When Did Living Become So Much Work? | The Convenience Trap & Slow Living

Meara (00:01.058)
Good morning, ladies. Before we get into today's episode, we actually had quite a few of you messaging us saying that you would like to hear more of just about who we are, like what we've been doing, what's been going on in our lives and happening throughout the week. And so we were just kind of like, why don't we do that? So we thought from now on, before we jump into our actual topics each week, that we would sit down and just catch up for a bit.
So Maggie, how was your last week and what have you been up to?
Maggie (00:32.323)
Whew well it was Labor Day weekend last weekend and we were actually quite busy
We decided to go hiking. and mind you, I don't have hiking shoes anymore because they were left outside during the winter and the cats did their business on them. So I was I just thought, hey, I'll just let's just I'll go barefoot and let's just, you know, we'll stay on the trails and it'll just be a nice casual day. So we went into the Shawnee State Forest, kind of on the outskirts and found a trail and
Meara (00:52.342)
Yeah.
Maggie (01:10.555)
Started from there and
And I guess from the recent storms maybe that we had in this area, there was tons of trees down and there was a lot of parts that were washed out. So we lost our trail. We ended up getting stuck in the woods for six hours, climbing up, climbing down and thorns everywhere

Maggie (00:01.612)
And none of us were prepared to go off trail and and I am definitely not in in good enough shape to be out in the woods for six for six hours doing all of that hiking. but we finally found the road. We almost went the wrong way again, but something told me it was probably it was probably God because I was praying the entire time, like please just

Meara (00:27.469)
Ha ha ha.

Maggie (00:28.876)
Help me help me get through this. Help me help my children. My children were so tired. you know, and I was carrying Edgar on my my back for a while and but

But we finally made it to the road and we're we're trekking our way up and and all of a sudden I'm like, I I just can't I can't go on anymore. I we passed this construction zone where they're they're doing some logging. And I'm like, we're so far away from the car. We are so far away from the car 'cause I remembered passing it on the way in.

So my husband gave me a knife and gave me a taser and had me and the kids go hide in the woods and he went to get the car. And and there are so many hills along the way and he got to a point where, you know, he's like trying to run and get the car and but we finally made it out of there and the next day, the following day we went fishing and did a little bit of trekking with that and that was a lot and then

Meara (01:06.572)
Yeah.

Maggie (01:32.706)
fair the following day. It's just busy. It's been a fun, nice, enjoyable weekend, but it's been busy and it's been a lot on our on our ph physicality. And a lot of pain.

Meara (01:43.392)
Yeah, mentally it seems like too. Now did you have your phone with you where you could have just done like the Google Maps and walk back or you're just tired?

Maggie (01:50.264)
We we had no service. We had no service in this area and and we had no map. Yeah.

Meara (01:55.032)
Were you at Shawnee State Park? Shawnee State Park right there? I love it. I love going up to the cabins up there. It is amazing. But the river down below?

Maggie (02:02.697)
We so we didn't go to like the like the center like where you would normally go. We were on the outskirts. So Yep. It is, it's beautiful.

Meara (02:08.192)
State Park.

Meara (02:11.957)
Okay. That's so pretty up there. Feels like Appalachian. Yeah, we are still in the process of moving. We got our own little homestead now with some acreage and we decided we were gonna just get a few things this weekend, but I'm like, Let's please just grab a truck because I had my coffee and I had energy and I was in the mood. So my our our oldest helped me load up a bunch of stuff like my garage and his garage and

Maggie (02:21.357)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Maggie (02:33.377)
Ha ha ha.

Mm-hmm.

Meara (02:41.313)
We came back here and then he was like, let's not, you know, unload it right away. But I was just so tired. I'm like, please, I won't have any energy. I ended up taking a nap and then and then we ended up l unloading it really quickly. But yeah, we're in the process of moving into our little homestead. We actually had our first little bonfire last night and we stayed out till it was dark and here panicking because I don't know where the kids are. I can't see it's getting so dark. But we really enjoyed that. And so now we're just, you know, making plans for getting we have a little garden.

