Simple Favorites & Life At Our Farmhouse (February 2018)

If last month’s theme was snow… this month’s theme is rain.  Gloomy rain.  You can’t tell from the picture above, since I captured it on a rare blue sky day – but oh, the flooding.

Oh, February how challenging you are.  I’ve really tried to best keep busy to keep from getting the winter blues.  It’s a challenge on some days.  I long for the spring and summer days where I can read a book on our front porch and watch the boys play outside.

Being indoors though did allow me to accomplish a few projects this month.  My favorite was our hutch I finally painted.  It brings me joy every single time I walk into the dining room. It’s such a happy color of blue.

The office has also been a wonderful place to work during the days.  I didn’t realize how much I needed a space to write and feel inspired.  I had loved my little kitchen table but then you feel like you could always be working.  It’s nice to be “at work” and then go downstairs and feel like you can shut it all away.

Despite the gloom and rain, there was still beauty all around us.  I tried to capture a few pictures of the “puddle” in the backyard field.  It’s a good thing it’s not planting season yet!

We did have a glorious warm day that caught us off guard. The temperatures were forecasted to be warmer than normal but we ended up in the high 60s AND it was sunny!!!  We packed up the kids after they got off the bus and went over to the cousins with popsicles in hand!  We also took a bike ride that night.  The boys were SO, so, so tired that evening.  But it was so worth it.

I mentioned this a bit on my office post but we had to replace our oven that was only one year old.  VERY long story short I will personally never ever buy a Samsung product again.  Our oven was a lemon and understandable as it is that sometimes that just happens, the customer service was far below standard, in my opinion.  It took multiple calls and multiple maintenance visits and only after having to be more than persistent and documenting everything we finally received a refund after a 10 month ordeal.  I can’t even express the level of frustration I had with Samsung and this process.  We now have a new oven that is not Samsung and I’m back to cooking and baking in the kitchen with an oven that works.

In other sad news, we’ve made the decision to have our barn torn down.  I am heartbroken about having to tear down something that holds such history.  The fact of the matter is, it’s too expensive to fix. We spent last summer getting estimates from quite a few companies, and even the Amish. I have to have peace with the fact that we have spent countless dollars and time on our home and that is enough.  The barn has come to the place where it’s no longer safe for the boys and so this spring or summer it will come down.  Before that we’ve been interviewing companies who will be able to re-use the wood for homes.  That makes me happy that other people will get to enjoy parts of the barn.

As for projects in March, I’m not sure what I have in mind.  I do want to get my grandma’s handkerchiefs out of the attic and hang them.  I’ve been trying to picture a place for them and I think I finally found a place that I think will be perfect.  My brother will probably be glad it doesn’t include anything he needs to help me with!  I did rope him into not only taking out but also installing our oven this month.  I also may have called him on the way home from the home improvement store to have him cut a few shelves out of material I bought for our pantry.  He’s such a good sport.

As we’ve hibernated a bit with the winter, I’ve been thinking a lot about this website and what I hope to share.  My heart is in the simplicity of life back then and the life we have now.  By using my families recipes and sharing our home, I hope you see my desire to share that taking a moment to slow down and moment to enjoy projects and hard work can bring such satisfaction in life.  I don’t have it all perfect, and life can always be complicated in moments (hello, Samsung) but I am hoping to share more and be more present in the moment, less on technology and more in depth with our past.  I think there is so much we can learn.  Look forward to more scratch recipes from my grandma’s and great-grandma’s recipe boxes, a desire to get our garden going and moments outside and enjoying the beautiful moments…. that is, when it’s not raining.