33 One Year Later... Was It Worth It?

One year ago, our family packed up our lives, left Texas, and moved to a small property in Missouri with a dream of building a slower, more intentional life.

In this episode of Handmade Happiness, Jessica and Thomas reflect on their first year in Missouri—the challenges, surprises, lessons learned, and the many blessings that came from starting over in a new place.

From expanding our garden and raising animals to building community, homeschooling, growing The Lark Life, and creating a home that reflects our values, we're sharing an honest look at what this first year has really been like.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why we decided to move to Missouri
 • The reality of starting over in a new state
 • Building a homestead from the ground up
 • Our biggest lessons from the first year
 • Garden successes, animal projects, and property improvements
 • Homeschooling and family life after the move
 • Finding community and making new friends
 • Growing The Lark Life and pursuing new opportunities
 • Things that surprised us most about Missouri
 • What we're looking forward to in year two

Whether you're dreaming of a homestead, considering a big life change, or simply enjoy hearing real stories about building a meaningful life, we hope this conversation encourages you.

Foundations in Quilting Course for Homeschoolers (save 20% with code LAUNCH20)  www.TheLarkLife.com/foundations-in-quilting

Find more resources, courses, recipes, gardening inspiration, and handmade living at The Lark Life.

Subscribe for more conversations about homesteading, gardening, handmade skills, homeschooling, and intentional living.

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 #HomesteadLife
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 #FamilyHomestead

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Until next time, may you find joy in the simple things and beauty in the work of your hands.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Handmade Happiness, a podcast about simple living, handmade skills, and building a life rooted in what matters most. We talk about everything from homesteading and cooking from scratch to quilting, gardening, and raising capable kids. This is a place to slow down, learn new skills, and be reminded that a meaningful life is often built in the small everyday moments. If you enjoy today's conversation, you can follow or subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. That way, new episodes will just be there when you're ready for them. Now for today's episode. Hi there, welcome to Handmade Happiness. I'm Jessica.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

And I'm not. No, I'm Thomas. She hates it when I do that, but it's really funny. It's really feisty. She's laughing.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

She's she's mad laughing. She's laughing to keep from hitting me.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Gotta get it together. So today's episode is pretty special.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Um, because this weekend we are celebrating one full year since we moved to Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Our Missouri something. Yeah, we've been here, we've been here a year, which is in some ways has been a long year, but also has like flown by.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I can't believe it's been a year already.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I it's like, wasn't it just Christmas? I know. And then it's like, oh, we're we're here already.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

And that I think I feel like the first half of the year seemed to go a lot more slowly, and this last half of the year is just like, man, oh, here it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yeah, for sure. For sure. There was a lot of adjustment period, right? So we came from, if you haven't watched previous episodes, we could.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Go back, you can hear where we came from in episode one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Yeah, way South Texas, we were on staff at a church, we were living in an in a urban environment, and we reached a point where we wanted to make some changes and suburban.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

I don't know that you would call it urban.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Yeah, well, maybe not urban, but like it wasn't, we weren't out in the country.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

And we kind of reached a point where we we were wanting to pick back up some of the things that we had laid down when we went to be on staff at the church, and we were wanting just a change for how we were gonna raise our kids and all those things, uh, a garden, right? And we reached a point where we had money from our house, our house had really appreciated, and we had an opportunity to make the jump, right? To say, okay, yeah, we're gonna totally change how we live, we're gonna jump off into starting our business and raise our kids, uh, homeschool our kids and raise our own food and garden and go somewhere different that we and all those things. And so we did all at once, and um, it was a lot.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

It was exciting and scary, and nothing really. No regrets, no regrets.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Like we don't we don't people ask us, do you miss like being down there? And it's like, I mean, we miss seeing family and eating authentic tacos, but other than that, no, like we've we haven't looked back once, I don't think, and thought like, oh, we should never have moved out here. No, that's never.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

But that being said, there have been moments where I looked at you this past year and was Are we crazy? Are we crazy? What have we done? Because yeah, and we knew this going into it, nothing was really what we expected. There, you have sure, no matter how much you plan, how much you research, how much you do, the reality of what actually happens is often very different than this picture that you've painted in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

