Fun Weekend Plans & Happy Friday!

Happy Friday, friends!

It’s a beautiful day out here at Ocoee Farm, so we spent the morning walking the property and checking out the new fence.

A fence at the farm completely changes everything: we’re able to have more animals, create a diverse ecosystem that will hopefully produce more carbon into the air, effectively helping the earth and its atmosphere. I know that probably sounds CRAZY, and just typing it I feel overwhelmed because we’re just two people and how can we make a difference when it comes to the ongoing climate crisis? I honestly don’t know, but you gotta start somewhere, and we want to do this thing right, so we’re doing research and taking the steps to be the best little natural farm we can be.

In other news, tomorrow we’re going to one of our first social gathering events after getting vaccinated (our second dose is in a few weeks!). My best friend’s daughter is celebrating her first birthday, so we’re all going to be celebrating with her around actual people in an actual social setting for the first time in over a year. It’s weird to think about, isn’t it? But also, so thrilling.

We haven’t been anywhere with all three kids in an environment like that in so long that I don’t know how they’ll even act, but I do know they do so well in public places that I’m not worried in the least. I’m just excited for them; little sis is looking forward to getting to hold Betsy (she loves babies) and the boys will get to eat some cake. So basically we all win.

PJ has been on the phone all morning with the fence guy and the concrete guy and the painter and the pond guy and is currently outside with one of them discussing a new concrete patio/front porch for Holiday House. I am so, so, so thankful for him and for his ability to make things happen.

The thing to know about PJ is that he always has a plan. Always. He doesn't do anything unless he is 100% sure and has considered every other option. My guy. He’s a good one, y’all. The best one, in fact.

Hope you have a great weekend and soak up some fresh air and sunshine, if you can. xoxo

Welcome to Ocoee Farm!

Good morning friends!

We created a new Instagram account called Ocoee Farm to document the journey of starting our little farm and renovating Holiday House out here in Ocoee, Tennessee. Click here to follow along, if you want :).

We've Spent a Month Straight at Holiday House

The question that’s been on my mind lately: are we ever going home?

To be clear, we’ve been to our house in town many times over the last 30 days, but we’ve not actually spent the night there in more than a month. How wild is that? I can honestly say I never pictured that I would enjoy living in a half-torn apart trailer in the country more than living in our fully-renovated house in the middle of the city. Isn’t it funny how life changes your priorities so quickly? Isn’t it funny how having kids changes your priorities so quickly?

We know how important the farm is for the kiddos during this time in their lives, which is a huge reason we’re spending more time out here lately. They have the space and freedom to run around and climb trees and get dirty and play with animals and explore. It’s perfect for them. And guess what? It’s perfect for us, too.

PJ has been getting a new animal every week (like he did when he was little growing up on his family’s farm 😂), so with that comes many firsts for the kids, and, to be honest, for me too. I didn’t grow up on a farm or around sheep and geese and cows like PJ did, so it’s been just as exciting for me to see how cute and fun they can be. Spoiler alert: pretty darn cute and fun.

Life is different here, in a good way. Every day is something new and there’s always work to be done. I am hoping I feel as enthusiastic about spending time on the farm this summer as I do now, because while the weather has been somewhat mild lately (making it easy to be outside for long periods of time), this week it’s supposed to be in the 80’s a lot, which will lead into a mostly in-the-90’s-every-day kind of summer here in Tennessee. It can be unbearable, truly, to be outside unless you’re in shade or around some type of water to cool you off. We’re working on the water situation as we speak. Will we have something by summer? TBD.

So, are we ever going home? Yes, of course. But I don’t think any of us would mind if it wasn’t for a little while longer.

The Pink Moon

Did you see the moon tonight?

It’s the first supermoon of the year and it stopped me in my tracks tonight as we were all heading back inside from chatting with our neighbors here at the farm. It was so beautiful and bright, it looked like the sun!

This supermoon is nicknamed the “pink” moon because of how close it’s appearing next to flower blooming season. Who knew?

