This is the time of year when the holidays are behind us and we barely know what day it is. 🙃
This is also the time of year when people tend to experience seasonal depression. There is little sunshine on some days, it seems to be gloomy outside and if you are like me and have arthritis, it is hard to move sometimes. It makes it hard to enjoy these winter months.
People tend to dread the winter months for one reason or another. I was one of those until I changed my mindset.
Now I look at it as God telling me to slow down and rest a bit. Enjoy the calm. Embrace the relaxation. Take in the stillness. Our minds and bodies need a reset.
I now try to romanticize winter. What I mean is, make it romantic and enjoyable. Here are some ways you can do that:
*Whenever possible, curl up with a good book and a warm beverage
*Light some candles or diffuse some warm and uplifting essential oils
*make use of the fireplace. We even like to roast hot dogs and marshmallows in them for the grandkids.
*if you don't have a fireplace, turn on YouTube and find some kind of "ambience" theme like fireplace ambience, winter ambience, etc. They have some beautiful scenery and set to music. Play it in the background
*open the curtains and enjoy the outdoor scenery and let some light in
*display some decorative flowers like poinsettias (they are not just for Christmas you know), they can be artificial
*I use winter time to sift through the seed catalogs that come in the mail and get pen and paper to start planning our garden for the upcoming spring season
*play board games and cards with the kids
*have movie nights and popcorn or hot chocolate and smores
*get out and play in the snow and have fun
*make snow ice cream
*if you need to be active and find yourself going stir crazy, don't wait til spring to do the deep cleaning. Why not now?
*work on an indoor project you've been needing to do like decluttering and organizing.
*use this down time to do things that you will not get to do when warm weather comes because of other obligations with kids in school or when the busy, chaotic days come in the spring and summer
*stay busy if you need to but don't exert yourself. There will be plenty of time for that in a few months.
*work on some sewing, crocheting, knitting, anything to pass time but relax.
*learn a new skill you have been wanting to try but have never had time for like new recipes, making homemade bread, etc.
There is nothing like standing on the outside of your home, with snow on the ground, looking in. Your home looks so warm, cozy and inviting. That's the scene you want to create and it looks so ROMANTIC!!!!!!
Let's make it through this wonderful season God made as well.
Just in time: Our Winter Wonderland at the time I'm writing
I know we are only 8 days into January, so is it too soon to ask how you are doing? I don't think so. You see, after the holidays and all the decorations are taken down and put away, it seems kind of gloomy. It's cold outside, getting dark too early for my liking, can't really get out much and do anything, etc. This is the time of year when we ourselves, loved ones and friends can tend to get off-set and maybe getting in a depressed state of mind.
There are ways to combat this. I am a gardener and love it when I start getting those seed catalogs in the mail. I sit down with pen and paper and already start planning my garden projects. All the wonderful things I'm going to plant and anything I need to do to get prepared for the upcoming season. I can start ordering seeds and when the timing is right, maybe start some indoors. Especially the cold weather plants like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuces, etc. This lifts my mood automatically. If you need some more inspiration check out this video. Possibly start getting ready for the garden season and purchasing tools, seeds, supplies you might need for the canning season. Sometimes prices are lower in the off-season. Once you have watched this one, keep going down the playlist for more inspiration.
I also can and preserve in the off-season. Things that we don't grow in the garden and we catch them on sale at this time, we buy in bulk, bring home and preserve them. If you need some ideas on canning supplies or you are interested in beginning to can and preserve foods, check out this video and look at some more to see if there are other videos to help you get on this journey of stocking your freezers and pantries.
All of my canning supplies I use are in our Amazon Store linked below on a list labeled Canning and Preseving to make it easier to find. This time of year is usually a good time to start looking for and possibly purchasing those items while we are not in the throws of actual canning season. As soon as the actual canning season starts, things start flying off the shelf and you may not have what you need when the time comes. I like to start in the off season and get stocked up so I have everything ready on a whim.
If you have ever wanted to grow herbs inside, I can help with that also. I love growing herbs indoors in a Hydroponics System. It gives me some greenery and enjoyment during the cold months as well. Makes me long for spring. Check them out below
Now is the time to start winterizing your garden also for the upcoming spring planting season. Here's what we do.
Maybe use this time to start making some make ahead breakfasts to make your morning go by smoother and still get a nutritious breakfast in you and the family. School is back in session and we are just in survival mode now. I have a whole Make Ahead Breakfasts Playlist you can check out here on our YouTube channel to get some ideas on all the quick an easy things you can make.
