Happy New Year from Sarah in Illinois. I’m very happy to have Sarah continuing as a contributor this year, sharing news of what’s happening at her farm in Illinois. Like us here in Ontario, she’s starting off the year in a cold snap, but she’s looking ahead with optimism. She’s sharing some of her inspiration for 2018 today.
Happy New Year!
Our new year in Illinois has been great, but very, very cold. We have not made it above freezing temperatures in about two weeks. Last night we dropped to -6F (-21C) actual temperature. Keeping water available to the chickens has been my biggest struggle, even with a heated water bowl.
There is one more inconvenience that I am dealing with. Frozen eggs!
I gather them in the morning before work, but by the time I get home and there has been 10 hours of single digit temperatures, I usually find this:
However, relief is on the way. The forecast for the upcoming week shows that we are going to rise above freezing every day and I am looking forward to it.
I am also looking forward to the upcoming year. A new year always feels like a blank slate. For us, 2017 had some good points but a lot of struggles and the promise of a fresh new start is invigorating.
If you remember my posts last year or the year before I used the website My One Word to find an inspirational word for the year.
I decided this year that I want to use a phrase as a sort of mantra for my upcoming year and I wrote it in the front of my new planner.
I am not sure where this phrase originated. I found a version attributed to Roy T. Bennett in The Light in the Heart: “Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular.”
I found this quote by David Cottrell: “Doing the right thing isn’t always easy – in fact, sometimes it’s real hard – but just remember that doing the right thing is always right.”
And if you are a fan of Harry Potter then I am sure you remember Albus Dumbledore saying, “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”
No matter who first said it, I think it can be applied to every aspect of my life from what I choose to eat, to getting chores done around the house and barn.
So what about you? Do you have a word or a mantra to start your new year? Or do you write out resolutions? Do you feel like I do and think of the new year as a clean, blank slate?
This is a great mantra for the year, Sarah. I like how it can apply to big things as well as the little everyday tasks. I’m doing a word of the year for the first time this year, and I’ll be sharing my choice in an upcoming post.
I’m curious to here how others are starting the new year. Leave a comment and let us know your resolutions or words or mantras.
Home on 129 Acres 
I started 2018 with some major dunging-out of my basement. It’s amazing what I’ve hoarded away. I seem to be running out of steam now, but a lot of stuff got sorted and a lot of it was sold, given away or thrown out. I also have a box full of papers for shredding.
Oh boy, do I need to do that Jane. Good for you getting started!
I like your mantra, Sarah! I have been struggling to come up with the right word for word-of-the-year, but as soon as I read this I knew which saying would fit for me. It is this: “What if you chose your actions according to your hopes instead of your fears?” That spoke to me so profoundly and so deeply when I came across it a couple of months ago that it sprang straight to mind when I saw you break the one-word limit. So thanks for thinking out of the box! 🙂
Julia, I’m looking forward to hearing your word, too.
And PS, can you use those frozen eggs for anything or are they ruined?
Isn’t that something, that a phrase can strike you so strongly? That is what my phrase did for me.
As for the eggs, if they are cracked (frozen or not) they head straight to my compost pile. I don’t risk any type of contamination/germs getting in the egg. If I know for sure an uncracked egg is frozen I usually just toss it, otherwise I try to use it in the following day or two. I’ve heard of people freezing eggs (out of the shell) when they have too many. I haven’t tried this mainly because I am not sure about how the texture may change. Maybe that is an experiment for a future post?