The wheel turns.

As I lay flat in my living room, I can see just on the other side of the baby gate, the chaos of the end of 2013...The toys from Christmas are blown across the floor, Sharon's craft stuff taking up the table, and the general debris from the whirlwind of having 2 boys.

The debris signals the end of a chaotic year.  From leaving our jobs and a move to the country, to the trials and tribulations on the farm and finally the loss of our loved Stepdad, Tom.  It has really been a tornado of an ending. But now we must pick up the pieces and continue forward.

This year the solstice passing was symbolic in so many ways.  The winter darkness came, as it does, and so it did in our lives.  With the injury I had I could not go down to mom's for our seasonal celebration, reminding me to cherish my strength because it can be gone so quickly.  But the celebration was different this year, and for our family a difficult, but known end, had finally come.  Tom Cissell, my step father, finished his fight with Cancer the day before Solstice.

I think he came to love the holiday that Mom started to celebrate, in order to see the grand kids and share the holiday season with the other 2 sets of Grandparents.  It was really something he understood. The seasons passing. Big Tom was a farmer at heart, and I think the season turning was an important thing for him.  He understood the cycles of life from his years on the farm, and understood the time to rest and I think in the end he knew it was his time to rest.

The wheel turns.

The winter is here.  We lie quietly and reflect as the cold days keep the birds puffed up and all of us bundled in the house.  The crackle of the fire in the kitchen stove reminds me of the amazing kindness that comes from other's hearts and I am relieved to remember that the world is a good place full of good people, to cherish the families we create, the ones we are given, and that together they provide us with the village that keeps us warm, fed and loved.  I will never have enough words or the right ones for the village that has taken care of my family in our time of need, so thank you, thank you, thank you.  We are forever appreciative of the time you took away from your family to help mine.

With the year setting behind us we look to the horizon, where our new life and adventure begins.  Soon our first quail babies will hatch and our latest addition to the farm will be peeping in the tool room.  We will be out in the greenhouse and thereafter the garden.  The llamas are healthy and seem to be ready for some long walks and hikes.  As Spring approaches we will have our hands full of chores and although we know it will be difficult, the feeling of the soil in our hand and the smells of spring in the country will fill our souls.  We are excited to go for it!

There is nothing stopping you from moving toward your dreams but yourself.  So I encourage you in the New Year to go for it too!

Love and best wishes for the New Year from the Rowland's

Downs with big ups

It's been a trying couple months for us.  As you may know, I hurt my back way back before we got the Llamas.  It was just starting to feel a little better when the pain moved into my hip.  I have had to see multiple doctors, been into urgent care for pain and nothing has seemed to help.  I am on Vicodin and muscle relaxers, so forgive me if this post gets weird or mooshy.

Sharon is an amazing woman.  She has taken on all of the chores, takes care of all of the boys(me included), deals with the animals, makes and sells her jewelry, gets the groceries, chops the wood etc etc.  Before last week I was still doing some chores but just trying to take my time.  Now I can barely do that even, I guess I have something going on in my sacroiliac joint and muscles keep spasming.  Boo is all I have to say about that.   I am hopeful things will change soon.

So thats the downs, But the Ups are much better!  I think that's the key sometimes, The ups.  My favorite book as a kid was called Great Day for Up

 

 It is always better looking up then down, so the best thing about these last six weeks is all the time I've gotten with my family.  My boys are growing up.  They are becoming beautiful, compassionate humans and I am getting that snuggle time that will be gone before I know it, so I thank the universe for giving me(forcing me really) this time with them.  I have gotten to watch Sterling get excited about school again, make friends, and love the experiences he is getting from 4H!  Laird is blossoming into quite the adventurer, you gotta watch the door now or he may just go for a walk on his own!!

The farm is quiet now.  My favorite saying, that I once used as a metaphor for reflecting and resting during this time of year, "Let the fields lie fallow"  is now also a truth.  Our veggie garden is actually lying fallow, the birds get fat on seed, the chickens are super puffy and the llamas are doing some serious hair farming.








Meanwhile arts and crafts and warm fires turn the farmhouse into a snuggly place. Although you can feel the wind blow thru the old glass and doors, it just gives an excuse to huddle near the fires bundled up under really heavy and comforting quilts.