And that was definitely the case, and so we've done a lot of things this year, we've made a lot of progress, and we'll talk about some of the things that we've actually accomplished this year. Um, some of the things that we are still working towards that we kind of thought would be done by the time we hit the end of the year, but it's been busy and just it doesn't happen as quickly. I mean, you know, yeah, and expensive.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Like there's been things that we didn't think we would end up spending money on that we did, and um, there's no way we could have known that of it, you know, on the front side of it. Um, but also I feel like like right now, I feel like we've kind of turned a corner. Um the way I said it to somebody the other day was that we feel like the ball has gone over the top of the hill now, and it's oh yeah, right? We're we're going downhill now rather than up, and and that's really nice. And um, and again, no regrets. I don't think we've looked back, it's but it's definitely been work.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Um, there's been times where we were we just had to keep your eye on the prize, right? Because it's um, but it's been really good and refreshing.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

So let's talk about some of the things that just naturally come when you make a move like we did. So we came to a place where we knew no one, had no connections. So we have no friends, no family, no community. We've got to find uh schools, doctors, dentists, uh stores to shop at. You've got to learn the new roads and how to get around and what you know, where to do this and where to do that. Where do you buy groceries? There's a lot of things that we kind of had to figure out once once we got here. So maybe like what was I guess what part of that new would you say was the hardest for you?

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I mean, I look, HE B is not a sponsor of this show.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

I wish they would be.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

If they were, that'd be awesome. Also, if they were in Missouri, that would be awesome. That wouldn't be a good HEB, if you want to come to Missouri, we would love to have you, and I promise you would be well received here.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Um, that's that's been something we've missed, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

But no, like seriously, just the reality of of moving and and uh yeah, if we want, I think our closest H E B is like six hours from here.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Yeah, in North Arkansas somewhere. Oh, no, it's up in Texas, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

The North Texas, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, we missed that a lot. Yeah. Um, what was your original question?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

What was the hardest new thing?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

What's the hardest new thing?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Like having to adjust to the new thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Man, the honestly, the seasons and the weather has been really pretty easy, I think. That was not as difficult as we had anticipated. We came from like never really having any winter to speak of on the Gulf Coast ever. Yeah, it's no like twice in 40 years, and we were on the, you know, and uh, but that that part was actually easier, I think, than I anticipated. Um, I think just the logistics of managing five acres instead of a quarter acre, and like the animals and the infrastructure, and even just figuring out how we wanted to that to look. Like it's not hard to clean a chicken, right? But trying to figure out do we do 60 at a time or 30 and 30, right? That's that's there's just a lot of logistics that go into that.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

And when I think we faced a lot of decisions like that this year where for the first time we had those choices, like before, we were always.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Yeah, it's like we can have six chickens, and so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

We were always limited before. We weren't limited here in that regard, so now we had to make choices based on other factors, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:59

We were yeah, and and I think for the most part, most of our decisions that we've made this year we've been happy with. Obviously, there's things we would make adjustments to.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Um we'll get into those in a minute.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

But we'll get yeah, I think we'll don't get into those in a minute, but um just yeah, I mean, um I think that's been the biggest thing for me is just the reality of being a little more tightly coupled to our land, like where we are, right? And and having to think about things like are we gonna cut hay or you know, do we need hay? Things that we never have have dealt with before, right? Is the pond gonna hold water or is it not? Yeah um, those kind of things, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Um so for me, um the mom that's gotta figure out how to keep kids healthy and you know, take care of all the things, and occupied. Um like we had a fabulous doctor where we were a pediatrician.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, our pediatrician was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Um and we had found a good dentist, like we there were things that were in place that made it really easy to just take care of everybody and then moving to a new place and not knowing anybody here to be able to ask like recommendations or suggestions or whatever. But I've been really happy with um both the doctor and the dentist that we found that's been helping with with the kids, and um that was easier than I expected.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

That's been a really pleasantly simple yeah, that's been good thing. Um I think that's the I honestly, I think that's the biggest thing. Like it I didn't know how to say it earlier, but like the biggest thing is just that everything is new. Everything, everything is different, even if like we had moved to North Texas, you're still in Texas, and you know like the Texas system of like is getting a driver's license, it's more difficult here than it is in Texas. And the registration and the registration vehicles here, all those things that you just take for granted for like you know, being an adult for what 25-30 years, and then now we move here and it's a different system at the DMV and it's a different vehicle registration. The taxes look personal property tax, personal property tax versus just property tax, and um all those things, like you said, finding a doctor, finding a dentist, because we had nobody and nothing and no no support structure per se. So just having to redo all of new bank, there's not there's not well started here, right? So we had to find a different bank. Well, now we gotta move all the auto pays and all, you know, so just all that stuff, just the administrative stuff of being in a new space and trying to connect well and smoothly, making choices about insurance and and all those things. Um, it all had to start from scratch. And yeah, but here we are, and loving it.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

