Lately I've been thinking about stuff. Doing stuff, dreaming up stuff....just stuff!
Anyway, as I was growing up, I lived on a wheat and soy bean farm. We had chickens, and horses, and kittens, and dogs, a couple of ducks, and a tom turkey. It wasn't bliss, but it was my life. Riding on a pile of just-harvested wheat in the back of the wheat truck on the way to the grain elevator. Eating fresh wheat by the handful, turning into "gum" from the gluten. Digging up dirt with nothing more than a shovel and a hoe for our garden. (The tractor and plow were always used for Granddaddy's turnip patch, but not our garden by the house.) Walking in a wheat field full of golden heads of wheat with that dried grass smell wafting on the hot summer breeze. Walks down to "The Crossing", skipping stones in the creek, shooting tin cans with BB's, wading in the cool water. My mom taught me how to knit, my grandma taught me how to sew. Both of them, along with my other grandma taught me how to cook and bake and make homemade icecream (and snow icecream). My family wasn't rich, I wore clothes from the thrift store (before it was the thing to do), and we saved everything because it might be "something useful" later on.
So we'll fast-forward to life today. I work full-time, and I'm getting ready to start classes (summer or fall, not sure which) to finish my degree. I live in "suburbia" with all of the fast-paced-ness that it brings. We're helping start a new church, which brings a few time-consuming events along with it also. There never seems to be "time". Time to just do "stuff". Lately, and I guess it's coming with life finally settling into some kind of crazy routine again, I've been thinking about making things, fixing things, growing things, sewing things, stitching things, baking things, canning things....well, you get the picture. I'm on a quest to have a little "country" in my suburbanite world. No, not hickville or wanting to be redneck (thought that can definitely be fun at times too), but to find the simplicity of the country life and the warmth that it brings into my home. A friend and I are plotting at a business/hobby venture, and we'll see where that goes, who knows? But also, I just want to teach my kids the art of so many "country" ways that seem to be lost here in suburbia.
In my internet searching of all things cool and country, I came across MaryJanes Farm. On my search of her site, I found this excerpt, and it really spoke to me, about Farmgirls:
A farmgirl is anyone
who sews or knits or weaves
(or wants to learn how).
A farmgirl remembers
her mother or grandmother paring apples for pie.
A farmgirl believes in the strong arms of friendship,
community and the just plain fun of being together.
A farmgirl believes in connection.
A farmgirl ...
isn’t afraid to go it alone.
A farmgirl takes joy in the quiet satisfaction
of making things with her own hands.
A farmgirl wants a world that is sane, and just,
and clean, and is willing to do her part to make it so.
You’re right Toni,
a farmgirl doesn’t have to live on a farm.
There’s a farmgirl in all of us.
Farmgirl is a condition of the heart.
Yep, that's me. And you know what they say..."You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl!!!"
So yeah, I have tons of projects going on right now, and that just helped give me the push I needed to continue being inspired!
