How to Live a Garden-Centered Year

New Year, new you. How about New Year growing you? That's what we're going to talk about on today's Grow Yourself podcast. Guys, we have survived 2020. I don't think that it's ever been as big of a deal to make it to the end of the year as it is right now. You should absolutely give yourself a huge high five. A big hug from me. We made it. All right, so now it is time to look forward to 2021. And we got you. On this episode, I am going to introduce to you the theme, the gardenary theme for 2021, how we are going to take the year by storm and we are going to grow ourselves in so many amazing ways. So in this episode, you're going to be inspired, you're going to be encouraged, and you're going to have a way to plan out your 2021 to grow yourself in the very best way. Seriously. Today's episode is brought to you by my kitchen garden class. I'm gonna be teaching you how to plan your winter, your early spring, late winter garden coming up in January, so you can get your seat. There are gonna be limited seats, but I'm gonna be teaching this class live in January just as we kick off the new year. So you're gonna want to grab your seat and asap. You know how zoom is these days. Those classes are feeling up, so filling up. So grab your seat. You can register@gardenary.com blog where you read today's show notes and you can come and join me to plan your late winter garden together with me and the Gardenary team. It's gonna be amazing. So I'll see you inside that class in 2021. Yes, indeed. The new year is on its way. Let's dive into today's episode, how to Live a Garden Centered life. I'll see you inside. Welcome to the Grow youw Self podcast. Surprising stories about the food we eat and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to live the whole and happy life we're all craving. I'm Nicole Johnsey Burke, your host and and the owner of Rooted Garden and Gardenary Incorporated and author of Kitchen Garden Revival. Is it obvious yet? I'm kind of obsessed with the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden may just be the answer that you've been looking for on your own journey to health and wholeness. In this podcast, it's gonna inspire and enable you to make garden magic right in your very own space. If you're someone who wants to eat more good food that's actually good for you, Fill your day with great stories you want to text to a if you want to hear more about inspiring people and do a little bit each day better than the way you did it the day before. Grow yourself is what your ears have been waiting for. You won't just learn about gardening here. You'll learn how to make growing as a person a big part of your everyday life. And your life, your community. And your garden, of course, will be all the better for it. So put in your headphones, turn up the volume, and let's take a walk, go on a drive, or just hang out in the kitchen garden together. Welcome to Grow youw Self. Welcome back to the Grow youw Self podcast, friends. It is time to look forward to 2021. We have made it through an incredibly difficult, challenging and oh my goodness year. And this is my first year actually to run the podcast. So I was listening back actually for the replay of last week's episod. I replayed an episode I recorded a year ago actually, like this week to launch Grow youw Self back in January. And I was listening to my voice and the things I was saying actually was referencing like getting sick in the winter. And I thought, oh my goodness, that girl had no idea what was coming. And none of us did. Right. That's part of what we're going to discuss today is how to live a life on purpose, to come at each of your days with a plan so that whatever comes your way, you are ready for it. You're on the good side of the challenges. You're already ready for what's coming. So we're gonna be working together inside of Gardenary. Gardenary is all about this theme for 2021, and it is the garden centered life. You know, a lot of times when people approach the garden, the thought is that the garden has to become the center of their life, that they have to live to garden. But Gardenary literally stands for Gardening is ordinary garden for the ordinary. That garden becomes an ordina part of all of our lives. And we're not looking for you to live to garden. We're looking for all of us to garden in order to live better. And that's the thing we're going to discuss today on the episode, on this episode. And we will be talking about it and diving into each of these categories throughout 2021. Guys, we are about to grow ourselves in all kinds of great ways. So I introduced the garden centered life to the gardenary community. Earlier this month, we had our very first gardenary summit. All of the kitchen Garden, Garden Academy students this year were invited as well as all of the Garden Coach Society students. And we spent two days together planning out our 2021 how we were going to live a garden centered life. So we are prepared and ready. And now I am introducing the theme to you guys. Now there are really three sections to this theme and we'll be diving deep into each and every one of these categories. So today's episode is really to give you an overview and to give you kind of a picture of what you can expect in 2021. To help you put pen to paper and start to plan out how you can live a garden centered life throughout the entire year, right alongside with us all at gardenary. So I've broken these into three categories with four points in each one. So the first is inside, outside, and then together. In other words, there are gonna be goals here, ways that we wanna live a garden centered life that are focused on the inside of who we are. Our thoughts, our em, our plans, our physical, our not physical, our internal being. And then we're gonna spend some time thinking about the outside. So things that we do, things that are physical, that we can visibly see. And then finally, we're gonna look at some goals that we're gonna do as a community together, either in your local area, together with the gardenary