out of nowhere. And I didn’t like it one bit.

But one of the side effects was really tough on me. Even worse than the hot flashes. The weight gain seemed like it was out of my control.

This is the topic of the new episode of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, sponsored by True Leaf Market. For a very limited time, save $10 on your purchase of $50 or more with code PHOMESTEAD10.

Listen in here:

Or watch here:

Why is it hard to loose weight during menopause?

It’s just a fact of aging, muscle mass diminishes and fat increases.

Losing muscle mass slows our metabolism, which means our body uses calories slower. This makes it more of a challenge than ever to maintain a healthy weight.

On top of that, your estrogen levels decrease. This makes you gain weight — even if you haven’t changed a thing about the way you eat or exercise — and makes it harder to lose weight.

6 Secrets that helped me loose weight during menopause

My tips are honestly pretty simple. I don’t have anything flashy or earth shattering to share. Nothing to buy. And no deep insight you’ve never heard before.

But I hope that sharing my secrets with you–along with the 3 things that didn’t help at all–leaves you encouraged and inspired. 

Loosing weight will not happen as quickly or easily as it did in the past for you, when you were younger, but if you’re determined and keep a positive attitude, and if you’re in it for the “long haul,” you will not be disappointed.

Here are the 6 secrets I learned:

1. I needed to start enjoying food (the good stuff) if I wanted to loose weight during menopause

I added more veggies. More protein. More water.

Most importantly, I knew had to enjoy my food. I decided to let “sustainable” be my catchword. Not perfection.

I added a lot of fermented foods—

kombucha

sourdough bread

sourdough pizza dough

fermented peppers

fermented tomatoes

In S4 E11 of the podcast we talked about how the fermentation process creates special short-chain fatty acids, which help control our appetite.

Something else that makes your food more satisfying (which means you eat less)? Good fats. 

I started taking cod liver oil (this one is top-of-the-line) and increased the amount of lard I as using in my kitchen (bonus: the vitamin D makes me happier, which means less stress–see # 3 below). Go here for more about the goodness of lard and go here for more about how to bake using lard.

If you want to loose weight, you have to cut calories. But you need to do it wisely and make sure the calories you are consuming are good for you. For me, it helped to just eat a little later in the morning (my own simplified version of intermittent fasting … more about that below) and only 1 meal of heavy calories, my other meal (switched from lunch to dinner depending on day) was a giant salad.

When had treat, made sure it was as good for me as could be, along with smoothies and protein shakes made with frozen banana, I would occationally enjoy:

maple ice cream

mint chocolate chip ice cream

rye chocolate chip cookies

cookies made with lard

2. I needed to exercise daily if I wanted to loose weight during menopause

I can’t say enough how vital daily exercise was to my weight loss. And I know I would never have succeeded if I didn’t choose an exercise that I loved.

I looked forward to my 45 minutes on the lake every day. I’d make two treks down our long driveway… one carrying my paddleboard (that alone was a nice workout), one my water bottle and paddle… and spend 45 minutes paddling to a marshy area where I could “park” and do some pilates exercises on my board, in the water.

Whatever you choose, makes sure you’ll enjoy it, and aim for at least 2.5 hours a week of moderate aerobic exercise, bare minimum.

A few things to keep in mind about whatever exercise routine you choose to help with your weight loss:

1. Give yourself grace. If you miss a day… or three… or even a whole week (life happens), realize it’s okay and just start again.
2. Choose “back up” exercises. I required myself to do my primary exercise 5 days a week, and I tried to take out pedal kayak or at least swim or go for a brisk walk the other 2 days.
3. Never give in to a defeatist mentality. Attitude is so important. Keep reminding yourself this is for the long haul. Even without results on scale.

Even though I loved the primary exercise I chose, I still had to force myself to make time for exercise about 40% of the time… life is just so busy and exercise is always seen as an “extra,” not a “have to.” It was much easier to force myself to exercise when I loved what I was doing.

So choose some exercises you will love and get to work.

3. I needed to reduce stress if I wanted to loose weight… especially during menopause!

In menopause, estrogen levels drops and cortisol levels rise. Cortisol increases our appetite and signals our body to shift metabolism to store fat. If you’re stressed, cortisol rises even more.

But studies show that simply walking 30 minutes a day, 5x week reduces cortisol levels!

In fact, regular exercise makes you resilient to stress! (Source)

And, bonus, exercise helps you sleep better, which brings us to my fourth tip…

4. I needed to sleep better if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.

When I stayed up late to get work done, so I could have more time for hiking with a friend (or other things that were great on their own), I was sabotaging my own efforts.

5. I needed to focus on strengthening my core muscles if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.

Because our core muscles impact all the others, because they’re attached to the muscles in our hips and but and low back, which tend to cause a lot of extra pain as we get older, it’s important to keep our core muscles strong. For me, the best way I’ve found to do that is to practice pilates exercises.

The 6 overarching goals of pilates:

1. Control: controlling your muscles and movements allows for you get better exercise & benefits your body more.
2. Breath: You want to make sure you’re creating enough oxygen-rich blood to help the body function during each movement… deep, full breaths, breathing through the nose on the inhale and through the mouth on the exhale. 
3. Concentrating: Keep your mind on each movement to ensure you are performing the proper form. 
4. Flow: Create a flow, from one movement to the next which builds your workout that challenges the body. 
5. Centering: This is a core-strengthening and conditioning program. By ensuring your core is strong you protect the spine and give more power to complete each movement. 
6. Precision: By being precise you can prevent injury. Precision also leads to repetition and certain movements becoming second nature. Allowing you to focus on balance through your form.

6. I needed to enjoy a hobby if I wanted to loose weight during menopause.

Spending time on a hobby you love decreases cortisol levels more than conventional occupational therapy! (SOURCE)

3 things that didn’t help me loose weight during menopause?

1. Intermittent fasting didn’t help me loose weight during menopause.

Intermittent Fasting didn’t work for me.

Starving myself didn’t work.—I loaded up on whatever I wanted in my eating window.

Good wholesome food gives you energy and supports a healthy metabolism which is necessary to burn fat.

And it’s more enjoyable! (I really hated cramming all my calories into a tiny window of hours every day.)

Plus we need calories. Or our body starts working with less. So, yes, we need calories. We just need to make them good calories.

Ate all the fruit and veggies I wanted. Whenever I wanted. Frozen grapes were one of my favorite treats all summer, in the evenings. Now, in the winter, I’m snacking on fermented blueberries and dilly beans many evenings.

2. Loosing sleep so I “had more time to exercise” didn’t help me loose weight during menopause.

3. Trying to stubbornly stick with things that weren’t working–for years–only increased my stress.

Final thoughts on loosing weight during menopause?

In the end, remember, if you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness. Let me say that again…

If you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.

Life doesn’t get better by chance. It gets better by change. And, like I said in the beginning, these tips are simple ideas. They’re not rocket science, but they are doable. You can make the changes to improve your life. You can.

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig with insights or posts you share about weight loss @souly.rested.

I’d love to hear about your favorite tips or insights into loosing weight, at any stage of life. Please leave a comment below.

And remember, It’s easy to forget how blessed we are to live this life. So enjoy the simple, everyday efforts. It’s not easy, but it’s a good life.

