Welcome to The Sunday Journal. Published every other Sunday, this column chronicles our life building a family & legacy in rural Missouri.

In this issue:

1. My motherhood is their childhood

2. The Articles Club

3. Luke’s first birthday

4. Spring clean up at Havenwood Manor

5. A personal style update

6. Mom’s day out + the three word exercise

7. What we’re up to at the Seed House

8. Small town exploring + baked donuts

9. A trip to the local library

   

My motherhood is their childhood

I'm not a fun person. I admit it freely and I've been told that a lot. Maybe it's a firstborn thing, or maybe it's because I was forced to grow up quick. But, fun doesn't come naturally to me.

The other day, Levi wanted me to chase him around the yard and pretend to "catch" him to spin him around. His "Mama, more!" and loud giggles convicted me of two things:

1. I want to get on my kids' "level" more - to do the things they think are fun and interesting, like playing chase or building something in the dirt, even when the activity has zero appeal to me or if it feels really unnatural and awkward for a not fun person like me.

2. I need to get healthy and strong for them. It sucks to get out of breath chasing your son for a few minutes around the yard. I don't want to feel like that. I want to be strong to lift my kids and spin them around and to have the energy to run with them for many more decades to come.

There's a quote floating around the internet that "Your motherhood is their childhood" and it's a phrase I think of often when I need to shift my perspective from myself to my children. It's so easy to focus on my priorities, needs, and to-do's, but what if I flipped the script and saw the world and my priorities through my kid's eyes? That changes things.

The Articles Club

I finally did a brave thing this month. I've been dreaming of hosting an "Articles Club" since I saw Emily talk about the one she's been hosting for years. It's basically like a book club, but you talk about a few articles instead of a book.

I was too scared to do it because I wasn't sure who to invite, and what if it's awkward or no one shows up?

Since we moved to Missouri though, I've met some amazing women locally, but haven't really had a chance to get to know them well outside of small interactions at church.

So, with the encouragement and help of a friend, we invited some of the women from church to my house for brunch on a Saturday. I made quiche (from this cookbook, which I am loving, btw!), sweet potatoes and Daniel grilled some bacon for us; the other women each brought dishes potluck style too.

We read three articles (1, 2, and 3) on the topic of aging with grace. The conversation flowed easily and it was so life giving for me.

We're hoping to gather like this monthly and I am so, so excited about finally doing this and getting to know these women better. I have prayed and yearned for this for so many years!

Luke’s first birthday

Mid-March, we celebrated Luke turning one. I look at him and can't believe he's no longer a baby.

Levi's first year felt like an eternity, but with Luke, the first year flew by. He's also starting to walk and it's a whole new shift in our home.

I tried to bake a cake (I am not a baker!) and it turned out better than Levi's first birthday cake, but still lacking.

For Levi's first birthday, I tried to do the whole no sugar or dyes thing and found a cake mix on Amazon. It turned out disgusting - like eating cardboard. And was completely lopsided.

With Luke, I vowed to do a normal birthday cake - they only eat a few bites anyways. I found a recipe for a vanilla buttercream mini cake, but it turns out I got the portions wrong and the layers were too thick, but that was quickly solved by cutting the layers in half. I made the icing the night before and refrigerated it, which changed the texture of the cake, so when I went to put the cake together in the morning, it just didn't flow.

Nonetheless, it looked and tasted like a (dry, splotchy) cake, which is an improvement from Levi's first birthday cake, so I'll take that as a win.

My mom and younger sisters came to celebrate Luke with us. It was a perfect spring day and spending two hours with my mom and sisters was everything I didn't know I needed (especially since Luke, Levi and I came down with a cold a few days later and it was a rough one!).

Spring clean up at Havenwood Manor

Warmer weather means Daniel has been doing outside clean-up to prepare our homestead for spring (btw, I want to name our homestead Havenwood Manor, which Daniel feels is unnecessary but I’m in my “pretend I’m living in a English countryside vlog” era so naming our house feels necessary + our home is our own little haven nestled in the valley surrounded by woods so it fits 😍).

