The Summer of Happiness: Summer 2021 Recap

The beginning of summer here on the farm was marked by the birth of our fourth baby, George, the Wednesday after Memorial Day. He is a very happy baby and has brought so much joy to our family. Brett and I love all of our kids the same but we have found the saying, “the more the merrier” to be true. The bigger the family, the more members there are to add to the excitement. His older sisters love him dearly and still have fun getting to help with any baby-related activity. Having George in the family has cast a happy glow on the whole summer. 

We started work on our garden . Brett built five raised beds out of repurposed materials. Most of the lumber came from other projects or structures that have been torn down. The metal sheets were on the property when we took possession. They turned out beautifully. I had success growing many different vegetables. The biggest hit by far were tomatoes. Sylvie is obsessed with them and ate her weight in them many times over. She spent the summer with tomato juice on her chin and seeds on her shirt. I entered us in a garden contest in our town – thanks to my mother in law for telling me about it. In September they announced the winners, and we ended up winning the Greenest Garden award which was was the icing on the cake. 

After working so much before George was born, my kitchen felt more haphazard and dysfunctional than normal. I complained about it in a Facebook post and asked for help. There were no shortage of people willing to lend a hand, but my dear friend Robyn ended up coming over and spent a whole day reorganizing my kitchen. She pulled everything out of the pantry and cupboards, gave it all a lot of thought, and then put in all away in places that made more sense. This was a huge blessing to me and I’m so thankful that my friend was willing to use her gift of organization to make my kitchen functional. 

We are also thankful for our logger neighbor and a friend of Brett’s from high school that drives a log truck. Our neighbor helped Brett take down some dead trees on our property. Dead trees are a fire hazard as well as a safety hazard as they can fall without warning. We weren’t sure what happened to them, but once they got into the project Brett and the neighbor discovered that one of the trees had been struck by lightening. The jolt was enough to damage the trees around it also. Once they were cut down, Brett’s friend came out and hauled the logs away.

Also notable was the strange weather. At the end of June, we had a heat wave with record setting temperatures. It hit 115 degrees at Pearson Airfield.  We don’t see many days in the triple digits and we for sure don’t see them until later in the summer. Normally it is chilly and rainy until after Fourth of July. Looking around the area, most of the leaves on the south side of trees are scorched and brown. Our animals survived the heat without incident. We made sure they had plenty of shade and fresh water. This summer was also unusually dry and was one of the top ten driest on record. I never thought I would be happy for the rain to return but I guess there’s a first for everything.

Sylvie turned two the end of July and we celebrated with a big dog party straight out of the book Go Dog Go. We wore puppy ears for party hats, ate great food, and enjoyed the company. Caitlyn, our friend and former nanny, made an awesome cake. It was the cover of the book, only it said Go Sylvie Go. I like to do big first birthday parties because that first year is so huge. It’s just as much a celebration for mom and dad as it is for baby. We didn’t get to that for Sylvie’s first birthday because of covid, so we wanted to make up for it and celebrate her second birthday. I’m so thankful that we did and that the timing was right. Her birthday fell in that lull where we all felt securely vaccinated before the next wave of the pandemic hit. Our whole family came and some close friends. It was so special to be together and celebrate sweet Sylvie.

Although we didn’t get to tackle larger scale farm projects this summer, the small victories do add up to a feeling of accomplishment. Brett was able to get the roof finished and sealed on the chicken wagon. Now it is one step closer to being operational. We also had Brett’s office moved to the farm. He built out the inside of a shipping container and set it up as an office.   We are out of space in the house, so having a space for projects that we can secure from the kids has been so helpful.  The biggest little project was our fancy new website going live. Elliot at Studio Anansi was recommended to me and she was so wonderful to work with. The process was so smooth and efficient, I can’t recommend her enough.

Now the weather is changing and summer is over. Maternity is almost over also and I’m getting ready to head back to work. We are all still pretty happy around here though. 

Here are a few blog posts related to the word happiness to check out:

Chasing Happiness By Sharla Hallett www.sharlahallett.com/chasing-happiness/

Finding True Happiness and Keeping It By Lisa Granger https://lisamarcelina.net/finding-true-happiness-and-keeping-it/

Mom Burnout and How to Be Happy By Ashley Olivine https://www.ashleyolivine.com/mom-burnout/

3 Days By MelAnn https://graceandrapture.substack.com/p/3-days

Seeing Happiness Right in Your Life By Dianne Vielhuber https://simplewordsoffaith.com/2021/10/01/seeing-happiness-right-in-your-life/

How to Be Happy By Amy Cobb https://www.tayloredintent.com/blog/how-to-be-happy