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welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast. How are you doing, friend? It is quite the time to be alive. And even though you know, we live pretty home centric to begin with, we home school, we home instead. We have home businesses. Life still fills way different than normal. Right now, there's less break up of our routine. It kind of feels like we're in this rut kind of slogging through each day. So I wanted to share a few of the things that I have been doing that really have been making a difference for me and keeping my sanity keeping most of my sanity. I don't know. They just are helping. Maybe some of these will help you to. I'm your host, Jill Winger. And this is the podcast for the Trailblazers, the Mavericks, the makers, the homesteaders, the modern pioneers and the backyard farmers. If you're ready to boost your food security and your self sufficiency well, you have found your tribe. One of the most perplexing things about this quarantine situation for me has been how we feel busier than before. And I keep bringing this up to Christian. I'm like, why does it feel like this because we're not going to town. We're not going to homeschool co op. We're not going to horse shows. We're not having our Friday night get togethers with friends. Like, why do I feel busier then before quarantine started? It doesn't make sense until well, I mean, we're calving. Right. Um, so that means Christians gone a lot, of kind of almost single mom-ing it a little bit, as far as all the bedtimes, all the meal times, all the house stuff, all the kids by myself. We have calves in her house. Calves in the barn were still homeschooling. Um, a lot of our events are being replaced by zoom calls. I'm assuming you probably are in the same boat, and I'm gonna be really honest guys. Zoom is not my favorite. I don't like it's especially like I don't mind using it for business purposes. I use it a lot for business, for coaching calls and webinars and things like that. But like when you have an in person event that is trying to figure out how to make up for the cancellation of that event and doing it on zoom justice so awkward, and I totally understand what people are trying to do it accomplished and trying to maintain community. But I'm just like, not loving it. Maybe you can relate. Maybe think I'm crazy, I don't know. But it's like everyone has tech issues and then it's awkward cause you're talking over each other and I still you don't feel connected. Like Zoom is better than a phone call that you still don't feel connected because he's not in the same room with them. I don't know just completely complaining about that for no good reason. But that's how I feel about Zoom. So now you know. But anyway, we have zoom calls. You know, we're still doing a lot of stuff. Life is very full feeling at the moment, and it's making me probably a little more tired and maybe even a little more frazzled than usual and while I'm on my little rant soapbox thing every morning this week, there has been some sort of epic disaster in my house, and Christians gone right because he's with the cows. So I wake up with the kids we're trying to get going with school. I'm trying at my coffee made and there's there's there's just been a thing every morning this morning. I am not joking. It was a poop fest, like I mean a literal poop fest. So the calf was in the mud room overnight, Um, and it lived, which I was really thrilled about. I was, that's the goal. But it drank a bottle last night and then digested the bottle and pooped all over the floor, which is to be expected. It is not a shock to me. It's just very smelly. And we do have tile floors in the mud room, so it's fine. I'm not freaking out, but it just smelled really bad when I walked out of my bedroom. The puppy in his, We got a puppy, which you might have seen it on YouTube. The puppy had pooped in his crate, which he hasn't done that yet, but he did it today, pooped in his crate, and then I think he must have rolled in it because the poop was coating every inch of that crate and the towel and the puppy. So I was giving the puppy a bath before I even started making breakfast this morning and there were towels and things to wash from the calf and the puppy create and mopping the floor and it just Mesa, my oldest walk out of her room this morning is like our house smells really bad. Like, yes, child, it does. It smells horrendous right now. So that was That was my morning. That feels like very much a good description of the last week or two. But combine that with not seeing other humans other than your own offspring, who sometimes drive you crazy and just kind of doing the same thing day after day. It can wear on you. And I bet you can probably relate. Maybe not with the poop issue, but maybe with everything else. So I am not an expert on quarantine survival. Obviously none of us are because this is new. But I wanted to give you a few of the things I've been doing that do seem to help and have been helping me mostly because when I don't do them, I get much grumpier and I tend to yell at my family more. So these are helping, sort of, um and all that being said we have We're having some good days, Really good days. We're having some really not so great days and it's OK. It's normal. So don't beat yourself up anyway. Moving on Here are my thoughts. So first off, the puppy has helped, not the poop issue that did not help. But getting the puppy, which was a complete impulse decision last week, has been really good for the kids. I'm not telling you to go out and get a quarantine puppy. This is not what I'm saying. But I do think that for us it was good and the kids have had a lot of disappointments this month. As I'm sure your Children, if you have them, probably have as well Um, so that was good. Crazy, chaotic. Um, last night Yesterday was a long day. The kids were grown be. There was a lot of fighting. There were a lot of refereeing, so I was just dying to get the kids in bed. That's it. I mean, you know, you've been there, right? No judging, You can't judge me for that, cause that's not that's a thing. You just are really looking forward to bedtime. So I got the kids in bed I was sitting down in the recliner with a book and I was just like It's finally peaceful and