Our neighbor helped us do a controlled burn of the tall grass growing around the edge of our property and we finally burned the giant brush pile in our backyard that we inherited from the previous owners (and added to ourselves!).

As a city gal, I am new to controlled burns, so it was equally terrifying and cool to see the flames eat up all the dead grass, brush and branches.

For awhile, our property was marred by burned ground, but with a few rains, it's starting to turn green with new life and it's been a reminder that to make room for something new to grow, you have to clear out the old - not just stack it up on the side in a pile, but completely burn it to ash. Story of my life right now.

A personal style update

I am continuing to try to challenge myself to find my "personal style" for my current season. Most days, I find myself gravitating towards the same uniform of jeans and a sweater (or a long sleeved top on warmer days) - it works for the season I'm in of working from home and playing with toddler boys.

After curating a Pinterest board of inspiration photos that felt inspirational but also like something I'd actually wear and works with my life season and body type, white jeans became a re-occurring theme.

When my favorite jean brand had a pair of white jeans on sale, I took a chance to try something new to me. This felt like a crazy purchase for a mom of two little boys who love dirt, but I read somewhere recently that moms shouldn't be afraid to wear white because everything is washable.

I have worn the white jeans multiple times since I bought them, paired with a light sweater or a denim shirt - to re-create some of the looks on my Pinterest board - and those outfits made me feel so fresh and pretty. It’s still the same “formula” of jeans and a nice top, but the white denim makes it feel more dressed up.

I’ve also been seeing the white cotton skirt + a neutral dark sweater combo a lot but didn’t want to spend $50 on a white skirt that I wasn’t sure if I’d wear often in my season of life, so I worked with what I have to layer a black sweater over a white summer dress for church on a Sunday.

Daniel took a few photos of me and the kids after church and commented on how I didn’t delete any of the photos this time since I usually hate how I look in photos. And it made me realize that I’m finally feeling more like myself and emerging out of the postpartum haze at almost 13 months postpartum, and goodness, it feels so so good.

Mom’s day out + the three word exercise

I took a random Wednesday off work to drive an hour to a women in agriculture seminar. A new outfit I felt pretty in + two hours in the car by myself to listen to a podcast (I listened to this one with Ivanka Trump) + a gorgeous spring day + a learning seminar with other women = a life giving day in my books.

At the seminar, Laura Daniels from Hitch Pin Consulting did a session titled "Is your team pulling in the same direction?" which felt right up my alley since Daniel and I talk and teach about the importance of being equally yoked all the time.

We started the session with narrowing down our values to three words. It's actually an exercise we have in our Legacy Guide using Renee Brown's list of values, so it was an easy lift for me. I ended up writing down legacy, stewardship and wisdom as the three values that guide our family and work.

The concept of "three words" has been popping up a lot lately (for example, stylist Allison Bornstein popularized the "Three Word Method" where you choose three adjectives to define your personal style). And then this podcast clip talks about finding three words to define what kind of parent you want to be and the kind of child you want to raise.

I'm working on my three words for parenting, but for my personal style, I'm leaning towards classic, feminine and polished (this one is majorly aspirational since I have never felt polished, but I really want to be!).

If you haven't done the three word exercise for yourself, give it a try - it's such a helpful anchor.

What we’re up to at the Seed House

We're seeing more customers and a steady stream of revenue at the Seed House, thanks to a couple factors:

1. cattle ranching is at a high, so we've been selling a lot of tubs and mineral for cattle;

2. the egg shortage means more people are getting chickens and our chicken feed is selling quick; and

3. people are seeding their lawns and planting food crops right now.

But also, we prayed for this and it's, first and foremost, an answered prayer to see this growth in our business after a few sluggish months in sales.

Daniel and I have been talking a lot lately about how different marketing and business growth is for a local business vs. an online business. Surprisingly, our highest number of new customers comes from Facebook groups and Marketplace, followed closely by word of mouth, and from Google searches.

Our current marketing "strategy" has been cultivating relationships with local farmers and ranchers, actively posting on Facebook, and treating our Instagram as a product catalog + educational resources (Daniel's doing an awesome job getting all of our products photographed and written up on IG!).

