Thanksgiving 2021

 A Gratitude Attitude....this holiday of Thanksgiving reminds me to live with this as my attitude. Through my life experiences thus far, I have learned it is hard to be down on life when you keep the good things at the forefront. 

I have so much to be thankful for this year! First off, for having my loving partner Aiden by my side this entire year. I didn't realize before being in a relationship how amazing it is to have someone who loves you to tackle life with together. We have turned out to be an incredible team and have accomplished so much together in a short amount of time. I am thankful to God for having brought Aiden into my life and for giving me a partner that I work so well with. 

I am beyond grateful for my pregnancy and our little daughter. I never dreamed that I would be able to carry a life in my womb and I am so grateful that God has blessed both Aiden and I in this way. I am grateful for the baby's good health. I am so thankful that God made my body very strong and capable of carrying this baby.

I am so thankful for Aiden's son and for having him in our life. He is such a bright and sweet little boy and I am so happy that he has accepted me into his life and that he is excited about his little sister! It is such a blessing to see Aiden as a father to his son and to know the kind of father my daughter is going to have before she is born.  I am also grateful she is going to have a caring older brother by her side as she grows up. 

I am so thankful that Aiden's Grandpa has let us live and make use of his farm for our own projects. I'm grateful that I have this opportunity to work for myself and that I get to be my own boss. I have had many highs and lows with this experience but I have learned a lot and what I learned this year will only help us be even more organized and successful next year! 

I am grateful to Aiden, his family, and friends for all pitching in and supporting the creation of our cabin. It is so nice to have a house we can customize and live in on the farm and raise our children in; Although like us, our kids will probably be spending most of their day outside! 

I am so blessed to live on Vancouver Island which is in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in all of Canada. When the ocean is a five-minute drive from your farm it's hard to imagine a better place to live! Also, only having two weeks of snow a year rocks!

I'm thankful we were able to grow enough food to last us the winter, for our animals and their good health, for the prayers from friends and family, and for all the gifts and support I've received during my pregnancy.

Thank you to all of you who follow and support me. I am inspired by so many people in my life and your words of support and encouragement fuel me. I am so grateful to God for you all and I pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Pregnancy

 It's crazy that next week I will be in my third trimester; This pregnancy is starting to feel very real!

Being pregnant has literally been a roller coaster. I never worried about having a child or raising children. Being the eldest of eight, I've practically been working with children my entire life. We have Aiden's two-year-old son fifty percent of the time so we are already used to raising a child together; Actually doing something I would consider harder, co-parenting. 

However, I hadn't been prepared for the physical and mental toll it takes on your body. Compared to a lot of the pregnancy stories I've heard, my pregnancy has been a breeze! I had very mild morning sickness, I have had good blood pressure, my body has been doing an incredible job being an incubator, I haven't gained extra weight outside of my breasts and belly, my baby is quiet most of the time but healthy, and I haven't experienced any swelling in my ankles or legs yet. A lot of the time throughout this pregnancy I honestly forgot I was pregnant! Things felt pretty normal. 

Yet, I didn't really enjoy the first half of pregnancy at all. Being an active person, it was hard to accept I would have to stop some activities; Jiu-Jitsu and surfing for example. Extreme fatigue in the first trimester was hard to deal with because I felt useless. The smallest tasks and everyday activities were making me feel like I had just done a full day of tree planting. Having eversions to food and not feeling hungry wasn't fun either. Very glad I can enjoy food again! 

The mood swings and an increase in emotional response has been tough. I rarely cried before my pregnancy; Being pregnant I cry at least once a week, sometimes more. It can be sparked by stress, sometimes music, or emotional movies! Things just get under my skin a little easier now and I miss my thick skin. However, Aiden is always there to hold me when I get rocked by an emotional wave, and it's been incredibly comforting to have that rock and support during this intense time. 

Lately, I've been enjoying my pregnancy a lot more. Finding out our baby is a girl was very exciting! Now that I am starting to feel the baby move and my belly grow everything is starting to feel a little more real and I get excited. I think about our daughter a lot! I try not to put any expectations on the sort of person she is going to be. I honestly don't care if she is a tomboy like myself or likes pink and pretty shoes! I'm excited to meet her, to be her Mom, and find out what her interests and passions will be. 