Brothers play together and wrestle in the purple dragon tunnel, Sterling reads Porky Pig to Laird and Laird loves the time that his "Brudee" gives him.

Sharon's arts and crafts time and my "time-lapse a day" creative challenge keep us busy as the days grow short and the weather frigid.  The ponds and crick are frozen and the extra cold chore of defrosting the animals water, and the wildlife is added to Sharon's long list.










We get lots of time with the proverbial fields lying fallow now, chilling out but keep our minds active with thoughts of what chickens and turkeys and goats and and and…whatever Sharon comes up with, to purchase for next year, along with how we are going to build our new place, what the new business is going to look like and how to build hot tubs out of rocks and chicken manure.  The last may just be a Vicodin fogged brain's idea.  But as we near the solstice we find comfort with one another and enjoy making each other smile and laugh and create our own sunshine in our family life even if the sun is taking a break.


We have made friends with a family here through 4H.  We invited them to come cut a Christmas tree at our property.  They really helped us out by cutting and stacking firewood with Sharon and Sterling.  It is amazing to find people so willing to help when your down a family member for chores…They are truly great friends by giving us their time to help keep us warm and lessen the chore load on Sharon.  Thank you Swanberg's!!   It was a beautiful day and we found some trees, they turned into some Charlie Brown looking trees, but the memories of our first Christmas in Sequim have now been securely planted and the new traditions are going to echo into the lives of our children and our children's children.

  

 So as the darkness of winter closes in, I won't let the downs keep me down but only let the ups lift me.  In the end these memories will be the ones I will reflect upon when I ask myself if I have had a good life.  It certainly won't be me saying "Boy I really wish I would have worked that Overtime and an 80 hour week." HA!

We send you love and wish you happiness this holiday season.  Find your time to reflect, cherish your friends and family, and let your fields lay fallow, whatever those fields may be.

Love,
The Rowlands

4Hin' it

Tonight was Sterling's first night of sewing through 4H.  He was beyond excited.  He had been asking for a week or so when sewing class was going to start.  This kid loves all things crafty.  Shoot, if there had been glitter fabric his head may have exploded.  His glitter obsession shall be saved for another post.

We had the car loaded with my sewing machine and all of our supplies.  We arrived a few minutes late due to swimming class, which was just fine.  We were able to jump right in.

The woman leading the class was from WSU.  She is a volunteer with part of their extension program.  She was fantastic.  The first project that she had the kids work on was a tree ornament.  Sterling was so excited he could hardly sit still.  He was able to get the machine threaded with a little help from mom.  Let me tell you when his lead foot hit the foot controller the fabric went a flying!  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  We gotta slow down here.  I had visions of his 16th birthday and his lead foot hitting the gas and taking off down the road.  Hopefully this kid will not have the same love affair with muscle cars as his mama. Fat chance.  Any of you that have seen his hot wheels collection know that his obsession with cars goes beyond his mamas.

Marilyn, the instructor, took care of things quickly.  She placed a shim in the foot pedal in order to keep ol' lead foot at a reasonable pace.

Sterling got his tree done and was ready to trim his threads.  Lets just say thankfully mama still has both eyes after this evening.

He was ready to move on to the next project.  A very cute travel tissue cover.  He carefully picked out his fabric and thread.  He wanted to make sure the thread matched as the instructions suggested.  In this project he was required to use the iron.  Again a little scary.  Good thing his teacher taught the kids about fire safety at school today.  We needed to go over that once again when it came to the iron.  I just kept reminding him it was similar to the glue gun.  VERY HOT.

All in all it was a successful evening.  The teacher said he was a very good student and looked forward to seeing him in two weeks.

Sterling is also in a 4H group called Adventures in Family Living.  This class offers a lot of variety.  Each meeting the kids have a different project they work on.  It can be anything from cooking to making bird houses.  This past class the kids worked on felted balls.  The basic idea is to make a wool yarn ball, shrink it in the washer and dryer, and then needle felt designs onto them.

4H has been a great experience so far for all of us.  We have met some really nice people and Sterling really loves it.