Snow Farms Holistic Wellness

Summer is a time for rest, relaxation, and learning! I have had a consistent schedule between my house cleaning, online teaching, and holistic wellness work, but Sam and I have been able to make it to the library once a week and that has been great fun! The farm animals are content to beat the heat by hanging out in the shade or swimming in a pond while the dogs are happy to be wherever we are just lazing about. My top 5 list is probably going to be random, but they are all things that I have enjoyed in this season of life!

My number 5 is going to church and really growing in my spiritual life. Last year around November, Russ decided to try out a new church in Denison which is about an hours drive from our house. It is small, basically standing room only, and the services there along with the fellowship afterward bring a calming vibe that I never knew I was missing. There is a repetition to the services and an order which until recently was mostly done by readers within the church. We would have our priest come about every 3 weeks which was my favorite because the services are enhanced by incense and the message for the service. Our choir is outstanding and although I don’t know all the songs by heart yet, I am surprised by how many words to many songs I have learned. I still have a lot to learn about my new church, but it is an amazing foundation to build our family upon.

Number 4 is enjoying rides in our new to us boat on our pond. The boat is just big enough for 3 people, a few snacks, and fishing gear. Our pond isn’t the biggest and we haven’t caught any fish yet, but the peace that the water brings has been a blessing. I was always fond of boat rides on the lake with my grandparents- they had a pontoon boat that we could camp out on and it was so cool. The drive up to the reservoir was not magical- too rocky, too high above the water, and too many steep cliffs- thankfully I am a reader and didn’t look out the window until we reached the dock or their house! It is so much fun to hitch up the boat to the mule, pack it up with fishing supplies, and ride on down to our pond. Sam LOVES it as well. Russ needs to go an register the boat so that we can make the maiden voyage down the local water area to see if we can really catch some fish, but until then the pond is just fine for me.

My number 3 of my Top 5 of summer is the trips to the library with Sam. I was a bad patron and had checked out a book and it was about a year over due . . . I just kept forgetting it at home and I had lost my check out privilege’s which meant that I couldn’t listen to free audiobooks either! Thankfully, our town library has a summer reading program for the kids and making a point to go to the library meant that I could return the overdue book. Yahoo! Sam and I were entertained by a storyteller, a magician (Russ joined us for this trip), and some wild birds including one owl that is featured in a Harry Potter movie! We made the most of our trips and have gotten into the habit of going weekly. Sam loves to play with the toys and check out the community garden while I have reached out to the librarian to see if I can teach some herb classes there (she said yes!). Best of all, I have access to the Libby and Hoopla apps and have been reading a lot of audio books again which has been awesome. I highly recommend checking out your local library to see what they have going on!

My second favorite thing that I have enjoyed about this summer is all the different learning experiences I have participated in. This past weekend I learned all about perimenopause and menopause at a workshop put on by Jennifer Kramer of Your Menopause Maven. I am super excited to be bringing a webinar and an on-line group coaching experience for women wanting to learn more later this fall. I also have participated in several different classes at Herbal Medics Academy put on by Sam and Suchil Coffman. I have learned more about basic herbs, working with clients through case studies, preserving and wildcrafting, growing medicinal herbs, quick swaps of food and drink to make for better health, and how to create formulas for apothecary products. It has been so awesome and I also look forward to using this knowledge to help current and future clients with their health needs. I also stumbled across a podcast that led me to a group of amazing women called Town Square Herbalism. In this amazing group, we learn about herbs and working with clients, study books together, write monographs about different herbs, support and learn from one another. Living in rural Oklahoma is hard sometimes to because I don’t really know anyone close that has knowledge of herbs . . .yet, but one of the ladies in the group is actually from Oklahoma!! Small world! I still have a lot to learn about in the herbal/holistic world, but the new knowledge that I have gained so far is amazing!

My favorite thing about the Summer of 2024 has been the cribbage games that Russ and I have been able to play on the weekends. It has been a wonderful way to connect, communicate, and enjoy each others company while listening to the music of our youth. We have played so many games this summer that we had to buy new cards! I can’t thank my Uncle Dave enough for our amazing cribbage board that he gave us to keep the memory of my grandparents alive and well. The high point hand is still something that I haven’t gotten yet, but I did manage to get a 20 point hand twice this weekend!

While I haven’t taken an lavish trips around the world or taken a cruise to a far away island, I am not complaining one bit because this summer has been amazing. There have been stretches of miserably hot weather which is always hard, but life on the farm and in my wee little apothecary space has been pretty amazing.

What have been your top 5 things that you have enjoyed this summer? Let me know below!