Category: Random Thoughts

I’m blessed to have amazing women role models in my life. I thought through the month of May would be a great time to showcase these women and give them some much deserved love.

First I have to start with my mom. My mom swore that she wasn’t going to be a mom. She said no thank you! Mom and Dad met later in life. A year and 3 days later my oldest sister made her appearance into the world. Two years later Kayla followed and another two years I arrived.

My oldest sister has 4 kids. I’m lucky to get to spend time with them and have sleepovers occasionally with them. Y’all kids are exhausting!

My mom was much older. She was 50% of the labor force on the farm that her and dad were building. She calved all the cows out. I rarely remember going to a babysitter. By rarely, I mean I never remember going anywhere except Grandma’s and occasionally our Aunt Rosie Stegman.

I do remember spending hours and hours on the four wheeler checking cows, riding in the tractor and doing everything in between. I remember being taught how to act around cattle and pigs from a very early age. I remember being so excited about learning how to run the rake. I remember never saying I was bored, EVER! I remember having bottle calves that were my responsibility to feed and care for from a very early age. I remember baby piglets and baby calves and baby kittens. I remember always having a dog around when I needed a friend. I remember having to get the dictionary out when I didn’t know a word in a book. I remember walking up the hill from the corner when my sisters were fighting and Mom got tired of it and made us walk. (I swear I wasn’t a part of the fighting. I was an innocent bystander! Also, it was dark and I could have been ate by a bear. Except there aren’t a lot of random bears in NE Kansas. But I could have been attacked by a coyote! Mom swears it was less than 1/4 of mile, the middle of the afternoon and she drove to the house and watched out the window to make sure we were okay.)

What I don’t remember learning was work ethic. I don’t remember getting respect ingrained in our behavior. I don’t remember learning what animal cruelty was only how to properly care for animals and that they came first. I don’t remember learning responsibility. I don’t remember being forced to read, but rather excited about the big field needing baled because that meant I was going to get to get through my whole book.

The things that I don’t remember learning are the things that I thank my mom for everyday, at least in my thoughts. She is an amazing woman that I’m proud to say is my mom. I love you Mom!

If you enjoyed reading this, we would love it if you would hit the share button and introduce us to your friends. You all are the reason we get to do this and we’re so appreciative of that! Please help us continue serving people by sharing us with your family and friends! Leave us a comment and let us know how this has impacted your life. It’s the little things that make me so happy to continue doing this, such as a like, comment or share! Have you subscribed to the page so new blogs will arrive in your email automatically? Go to our homepage to do so! Please and thank you! And remember: You are loved, you are worthy and you are enough!

~Matt & Kelsey

As we wrap up August, we wrap up the series of Lierz’ Philosophy of Life. By this time the students in Jackson Heights Ag classes will have learned or re-learned this, tested on it and moved on to the next thing.

There were a few years that Lierz didn’t teach this at the beginning of the year because of some disagreement with teaching practices. When I heard that the students didn’t go through it at the beginning of the year, I was upset. There’s a lot of information thrown at kids in school. We spend the first 18-22+ years of our life learning. After that, many of us stop learning. We do what we need to do and forget about bettering ourselves.

There are very few things I remember from the “learning years” in my life. I’m sure I use a lot of it. However, I can remember very few and limited experiences where I remember sitting in the class, learning the information. I remember every year we were taught this.

Very few teachers have had a lasting impact on my life the way that Paul Lierz has. Was his class unconventional and not nearly as structured as others? Yes. But I learned more life skills and lessons in those classes than any other.

I strongly believe that liking and excelling in an extracurricular (not for a grade, just the experience) is directly related to the relationship you have with the advisor or coach. My oldest sister didn’t do FFA because she didn’t vibe well with Lierz and she had other interests. She did very well in band because she was good and because her and the band teacher got along great. I was the opposite.

