A Few of My Favorite Things

I crave being in northern Wisconsin. I feel at home and at peace with myself when I’m there. On my most recent trip, I was trying to think about a few of my favorite things that I do, hear or see while I’m at the home farm.

• Being greeted by the family dog. Heidi is old but she knows my car and always welcomes me with kisses no matter how long I’ve been away.
• Walking the grounds with Mom. Each time I go home, my mom and I have a ritual of inspecting her awesome garden and then walking around the rest of the farm to look at her many flowerbeds. She’s a fountain of knowledge and I hope that just some of that sticks with me as the years go by.
• Listening to birds, bugs or frogs. By day you can hear the birds chirping or the bugs buzzing and at night you can hear the frogs singing. No matter what, these sounds are far superior to the traffic I hear in my backyard in St. Paul.
• Watching stars and seeing Northern Lights. While I can see stars in St. Paul, nothing is more dramatic than being in total darkness and silence on a clear, cool night on the farm. You can hear the frogs chirping, an occasional coyote yip in the distance and you can see stars for what seems like miles. Now add a light show in the form Northern Lights and that is pure perfection.

Don’t get me wrong – there are many things that I love and enjoy about where I live and work now. But nothing brings me solace like spending time at the farm. That’s where I truly feel alive.

Recipe for a Perfect Weekend

I have to say I just had the best, if not perfect, weekend. Nearly all of the stars were in alignment for things to be at the optimum – it was great.

Reading a Good Book

It’s been a long time since I took the time to read a book for pleasure. I can’t explain exactly why that is other than there has been a lot going on in my life. Within the past five years I have done the following: met and married the man who is now my husband; purchased a home and with that comes all sorts of responsibilities; been laid off, ran my own business and started a different job; had two pets die but adopted two; had a step-daughter graduate from high school and, because I don't have enough going on, I started grad school.

So, short story, not much time to read books for leisure. But in the past few weeks, thanks to my niece, Christiana Johnson, I discovered the Hunger Games trilogy. I had seen the movie a couple of times but hadn't taken the time to read the book. I am ecstatic that I did so. The movie was phenomenal but the book – oh my, what a trip. It had me from page one and has not yet released me.

Yes, I'm in grad school but yet, I can't put these books down. I have plowed through books one and two and book three beckons me as I type. Alas, so does homework . . . ;)

Doing Yard Work

Given all of the snow, rain and lack of sunny weekend days this year, I feel as though summer only just began. I didn't plant my entire garden, my peas and beans were planted terribly late, and only half of my flower boxes have some semblance of flowers in them.

This past weekend was filled with yard work, fence building and pulling weeds. I never thought that pulling weeds would land in the “great weekend” category but guess what, it did. At the end, I felt that a job was accomplished and that eventually something would grow strong and straight, no longer hindered by weeds.

Visiting Family

I had the opportunity to see my niece this weekend along with visiting with her little boy. Christi is much like the daughter I never had. She was born when I was only 14 and we pretty much grew up together. Then, when she had her son, Owen, life dropped me in her city with a new job and time on my hands. Throughout the time I was living in DC and babysitting Owen, I grew closer to both my niece and her son. There are times that she feels like both my sister and my daughter as well as my niece. Always she feels like my friend and confidant.

So to me, the combination of reading, doing work in the garden and visiting family account to the best weekend I've had in a long time. Nothing better than expanding your brain, getting dirt under your fingernails and getting caught up on family stories.