community, or with our family, our friends, with other people. Because part of the garden is part of the magic of it is the way it pulls us together with other people. Right? So we're just gonna dive in. I wanna tell you, you know, I got to tell during the gardenary summit, a little bit of my own story. I did not grow up gardening. I grew up doing yard work, which I think is a little different than gardening. So I can thank my parents for giving me a good work ethic. Because every Saturday morning, my dad literally would run the vacuum upstairs to wake my sister and I up and out we went to mow the yard with my dad. To mow. I always had to sweep because I was the younger. So my sister got to mow and I just had to sit there and sweep. My mom was usually gardening. Every now and then she would employ us to help her in the garden. But, you know, I was pretty smart. And when she said to weed, I just pulled up all the nice plants because I knew if I did that, she'd probably never ask me to weed again. And it worked. So all that to say, I didn't grow up around the garden or centered around the garden. I grew up outside for sure. And working hard with my hands. But it wasn't until I became an adult and pretty far into my, I would say late 20s, early 30s, before I really started digging in and planting seeds. And this is for another story, but if you listen to episode, I'm not sure the number, but it's called Philip on the Good Stuff, you'll hear a little bit about my journey with food. But suffice it to say, through my middle school, high school, college, early 20s, I had a serious issue with food addiction. And food was basically my way of adding, you know, kind of numbing myself to life. So not having to feel feelings, not having to deal with challenges and the tough spots that we all face in life, I would just go and eat a bunch of Twizzlers or, I don't know, gummy worms or something. And you know, people couldn't always tell that from the outside, but on the inside I was, I was pretty torn up. I was turning to food in an unhealthy way. Not in a way to be filled up with good stuff, but in a way to be so full that I honestly couldn't experience what life was throwing me. So I've been on a journey. I started this journey in my early 20s and a key part of this was the garden I was reading in an article. I think I was trying to encourage myself to get on a more steady exercise routine but not overdo it. And I read this great article about the fact that for centuries, for thousands of years, people lived garden centered lives that in order to eat, they would have to step outside every single day and either harvest firewood or harvest the plants or the things that they were going to cook for that particular day. And that for so long for like the existence of our species as humans, we have relied on physical activity tied to nature in order to eat. And that over the last really century, that's, that's shifted, obviously. And all we have to do now is, you know, walk to the pantry like two steps and boom, you got food. And how that really hasn't served us, even though it gives us the comfort and the stability of the security of knowing, oh, I've got something to eat. Our bodies really aren't, weren't created or evolved to survive that way. Our bodies are meant to move physically, to step outside, to work, and to watch the seed become food before we eat. And that has been a huge part of my healing from food addiction and a huge part, a huge reason why I'm so passionate about the garden and why I started rooted garden in 2015 and gardenary in 2017. Because for me and for so many other people that I know, coming back to the garden, returning to a place where we have a routine of stepping outside, pulling food from the garden, watching seeds become real food before our eyes, and connecting that with the bites of food that we take, with the meals that we plan, with the lifestyle that we create, we create a much more wholesome and happy existence. And so it's with that premise, with that experience that I've had myself and have watched so many clients and students have as well, that we are presenting to you, to all of us, in 2021, a garden centered life. This idea that so much of our survival and existence is because of the garden and that we don't have to live to garden, but we should all garden a little bit in order to live better. So with that story in mind, let me introduce to you the 12 points we will be diving into throughout 2021 and the essence of living a garden centered life. So let's start out with the internal the very first piece of this is plotting or planning. Anyone who knows a farmer or a gardener knows that the secret sauce is timing. The secret to success is getting the timing right, having all your stuff ready to go when the weather says y. Yes. In other words, farmers who procrastinate are not farmers for very long. I don't know about you, but one of the things I'm challenged with myself and I see so many of my kids challenged with, is procrastination. And so one thing we are gonna work through early in the year is planning. Planning out our garden, planning out our lives, our business, our work, and even planning out the good things we want to do with our so taking time to plan and plot. That is what we'll be doing in January. That's the theme of January is called plot. And we're gonna be working on 90 day goals. So as I've grown my business and helped others grow theirs, I've definitely learned the beauty of working with quarters. So we will be working through quarters throughout 2021 together, both in the garden and in our everyday goal setting. We'll be setting 90 day goals, planning each month, and then breaking it down to little steps we can take each and every day. So that's gonna be January. You can look forward to that podcast episode coming your way soon in January as we start to plot and plan for the year. One of the best ways you can be part of that is to join the class I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. I'm gonna Be teaching you how to plan your late winter garden in a free