On December 25, 2020, I posted a video of Mr. Farmhouse and the girls getting our new puppy, Merle, as a surprise for Christmas.

For some Facebook-algorithm-related reason, this video went viral.  It continues to circulate, even now and is up to over 300,000 views.

When the video started making the rounds, I will admit, I didn't tell Mr. Farmhouse right away.  

When it finally hit 5,000 views, I decided I should let him know that over 5,000 people had now seen him in his pajamas and chore coat on Christmas morning.

As the numbers kept climbing, I kept him informed. 

10,000 views.  
15,000 views.
20,000 views.

We were driving home from Christmas dinner at my in-laws house and our 6-year-old daughter, said, "Hey -- are we gonna get merch?"

We all looked at her, confused as to what she was talking about.

She answers, "What? Like merchandise! For the people who watch our videos!"

We laughed this off and explained to her that just because one video I posted is getting a lot of views doesn't mean we're really a "viral" social media family.  

Then I posted this story on my personal Facebook page to share with friends because we did think it was adorable.

That's when we were shocked to have several friends and family members say they would buy some of Mattie's merch!

A few days later, a friend reached out with some t-shirt designs and that's when Mattie's merch dreams started to become a reality!

Thanks so much to Sherri at The Old Barn Print Shop for working with me on these t-shirt designs and the adorable mug!  You can find her on Facebook and Etsy!  Definitely check her out for your printing needs! ​

Mattie's Merch page is up and running.  This is a preorder, so we'll tally the orders here in a few weeks and get them shipped or delivered.  

Thanks for loving my girl and making her little merch heart happy.

Feeling grateful at the farmhouse,
Hannah

​♥️🏡♥️

"I'm not a runner." 
"I'd rather sit on my couch."
"Ha!  The gym?  Me?  Riiiight..."

This used to be how I talked about exercise. 

I used to joke about​ the fact that if people saw me running, they might want to run too because I was likely being chased by something scary.

And then one day, with the encouragement of my sisters-in-law, I decided I might try it.

I used the app "Couch to 5K" and I got to where I was able to jog a whole mile.  It wasn't a fast mile, but it was more than I had ever been able to jog without stopping in my entire life.

This was a huge accomplishment for me.    

Shortly after I built up this endurance, we found out we were expecting our third daughter. 

I was pretty sick for a little while and ended up giving up the running dream until after she was born.

I was shocked at how much I missed running in those last few months of pregnancy.

After I was fully-recovered from my caesarean section and able to leave her for a little while, I started jogging again.

Between 2015 and 2018, I would run for a little while, then fall off the wagon. 

Repeat. 
Repeat. 
Repeat.

My running commitment wasn't really a commitment, but more like a hobby that I would pick up every so often.

Finally, in the summer of 2019, I really got serious about it and started doing a 5K each month. 

During the "Run for the Tree Kangaroos" race at the Kansas City Zoo in September, I injured my hip and had to take a pretty significant break.  

In March of 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to make its rounds, I started taking daily walks to clear my mind after school.  Being in school administration during a global pandemic is something that takes up a lot of headspace. 

These walks were mentally and emotionally healthy, but also started to bring back the positive feelings that I had associated with running in the past.

I love looking at the homemade medal hanger almost as much as I enjoy sifting through all of the medals for the races I did in 2020.

I've set a goal for myself of 20 5Ks in 2021, along with four 10Ks.

Who knows? 

Maybe I'll work up to that half-marathon I've been dreaming about for the last few years. 

We'll see about the half-marathon, but either way -- today I can say with confidence, "I am a runner."

Taking life one jog at a time here at the farmhouse,
Hannah

​♥️🏡♥️

I love the first day of the year.

I love flipping the calendar over to start a new month.

I love August, the beginning of the new school year.

I love Mondays.

I really love any chance I have to start over.

And so this year -- instead of focusing on New Year's Resolutions for 2021, I've decided to set a few big annual goals and then zoom in and focus on resolutions for every single week this year.

52 weeks to set specific goals.
52 weeks to track success and struggles & make adjustments.
52 chances to start again.

We've been having family meetings for a little over a year on almost every Sunday evening.  We plan the menu for the week, look at the upcoming events on the calendar, talk about things we need to get done at home, and tell stories about our weeks.  

Over Christmas break, I spent some time researching some intentional journaling ideas for 2021.

One of the ideas I found all over Pinterest was doing a "one line a day" journal.

The basic premise is that you write down ONE line in a journal each day of the year.  

​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

❤️🏡❤️

So we did.

Now -- I can't complain.  

