Hi, Hey, Hello!
So glad to have you pop over! I’ve got the kettle on, a pot of green chile stew simmering up, and just pulled some skillet blue corn bread from the oven. Have a seat and let me know what I can bring to the table while we share some space and time together.
Would you like coffee or tea today?
Now, how the heck are you? Was your week a good one? Full of the same ol’ same ol’ or was there a happy surprise or two thrown in for you?
I tend to live a rather quiet life with minimal surprises (as I like it) outside of the random farm animal escaping or doing something they shouldn’t. Week to week mostly rolls out the same if not very similar. I’m a big fan of routine despite my Sagittarius signage 😉
So what was so different this week? A few things:
Cousin Chats
My closest cousin and I try to stay in touch as best as we can despite the miles between us and our established routines but it’s been a while since we last chatted so we fixed that this week… with multiple calls and a handful of hours spent chatting, texting, and sharing videos and articles. Some of our convos were about general catch up but the majority of our shared time was spent chatting about the state of the USA and the world at large, how we’re both navigating the chaos, and how we might best plan/prepare for an uncertain future while maintaining hope, simple joys, and our sanity.
We didn’t solve all the woes upon and around us but it’s always nice to share time and space with him, especially since so many of our world views are in line with each other.
Quick Bestie Visit
My best friend and I have been besties for 35 years now, having met in 7th grade Journalism class. She hasn’t lived in the same state as me for over 15 years but we stay in touch daily via the Marco Polo app and try to see each other once a year or so.
Unfortunately, our time together this week was due to the passing of her maternal Grandma.
That sadness aside, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a favorite local African restaurant, Jambo, and a quick jaunt to our favorite bookstore, The Ark, where she found a beautiful mug for herself and a book for her niece. I walked away with a silver ritual candle and a “Today is a Good Day to Smash the Patriarchy” sticker.
Two hours together will never be long enough, but neither would two weeks, so we take what we can get 🙂
We also decided to start buddy-reading Wicked together. I’m happily chuckling my way through the first few hours of it this weekend.
What are you reading now?
Trip Planning
Have I told you about my lovely surprise half sister? We were both thoroughly surprised to find each other in 2019 through DNA testing and, after allowing some of the dust to settle, have spent the last few years slowly building a beautiful relationship.
Let me tell you, finding family and building relationships as an adult is a wild experience.
We met for the first time in October of 2022 in a shared family vacation at Disney Land and it was so great and so very busy.
Fast forward to this spring and she is planning to bring her family to New Mexico to spend some time here at the farm as well as to explore Santa Fe. So, we did some more chatting about time frames and options this week. I am honored and so very excited to have her visit my home and my home town.
Goat Breeding
Typically goat breeding “season” is in the Fall for Spring kids but we’ve shifted our schedule forward the last few years to Winter breeding for Summer kids. However, our girls seem to have been on breeding strike until this week. Fingers crossed the deal has been sealed for a couple of our does, but we’ll know more in about three weeks.
Any goat kid fans here?
Cookie Selling
Our youngest daughter (11) joined Girl Scouts last year so we’re selling cookies for the first time (ever) this year and it’s… a lot. Good, yes, but also a lot. So, we’re trying to sell sell sell and learning a ton along the way.
Any past or present Cookie Sales-people here?
Closet Clean Out and Guinea Pig cuddles
While not as exciting as some of the above, we convinced the above mentioned daughter to clean out her closet and dresser in exchange for some Fortnite V-bucks today. Unlike every other time, it was easy peasy and we walked out of her bedroom with two full bags of donations. Kiddos grow so fast, it can sometimes be hard to let go of outgrown favorite shirts and such, but it always feels good to let stuff go.
We finished up our time in her room with some solid Guinea Pig socialization and learned they are big fans of small spaces close to my heart AKA my overalls 😉
They almost fell asleep before I had to get up from my seat on the floor because my bum fell asleep first.
And there you have it, my exciting week outside of the typical homeschool tasks, chores and housekeeping, farm life, volunteerism, and errands.
My heart is happy. I hope yours is, too.
Thanks for joining me over a cuppa with Natalie the Explorer as our host. I look forward to visiting your space(s) shortly.
Onward,
Melissa
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Whew! That is a lot going on! I think some of those deserve their own posts! 😂 our week was pretty tame – some unexpected snow and all that but still tame. I usually take tea with a bit of honey. 😉
Ha! I had the same thought but didn’t have time to sit and blog until tonight so thought I’d just throw it all in the pot 😉 Glad you popped by, I like honey in my tea as well 🙂 Hope you have a great rest of your weekend!
Love the guinea pigs!
Aren’t they the cutest!? I had no idea they’d steal my heart so!
Really nice pictures of you and your friend. The guinea pigs and the kids are adorable. Yes, Girl Scouts is a lot. Those days are long gone, but I still remember them. No advice other then to keep calm and carry on. You will get through this and the bonus is that you will have some cookies to munch along the way. 😉
Thank you so much, Laurie. It was such a joy to see Jacqueline 🙂 And yes, keep calm and carry on + cookies. That’s all we can do, right?
You bet! I am guessing there will be a lot of cookies consumed over the next four years.
Sounds like a wonderful week, Melissa. I have one question. Is there a difference between blue cornbread and cornbread? I love cornbread; I usually serve it with corn soup.
