A couple of years ago, a dear friend introduced me to @Mary Pat Sass – farmwife, businesswoman, mom, farm-style fashionista, and social media extraordinaire.
I have watched her become an advocate for agriculture, making engaging farm-centric videos, promoting farm safety, supporting other local businesswomen, and loving the life she is living. This fall, Mary Pat, who goes by @MP, released a journal for farmwives to help them navigate the stressful season of harvest time.
If you follow her Instagram, you may, as I am, be mesmerized by her down-to-earth personality, her determination and grit, and her love of her husband and her little kids – not to mention her genuine love for the farm life she is embracing.
So when she talked to me about her Thrive Through Harvest Mindset Journal, I felt rejuvenated. I’m a pretty positive person – and I'm thankful for the life I lead, for my husband, for my children, for my faith, and for my circle. I don’t know about you, but, every so often, I know that I need a refresher. It usually comes in the form of someone like MP who puts things into perspective and makes me realize just how much of my dream I am living right now – in the thick of busy, in the midst of a hectic photography season, in the throes of parenting in a new way, and on the threshold of balancing work and family time, attempting to keep the house in order, managing the ever-growing laundry pile, and feeding my family nutritious and delicious home-cooked meals as often as possible.
So along comes MP. She’s rocking the farm life, dressed in the most amazing, super-casual, stylish outfit, getting down in the dirt with her young kiddos, carrying home-made dinners into the field, and greeting her husband with a kiss and a little bit of home away from home ~ in the form of Mississippi pot roast. Yeah… she’s the real deal.
When I purchased her “6 Week Thrive Through Harvest Mindset Journal,” I initially purchased it so I could effectively write a story for our local newspaper, The Woodstock Independent, on her new project, but, I quickly realized that it was super helpful to take some time to evaluate my own “Harvest Season.”
As a writer and photographer, fall is my busy season – I relish photographing families, seniors, and all things agriculture and military. My calendar is booked. My life – and my sessions – are a jigsaw puzzle that requires each piece to fit perfectly with little room for deviation. After coming off a summer that always begins with local parades and ends with the Experimental Aircraft Association Oshkosh AirVenture followed by our local and state fairs … it’s a season of overload, heading into a season of, well, overload. I volunteer to do PR for a local antique farm equipment club, and one of the great passions of my heart is military and veteran events -- both of which thrive in fall. My children have fall birthdays, too. Holidays creep up. I get angsty. But, I talked to MP, and I realized I needed to regroup. I needed to change my mindset.
So, while I highly recommend this journal for its intended purpose – farmwives who live for weeks on end doing life kind of alone while their husbands are out in the fields in hopeful anticipation of a good harvest, I kind of recommend it for anyone in a stressful busy season of life.
In going through the journal, I’ve taken time to be thankful for the busy week ahead, knowing that I am contributing to our family through my job and that I am capturing memories that people will cherish. I’ve reminded myself to tell my clients that I have a lot – A LOT – of sessions, so please don’t anticipate full galleries for 4-6 weeks at this point ~ and, if I overdeliver, they are happy! Oh, I’ve looked at dinner plans a week in advance, and planned for ways that I can remind my family that I still love them first – no matter how busy I am. MP’s journal reminds me to do something for myself, for my husband, and for my children every week, and it helps me to think about all of the memories I made or the little things that I’m extremely thankful for – it is a gratitude journal made easy!
And, she keeps it short – it takes only a few manageable minutes to plan for the week ahead, record the giggles, smiles, successes, and blessings, and navigate the unexpected. It is a place to talk about your own harvest season, take time to slow down, and make room for appreciation. It is a place to record some of those amazing “field-friendly” dinners she posts on her Insta, too! (Trust me, you need to follow her.)
She makes me want to photograph her entire farmtastic, faith-driven life! She also inspires me to remember to go back to my roots ~ put my faith first, love my husband and my (growing older) babies, love my job(s), make delicious food, and get out in the dirt.
Thank you to all the farmers and farmwives out there who keep our country alive and thriving. We are in your corner ~ and appreciate you! It is a difficult job, and we see you.