My brother and then his wife contracted the virus.  While they did feel kind of crummy for a few days, they experienced mostly mild symptoms as they stayed at home.  However, because of the dates of exposure and symptoms and all the rules & recommendations from the CDC, my niece and nephew have to quarantine until August 15th.  So -- please be in prayer for them!

Full disclosure here -- as a school administrator, the last six months have been a blur. 

I have said several times that I feel like we are living in a movie.  This doesn't seem like real life, as we make decisions about how to deliver instruction to children in the safest way over the next school year.  

While my 10 1/2 month school-year contract officially ends on June 15th and begins again on August 1st each year, this summer there have been too many decisions to make to really take much of a break.  

And then...quarantine happened.

Sure, I continued to work on giving input for school reopening plans and I did continue focusing on some of my school duties over the last few weeks.

But I also spent many hours every single day over the last two weeks working alongside Mr. Farmhouse and the girls to complete projects that we have been planning to get to "someday".  

• I finally built that barnwood hanger for my race medals.
• We finished the Rustic Rooster.
• I power-washed the deck (a new coat of stain coming soon!).
• Using materials we already had at home, Mr. Farmhouse made my barnwood laundry shelf vision come to life.
• We transplanted flowers and moved the carport to make way for the building process to start on our garage/man cave.
• Mr. Farmhouse hung the sheetrock for Claire Bear's bedroom walls and started wiring the electric needed to hang her ceiling fan.
• We put together the porch swing we have had in a box for the last THREE YEARS.
• We finally had that kindergarten graduation party for our Mattie-Moo that we had been putting off.
• We even put up our fall decorations a few months early (no shame here!).

Not being able to leave the house for two weeks isn't ideal.

If we weren't in quarantine, I wouldn't have had to cancel our annual well-child checkups for the girls, piano lessons, & tutoring.

Mr. Farmhouse could have been working and I wouldn't have had to miss a few in-person meetings at school.

We could have allowed being stuck at home for two weeks with no symptoms to be irritating and a reason to complain.

However, last night, as Mr. Farmhouse and I rode the Ranger through the field moving hot-wire for the cows, I looked around and smiled.

Thank you, Lord, for this time we have had together.  Thanks for slowing us down and giving us the opportunity to connect deeply before we all head off into the unknown of this school year.  Thank you that my brother's family has had mild symptoms and that they have the opportunity to work from home.  Just thank you, Lord.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Amen

Back to the real world today, friends.

Sending gratitude to God from the farmhouse,
Hannah

​♥️🏡♥️

Back before COVID-19 hit, I was part of a "supper swap" group with some girlfriends.

Hot meals on the table five nights a week and I was only responsible for ONE of them.

And if I'm being completely honest, it was nothing short of amazing.

While we're not completely "opened up" from our stay-at-home orders yet, I still want to share this concept for those of you that might be looking for a way to save a little money and eat at home more often once we're free to be out and about.

1. Form Your Supper Swap Group

Our Supper Swap group included my sisters-in-law, a few friends, and my mom.

For us, having five families in our group worked best.  We each cooked one night per week.  On the weekends, we ate leftovers and cooked for our own families.

Before we began this process, we listed out how many servings each family would need, any allergies, and any dislikes.

2. Fill out the Supper Swap Calendar

We used Google Docs to fill out our Supper Swap template.  I put the dates in ahead-of-time and then the members of our group went in and decided what date each week would work for them to cook. 

We also shared what meals we were planning on making.  Our meals consisted of a main dish and one or two sides.  Sometimes the side dishes were already cooked and sometimes, we would send canned goods for the family to fix.  Every once in a while, someone would send a dessert, as well.

Another thing to discuss with your group is how each family will get their food.

For my family, my mom's house was a central location with an accessible refrigerator right inside the back door.  So our group just made sure all the food was at her house by 4:00 each evening.  Each family was responsible for picking up their own supper package.

Some other families might do a drop-off, where the family that cooks takes the meals around to the various families, depending on how close you all live to each other.

A third option might be for each family to pick up their own meals at the cook's house each night.

This is something your group will need to work out.  My sister-in-law and I live very close together, so every once in a while, we would just grab both meals for both families.  One of our friend's kids rode the bus that my sister-in-law drives, so sometimes she would just drop her meal off with the kids! 

Just think about your options and develop a plan early on so everyone in the group knows what to expect and what is expected of her.

4. Get to Work!

Now it's time to put in the work!  To prepare for this venture, we all bought some reusable casserole dishes and plastic containers to share amongst the group.  By doing this, we weren't always worried about getting dishes back to the owner.  We just cooked in them the following week and passed them all around.