Being the youngest of three at a small school, you are expected to be like your older siblings and excel in what they excel in. The band teacher, cross country coaches and FBLA advisors were all very disappointed when I came along. I had little interest in doing more than the bare minimum in band and FBLA and was honestly just there because my mother made me. The cross country coaches were highly disappointed when I turned out to not have an interest in running fast, but rather simply being there because my older sister was there and it was WAY better than volleyball.

What I learned in Lierz’ Philosophy of Life and continue to learn from Lierz is life is really freaking short. You don’t have to like everybody. You don’t have to do everything. Not everybody is going to like you so quit wasting your time trying to please everyone. Figure out your goals and go get them. But most of all and what I come back to almost daily:

Life is a game and you get to choose how you play it. How are you playing your game?

If you enjoyed reading this, we would love it if you would hit the share button and introduce us to your friends. You all are the reason we get to do this and we’re so appreciative of that! Please help us continue serving people by sharing us with your family and friends! Leave us a comment and let us know how this has impacted your life. It’s the little things that make me so happy to continue doing this, such as a like, comment or share! Have you subscribed to the page so new blogs will arrive in your email automatically? Go to our homepage to do so! Please and thank you!

Check out the last two weeks of Wild Wednesday to get the introduction to Lierz and Part 1 of his philosophy of life that I’ve adopted parts of to become my guiding document.

Last week we talked about how life is a game. This week we’re going to talk about the bell curve that is life.

Imagine a bell curve in your mind. Got it? It’s flat on the left side, then gradually rises up to the top and starts back down the other side until it’s flat again? That is what life is, according to Lierz.

The bell curve phases of life:

• At the beginning of life, somebody takes care of everything for you. You are fed, clothed, diapers changed. You don’t do a lot besides rely on somebody to take care of you.
• As you get older, that curve starts to rise a little. You learn how to walk, talk, eat on your own. You start gaining independence a little at a time.
• The curve keeps rising a little at a time, and you keep learning new things, go to school, graduate school, head to college or tech school or start your first job.
• Again, the curve keeps climbing: you find the one you want to marry, you have the amazing wedding and honeymoon, you get promoted at work, you have your first baby. Things are looking up.
• The curve continues to rise: you continue to move up in your job, your kids grow and become involved in activities, you have it figured out. You have the house, the car, the bank account, the life.
• Then that curve reaches the top and begins its way back down. You start thinking how short life is. How statistically you’re more than half done.
• The curve continues to go down as your health starts to decline. Until, at the end, some rely on others to completely take care of them. And the curve is flat again.

The curve isn’t a perfect curve and you don’t have to follow it completely. We come into this world relying on somebody else, and many leave it the same way. We have such a short time to be here. Such a short time to live the dash in between the dates on our headstones. May you live every day to the fullest. May you remember what’s truly important. May you take the vacation you’ve been saving for and tell your family you love them. Don’t waste time. Life is short. Live it up!

If you enjoyed reading this, we would love it if you would hit the share button and introduce us to your friends. You all are the reason we get to do this and we’re so appreciative of that! Please help us continue serving people by sharing us with your family and friends! Leave us a comment and let us know how this has impacted your life. It’s the little things that make me so happy to continue doing this, such as a like, comment or share! Have you subscribed to the page so new blogs will arrive in your email automatically? Go to our homepage to do so! Please and thank you!

Life is a Game

Do you have life figured out? Do you know what “rules” you’re living by? Do you know why you’re working as hard as you do? Do you know what your end game is? Do you know what, if you could do anything, that would be? Do you know why you do all the things that you don’t like? Do you know why you struggle through the long, hard exhausting days?

Tough questions to answer, but I can 100% guarantee that my former FFA advisor, would have an answer to all of those questions. I introduced you to Lierz last Wednesday. He helped me grow into the FFA member I was and now continues to be a role model and mentor in life. At the start of every year, we went through “Lierz’ Philosophy of Life’. I don’t remember a lot from high school, but I remember these lessons (or most of them).

I’m going to break this up for the remainder of August. As we send kids, teachers, bus drivers, etc back to school, may we remember our purpose. Remember why we do what we do. If you don’t know your purpose, follow along and adopt or modify what you need to and make ‘Lierz’ Philosophy of Life’ your philosophy of life.