I try to deep clean my home and get all the winter germs out as much as I can. We are always busy come spring so sometimes my spring cleaning is put off. So why not do it in the off-season when we have nothing else to do. Check out my Homemaking Playlist and see how I achieve this and things I use in my own home I keep my homemaking simple so I am able to keep up and maintain my home. I don't use a lot of expensive cleaners either. I make my own. I have a video of them on that same playlist. All home appliances I use to clean my home are also in my Amazon Store.
Maybe do some sewing, knitting, crafty projects to lift our spirits. Perfect time to work on hand made Christmas items for the upcoming season. Remember, we talked about starting early to get prepared for holidays? In case you missed that one here it is again so you can start now.
If you received an Instant Pot or Air Fryer for Christmas and it is still in the box because you are intimidated by it, Check out my Travel/Small Space Cooking Playlist I have all kinds of recipes and meals that I make in these two appliances for when we have to go on work trips. We do not eat out all the time when traveling. It is too expensive. So that leads me to being creative and coming up with meals to cook in these appliances and a microwave should they have one where we are staying. I was the exact same way when I first got one, but I conquered my fears and now I really rely on them for traveling.
Maybe brush up on some cooking skills and learn some new recipes. Guess what? I have a playlist for that as well on our channel. I share a lot of videos of cooking meals with some of our own canned foods and meats we have preserved in the freezer as well.
Romanticize your home. Light candles, burn some wax melts or essential oils. Light the fireplace if you have one. Snuggle up and have some warm tea, coffee, or hot chocolate and watch movies. Soak in a hot bubble bath and light candles to relax. Play those board games with the kids. Get out and build those snowmen, throw snow balls, sled, and have a good time.
Brush up on your reading. Bible, novels, self-help books, etc. Keep your mind occupied and moving.
Whatever you do, do not sit around and sull and get into that state of depression. If you need to get out, maybe join a gym and sign up for a membership. Take time to nurture your body. If you have a farm, and have farm animals to take care of, this is not a problem to get out and exercise. We don't have days off from them.
Please check on neighbors especially widows during this time.
Before you know it, the weather will be lifting and spring will follow. We just have to make it through this season.
I hope you find something here on the blog or our Channel that will inspire you, get you moving, learn something and make those plans.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
Notice these 10 BIBLICAL FOODS. And these are the exact foods the FDA, diets, and DOCTORS and MEDIA are trying to steer us away from and label them as BAD for us.
My Bible says in Genesis 1: 12:
Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Now, if God says it's good, then I'm going to go with that. 😁😁
Let's get back to researching for ourselves what we can eat and what we can't eat.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
From all of us here at 4D Farms, we would love to wish you a Happy New Year 2025.
May we take this time to plan, pray, listen, and follow his will. From him, all blessings flow, but it also comes with obedience. If we fail, may we repent and get back up. If hard times come, we seek his face, and cry out to him because he already knows the desires of our hearts. We have patience and wait for is answer. We trust that he knows what is best for us. May we continue to walk in his grace and mercy he bestows upon us.
Let's all have a good new year. Happy New Year 2025
Well, we made it to the end of 2024. Now we are looking ahead to 2025 with anticipation, excitement, hope, and God's grace.
Thank you so much for spending time with me in 2024. I hope you have learned new things and want to learn more.
We will be sharing more things here on our blog as we learn. It is all about helping others as well as educating ourselves to be more self-sufficient in the provisions God supplies us with.
In Genesis, it says that "God saw all that he made and he said, It was good!" And I believe him.
If you have been following along on our blog and YouTube channel, and you have learned something, please feel free to let us know. We love to hear from you.
We have a few last new videos coming on our channel to end 2024 and there is so much more to come in 2025.
I will post some of our latest videos here for you so you can catch up. 😉 Be sure to subscribe and turn your notifications bell on if you subscribe to our channel so you will be notified every time a new video uploads. Also, feel free to sign up for our email list so you will receive a notification when a new post releases.
And there is so much more. I hope you find something you like and are excited to see more in ths upcoming year.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. After all, HE is the Reason for the Season. Make we take this time to reflect on his purpose, diety, life, example, redemption, grace and mercy.
When I was little, my grandmother was the fried pie-making queen, among other things. Any time we were going on a day trip, she packed the biggest picnic lunches. I mean the works. Fried chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, deviled eggs, watermelon, her vanilla drop cookies, and her famous fried apple pies.