So we've talked a lot in some previous episodes, so let's just kind of touch on it quickly of like specific progress that's happened around here as far as with our garden and animals and property and all of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

I know a big thing that you've made progress is that big beautiful garden you got growing out there.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

The garden makes me so happy.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

So last year we've never had a garden worth calling a garden.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

No, yeah. This is like I feel like a farmer because it's I hope so.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

I feel like a farmer. My back hurts, my knees hurt.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

It's so huge. Um, so last year when we moved, we came in June. Um, and so we were right in the throes of garden season. And honestly, when we first got here, like we had ordered raised beds, they were here waiting for us to put them together, but trying to figure out where we wanted to put them. There was we were waiting on the basement work to be done in the house for the boys, the egress windows in the basement for the boys, and there's just a lot of things, and so we just decided it was better. As much as I hated it, it was better for us to not um start a garden last year. Um, and honestly, the growing season ended so much sooner here. Like I really needed to be.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

We would have been pretty late to the game if we had tried to do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Things wouldn't have had time to produce. So this year we were on top of it. Those beds were ready when as soon as the weather warmed up, and we created space out in the in-ground area and had hundreds of seedlings, flats and flats of seedlings that we started.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Pro tip.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Um, fish emulsion is a lovely fertilizer for your plants.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

It is.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Um, except when you use it in your basement. Um so yeah, so we that's a lesson that we learned this year is that is when you put fish emulsion on your plants in your basement where your air circulation is.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Smells like it didn't smell everywhere, just in the basement where it was. It's not like it got in the air handler and made everything smell. It did not.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Even no, um, I'm I'm joking, but but yeah, so we we started you had bogobs of seedlings and everything early, early, right? So that was nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, so the garden is growing, and it is every I like I've gone into it this year with just everything is an experiment. Um, stuff out there and we're gonna see how it does, figure out what varieties work well here, keep improving the soil, adding stuff to it, figuring out what it needs, um, how much water it needs, how to, you know, all the things. Um, so that's like it's growing and it's going well, and it's super happy to go out there and see all the green just flourishing. Um, but also I'm approaching it this year with you know, I know it's not gonna be the best, most productive garden ever because well, and in a lot of ways, like even our ground, like it's good soil, but it's really rocky, and it we're there's just no way for you to get all the rocks the first year, or probably even the first five years, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:04

We'll never really get them out. So um things like that. Our ducks are great though. So you haven't listened previously. Uh, we hatched out ducks, thank you, to one of our chickens who was broody and sat on all the eggs, and we hatched out like what, a dozen ducks, 13 ducks.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

So we actually have 18 ducklings?

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Good lord, I didn't even realize it was that much.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah, she didn't hatch all those. We hatched some in the brooder, but that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

I forgot about all those. Yeah, so we we have a ton of ducks that were free because the ducks just laid eggs. Um, it was a good decision, apparently, not to slaughter them last su last fall.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah. Well, and now that we're at the farmer's market, that's one of the things that I have customers come to me every day. Oh, yeah, duck eggs all the time. Yeah. So it's been a everybody here has chicken eggs cover. Almost nobody has duck eggs. And so it's like I almost wish I would have kept a few more females because well, and I think like this cycle, we probably won't slaughter all of them.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

We'll probably keep more females for sure. Because of that thing, like we sell duck eggs on the regular, and um it it's it's easy. I mean, it yeah, it it doesn't hurt us at all. They they're pretty simple. The the grown ducks take care of themselves pretty well. You give them a pool of water and a field to crawl around in, they're happy.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

So um our rabbits. So we've got a bunch of little bunnies out there that are growing and just about ready to be weaned in about a week or so.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Yep, coming up. And we discovered that like if you if you raise rabbits or chickens and you just can't bring yourself to slaughter them, um, for what it's worth, I think ducks right now are like 1050 a p uh uh per baby at the farmer's market at uh the local feed store, and bunnies are like 30. So if you have rabbits and they're multiplying, or if you have ducks and they're multiplying and you're not going to eat them, uh just sell them. I mean they're they're it's a pretty pretty good markup. I mean, it's not puppies, right? You're not selling designer dogs, but 30 bucks a rabbit pays for an entire bag of rabbit food. Multiple bags, multiple bags, yeah. So um, so just food for thought there. Like everybody's always looking for pet bunnies or pet ducks.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Um so yeah, and um we've done some other things. I'm trying to think, like, we're we're working on catching our bees. We've got a swamp trap up.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

We're trying to we'll probably have the next one up this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Um, but like we don't have any of the larger animals yet because we're still we're waiting on fencing and gates, and that's just a time and a money thing that'll come.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

That's something I think that we kind of anticipated having that earlier than we for sure. But now that we've been here, like I totally understand why we don't.

unknown 15:42

Right?

