a trip to the farm + my focus for the summer

As I mentioned in this recent blog post, this summer I've decided to focus my energy on my relationship to food and body image. One step that I took was to sign up for a farm share from a local farm called Tangletown Gardens Farm, which is located about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis. 

This weekend there was friends and family day at the farm, and we packed the kids into the car despite a raging thunderstorm (of course we brought their full-body rain suits and rain boots.) I was a little nervous that the weather would interfere with the fun of the day, but as we pulled up, the storm lifted. We dealt with a few light showers here and there, but had a blast as the kids climbed on hay piles, checked out the animals, pretended to drive tractors, and stomped around in giant mud puddles.

We took a tour of the farm and learned about all of the thought that goes into farming sustainably and in an effort to produce the most nutrient-rich foods. Americans (myself included) tend to be pretty far removed from where their food actually comes from, and now as we eat our food from this farm, it will be fun to be able to picture the fields that the animals grazed in or how the soil was meticulously cared for by this sweet family. 

As a kid we would visit relatives in Iowa who were farmers, and it was definitely a childhood fantasy of mine to live on a farm and tend to the crops and animals. While I love my city life, it was so fun to see our kids happily tromping through the fields today. We will certainly return for more events at the farm.

We bought some meat and eggs at the farm and our farm share season will start next week. The challenge, of course, will be using up the veggies before they go bad, including veggies that we aren't accustomed to eating or preparing. 

I focus a lot in my business and personal life on building and sustaining my energy, whether that's through how I spend my time and whom I spend it with, or how I tend to my body. I'm in a phase of life where getting enough sleep is next to impossible with the ages of my kids, but focusing on being active outdoors and taking time to prepare healthy, energizing food is impactful for me and for the lives of my kids. One of the hardest and most rewarding parts of becoming a parent is suddenly realizing how our kids are watching and learning from our every move. I have to think really intentionally about what it is that I hope to teach them. 

I hope you'll follow along on this food journey of mine this summer, and I'd be curious to know some of your favorite summer recipes!

What I learned this Spring

This move to Minnesota has taught me a lot of things, one of which is learning how to live more seasonally and in touch with the natural rhythms of nature. The weather here is pretty extreme, and we essentially went from mid-winter to summer just a few weeks ago. 

From a practical stand-point, it's more important here than it was in Colorado to enjoy and soak up every single moment when it feels nice to be outside, and to save indoor projects and activities for when the weather is truly terrible. As I mentioned in last month's post, as part of a larger personal project I'm working on when it comes to food and body image, we're getting a farm share for 18 weeks from a local farm, and I'm excited to eat in a more focused, seasonal way over the summer. 

From a more reflective, growth-oriented stand-point, I'm finding it really helpful to break up my personal and work project goals into quarters, which of course, line up with the seasons as well. Setting annual goals and intentions is great, but often so many new ideas and opportunities crop up that it's nice to feel it's okay if a change feels better than sticking to the original plan. 

The summer solstice is upon us, and before I start laying out my summer projects, I think it's important to reflect on a few things I learned throughout the spring. All of these are still a gigantic work in progress, but they have all been on my mind a lot lately:

1. Appreciate the simple pleasures. A day spent trying to keep a one-year-old and a three-year-old alive is no joke and I get few (if any) breaks throughout the day. A few things I really savor when they do happen: fresh coffee from the french press (preferably drunk while not being climbed on), freshly squeezed orange juice (I bought this juicer for $6 and I'm in love!), a power nap, reading even a few pages of a book, sitting out in the yard and enjoying the sunshine, having a few moments of silence to breath and think my own thoughts without interruption.
2. Celebrate (really) small successes. Most of my grand plans to clean the entire house, catch up on laundry or finish a set of curriculum are quickly derailed by short naps, fighting children,  and sleepless nights. It's been an important practice for me to celebrate even the tiniest victories: ONE load of laundry that is folded and put away, one small piece of one project finished, 15 productive minutes of work. I get discouraged a lot, but this seems to be standard for this phase of life.
3. Stop resisting this season. This is a big one, and very much related to the two above. This phase of life, with two young kids underfoot, is notoriously difficult. There is little sleep but more than enough illness. It's the most physically demanding phase, not only because of the aforementioned, but because my kids can literally do nothing by themselves and they are on a mission to constantly endanger their own lives. I know it will get better. More seasoned parents assure me that this is so. But that does little to help me RIGHT NOW. I tend to feel better when I breathe, remind myself that someday soon they will have more independence and maybe sleep a little better, and then give myself about 10,000 gallons of grace for my messy house and completely unfulfilled to-do list. What I'm learning is that it's still important to TRY: to not give in so much that I attempt nothing that is fun or hard or out of the usual routine. Those are the things that keep me going. But I also need to accept the inevitably of canceled plans and reschedules, for meltdowns and times when nothing goes as planned.

Those are the big things on my mind over the course of the spring. What did you learn this season?

Next up I'll be sharing more of my hopes, goals, and intentions for the summer.

P.S. You might also like Spring Cleaning: Small changes, big rewards