Hello from Minnesota! Thanks for checking out my blog. I love to garden, cook, bake, can, read, drink wine, watch football and dabble in home décor. For a while various friends have suggested I start a blog with all of those things that I LOVE to do.
So. Here. Goes. Nothing.
My blog will be all of these things. Sometimes recipes. Sometimes pictures from my garden. Sometimes whatever the heck I feel like sharing. And I am sure there will be some football thrown into the mix too. Huge Vikings fans here!
First, a little about me. My name is Josie. I live in central Minnesota with my husband. We are a blended family. Combined we have 4 boys (14, 17, 21 and 23) and 2 dogs. Two live at home, two are off adulting and doing it well! I used to work in the corporate world doing Human Resources. And then the pandemic hit, along with distance learning. Our youngest was in 5th grade at the time. One of us needed to be home during the day for his schooling. After discussion and debate, we decided it was best for our family for that to be me. At that time our oldest was still living on the west coast and 2nd youngest in Utah. We had a fifth grader and a senior at home. Don’t EVEN get me started on the stupid pandemic and how that effected graduation and my son’s senior year. I want my blog to be positive, and that will just bring up anger, let me tell ya!
So anyway, I became a stay-at-home mom. I tossed the fulltime career and kept my part time job, working either evenings or weekends a few days a week at the local bar/restaurant. I love it, it gets me out of the house and brings in some cash. Now that the youngest is getting older, I added a 2nd part time gig to the mix. However, during the pandemic while bars and restaurants were closed, I didn’t have that means to leave the house. This was completely foreign to me. Prior to meeting my now husband, I was a single parent for most of my son’s life. I worked 2-3 jobs at any given time to make ends meet and make sure my son had everything he needed. Not that I ever felt like I only had one kiddo. David was in sports his whole life, I felt like I had tons of kids during that time. I was notably the “team mom,” as they used to call me. How I met my husband is another blog entry eventually. It’s a cute story. If you so wish, you can read it here.
I digress.
Back to how I got to this blog thing. We purchased our current home in the fall of 2019, which was super exciting. . We have a HUGE yard, for being right in town. I had really wanted to start a garden. Before the pandemic I didn’t think I would have any time play in the dirt. I was working full time and part time, plus had our family needed my attention. So, I set that goal aside. That March, the shit hit the fan (yes, I swear like a sailor but will try to refrain on this platform. No promises). The proverbial shit hitting the fan enabled me to start my garden. And with all my time at home, I also wanted to learn to can food for preservation. I’ve always loved to cook and bake. It was time to expand those skills. My late mother-in-law helped get me started with some knowledge from afar. My husband bought me a used pressure canner from marketplace and built me a wonderful garden. The rest is history!