Maggie (02:58.029)
Nice.

Meara (03:11.761)
that I need to majorly take care of and clean up and we wanna plant some bulbs for garlic next season and stuff like that. So we're just hanging around the house and getting stuff. It's a lot. It's it's it's a lot like like you mentally and emotional and physically. It's it's tough but but it's so worth it. So that's what we've been doing this week.

Maggie (03:25.131)
It is a lot.

Maggie (03:31.525)
It is. It is. And with fall coming, there's gonna be a lot of work during fall 'cause you're getting the r the last of your harvest. And and I'm excited because I have my amaranth that's growing out there and as soon as that's ready

Meara (03:49.295)
wow.

Maggie (03:50.199)
I can collect those and start adding those to my to my flowers and and pancakes and I need to start making bread and stuff. But so that'll be exciting. and then just prepping all the gardens and getting ready for I'm really gonna take this winter to really slow down and start, you know, doing some things like bread making that I've been wanting to do and

Meara (03:56.471)
Yeah.

That'll be so nice.

Meara (04:06.337)
Yeah.

Meara (04:12.095)
Yeah.

Maggie (04:19.682)
And just, you know, I'm just gonna kind of be like a bear and really just try and hibernate and and save some of that energy.

Meara (04:26.733)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (04:32.565)
Yeah, I think we'll be able to do bread and stuff that I'm been having issues with with starters because I told you I had pulled my kindergartner from school while now I'm pulling my older two from school. I just I can't do this anymore. So we'll we'll see what happens. I'm a little nervous, but I think we'll have plenty of time to do things. So yeah, that was our week.

Maggie (04:41.921)
huh.

Maggie (04:45.54)
Yeah.

Maggie (04:54.35)
We home home school's starting to get really exciting. We found did I tell you we found a bunch of old books? Like really old books from like the early eighteen hundreds. Yeah. So I'm gonna start teaching from some of those and you know, we're we're going out now and we're looking for all these really old books. I heard I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but have you heard that AI companies are buying books and destroying them?

Meara (05:01.227)
Yeah. Yeah, you told me last week. Mm-hmm.

Meara (05:19.979)
Yeah, you did say that.

Maggie (05:22.71)
So now we're like, okay, we gotta go and try and find as many as we can find. All you know, and that's not that's not a rule anymore. Yeah. yeah. So that's exciting. So I can you know, really build my library. Yep. Me too. Me too.

Meara (05:26.263)
Get all the books you can. But only if you throw only if you get rid of five.

Meara (05:36.587)
changed it. Nice. Nice. Maggie's library.

Cool. I'm excited for you.

Meara (05:50.295)
So what are we getting into this week?

Maggie (05:52.824)
This week we are talking about kind of how maybe lazy we've become, right? How society has directed us into a way where living just just seems hard. So I guess we'll go ahead and get into it.

Meara (06:01.164)
Yeah.

Meara (06:09.323)
Yeah.

Yes, let's

Maggie (06:15.101)
Okay. So so yeah, so somewhere along the way we stopped we stopped calling it living, you know, cooking became a chore. growing food became a hobby, making things became became a craft, walking became exercise, and and sitting outside became self ca self care.

You know, and and maybe life isn't asking too much of us. Maybe we've just gotten really far away from what just living actually is. So, welcome to Women Folk Revival, where we are deeply rooted and wildly intentional. I am Aggie.

Meara (06:58.803)
And I'm Mira. And when I think about it, we have found a way to make almost everything faster, easier, and convenient. And we're supposed to be saving all this time, but where the heck did all the time go?

Maggie (07:09.335)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (07:14.531)
Where did the ton go?

Meara (07:15.137)
Like seriously, nobody has any time at all anymore. We're rushing constantly in the morning and dinner and with our kids doing one thing to the next and through the day and we're just absolutely exhausted. So what what exactly did we save all this time for? That's my question.