workshop that's coming up the very beginning of January. So that will kick us off with our garden centered life. So that's plot. The. The second aspect of learning of this internal growth, this internal garden centered life, is learning. I don't know about you, but for me, one of my favorite parts of being in the garden is always learning something new. My grandfather was the head of horticulture at Mississippi State, and I can remember him in his 70s, walking us to the yards, the stockyards or whatever at Mississippi State and telling us how he loved the garden. He loved having a PhD and more in gardening and horticulture because there was always something more to learn. In fact, after he retired, he went back and started doing peach trees at Alcorn State University, working with the gardeners and the college students there on grafting peach trees. I can still remember picking peaches with him there. So, you know, sometimes part of what can be such a bummer about growing up and becoming an adult is this feeling that there's nothing new to learn anymore, that you've. Everything's kind of of set, like who your family is, if you're gonna be married or not, if you're gonna have kids or not, what your job's gonna be or not, where you're gonna live or not live. And I think sometimes that can be a piece that really gets us down and depressed is thinking that, you know, all the decisions, all the learning, all the new experiences are behind us. And the garden teaches us that is definitely not true. Not the case. So we're gonna make some goals of learning for 2021, things that we want to learn. And disc for me already, I know I'm going to be learning a ton about composting and soil building. And I'm also going to be learning a lot about growing seeds indoors. I'm challenged to do that in a new way. Living in Chicago. I toyed with it a little bit in 2020, but I'm going all in, guys, on composting and seed starting, so just be prepared. We'll be diving into learning early in the spring, and I know you're going to love the focus there on learning. So a couple simple things that you do right away is to create a garden journal that you want to keep throughout 2021. You could choose a gardening book or a book about food or eating locally or seasonally. You know, simple things we can do to go zero waste or to reverse climate change. Pick a book that you're going to read each and every month of the year and then keeping a journal and a little notebook of things that you learn as you go. One of our great clients in Houston, her name's Risa. She is an amazing woman I'll never forget. After about a year of gardening with her, I showed up for a workshop and she brought me the notebook she'd been keeping for over a year from her kitchen garden, noting down all the things she learned and experienced and seen in her garden. It was a perfect picture of how the garden is our teacher and is just an endless school for us to learn new things no matter what our age or our education to that point. So that is number two, the internal, the inside part of living a garden centered life is learning. The third part of our inside change is resting. Oh my. I made this one so bad. If you guys don't know. My nickname in college was Go Go Girl. I would literally wake up early. Go, go, go, go. I was like the president of the student government and was in all these meetings and acting all important. And then I would hit about 10pm and literally fall asleep with the lights on and my roommate having a party. Need to rest more. And you do too. And our gardens need to rest too. So we will be spending a little part of every month thinking about resting, how the garden needs to rest, how different parts of the garden need to rest. And then we'll be reflecting on how that can take place in our own lives as well. So a couple of simple steps you could take right away is choosing your hours. When you're going to be online, when you're going to be working, when you're going to be doing your stuff, and then when you're actually going to log off, when you're gonna close the phone, when you're gonna put it away, Creating a waking routine and a shutting down routine. Those are two things I've worked on this year that have been so helpful. I do this little fake. Like I actually know how to do yoga, even though I don't. I've created a little fake. I call it my fake yogi routine that I do at night now. And I do it like five times and then I crawl into bed. And I can't tell you how soothing it is to just have a little routine around my rest that does not involve a little thing called my P H O N E. You know what I'm talking about? My iPhone. So those are a couple things you can do to start already thinking about how you're going to rest better in 2021. And then we'll be exploring what that means in the garden as well. We'll be talking more about rest in the fall because we're going to all be tired by then. Finally, the last inside goal is reflection. Taking time to have gratitude, to look back on things that have happened and then to look as well. I was just listening to one of my coaches and she was talking about the value of recording what you got done, things that happened that you did. And I actually just started doing that recently. This week, instead of always listing the things I'm about to do, I took time to just write down the things I actually got done. And I was like, well, dang, I did pretty good today, even though I forgot like three things on my list. So a couple of simple steps you could take right away is to take about 10 minutes a day to reflect, to write down things your thankful for, Just to make a list of what you appreciate. Little magic moments, Just a thing that happened that you weren't expecting. Thinking about nature. That's a theme that I talk at length about in my book Kitchen Garden Revival. But taking some time to just look at nature, looking out your window, taking a walk, and observing where you are, what the season is, and taking a little moment to. To just sit there. Earlier this week, I took a run. It was super early in the morning, or