I have returned to blogging after a month off. Maybe it is hypocritical, but I find I can not balance everything during the holidays- at least not yet. But that is what goal setting is all about!
Holiday Slump
December is just such an overwhelming month. Decorating, getting a tree, gift buying and wrapping, school events, work events, trying to make precious memories for the kids, family visits- all while working full time and juggling regular life.
It is more than enough for me to just exist and be present during this time and I pretty much drift off of social media and all related things in order to just… survive.
But it is a new year and that is always my favorite time of year. I love goal setting and new starts and scheduling and planning and everything like that. I love the New Year because I reflect on what went well and the successes of the past year and decide what I want to change or start in the New Year.
I always have more goals than I could possibly accomplish.
New Year New Me… Part 2
One of my biggest goals this year is a continuation of last year. Learning how to slow down and enjoy the moment. I have created this life here in Maryland that I absolutely love. My house is an escape from the military. My children, my husband, my animals, my little homestead. Creating food from scratch. I’ve truly been enjoying the whole process and after going through a slump when in clinical practice- I can feel my love for animals just reigniting again.
I am excited for the plans we have for our little homestead. I’m excited to finish ILE and then hopefully join a new lab and take on new responsibilities while at work. I have a goal to read 100 books (Last year I read 86). I have increased the intensity of my workout sessions and am excited to see results again. I have so much that I want to teach and show my kids.
I am also working on myself. After years of pregnancy I am finally seeing physical therapists. I am working on my mental health as well… to learn to relax, enjoy relaxing, and be able to shift with the flow of the day. I want to re-start my yoga journey.
Homestead Updates
Mostly I am very excited to progress our little homestead. We had an eventful holiday. My loyal dog of 11 years developed heart failure and passed away. In addition, two of my chickens were attacked by a dog. One never returned, but one came home seriously injured. I have been digging deep into my vault of veterinary knowledge to try to heal her.
To replace the laying birds that I lost- I got more birds. Our count is as follows: 1 rooster, 9 chickens (plus 1 injured chicken inside), 1 turkey, 2 ducks and 7 guinea hens. I rescued two guinea pigs from the lab, plus we still have our cat and our chihuahua mix. This spring we hope to get them a much bigger coop and run. They should all start laying soon (currently we get 2 chicken and 1 duck egg a day). Once the weather warms up we want to save some eggs to incubate and hopefully hatch.
I want to get another breed of duck as well to see if they are friendlier. We have planned out a garden space in detail, plus some fruit we want to plant on the property. We started a large compost pile (that the turkey loves to eat).
I’ve learned more recipes and can now make bread, sandwich bread, pizza, bagels and sweet treats. I have learned how to make yogurt at home.
If you can Dream it, you can Achieve it!
We have a lot to learn and as always- a lot of big dreams for this little homestead of ours. If you know us- once we say we are going to do something we get it done. See I’m the planner and my husband takes action. If I say I want a bookshelf it will be built within a week. Anything I can dream up- he can make it happen.
But what makes us so successful at achieving these goals? I think the secret is in the planning. First a goal needs to be achievable. If it’s too big or two vague- it’ll never happen. Instead of “I want to start a homestead” well what does that mean to you? What does “fitter” mean to you. There has to be a point that you are reaching for.
What I do first is reflect on the previous year and what I want to change. Sticking with the homesteading theme- I want to create more of our food at home (feeding a family of 7 is NO JOKE). So that is the goal. How are we going to get there? I need smaller more achievable goals to make that happen.
Food from Scratch
In this example, I brainstormed things that seem doable in our first year of Maryland. I’ve already got chickens that I have been raising since they were babies- they should be providing us with more eggs soon. I need to look up a variety of recipes to use the eggs in our weekday breakfasts. (Our family EASILY eats 14 eggs when we have say scrambled eggs for breakfast).
I’ve already learned how to bake bread- now it’s time to make other things. I branched out to bagels. I wanted to learn pizza dough and I had my dad show me while he was here. I want to get in the habit of always having sandwich bread on hand and learn how to make English muffins for breakfast.
I learned how to make yogurt at home- next is how to flavor it and maybe even progressing to a type of cheese.
The big thing of feeding ourselves this year will be our garden. We put a lot of work into planning it and using our space wisely. If it takes off, we should have a wide variety of vegetables. If it ever becomes too much it is simple to freeze them for later use. We want to make sauces and salsas. We plan to involve the kids every step of the way. My husband and I are not really the get on the floor and play with toys or games with our kids type. We much prefer to just have them around us- helping or chatting or watching while we do things like chores, or building or working.
One Step at a Time
There are a million things I want to learn on this homesteading front and not nearly enough time in the days to learn it all- especially while continuing to work full time. But by breaking it down, and planning what will happen when, I can slowly chip away at this big goal- learning one thing at a time- until next January where hopefully I will be writing that I accomplished all those things and we are moving on to the next big homesteading goal. One of the biggest lessons about goal setting is to not become stagnant. Keep reaching for the next thing and keep changing and developing as you go!
