Incubation

If you've been following our story of our personal jourey, you know my daughter and I moved unexpectedly to Indiana in August. Since then, we've been trying to settle in and get comfortable, but something hasn't felt quite right. I think we both know that this is not our forever home, and maybe not even our forever place. Too soon to tell.

In October, we took a trip home to New York so that Maddie could celebrate her 12th birthday with her grandparents and friends. We celebrated at the farm where we spent every day for the past 4 years amongst friends, human and animal. Everyone was eager to hear about our new home and how things were going. But the truth was, we were so homesick I feared we might not get on the plane back to Indianapolis. We were so grateful to have family in Indiana who welcomed us with open hearts, but we hadn't yet found a community of our own. We needed our homegrown homeschooling farm friends! Not wanting to share my disappointment that we didn't yet feel connected to our new location, I heard myself saying over and over as I told our story that I got exactly what I asked for: the space we needed to heal and incubate what's next for us. By stripping away so many distractions that our busy lives gave us in New York, we are able to focus on this important emotional work. I am also able to focus on growing this business to include things I have always wanted to offer, but never had the time to create.

As 2023 comes to a close, I can say that I achieved what I set out to do this year: move to a small piece of land where we can homestead and create the lives we've imagined for ourselves. It may not look like what I intended for us, but it certainly gives us exactly what we needed and will need to fulfill my intentions for 2024. Staying true to the vision of Bohemian Farmgirl (growing a family, planting a farm, nurturing a creative life), I intend to continue to integrate work and life so that they are one and the same. So that we can make a living from living the life we make. Our handmade lives will include more sewing for ourselves and less for markets, more homemade meals, more homeschool field trips and exploring the outdoors, more bathing in natural waters and moonlight and forests, more teaching but in video form, and something I've always wanted to do--write a book.

So I guess this is an informal big announcement! The book I've wanted to write for years is being birthed in a different form than expected, and has evolved into what I think is really needed in a world of uncertainty right now. It's actually an ecourse, a downloadable book in the form of a course that I have written for those of you who are following along and want to homestead but don't know where to start. The ebook will offer 12 basic lessons and as the year progresses, I will offer more lessons on more topics, more videos, and more personal stories as we plant our farm in Rockville, Indiana.

I want 2024 to be a colorful one, filled with sunshine and fresh air, and gorgeous fabric and mountains of homegrown food, and flowers and herbs coming out of our ears from our garden. And I wouldn't be able to do any of this if we hadn't moved away from our dear home, and given ourselves the space to do it. So here's to the new year, and new beginnings. We will emerge from this incubation period with new wings and healed hearts and maybe even a new path.

Make sure you subscribe to this blog and follow along on Instagram and Facebook @bohemianfarmgirl to be the first to hear about launch dates in early 2024 for my new ebook Bohemian Farmgirl's Backyard Homesteader Skill Building Course: 12 Traditional Skills to Start you on Your Journey Towards Simple and Sustainable Living.