The last time I blogged was in August of this year.  I shared some of the struggles I had faced the spring before and how the summer of 2023 was my shortest summer break ever.  I talked about how I had worked on a few small house projects over my four week break and had just taken life a little more slowly than other summers. On August 1st, I jumped back into work, excited for the 2023-2024 school year.

August and September went well.  We had new leadership in Central Office, a few new team members in my department, and some focused strategic growth-planning.  It was shaping up to be a great first quarter. 

And then came October.

On the morning of Monday, October 2nd, I was standing at my computer typing a report when I got a casual text message from my mom, "I'm gonna run up to the ER at KU Med."

Mom had been having some significant back pain for a few weeks and had pushed through the pain for a little while to get through September.  We were just coming off of Homecoming week and basketball wasn't starting yet, so she felt like it might be a good time to go try to figure out what was going on with her.  Little did we know that this trip to the Emergency Room would change our lives forever.

Mom was admitted to the hospital that night and in a whirlwind two weeks, had several tests and procedures done to finally reveal that she was facing Stage 4 Neuroendocrine cancer throughout her body.  They sent her home with hospice on Wednesday, October 18th, and on Friday, October 20th, she went to be with Jesus.

18 days.

Over the course of 18 days, we went from thinking she had a kidney stone or something similar, to planning a Celebration of Life for our amazing wife, Mom, and Grams.

It has now been just over two months since we lost Mom.

We have heard stories of her love and generosity from so many people. 

We have created a hashtag in her honor to share these stories with others: #thankyoujeaniestephens.

We completed a (hilarious) bucket list of items that Mom had created for us to do, following her passing.

We have navigated a wonderful visitation and funeral with over 800 people in attendance.  I will share more about her service in a future blog post.  I don't think I've processed it fully yet.

We have gained another daughter, who will be with us until May (thanks to Mom's dream of hosting an exchange student).   

We made it through Thanksgiving, leaning into the memories, the love of family, and the comfort of Jesus. 

And this week, we celebrated our first Christmas without her here.  We used paper goods from her house, handed out the stocking stuffers to the grandkids that she had already purchased (#thankyoujeaniestephens), and shared memories through the entire evening. 

​I know she would have been proud.

​I am sitting here in my quiet kitchen, reflecting on 2020 and looking ahead to 2021.

Wasn't 2020 just absolutely insane?

There is no way that I can sum up our experiences this year in one simple blog post. 

Our family spent 6 weeks in quarantine, due to COVID-19.  Harlee and Matthew spent 8 weeks,  I contracted the virus in September and am still fighting some of the symptoms right now...four months later.

So many friends of our lost family members to this terrible virus and we are still praying for them every day.

A tornado blew our barn away and caused some damage to our house and several other buildings on our property.  However, this unfortunate circumstance truly jumpstarted some pretty big property improvements. 

We rebuilt the barn, fenced in our property, built the Rustic Rooster (a loft playhouse for the girls), and are almost finished with our detached garage...complete with a kitchen, workout space, and bathroom.

When school started in August, I totally fell off of the blogging wagon (again), but learned a lot about leading a school during a global pandemic.

It's been a year to remember and I would be lying if I said I wasn't ready to forget most of 2020 and move forward.

One of my 2021 goals is to blog every week, so look for a post soon about my word-of-the-year.

Love, grace, and peace from the farmhouse tonight, friends,
Hannah

❤️🏡❤️

There is a metal ornament representing each year of our marriage...starting with a wedding picture from 2004 and going through some of our major life events.  

The birth of each of the girls is represented with hospital pictures and 2016 when we took our trip to Florida includes a beach picture.  

I love being able to look at the pictures on these ornaments and be taken back immediately to the moment they were photographed. 

Some of these photos are professional (thank you, JcPenney, Amy Kostuke Photography, & Spread Your Wings Photography) while others are just snapshots.

It's amazing for me to think that almost fifteen years of marriage can be summed up in these ornaments.  What a blessing they are to me.

Reminiscing here at the farmhouse this morning,
Hannah

​❤️🏡❤️

PS -- I get my ornaments at Mpix, in case you missed that link above.  You can purchase your own right HERE.  

If you've been following me for long, you know that I have had some Christmas card struggles over the years.

In fact, I posted about this EXACT problem last February.

So this year, instead of wasting money buying Christmas cards and not sending them...I decided to do a digital card.

Yes...I am that person.

I have moved away from the paper Christmas card (at least for this year) and moved towards the digital world.

(I can hear my friend Erin groaning as she reads this.)

Getting it designed, ordered, and mailed just wasn't "in the cards" for us this year (see what I did there?).

We did have some time to squeeze in a Christmas mini-session for the girls (thanks to my friend Brooke at Spread Your Wings Photography).

