Winterville Wildling. Hello - it’s ME!

Well, well, well… life has a funny way of giving you the nudge you didn’t know you needed. I lost access to my GoDaddy account, the Frugal Fashionable Farmer domain lapsed, and suddenly a clean break landed right in my lap. A true cut-the-cord moment. A forced new beginning.

So here I am - stepping into a chapter I didn’t exactly plan, but one I’m finally ready for.

Welcome to Winterville Wildling. It feels more me and I like the feel.

Come stay a while… all the archives are here, nothing is missing, just a slightly different vibe so let’s jump into it…

I used to confuse being busy with being fulfilled. Looking back, I think it was my escape hatch from a life I wasn’t fully happy in. The rescue animals, the labor-intensive work this farm requires, the big projects that consumed my thoughts for weeks or months - they were all distractions to keep me from being present. Somewhere along the way, I convinced myself that constant motion equaled purpose - maybe even contentment.

In the last few w years, having time and space just for me (and the animals I dearly love) has given me a new perspective. I’m learning that busy was a choice, and I’m not choosing it anymore.

If I choose to fill my time these days, it’s with porch coffee, slow mornings watching TV in bed with Poptart, sunlight drifting through my sheer curtains, or yard beers with a girlfriend while Ellen and Reece roughhouse and/or do their own thing. I’m letting my life breathe a little… and in doing that, I’m finally catching my breath too.

I’m releasing the grip on everything I was clinging to, little by little.

Not because everything is perfect now, but because I finally understand I don’t have to hold it all together for anyone but myself. I’m ok. There’s a softness returning to me - a kind of freedom, a gentleness I didn’t realize I’d even lost until I felt it again.

I tried dating for a brief moment last year, and while it didn’t lead to a relationship, it led to a genuine friendship I truly value. And somewhere in that experience, something clicked. It showed me what I was actually craving: space to get curious about my life again. To understand the woman I’ve grown into - shaped by love, heartache and hard lessons - the woman who’s no longer responsible for managing anyone else’s emotional landscape but her own.

And for the first time in a long time, I really, really like who I am.

Not because someone reflected it back to me, but because I finally took the time to look a little deeper. This chapter feels like fresh air. And I’m so ready for it. 

xo

-s