Welcome to Carrots! I'm so glad you're back. You can sign up for my email newsletter here to stay in touch, or look me up on Instagram!
It has been a muddy, muddy week. It’s been raining since Monday and I just refuse to bother mopping the floors until things dry up because it’s just futile with the munchkins around. Gwen insists on stomping in EVERY puddle. Girl is not afraid of getting dirty. And check out those bangs!
I was sick of seeing her hair in her face and in her food. Here’s a before shot:
They were making a home for the rolly pollies (obviously).
So I asked if I could give her bangs and she was all for it! And it’s sooooo cute. Even the pigs appreciated the adorableness.
Then Lucy needed bangs, too. Or else they “wouldn’t look like sisters anymore!” I’m digging it. Ok, one more:
Bangs! Why didn’t I cut bangs YEARS ago?!
The rain made the week difficult since we were cooped up a lot and I think this time of year is just hard on mothering. But I got a lovely little treat midweek and got to go to the Dallas Opera with my best friend Ellie who’s pregnant with twin boys at the end of May. So it was kind of our last hurrah before travel gets tricky for her.
It was so fun and I’ll consider myself fully pampered for a good long while. On our way back to the farm, Daniel texted to tell me that I would find everyone up at the farrowing shed because Louise was having her piglets.
Mama had FOURTEEN piglets! Can you imagine?! Daniel did a great job taking care of mama and babies.
I also got to grab a drink (on the town! after dark!) to celebrate with my friend Kaley on each hitting new ranks with Young Living. Unfortunately, I still can’t have cocktails (I’m been having some health issues) but I got a vanilla steamer as a treat. We are having way too much fun doing this essential oils business! I cannot believe how much it’s grown in just the six months I’ve been working at it. (Speaking of, if you’re interested in joining our team, just shoot me an email– haley.s.stewart@gmail.com because I’d be happy to share my love for working from home to help support my family.)
Links:
“Suck it up” vs. “Offer it up”: Simcha Fisher
Enough with trashing the liberal arts: Washington Post
We’re not meant to do this alone: American Individualism is destroying our families: Salon
12 Books to Read When You’re Considering Catholicism: Laura McAlister
Motherhood and the Redemption of the Body: Katherine Grimm Bowers
Giveaway:
Caroline Davis is the winner of the Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candle giveaway for these lovely Easter Egg Votives!
Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles is offering Carrots readers a discount code for 10% off their products! The code is Easter10 and will be good thru March 31st. All orders placed by March 19th will be shipped in time for Easter. So hop on over (see what I did there?) to their web site to pick out Easter basket fillers and gifts. They have gorgeous products!
Sponsors:
Be sure to give some love to this month’s sponsor! They keep the lights on around here.
Wishing you a gorgeous weekend with lots of love,
Haley
P.S. You can follow me…
…on Bloglovin’, Feedly, subscribe to posts via email, or subscribe to my newsletter that goes out monthly with the buttons on the right sidebar. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@haleycarrots), Pinterest (haleyofcarrots), and Instagram (haleycarrots).
Haley, your hair looks positively lovely in that last picture!!
Thanks, Michele! I’m itching to cut it off again, so that’s motivation to keep it growing
Love the article about American Individualism – thanks for posting. The loneliness of motherhood and nostalgia for a forgotten communal life is something I think about often and though she doesn’t offer solutions (are there good ones?? Your farm life seems to come close!), it’s always nice to know I’m not the only one worried about these things! Thanks again
I thought that was a fascinating article. I think that it’s really a matter of either returning to a model of living very close to extended family, or creating that support through a strong community of friends. Also probably choosing where to live so that it’s easy to be around other people as a young mother. Living in community on the farm has definitely been great, but in Tallahassee I also had a very strong community, not just of family, but of young moms that I saw at least weekly and sometimes daily. So I think it is possible, but requires much more intentionality than it used to.
I had not seen that article by Simcha. Thanks for linking to it! That was good.