Maggie (07:33.911)
We we just replace time with different things. Different things that maybe really just don't mean as much as the things that were done in the past.

Meara (07:45.345)
Yes. My computer is about to die because it's not plugged in.

Maggie (07:50.136)
Yeah. yeah, I think you know, society didn't just make us lazy. I think that it has systematically removed physical effort and skill and patience and and just just partaking in everyday life.

Meara (08:06.935)
Yeah.

Meara (08:15.19)
huh.

Maggie (08:16.267)
And then when we try and and put those things back it it feels very overwhelming.

I know when we kind of first started slowing down and really stepping away from society and trying to get back those those old skills, it's extremely overwhelming. 'Cause you're not just learning a skill, you also have to there's also a lot of knowledge that comes along with it. And whereas that would, you know, generally be passed down over, you know, you growing up, all of a sudden it's it's like you have to learn it all yourself in the

moment. and it does it does feel unusually hard, but I I think it's just, you know, modern convenience has has changed our perception of what normal human effort feels like. We're capable of of so much, but we're just at a point where

Meara (09:10.828)
Yeah.

Maggie (09:18.241)
You know, not it's not just our our minds that have that has shifted, our physicality has has shifted also. Even in the small mundane things. Even, you know, when I when I hand mill our our grains for flour, that is that's something that should not have been difficult for me to do.

Meara (09:28.545)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (09:44.993)
My my body was created to do things like that. But we didn't grow up harnessing that and and maintaining it.

Meara (09:45.035)
Yeah, and it's just you weren't used to that.

Yeah.

Meara (09:56.78)
Yeah.

Right, and you aren't used to doing that. You know, we spent all these years finding ways to make life so much easier, but somewhere along the way I think that we've confused an easier life with a better life. And I I don't know that they're the same thing, but since we moved, I'm starting to think that

Maggie (10:01.367)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (10:16.929)
They might be two completely different things because technically my life is harder right now. I mean, you know, we just bought our house and we finally have land, but there's always something that needs to be done. And somehow I feel like we're living more now than we than we ever have been before by doing all these new things. And noticing this, I'm noticing this a whole lot more now because because of that. And we've just been so so busy working outside and making food and planting trees and gardens. And I've had more work

That we're planning to do now, but somehow I feel like we're living more because of it and not less. Yeah.

Maggie (10:52.993)
Yeah. Absolutely. It's you know, it's it's just like I I speak of of motherhood, you know, it's being a stay at home mom is the hardest thing that I've ever done compared to any job that I've ever had. But it is the most gratifying. and working out in the the yard and doing, you know

and milling grains. It's it's hard but it's so fulfilling. So fulfilling, yes. And I I think too, you know, it's I don't think that life got any simpler. I think it got more complicated because we ended up having all this extra time on our hands and we just filled it with mundane things and junk.

Meara (11:25.089)
So rewarding. Yeah. Yeah, I'm God.

Meara (11:45.889)
Junk.

Maggie (11:48.715)
And like brain melting crap, you know?

Meara (11:49.261)
Sure.

Meara (11:54.56)
Hmm.

And things that we are where we have to constantly stay busy and don't have time to relax. I mean, even if all we do is sit outside like yesterday, we just sat outside and we planned not yesterday, the day before. Yesterday we were moving and planned what we were doing like the next year. And even this morning, you know, it feels like we're doing something. That because we're building towards something, and I noticed that we're better with each other also. We're talking more, we're listening more, you know, we're doing things together instead of everybody existing just in the same house, you know, you on your phone, you watching TV, someone else subscribe.

Maggie (12:18.838)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (12:26.691)
playing and waiting for the day to pass. And I just didn't realize how much that I was missing until I noticed that we started living differently since we've moved. So I guess my question would be to you is do you feel like there's a difference between being busy and having a life that actually feels full?

Maggie (12:44.482)
I'm sorry, ask me that again.

