2024 was good to us. As two people who thrive on accomplishments, purpose and service we tend to go into overdrive. In 2020 when we quit working for other people and decided to work for our selves full time we laughed at how we don’t have time for jobs because we have so much to do! This is still true today and although 2024 was our best year yet in business and personal, we are striving to make 2025 even better.

At the beginning of last year we traveled to Missouri where my family lives and bought a 1970’s brick house. My mother and sister live in it and pay us a huge portion of the mortgage and we are looking forward to redoing the house and keeping it as a place that all my family can be in at any given time. It is a blessing to have the help and resources to make this happen. We left there for a bunk trip to Mexico, which we vowed to NEVER return, giving us the open door to pick a new place to travel to internationally. We’ve been talking and scheming (Italy anyone?) and are looking forward to our future travel plans.

We got home a little late last year but we were still able to produce our biggest and best yield yet. Thanks to Ninilchik Traditional Council we made more money last year on our farm than any before. I am so thankful that we had the idea to start our WWOOFing endeavors last year to help us keep up with the demand. We had two WWOOFers and we wouldn’t have done it any different. The experience of getting to know another while learning from each other in an environment that we are passionate about…..come on! It doesn’t get much better than that. Bob was able to finish and publish his second book, with a special thanks to all the people who donated to the kickstarter- Bob was able to fully fund the editing and formatting. Now all of the money that comes in from the book will be profit (that is if you DON’T include all the hours he has spent writing it). When he wasn’t writing he was busy building playground equipment, a double lean-to off the shipping container, and an addition to our home upgrading it from 680 sq ft to 835 sq ft. We camped more this year since we had a work schedule we stuck to (rather than working 24/7) and made it more of a point to spend time with friends both old and new. Of course we have two beautiful new children to add to our incredible dynamic duo. Our life is so full, we feel so rich and our blessings seem to come 100 fold. How did we get so lucky? Of course we had some hard times, challenges and situations that were rather……uncomfortable to say the least. To dwell in these would be ungrateful of all the positives.

So what is in store for us this year? We are super stoked to start a Money Plan. Bob and I love to talk about money and what to do with it. However, we haven’t been very successful at figuring out what exactly to do with it. For the last 4 years or so we have tracked every single penny we spend. We have been on a varying budget and now, we are really putting our money to work for us. We will be saving for specific goals rather than just to hoard the money and blow it all in a few spends (something we have a habit of doing 😂). We are planing a fall trip to visit that second home and do a little projects. We are going to start looking through WWOOF applications and get a few more people out here. We will camp! YES! And maybe this year we will make the plans (and maybe put into action) the addition of a solarium. We want to extend the orchard and grow more berries. Primrose will start kindergarten this summer (homeschool) and Marlena will go to Faith Christian Preschool in the fall. Mom and Dad will get more time together as we are starting to navigate this parenting thing and really set time aside for us. Because well, none of this would be possible without US. He is my best friend, the reason I keep on going. And we are looking forward to our best year yet!

Happy 2025!