Personal Update: Winter Rest
So here I am, starting this blog post from a local coffee shop on a below-freezing day in March, with snow still on the ground outside. The forsythias and tree flower buds are shriveling up after beginning to bloom in the unusual warmth of February. This whole crazy winter has got me thinking about growth, rest, and change - about what happens when the "rest" season is too short, both in nature and in life. When the bulbs aren't cold for long enough, they might not bloom in the spring. Tulip bulbs (I recently learned) put down roots from November to March before ever pushing their green shoots out of the ground.
In my business, I'm thinking about how to rest to serve my clients better - whether that means eating healthy food and sleeping well leading up to their wedding so that I have maximum energy on their day, or resting long-term during the winter season and working on my business and its systems so that I am more prepared to make clients’ experience great in the year to come!
Some of my favorite winter nights have involved our circle of friends, a potluck of dishes that may or may not go together perfectly, some drinks, and just being together. Other favorite nights have been just staying at home with Tom, eating snacks and having a “sleepover” on our living room rug with our camping sleeping bags and the cats scampering around us all night, watching movies on the iPad until we fall asleep to the lull of the heater.
On days when I’ve worked ahead enough to take a daytime work break to cook or bake, I’ve been making chicken bone broth with roast chicken bones and celery, carrot, and onion bits and pieces I’ve saved up in a bag after trimming the vegetables for other recipes. Other days I make quiches with our chickens’ fresh eggs (it can be hard to not eat them long enough to save up for a 12-egg quiche)! I love sautéing whatever onions, bacon, and green veggies we have available and baking them up with the eggs.
Now it’s your turn - tell me about your favorite ways you’ve spent this winter, with friends or at home, resting or working hard - and I’ll be over here getting prepped for all the fun weddings and shoots that are coming up with the warmer weather!