But we have so many other ideas in the works and it's been an exciting — and challenging — learning journey for us.

In other business news, we got our new burlap bags in for our food plot mixes, featuring our updated branding for Spot on Food Plots. They look so, so good!

Food plot seed is currently the only item we ship and sell online, so if you'd like to support our family business, you can order your food plot seed here!

Small town exploring + baked donuts

On one March Saturday morning, Luke and I ventured out to explore the next town over - there's a boutique there that I found via Instagram: they sell based on color seasons, and I've been wanting to check it out in person + I love exploring local businesses in small towns - it's one of the things that fills my cup.

The boutique was lovely. I tried a few things on but Luke kept escaping under the changing room door - the lovely shop girl offered to watch him for me so I could finish trying clothes on and I'm so grateful for kind people like that.

We also visited the local furniture store, where I fell in love with this brown leather couch sectional, but thanks to a bunch of extra amenities (charging station, closing cup holders, etc), the $3,500ish price tag just isn't fitting in our budget right now.

When we got married, Daniel had brown leather couches and I asked that we sell them and get a basic gray couch because that's what was trendy back then and leather couches didn't fit my vision for our home.

I admit it now: I was wrong and Daniel was right: leather couches are best. With kids, you've gotta get couches that are wipeable (like leather) or with slipcovers, so we continue to keep an eye on a deal on leather couches and/or get slip covers for our current couch.

I also browsed the cutest local kitchen and home store. It was a bit hard with a lot of small breakable objects within Luke's reach, but it brought me joy and I found a donut baking dish that I've been meaning to buy.

After watching Meghan Sussex's new show where she bakes donuts, I decided I want to try that too. I could have bought the baking tray for cheaper on Amazon, but as local business owners, I am realizing just how important it is to shop local, even if it costs you a few extra dollars than shopping at a big box store or online.

By the way, the baked donuts turned out amazing and so easy to make! Here's the recipe I used.

While Luke and I explored Nevada, Daniel and Levi met up with one of our customers to do some drone planting. They worked with a local drone company to plant two types of clover side by side to see which one does better. Daniel loves this stuff and it brings me joy to see him do what he loves so much.

A trip to the local library

We finally made it to our local library! One of my Q1 goals was to get a library card and with March 31 around the corner, I put the kids in the car after work and we ventured out to check out our library here in town.

Growing up, the library was my favorite place in the world. All through elementary, middle school and high school (and college!), I spent all my free time in the library. In elementary school, I'd spend my lunch breaks organizing books at the library because I preferred the company of books over people, and in middle school, I got an award for reading reading over 100 books in one year. Reading is also how I learned English when my family moved to the U.S. when I was eight.

Suffice to say, a love for reading and learning is something we want to instill in our kids and make a part of our family culture, so our house is full of books and we've been taking Levi to the local library since before he could walk (and he started walking at 8 months!).

We've been back in Missouri for a year now (!!!), but I have yet to visit our local library. Being here now with the boys and seeing them so excited about the library is a reminder that it's something we have to prioritize.

Levi picked up a Bluey book (completely random since he doesn't watch Bluey, but he took a long time trying to settle one one book, and a Bluey book won out!). I picked up this book - it was recommended a lot in 2024, so I'm going to give it a try.

Confession: I loved reading fiction growing up, but since I've been married, I have zero interest or attention span to finish a fiction book. I may have finished 1-2 fiction books in the last four years? Maybe? I know I started a few but I don't know that I finished any, or none that stand out in my mind.

Maybe it's because reading love stories feels odd to me now that I have my own amazing love story? Weirdly, it feels like cheating to impose on someone else's love story? It makes no sense to me, but that's just how it feels. Regardless, I've been loving reading non-fiction instead, but I do want to get back to reading fiction as a way to rest and de-stress, so let's see how this book goes.

Until next time,

P.S. As you can tell, these updates are getting very lengthy, so instead of doing an issue of the Sunday Journal on the last Sunday of the month, I’m going to try to do them every other Sunday. This season is so full and beautiful and I want to document it well 🤎