Other Articles & Resources You’ll Love:

The Top 5 Healthy Drinks You Should be Drinking

8 Real Food Things You can Make Better Yourself

My 7-page Pantry Checklist

8 things wanna-be homesteaders need to know

You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. I Cor. 6:20

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post How to Loose Weight During Menopause (S4 E13) first appeared on Souly Rested.

Why is New England a Mission Field?

Is New England a mission field? Is the gospel all but forgotten in the very place where the Puritans fled to for the sake of preserving it?

As a rather new transplant to New England, and a daughter of the true King (not the tyrant the Puritans were fleeing), I love the Good News. The gospel, which makes it clear that we serve a sacrificing Savior who wants a personal relationship with each of us, all failures in our own right, well, it changed my life.

No, let’s make that present tense. It’s continually changing my life, even in the midst of my continual failures.

Recently on Instagram I shared some stories of our old, dilapidated, but in-the-state-of-repair-and-rebuilding New England church. And so many started asking me questions. Questions about our preaching and theology (exegetical and expository, and reformed) where we were located (the heart of central New Hampshire) and if it was true that where I lived was a mission field where a huge percentage of the inhabitants are nonbelievers.

That last question is one I got a LOT that day.

So I asked folks if they’d like to know my thoughts on this… on why New England has become a mission field. I got more response to that little question than maybe anything I’ve asked on instagram, and this little article is my answer.

New England Front Doors

When we moved to New England 8 years ago, from the mid-Atlantic area, we quickly noticed an odd thing about the homes. Almost every front door is either obstructed, seemingly nonexistent, or unused.

Our own home was no exception. While the main door, right in the middle of our double cape home, opens up to a curving set of stairs that reveal a 2-story chimney, made of old, chipped, romantic brick, this door was never used by the previous owners, They had a large, ugly, handmade box that stood taller than the first stair landing, piled high with wood for stocking the wood stove. This built-in, 6-ft-tall wood box made opening the front door treacherous at best. (Read more about our old farmhouse, built around 1800, here.)

The first hour of owning our new, 200-plus-year-old, home, that giant wood box was in the front yard and partially disassembled.

I was determined that every guest who came to our home would absolutely be greeted at the front door.

But I was disheartened. Everyone who visited would walk right past the front door and knock on our secondary door; the door that would have opened into the carriage house back in 1800, a sort of entrance to the barn, which is attached to our old farmhouse.

Except the census survey gal and the furniture delivery guys. They both knocked on the front door. But maybe they’re instructed they have to go the the main door? Plus, the delivery guys had driven their truck from NJ. They weren’t locals.

You see locals know how to immediately evaluate which door is the “used” door.

My good friend, and boss, and pastor, explained this phenomena to me the first Christmas we lived in New England. I had just told Nate that the girls and I, and a few church friends, were going to make and deliver cookies to houses in town to say “Merry Christmas” and invite everyone to our candlelight Christmas Eve service.

Nate explained that I need to be careful to not bother folks by knocking on an unused front door but look for the “family door.” He assured me l’d get the hang of recognizing which door this was, explaining a bike left on the ground by the door, or a trail of toys, or just the worn look of the grass leading to it, would disclose the family door. But it would almost never be the actual main, front door on the home.

In some ways, this phenomena weeds out the folks who aren’t welcome. Those who are truly welcome know the right entrance. If someone knocks on the front door, you can let the dogs bark and ignore them. But don’t write off these front-door-blockers as total jerks. We’ll get back to that…

New England’s Coldness

While New England is a natural wonder of beauty, with rolling mountain ranges and lush green fields bordered by deep hardwood forests… while New England is a daily natural fingerprint of a merciful loving creator… it’s also cold. Cold with long winters, and cold with closed hearts.

I had no idea when we moved here that New Englanders are considered, by many standards, to be a “lost people,” a mission field in need of the gospel.

I don’t follow gallop poll results, or I would have known. Gallup polls placed the six states of New England in the top ten least religious states in the nation.

Then a separate Gallup poll brought it eerily close to home and obvious that here in New Hampshire we live in the least churched state in the nation.That poll discovered that, among all 50 states, the least self-proclaimed “religious” people live in New Hampshire (tied with our next-door-neighbor Vermont).

And according to the Glenmary Research Center, those in New England who attend evangelical churches hovers between 1 and 3% of the population. I’d venture to say, from what I’ve personally witnessed, that percentage is even lower–maybe even less than 1 in 100–post-Covid.

But how can this be? Why are hearts so cold here, here where the Puritans first set up a “city on a hill” to be a beacon for the gospel?

This is something I’ve thought about a lot, and talked with Nate about (after he taught me about the family door). Nate wrote a popular book on this topic, Reviving New England, that I highly recommend.

Now that I’ve been a New Englander for a while, I think New England states filled up so much of the tops slots of that 2009 gallup poll because folks up here often refuse community and conformity.

I can’t say I blame them. Winters are seriously long, cold, and dark, and one gets used to curling up inside by a warm fire and never venturing out (especially when there are multiple feet of snow on the ground). So being invested in community is hard. And it gets harder with every winter that passes.

I also think often about those pioneers who ventured out from Plymouth 300 years ago and tried to make a life in the New Hampshire wooded mountains. They had to brave huge difficulties, not to mention move huge rocks… seriously, have you seen the foundation of an old New England farmhouse? They couldn’t be cut from average cloth. They were tough, at least the ones who survived. So New Englanders have been rejecting conformity, and forging into the darkness, and dealing with heavy rocks, for a long time.

These amazing people have breed individualistic, nonconformist generations, and understandably so.

But those tendencies, I think, are why we face a lack of the gospel here in New England today. Let me explain…

New Englanders Struggle to Embrace Community

We like to go solo.

Or at least closely guard our inner circle.

We don’t have a need for a welcoming front door, because those few folks who are truly welcome know the right entrance.

I should stop here and explain that I also have figured out that all of the old farmhouses here have other justifications for this. And by “old” I really mean it.. I’m not talking the “old” homes built in 1955 in the Mid-Atlantic area we moved from, but “old” homes that were built when George Washington was still alive. Our home was built, the nearest we can figure, around 1800. The true front door on an old Cape Cod farmhouse often just doesn’t work well, or is exposed to the elements and hard to get in when snow is piling up, or it needs to be blocked by furniture inside since old New England homes are also rather small, which was necessary when early settlers were trying to stay warm to survive the winters.

So know that just because a neighbor has blocked off their front porch does not mean I feel unwelcome there, but it drew quite an analogy in my still-mid-atlantic-front-door-loving mind back when I was first questioning how New England ever became a missions field.

Can’t we be reclusive & still embrace the gospel?

If we’ve convinced ourselves our whole lives that we are strongest on our own and have no need for other’s help or friendship, then we have no reason to foster community.

But the gospel insists on community. We’re told in Galatians 6:2 “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” You can’t carry others burdens if you don’t spend time with them and know them. And in Hebrews 10:25, we’re told to “not abandon our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encourage one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Afterall, the gospel, by its very nature, insists that we share it. We can only do that in community. We can’t “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15) if we don’t like to leave our warm home or open our front door to a stranger.

New Englanders Struggle to Conform on any Topic

The first New England settlers understood that conformity to the world’s standards is something to flee from–even across a treacherous ocean.