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Or why, like, because that it takes time for you to build your infrastructure, yeah, to and your even your schedule to be able to accommodate that. And um, so if we had even if someone had gifted us a cow last year, it would have been difficult.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

It would have been hard. Well, and so Chelsea from Little Mountain Ranch, she's been talking, they're moving to a new place and they're not taking most of their animals because she said when they got onto the ranch where they are now, she just got all the animals right away and she didn't have a container for them, is what she was calling it.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

She was like, get your container before you get the things to put in the container, like make sure you have a container for them because she was like, I made it so much harder for myself because I didn't have a container. And so as much as it kills my heart, like we have waited. Also, the price of cattle right now is just ridiculous. And so we're trying to hold off until we can find one that's not quite so crazy expensive.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

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SPEAKER_02 18:17

Um, well, if we start with the little one. Yeah. He's he told us when we came here we were gonna homeschool, and he was like, Nope, I'm going to big boy school. Yeah, I want to go to Kendi.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

And we were like, Oh, don't threaten me with a good time. So, so no, so we told him, Okay, if like if you want to go to Kinder, he's super social, super social. And honestly, I think he has thrived in kindergarten. His teacher is great, and he has really enjoyed building friendships, and he comes home every day telling us about what his friend did this, and this my other friend did that, and then this happened on the not only did we go to Kindi, but we wrote the school bus. Yeah, and that was but but he and he thrived, yeah. So he he without any qualms at all, he got on the bus. And but even that, he won awards for writing, and he's reading like a like a he just consumes reading and won some actual writing awards for his stuff that he wrote, and so he's really doing well, and and for learning to be an outside kid for the kid who's the baby of the family, like being away from everybody and all of your extra sibling parents and having a space that's just your own.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

I think that was really good for him.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yeah, no, that's been good for him to have something that was his independence, yeah. Uh, and then of course, our 10-year-old is is thriving, he's riding the mini-bike and learning to work hard, you know, and that's something that's underrated, I think, for if you have boys. Um, it's okay for your six, seven, eight, nine, ten-year-old boys to be learning the value of hard work, right? It's okay for you to start molding their character and their structure with handing them a shovel, right? And because at first there's that resistance, like, oh, this sucks, I don't want to dig, right? But then at some point, there every young man finds value in, man, I put in a hard day of work today, right? And and that's important for them to learn. But even more than that, I mean, he's playing drums and he's ice skating because he's getting ready to play hockey in the fall, which has a been a big thing on his list for forever. He's a he's a phenomenal chef.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah, he's doing the woodworking now, he's made cutting boards. Oh, that's right, I forgot about that. He built a gorgeous cutting board, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Uh, virtually on his own.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Uh, and he had never really worked wood before. I just kind of showed him, you know, the basics. Here's how you glue, here's how you clamp, here's how you sand, and it came out fantastic. And uh, like we could sell it. I mean, it's it's really high quality. Um, and all of these things are things that uh again, so most of them by and large are our electives, right? These are things that they just found that they liked, which has been a big byproduct of us being here, is they've had time to discover what they like.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

You know, and yeah, Bella's having she has so much more time, even with working in school, to have to play her guitar and to work on her vocals and do those things. Mackenzie has and it's been paying off, been sewing just incredible things.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

She sews a a shocking amount, like to the point where I go and like, are you are you okay? Like, do you are you bored? Do you need to go out and get boba or something? And she's like, No, I'm happy. She's running.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