The thing is, I didn't care for them. I did not like it, and I still sometimes don't like cooked fruit. I like it raw. As I have gotten older, I guess my pallet is changing. I'm beginning to like some things. So I tried my hand at making some but instead of making a pie crust, I used canned biscuits. They turned out great. Next time I make them, I will make homemade pie crust like she did, and let's see if I like them.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
Call me old fashioned, but Christmas is my favorite time of year. I'm sentimental. I love the smell of baked goodies and the memories. I love the music, reminds me of all the choral concerts I was in when I was in elementary and jr high school, and oh, the lights. I remember trees with so many lights when I was little. Homemade ornaments. My mommas handy dandy, but careful decorating. The candy. The fire in the fireplace. The Christmas Angel's glowing. Sometimes home made gifts because you knew they were from the heart. The beautiful snow. All the memories of being with family gathered around to say the blessing and eat and laugh and have fun even if it did get a little loud. The singing Christmas songs together. Making memories for children to remember the rest of their lives. The beautiful red bows and poinsettias that was my grandmother's favorite. And the old childhood movies. Those are the memories that are dear to me and I will do my best to keep it going as long as I live. So keep up is all I gotta say. #isittoomuchtoask
I hope I'm passing down some memories for our younger generations. This is a few pics of years ago when our boys were younger and decorating our tree. They also helped every year.
Hello Friends. What have you been up to? Around here, we have been decorating, making memories, having fun, cooking, baking and just in the Christmas groove.
While the grands were at school, I set out to getting all the decorations out of storage and getting them up to the house. Sometimes you just have to man up ladies and do it yourself. 😆
I struggled while managing to get my things loaded, and one of our calves just had to christen our tree with its slobber. Thanks 😊
And in other news, this is what can happen when you get the toe of your boot stuck between the gas and brake pedal trying to back up to the door to unload stuff. Just great. 🤦♀️
Trust me when I say, I keep my man very busy around here 😌
We got the house and tree decorated. I made some new things for our house this year from the Dollar Tree haul I had last month. I made a new table scape and arrangement. I love how it turned out.
The granddaughters had fun helping me decorate. Every year they are in charge of the small Christmas village. They love setting it up. They also have their own Christmas tree.
When our boys were younger they were always the ones to set up my small Christmas village. Now, I have passed it down to the grands. They really love it. Is my OCD kicking in? You betcha, but I'm not going to touch it. They will know. TRUST ME THEY WILL KNOW. 😆 🤣
Everyone gets a new ornament every year. This is all of ours for this year.
The Santa Claus 🧑🎄 🎅 is extremely special. This belonged to my dear late Mother in law. She loved it. She always put it out just for the kids every year. It warmed her heart to make kids laugh and smile. When she passed, I told my husband I wanted it for our grands and I would keep the tradition going. They love him.
For some reason, they are extra nice to each other when he's around. Maybe I should keep him out all year long. 🤔
They helped with the tree and we finally got it all done.
The top manger scene has always been put out for Christmas ever since I was a little girl. I have protected it all these years. The bottom manger scene is one that David bought in 2014 when we spent Christmas in CO when he was on a work trip. They both have sentimental value. The girls love both of them. So a few yrs ago I gave them the one on the bottom and they loved it. 😍 I hope it serves them well in their childhoods. ❤️❤️
Then it was bath and shower time and then smores and hot chocolate. We colored some pictures for Santa to leave with his cookies and milk on his big night.
What a great day and spend the night party.
The next weekend, dear hubby planned an anniversary suprise for all of us. He wanted to share it with our girls. We use to always take our boys on dates with us for our anniversary. (We never went anywhere without our kids). He really outdid himself on this one and that is not exaggeration.
This is something I have been wanting to do for years and we finally got the chance to.
He planned, bought all our outfits, accessories and all, and suprised us by taking us to see ( and him sit through 2 long hours) the ballet production of The Nutcraker. I will post pics but sorry about the quality because you could not take flash photographs or video and we were in the balcony.
This is an experience I hope they remember for the rest of their lives. We had a great time. My man is the best.
When no one is around, I get to wrapping gifts. They know there are some already under the tree for them and we explain the purpose of gift of giving to those you love. They will still have gifts from Santa that will be put out last minute.
We also have been getting goody bags ready for kids at different families homes we do every year. This is a good way to teach them service and gift giving.
We are just going to keep doing our thing and get ready for our times together and events coming up with family.
Hang in there everyone. Breathe and slow down just a little. Don't get overwhelmed. Let's remember the Reason for the Season.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