So I present to you...the Newkirk family Christmas card 2018.

A full year in the farmhouse,
A new job for me,
Harlee in middle school,
Claire in braces,
Mattie enjoying her last year before going to kindergarten next fall.

We've learned a lot and we've grown a lot.

We are blessed.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours and much love from the farmhouse.

❤️🏡❤️

I've been working hard to downsize since we moved into the farmhouse over a year ago.

I knew that since we were purchasing a larger house, it would be tempting to fill it up.

And I will admit...we have filled it up.  

Mr. Farmhouse was able to head straight to the basement and grab the storage containers we needed.

We put up the tree, hung up some other decorative items, and smiled at school projects from the past years.

We made hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music and emptied every tub.

I'm not sure we've ever enjoyed the decorating process as much as we did this year.

What a welcome change to be able to relax and enjoy the tree-decorating experience with the girls this year because we have taken the last year to simplify.

I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas morning as a child.

There was the year that we woke up to 10-speed-bikes sitting in front of the tree, surrounding the rest of the gifts for my little brother and me.

There was the year that it was snowy and cold and after all the gifts were opened, we both got carried outside with our eyes closed to find the playhouse they had ready for us.  In fact, Mr. Farmhouse and I used that playhouse as our chicken coop until just last year when we moved to the farmhouse.

There was the year that he and I peeked at our gifts and our two "big gifts" were missing on Christmas morning.  My mom had saved them for last and had wrapped them up with our parents' names on the tags.  We were trying to play it cool like we didn't know they were missing, because we didn't realize they knew we had sneaked out to the shop to look...lesson learned!

Even into adulthood, we have always been provided with everything we ever dreamed of, so naturally I have wanted to provide the same feeling for my own girls.

However, we have some financial goals that we are working towards to be able to provide for them later in life...in high school when they need a vehicle to drive, to help them with college expenses, and of course, when they get married and start having children.

Going into debt or dipping into savings at Christmastime is tempting, but after working so hard for an entire year to save and work the debt snowball, we don't want to lose our progress at the end of the year because of gifts.

You guys.

I cannot even tell you how amazing the process has been.

The girls couldn't even think of three items for each category. 

They were sitting together at the dining room table as they tried to think long and hard about what they truly needed and the conversation they were having warmed my heart.

H: I can't think of anything for "something I need".  I don't think I need anything.
C: I put an electric toothbrush because mine broke a few weeks ago.
H: You know, I will be needing a new softball glove this year.  I'll put that on there.

The girls are completely aware that we would buy toothbrushes or softball gloves during other times of the year, but instead of using that gift slot for something else, they both decided to use it to replace items that are worn out or too small.

I was able to shop for the gifts without breaking the bank and literally all in one night (Black Friday with my sis-in-law!).

They will each get stocking stuffers and one small gift from Santa and that is IT.

The tree is still pretty.
The farmhouse is still cozy.
The magic of the season is all around us.

With four gifts each.

I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.  

Happy December from the farmhouse, friends.

❤️🏡❤️

From the moment I stepped into the one and only bedroom upstairs in the farmhouse, I knew it was meant to be the Claire Bear's.  

It had a beautiful eastern view, where the sun would rise every morning for my sweet early-bird.

It had two closet doors with a long closet that met in the middle...a "secret-passageway" as she says.

And it had a little hatch that went into some attic storage that  really made the oldest daughter nervous.  "Who knows what might come out of there?" Harlee said that first day.

After the room was painted, we started to fit Claire's furniture in. 

She knew she wanted BOTH closet doors accessible, so that left ONE place for her bed.

My mom had found an antique bedroom set at an auction that had "Claire" written all over it.  There was a full bed and matching vanity.  We fit those pieces in first and went from there.  We covered the "creepy attic hatch" (as Harlee calls it) with her dresser and saved room for her desk by the window.

Since those pictures were taken back in July of 2017, we've gotten the windows in the farmhouse replaced and Claire Bear has her dream desk with her dream view.

It's not perfect, but it's all Claire!

I really can't wait to watch my sweet girl grow up in this bedroom.  ❤️🏡❤️

Every single year, I take pictures of the girls and purchase Christmas cards in the beginning of December.

Every single year, I don't send them on time.

Like really...

Every. Single. Year.

In fact, when we moved out to the farmhouse, I literally kept three prints from the last several years' of cards and threw the rest away.  😫

And in mid-December, I mailed some!

I mailed a whole SIX cards, in fact!  

I also handed out some cards at church and even gave some to a few of our family members!

That is a definite improvement from years past.

However, come January 31st, the rest of them were still in a pile in my office...ready to be mailed out.

So I set a goal for myself to mail them by Valentine's Day.

And this morning, I am dropping them off to the post office.

I didn't order as many cards as I did in the past and didn't even get to some of the people on my Christmas card list...so I still wouldn't call it a success.