We've talked about this before, that there's this thing with like parents feel the need to super like schedule their kids' afternoons and cram all of these extracurriculars. All the regimented stuff, yeah. And I because we've had them in public school for a while, I just kind of thought that was a byproduct of that. But this year in the homeschool community, um, I'm seeing that that's a thing, even With homeschoolers, families joining these several co-ops and having all of these extracurricular activities, and they're running crazy just like everybody else. And we haven't done that. I haven't pushed any sort of extracurricular things on the kids. We've offered some, but they have found their own that were meaningful and important to them and have found ways to pick them up, and it's kind of just incorporated right into what we're doing without us having to like, oh, we're gonna go. This is the night for this, and this is the night for that, and this is the night it's just happening throughout the day. Is when they finish their schoolwork and they have time. Oh, hey, I found this thing that I want to try.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Let's and so they're also kind of learning to enjoy being homebodies a little bit. Like I've I've noticed just that a lot of times we'll they'll have opportunity to go out and do things, and they're just like, well, I'm gonna stay home.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I've got a book to read, or I'm working on my sewing my jacket, or they you know, they're they're just kind of learning to be content, and it's even been fun watching because they have so much more time together, they're really learning to be friends and to have a good time together, and that was something that everybody just kind of coexisted before because we were only together for that couple hours in the evening, really. It was really just time for us to all eat or all bathe or all like a lot of interactive just that added time together at home where you are kind of bored and looking for something to do, so you go find sibling to do something with and it was just it's fun to see them even just playing together having fun and um well and our our our 14-year-old is really good with Nick with the six-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

She's really good at saying, Oh, come on, I'll take you to get that thing, I'll help you brush your teeth. I'll you know, she volunteers and pitches in of her own accord, and that's been really cool to to see.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Yeah, and when I've asked them about like if they miss, you know, where they were, if they're glad that we made the move here, literally the only thing that they mention is that they wish that they still could go to grandma's swimming pool.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Yeah, yeah, they do miss grandma's swimming pool. But we have a swimming pool. There's there's a there's a swimming place near us uh that has like a it's like a little water park public pool, water park place. And it's great, it's a good place, but it's not grandma's house, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

But um, and then I think for like even for our us for the business, like I mentioned earlier, I feel like we're over the crest of the hill, right? We're we're gathering momentum and you've made a ton of awesome connections, even just in the last couple of months with affiliate partners and things, people who are really going to be instrumental.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Well, let's talk about this for a second, too, because this might be helpful for other people that are trying to start some business ventures and things.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah, talk about your your journey.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

When we made the move, previously my business had just been I was writing quilt patterns and I was selling my favorite fabrics when I would go to quilt shows and things. That was pretty much it. I was quilting, selling the quilt patterns, um, doing a little bit of teaching stuff. Um, but not that's pretty much it, it was a quilting business.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Um then when we came here, we had the conversation even before we arrived, knowing that we were coming to this space and knowing that we were gonna be bringing in some of these other skills, gardening and some of the homesteading things, that we were gonna incorporate some of that, find ways to incorporate that into the business. And that kind of happened naturally. Um as we started going to farmers markets, I needed to have things to take to farmers markets, and we didn't have a garden with produce to take to the farmers markets, so I took some of the skincare stuff I was making and made some, you know, some of the things that we were baking with the fresh milk flour and all, you know, that's kind of where it started.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Yeah, you kind of started exploring what your options were, right? Like, what can I make that has value to someone that's acting? We're not like in other words, not just grifting, right? Like trying to make a buck, but like, hey, I can make this thing that actually works and we use it and we love it.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Someone else will love this too. And so you kind of started exploring those natural products.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

I am like the worst salesperson ever. I am not a salesperson. Um, I hate you're naturally very modest.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

I hate selling things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

And so for me to be able to sell it to somebody, I have to think it's absolutely the best thing on the planet that I use myself, and I want to be able to tell them like this is my favorite, and this is why, and this is why I make it this way. And so we found those things, and so that's been good. But honestly, things have just been kind of shifting, and we we were gonna try a few. I was gonna try some different things. I was trying to plan some summits around homesteading and quilting, and it was like I kept hitting closed doors, but we were like, we're gonna make this work, and we're gonna make this, and so we just kept chugging along, and then um making the connection at the local market and being able to teach in-person classes was huge.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Yeah, it was a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Um some much needed like instant cash infusion, but also just but it connected us with people, and honestly, that's what kind of inspired the light bulb moment in my brain of hey, I'm teaching these adults these classes, watching McKinsey learn quilting and things that I'm teaching her in the channel. And seeing the time that she had as a homeschooler to do that and thinking, I should be teaching this for the group. Yes, and so and so as soon as we made that discovery, and as soon as I feel like I find I came home and I told you, like, I think I found my thing, I finally found like I felt like I was kind of all over the place. And I know in the business world, I could hear in the back of my head, if I was gonna talk to an entrepreneur, if I was on Shark Tank, right, those guys would tell me, You're in way too many things, you need to pick a thing. I'm like, I'm trying to pick a thing, I'm trying to find the thing, and so find like when I finally struck on this homeschool quilting course.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah, I remember you came home and you're like, I found my thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

And again, I'm not a salesperson, but it has been so easy to share about it with people.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Um because you legitimately care.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

It's something I love that I'm excited about, and it's something that so many other people are excited about, interested in, wanting to learn. Um, and so it's been really easy to find connections, like some of those bigger connections you're talking about, meeting people that are helping me spread the word about the class because they're genuinely interested and excited about it too, and see the value in it. And so um so that's exciting. So I guess the the moral of the story, and and so I guess I'll go back to this because we've talked about this before too. When I first started the business, I asked you, I was like, why don't more people do this? It's not that like anybody could start a business, so why don't more people do it?