What I didn't expect to get out of pregnancy was this feeling of power. My body is doing something incredible! There is a life growing within me that my body is nurturing and supporting twenty-four hours a day. On top of that, it can still manage to do everyday tasks. I garden, I raise livestock, cook, clean, bike, swim, lift feed bags, and stay on my feet all day while carrying this little life within me. I feel empowered by this pregnancy and I am really grateful for that! 

I feel so blessed! I never thought about having a child or a family life because of what doctors had told me but here I am.

 I am so grateful that I am going through this experience with Aiden. I already get to see him in his fatherly role so I know what kind of father he will be for our little girl. He has been through the experience of having a newborn so he knows what to expect and how to support me best. He is excited and I am too! 

In anticipation of the baby, Aiden, his friends, and family have been working really hard to put together a cabin for us on the farm. By December, we should have our own little personalized home for our daughter, son, dog, probably some fish might manage a house bunny, who knows!

So much to look forward to and many adventures to come. It hasn't been easy, but it's been incredibly fulfilling! 

Why?!! Business Advice From a 2 Year Old!

 Aiden's son's favorite word, phrase, and saying the last couple of weeks.....

"Why???" 

"Come eat dinner!"

"Why Cinta?!"

"Because......"

And this question is causing all of us in his life to think more with intention. Why do we do what we do?! In our adult stage, we start living on autopilot, muscle memory, and we rarely think about what we do anymore or why we do it. 

This past month I have been taking an online entrepreneur course, EYE Empowering Youth Entrepreneur Program. It's a paid training course for youth on Vancouver Island and the Coast in B.C to give us the tools to be self-employed and start our own business with confidence. 

One thing we have talked a lot about in the course in regards to our business is Our Why. Why does your business exist? Why are you passionate about this? Why should people care about what you are trying to sell?

And I just found it really ironic that around the time this question was posed to me about my projects, the two-year-old was beginning to ask us the same question. On the one hand when you hear Why at least 560 times a day, it can be a little annoying, and sometimes the only answer I can come up with especially when rushed is, "Because I said so!" However, I've been training myself to be patient with the question because I've realized the value in it. It helps us live more with intention, and when we live with intention we get more out of life and can make more meaningful and purposeful decisions. 

" Why do we wear clothes Cinta?" 

This question forces me to think about what I wear and why I chose to wear what I do. It makes me meditate on how I view my body and how I should view others. 

"Why are you cleaning Cinta?"

Why do I clean? It made me realize that it's because I am more relaxed in a tidy space and when I'm more relaxed I'm happier and I can be more present to my family. Giving cleaning more purpose than just being a chore has made it a more pleasant and purposeful task and when I see the benefit in it, I dread the task less.

For the project I'm focusing on for the business program, which is my rabbitry, focusing on my Why has given me a lot of direction for my project, helped me with all aspects from marketing, elevator speeches, project planning, and has given me more confidence in what I'm doing. 

Why Rabbits?! I get a lot of joy out of seeing the interaction between people and bunnies. The joy on people's faces, the individual personalities in each and every bunny, and the therapeutic effect rabbits have on people. This why is why I have decided meat rabbits are not my thing; I really like bunnies too much! lol. My pet bunnies and angora bunnies are now my primary business drive and I've discovered this by investigating the answer to my Why!

Why do you do what you do? Do you live with intention? Perhaps it's time we start thinking like a two-year-old again and ask why a little more often!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Stay tuned next month for a lot of exciting news!!! 

Trying to Make a Life not a Living

 

The last six months have been absolutely wild with so many more changes in my life than I could have imagined! Aiden and I had a spare week in our schedule and we decided it was about time we stepped away from everything in life and have a little time for just the two of us.....well almost. Athena always comes with us. (We like to joke that we are her emotional support humans!) 

We were very spontaneous with this trip. We had originally planned to road trip B.C but after checking the weather forecast while on the ferry we decided to go off to the next-door province Alberta where there was a promise of sunshine! 

We converted our van into a make-shift camper with a shelf, counter, and queen-sized bed in the back. Diesel was a lot cheaper in Alberta so overall, it was a fairly affordable trip. We brought most of our own food in the cooler and only stopped at a resturant in Jasper called Coco's Cafe that served really delicious gluten free food! 