Yet, today, “New England pulpits have been hijacked! They were once filled with the preaching of the Word of God, but now they are filled with the shifting opinions of sinful men. This is a tragic thing!…It is from the pulpit that God speaks to His people through His word, so when His voice is removed and replaced with another, the church is quickly led astray.” (from page 19, Reviving New England, by Nate Pickowicz)

Aren’t believers called to be nonconformists?

While we are told, as Christians, we will not be befriended by the world, and while that makes us outsiders and nonconformists by nature, we’re refusing to conform to the world’s ideologies and repetitive sins. But, you see, at the same time we are eager conformists. We are trying to conform to His likeness. To His laws. To His desires for us. To the desires He has placed in our hearts. We’re working at conforming to His plans for us, not our own.

When I was trying to decide what to title this article I did what I always do… I googled some things to see what phrases folks are searching on this topic.

When I googled “Is New England a Missions Field” and scrolled down a little I came across a article written by a Congregational pastor who refers to herself with the pronoun “them” and insists that laws restricting the killing of babies in the womb are dangerous, just to name a few areas in her life where she is not living a life in line with scripture. But “Em” is a pastor who stands in a pulpit in New England every Sunday. And she (like many others who grace New England pulpits, preaching politics of acceptance, void of the need of a Savior) insists the gospel is alive and well in her beloved New England and resents anyone “calling our neighbors sinners.”

But you see, Em, that’s how I know the gospel is almost squelched here in what is also my beloved New England.

Inherent in the good news of the gospel is the fact that His rules and laws (including ones related to marriage and life in the womb) are in place for us to try to follow because He wants us to have life, and have it to its fullest possibility. (John 10:10) That can only happen when we define sin and put on the full armor of God to fight it.

If we truly love our neighbors, we want them to have life to its fullest, and that doesn’t happen in a life that is deep in unrecognized sin.

So, yes, Christians need to be nonconformists to the world, but New England is filled with people who, for generations, have worked at being nonconformists of a different mold. Cold nonconformists who stubbornly worship individualism and independence above all else.

In fact, individualism and nonconformity are New England’s gods of the 21st century.

So does our family use our front door?

As for our front door? I gave up. In the beginning I’d intentionally open the front door when guests pulled up our long drive and I would beacon visitors from where they stood, on the side porch, to come enter through the front door. But it made folks uneasy. Then I realized when I have a rug in the entranceway I couldn’t open the old door all the way anyway. So I gave up.

But I’ll know when it’s time for a new national census. She’ll knock on my front door.

If you’d like to know more…

I have so much more to say on this topic…

Watch for a future article(s) on this topic, diving into:

• The biggest problem churches face in an area when people are not invested in a community.
• The biggest problem housed in New England pulpits.
• The heresies heard weekly from New England pulpits, and
• The hope I have that more gospel-centered churches will be dotting New England horizons in years ahead.
• Some thoughts of why NH ranks where we do on the gallop poll listing of “most sinful” states (45th).
• And, also, how our church is doing things differently, with a long-view and what that looks like.

Find out more about the little church I’m active in, and where I serve as Assistant to the Pastors, in the video below.

We are a humble church, striving to do big things for the gospel, here where hearts are sometimes as cold as the winters: https://www.hbc-nh.org/giving/

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig @souly.rested.

More Encouragement For You:

4 Questions Successful Parents Ask Themselves Often

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy

Follow My Podcast

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2021 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

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Shoofly pie was one of the most infamous. And I’ve never made one in my life. But my friend, RuthAnn Zimmerman, is a pie expert (seriously) with deep Mennonite roots, so today I am excited to be sharing her family recipe for this coveted Mennonite dessert.

RuthAnn and I sat down this week over tea and microphones and chatted, hundreds of miles apart, about comfort food. She shared great tips and encouraging insights about the challenges of trying to put the best food on the table we can for our families. If you’d like to listen in, or watch on youtube, here are direct links to that episode:

Listen on Apple Podcast: Season 3, Episode 3 Comfort Food

To follow my Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, just subscribe on your favorite podcast player, or go right here for all the links: The Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast

Shoofly Pie Recipe

Mix together until crumbly:

In a blender mix together:

Pour the blended mixture into your remaining crumbs, and add:

Pour into pie shells:

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“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared… for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 

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Other Recipes & Tips You’ll Love:

How to Bake with Maple Syrup (seriously. You need to know this!)

How to Cook Pork Steaks (better than sirloin!)

Make Your Own Taco Seasoning (include a recipe for making it in bulk!)

All my Favorite Tools in my Farmhouse Kitchen (the things I wouldn’t want to live without)

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your delicious real food @souly.rested.

 

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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It’s hard work, but it’s doable

I chose my brand name “SoulyRested” back when I was new to this homesteading “thing.”

Even then I realized there was nothing easy about trying to live life a little more simply.

I remember wondering if I would ever truly “rest” again… there’s just always so much to be doing around a small family farm. I knew I’d have to fight for rest in my SOUL, because I might not find time for a lot of physical rest.

In the end, this effort our family has made to live life a little simpler has been harder–and yet easier–than I thought it would be.

You just need a plan

But one thing that is imperative if you want to make a homestead run smoothly?

A plan.

A good plan.

A good plan for every season.

This book will help you make the best plan

My friend, Lisa Lombardo, has itemized exactly what I’m talking about in her brand-new book, The Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading, and I’m thrilled that she was happy to let me share her list here, with you guys.

Take a second to pre-order Lisa’s insightful, encouraging book here on Amazon or over on my favorite online bookshop, that gives back to your local bookstore with every order… while you’re there tell them I said “hi” and pick up a copy of my book too, if you haven’t already.

It turns out the pages of Lisa’s book are filled with all kinds of practical tips, charts, ideas, and encouragement for anyone who wants to use what they have–their own backyard–to start taking charge of their food supply and living life a little more simply.

But for today, I’m excited to share this helpful checklist with you.

A checklist for your homestead, for every season

As Lisa Lombardo points out in The Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading, every homestead will have different daily and seasonal chores.

So you’ll want to tailor this list for your own homestead, in fact I already did just that.

I added sugarmaking chores to Lisa’s lists.

The fact is, most folks just don’t know that they can make sugar from the sap of 31 different tappable trees, so many folks have what they need to be backyard sugarmakers, they just don’t know it.

Go here to peruse the list of 31 tappable trees–you might have a few yourself!

The Ultimate Homestead Checklist

This list is printed here with permission from Lisa Lombardo & Rockridge Press, the author and publisher of The Beginners’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading.

