This year was definitely one that changed us a little bit and I’m not fully sure it was in all of the best ways. We spent a lot of this year in survival mode and rest mode. Yet somehow we didn’t see to get much rest.
We started out guns blazing with so much hard work. I started with making so many homemade items for Christmas gifts. Then we started seeds, all while I was recovering from Gallbladder removal surgery. Then when I got the all clear, we started small but we went back into getting the homestead cleaned up and ready for the spring.
Spring came and I managed to make 4 new garden beds while Jeremy was swimming in work. Then we took 2 days and did massive amounts of planting in the garden. We had everything ready. We went on a vacation in May and came back to herbs galore.
What seemed to be the downfall was when we went on another trip and when we came back we kinda hit a wall. I started getting sick a lot, I was triggered from the heat and trying to pass out a lot and in general we just grew tired. I felt like I spent a majority of the time from June through October being sick.
One minute I am being told I am lazy. The next Im told Im doing too much. One minute I hear someone say I need to rest and the next I need to push my body. We heard from so many people what I needed to do and what I shouldn’t do for my health. I tried different things to see what they would do to help my body and by the time the end of October came, I was drained.
The middle of October, I was fighting an episode the entire time we were up in PA visiting family and I couldn’t shake it. My body was tapped out. We truly contemplated not going back up to PA for Christmas with how bad this trip was. But alas we did not let this trip change our plans.
December we ended up making one last trip for the year, up to family in PA. We had a lovely time being with everyone and just relaxing. Sadly when I got home from this trip, I yet again heard more of what I was doing wrong with my health. The never ending cycle. I had 2 months of being episode free and I still heard negative views of my health journey.
So this year has taught us that we needed a year to rest and relax. That yes, we want to still homestead and plan to but we needed this year to slow down even though we went crazy with planting. It was not at all helpful to continue to push and it actually gave the feel of “I have to do this” instead of “OOOO I get to do this!” That mindset made everything worse.
Our mindset for next year will be to rest when needed but to also push when it works best. We found a routine that works for us to be able to accomplish the garden desires but it will also take in consideration that I can’t do everything. Also we wont be listening to what others opinions are. I heard so many opinions that counteracted each other that it was not making any sense. So we are going to go with what we feel is best. But thats ever changing. I can do one routine for 3 months and then my body doesn’t like that routine anymore. So I need to change it.
In all we are thankful to have had a year where we slowed down on the homestead. But we truly could have done without the sickness so much. I look forward to what we can do in 2025. I have high hopes and big dreams!