When I look back at this year, I stand in awe. I wonder at how fast the year flew, and yet how slow it still seems to have passed, at the same time. How can something feel both fast and slow? Almost as though I’m standing outside of it… to look back upon each individual moment, they all seemed lengthy while in the midst… but now, it’s a blur of memories, and it feels like it went too fast. Time slips through even the most deft of fingers. It waits for no one, and no matter what, it keeps moving. So all I can do is pause my mind, settle my heart, and thank God for what He has done in 2022.

Over the course of 2022, we saw the launch of our farm business. Under that banner, five goat kids were born, eggs were incubated, chicks were hatched, and rabbits were introduced to the farm. I sold our first goat kid to a sweet family in Georgia, and they send me updates on him from time to time, which I love. I made and sold body butter, soap, and lip balms. I learned more about herbs and holistic medicine. I learned how to collect and render pine sap. I made salves and balms. We built fences, coops, barns, and hutches. We picked wild blackberries and made jam. I learned to make kefir, kombucha, all kinds of cheese, clabbered milk, fermented chicken feed, and bread. We gardened, sometimes without much yield, but we learned things. We brought barn cats to the farm to help with mice, and we adopted dogs. We have grown in our skills, strength, and abilities, and I’m so incredibly proud of our family.

We have known love and laughter and joy.

But we have known pain as well. In May, we had to say goodbye to our dearly loved 14-year-old Aussie shepherd Jake the day before Mother’s Day. We lost one of our barn cats (Watson) to a neighbor’s dog that attacked him. We lost chicks, hens, and rabbits. We even lost my very first chicken Gloria and the surprise kits our rabbit Holly kindled in late fall.

This is the life of a farmer. To know and to suffer loss, but still get up each morning with the conviction to keep going. The pain and the losses suffered not only teach us lessons for the future, but they build character.

We saw friends move away, in pursuit of God’s calling on their lives, which is pain mixed with joy. Pain, because I hate saying goodbye. And joy, because they followed God, and I know their ministry at their new church will be rich and fulfilling and for Kingdom value. How can I be upset about that when I know it was for good and God’s glory? It makes the surety of heaven that much sweeter, to know that no matter what goodbyes we experience in this life, there is a reunion waiting in the next. And that is worth the wait even in the here and now.

Besides, chances are we will still see them from time to time. I do miss their everyday presence in my life, though.

There have been other goodbyes in recent years, and I’ve been processing these throughout this year. Not the kind where a friend has moved away, but the type where I have had to step away from relationships (or let relationships walk away from me) because they were no longer healthy. I pray that Jesus will mend these wounds, heal hearts, open eyes, and bring restoration. But in the meantime, I wait.

Hubby and I each joined small group Bible studies, and I have enjoyed diving into God’s Word on my own, with my small group, and with my husband. To hold his hand each morning to pray together before he leaves for work, and to once again hold hands and pray together before we go to sleep each night has been a blessing to my heart, and I am so very thankful for him.

We have seen highs and lows, joy and pain, beauty and sorrow this year. But I treasure them all, for each lesson they taught, character they developed, and grace they lavished upon me.

I grew in 2022, both business-wise and personally, and I look forward to 2023 as a continuation of the journey before me.

Happy New Year!

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.“

Hebrews 13: 20-21