Spring Checklist

• Start seedlings
• Till the garden and grain fields
• Transplant the seedlings
• Grow cool-season crops in cold frames
• Sow grains and vegetables
• Order and care for chicks
• Assist livestock births
• Mild dairy animals
• Make cheese and dairy products
• Set up new beehives
• Fertilize fruit and nut trees
• Harvest early-season crops
• Weed, mulch, compost, and amend soil
• Spray fruit crops
• Clean out root cellar
• Clean up an store away sugaring equipment

Summer Checklist

• Weed, mulch, and compost
• Water the crops
• Harvest the crops–dive into my free ecourses on
• Prepare the beds for fall crops
• Preserve fruits, vegetables, and herbs for winter
• Butcher early meat harvest (chickens, rabbits)
• Milk dairy animals
• Make cheese and dairy products
• Spray fruit crops
• Remove excess fruit from trees
• Harvest honey (here are some Great Resources for Beekeeping)
• Check the hives and add supers as needed
• Catch swarms when available
• Check the hives for pests and disease
• Repair or replace sugaring equipment, if needed

Fall Checklist

• ID and mark your tappable trees. This article lists the 31 varieties of tappable trees.
• Gather supplies to build a filter that will help you save money making maple syrup.
• Harvest and preserve crops; store root crops
• Butcher livestock
• Store feed, hay, and bedding for winter
• Breed some livestock for spring birthing
• Take stock of harvests and plan for the coming year
• Sell excess livestock
• Clean chimney and put up firewood
• Clean debris from gardens and orchards
• Prepare your hives for winter (I wrote this article last fall that explains the process)

Winter Checklist

• Care for livestock
• Breed livestock
• Butcher livestock
• Check on the bees [on warmest days] and feed them when necessary
• Plan the vegetable garden and grains
• Purchase seeds and materials (this is my favorite source for seeds)
• Prune fruit trees (late winter)
• Apply dormant oil spray to fruit and nut trees (late winter)
• Build beehives and supers
• Repair fences as needed
• Split firewood
• Total expenses and plan next year’s budget
• Tap trees for syrup. This article explains the ideal time to tap.

Download the Homestead Checklist For Every Season

If you’d like a printable ebook loaded with these seasonal checklists that you can download and print out every year, just hop over and join my Subscriber Library. (BONUS: the ebook is also loaded with special homestead-related coupons and offers on some of my favorite products. Seriously.)

You’ll have instant access to the printable lists, as well as 3 pages full of coupons perfect for homesteaders, on my favorite products I use every season here on our own homestead.

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it

Is this homesteading thing easy? Is living simply a simple thing to do?

Not on your life. But it’s worth it.

And if you’re armed with the right tools and checklists, you can definitely find a way to be souly rested, even in the midst of all the hard work.

Find out how ill prepared I was for this simple living and how if I can do this thing, anyone can, in my premiere podcast episode. And catch up on over 7 seasons of inspiration on the podcast right here.

More Articles About Homesteading, in Every Season:

12 Things to Ask Yourself if you Think you Want to Own a Farm

How Homesteaders Make Money

8 Things Most Homesteaders Won’t Tell You

How to Make Your Own Syrup & Save $100s a year 

So you think you’re ready to be a homesteader? Take this quiz & find out!

“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”  Proverbs 14:23

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The post A Homestead Checklist For Every Season first appeared on Souly Rested.

If you’d rather listen than read about this topic, you’ll love this podcast episode:

When a child makes your heart thankful.

Facebook memories. I often ignore them. One less reason that I give social media to zap my time. But I couldn’t ignore the picture above, from almost a decade ago, in my memories today.

Those cuties who popped up in my facebook memories today? They’re 8 years older and are over 2,100 miles away, one about to earn her associates degree when she graduates high school and the other about to earn her bachelor’s degree one year after graduating high school. (Yeah, I know… Kayla has never done anything the easy or conventional way.) And these two now-all-grown-up young ladies are doing it all independently and remotely, cause well who wouldn’t want to spend winter on the Gulf with their big sister who happens to be living her dream and working with marine animals for 3 months?

Kayla & Hayley are both more mature in their life choices, as well as their walk with the Lord, than their age would lead someone to believe who had never met them. They make a momma much more than proud. They sit down deep in my heart and make it oh-so thankful.

Life is exhausting & complicated when they’re young.

Moms with elementary and middle schoolers, life was pretty exhausting and complicated for me 8 years ago.

I invested every minute of most days into the hearts of these young ones. I lost so much sleep over the right way to discipline and correct their misguided plans or rude behaviors. I poured hours a day into teaching them mundane things and training their hearts to evaluate situations wisely, in God-honoring ways. Only to realize I had to re-do it all again the next day.

I failed miserably, often told them so and apologized, and started again. My days were exhausting and my efforts went almost totally unappreciated. My prayers were clingy, insecure, full of tears, and self-centeredly often focused on my family.

But God is good. He did more than merely “provide.” He gave us the ability to thrive. Not necessarily by worldly standards. But in more important ways. When we do our best to know Him and make Him known to our children, He honors that.

After 2 decades of investing more than I had to give, to meagerly try to raise my daughters in the ways I felt the Lord was leading me to do, today my house is quiet, but my heart is full.

Trust me, young mom, it’s okay that you’re tired and unsure, as long as you’re daily working at knowing Him and making Him known to your children, He will honor that.

Then one day you’ll be in a quiet house, knowing your sweet children are 2,100 miles away, carrying your lessons in their hearts, and making your heart oh-so thankful. “For in due season we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

Sometimes the seasons of motherhood are very long, but they do culminate in a harvest.

Here are those cuties today… you know, the ones I spent years training how to be gracious to each other, memorize multiplication problems, clean the dirty dishes in the sink, and not pick their nose, at least in public?

They turned out all right.

Okay, better than all right.

All the blood, sweat, tears, and prayers of raising them were well invested. My daughters are my favorite people to hang out with. And I guess the feeling is mutual cause we’ve done two Mother/Daughter road trips over the course of the last year. Yes, my teen daughters had this fantastic idea to make fun road trips out of some cross-country book signings I did for my new book, Sweet Maple.

Even after being cramped in a car for weeks on end? We still like each other.

And we have mutual respect for each other, which says so much more.

4 Questions Successful Parents Need to Ask Themselves

I’m not even gonna pretend I have the corner on successful parenting. Cause I’ve always made it clear… to my daughters, and to you all, here on the pages of SoulyRested… I’m a failure who, by God’s grace, has soaked in a lot of instruction from His living & active Word, prayer, and good godly counsel of others who have trod the hard road of parenting before me.

But I’ve thought about this a lot recently. Here are 4 questions I think all parents should answer carefully if they want to train their children in the way they should go.

1. Do you nurture a relationship with your child?

I’m not sure I should put this in print. But I’m gonna. One daughter didn’t do math for an entire year of high school. It was the same daughter who didn’t want to learn to read at the age I wanted her to start learning to read. So we set reading lessons aside and tried again many months later. Three times. (She’s now a Deans List student in her final year of college. So reads quite well, and understands math just fine, in case you’re wondering.)

Neither early reading lessons nor high school math was more important to me than loosing a relationship with my child.

I battled her throughout many life lessons, and some I would never have backed down on… the ones that kept her safe and helped her value life and purity. But math and reading? As important as they were, I knew they would happen. I chose to not battle her over exactly when they would happen during two small windows in her life when I knew those battles would make me ferociously angry and possibly mean this headstrong girl would build a relational wall between us. Because the wall she would have built, in her frustration, would have been very hard for me to scale when it was time to fight the more important battles on her behalf.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t a lax homeschool mom. (Unschooling wasn’t my cup of tea.) She knew her entire life that I set academic standards and I would do all I could to help her reach those standards. So I knew a few mini hiatuses would be just fine. Meet Jordyn, aka “the stubborn one” in this post I wrote a while ago.

2. Do you admit your mistakes to your child?

Throughout two decades of being the one in charge of my 4 daughter’s education, I’ve realized that they learn best when the teacher is learning (and enjoying the learning process) right along with them.

I think it’s the same with learning life lessons. When we mess up (particularly in a parenting decision) we should be transparent and explain that to our child, on whatever level they are ready for, depending on their age.

