How can I raise the level of gratitude in my life? Let me count the ways.
Winnie Nielsen says: These look pretty enough to cut and put in a small vase for a little winter flower arrangement.
Winnie Nielsen says: You have no idea how much I enjoy starting my day with these incredible photos you post! I can sit at my desk and imagine the photo is what is outside my window.
Pamela Caldwell says: Thank you for the beauty!
Nancy Coughlin says: Absolutely stunning. Love the winter months, although I do have to admit that as the number of times I “have to” shovel increases, my patience wears a little thin!
Winnie Nielsen says: The sweetest little bird having a winter’s nap in the burlap! Oh my, the cutest ever! Is that a Junco?
May your day sparkle with moments of love, laughter, good food, and goodwill. Love, love, love from us to you.
Christina D #5572 says: Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year to you and your family
Winnie Nielsen says: Mary Jane, I wish you could see the beautiful indigenous Poinsettias that grow here and are in full bloom in yards across town. Some plants grow like huge bushes and are covered with beautiful red blooms! Merry Christmas Day!!
MaryJane says: Merry WONDROUS Christmas Day to you dearest loving Winnie!!!!
Winnie Nielsen says: Thank-you Mary Jane! I hope your celebration with your family was full of joy and laughter and delicious merriment! Hehe, a Tomte in the cow barn? In Norway they call them Nissen and they live on every farm helping AND potentially causing mischief if not properly rewarded on Christmas Eve with a bowl of porridge! Norwegian Nissen usually wear long read caps in winter so be on the look out just in case you have a few sleeping in the straw somewhere!!
MaryJane says: I will have to investigate the tradition of the Nissen. Maybe next year porridge also at midnight!
Yesterday ’twas wonderful! Board games, legos, and dressing the dollies in their new clothes, in addition to playing school … but the best fun was the proper welcoming of the girls’ new kitty they named Rosie Rock Star. Meg had the flu so she was prone on the couch. It was our job to entertain her and not make her too sad she couldn’t be eating all the great stuff we were enjoying.
I highly recommend four seasons in a wall tent. I want to do it again someday when I’m not so busy … when I have your status, retired but living life to the fullest!
Dear Mary Jane,
You have become part of my life this past year as I read your blog each morning to start each day off happy.
May your entire family and all your animals have a wonderful Merry Christmas. Did the animals talk at midnight? I know they did.
thanks for all the happiness you have given me
love,
Lisa
MaryJane says: I didn’t get to hear them talking when I went down to the barn around midnight to give them treats (I’ll keep trying every year but I’m sure they’re very private about it) but I did see evidence of a silent tomten afoot. That was my favorite book I read to my kids. Are you familiar with Astrid Lindgren who also wrote Pippi Longstocking? Merry Christmas Lisa and THANK YOU for visiting my blog each morning. Hmmmm, a midnight celebratory treat with cows? Seems like I have Christmas mixed up with New Year’s. Okay. But that’s not the worst of it; I like to celebrate with cows!? Double hmmmmmmm.
Thank you Mary Jane ! I did read Pippi Longstockings as a child and even was her as my Halloween costume one year, complete with wires woven in my braids to make them stick out. And yes, I do have ” the Tomten and the Fox” by Astrid Lindgren. It is one of my favorite books. I shall reread it today. I decorate for the seaason with children’s Christmas books with their sweet covers and this is one of the many that are out.
When I was a child a little girlfriend of mine had a pet fox which was so sweet. Very tame and like a cross between a cat and a dog. I so wanted one for Christmas but my parents couldn’t make me understand that they are a wild animal.
I will be on the lookout for the Tomten at night. Cows with their sweet grassy breath are a joy. I think a little New Year’s celebration with the 2 new calves is a great way to start 2014.
Cathy R says: Thank you MaryJane and all for such a delightful blog! Have a wonderful Christmas day celebrating our Savior! JOY&PEACE!
Terry Steinmetz says: May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas celebration! I’m so glad that we are “sisters”. Thanks for being there and sharing. 🙂
Karlyne says: Thanks for your good wishes to us, and know that we’re sending them right back to you! Happy Christmas!
Laurie Dimno says: Merry Christmas to everyone of you! Mary Jane’s farm has been one of my greatest gifts for the past 4 years. The wonderful farmgirl connection and everything that MJF represents is a true blessing in my life! Thank you!
Blessings to all!
Winnie Nielsen says: Coming soon! Spring is just a few months away again! Isn’t it amazing to even consider that right now?
Terry Steinmetz says: Breathtaking!
