What is this all about??? Please explain.

Becoming the Joneses is the journey and experience in loving the life we build and prioritizing life, love, and family above all else. It is creating our own personal happiness in this life we live with the cards we are dealt and the grace of God. There is not an end to this, but rather a never-ending lifetime of experiences to learn from, enjoy, and soak in all the experiences life has to offer. Meadow Lake Homestead is who we are, what we do, where we live and grow, and how we get there. ‘Becoming the Joneses’ is our why, our purpose, and our journey.

A background to who we are and how this journey began.

This is an open-ended topic with so much to be unpacked. We are still unpacking all of our past experiences and how they affect us today. This will continue to be a journey of self-reflection and vulnerability that may be unveiled at a later time. A general background may give some insight as to why we have jumped fully into this expedition. 

Prior to our union we have collectively experienced manipulation, abandonment, exploitation, and mistreatment from those that were to love us. We have also experienced accolades, acceptance, protection, and adventures in some of the most unexpected ways from some unexpected people we have crossed paths with. We individually believe in humanity and truly love individuals for who they are. 

We have recently, together, had the opportunity to help people and circumstances in profound ways. We have also been taken advantage of and experienced a great deal of personal loss related to this. Through these times, we have had struggles with keeping a positive outlook and not changing who we are. We will often talk through our experiences, feel the negativity that comes, and work through it. I am happy to say, that with each instance, we have concluded that we wouldn’t change our actions as we had great intentions and cannot let the actions of others change who we are at the core of our beings.

Although the negative doesn’t define us, it gives a place to move forward from… The Good Stuff:

We have molded into a family over the past several years. In 2017, we officially joined in this journey together, not knowing what it would look like, but aspiring for great things for our lives. We came together, the two of us, along with two daughters (age 5 and 7 at the time) and began to navigate a new life together. 2017 and 2018 were formative years for our family’s beginning. We were figuring it all out and completely reestablishing life. We began our journey with very little belongings. We were broken, yet optimistic. We were empowered and ready for change. The first 8 months we stayed in a very small apartment. We were fortunate to build a house and moved there in February of 2018. At this house we grew our family by a cat and two dogs. Our hearts and minds grew and we began to figure out what we wanted in this life. We figured out who each of us are individually, and who we are as a collective family. 

The year 2019 was ‘our year’. That is no over statement. We had so many adventures and learned so much about each other and life. We had family trips including a visit to the ocean, which was the first visit to the ocean for the girls, and a Father’s Day week long stay in a cabin on the lake with extended family, which was the first visit to the ocean for the girls. I attended the WORD retreat and experienced an amazing amount of personal and spiritual growth. Camping on the Puget Sound for a long holiday weekend was a great time that year as well. Our girls joined 4H and showed goats at the County Fair.

We moved from our beloved first home to pursue some of our new found passions. Our new home is an acre of land that we utilize to support our family and continue our dreams. We ended the year at Disneyland to ring in 2020 in such a memorable way. In June of 2019, we had realized that this family is solid. We had experienced so much in such a short time and realized that we were perfect together. We were engaged on June 19 and married on June 23. When you know… you know. This short engagement is definitely a story for another time. We celebrated with friends and family on October 5, by renting out a camp for the weekend, complete with cabins and dining hall. 2019 was the year that really solidified us.

Then came 2020 and all areas of our lives changed dramatically.

One word…COVID. A little more of a background on us. We both work as healthcare providers at a long-term care facility (nursing home). We are both nurses and in the roles of Administrator and Director of Nursing respectively. (Yes, we work together and live together and still enjoy each other’s company.) Caring for our residents and staff has been a rollercoaster. It is challenging, rewarding, exhausting, and emotionally draining among other things. Much of our physical and emotional energy are spent problem solving and anticipating changes.

Our girls in grades 3 and 6 this year are on the remote learning journey. This has proven to be challenging, but also rewarding time that we have been able to spend together as a family. We have been reading together and discussing their lessons and learning objectives. Although the girls are doing well, this has been a part of our year that is very different from our ‘normal’.

We had moved to an acre of land November of 2019 and the girls got dairy goats for Christmas as 4H projects. It was inevitable that this would become a lifestyle as we were hoping by gaining land. One pregnant goat for each girl was the plan for their project. Two became three when a chosen goat was not bred. Three became seven after births and seven became eight as we purchased an additional to mix up genetics. And this is how Meadow Lake Homestead was established. 

What next?

The real answer to that question is: ‘Who Knows?’ We have discussed plans of further self-sustainability here at the Homestead including the dairy goats. We have bred four of the goats at this time and are expecting kids in the Spring. We are planning the garden for the year and have chickens, a small pumpkin patch, and a small Christmas tree farm (really small).

The girls have shown interesting in photography and videography and have filmed themselves making bath products. The videos will likely be posted soon on our YouTube channel that is underdeveloped at this time, but being worked on as we feel the desire. Some other things you may see from us include not only the Homestead, but making soap along with other products, RVing and camping, gaming, and anything else that may come along and appeal to us. As I said, “Who Knows?”

We continue to work in healthcare and maintain a passion for the long-term care industry. We have also discussed growing our family by foster care and adoption. We truly do not know where this journey will lead us. We are following our hearts with goals of raising our family and helping others along the way. 

‘Becoming the Joneses’ is the journey that we will continue as we live our life. Meadow Lake Homestead is who we are and where this journey will continue.