Finding Joy in the Homestead Chores

I can\’t say that we have a true homestead, or what I would call a homestead but we sure don\’t live in vehicles or tents during this season in life, and so I am calling it our homestead. Today I want to talk about finding joy in the every day chaos or chores as some call them.

Before I begin, let me give a little disclosure just so you know this is a space of non-judgment and openness. 😉

Alright, now that I got that out of the way, let me continue with my story of how you can find joy in the every day homestead chores.

For starters, as a human who had to live in tents, hotels, and eventually our vehicles for one summer in 2019 I tend to find joy in all of life\’s moments. Now that I know what\’s important because we had nothing for a full summer, other than each other and our survival skills, I cherish the moments I do get wherever I lay my head to rest.

Today, it\’s in this small town with about 800 citizens where you can find a friend next door, in most cases, and you can have a fun chat with the lady at the town hall who knows the landlord and can call to confirm you are who you say you are. 🤣

These are the beautiful moments of a simpler life that I cherish, but what about all of those damn chores you have to do around the house? We may be renters but we treat every home as if it was our own, so that\’s not different with this current homestead in New Hampshire.

I tell you what, we don\’t do much in the winter. You can see my mid-section has a little added fluff after that winter hibernation season. 😅 But once that warm weather hit in the spring season? We are out and about ready to be active and clean the yard, do the hiking, and just be one with nature.

Shown above is little ole me using whatever tools I could find (we have more in storage down the road) to try to clean up the yard. I am on a mission to have campfires as often as possible since we didn\’t have enough of them at the last place, and it\’s a nice way to bond.

The first priority was to clean out the leaves and debris from the previous tenants out of the campfire pit. We later had to put the stones in order, and now we have a lovely place to sit and relax after a long week of chaos.

Between running a teen to work and the other to his boxing gym plus his daily training for his boxing event? I\’m pretty much working on the road and in between the moments when creativity hits. I also have chickens now, so we are working on a little outdoor makeshift coop for them. I can\’t wait to have my own damn eggs!

In between the yard work chores, I must pause for some joyous moments with my cute dogs. Above is Tyson and soon he will have a big deal vet appointment (he\’s getting neutered, poor baby). For now, he\’s my goofy boy who is found finding joy in everyday homestead chores.

He loves to bark at the chipmunks and squirrels, sometimes he scares my bird friends off, too! But I love him anyway. And then we have Zeke, my Christmas Pup (he was born on Christmas Day). He is just a sweet dog who typically barks when you say Squirrel but would much rather alert you when he sees a human or dog on his property that doesn\’t belong there.

I don\’t know why people find yard chores so hard to deal with. I\’ve already mowed the lawn with a push mower pretty happily, even though the lawn mower has a pull start. A pull start any thing is my nemesis and so the youngest teen son had to start the mower for me.

I remember raking the leaves and pulling out the sticks, and just singing a song of randomness while my youngest son and I cleaned up the yard. Then when the weekend came, his Dad and I cleaned it up even further and even grabbed a leaf blower to help with the job.

I\’m just having the best time of my life being human, and reconnecting with the natural world. I must confess having a gratitude and love journal does help, but so does reminding myself that I am blessed to have another day to live this season of life.

I am not sure why, but spending this quality time with my family doing random chores to make the yard a more joyous space to relax makes me feel warm tingles inside. It just reminds me how grateful I should be for this season of life.