Winter Manifesto

I am a slow turner.  Indeed it takes me a while to get situated and used to new things and I truly love my world and routine.  Leaving it is not something I do voluntarily very often.

Then fate took this momma and her crew all the way to Kentuckiana and I was invited to break out of my cozy shell and made to grow somewhere other than the land we knew.  For the most part we just rolled with it but oh the winter.  The first was challenging.  Last winter was a bit better but I did escape back home to Florida quite a few times (thanks to friends who stepped in to take care of our animals so I could stay a bit longer than I planned).  This fall I decided that it was just time to embrace it and I imagined myself living back home where we mostly only have two seasons.   I didn’t like that thought.  It turns out that I do love the seasons and winter with it.  I realized that I would feel a bit lost without the seasons to tell me that its time to change what I am doing.

So early winter one day I came up with a winter manifesto.

1.  Be thankful to God for this beautiful time to withdraw inside of our home, of ourselves and a slower time to work on inside things.
2. Enjoy this time to plan for spring
3. Get outside everyday even if for just a little while
4. Knit, sew, paint, crochet
5. Remember that without this time, berries won’t grow on vines,  maple sap won’t run to be collected, apples and fruit will not happen properly.  So much to dream about and look forward to.
6. Make time to sit by the fire
7. Find the sun and if it comes out, so do we
8. Keep the soup pot busy and the bread pans full

Not sure if it is a coincidence, though Poppa says I am just getting acclimated but I have not had a day this winter that I have not loved it.  We are a little cold but it has not bothered me.  Even the chickens seems happy and if they are then it can’t be all that bad.

The kids have never minded it one bit.  I have heard many prayers for snow these past few weeks and a few times their prayers have come true.  I for one love the feeling of sitting up in bed to see white on the ground outside my bedroom window knowing it was not there when I went to sleep.

It is magical and lovely and I have truly embraced it.  I do need to make myself a hat and that would definitely be a great addition to my winter.  I know I have time to accomplish it before I won’t need it on my head anymore and I am enjoying everyday that winter apparel is necessary.  Speaking of winter apparel, lots of wool slippers have been in my knitting basket made from my pattern (have you been here long enough to remember these?) and all the girls will soon  have toasty warm feet.  My boys seem to like socks and past attempts to get them to wear slippers have been mostly futile.

Looking outside at the snow is somehow also a weird reminder that it is time to get some seeds started.    I know that magical feeling of spring will be coming soon and it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it so I should probably have the boys bring one of my seed starting shelves inside and see how much germination I have from last years unused seeds before I finalize my already late seed order.

Yesterday, as we began lent and we also add in our lenten rhythms, including our Lenten Jar, as we spend these next 40 days preparing for the Easter season.   and we will be outside as long and often as we can and I hope to find time to come back to this space as it is one of my lenten goals to keep track of our comings and goings right here at our families journal.

And all the while we will enjoy this time together, inside or out, and mostly by the fire.

Farmish Momma snow day