There’s another supermoon coming next month on May 26 that’s supposed to be even bigger and brighter than tonight’s. Can you imagine?

Mark your calendars!

The Power of Inspiration

The name of this post sounds like the title of a self-help book, doesn’t it? Is there already a book called this somewhere? I need to research that.

Good morning, friends. It’s Monday morning and I’m already on my second cup of coffee (something that doesn’t usually happen until mid-afternoon). We set up a little tiny desk area in the living room at Holiday House, which feels better than working at the dining room table or the new island, so I’m currently writing at that this morning while editing next week’s YouTube video. This place is starting to feel more and more like home.

As I’ve kind of touched on the blog before, we’re both feeling so inspired lately. We wake up to the view of the mountain bursting through the living room window and immediately feel creativity strike. We have always enjoyed slow mornings, both in town and at Holiday House, but especially here at HH. We take our time drinking our coffee before getting started on the day and it’s a time that’s become a sort of ritual for us, one that I know we both cherish deeply (whether we realize it or not).

This burst of inspiration is something neither of us takes lightly. I know that probably sounds silly to say, but if I’m being honest, we’ve both felt quite uninspired for some time now that this new point of view, no matter how long it lasts, is such an exciting and fresh outlook that just feels so, to put it bluntly…good. It feels good, y’all.

I know the biggest source for our inspiration lately is the farm and Holiday House. Being out here means something new for our family every day and the kids are feeling it, too. There’s so much work to be done to get this place to where we want it to be, but that part, the journey, is where inspiration is born for us. It’s the possibility of what this place could be that is the exciting part, the dreaming and the planning and the doing, and when it all comes together at the end…there’s somehow still more work to be done. And that’s the beauty of it.

We’re both creatives, sometimes in the same ways and sometimes in different ways. It’s what we do for a living with social media and flipping/renovating houses. We’re visual people who get excited about having a project to work on and who generally don’t like it when there’s down time and nothing to do. We thrive, personally and professionally, when we’re both busy and using our minds to get creative and build. For PJ, that’s quite literal: building things at home, at the land and Holiday House, something for the kids. He loves to construct and is extremely analytical. His mind works so differently than mine in that he can see how all the pieces will fit together long before they actually do. I can see thing like that when it comes to designs and layouts, but his ability to envision something fully finished is quite extraordinary.

I don’t know how long this new-found inspiration will last, but I know we’re making the most of it while it’s here. I do know that inspiration comes and goes and that’s just part of it. Right now it’s going and we’re taking advantage of it every day.

Happy Monday, y’all! Hoping inspiration strikes for you at least once today.

How Many Sheep is Too Many Sheep?

Asking for a friend :)

THE HORNS.

If there’s one thing my husband loves in abundance, it’s animals. And we now have the space to finally get the ones he’s always wanted- the ones he hasn’t had since his magical childhood growing up on his family’s farm.

How many sheep is too many sheep? I may have to get back to you on that one.

Happy Earth Day!

Let’s all remember to take in a deep breath of fresh air, get outside as much as we can, and treat the earth a little kinder today (really, every day should be Earth Day, but you get the picture).

Some photos of our beautiful earth around Ocoee Farm, below:

Have a good one, y’all!!! xx

How Refugees Celebrate Ramadan

April 12th was the beginning of Ramadan, and over on USA for UNHCR’s blog, they’re spotlighting a few refugees and how they’re celebrating the Islamic holiday.

Abdelwahed (above), has been a refugee in Jordan for the past nine years. He talks about how different Ramadan is for him in Jordan than it was at his home in Homs, Syria: “Ramadan in Homs was beautiful. I used to go to work before dawn, have Suhoor at the shop and stay up all night. I used to pray in the afternoon then take my children for a ride in the car, as a treat to smell the fresh air,” he says.

They also share a bit about Abdallah, a 13 year old boy who cares for his visually impaired mother. When he gets home from school every day, he organizes their laundry and takes her to the local market to buy fruit. They’ve been living in a small apartment for the past nine years, also in Jordan, and will be fasting and praying for Ramadan at home this year.