Meara (12:46.711)
Do you feel like there's a difference between being busy and having a life that actually feels just full?

Maggie (12:53.864)
there's a huge difference. There's a huge difference. And and I I still feel it from, you know I still have aspects of that of that old life. You know, like our our kids are both playing soccer right now. you know, they're seven and eight years old, but we've got soccer practice four days a week.

Meara (12:55.703)
Yeah.

Meara (13:14.646)
Yeah.

Maggie (13:14.702)
And you know, when that first started it was very much like, we've we've entered back into society and all this time is lost now. and really I just needed to shift just to shift myself and my schedule. So now I just work really hard in the beginning of the day and then I take the kids to practice and then I can just sit and relax and I put my feet on the ground and you know, the fields are surrounded by trees and you know, beautiful

Meara (13:20.865)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (13:44.417)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (13:44.67)
Sky, so you know it's my kind of it's my moment just to kind of unwind and yeah.

So I you know, I still have flashes of that kind of busy societal life. but the busy we are at home when we're, you know, trying to get things done and working out in the yard and doing all of that, you know, like living real living stuff. it doesn't feel

Meara (13:54.101)
And relax.

Meara (14:01.525)
Yeah.

Meara (14:12.493)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (14:18.06)
There are there are aspects where I I feel rushed, but I think that is just the mental state w of of what how we were kind of programmed to be.

Meara (14:29.087)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Maggie (14:30.464)
You know, and it it just sometimes it just takes a moment of just stopping and looking around in nature and just realizing nothing else is rushing. The birds aren't rushing, the squirrels aren't rushing. They're doing everything in their own time to prepare for the changes. And and then, you know, you kinda just start to fall back into that rhythm. And then you fall back out of it and it's it's like a ongoing cycle, but you know, the longer you do it the the easier it gets.

Meara (14:39.393)
Yeah. Right.

Meara (14:46.828)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (14:57.633)
Yeah.

Yeah. That's what has me thinking about this whole convenience thing because, you know, when did effort become such such a bad thing? If something takes too long, we need we need something faster. You know, if something takes work, then we need something easier. And obviously sometimes that's great. Yeah. My question is, have we taken it too far?

Maggie (15:04.962)
Yeah.

Maggie (15:13.674)
And why and why is it that it's so much effort? You know, some I it I do, I feel like, man, I really don't wanna do this right now. Why? Why don't I wanna do it right now?

Meara (15:23.061)
We do because we're not used to that. You know, because growing something is work, cooking's work, learning's work, taking care of our house. but those things can also feel really good. You know, maybe some of this work

Maggie (15:35.532)
They do. And they No, can continual.

Meara (15:40.317)
maybe some of this work isn't getting in the way of living. You know, sometimes maybe the work is the living. It is.

Maggie (15:48.128)
Because life can happen around it.

Meara (15:50.849)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Maggie (15:52.723)
And and you find yourself, you know, once you start doing these things that require effort

and and more work and you start, you know, feeling that that gratitude of just, you know, having really done something. And you you start to want more. And I can't wait for the day when I've got a line that goes from my house out to some tree in my yard and I can start hanging all of our laundry. Like how awesome is that gonna be

Meara (16:21.901)
Mm-hmm. yeah, that's what I want to do too. Yeah, that's what we're planning on doing as well.

Maggie (16:24.384)
Like who who wants to do that? I I didn't want to ever do that, but I do now. And I you know it does.

Meara (16:30.293)
Well yeah. Well because the sun does has so much benefits on getting rid of germs and and then it smells so nice and fresh and then you s you know, you smell the the laundry and man, it's just it's so nice. But it does take it does take lo time and patience. And that's what I can't get past is the convenience saves us all the time. Like where does the time go?

Maggie (16:52.48)
But how yes, exactly.

