Welcome to the Farm Wife! I’m Julie. I live on a 60-acre farm in NW Louisiana with my husband, cows, chickens, cats and dogs. In my younger years, my dream had always been to move to Dallas and have a career that required designer suits, fashionable high heels and a brief case to match. Have you ever heard the old saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
Instead of west to Dallas, God sent me southeast to this farm. And believe me, He knew what He was doing. What I discovered was, instead of living a busy, complicated life, I needed to simplify. Rather than speeding up, I needed to slow down. I needed to learn how to live a Simple Life.
What is Living a Simple Life All About?
Living a Simple Life is multi-faceted. It begins with slowing down, choosing your priorities, and following your passions. It means less focus on busyness just for the sake of being busy and more on what is important. For me, it also means being less dependent on outside sources for food, entertainment, supplies, and our emotional, and spiritual needs.
A Simple Life is about time, and how we spend it. On one hand, you get to spend time – having more time with family and friends, pursuing passions, and doing more of what you love to do. On the other you get to save it – cutting out the things on your calendar that could be considered unnecessary, such as eating out instead of cooking at home, activities you no longer enjoy, or running errands everyday instead of learning to group them all into one outing.
This type of lifestyle is also about eliminating any unnecessary worries and concerns. Worry comes in two types: things you cannot control, and things you can. When living a Simple life, you begin to fix those worries that you can control – things such as gaining control of your finances, maintaining your home, and managing your schedule. Those things you cannot control? You learn to turn over to a higher power and keep moving forward.
The Goals for The Farm Wife
My own Simple Life began in a swing. I had become overwhelmed with trying to balance my home, farm, family, jobs, and constant trips to the city for holdover activities from my city life. I just couldn’t keep up and found myself tired of being tired.
So, I basically grounded myself for a day. While sitting in that swing, the first thing I accepted is that I couldn’t fix all of this in a single sitting. Instead, I had to take it step-by-step. Armed with a notebook and pen, I started with my priorities, and began to try and figure out what they were.
This is what my final list looked like: Faith. Family. Home. Farm. Profession. Passions. From that point forward, everything else I did would fall under one of these categories.
By slowing down, I have been able to stretch my wings and learn to do things I never had time to do before. And I am eager to embark on any other learning journey my goal towards a Simple Life leads me. It is by my faith in God that I have come this far. It will be by His Hand that I keep moving forward. And quite frankly, I am looking forward to where He leads me from here.
So, please, join me in my journey towards Living a Simple Life. Bear with me as I shed tears from the hardships. Nod your head with understanding as I mutter with frustration. Go ahead and wince as I nurse the bruises of my body. And it’s okay if you laugh with me as I make mistakes while moving through the learning process. I promise I will share my handkerchief, my Advil, and more stories of what it really means by:
Living a Simple Life
