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This has been a stellar year for us! We have done so much this year and it’s hard to believe it’s only been our first year in this house! This year we have; bought a house, started our homesteading journey, got chickens, got married, and are literally making our dream a reality!

As I look back through this year, I can see that we’ve accomplished so much.. I looked at the goals I made for 2024, and I pretty much accomplished all of it! With the exception of growing a garden (which is next year’s goal with raised beds built), we’ve accomplished everything on the list that we wanted to do this year!

So, let’s look back at the amazing year we’ve had…

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January:

In January, I had a goal of writing more interesting blog posts. I focused on actually writing stuff that would attract more people to my blog, instead of just writing ‘life updates’ about my non-existent homestead at the time.. The posts were as follows;

🧹Why Starting Off the New Year with a Purge is a Great Thing!
🕯️10 Spa Day / Self Love Ideas for Women this Valentines Day
💞8 At Home Date Ideas for Introverted Couples this Valentines Day
🐤Why Homesteading is Becoming a Trend, and Why We Want to Homestead Too!

These were a great way to get traffic to my blog, as well as expand my writing abilities to include new ideas and writing styles. I plan to do more of these types of posts next year if can get the time to sit and write again.

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February:

February was a BIG month for us! After MONTHS of searching, we finally found our homestead! ❤ The land was small, but we had big dreams for it, and it came with a nice house! We signed the papers for our new home the day before Valentine’s Day, and we got to work scrubbing the nicotine off the walls and painting. We were so blessed to have a HUGE team of workers to help us with this house, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them!

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March:

Two weeks after we bought the house, we had to start moving things out of our apartment and into our freshly cleaned and painted house. We soon found out, after scrubbing large amounts of nicotine off the walls, that it can be absorbed through the skin and make you sick! Because of this, we were all very sick while moving in, and it took all of our energy to move in and unpack. We bounced back after a week or two, and then the real fun began!

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April:

With the house now unpacked, we got to work on the yard! We added berries bushes, flowering bushes, and brought over a BUNCH of new tools to our homestead! We added a compost thanks to the neighbor’s donation of pallets. And last but not least, we had a LOT of wedding planning we were doing in the month of April! Wedding drama was at an all-time high this month, and I was grateful for the yardwork to keep my mind and body busy when I wanted a breather!

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May:

In May, we got Married! We had a beautiful Viking/Celtic/Renaissance Wedding Reception at a local park with friends and family and a simple handfasting ceremony at our new house was performed a little later with a few family members. It was a beautiful and private event, filled with close family and friends who wanted to be there to celebrate the beginning of our lives together.

At the very end of May, we also adopted our first flock of chickens! These birds have been so much fun to raise, and we love to watch them scratch around the yard! Although we didn’t get our first egg until October, we enjoyed checking the coup every day (after they got bigger) to see if there were any eggs from our beautiful chickens.

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June:

By the time June hit, Summer was in full swing here on the homestead! We had our swings up in the backyard, the pool was filled and being used often, and the mosquitoes and gnats were everywhere! We were enjoying regular morning fires by our new firepit in our backyard. We were picking mulberries from the tree out front. And we got to decorate our new house for Summer. Life was good…

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July:

July was a tough month for us here on the Homestead.. We had dogs get into our chicken cage and attempt to kill our chickens. We had multiple tornadoes sweep past us. And we were fortifying the chicken’s cage/coup practically every week with something new to keep predators out of it! On top of all of this, all of the rain and storms had made our grass grow uncontrollably, and the flash floods were bringing water into the house through cracks! The only good thing to come out of this month was that we had added our first group of raised garden beds to the front yard, so all of the grass, leaves, and chicken poop we were cleaning up were going to good use!

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August:

During August, things slowed down on the homestead. We were getting into a routine with the chickens, I was going to work almost every day, and the summer markets were in full swing! Most of my time was spent at work or at the markets, and in the few hours I was home I was normally doing yard work or cleaning the house.

There was very little time to work on crafts for the markets, but I would find time here and there to do some drawing and wood burning. There were certainly no days of rest for us, and I was very thankful for everything Hubby did while I was at work all day! Poor hubby had a long ‘honey do’ list while I was gone, and he almost always finished it by the time I got home. ❤

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September:

September was our travel month.. We had been waiting all year for our annual trip to the Holly Michigan Renaissance Festival! This year, we had planned a three-day trip! This was our first overnight road trip, and although the hotel beds were awful, we loved every second of our trip! We got to see Michigan’s second-oldest lighthouse. We got to go to the Renaissance Festival. And we got to visit an adorable little town called Eaton Rapids on our way home from the trip! All in all, it was an amazing time and certainly worth the trip!

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October:

In October, the trees on our property blessed us with the most beautiful views out of our windows all month long! While everyone else was busy raking up their leaves, we decided to leave them in the yard to cover the ground for the winter. The weather had turned cold, making our morning fires more enjoyable, and the chickens surprisingly laid their first egg after just five months! At the end of October, I ended the month with a spectacular Halloween in town, scaring the local kids with some gruesome friends of mine!

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November:

As November hit, we saw our first bouts of winter.. We started waking up to snow more often than not, Christmas decorations were promptly put up before it was too cold to do so, and it was time to get the property ready for Winter! The chicken coup had to be winterized, heat lamps had to be attached, and shovels were placed by the door for the heavy snow that was yet to come..

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December:

December was spent cleaning, doing holiday baking, and hosting/going to Christmas parties. We had a total of five Christmas parties this December, two of which were hosted here at our new house. The house was decorated for Christmas, and I completely outdid myself with the holiday cheer this year! I also had a good friend of mine over for some holiday baking for Christmas presents, and my Hubby had his friends over for game days on a weekly basis. We ended the holiday season with a Christmas Eve party at our house where my family had a gingerbread building contest and opened presents from each other.

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This year was certainly a good year for us, and we can’t wait to see what next year brings!

We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s been a dream come true for us to have this house, be married, and FINALLY start working on our homestead together. ❤ We have added so much to the property in such a short time, and we can’t wait to see what’s added next year..

I hope that you enjoyed looking back at what this year has brought us, and we can’t wait for what’s to come!

I’m sending hugs to you all and hoping that everyone has a spectacular year in 2025! ❤ As always, smile, have an amazing day, and take a moment to look back at your own year and see how far you’ve come!