But it was an adequate effort.

Maybe 2018 will be the year that I get my Christmas card life together.

We'll see.

Merry Valentine's Day from the Farmhouse, friends.

'Tis the Season! 

❤️🎁🏡🎄❤️

Hello! Welcome back to the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown Challenge!

We are getting ready to start week 3, but before I go there with you, I want to be real with you.

I didn't get my kitchen done this week! I got the mudroom finished and the kitchen was on my zone list for this week, too.

I've been catching up on some photography sessions and editing pictures.

I stayed late at school almost every single day this last week and last night, instead of working on the kitchen...I watched a movie with my 10-year-old, Harlee-girl, and one of her besties.

It is what it is.

This is why the countdown concept works for me.

I have now completed my Week 1 challenge of the Living Room and Entry-way.

I have completed half of my Week 2 challenge of the Kitchen and Mudroom.

And I'm (almost) ready to move on to my Week 3 challenge of the Dining Room and my Office.

Instead of just focusing on those two rooms though, I'll move the Kitchen over on my calendar and get them all knocked out this week!

I don't feel like I'm so overwhelmed by not completing half of the kitchen task to just stop and give up.

Instead, I move the few parts of the kitchen over to this week and work hard to finish all three rooms before Week 4.

This week, outside of our Zone work, we are focusing on our vision for the holidays.

I really feel like it's important to set a goal and make a plan to get there.

Set a goal and make a plan.

I use this phrase in my classroom.
I use it in my budgeting.
I use it when talking to my girls about all areas of life.

So today, we're setting a goal for our holiday season.

What do we want our holidays to look like? To feel like? To smell like?

What do we want our kids...our friends...our families to remember about this special time of year?

What can we start doing over the next few weeks to make these dreams a reality?

Make sure to print out our Week 3 Planning Pages to help keep you on track!

I'm so grateful that we are on this journey together. I love sharing life with all of you!

Happy November from the Farmhouse!

​❤️🏡❤️

If you're just catching up with the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown, feel free to join the Facebook group HERE and print out the Planning Calendar and Week 1 Checklist HERE. ​

Christmas Countdown Blog Posts
Week 1
Week 2

Hello there and welcome to Week 2 of the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown!

Last week, we focused on getting organized before we begin our journey to a peaceful holiday season with our families! 

We divided our home into eight zones and worked all week through the deep-cleaning process for Zone 1. 

At the farmhouse, this was my Living Room & Entryway.

I started the week by decluttering any shelves and drawers in the living room...I went through our DVDs and purged anything we don't watch, cleaned out a few drawers that had acquired some junk, and minimized a few decorations on the flat surfaces.

After a crazy week of parent-teacher conferences and the first slumber party in the farmhouse, I used my Friday off school to finish up Zone 1 by deep-cleaning from floor to ceiling...dusting, cleaning the windows, and making the floors shine.

If you didn't get to join us for the Week 1 challenge, just try to squeeze both of the first two weeks in this week!

Our week 2 challenge is to think about our giving.

You can print my Week 2 Planning Printable here.  

This week, we are focusing on the friends and family members we would like to give gifts to this year.

We want to be intentional with our giving!

This year for the girls, we are going to do four main gifts...

1. Something they want,
2. Something they need,
3. Something to wear, and 
4. Something to read.

We're also going to buy a few "family experiences"...zoo passes, a Royals game, and gift cards to some of our favorite restaurants.

Thanks to this list, coupled with the fact that we had a Christmas sinking fund (using CapitalOne 360 that I talked about in my blog post a few weeks ago), I am almost finished Christmas shopping.

This week, make a list of who you need to buy for, any gifts you might have already, and ideas of what you would like to purchase or make over the next several weeks.

The second part of our challenge this week is about how we can give to others during this season.  

Mr. Farmhouse and I do this in a few different ways that I've outlined on the Week 2 Challenge printable.   

Start thinking about how you can give back!

Finally, we are starting work in Zone 2 this week!

My Zone 2 is my Kitchen & Mud Room!  These two rooms will be a bit more challenging than the Living Room was!  I still haven't felt "settled" in the Mud Room since we moved into the farmhouse three months ago.  I'm hoping to change that feeling over the next week by breaking the process up into manageable tasks and tackle those two rooms!

I hope and pray that you are already feeling a little more peaceful about the upcoming holiday season! 

Let's not get bogged down with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season!

Let's take a moment and enjoy the process of getting us to this special time of year!

Happy New Week, friends! 

Much love to you and yours from the farmhouse!

​❤️🏡❤️

If you're just catching up with the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown, feel free to join the Facebook group HERE and print out the Planning Calendar and Week 1 Checklist HERE. ​

Christmas Countdown Blog Posts
Week 1