I’ve always felt it’s not only me who should learn the tough lessons from my mistakes, but why not help my children learn too? They have learned so much over the years, through the eyes of a very imperfect parent who is leaning on an all-powerful God. They have seen my humble gratefulness when I see anew each day the blessing of parenting my sweet children, warts, bad-attitude, wind-blown hair, and all.

Our windblown hair, btw, below, was after accomplishing one of the hardest physical feats of my life. With my two daughters beside me, we climbed to the top ridge of the first sand dune in the Great Sand Dunes National Park on our road trip through Colorado. 

See those tiny specks in the sand behind us? Those are other crazy, amazing, folks who were going to climb the dunes that day. That gives you an idea of the height of the top ridge that we scaled to, where the sand meets the sky.

3. Do you help your child uncover their interests and talents?

I struggled with this for the first decade or so of parenting my 4 daughters. When they’re young, there are so many possibilities ahead of them and they haven’t yet truly developed great talents. So what did I do?

I helped them journal what they were grateful for, using a journal like this one. I did this to not only encourage gratitude (because thankfulness is not a natural reaction of my own), but also point out to me what their focus and interests were.

Then I followed along on every genuine interest they had. Not every rabbit trail. But I learned to discern the genuine interests. And I invested time in them, working on those interests.

When a daughter spent hours upon hours, for weeks on end, twisting paper clips and adding beads to make jewelry, I helped her check out every book on the topic in every library in our county. I helped her clip coupons and earn money to buy supplies. I made jewelry with her. And when a store owner complimented my Logan-made jewelry, I helped Logan start a business of making and selling jewelry in local shops. Logan went on to use those fine motor and design skills to become a successful engineer.

I shared a little more about Logan’s story here.

I also wrote a little about another daughter’s passions and how I helped her pursue a being a successful entrepreneur. This year Kayla is finishing her final year of earning a degree in business, with the plan of being a successful business woman owning a ranch one day soon.

4. Does your child see you the way you want them to?

To your child, are you their “person”… the one they would go to when they need to talk? The one they want to end the day with? The one they receive unconditional love from? (Mind you, love often does involve discipline. And children know that. They do.)

Or are you the one they see directing, controlling their life? Are you rigid and one to be feared more than loved and trusted?

Again, just to be clear, as their parent you should be controlling the important details of their young lives. But do they see you as doing that out of love or just sheer desire for control? If you feel it may be more of the later and not enough of the first, it may be time to change your attitude toward your child.

Other articles you may enjoy about parenting:

When you feel like a total failure as a parent.

A fun photography challenge to complete with a child who seems interested in photography.

A fun project to take on with a child who is interested in nature.

A look at what you teach children when you foster a love for gardening.

Why I only have two goals for my daughters’ education (& what they are).

How I helped my children be entrepreneurs.

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

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and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library?

The post 4 Questions Successful Parents Ask Themselves Often first appeared on Souly Rested.

We had dinner in a beautiful port town of New Hampshire. Portsmouth, NH, is a historic seaport and popular little patch of quaintness on the Piscataqua River that beckons summer tourists. But I wonder how many folks miss the story growing tall and strong just a few blocks inland.

Edit to add: While our nation faces a year–2020–like none of us have lived through before, while we worry if our nation will survive such division, fears, anger, and a global pandemic, we need to remember that our nation is founded on such things (well, maybe not the pandemic part), and we overcome by claiming and planting hope, guys. In simple ways.

It’s the theme of my Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast.

William Whipple did this in a very tangible way…

His One Simple Act is Still Growing Today

In what used to be the yard of William Whipple grows a Horse Chestnut tree with quite an autobiography. While that may not seem like a fair word to use (since I’m the one telling you its story today), trust me this tree has a novel coursing through its sap.

But I know you’re asking, “Who’s this Whipple guy?” William Whipple was one of our founding fathers that doesn’t get much press. A signer of the Declaration of Independence. And today I gotta tell you his story.

It’s a great one. Mr. Whipple’s story clarifies the fact that doing “simple” things isn’t easy, but wow, is it worth the effort.

That’s Bill and I, with Mr. Whipple’s gorgeous tree behind us. Like I said, I love a great tree. And a great story.

Sweet Maple hits bookstores October 1st, my opus of a few great trees and a great story. So yes, put them together–a tree and a story–and I’m happy.

And obviously the love of my life was pretty happy about this chestnut too. Gotta love his school-boy smile.  He’s also holding my leftover shrimp, which he willingly carried all over Portsmouth while we window shopped. Now you have a glimpse into why he’s been the love of my life since 11th grade. But I digress…

A Signer and His Seed

The Horse Chestnut behind us was planted by William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, after returning to his little New England seaport town from Philadelphia and that monumental occasion in 1776. Just imagine as he planted that seed what he must have wondered. He must have doubted if it was even worth the effort. If the city–his colony’s main port city–would be burned to the ground by British forces. If the colonies would crumble under the dictates of a powerful and angry king when he received that signed parchment that declared these humble people were going to try it alone and would no longer acknowledge his dominion.

But William Whipple chose to cling to hope. And I imagine he prayed a little too as he caked dirt under his nails, pounding the soil firmly around that little lifeless looking brown seed that offered just a glimmer of hope. A glimmer of a promise of a day when it would provide shade and comfort in possibly a free nation that could govern itself.

Thinking a lot about Mr. Whipple after standing under his tree, I had to look him up. I love one fact I read… William Whipple freed his slaves when he returned home from signing the Declaration of Independence. (And, yes, slavery did exist in the far north at that time, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.) His reasoning was that he could not fight for freedom while keeping others from having their own.

I knew I liked this man.

Facing an Uncertain Future

This week we will celebrate Independence Day. We will celebrate that document that Mr. Whipple risked his very life to sign. I think we should celebrate that little seed that Mr. Whipple planted as well.

After all, we’re all facing something today that seems daunting. Something where the outcome is uncertain. Something that we wonder what we should do about it or how or if the effort is even worth it.

This fourth of July week remember Mr. Whipple.

He rode 800 miles on horseback to sign a paper that could have easily have led British soldiers to his door to drag him to the gallows. But instead of coming home and hiding away in depression or discouragement–exhausted, depressed, and uncertain of tomorrow–he kept on doing something.

Something that clung to hope.

Clung to promise.

Clung to faith.

An Example Worth Following

William Whipple’s simple act now grows tall for the world to see, overlooking the picturesque Piscataqua River in this glorious Land of the Free that we get to call “home.”

So I have to say “Thank you, Mr. Whipple.” Thank you not only for that long ride on horseback, and that daring act of putting pen to paper in defiance in the name of freedom, but thank you for your courageous, oh-so-simple act of hope.

Thank you, Mr. Whipple, for getting down on your knees, getting your hands dirty, and planting hope.

Thank you, Mr. Whipple, for planting hope that still stands and still grows.

So what about you? What about that simple thing that intimidates you today? That thing you don’t know the outcome of but you know you should be brave and do it? Pray, dig in, and get it done.

You never know the benefits others may reap.

Is it Really That Simple?

If you’re trying to simplify your life a tiny bit in the midst of a chaotic world, take heart, just one simple step toward simplifying your family’s life (like planting a tree) can someday reap a harvest that you can’t imagine today.

In this podcast episode I talk about another simple step that everyone can take to make a huge stride toward simplifying their home:

Photo by Rob Mulally on Unsplash

You never know the forest of joy that may grow.

