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.
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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.
There are 56 days left in 2018. A few friends and I have been following along with Rachel Hollis's "Last 90 Days", where she has challenged people to make the last 90 days of the year count. Well, I was successful in following her "Five to Thrive" for about 15 out of 31 days in October.
And now...that 90 days has dwindled down to 56 days.
So this weekend, I've taken some time to regroup and do some planning for the next two months. The girls and I did some deep-cleaning in our bedrooms and the rest of the house. I planned out our meals for the next few weeks. We set some goals for ourselves and made a commitment to make these last few months of the year meaningful. If you're feeling like things have gotten out-of-control and you just want to gain some peace and calm in the near future, feel free to join me in building some habits in the next 56 days that will help us to enjoy the holiday season. More info to come in the morning. ❤️🏡❤️ There's no question about it. Autumn is my favorite season. It's often short-lived here in Missouri and we often spend a day or two each September with a taste of Autumn before jumping back into high temperatures for another week or so. However, I am hopeful that yesterday was our last day in the 80's for a while. Bring on the colorful leaves, misty mornings, Pumpkin Spice-everything, scarves, and cozy hooded sweatshirts. Since making my decision to put down the camera and focus solely on my new role at school this year, I've had a lot more weekend time at home. It's not basketball season yet and our nephew's football games have been in the evenings, so I have been able to wake up on Saturday mornings and spend some time in the quiet of the farmhouse front porch, taking in the crisp, cool morning breeze.
When the long summer days start to get shorter and the hot, humid days start to get cooler, I feel a renewed sense of urgency for enjoying every moment in my home with Mr. Farmhouse and the girls. I start to think more about crock pots with simmering soup, evenings spent around the fire pit, and the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafting through the house.
It’s been a year since we left our home of eleven years and moved to the farmhouse. What seemed like such a long and stressful process to get the old house sold and the new house purchased is just a distant memory now. We have done a lot to the farmhouse over the last year, including our biggest project of adding a second bathroom upstairs and our most recent addition...the screen door I’ve been dreaming about my whole life. In some ways, we miss the house on the hill...living on blacktop, having a shop, and having the fence complete so we can have our cows on the property with us. However, our new shop plans for the farmhouse property are in the works and the fencing supplies have been purchased, so the cows will be back home sooner than later. I suppose the gravel road is just a trade-off for the four bedrooms and basement we acquired when we purchased the farmhouse. We have been blessed beyond measure over this last year and look forward to many more years making memories with our girls at the farmhouse. Just last weekend, we celebrated our first small town Independence Day with family friends at our home. We grilled out, the kids did the slip & slide, and we watched our town’s fireworks from the farmhouse backyard. We’re so thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed for us to have freedom in this country. We’re so thankful to see God’s hand working in all and through all and for the freedom found through Jesus. Happy 4th of July from the Farmhouse, friends. ❤️🇺🇸🏡🇺🇸❤️  It's been just over a month since I blogged on the last day of school. I had big summer plans for the blog. I would share the continuation of our decluttering journey. I would post about our garden. I would showcase our farmhouse projects with everyone, as we finally marked some of the items off the list that we've been putting off all school year. I would finally get those items finished that we had been procrastinating on. And I will say...we have made progress.
I am so excited and looking forward to my new position for the 2018-2019 school year.
I have thoughts and dreams and a vision for what the Special Education department will look like in the future. However, there are still some responsibilities lingering from last school year and I would like to take care of these things before going back to school in August. This is a time of transition and I need to be proactive in my planning and preparing. I need to be intentional in my learning and my personal summer professional development. I need to be "vision-minded" as I close out last school year and look forward to next year. I want to be able to start fresh in August and to offer a fresh start for my staff members and students. And to do that...the groundwork must be laid now. This summer. This last Friday was my predecessor's final day. He's now retired and already enjoying life in Galveston, Texas. (Congratulations, Fred!) We took him out to eat on Friday and then I went back to school and starting moving my personal belongings down to my new office. When I walked out of the building that day, I vowed to not come back until July 9th...taking this week to relax and enjoy my family. Taking this week to watch our town's annual 4th of July parade, to shoot off fireworks, to get some projects completed around the house, to go to the lake, and to just spend time with Mr. Farmhouse and the girls. There is still much to be done...on the farmhouse and in my new office, but those things can wait. Happy "Stop Week" from the Farmhouse, friends. ❤️🏡❤️ 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 |
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