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Now you need to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

And then as we got into it, I looked at him one day and I was like, now I know why more people don't do this.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

Because it's hard. Because you put in the barriers to entry are really high.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

You put in a lot of hours, um, a lot of times with zero dollars attached to them, right? You're working for zero dollars and you're putting in all of this effort and all of this energy, yeah, just to have it maybe not turn out the way you expected it to. It didn't make the money that you thought it was going to make. And then you're back to square one, and I'm like, okay, that's why so many people quit before they get there.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Well, and I think like for us, one of the things that I would say, like looking back, if I could if someone else was asking us these questions, wanting to start a business, um, one of the things I would tell them is what what you just said is finding your thing. Most of the capital investment that we have out right now is um was the money that we spent so that you could have the time to build the business, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

It wasn't that we had to buy a hundred thousand dollar tractor or that we needed to buy this machine or whatever. It was literally that we had to go from two incomes to one income for a year for her to get it in place. Now, what would have saved us a ton of money is if we already had our thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Right? We kind of thought we did initially, right? We did. But my point is that if you're starting a business, if you haven't really found your niche, right? Your thing where you're like, this is the thing that's going to make me wealthy. This is the thing that's going to be the core of my business. If you haven't found that yet, um maybe don't make that jump. Because that's what's going to cost you a ton of money, is like you said, I mean we got into a bunch of things because we needed to make some cash and those were things that made money, but but um where the bulk of our real like expenditure was having to survive until we found that thing. Um, so again, uh are there businesses you can start for less than what it has cost us to get in? Yeah, absolutely. But it'll save you even more if you're already at that stage. Oh, yeah. Does that make sense? Is that fair?

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Um, and just be prepared, you know, they tell you, oh, be prepared not to take a paycheck and whatever and all these other things. Um, it's it's very true. And so yeah, if it's not something that's just a side hustle that you're scaling gradually, if it's something where you really wanted to jump off and start, um, you just need to know you're gonna put in a lot of work. Is it worth it? Yeah, already we're not even really seeing the right like we're not really even where we want to be financially with it yet, but already we know like this was the right move, and five years from now we're gonna look back and go, how did we ever live the other way? Right. But just know it's it's a in the meantime, it's a mean time, and um so be brave and you know, feel the fear and do it anyway, because it is worth it. It is worth it. Um it has been, but it's hard, it will in some ways it'll be harder than you think it is.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Yeah. Yeah. Um so I guess maybe key lessons or takeaway from the year, things that maybe you would do differently or things that I would do differently.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

You and I were joking today about I joked with you that if you built any more garden, you would need two husbands to help you take care of it. And you said, no, I just need a tractor.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

And I was a little insulted, but also I was like, yep, that's the girl I married right there. I don't need no man's, I need a tractor. Um and so it would be nice if we had had a tractor in some ways. We've talked about that, and it still would be, and we plan to get one.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Um it would be nice if we had a trailer.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

A trailer would be something that would be helpful for us um more now, right? As we get more into it, especially as we're talking about big animals and bigger gardens and things. Uh you know, 16-foot cattle panels just don't fit in the back of an SUV. So um that's something that I think would be helpful as far as things we do differently. I mean, you can always look back and go, oh, if we had done this, it would have been better or done that. But like I think we planned ahead pretty well. We we kind of knew what to expect. Again, the weather being like the the winter time and stuff was easier than we thought it would be.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

It was.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

And so that was a pleasant surprise that we honestly we found we kind of enjoyed that winter season. Like it was cold and the fireplace and eat some chili and you know, read a book and watch it.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Things kind of slowed down because the grass wasn't growing like crazy and you didn't have to cut it up to the street.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Animals were kind of just hunkered down, and and so that was something that was really uh a pleasant surprise. Um, I don't know that I would change it. Um we there were some things we spent money on for the house that we didn't realize we would need to spend, like the egress windows, and and so there's some of those projects that are not done yet because we spent that money on other areas that we didn't realize we would need to spend it on, but but that's life. Um everything's functional, so yeah. I don't know. I don't know that I would make any real changes other than yeah, you know, uh yeah, no, I I I don't know that we could have done it better.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