His mother, who lost her sight as a result of the psychological effects of the Syrian conflict, gushes about Abdallah: “The best moment of the day is when Abdallah is next to me. Even if he leaves me just for an hour, I feel sad and worried. He is the only thing left for me in this life.”

To read more about how refugees are celebrating Ramadan this year, click here, and thank you so much USA for UNHCR for sharing these stories!!!

(above images & information via USA for UNHCR’s website)

Can You Sign This Petition to Help Refugees Get COVID-19 Vaccines?

Often, refugees are some of the most vulnerable people on earth, and the COVID-19 pandemic has left them even more at risk.

As vaccines start to roll out all over the world, refugees have every right to have equal access to them as much as everyone else does. USA for UNHCR has started a petition to help get more refugees vaccinated so they can continue to protect themselves and their family.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says, “Global and equitable access is what will ultimately protect lives and stem the pandemic.” USA for UNHCR goes on to explain that, “as caring Americans, it is our moral obligation — as well as a public health and economic imperative — to ensure that refugees and forcibly displaced people have equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other preventative measures.”

If you can, please click here to sign the petition to stand with refugees and their human right to have access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Thank you so much, friends!!!

(image via USA for UNHCR’s website)

The Perks of Having an Older Brother

When you have two older brothers, you get to wear the clothes they no longer fit into, and sometimes, they look better on you than they did on them! Case in point: little sis’ mustard yellow pants she wore yesterday that I bought for little brother last year at Goodwill. How cute do they look on her?

He was only able to wear them for a few months before they became too small and now they fit little sis perfectly. They may have come with a little blue paint stain on the bottom pant leg, but you can only see if it you look closely :).

Sis has basically been living in her brothers’ old clothes lately since we’ve been staying out at the farm so much. They’re perfect for getting dirty and come in handy when we just need to throw something on. When we’re not getting dirty, though, she’s actually really started to take an interest in what she’s wearing and it’s the sweetest thing ever. She loves pink (which happens to be one of my least favorite colors ever) and anything with Minnie Mouse on it.

I don’t think she could get any cuter if she tried.

A Night of (Much Needed) Normalcy

The other night we went to our cousin Lauren’s house for a cookout with her husband Brent and their two girls. And friends, we it was exactly what we needed.

The air was cool and breezy in the most springtime way that only this time of year in Tennessee can bring. Lauren and Brent made us dinner for the second weekend in a row: last weekend they camped out at the farm and Brent smoked a pork butt for everyone and it was so delicious and wonderful to not have to cook dinner!! Truly, having someone else make you dinner is suddenly my love language as an adult. I know how much work goes into making meals now that I’m cooking for our family of five, so anytime someone makes us dinner, I am eternally grateful.

Our kids and theirs play so well together and it’s such a treat for us to see our kiddos interact with others. Does that sound weird? It sounds weird to read out loud, but, as sad as it is, because of social distancing, our kids don’t play with other kids and haven’t had a chance to make real friends this past year. We are sending the boys to school in the fall, so we’re both excited to see them learn from other kids, to form friendships, to bond with someone other than each other, etc. It’s going to be an entirely different phase of parenting and life in general, but we’re excited for what it will mean for them and their development.

Anyway, the kids ran off and played together in the big field and on the trampoline and on their playhouse jungle gym and we were able to relax by the fire with a glass of wine and a yummy burger. Like so many others, this is a new experience for us (spending more time with family, being in the same vicinity of others), one the importance of can’t be underestated. Last year was, to but it plainly, horrible, so even a night with family around a fire can feel like the absolute greatest night in the world. And it was!

We talked about PJ and Lauren’s childhood memories at Lauren’s house (which was their grandma’s house when they were growing up, and where they spent every day playing- the same grandma that PJ adored and who instilled his love of plants and gardening), we talked about the pandemic and how we’re all dealing with it a year later, we traded stories of our kids and their quirks and how much they make us laugh. Lauren and Brent are amazing people and we have all been making plans to spend more time together this summer, starting with the other night. We just enjoyed each other’s company for a few hours.