The wildlife in Jasper was plentiful! We drove down Maligne road to Maligne lake which is where we spotted the majority of animals. 

 I worked up the courage to swim in one of the glacier lakes (With a little helpful shove from Aiden!) It was freezing but very worthwhile. 

In the evenings we parked our van at a rest stop in the park at the foot of one of the mountains. It was great to wake up in the morning to see elk grazing in the nearby field. 

 After about a couple days in Jasper, we drove on to Big Valley and stayed the majority of the trip at a Buffalo ranch. The rancher was a friend of Aiden's buddy and he showed us how he cares for the buffalo on his large ranch as well as took us around to view some property that might come up for sale in the future. He realized that Aiden and I have a strong passion for farming so he encouraged us to look into moving to Alberta which offers a lot of support for young farmers. We are seriously considering this prospect because we could see ourselves thriving out there, especially with the local support. It may not be a possiblity for several years to come because of Aiden's son and our fifty percent custody, but we are both opportunist so we have our eyes set on this opportunity in the future. Everything happens for a reason and we don't believe that us spontaneously ending up at his ranch was a coincidence. 

Since we were so close, we also made a stop at Drumheller and Horseshoe Canyons. It had been on my bucket list to view this part of Canada. It was not disapointing in the least although the super hot temperatures did get the better of me by the end of the day. (Alberta was in the middle of a heat wave during our visit!)

Overall, I am so happy we did this trip! I found I was getting caught up in the day-to-day drama, and getting lost in my stress. The trip helped the two of us step outside of it and realize what really matters to us. We listened to this country-western song on our drive and the theme of it really stood out to me. This is what Aiden and I are striving to do. "Trying to make a Life, not a living." We don't know what tomorrow holds so we are not going to wait till retirement to live. We are going to live and take hold and appreciate our life today. Making plans is good, but being flexible is important. If we are too rigid with our plans we can miss opportunities and not be willing to go where God is calling us to be. 

Our Farm Life

 We have now officially moved onto the farm and our projects are in full swing!

Our bird collection has increased significantly. My birds consist mostly of Rouen ducks, Runner ducks, and quail. The Rouen ducks will be for meat and eggs, where as the Runners are going to be primarily for eggs and bug control in the garden. I’ve always really enjoyed having ducks and am so happy to be back working with them! They never cease to amuse me.

The quail are for meat and eggs. Their eggs are quite pretty and they don’t take long to hatch once incubated. The males make a very pretty sound too! 

Aiden has special quail, chicks, pheasants, and an assortment of mixed birds we bought as chicks at an auction. Aiden has always had a passion for the more esentric rare breeds and they are quite pretty to behold.  I’m excited to learn more about them.

Then we have our rabbit business with the meat rabbits and pet bunnies. The meat rabbits are New Zealand mixes. Easy to keep and grow to be quite large. We keep a book with information about when they were bred and how many kits they had, and the info lives on a little care card clipped to their cage. We both are quite new to meat rabbits and so we have experienced hiccups with some unsuccessful litters, but now we have put rugs under the bottom of the nest box to avoid the under draft from killing the kits. 

The pet bunny’s care is slightly different because ultimately the bunnies are our pets. They get more variety in their diet, handled frequently, and have more toys and outside time. Our current breeds for pets are Netherland dwarf, Lionhead, and an English angora bunny. They are still too young to breed so we just enjoy their company for now.

Then there are our odd pets. An emu, ferrets, and our three legged calf. They don’t have a whole lot of use but they are quite an attraction and often have a lot of people driving by the front field slowly to admire the emu. The calf is so very cute! We named her Trinity and she is such a trooper! The calf came from a dairy farm nearby. She was born with a deformed front leg. She has been making out just fine with three legs. The vet says as long as we exercise her regularly she should be fine even at full weight with just the three legs. Currently, she kicks, jumps, and runs with no problem! She is such a friendly calf and a joy to have.

The garden is a big project. To be honest, I haven’t done a whole lot of gardening in the past so I’ve had a lot to learn and it’s been intimidating starting a garden this size. However, despite some hiccups and learning curves, stuff is beginning to grow and I’m hoping to have a few harvestable crops by the end of June!

The farm is an ambitious project but we both love what we are doing and are in a position to give this a shot. It is a lot of fun and I’m really excited to see how things are going to turn out come summer!