all three dogs decided to have a wrestling growling fighting match right next to me, and it felt like the kids weren't even in bed because they're the three kids were in their bedrooms, but I had three dogs doing the same thing next to me and I go in to go the bathroom, all three dogs follow me into the bathroom and pile into this tiny room. I'm just like I quit. I quit. But all of that aside, the puppy has been really helpful for the kids. So that is, I think, for them at least, given them a little bit of semblance of something fun, a distraction. Another thing that I've noticed has really impacted. Just my mindset is less phone, which is easier said than done, because I don't know when this whole thing started, I was on my phone a lot, just reading updates because it was so bizarre and unprecedented and weird. And so I was trying to just keep up with what on Earth was happening. So I was reading a lot more articles that were posted on Facebook or new sites. And I don't know, I'm just kind of over it now. I'm just over it. So I'm reading less articles. I'm spending less time on the phone, which absolutely is improving my sanity. There's so much fear right now, and the conspiracy theories and all the theories and some reports are good. Some reports are bad, it's just like there's just it's not even worth trying to keep up with it. And I feel like I was trying to keep up with it for a while. And I'm like, You know what, Jill? This is not a good use of your brain power, So putting the phone down more has helped, um, and has just brought me back to reality because we can't control any of that. All we can control is what's in front of us, and I'm finding so much peace. I've talked about this on the different episodes, so much peace from just like you know what? I can't control what they're doing in New York City or what the governor is doing, but I can plant these tomatoes and I have control over that, and I can grow food for my family, and I can work outside on this little plot of land that we have and make it as productive and as peaceful as possible, and that just for some reason brings me a lot of peace. So put the phone down, my friend. You know, it's it's hard to not want to keep up with the updates, but it'll be better for you in the long run, I promise another thing I've been doing a lot of lately. As I put my phone down, I realize that sometimes when you have downtime, we tend to reach for our phones, you know, and fill that space with the phone, which is junk information. It's I'm realizing how much time I was spending just scrolling random stuff that wasn't bettering myself or my life or my mindset or my knowledge. And so I've been replacing my phone scrolling with reading actual books. What a concept. And that has been so refreshing, just amazingly refreshing. I know you're gonna ask. So here's what I've been reading. Eliot Coleman is my new gardener. Crush. Yeah, I know it's pathetic. I hadn't really paid attention him before, but I am now so I'm catching up and making it for last time. Eliot Coleman and his ideas of winter vegetable harvesting and growing. I am so pumped. I am so into that right now. So, um, I've been reading his What's it called Four season gardening for season handbook for season something. And that's what gave me ideas toe to start doing cold frames and really get serious about greenhouses and is lighting me up. It is just feel so good. I also have been re reading Joel Salatin. This ain't normal book, which I started it before this whole thing happened and wow, has it been amazing timing? I just love his stuff. He is so smart and so common sense. So that is giving me a little more fuel to add to the fire of this idea of food production and just doing stuff that is logical and not getting swept up in the industrialized systems that just really don't make much sense when you break it down. I also recently discovered a book called The Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher, and I just have been flipping through it. I bought it off Amazon. Our cows will be calving very soon, and it's always kind of bothered me that a lot of the times home cheese making you have to keep buying cultures and keep buying stuff, and he's very much against that. He talks about how to make cheeses with, uh, Kiefer and cultures you can perpetuate yourself, so it's very sustainable, super pumped about that. And I'm literally just counting down the days to till Oakley has her calf and our other heifers have their calf cause I'm really ready for the raw milk this year, So reading has been really, really helpful for me. I still been watching some Netflix. I'll be honest, and some nights I really am excited to sit down and watch Netflix when it's been a long day. So I do. I don't know. I like to reward myself in the evening, not always with food cause sometimes food is not a good reward, but knowing that if I can get through the day and work hard and cross the things off my list and then sit down with hot chocolate or tea at the end of the night and read a good book or watch a good show on Netflix like that. Just it sustains me. It helps me get through the day. Um, another thing that I have been doing, not as much as I would have liked it because we are busy we're bizarrely busy. Right now, deep cleaning for me is cathartic. It may not be for you. That's fine, but for me, it helps me feel grounded. So I've been doing some deep cleaning, and there have been some peace, some pieces in places of our home that I wanted to redo or update. And I can't go to the store right now, obviously, and get new little pictures or knickknacks or decor, which has actually been a good thing because it's forced me to get more creative. So I've been shopping just from around our home and taking, you know, maybe something from another room, pulling it into this, this different room and rearranging it, and it sounds so obvious and dumb. But it works, and there's been several places in our home that I am just loving now because I move some things around, added something from the bedroom and put it into the living room, and vice versa. And it feels like you have something new and you paid $0 for it. So to me, that is life giving. Monday give you an example. On Monday I woke up, which normally Monday's I'm raring to go. I like Mondays. I like my