A few lovely, much needed hours.

This Movie is Giving Us Major Inspiration for the Kitchen at Holiday House

Good morning, friend!

The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. The coffee is hot. It’s a beautiful spring morning here at Holiday House! So, let’s do something fun and talk design, shall we?

My favorite part (and maybe PJ’s, too) of any renovation is the design process.

Though the time for picking out the finishings is still a ways off, I thought it would be fun to show you kind of where our heads are at as far as kitchen layout/style/feel for Holiday House. Have you seen the Nancy Myers’ classic It’s Complicated? I have always been so in love with Meryl Streep’s character’s kitchen in that movie, from the freestanding island with the marble countertop to the open shelving and sink skirt. What’s crazy, though, is that the layout of this kitchen matches Holiday House’s exactly, down to the stove up against the right wall (though, admittedly, the kitchen in the movie is a lot bigger than Holiday House’s and is nestled within a ginormous California Spanish-style ranch home that Grace, a baker, lives in).

I think the thing we both love about her kitchen is how pieced together it feels, like someone just put this here and that there and it magically turned out magazine-ready (though, obviously, it most definitely wasn’t, and a lot of precise care and design went into creating it on a soundstage). It just works. It’s not overly fancy, but it’s obviously gorgeous. It’s not pretentious, but it’s definitely sophisticated. It’s just a stunning, functional space where everything seems to fit in its place.

Similar layouts, right?

We’re both envisioning a sort of very European-inspired kitchen when it comes to colors and overall feel, but one that also lends itself to the green, rolling hills of the farm and the sense of nature they bring.

We want open shelving on the left side of the sink for easy access to the dishes we use the most. Upper cabinets almost always make a kitchen feel smaller (we have two big ones on the sink wall in our kitchen back at home, and while we love them, we’ve talked for years about removing them and putting open shelving there instead). We’ll also be putting a much, much bigger window over the sink area to let in even more light and to get a better view of the land outside.

PJ found an island on FB Marketplace a few months back that fits perfectly in the kitchen and is giving us so much more counter space. For a few months we weren’t able to use it because of the heater that was there before (and there was also an issue where there was a giant hole in the floor where a wall had previously been- an entirely different story- but PJ fixed it and all is well now), but thanks to PJ (always thanks to PJ!), he demoed and moved the heater so the island fits perfectly. It’s now where we all eat and where I make meals and it’s so nice to have more counter space. It also makes the kitchen feel like an actual kitchen! Weird how that happens.

The new island will separate the kitchen from the dining room (again, just like the kitchen in It’s Complicated), similar to the picture below.

PJ was working all weekend on Holiday House reframing walls and tearing down old paneling. I absolutely love to watch him work and come up with new ideas in his head that he then implements in almost lightning speed. We’re both so excited to have a functioning, enjoyable-to-be-in kitchen at Holiday House that the whole family can cook and eat in.

One day at a time!!!

(all images via Pinterest)

What is a Refugee Camp?

It’s a valid question for anyone unfamiliar with the everyday struggles refugees face all around the world, so today, with help from USA for UNHCR, let’s go in depth on what exactly a refugee camp is.

Per their website, USA for UNHCR explains that refugee camps are “temporary facilities built to provide immediate protection and assistance to people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or violence.” Quite simply, they are places to for people to go when they have nowhere else to go. They can be what separates one from living and dying. They are very, very important, so it only makes sense we should know more about them.

Startling numbers about refugee camps:

• 6 million refugees live in refugee camps- 22% of the world’s overall refugee population.

• 800k Rohingya refugees are hosted in Kutupalong refugee resettlement in Bangladesh- more than the total population of Washington, D.C.

• More than half of refugees living in Za’atari and Azraq refugee camp are children.