We did a pretty good job. We planned ahead.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Do that, by the way. Do do kind of break it down what's this gonna cost, right? Because we had a pretty good idea. We're like, we're gonna need to spend this and this and this and this, and it was a big number.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

And and we knew that we would have about a year to figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

We we forecast out, like, hey, yeah, you're gonna by this date, you're gonna either gonna need a job or some revenue. Yeah, and um um, but we made it work, and and it's again looking future is brighter than ever, and yeah, I wouldn't change the thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

So super excited for this coming year. So, favorite memory from this past year.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

My favorite memory from this past year.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Uh and I'll go first to give you a minute to think about it. Yeah, let me let me think for a second. So um, I think a lot of my favorite memories revolve around uh some winter stuff, and I think probably because it was the first time we had really had winter. So being able to play outside in the snow with the kids that first time it snowed, that was really fun. I think everybody's gonna remember that. Um but also even before the snow, we had really, really cold temperatures, like in the teens, and the pond completely froze over. The kids could look out the back door and they saw that it was frozen, and so they just all decided to go take off down there. Um, it was crazy cold. I didn't even want to go outside that day to take care of the animals. Um, and I looked down and they're all down there throwing ice on the pond and just cracking each other up and having lots of fun. They slipped and sliding, you know, fell down. And anyways, I can just hear the giggles all the way up at the house. Um and when I stood there watching that, I was like, this is why we came here. Like our kids are literally having fun together, building memories together, strengthening that relationship that they have with each other. Um, I didn't tell them to do it, I didn't even suggest it, or like it was just something they came up with all on their own and they decided to take off. The best time. Um and then for me, like all of those evenings, and even in the daytime when I was working and I got to sit in front of the fireplace and fireplace and a mug of tea, snowing outside, watching the snow while I sit in front of the warm fire and drink my tea. That was that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Pretty nice. Yeah, that was good. I I think a lot of my favorite moments are similar to yours. Again, um, I really enjoyed uh 4th of July last year when we were kind of first here. It was so fun. We have a really good community event. Uh the the parks department does a really phenomenal job of planning events here, and they had this big shindig for just like pre-July 4th weekend. And uh they had live music and there was stuff for the kids, and there was food, and it was just a really like the weather was nice, and it was a good time. It was easy, it was cheap or free. I think it was free, right? Yeah, and so we all went outside and listened to music and ate food and watched the big fireworks show, and it was easy and low stress, and I didn't feel like I was gonna lose my kids in the crowd, and everybody was just there, nobody was there like getting wasty pants and you know, just had drunken big things.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Just a bunch of people with kids who wanted to come watch fireworks, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

And it was it was really nice. I was like, man, this is such a nice thing to be able to do with our kids, and uh and to not have it be 102 degrees on July 4th, because traditionally, where we've been for the last many years, um July 4th is basically like the hottest time of the year, other than all the other months, right? But um it right, it's literally 103, 104 degrees sometimes in July. And so um it was just really refreshing to be outdoors and it was nice and it was a great event, and it didn't cost anything, and it was just like it was a great welcome to the neighborhood. So um that was that was enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah, so all right, and then I guess like to wrap it up, let's talk about looking forward to yeah, our as we go into year number two, what are goals for year number two, or what are we excited about? So for me, um, first of all, with the the quilting course starting, I am so excited. Um that's gonna be really good for that course this year, and excited to just hear all of the stories from all of the students that have gone through the course and see the things that they've made. Like that's gonna be I'm just I'm excited about that. And because I keep it.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

All the quilts that happen because you taught a course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Yeah, well, and and all for me, it's like so many of these families that I'm talking to, a lot of them, the moms and the kids are gonna be doing this side by side.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

And so it's not just for like knowing like not only are they learning these skills, sure, but they're spending time together and building in that relationship and like that quality time and doing that thing together is yeah, like I'm that gets me all excited.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

So that's your real passion, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

No, that's really good. I'm uh I'm to be honest, I'm kind of in a weird way. I'm looking forward to owning a pig.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Me too. Every time I cleaned out the fridge today, and that was like I wish we had a pig because this could be bacon.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