Photo by Collie Coburn on Unsplash

Where do I Get the Strength?

I can’t write this–this little post of inspiration; this little post of a story of a man who acted in faith when he didn’t know what tomorrow held–without explaining that it’s MY faith that gives me strength.

Without my faith in a personal savior I would be a wet floppy noodle drowning in a puddle of discontent and inaction. Instead, I am oh-so blessed to know the sovereign creator of all as my personal father and friend. I know he goes before me and he holds all things together. (Colossians 1:17)

• I could not have moved from the only home I’d ever known to start a new scary, unknown adventure without assurance that He had a plan.
• I could have never worked at setting up a rural homestead, survived our barn fire, and worked through my continual failures (please don’t make these mistakes) without knowing He had gone before our family and prepared us for this.
• I could have never faced the grief I did of loosing both Mom & Dad suddenly had it not been for His strength.
• I could not have held a daughter’s hand 18 days in the ICU, facing a horrible neurological syndrome, had I not rested in His goodness that goes hand-in-hand with His sovereignty.

But I am a better, smarter, stronger person today as I look back and see how He held all those things together. 

Today when we stand on the narrow street in Portsmouth and look up at Mr. Whipple’s chestnut we have no idea the storms it has weathered and the difficulties of its planting, but we sure can enjoy its strength and beauty today.

So get down and dirty today, keep on doing what you know you’re supposed to do–even facing an uncertain future–and trust in the one who is “the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalm 97:9)

More articles about living a simple life:

Overcoming the worst tragedy a homestead can suffer.

A modern homesteader remembers when it wasn’t a choice.

12 Questions to ask yourself if you want to someday own a farm.

8 Things Wanna-Be Homesteaders Need to Know.

{{Please consider leaving a comment for “the world” to document what intimidating thing you’re gonna dig into.Then come back and let me know how it turns out. I’d truly love to hear.}}

Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are the strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. I Chronicles 29: 11-12

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The post A Great Reason to Plant a Tree first appeared on Souly Rested.

I only have homegrown eggs, which are gorgeous of their own accord. But their darker hue does make colored dyes pretty difficult.

But dyeing eggs is a tradition in this house that my momma started long ago and one that, I hope, will be a fun little part of every Easter, no matter my age.

Since most of our layers this Easter are Cuckoo Maran, that means most of my eggs are an earthy spotted hue. Until this spring, I’ve always had a wide array of egg sizes and colors, between the many breeds of chicken and the ducks. My natural-dyed eggs always turned out gorgeous. Here’s a picture I took of my daily allotment of eggs a few years back…

And the Easter eggs I dyed that year were very colorful–sage, periwinkle, and deep orange. I give you full directions for those over in this post.

But alas we had a hen-house tragedy last fall–I explained in the facebook live at the end of this post, if you wanna hear the story–and we now have almost all Marans. I have to say I do adore the hens. They’re a very friendly, sweet temperament to each other and to anyone who wants to pet them.

Yes, we pet our chicken.

And we hand-pick snacks for them. But I digress.

My point was simply that  our Maran eggs are not the best for Easter dyeing.

Because it’s an important part of our family’s Easter tradition, not dyeing eggs was not an option. Because my 9 hens leave me with more than a dozen eggs every other day, buying bleached white eggs from the store was out of the question in this practical girl’s mind.

So I set up a few of my favorite natural dyes for eggs, boiled a dozen brown eggs, grabbed a few white crayons (to make fun geometric patterns on the eggs before dyeing them) and got out my kombucha starter tea.

Kombucha has served many purposes our our home these days, and I have found I can use my extra starter tea for almost anything that I would use vinegar for, including dyeing Easter eggs.

Go here if you’d like to know more about the many products I love using to make my own kombucha (including my favorite pour lid for Mason jars.)

And take a peek over here if you’re curious about my list of items I could not live without in my farmhouse kitchen.

The Spinach Didn’t Work

For the spinach dye I simply boiled 3-4 cups of water, tossed in a handful of spinach, added 2 tablespoons of kombucha starter tea (feel free to use vinegar) and let that simmer for about 1/2 hour. After soaking a hard-boiled egg in the spinach for hours, the green hue was barely noticable, while the onion skin dye (more on that in a second) was doing fabulous.

Not sure if it was my brown eggs or my refusal to break up the spinach that caused my problem, I pureed the spinach/vinegar water and tried again.

But I was sorely disappointed after a few more hours of egg soaking. So I took the eggs right out of the pureed spinach dye and added them directly to the onion skin dye. After another hour or so of soaking I was pleased with the results. While the green didn’t show up on my brown eggs, the soaking in pieces of spinach left interesting reside that then mingled with the onion skins for some pretty neat marbling. So I guess I should tell you how to make a dye of onion skins, huh?

The Onion Skins Made a Perfect Dye

To make my onion skin “bath,” I boiled 4 cups of water, the outer layers off of 4 medium onions, and 2 tablespoons of kombucha stater tea (again, feel free to use vinegar). Once it reached a low boil, I turned it down to simmer for 30 minutes, took the pan off the heat, and added my hard-boiled eggs. I soaked them for a few hours, but could have easily let them soak overnight as well. And of course I could have soaked them for just a few minutes if I had white eggs and wanted a lighter orange tint.

My Favorite Was a Combo

When the dozen were done, the ones that had started in the green dye and transferred over to orange were by far my favorite. The two layers, and a little bit of rubbing with an old cloth, made for a pretty marbling look. Added to the crayon markings, it looked rustically Easter, or maybe they just looked like a total mess up. But hey, even mess ups can be pretty, no?

One Final Detail

While I love the chalky, matte look, I decided I wanted to fancy the eggs up just a tiny bit with a shiny finish. I put a small drop of oil on a rag and gently rubbed them all over. Then rubbed them again with a clean, dry rag, to get off any excess oil. Voila. I’m pleased.

Now to make a bunny cake… (You can see that here.)

If you’d like to know more about how to make your own delicious, carbonated kombucha (which btw is oh-so-good-for-your-gut yummy), I’m elated to tell you, after a full year of trial, error, research, and talking with experts, I have finally released my latest book, Simple DIY Kombucha–see it right here–and I really think you’ll love it. Bonus, it comes with $44 worth of coupons on products I use and love, to get you started off with a credit in your pocket!

Watch here for my quick and simple tips on organizing a BIG Easter egg hunt on a TINY budget.–>

Oh, and here’s that fb live video I promised, if you’d like to know about our hen-house tragedy and why we now have Cuckoo Maran hens–>

Wanna know more about kombucha?–>

Whatever Easter traditions you may be enjoying this year, I truly pray you know the reason the first Easter celebration occurred. Even better, I pray you personally know the one who willingly died so that you may truly live. Feel free to message me if you’d like to know more about why He makes my life full of joy.

See these other Easter-related posts!

How these 3 simple Easter traditions point to Christ.

Four simple tips for last-minute Easter baskets.

Delicious meringue cookies that tell the story of Easter to young children.

More about kombucha…

My favorite kombucha flavors that I make.

A cost analysis of exactly what it costs to make your own kombucha

What do you need to get started making this amazingness?

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all. Acts 4:33

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more).

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

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The post Yes, I dyed these eggs with kombucha & onion skins first appeared on Souly Rested.

So I apologize.

My storytelling and cropping of details might make a simple little family farm seem glamorous.