Services provided at camps:

• Shelter

• Food

• Emergency relief items

• Water and sanitation

• Healthcare and counseling

• Registration and legal aid

Length of time refugees live in camps:

“The average length of time that refugees spend in camps varies depending on the crisis. In protracted refugee situations - where mass displacement has affected a country for five years or more -, refugees may spend years and even decades living in camps and it is common to have entire generations growing up in the camps.” -USA for UNHCR.

Fact:

The vast majority of refugees (about 78%) do not live in camps, but rather in cities. Unfortunately, urban locations, while they do offer more opportunities to find employment, they also present major challenges for refugees, as they are often forced to share housing or live in “non-functional buildings, collective centers, slums or other types of informal settlements with substandard living conditions.”

The largest refugee camp in the world is:

The Kutupalong refugee resettlement, located in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh. The settlement hosts more than 800,000 refugees (who fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and who more than half are children) among its 26 camps.

USA for UNCHCR heartbreakingly explains, “On March 22, a massive fire broke out at Kutupalong refugee camp, destroying 9,500 shelters and leaving more than 45,000 refugees temporarily homeless. Approximately 1,600 important infrastructure facilities - including hospitals, learning centers, aid distribution points and a registration center - were also destroyed. For the thousands of Rohingya refugees who had already suffered trauma when they were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017, this will be the second time they will have to restart their lives.”

COVID-19 impact on refugee camps:

Last year, “many countries temporarily suspended their resettlement programs, leaving millions of refugees stranded and without the possibility to restart their lives. From the 1.44 million refugees in need of resettlement last year, fewer than two percent were resettled - the lowest resettlement numbers recorded in almost two decades and an 80 percent reduction from the previous year.”

How to help:

USA for UNHCR explains how becoming a monthly donor is the best way to help them “ensure families in refugee camps have access to immediate aid, including critical supplies and programs to help them rebuild their lives.”

In a time when so many people are suffering in so many ways all around the world, even a little can go a very long way. Thank you to USA for UNHCR for all the work you to do help the global refugee crisis.

All information in today’s post is from USA for UNHCR’s website. Please click here if you want more info and to see more ways to help.

(images via USA for UNHCR, here and here)

Early Morning Breakfast Date

I woke up early this morning, before anyone else, to drink my coffee in the blinding morning light and to write/work on a few things. Then, I heard a noise coming from behind me. Someone was heading to the bathroom…

…thinking it was PJ, I made him a quick cup of coffee so it would be ready for him when he got out. A minute later I heard someone behind me, so I turned around to tell PJ good morning. Only, it wasn’t PJ. It was little brother!

I gave him the biggest good morning hug I could and he immediately asked for cereal, so I poured him a bowl of their favorite as of last week (Fruity Pebbles) and we sat at the new island in Holiday House’s kitchen (that is currently being torn apart and put back together) and had a little breakfast date, just the two of us.

And it was very, very nice.

Cozy Friday Night & Happy Friday!

“Happy Friday! What’s for dinner?”

This was the text I received from my sister a few hours ago, and it’s not unlike the texts I receive every night from her. She lives almost five hours away so we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, but we try to always make a point to ask each other what the other is cooking for dinner, and I love it every time (no matter what we’re cooking that night).

She and her husband have six kids, so she’s my go-to for parenting questions and dinner ideas. She’s been through and seen it all, and I’m so grateful for the quick test exchanges we have regarding what we’re cooking, drinking, doing, etc.

Tonight I made Pad Thai for the first time! I was surprised by how quick and easy it was to make. eat Pad Thai from a local place in town once a week, so I thought I would try my hand at making it. It wasn’t Fuji Express good, but it was first-time-ever-making-it-good. You know what I’m talking about. Right?

Right now PJ and the kids are outside running around and climbing trees and I just cleaned the kitchen and am now listening to jazz music while sipping on a glass of white. After a horrible, horrible day yesterday (having to do with a contractor we hired to work on the farm), it feels good to relax tonight. We were going, going, going, all day today, and I don’t think TGIF has ever been more appropriate in the history of phrases than it is tonight.