Hi! Yes, blue corn is a landrace flour corn that grows well in hotter, drier climates. The seed I was given by a local farmer several years ago is from corn raised here in New Mexico for centuries by the Indigenous peoples. It is a glorious deep indigo and can be used for breads, tortillas, polenta, atole, and so much more. Thank you for asking, it is my favorite crop to grow 🙂
Hi Melissa,
So lovely to meet you and so much to respond to there, but I need to get to bed. Finding a half-sister sounds fabulous to me, especially if it all worked out. I live just North of Sydney, Australia and both my kids did scouts but we had to sell chocolates instead and do sausage sizzles at our local hardware store- Bunnings. These BBQs were a right of passage pre covid lockdown and I don’t think I’ve even had a sausage sanger since then. Well, Id better get to bed. Our daughter is supposed to be waking up to get to the Billie Eilish concert and I’ve been hearing her alarm but no sign of her. Think I need to bang on her door.
Best wishes,
Rowena
Hi Rowena! So lovely to see you again! It’s been a long time since we’ve communicated regularly but I remember you and your beautiful blog from my early Ever Growing Farm blogging days 🙂 So glad to know that you’re still blogging! Those BBQs sound lovely! I might rather a BBQ to some cookies but it’s all in good fun. So much has changed since COVID, it’s pretty wild. I do hope your daughter made it to her Billie Eilish show! We took our 11 year old to a Billie concert last fall as her first-ever concert. It was an absolutely phenomenal show! I hope your daughter walks away with some Blohsh confetti! Hope you have a lovely week ahead!
Talking to and visiting with friends and family sounds great, even if it was for a sad occasion with your bestie. new found half sister? That would be a very interesting thing as an adult! I’m sure you are looking forward to her visit.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a wonderful week 🙂
Hi Trent! It was a very full week of wonderful connection, indeed. Funny how these things come in waves. Yes, when I took my DNA test in 2019 I learned I have three half-siblings, same bio-father, all different moms, spread across 16 years. Wild. One sister and I have forged a wonderful relationship and it has been *very interesting. The other two are lovely, but we have less in common. Thanks for popping over! Hope your weekend rolls up nicely.
That’s a lovely photo of you and your best friend. The goats and guinea pigs are adorable. Thank you for your weekend coffee share. Have a wonderful week ahead Melissa.
Thank you for stopping by, Natalie, and for your kind words <3 Have a lovely rest of your weekend and week ahead!
Wow! How great to discover you have a half sister. Does she enjoy similar things as you?
Gots terrify me … it is their eyes. guinea pigs are cute.
How does homeschooling work? Curious.
Yes, the discovery of half-siblings was quite a jolt, but she and I have so much in common. It’s quite wild to think about how differently we were raised and how our life paths have offered such different experiences, and yet we align on so many levels. It’s quite wonderful!
I completely understand about goat’s eyes 🙂 They are so…different. We have Nigerian Dwarf goats so they are much smaller than many common goats.
Homeschooling has been quite the learning curve for us but we began with the pandemic and have continued since. We focus on learning core subjects + Spanish for about 3 hours each day, incorporating various methods. We volunteer for 3 hours every week at a cat adoption center doing habitat maintenance and health tracking. She takes 1-3 online classes per semester through a platform called Outschool, this semester includes a class on ocean life taught by her favorite Wildlife Biologist and an intro to typing class. She also attends an afterschool program twice a week for group social time (in addition to Spring Break and Summer camps). She has always wanted to be a Zoologist so we focus a lot on biology, zoology, the environment and microclimates. Outside of official “learning time” she is free to do as she pleases as long as it includes time outside on the farm, pet care, and brain breaks from screen time (she’s 11 so video game are just beginning to take their hold).
Hi Melissa, it’s great you have so much in common. And as for homeschooling, I think it is great. I took our daughter out of school at 13years old so she could iceskate full time. Then she moved to France with a top trainer and did some exams … then went on to the university in Lyon to study French for a year. Later did her masters in business studies. It never hindered her progerss in life. Zoology sounds great and if your daughter has an interest in that area the passion to study and succeed is there
Thank you so much for sharing your daughter’s journey. I love hearing how children who have had an “alternative” education have found success in their adulthood. Such an inspiration! Good job, Mama 🙂
Oh no … I wrote a lengthy comment then WP decided it was a duplicate. Is it there in the attic, cellar … or in the barn with the goats. That’s it. They’ve eaten it… it’s a consiracy.
I was saying how wonderful to discover you had a half-sister and wondered if you had similar interests.
I also asked about home schooling …
Oh goodness, pesky WordPress. I’m so sorry that happened, I know the frustration of it. I’ll respond under the portion that showed up 🙂 Thank you for your persistence,
How strange, the first comment is now there but half of it is missing. My brain hurts. Night night 🙂
So wonderful to have been friends with someone so long. I have friends going back 30+ years but we all live in different countries and meeting is hard but we have an ongoing chat group to stay connected.
A long lost sister.. wow.. that is wild. Nice to hear you two are cultivating a relationship.
I’m so glad to hear you have decades long friendships, too! Even with miles between us, technology is such a gift in keeping the conversations going! The same can be said for cultivating new relationships in all their wildness 😉 Hope you’re having a great week!
What a great update. Love the mug in the photo..coffee will probably always be my choice. I highly doubt I have long lost siblings, but how weird that would be, but also kind of cool.
We always have coffee on hand as it’s my wife’s favorite, so I’ve got you covered! Surprise siblings are a trip and are more common than most think. DNA has blown all the family secrets straight out in the open 😉 Thanks for popping by! Hope your week is treating you well!
How exciting about your half-sister and her family spending time in the spring. I’m really sorry hear about your friend’s grandmother. Here are to more in-person meet-ups but thankfully there are apps that keep us connected.
I’m sorry to hear about you friend’s grandmother. Here are to more in-person meet-ups — thankfully there are apps that keep us connected.
Also how exciting that your half-sister and her family coming to New Mexico for the spring.