It’s not.

Our homesteading journey has been full of mistakes…

The difficulties–most due to my own mess ups and inadequacies–have been tough.

There was the day many young, beautiful hens died in a matter of minutes, all because of my avoidable mistake.

Then there were the incubated eggs I completely messed up and lost.

There was the sweet barn cat we lost due to my ignorance.

And there are never-ending mistakes we make and projects we start that go unfinished with our 200-year old farmhouse.

I mean truly y’all I’ve never really felt “legit” at this homesteading gig.

Some of our homesteading days have been messy and scary…

Yes, homesteading is messy and hard and disorganized and even downright scary some days. Last Thursday was the scariest.

The day our stable burnt to the ground was the worst…

I had gone out to gather eggs and realized there was horrible smoke billowing up from the area of the stables. 

When I ran to the edge of our barn, where the ground dips down for a full view of the stables, I saw a stable engulfed in flames. The roof was nearly collapsed, I almost fell to the ground myself in despair. The thought of our two sweet cows trapped inside sucked the air out of my lungs.

Bill dashed past me to survey damage that I couldn’t bear to approach. He was more level-headed than I and gave me direction as I stood there, numb and bitter with worry. 

He yelled up to me to call 911. I had an odd sense of relief that there was something I could do. Before I reached the porch door, his voice bellowed and cracked up again, “The cows are alright!”

Scout and Selah, usually very curious and eager to greet any guests to the farm, kept their distance from all of us in the hours that followed. Hours of smoke and sirens and hoses and firefighters.

And now our field is a mess of twisted metal roofing and debris.

I’m so grateful for the weekend’s fresh snowfall to help me not focus on the ugliness quite so much.

We’ve lost more than a building…

The stable that has stood on our homestead for possibly a century is gone. The stable that housed more farm animals than I will know is gone. The stable that was once home to Flaxie Checker, cousin to Secretariat, many decades ago is gone. (I learned this fact from a neighbor who knew sweet Flaxie.) The stable that Kayla looked at in shambles many years ago and decided it had worth and could house a dairy cow or two is gone. The stable where Logan and Kayla spent a long hot Saturday, designing, hammering, and leveling an interior wall to home the little calf that we eagerly awaited is gone. The stable that became the birth place to a large precious litter of barn cats whose momma preferred bovine company to the barn is gone.

It’s gone. And charred mess remains. 

So no, I don’t mean to make simple living romantic, it’s poopy and crazy hard.

And I don’t know what clean up is going to look like in the days and weeks ahead, and I doubt we can keep our cows, which makes my heart ache, but I do know that God is good. And I am blessed to be on this daily adventure of life, even on days when despair sucks the air our of my lungs. Because “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed [way worse than a stable fire, no?], yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken.” (Isaiah 54:10) 

But yet there is joy…

But the part of the day that I will never forget–the day that took our stable and left our cows homeless–is how it began. Habakkak.

Yes, Habakkak. A minor prophet of Israel. 2500 years ago. Not a place most days begin, right?

But exactly where this day needed to begin.

Kayla–my cow-whispering, Jesus-loving, gardener extraordinaire–was leading a Bible study of homeschool teens. Like she does every Thursday. And she was explaining why she loves the verses in Habakkak that talk about where our true joy needs to lie. She’s always loved them because she’s a farmer, in her core, since her toddler hands planted her first tomato plant. And Habakkak pointed out–in a very agrarian society mind you–that even when all crops fail and fields are barren he would have joy.

In an agrarian society, where crops and produce were inherent and vital, Habakkak says he will have joy when the trees no longer bud and the fruit no longer ripens. And, yes, Habakkak even says there can be joy with no cattle in the stalls.

Because his joy was founded in only one source–in his Lord alone.

I cried when I realized that possibly the very moment my lungs felt like they would not work and my knees were giving way under me because I was witnessing the total destruction of my sweet Kayla’s stable… the stable she saw worth in when no one else did… the stable she rebuilt… Possibly at that very moment she was reading these words:

Other Homesteading-related Reading & Podcasts:

Listen in to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast when I share why homesteading matters & why I initially had a difficult time with the transition from suburbia.

Check out a dozen mistakes we’ve made on our homestead and how you can avoid them.

Think you want to own a little family farm? Ask yourself these 12 questions.

Then there’s 8 Things Wanna-be Homesteaders Need to Know.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more).

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post The Many Challenges of Homesteading first appeared on Souly Rested.

There have been mind-blowing wonderful things going on around here recently. I’m talking about the kinda things that make you wanna explode with joy. Nutty, too-good-to-be-true kinda stuff. . . It all boils down to the fact that I took on 3 new bosses.Yes, you read that right.

I took on 3 new bosses, all within about 6 weeks of each other. Granted, one was myself. Let me explain.

And in the process I’ll explain the roses too.

How do homesteaders make money?

I’ll give you lots of ideas in a minute, but first, let me break down how I personally make money, here on my homestead.

• I write. I guess I’ve been working for myself, so to speak, for a while now. I’ve been blogging here for a while, long before many folks actually read my content. From the beginning it was important to me to write without forking out a lot of money for website design or web hosting.

So I designed this site myself, via WordPress, and I spent a long time comparing hosting services to get a good, reliable one for the best price. I have been very pleased, for almost 5 years now, with Hostgator as my hosting provider, and I highly recommend them for the best bang for your buck if you’re considering starting a blog.

But go here for the full scoop on how I make money blogging and exactly how I set up my blog.

And definitely check out my 12 tips for growing your online reach. I mean why not? It’s totally free & you can sign up right here–>

Then I signed on with an agency and had Sweet Maple under contract. (Order an autographed copy & directly support our sugarbush right here: Sweet Maple Autographed Copy) Suddenly I became more of a legit writer with real deadlines and an official manuscript. When I took that on, I was elated. I figured I had enough books brewing in me to write full-time from that point forward. What I didn’t realize then was that an author makes a few pennies when someone buys a copy of her book. Seriously. Not getting rich on that one…

BUT if you’d like to support our family farm and sugarbush directly, you can purchase an autographed copy right here.

• I work locally. Just when I was settling in cozy with the notion of being a full-time published author, a friend here in my small, rural town, became my second boss.

I’ve told y’all the nearest traffic light is 18 miles away, right? Have I mentioned we have a population of 3,300? Yeah, we’re rural. So who’da thought I’d get a part-time job offer, to a job that I can walk to, that’s absolutely perfect for me, here in nowhere-ville? (I say that with sincere affection for my town. I like that we’re in nowhere-ville.)

Just a few weeks after I was knee-deep into my Sweet Maple manuscript, Nate asked if I would consider working for him. I know you don’t know Nate. . . well, unless you’re one of my 3 local friends who follow me here on SoulyRested, then maybe you know him. . . But Nate’s on a mission. A mission to tell folks about Christ from the pulpit in our old, tiny church. . .

. . . And via books he’s written. In fact, Nate’s written lots of books. Before you know it, I’m gonna have as many of Nate’s books on my shelf as there are miles from here to the nearest traffic light.

But before Nate was ready for me to start helping him out, and before I was too many chapters into work on Sweet Maple with my editor?

This is where I mention a person who I’m pretty sure you have heard of.