Happy Friday night, friends!!! I hope it’s a relaxing one. xoxo

Head in the Clouds

Happy Friday friends!

I have such a love/hate relationship with springtime. I love the feelings of renewal and rebirth that come with it, but absolutely loathe pollen and what this time of year means for my allergies. I get them so badly right around this time annually and wouldn’t you know it: they’re back again with a vengeance this year.

My head is foggy and stopped up, which leaves me feeling lethargic and so very blah. We have a busy day ahead of us so I’m taking all the Claritin and Flonase and hoping they do their jobs.

Sending you love today and hoping you (and your allergies) have a great weekend!!

Our First Farm Animals!!!

Y’all!

We can officially call our land a “farm”. After years of talking and dreaming and planning, we finally did something a few weeks back that feels like the first step (of many) towards the future of our land.

Oops, of our farm.

Over on Instagram last month, we talked about getting chickens, and PJ even took the kids to the store to look at them (they were obsessed). After talking about it more, we decided to hold off on getting them for the time being, as we didn’t have anywhere to put them right then (and chickens didn’t really fit in line with our 2021 word of the year “simplify”). Also, at the time, we weren’t really spending as much time out at Holiday House as we are now. We’ve been spending almost every night out here for the last few weeks and our mindset has started to shift a little. Okay, a lot.

Things that seemed like they would be impossible before, suddenly seem doable. And honestly nothing has really changed but our desire to start living a little differently. Holiday House, and now the farm, now seem like a realistic endeavor for many reasons, some of which we’ll share at a later time, but for now, adding sheep and even chickens doesn’t seem as impossible as it did before, and I think it’s because we finally just committed to spending more time out here than we used to.

Because our house in town is pretty far from the farm, the idea of staying at our townhouse 24/7 and then driving out to the farm to take care of animals every day didn’t make sense logistically. The animals wouldn’t get the care they needed to thrive and the eventual farm would suffer because of it. There would be no realistic way to do this thing the right way unless we were 100% committed to the land, to the animals, and to the new lifestyle we’re slowly inching towards. SO, we decided to make small changes to make spending the night out at Holiday House more enjoyable (more on that in future posts).

(Showing the kids and our cousin’s daughters the sheep)

We plan to have a few fences built on the farm so we can keep most of the animals together while they add nourishment to the land. The guy PJ hired to build the fence for us called PJ yesterday and said we are on the schedule for this Monday (!) which is about a week sooner than he originally said, so we’re now even more excited about the whole thing. We both know contractors sometimes fail to meet their deadlines because, well, life happens, but we’re hoping everything goes smoothly with the fence building so we can hurry up and move these babies into a bigger pasture.

Look how cute they are!! Don’t they look a little like baby deer? The brown ones are a mix breed of Katahdin and Mouflon, and the all-white one (with a brown eye patch) is full Mouflon. The Katahdin (named after Mount Katahdin in Maine) are apparently some the easiest sheep to take care of- they require no sheering and very little maintenance and are super adaptable. PJ loves the brown coloring and how “wild” they feel, whereas the white one is a little more tame.

For now, before the bigger fence is built, we’re all enjoying coming up to the little fence every day as PJ feeds them, and trying to pet them (key word: trying, as they run away from us every time we get even a little close to them. Hoping they warm up to us all soon!). It’s funny how having a few “farm animals” out here changes the feel of this place for me. Before, when we first bought it, it was just a bunch of overgrown grass with a ton of possibility. Now, after PJ has been creating roads (yes, he is digging out roads himself with the tractor!), bush hogging and mowing, clearing a few trees to make way for more trees, building a small pond, and fixing up Holiday House, our farm is starting to actually feel like…well, a farm.

And it feels great, friends. And we love it out here so, so, so much.

PS: We need names! We think we have one nailed down for the white sheep, but we really want to let the kids name them. The only problem with that is, every time we ask them what we should call them, they just keep saying their names should all be “Sheep”. TBD on if that name actually sticks.