The other day I talked here about my Punky. And I wanted to delve back into this. Jadyn, the Punk, Punky, Punky-girl, Punkin, Punkin-seed. She has battled respiratory illness all her life as I wrote about in the previously mentioned post. Did I mention that she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia this June? This is great and terrible all at once. It's great that there are explanations for some of the unexplained pain and weakness and fatigue. It sucks because.... Fibro.
This Punkin-seed of mine, she likes to work. She's a hard worker and good at it, strong work ethic. Customer service is something that comes naturally to her. I love-love-love watching her interact with John Q. Public. But the constant battle of good and evil, I mean, er, health vs. illness, takes a toll. On jobs, self-esteem, and so much more. Punky misses an average of 1-2 days of work a week. She needs something that can accommodate this. Like 2 days on, one off, 2 on and another off. It's hard to find this. She lost her last job because of this exact thing. It was manual labor, line work, manufacturing. She LOVED it. But her body did not. This is a consistent issue. So here we are, the kid needs a job, and she has a suspended license. Mom is just coming off of surgery. You know? But I am driving again. Well, I was driving again. But you may have read that the car I was driving (I don't even own it), is not fit to drive currently. But here's the thing, the Punk has applied for some jobs and she gets all choked up and teary and says, "what if I can't do it?" "What if I get fired again?" "What if I get sick?" Lots of What if's. And this plays havoc on her self-esteem. We have been scratching our heads trying to figure out some non-conventional ways that she can make life (and work) work for her.
We've thought of a few. But the truth is, it's been a struggle. One conversation that we keep having over and over again is this. The Punk wants to "take over the farm when you die Mom." First of all, I'm not planning to ever die. And this makes me chuckle. Like What-the-heck-do-I-really-have-something-you-want?! and also, "...so now you're wishing me dead?!" But moving is hard and we've been here for 2 years now and my girl is kind of starting to realize that she likes country life and living on a little farmstead. And she's good with the animals. Real good. They like her and she likes them.
So we're working on the idea of homesteading. Making the farm work for us. Creating our own jobs instead of attempting to fit the mold of conventional jobs. One thing that is starting to work is artwork. Yay! My cards are starting to catch on and I can't pay our bills off the sales yet, but it makes the pinch less painful. And pays for "extras" like, you know, phone service.
Punky does most of the research and we're finding what poultry we want to invest in and what things won't bring us joy (or profits). Jadyn does an amazing job of finding information through vlogs and blogs and other sorts of youtube stuff (this stuff her is beyond my pay grade). We've decided to start a video diary of our journey. As we start to generate income it will be fun to record the journey. This task falls to Jadyn. I am the writer, and she's going to start following the day to day tasks using video and creating a youtube channel. So we need to get started on this. And it takes stuff. So we've created an Amazon list to help get started.
This is the part where I tell about the goodness of people. One thing I need to admit to myself OFTEN is that people are good to me on a consistent basis. I mean, believe in the good and good will happen. Which is a cool concept. But the thing is, I'm a jaded soul. And God (or Good) is "out to get me." He is determined to let me know that people are genuinely good and that good things happen all the time. Which is where you angels without wings come in. I'm going to stay corny and upbeat and not get teary-eyed here. But the reality is, I have so many awesome people in my life today: rescuing me when cars break down, paying my evergy bill, picking up prescriptions, giving us rides, lending us a car, bringing out groceries. People are good. So good. dammit, here come the waterworks again.
Thanks Lord for this good life. I'm so very grateful. More adventures to come! I can't wait to see what this transforming of the farm looks like through the lens of Jadyn's optimism and other people's good will.
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