Yeah, I I'm looking forward to that just again for that aspect of it of like here's an animal that eats like a king, and we throw him little scraps and let him wander around the pasture, and then one day his off his awesome life is over, and we turn him into bacon. And um, I'm just really excited to to try our hand at that and see how that goes. Uh, mostly because I really like bacon. Um, but also, like you said, just the that whole thing, every time you scrape your plate, and you're like, man, we could really be feeding this to a pig. And yeah, um, so we we're gonna do that. And and so, anyways, I'm I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to uh watching Ruben play hockey.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Um just seeing our kids thrive and and where they're at. Uh I start a new job on uh tomorrow, as a matter of fact. Yeah, and uh I'm looking forward to the opportunity that comes with that and see how that goes.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Um, so yeah, lots of good changes coming, and I'm I'm looking really forward to seeing how your class comes out because um Yeah. I mean, I know how it's gonna come out because obviously people love it and they're already, you know, signing up for it, but I'm really excited to see where that takes us. We've made some really good connections with people that have said, hey, you know what, we'd love to be affiliate for you and and they want to partner with us. I think you're gonna be on a couple of podcasts this summer and it's it's just it's been really good.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

It's really fun.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Like the future is bright.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

You end up meeting these people and you start talking back and forth and you realize how much you haven't gotten. Right, you just pick up a conversation. They're your y'all are really good friends, and you've never actually met them in person. But they're like, if you ever get to meet them in person, y'all are gonna be like best of friends because it's just it's fun. Um, yeah, and I get to not so not only that, but I get to teach at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

Like this year is huge. This year it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

There's a lot of really exciting stuff happening business-wise for me this year. So that's gonna be really exciting.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Fantastic. We're we're really looking forward to what this year is gonna bring. Again, we've come through that slog year of like 10:30, 11 o'clock at night on the laptop, going, why doesn't the pay portal work with the back end of the website? Yeah, and no money coming in, and you're like, I work 80 hours a week, why are we not making any money yet? Yeah, um, to now where we're finally starting to see some of that pay off. And and the legitimacy that comes with that, which I don't know what we've talked about, but when you approach someone for business purposes and you say, This is what I have to offer, and they see that you have a functional, attractive, working website with pay options. Yes, we have Square, yes, we take Apple Pay, you know, all these things, and they're seeing that you've done the work because they also did the work. Oh, yeah, they recognize, okay, this person's legitimate. You're not just somebody with a hobby that's you're wanting them to show your product on their like you're somebody who has something to offer and they should be a part of it, right? And that has been really encouraging to see the response that you you're getting, that people are recognizing your hard work.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Um, it does feel really good. That's really good.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

It feels really good.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

So, you got anything uh new coming in the pipeline that uh what we talked about, you're gonna be a demonstrator at the Houston Quilt Show.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yeah, so we've got we've got several more shows. We've got a quilt show locally here this summer. We've got the quilt show in Houston in in November.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

We've got uh lots of farmers markets before. A couple of homestead shows all yeah, we're um we're there too. I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Yeah, and then uh yeah, all the farmers market stuff. So there's lots of stuff going on, lots of lots of good stuff, still getting getting to meet new people every day and find more connections, and it's it's building community, yeah. It takes time, but now that we've been here a year, I'm like, okay, we're we're starting. We do have some people now, and it's nice.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yeah, it's been good. Uh is it still worth it to you?

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Absolutely, like I would do it again now. I would go back and remind myself it's gonna be real hard.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

It's gonna be really hard.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Um, but it was absolutely worth it. And again, watching the kids thrive and see how far they've come this year, and seeing how far I've come this year and how much this year has stretched me out of my comfort zone and um grown me, it's it's definitely been worth it. Not easy. But definitely worth it. Worth it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

So good. That's good. Well, I suppose we should wrap it up.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining in this episode with us as we kind of celebrate our one year here. And thank you for being here every week to kind of follow along with our story and the things that we have to share.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

And hopefully you're encouraged to do the big scary thing. Um think it out, map it out, be prepared for to be flexible, but do it. Feel the fear and do it anyway, like my brother says, right? And um, so yeah, take take those steps. It'll be worth it.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Awesome. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Thank you for choosing to spend some of your time with us. If you've been enjoying the podcast, one of the simplest ways to support us is by telling a friend and leaving a review wherever you're listening. It helps more people find these conversations, and it truly means a lot for us to hear how our stories are impacting you. You can also go to thelarklife.comslash podcast. There you'll find an option to give a small one time or ongoing gift, and it helps support the time, tools, and energy that go into creating these episodes. Until next time,