Shhhh, do not tell my husband but it is the day before Thanksgiving and as I sit in a house too quiet, (as all of our children are out and about today), I'm listening to one of my favorite pieces of Christmas music.... Christmas Canon by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I promised myself an afternoon of being curled up on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea, as it is not very often that I have the house to myself. I must admit I indulged for an hour (and even set myself a timer not because I thought I would go over that time, but because there was so much calling to me to be done that, I did not want to rush my time to just be). As I laid my book and cup down on the table I looked around at a house that needed to be picked up, a floor that yet again needed to be vacuumed, and the dishes in the sink , granola that needed to be made, and a soap shelf that was way too bare, and I felt my shoulders slump and a sigh escape my lips. For just a moment I wondered what it would be like to be 'all caught up', the dishes washed and neatly put away, the piles of items belonging to each one of our children all tidied up and put back where they belong, the carpet vacuumed, and the couch cushions put just right. It is at times like this when the weariness of 'things that need to be done' can begin to replace the joy of what we already have, that I realized that to obtain (the seemingly unobtainable right now) would mean that our children would be all grown up, their items all in homes of their own, their shoes lined up at a door that I was not opening each day to hear their voice and laughter, time not spent with family as they would all be on their own adventures, but time to have a pristinely kept house, a daily vacuumed carpet and no dishes in the sink. Is that really what I wanted? On this eve of Thanksgiving as the granola bakes in the oven, as the groceries are put away, and the carpet finally gets vacuumed, I want to be very thankful for a home where there is evidence of our children's lives still being entwined with ours. Thankful for a home where evidence of a life lived together is captured in each little pile of books, board games, kindles, and even the odd sock or two laying around.
It is our busy season with the soaps and lotions, and we have had some really great shows over the past few weeks and had a great opportunity to meet some lovely people in the process, and although that means an ever-increasing workload to keep up with demand, again I am thankful. Thankful for a business that I am able to do from home, that allows me time to homeschool the youngest two of our family, time to enjoy our goats, because without them we would not be able to bring you these great moisturizing goat milk soaps and lotions.
A good friend told me toward the beginning of this year that her word for the year seemed to be 'balance' and boy was she right. I would have loved to spend the rest of the afternoon crafting goat milk soap but knew that the house and baking etc. had definitely taken a back seat over the last couple of weeks, so in an endeavor to remain balanced between, work, home life and rest.... the house won (although I did get to read too this afternoon, almost curled up on the couch). The granola is baking, the groceries are nearly all put away. Next, I'll bake the carrot cake we will take to friends tomorrow for Thanksgiving (not sure if that is very Thanksgiving ishy, but I'm not a good pie baker at all!) and the green bean casserole. Then maybe this evening when all is quiet again, I'll turn my hand to some soap.
Thanksgiving (contrary to popular belief) is not celebrated in England, and I must admit that Christmas is my favorite, but I am still very thankful for the opportunity to reflect and be thankful. I would like you to know how very thankful we are to you as well for your continued support of our business and what that means for us as a family. I would like to take the time to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving from us here at Farm On The Hill and from our home to yours.
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