After your calendar is filled out and your reusable containers are purchased, it's time to start cooking once a week and grab a hot meal the rest of the week from someone else! 

If you commit to having your meals ready for your friends once a week and putting forth the effort to make this concept work, I promise you will really enjoy this process!

5. Tweak the Process and Start Again

After your first week or two, you'll notice some things that you might need to change for the future.  It's no big deal to just be in contact with your friends and make those changes right away or as you go into the new month.  Just remember to be flexible with the process and to take good notes about what did and didn't work!

Bulk cooking takes a little bit of preparation, but by the second or third week, you'll fall into a rhythm.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments or over on Facebook that I missed here!

Looking forward to starting the Supper Swap again soon,
Hannah

​❤️🏡❤️

I had found extra motivation by keeping track of the books I read in 2020 through the Goodreads Reading Challenge, so I was interested to see how this might transfer over to my other desired habits.

I decided to start tracking all of the goals I was working towards and see if I made more progress when I was monitoring.  

Sure enough, Gretchen Rubin was right.

I started to track everything using a simple app called Done.

In the last few weeks, when I haven't felt like walking or drinking all of my water, this app has kept me on track.

Checkmarks on a scratch piece of paper could do the job, too.

The point isn't the WAY you're tracking, it's that you make the effort to track.

Tracking every day leads to streaks in certain habits.

Streaks in certain habits leads to extra motivation to keep that streak going.

I'm adding a new habit to my tracking list today -- blogging once a week.

One week down.  ✅

Monitoring my habits here in the farmhouse,
Hannah

​♥️?♥️

Over the last few years, I have tried to focus on building habits, so I don't have to make decisions throughout every single day of my life.

I've worked on building habits in all areas of life: home, health, physical wellness, career, and spiritual growth.

Admittedly, my prayer habit has really changed over the years. 

After reading the book Fervent by Priscilla Shirer and watching The War Room, I began to be more intentional in my prayer life, thinking about my prayers as a strategy against the enemy.  At that time, I began to write out prayers about specific subjects -- our marriage, our children, our siblings, the rest of our family, our church, our minister & his family, our careers, health needs, struggling friends, and so many other topics.  When something came up that someone needed prayer for, I wrote out a prayer for them and began praying it out loud.

This method was very effective.  However, it also became difficult to manage when I had hundreds of notecards with prayers written out on them.  I wanted to have an effective prayer strategy, but I felt like I was missing important topics and I felt like I was missing out on some of the "relationship" part of my prayer time.

I started to research what other people were doing in their prayer lives. 

I talked to friends, surfed the internet, and of course, prayed.

I have learned a few things about myself over the years:

• I'm very methodical, and I've accepted the fact that it's okay to be this way in the area of spiritual growth.
• I enjoy writing out my prayers for two reasons: 1. It keeps me focused. 2. I can look back later and reflect on what God has done.
• I tend to over-complicate things, so I have to be very intentional when I am "building a program" or it can become difficult-to-manage very quickly.
• When I become overwhelmed, the parts of my day that aren't rooted in habits are the first things to go.

I'm going to be brutally honest here, this month has been extremely overwhelming for me.  As a school administrator, dealing with the end of the school year amid COVID-19 concerns and regulations has brought on unprecedented decision-making requirements for school districts.  On May 4th, like I talked about in my last blog post, we had straight-line winds that destroyed our barn and damaged our roof & two other buildings.  We've been cooped up (like the rest of our country) with almost no outside contact for the girls with friends and family. 

So many of my prayers during May have been spontaneous whispers for peace and calm and protection. 

I have no doubt that these prayers were effective and heard and appreciated, but I feel like this time we have spent in the valley has been "survival mode".  

As the school year has come to an end, I'm ready to get back to growing and thriving in my prayer life, not just surviving alongside Jesus.

So for June, I've created a prayer template for each day of the month.  This will hopefully keep me grounded and focused, as well as help me to rebuild my morning prayer habit.

I have created this two-page template for every day of June.

I'm going to take this weekend to add in daily scriptures for each day and to write down my "specific daily prayers" that I pray about each morning. 

I've outlined these prayer topics below, if you're interested in doing something similar.

Each day, I have specific topics that I cover.  This is something I started a few years ago when I was trying to come up with an effective method of covering all of the "regular" topics I wanted to be in prayer about.

Here is my schedule for my daily prayer topics. 