First lesson:

Life is a game.

Paul Lierz

And that game can be over at any time. No redo’s on the game. For four years, the ag people in my class heard this same thing at the start of every year. For four years, we rolled our eyes, said we’re invincible and moved on. Then we had a classmate have a car accident our junior year. He didn’t make it. With his organs, his death saved so many others. Adam was the definition of an ag lover. He was vibrant and happy. And gone far too soon.

Our senior year, our last and final time of hearing that life is a game, hit a lot closer to home. So often we have to have a tragedy to remind us how precious this life is. Today, may you remember that life indeed is a game and that game can be over anytime and there are NO redos.

Next week, we’ll talk about the bell curve of life. Stay tuned!

If you enjoyed reading this, we would love it if you would hit the share button and introduce us to your friends. You all are the reason we get to do this and we’re so appreciative of that! Please help us continue serving people by sharing us with your family and friends! Leave us a comment and let us know how this has impacted your life. It’s the little things that make me so happy to continue doing this, such as a like, comment or share! Have you subscribed to the page so new blogs will arrive in your email automatically? Go to our homepage to do so! Please and thank you!

When you go to sleep at night, are you smiling or frowning? Are you going over your day, wishing you could get it back? Do things over again? Are you wishing you could have changed things?

I’m pretty damn confident about the person that I am. When I lay my head down on my pillow, I don’t question hardly anything I did in the day and I’m pretty happy with my life!

Now, that’s not saying I’m perfect. I’m simply saying I’m pretty okay with myself. I snap at My Forever at least twice every day with unnecessary remarks or attitude. Our house is never company ready (and we don’t even have kids, so what’s my excuse?!) I organize and then can’t find anything (please tell me I’m not the only one that does this). I start things and then give up or stop them.

Listen to me when I say this…perfection is not what I’m after! Happiness is what I’m after. I make my own happiness. I do not rely on anyone else for it. For me, when I lay down and my brain goes through the events of the day, there is rarely times that I regret. Given the chance, I might tweak some things, of course. It’s a successful day when I can smile about the day that I’ve just lived. My very underpaid life coach, Paul Lierz (he was my FFA advisor in high school), always says you get one chance at this game of life. We get one chance to live each day! We do not get any day back.

If you’re going to bed frowning, upset and thinking about the 9 billion things you didn’t get done today, I have two things for you. First, ask yourself why. Why are you upset? What about your day didn’t you enjoy? Then take out your notebook and pen and write it down. With those two steps you have actually thought about why you’re mad, wrote it on paper and cleared your brain of that space. It now can focus on something else. If your job is too stressful, what can you do to take you to your dream job? If you’re mad because you snapped at your husband through the day, be creative about waking him up to make it up to him. (Seriously, by the point you’ve got to going over your day-he’s fast asleep. You will get a lot of stored up brownie points. He’ll be much happier the next day. Plus, you’ll both feel and sleep better!) Are you worried about your to do list-the kids birthday parties, the schedule, the bills, etc. Put it on paper! Our brains are so overworked! Give them a break and put it on paper, clearing that brain space. Then because it’s on paper, sleep! Sleep is SO important to our mental health and so many people think it can be pushed aside.

The next day find some time to go over your list and make a plan! Life will happen to you if you don’t make your life happen.

If you enjoyed reading this, we would love it if you would hit the share button and introduce us to your friends. You all are the reason we get to do this and we’re so appreciative of that! Please help us continue serving people by sharing us with your family and friends! Leave us a comment and let us know how this has impacted your life. It’s the little things that make me so happy to continue doing this, such as a like, comment or share! Have you subscribed to the page so new blogs will arrive in your email automatically? Go to our homepage to do so! Please and thank you! And remember: You are loved, you are worthy and you are enough!