Meara (16:52.725)
Like, it went right here. All of it went right here. We don't even have five empty minutes anymore more. We're waiting somewhere, phone. Sitting in the car, phone. Standing in the line, phone. And I'm guilty, I do it too. But when was the last time we just sat somewhere bored? Now I have done that in the doctor's office before, not being on my phone just sitting there. And sometimes when my when my

Maggie (17:12.276)
I make a point not to be on my phone. I just I wanna be aware and know what's going on. And I also wanna say, Yes, I can sit here without my phone. You know, and I just look at everyone around me and they have no idea what's going on. And I just think, I could walk up to you right now and do anything to you and you would have no clue. That's that's a scary thing. That's a very scary thing. Especially in this day and age when there's so many Looney Tombs about, you know.

Meara (17:18.381)
Yeah.

Meara (17:22.933)
you can. Yeah. On their phone. 'Cause they're on their phone too.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Meara (17:38.978)
That is true. Well, what do we do before we had these things every time we had five minutes? Remember when we were like graduating high school, that's when phones just started becoming like a thing? Like we n I n I didn't I'm well, I never grew up with a phone. I had friends in high school who had phones. I never had a phone, not until after I graduated high school.

Maggie (17:50.188)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (17:59.745)
I didn't even have a phone in my room, you know, like a landline in my room.

Meara (18:02.431)
Neither did I. Neither did I. Boredom wasn't as useless as we as we've made it out to be. I think that's when you think about things, you know? That's when kids figure out what the heck to do with themselves and when you notice what's around going on around you like you said and

We just we don't leave much empty space anymore. And that makes me think about my kids. Like I don't want my kids believing everything's supposed to be instant. I want them to have to figure things out and make things and grow things and wait for things and screw things up and try again. Because I notice sometimes when my one of my children screw up doing something, don't screw up, but you know, mess don't get it right, they get really upset and then they have a hard time regulating their emotions. I'm just kinda like, But this isn't this isn't how this is supposed to be, because there's something that

Maggie (18:20.31)
No, we don't. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Maggie (18:28.854)
Yes.

Maggie (18:38.178)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meara (18:47.567)
that happens when you finally get something right you realize I did that. That's how you learn that you're capable of doing things. You know, I want them to be able to regulate their emotions.

Maggie (18:53.538)
Yes. Absolutely. We've we've become really good at at slowing down. our kids do still have on the weekends they get their tablets for a short amount of time and they can do something on that. TV has totally changed for us. We don't we don't watch as much TV and we we have the the angel

Meara (19:03.906)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (19:17.665)
Yeah, same here.

Maggie (19:23.45)
app for it's like Netflix but it's Angel and it's like kind of like good family content sort of stuff.

And that's all our kids watch anymore. And there's a show, Tuttle Twins, that they absolutely love. And they're learning about inflation and you know, and all this all this great stuff and and sure they're not, you know, fully understanding it right now, but the ideas are are in their heads and they're understanding, you know, they're learning

Meara (19:44.961)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (19:57.228)
Fairness and and equality, real equality, you know, not when we just give somebody something because of the hardship that they've been through, but you know, when people are given something because they've actually earned it and they've they've worked for it and

Meara (20:05.175)
Right.

Maggie (20:13.289)
You know, so that's that's been great. And other than that we're you know, we're outside or we're playing card games and we've gotten really into puzzles. The kids don't sit and do puzzles for a long time. But I've been I've been working on one every day for like the past week.

Meara (20:20.865)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (20:24.956)
cool. Yeah.

Maggie (20:33.773)
actually been really fun because we we found this at a a second hand store and we thought it was a Van Gogh painting and you know my husband got the pieces out and he was like this is not this is not the painting. So and I've been searching I searched on AI for this because it's it was very confusing. And I found the artist who who does the paintings but this particular one cannot be found. So it is a total mystery. but it's been a lot of fun and

Meara (20:58.871)
Hmm. Interesting.

Maggie (21:03.587)
And we got Jax. Do you remember the game Jax? So I got that to incorporate into our arithmetic learning. and we sit and do that and that's a lot of fun. My husband's been going out almost every single night and looking at the stars.