• I work with an another homesteader and online influencer. Jill Winger asked me to come on board and help with her aMAHzing projects… When Jill asked me to join The Prairie Homestead team as Marketing & Project Manager, it was like 3 decades culminated into “YES!” This folks is what I’ve wanted to do for years and didn’t even know it. Suddenly all that marketing and writing experience and sometimes seemingly pointless degrees that I’d amassed over the decades started really kicking in.

Right after I joined her team, Jill released The Prairie Homestead Cookbook. So very much to love in those 122 recipes and 368 gorgeous pages.

And P.S. check out the maple sandwich bread recipe on page 158. See #2 and #3 right here if you’d like to know how my recipe became one of the 122 in Jill’s book.

But we do many things to make money on the homestead.

Turns out mom didn’t have to worry.

My sweet mom used to worry about me–the creative dreamer who always had her nose in a book and her thoughts in the clouds. . . Then as a momma myself, I gave my mom more to worry about. I know she sat around loosing sleep wondering how her daughter was ever gonna put food on the table if she only has writing degrees, quits her good-paying editing job to homeschool her 4 daughters full-time, and, oh, has a husband who’s a mechanic.

Side note here, the best mechanics never–in any world–ever get paid even close to what they’re truly worth.

Bill, by the way, is truly the best mechanic that God has ever created in human form. That man can fix, build, rebuild, and troubleshoot ANYTHING. . . well except me, he’s been trying to troubleshoot my shenanigans for 25 years now, totally unsuccessfully. . .

But Mom didn’t have to worry. Sure, we had to scrimp every dime for most of our 25 years of marriage, but we’ve reached a really nice point in our lives, and I’ve figured out how to actually make some money while my two youngest daughters finish up homeschooling high school and while we get to live this blessed homesteading life.

3 Lessons for Homesteaders who want to Make Money

Of course you can lump thousands of people under the term “homesteader,” and you’d probably find about 850 different ways they make money. But overall I feel like there are 3 lessons in my story to help everyone:

•  No matter how much you continually fail at this “homesteading” thing, you can find an area of expertise. In fact, it may be something you’ve failed at more times than you can count, until you finally started truly learning how to do it. Let’s face it, it’s in those areas that you know a whole lot. Then you can work at teaching others. In the beginning, no you won’t make any money at that. But eventually you just may find a way, through a blog, through a youtube channel, or through a published book, to make some good money.

•  No matter how remotely you live, you can find a real skin-and-bones job, if that’s what you want. It may take a while, but if you really get to know folks and find out where there are needs in your community that you can help with, you may very well stumble upon your dream job.

•  No matter how much of a “nobody” you start out as in the homesteading social media niche, if you decide to start a blog or a youtube channel, definitely get to know your peers. Follow the folks who are doing it “right.” Not only will you learn from them, but, who knows you may one day wind up calling them “friends.” If you’re truly blessed–and I consider myself to be on the the top rung of the “blessed” ladder–you may even start working with them.

There are many ways homesteaders can make money.

Nope, none of them are get-rich-quick schemes. Heck, most of them could never be profitable enough to be a full income. But nothing about this homesteading lifestyle is easy; I wouldn’t expect the money to come easy either. But there are plenty of very practical ways homesteaders can work towards making some money. Consider just these few:

1. Selling anything that your homestead produces. Maybe start with garden produce. There are lots of gardening tips here on SoulyRested. Start here and then download my free gardening book.

2. Write about what you’re doing and learning. I explain here how I personally make money blogging.

3. Finding buyers for your extra eggs. Here are 10 Fowl Facts for ya if you haven’t started raising chicken yet.

4. Getting ducks and selling their eggs. We can earn twice as much for duck eggs over chicken eggs in our area. But go here for Everything You Need to Know About Duck Eggs.

5. Hatching and selling baby chicks or ducklings. But don’t make this huge mistake I made.

6. Making butter. I tell you exactly how to make butter here.

7. Tapping trees and selling glorious syrup, sugar, candies, and cream. Grab a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, and you will know everything you need to know.

8. Selling photography at a local touristy type of general store. Folks love adorable farm pictures. I’ve written many posts with photography tips. Start here if you’re interested in that.

9. Offering gorgeous, useful handcrafted products, like gorgeous farmstead soaps.

10. Making your own kombucha and growing and selling the extra SCOBYs that result almost weekly. Start here if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about.

11. Making instructional videos and ebooks and setting up a membership community. I like how Kate, of Venison for Dinner, has set one up, which she calls her Insider’s Club, go here for information and listen in as Kate explains more when she guest starred in my podcast, Season 2, Episode 2.

12. Renting out land for others to camp on during vacation season in your area.

13. Documenting your homesteading life on a youtube channel. Once you gain enough followers, you earn advertising money. Al Lumnah is a great example of a homesteader here in my own state who is doing this well. His channel is linked right here if you wanna check it out.

14. Growing and selling plant seedlings. I really enjoy selling seedlings for profit, you might want to give it a try.

15. Start an instagram page about your homestead. Found out how to grow an online platform that will allow you to sell your own products, or others that you endorse as an affiliate.

So, I promised a list of a dozen ways, but came up with a few extra.

So, why the roses?

I couldn’t help but think of my sweet mom when I took a few pictures of my roses. She would have LOVED this part of my story. (I wrote about the pain of loosing mom and dad in this post.) Because mom adored flowers. While zinneas she hand-picked from her gardens were her favorite, she loved when someone used a vase full of gorgeous roses to commemorate a special occasion.

Mom would never believe this though. That crazy nose-in-her-book daughter has figured out how to homestead, quit the 9-to-5 life & homeschool her daughters, make gallons of delicious maple syrup every year, and even make a decent living to boot.

And both of my bosses respect the fact that I’m my own boss as well. After I hit the “send” button on my final manuscript for Sweet Maple, I sent a picture below–summing up my excitement–to both Jill and Nate.

Jill immediately offered me kind accolades, just short of singing me a victory song, and Nate walked into my office with these gorgeous roses in hand.

Let me tell ya’ folks, there’s nothing better than being your own boss, with two other bosses who go out of their way to encourage and congratulate you on your exciting accomplishments–even the ones that are happening apart from your work with them.

As I near the 5-year mark of when our family moved to this little rural, rocky, rural corner of New England, which was followed rather closely by the 5-year mark of when I started SoulyRested, I can truly take a moment to stop and smell the roses.

Simple doesn’t mean easy.

Life’s been hard. I’ve failed miserably at this homesteading thing. I’ve burnt more pans of syrup than I dare admit. I spent years writing here with about 10 people reading it, and they were mostly related.

But let me tell you folks, simple doesn’t mean easy. And boy am I glad I’ve put in the work. Go here to check out my Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast.

Cause sometimes simple joys come in threes and are really quite beautiful.

If you’re more of a visual person…

Hop in and join me chatting live about this topic. In fact, please join me every Tuesday over on facebook at 9:50 a.m., Eastern Time. I seriously love meeting new readers on Tuesdays! Oh, and (random note… cause sometimes I am random…) check out my Daddy’s little (very old) wood stove and why I love it!–>

Similar Posts I Think You’ll Enjoy.

Being an Online Content Creator

How to Make Money Blogging

How to encourage a child to be an entrepreneur based on their interests.

3 Secrets Legit Homesteaders Might Not Tell You

The #1 reason you may decide to never own a homestead.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the One of the Top Homesteading Blogs.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

 

The post How Homesteaders Make Money first appeared on Souly Rested.