~Matt & Kelsey

A farmer’s thoughts and opinions about CoronaVirus

My top 8 thoughts about CoronaVirus:

1. Social Distancing: This is My Forever and I’s jam. We’ve been social distancing like pros for a lot of years now. But there are a lot of people that are struggling with it. Be kind folks. Whether you love it or hate it, be nice. Send a text, email or call.
2. Choice: You aren’t getting the choice whether to send your kids to school or whether you’re able to buy TP, but you get the choice about your attitude. There are a lot of things out of our control, but you can control your attitude.
3. Quit being selfish asshats: If we had a penny for every time somebody said this is being blown way out of proportion, it’s just a cold, we’d be trillionaires. (Is that even a thing? Spell check doesn’t think so). The people that are saying this are young and healthy – the demographic that is least likely to get sick. But how many of you have a grandparent, neighbor, mentor or touch things in Walmart? We can give it to somebody that isn’t going to be able to fight it.
4. Feelings: Whether you think this is all a big joke or you’re deathly scared, your feelings are justified. You are allowed to feel what you are feeling. You are allowed to sit in it and feel it. You are allowed, even, to post it on your social media accounts. You are allowed. What I’m going to ask you to do, is feel your feelings, tell people your feelings if you want to, but quit making other people’s feelings less important. You are allowed yours, they are allowed theirs.
5. Forced Family Time: Families that are complaining about having to be together. Not having schools or daycares to send their children. Y’all you have been given a gift. Use it. Love on your babies. Make the memories from your home. Quit griping about how unfair the world is and show those babies how lucky we are.
6. Washing Hands: I’ve had a couple conversations with people about how gross people are that don’t wash their hands constantly. Then I look at my own hands. I grew up on a farm. Sometimes water and soap aren’t available in the middle of the hayfield you’ve been in all day. Sometimes you’re starving and don’t have anything in the cattle pasture to wash with. I’ve been taught that life goes on. Wipe it off as best as you can and give your immune system a huge boost. Do your best people. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face as much as you can. Practice basic hygiene, but don’t cause mass panic.
7. Stockpiling: It’s all a big joke that we can’t get toilet paper. We’ve been told to stay home as much as possible. The first case has been confirmed in our county. Whenever I go to the store the next time, I’ll probably get a few extra things, or try anyway. Be as kind as you can. Get what you need. And remember, it hasn’t been too many years ago that people were getting by with far less and sacrificing far more. We will survive.
8. This too shall pass: 2% death loss doesn’t seem like much until it’s your family member that is part of it. There will be people that die and there will be people that live. The living will move on with their own scars. Moral of the story: be nice, do what you need to do with integrity, give grace.

Happy Birthday, Margaret! A day late! This was posted last year for Mother’s Day, but I mean every word even more than I meant them then. She is the most AMAZING person.

Marriage is a package deal and families come with it. In a couple FB groups I’m in, I’ve heard horror stories about the mother and daughter-in-law relationship. While one of those stories would make a really great blog post, I don’t have one.

My mother-in-law is the absolute best! Margaret is an amazing woman. She goes above and beyond in everything she does. She cooked our rehearsal dinner and hosted it at her house. Also, she let my friends that sang for our wedding stay with them as though she didn’t have enough to deal with.

Margaret asks how she can be helpful, then the crazy part is she follows through! She spends a lot of time driving to work and working extra as her job has been stressful the last few years, but she is ALWAYS willing to help on weekends and evenings.

She keeps all our bookwork for the farm and takes care of the bills. (A job I should probably offer to take over, but our accountant cringes at the thought of me taking over for her.) She keeps us well fed. We are always welcome to go in her house at anytime for food or anything we need.

If you know Margaret, you know that she has a service heart. She is continually asking what she can do for others. She makes food for those that are sick or lost loved ones. She gives baby and wedding gifts then goes and gives food once baby arrives. Margaret is truly one of those people that give and ask so little in return.

Matt tells me all the time when I’m mad and upset that he knows I’m not going to divorce him because I wouldn’t get Margaret as my MIL anymore. In all seriousness, I’m so blessed with an amazing second mother. She played a huge roll in raising her baby that turned into the love of my life. Thank you for all you do Margaret!