Sunday

• My own walk with Christ
  • My journey to "becoming love"
  • Personal Struggles
  • Myself as a Wife & Mom
  • Growth Goals
• Marriage
  • Matthew's walk with Jesus
  • Matthew's Health/Safety
  • Individual Needs/Struggles/Dreams/Desires

Monday

• Harlee, Claire, Mattie
  • ​Their walks with Jesus
  • Future husbands
  • Friendships (with each other and their outside friends)
  • Health/Safety
  • Individual Needs/Struggles/Dreams/Desires

Tuesday

• Extended Family
  • ​Their walks with Jesus
  • Their Marriages & Parenting
  • Their Friendships
  • Their Health/Safety
  • Their Individual Needs/Struggles/Dreams/Desires

Wednesday

• Friends
  • ​Their walks with Jesus
  • Their Marriages & Parenting
  • Their Friendships
  • Their Health/Safety
  • Their Individual Needs/Struggles/Dreams/Desires

Thursday

• Adrian & Midway Schools
  • That each person who enters these buildings would feel love
  • ​Protection & Safety
  • Christian leaders

Friday

• Adrian Christian Church
  • ​Leaders & their families
  • Various ministries
  • Missions that the church supports

Saturday

• Our Nation & World

So that's what I'm going to do to strengthen my prayer habit this next month.

This might not be the right prayer method for you, and that's okay.

I would encourage you, however, to find a method that works for you.  Schedule in some prayer time and be intentional with how you use that time.

Making prayer a priority here at the farmhouse,
Hannah

​❤️🏡❤️

There are so many things that I love about spring in the Midwest.

The return of color, as yards turn green again and flowers start to pop out.

New babies on the farm, fresh calves and sweet baby chicks.

And thunderstorms.

Since we bought our previous house, back in 2006, Mr. Farmhouse and I have loved sitting outside watching thunderstorms.  We would sit out on the back patio at the previous house and when we moved into the farmhouse, the front porch became a favorite place to watch storms roll in from the west. 

When the storm gets close enough that we almost can't handle the rain and wind, we gather up our belongings and rush inside to watch from the safety of the living room windows.

On the morning of May 4th, however, I was at work when the storms started to brew out in eastern Kansas.  Mr. Farmhouse was at work, as well.  The two younger girls were at my parents' house and our oldest had stayed the night at her cousin's house.

Because we were handing out meals at school in a drive-through fashion, I had been keeping my eye on the radar.  There wasn't much happening around school (about 30 miles northwest of where we live), but the forecast was looking kind of scary down at the farmhouse.

When it looked like it should be over with, my sister-in-law had sent some pictures of their backyard.  Their chicken coop was flipped over, their swing-set was all but demolished, and let's just say their trampoline had seen better days.

The farmhouse sits about 3/4 of a mile north of their house, so I started to wonder if there might be a chance that the same straight-line winds had hit our place.

I called Mr. Farmhouse and asked him to head out there on his lunch hour and check things over.

I had a virtual meeting coming up, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there might be some damage on our property, so I made arrangements to participate in the meeting from my phone.

I climbed in the car, secured my phone into the cradle on my dash, and headed home.

About 15 minutes into the meeting, as I was visiting with my colleagues about what the fall might look like at our school, I got a notification text message from Mr. Farmhouse.  I ignored it, thinking I would check it out after the meeting got over.  Then another text came through.  Still, I continued through the meeting.  Finally, he called.

I clicked out of the meeting to answer and I could immediately tell Mr. Farmhouse was shaken up a bit.  "It's not good.  I think the house is okay, but you'd better get here soon."

Within ten minutes, I was home.  

As I came upon our property, I could see bits of our barn strewn about through the pasture.  There were pigs out of the pen, grazing in the yard.  The carport looked as if it had been picked up and set back down, and the girls' playhouse and basketball goal were both toppled over.  The garden was destroyed and parts of the roof of the house were peeled up.

I knew that the rebuilding process would be a little inconvenient, but that evening when I climbed into bed, I just prayed and thanked God that we were all still here.  That the damage had not been worse...and that we had only lost "stuff".

As we have been wrapping up the school year, our last few weeks have also been filled with learning about insurance claims and scheduling contractors to come finish the work we can't do ourselves.

We have started working on rebuilding the girls' play-set and spent a full day cleaning up the debris from the barn.

Thank You for home insurance and friends & family to help with clean up.

And thank You for ​Mr. Farmhouse and these sweet farm girls.

Thanking God as we put the farm back together here at the farmhouse,
Hannah

♥️🏡♥️

PS. During the same storm that blew the barn away, a tragic storm-related accident happened not very far from our home.  Please join me in praying for the friends & family of a sweet, sweet woman who lost her life in this storm.  Pray for the children who witnessed the tragedy, the family who is putting the pieces back together after the tragedy, and this woman's granddaughter.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.