Meara (21:05.877)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Meara (21:11.821)
Taro.

Meara (21:21.889)
Yeah, we did that last night.

Maggie (21:21.961)
I've been I've been too tired, but he takes the telescope out and his binoculars and and he does all that stuff. Then every once in a while Jane will come walking out 'cause she this girl just does not go to bed.

Meara (21:26.638)
that's cool.

Meara (21:34.624)
Yeah.

Maggie (21:37.162)
So he'll take her out, sometimes and do that. Now that it's getting darker earlier, we can make it more of like a family thing and still get the beds, you know, the kids to bed early. So but but yeah, we were really, really loving that that just you know, slowing down and doing regular things and hanging out with, you know, just the family. It's it's been great.

Meara (21:42.41)
Mm-hmm.

Thing, yeah.

Yeah.

Meara (21:57.291)
Yes.

Family. Yeah, it's all about family. Now like you said with the tablets and stuff like we don't do that anymore. Well, you haven't had tablets in I don't know how long, but we do do television and on days where we're recording I kinda need that help. You know, to just kinda I'll let you pick a show. But I don't want to get rid of this convenience, you know. I just don't want to spend my whole life trying to make my life require as little effort as possible because I'm like what's the point? And there's a difference. I want convenience to help me live, but I don't want convenience to replace my living.

Maggie (22:10.113)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (22:23.497)
That's the point. Absolutely.

Meara (22:29.633)
That's my thing. And maybe that's something we all have to figure out for ourselves. Like for you is gonna be different for me. What actually makes my life better? and that that's gonna look different for everyone, but and what I'm doing just because I've gotten used to everything being fast and easy, what am I doing now?

Maggie (22:31.069)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Meara (22:51.373)
because easier doesn't always mean that it's gonna be better. You know, easier can sometimes mean that it's harder. Or what have you even learned from this?

Maggie (22:54.817)
Mm.

Maggie (22:59.615)
Yes. And what have you actually even accomplished? So how much yeah, how much were you a part of actually actually getting it done? You know? And it's and it

Meara (23:03.221)
Right. Right. Yeah.

Meara (23:12.534)
Yeah.

Maggie (23:15.923)
It can g it's it's as simple as this. So like I said, I've got my my hand crank mill for my grains, right? And that's a lovely beautiful thing. But if I'm making a bunch of stuff that I need a lot of flour for if I'm breaking bread if I'm making bread, there is there's no way I'm going to sit there and hand grain all that flour. Absolutely not. So we have an electric grinder specifically for that.

Meara (23:31.063)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (23:45.463)
Yeah.

Maggie (23:45.956)
You know, and we just bought a brand new washing machine. So I am not about getting rid of convenience in every aspect. There are absolutely ways where it does really help you and imp and impact your life. Yes. So it's it's not all bad. I love inventions and ingenuity and and progress to an extent, but I don't want to replace actual

Meara (23:54.879)
Yeah.

Meara (24:00.971)
Make a difference. Sure.

Meara (24:09.377)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (24:16.839)
living. I don't want to lose any skill that I that I could possess because there's something that can do it for me. I won't we will never have a robot if that becomes a thing. We will never have a robot that like comes into our house and starts cleaning and and doing things. That's that's weird and it's it's scary and it's totally unnecessary. I want to be capable of doing all these things. And I wanna be I wanna know what it's like to do

Meara (24:18.625)
Yeah.

Meara (24:34.709)
Right. Right.

Meara (24:39.979)
Yeah.

Maggie (24:46.843)
other things. I want to know what it's like to go down to a a creek and and wash my clothes on a cl on a washboard. You know, yes, on on a slower day where we don't have a lot going on. That is a beautiful thing that I would love to go down and do with the kids.

Meara (24:52.479)
Wash your clothes. I've thought about that too. I thought about that too.

Meara (25:01.548)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (25:05.771)
Yeah. And you never know what it could turn into.

