Friend, are you tired?

We started our farm business gently in 2012. We were experimenting, dreaming, and living our first year on lovely, pastoral farm land with our two very young children. By mid-2013, my sweet husband Steve had come home to work full-time with the farm, and we were realizing that to be profitable we needed to scale our flower farm quickly. I proceeded to work 90-100 hard, physical hours per week for 8-9 months of the year for the next 6 years, while administrating the farm business, homeschooling, trying to maintain our family life, personal relationships and my own sanity. Please don’t think Steve didn’t help me – we’re a great team! But he was putting in those same hours, and it was all too much. I started to unravel, and it’s been a long road of making wiser decisions in order to heal. Most recently, I’ve hopped off the in-the-field treadmill and started working ON our business more than IN it. Since before I was trying to do BOTH, my margins have now drastically increased and I’m delighted to find that I haven’t completely lost myself! (I was truly worried that I was permanently numb, tired, and burned out.) I’ve realized I *do* still enjoy many of the same things I did before, and I have time to do some of them again. I can’t tell you how full of joy my heart is! 

Today I get to put together a reading goal celebration party for our daughter’s third grade class. I likely wouldn’t have volunteered even a few months ago, because I truly had zero margin to allow for it. But now I’ve moved my work hours around and I can help her make cute favors, centerpieces, and even a fun party entry. It may seem silly, but the creative juices to do fun things like this for/with my kids have been so dry for so long that I had forgotten how sweet it can be. I’ll fill my stories today with peeks of the fun, so follow along if you feel like it, but mostly: will you rejoice with me that I’ve stopped the rat race and am choosing rest and margin and joy instead?! And friends, I know my story isn’t unique. Are you struggling today, completely dry because the demands on your time are too numerous to list? Can you make a plan to rest?

Can you step back and look carefully, perhaps start auditing your time and set a goal to truly rest, even a few more hours each week so your mind can heal and your body can catch up? Can you set some healthy boundaries and not allow the daily grind to be a 18-hour or 20-hour grind every day of the week??

I do know it’s not simple, or easy, or quick. It took me almost two years of goal-setting and hard decision-making to get here, but I am cheering for you and your happiness. I would also like to pray for you! Feel free to send me a direct message and share your story if this message resonates with you. I’m absolutely not a professional, but I can be a listening ear for you, and I can share more about the choices I made and how my life has changed so much for the better. xo