Winnie Nielsen says: I can’t remember where I saw this recently, but you take two terra cotta flower pots of two sizes, invert them and secure one inside the other with a bolted screw, turn upside down on some bricks where the air can flow under the pots, place candle votives under the pots and it all makes a radiant heater for small spaces. Presumably this could be a space heater for this Necessary which does not have electricity but most likely needs a bit of warming?
Nancy says: What a great idea! Could have used something like this when I was doing winter camping!
Karlyne says: Winnie, that sounds like it might work! With the temps below zero, li’l houses need all the warmth they can get!
Winnie Nielsen says: This looks like a perfect sized pond to ice skate on in the winter. What were the crops in the background?
MaryJane says: We do ice skate on it. We tested it a couple of days ago but the ice is only a fraction thick and we haven’t any snow, but we have cold weather headed our way. The “crop” in the background is Jacie Jensen’s 40-acre native wildflower preserve. What a neighbor to have, right? She’s awesome. One of my summer employees has fallen in love with her most handsome son. We’re hoping for wedding bells.
Sharon D. says: Oh MaryJane, couldn’t you just picture the most beautiful Winter wedding here? A horse drawn sleigh to carry the Bride and Groom (and guests) to the location, a Hot Cocoa station and more. Thanks for sharing such beautiful photos and glimpses into your life 🙂
MaryJane says: I will suggest it! Good idea.
Teri Blackmon says: Beautiful
Hope your day with family and friends is wonderful. There is much to be thankful for!!!
Winnie Nielsen says: Happy Thanksgiving Mary Jane!! Yesterday, I made the sweet potato bread recipe from the December MJF issue and it turned out fantastic!!! Instead of rolls, I just made it into a loaf. It rose up high and was moist and tender inside. I made an Apple marmalade( from a old Virginia Ag cookbook circa 1962 that was in my Moms cookbook collection) and used the ChillOver powder. Ta Da! another perfect jam consistency made with apples from Carter’s Mountain Orchard, next to Monticello, where we visited this past October when I went back home. When I was growing up, we went to Carter’s Mt. every fall for bushels of apples that my mom turned into all sorts of wonderful things. I had to go back, get some apples again, and add my MJF connection which is now such a big part of my life!. Thank-you Mary Jane for reaching out to all of us and giving us a forum to learn, grow, support one another and just be that farm girl we had lurking in our souls! Today, I count MJF as one of my biggest mid life blessings ever!!
MaryJane says: Your comment is the perfect way for me to start my thankful day, Winnie. Blessings! Thankful today for WINNIE!!!!!!
Debbie Fischer says: Happy Thanksgiving to a very special family. Mary Jane thank you for all you have done for over 5000 women, we would not have each other if it were not for you. A very special thank you for Brian too, now what would we do with out him?
Have a Blessed Day, have fun, relax and be happy.
Hugs,
Debbie
#1582
connie sue says: Happy Thanksgiving Mary Jane! to you and That sweet Brian and all you family, grandbabies, who we have watched grow up . I am blessed today for my family, wonderful aromas coming form the Kitchen and being a part of Mary Jane’s Farm has made me very proud and very Blessed! I don’t have a sister, but I do now! many wonderful Farm Sisters, like Winnie, who I am proud to say I know and love! Farm Girls are always there to listen, and laugh and cry with you, whatever the day may bring!
Big Hug!
Connie -Killarney
judie says: THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS TO ALL. I AM ON THE ROAD IN MY LITTLE SCAMP,HEADING TO A FLA. MISSION SITE FOR THREE WEEKS. WHEN I PULLED INTO THIS DARLING LITTLE CAMPGROUND ON A LAKE IN TOWNSEND GA.,THE OWNER SHOWED ME WHERE TO PARK THEN SAID….COME ON, HOP ON MY CART AND LETS GET DOWN TO THE CLUBHOUSE BEFORE THEY FINISH SERVING DINNER. I WAS HANDED A PLATE AND SENT DOWN THE SERVING LINE. WHAT AN AWESOME TREAT! I JUST FINISHED MY SECOND SLICE OF PIE…….I AM BLESSED THIS DAY. HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON.
Winnie Nielsen says: I always think about Thanksgiving with late fall colored leaves. This landscape seems perfect for trekking to Grandmother’s house for pumpkin pie!
Beautiful!
MaryJane, wishing you and your family a very Blessed Thanksgiving 🙂
~Sharon
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Amazing Jack Frost artistry! What interests me is how this occurs. Is it the factor of air cooling down at a certain rate in the presence of a a fluctuating dew point?