Maggie (25:06.515)
You know, and maybe have my husband out there like chopping wood or something at the same time. Like that's a beautiful family thing. We're all out in in God's world and we're and we're living and we're accomplishing things.

Meara (25:11.713)
Yeah.

Meara (25:19.489)
Yeah, my only thing is some people listening to this might think, well, that's that dreamy life of living in the because well, it's not all dreamy. I you're gonna have crawleds and you're gonna have mosquitoes biting you and doing all this stuff, but at the same time it's like, you know, I mean it's raw. and it's real living. And my biggest takeaway from all of this is the emotional piece. Everything that we have replacing us, these machines and these robots, are replacing all of our emotional parts of our life.

Maggie (25:25.523)
It's not

Yeah.

Meara (25:49.406)
and our wisdom and our wanting to learn more and be better and and do better and stay healthy and it's you know it's all connected. So if if we have all these things taking over, we're gonna lose that part and we're gonna lose the connection we have with other people. so maybe we weren't meant to rush through all of this. And I'm not saying we need to get rid of every convenience, but

Maggie (26:02.721)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (26:13.311)
Maybe we need to take our time sometimes to live the way that our creator has intended for us to live, where we're actually able to see what He's given us because there's so much around us that we don't even notice anymore. And it doesn't have to be anything big. We can sit outside in the morning with our coffee or make dinner for our family or just sit around the table together, you know, having a home to take care of, even if it's a home on a homestead or a home that's not, you know, a home that an apartment in the city life. But that's our life. And when we're constantly trying to make everything faster and easier.

So we can hurry up and get to the next thing. We miss that. We miss being grateful. We miss appreciating what we already have because we're always looking for what's next. It's like a hi, the next big thing. what's next? What's next? What's next? And maybe we weren't meant to push through all of that. Maybe we were just meant to take our times to make things and care for things, to love the people in front of us and be grateful for what the creator has given us, even when it seems really small, because one day we're gonna look back and realize that those little things.

Maggie (26:47.241)
This is

Meara (27:13.155)
things were not little at all. The that was our life.

Maggie (27:18.739)
And and think about this too. Speaking of our creator, he created us in his image. He is a creator, right? He he created everything. We are meant to create. We are we are meant we were instructed to tend to the earth. So

Meara (27:29.836)
Mm.

Meara (27:39.351)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (27:41.683)
You know, so let's do those things. And and you say, you know, when we look back and and see what we've done, what if one day we we face our creator and he was like, What did you do with your life?

Meara (27:44.321)
Let's do

Mm-hmm.

Meara (27:53.355)
Yep. Mm-hmm.

Maggie (27:55.744)
I watched a lot of TV and I ate a lot of junk food and I sat around a lot and

Maybe, you know, maybe I I made billions of dollars by sitting at a desk and punching, you know, whatever. So do you think that's going to impress him? I don't think so.

Meara (28:07.499)
Yeah, where was your connection?

Meara (28:14.764)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (28:18.945)
Yeah, no, not at all. And I think this actually leads perfectly into what we're talking about next week because

I don't think we don't want anyone listening to this thinking that you have to have land or acreage somewhere or a beautiful homestead to live this way. You don't. You don't need chickens, you don't need a huge garden, you don't need to move out into the country. You can start exactly where you are with what you already have. So next week we're talking about you don't need a homestead to live this way, because I never had a homestead just until last week. So, how can we bring some of these things back into our lives no matter where we live or what we have? And if you've been enjoying

Maggie (28:33.205)
No, you don't.

Maggie (28:44.587)
Don't need a homestead.

Meara (28:55.667)
These conversations with us, make sure you follow Women Folk Revival on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss next week's episode. Also, come join us over at Women Folk Revival Facebook community. We really want that to be a place where we can keep these conversations going and growing with all of you after the episode ends. The link to join us will be in the show notes below. We will see you next week, and until then,

Maggie (29:19.425)
Stay rooted and stay wild.

Meara (29:22.228)
Stay wild