life. I like my job. I like my schedule and Monday's are usually my favorite day this past Monday. It was not my favorite day, like I literally woke up and I like, rolled over and I'm like ugh, I was not feeling it, like just not feeling any of it. I feel like I had a very low threshold for coping that day, so I did what I very rarely do. We cancelled school for the day. Like I said, I don't do that very often cause I really like to stay on track. But Christian was like, I think you need to do something different today so you don't murder anyone. So I followed his advice. We canceled school. The kids had some stuff they wanted to play and do, which was great. So I turned on a book on tape and I angry clean the mud room. Angry cleaning is so much more effective than normal cleaning because you have all this adrenaline and you just get a lot more done. And I don't know what I was even angry about. I just was feeling frustrated at life. So I deep clean the mud room, which was a complete waste of time, because the calf pooped all over it last night. But it looked nice for 12 hours. It did. It looked so nice for 12 hours. There's a dresser thing that I had bought an antique store last year, and we're gonna put it in the bathroom, and that never happened. So it's been sitting in the shop. So I dusted it off and brought it in and put it in the mud room and rearranged all of our boots and half and gloves and deep clean the cracks and the crevices. And it just was fun. And it made me feel good. And I spent the next couple hours just walking by the mud room, admiring it. So to me, just that refresh is shifts. The energy is a good distraction, so give it a try. If if you're a cleaner like me, if you absolutely despise cleaning, maybe that's not a good option for you, but for me, it works now kind of shifting gears a little bit, something I've been doing in my business that has been inspiring to me or it has been motivating to me. I've been spending a lot of time listening to my tribe and analyzing how I can show up to serve people differently in this time. And I know this is, you know, business right now is a tough topic because a lot of people are laid off. If you don't own your own business, there's not a lot you can do. Um, you know, if your company is shut down or considered non essential. But for those of you who are business owners are entrepreneurs. Keep in mind like this is a tough time. But businesses, new businesses, old businesses, they are made during times about people. And if you look back at the different recessions and depressions we've had, it's a shakeup, right? Historically, there always a shake up. But if you can stay aware and awake during those times, that's when there's a lot of opportunity to create differently. Show up differently, served differently, you know, just think of it different. So for for me. I'm absolutely feeling that there's more of a need ever than ever for homesteading in homegrown lifestyles and food production. And so I'm trying to really analyze what do I need to do to meet those needs? Because some of the stuff I was doing in the past probably wasn't a fit right. Different, different economy, different environment, not a fit. But it's changing, which to me is oddly exciting because I feel like there's more space for me to discover how I can meet people where they are. So I don't know if you have a business or maybe you don't have a business. But if you do start really listening and analyzing, and to me, that's just something that motivates me, and maybe that is depressing to you right now, and that's fine. But if that mode that might just let you up like it does to me and if it does write, write it down, keep a note pad, keep a list on your phone of how you can shift what you're doing and shop differently, and it it feels good. So all in all, I mean, those are a few of the things I've been doing, I'm just really I think the biggest one is giving myself more grace than normal, cause I'm usually kind of bad at that. Like I said, if we're needing to take breaks off a school, we are. If I'm needing a nap on the Thursday afternoon, I'm taking it, Um, and just trying to make sure I have something fun or enjoyable, just a little something each day to look forward to, whether it's reading a new book or watching a show on Netflix or going outside or riding my horse. Having a little bit of that reward each day is really helpful for me and just how I'm wired. But all that being said what? We all cope differently. And so some of us need more quiet time. Right now. Some of us need more zoom calls right now. Some of us need to create. Some of us need to be still so respect where you are. And one thing I wanted to mention, This is a great time to figure out your personality and kind of how you're wired and how you're responding to the situation. It has a lot to do with your personality type, so there's lots of different tools you can use for that. Ah, good place to start those Episode 83 where I talk about the different farm animal personality types. It's a fun episode, but it will give you some insight. I'm a rooster in case you're wondering. That's why I find peace and relax ation from movement, right? Organizing, cleaning, walking, running. That's where I find my stillness in a weird, roundabout way. But if you're a different personality type, you will find your, ah, peace in different options. So figure out what you are and then be sure to accommodate that and give yourself that grace to be who you are and show up the way you need to show out. So I'm rooting for you friends. Whether you are growing food now you're looking at growing food. You're analyzing where you are, you're making changes or you're just sitting still and just take it all in. I'm here for you, rooting for you, and we're gonna make it through this together. I have no doubt, and that's it for today. Don't forget to hit. Subscribe, so all the new episodes will show up in your podcast player. And if you have a minute? I would be so grateful if you could leave a quick rating and review. I read every single one and it just helps more people find this podcast and bring home setting into their lives. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for listening. Will catch up next time on the next episode of the old fashioned on purpose podcast.