Madcap Monday -- a homecoming

I don't have much farm news today as I'm just getting back into the groove after a weekend away with a great friend of mine. We passed three beautiful days exploring the nation's capital on foot, eating delicious food and talking non-stop. To top it all off, we spent Saturday night blissing out to amazing live music and kicking up our heels at a show by my favourite musicians.

Since our flight from the suburbs, I've become a total homebody. And while I truly believe the farm is where I'm meant to be -- this place gives me grounding, feeds my spirit and inspires me to be a better human being -- I've realized it's good to get away sometimes and just do something fun... for me. The trick is not feeling guilty about it -- especially when the kids are still young, finances are tight and our to-do list is years long.

I'm the kind of person who takes everything way too seriously -- growing food and raising chickens is a revolutionary act, mothering my children is an all-consuming higher calling and this "simpler living" lifestyle is nothing short of a political action. And that's fine and good and inspiring, but sometimes I've got to turn off (or tone down) this sense of uber-responsibility and simply release and just go with life's flow.

So while I'm thrilled to be home again, having left the concrete and noise and urban buzz behind, and feel so utterly grateful to have a loving family and this beautiful place to come back to, it felt great clearing my head and simply reconnecting -- briefly -- with my worry-free 20-year-old self who was silly and racy and spontaneous.

I'm not a big shopper, nor am I a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love great thrift store finds. While I'm not one for souvenirs, these are my new-to-me shoes that I picked up for $6 on my way into Ottawa:


We live in a scary time filled with a host of seemingly insurmoutable problems and I often worry about the world my children will inherit. But you can't live your life in fear and sometimes you just need to kick up your heels once in a while. And how can you not when you're wearing shoes like these?