not super early, but it was like seven on a Sunday. I challenged myself to do a longer run and I ended up at a little lake in our town. And I rarely get there because it's a longer run and I'm more of like a 2, 3 mile kind of running girl. So I got there and it was cold. It's December, and there were geese all over the lake. And it was. It was just a moment. I'd actually been reading the poem Wild geese by Mary Oliver earlier that week. And it was just this, like, magic moment for me to just pause and to breathe in the change of the season, that winter is here, that the geese will be leaving very soon. And, you know, just observing. All the leaves were gone off the trees. The water was still water, not ice yet. And I just kind of sat there and maybe I was just trying to not run, which was probably the case. But it was a wonderful moment of reflection. And we're gonna be talking about how to do that more in the garden, how to slow down and fill ourselves up with gratitude. I think I talked about this in our gratitude episode. But, you know, I tell my kids when you slow down to reflect on something and Be thankful for it. You actually get to enjoy it twice, which is awesome. So those are the inside goals we will be diving into and growing ourselves through in 2021. To plot, to learn, to rest, and to reflect. Next up are the outside goals. These are the ones that your neighbors are going to see you doing. So the very first is to create. We're going to be diving into this in February, primarily because we will also be. This will be the time when we are leading our first live kitchen Garden Academy class. We will be enrolling students for the winter class in January, and we will be diving into the first six weeks of the live class in February together, helping all of you with the step by steps to setting up, planting and planning your late winter, early spring kitchen garden. So creating is simply doing just that. Taking action, putting your hands in the dirt and going for it. So a couple of things that this could entail for you would be planning out and going ahead and going and buying this stuff and making it happen to create new additions to your garden. Are you gonna build new raised beds? Are you gonna build raised beds for the first time? Are you gonna add some window boxes or new trellises? Are you gonna add a new compost bin? What pieces do you want to create and add to your garden this year in any form? I'm considering some new additions to my garden and I'm definitely. I actually already purchased an incredible big compost bin. You'll hear more about that as we go through the year. But I'm also considering the possibility of adding a few more raised beds. We will see if that happens. The next category is to move. Move that body. So oh my goodness. If ever we learned the importance of shaking off the stre with. With raising our heart rate and stretching and moving our body, it was this year. I know I definitely did. I Short story I broke my Apple watch. I bought one in 2017 and promptly busted the screen at a big garden installation. I was so sad. I looked down and it was just. It was cracked. So I. I was so disappointed. And I of course didn't have apple care. So my watch was just done. And I still have it because I can't let go of it. I don't know what to do with it anyway. So for years, since 2017, I haven't had a way that I was tracking my movement daily. And I had a Fitbit, but it kept falling off, you know what I mean? So finally, right around Covid, or just as Covid hit actually right as my book came out to celebrate, I Ordered myself an apple watch and it is the best gift I've given myself. You don't have to have an apple watch, but some way. I do encourage you to find, find some way to track your movement every day. It has been such a good thing for me to see if I've exercised for 30 minutes a day, if I've stood up regularly, and especially if I've burnt all the calories I want to burn that day. I set my goal for 750 calories a day and let me tell you, it is challenging for me to burn that many calories. I have to move my body a lot and I can feel my attitude change, I can feel my energy change. And I've just made it over this year. I've just made it like it's an, it's a non negotiable, like I am going to move my body for 30 minutes a day and it looks different every day. This morning I went on a one mile run and it was literally more like a slow jog but I got out and I did it and that makes all the difference. So we are going to be talking about the importance of moving your body, connecting that movement with the garden and with the food that you eat and how powerful and healthy that that helps you become. So a couple quick, easy things you could step into right now and think about for 2021 is to get 10,000 steps a day to move your body for 30 minutes, to raise your heart rate for a certain amount of time. You can start planning your own goals and how you're gonna make that happen. But moving is for sure gonna be a really big part of our garden centered life. As I mentioned, it was that one sentence I read way back. I think it was probably 2005 or 6. Read it. You know that that movement has always been connected to food and that we've got to, we've got to reconnect that in our brains in order to start approaching food and our diet in a better way. All right, the third thing, the third part of the outside is literally going outside. Oh yes, my friends, we are going to get outside every single day of 2021. I don't care if it's cold, rain, raining, snowing, sleeting, hurricane, whatever, we're going outside. I don't know if you have kids or not. One thing I discovered with my kiddos early on I had four and four and a half years. So it was a little bit cry, cry. And I was always looking for a way to survive the days. Honestly, one thing I found to be true. Every single day with those babies and toddlers and preschoolers was outside was magic. It didn't matter if it was freezing outside, burning up outside. Things got better when I got my kids outdoors. And I think that the babies and the preschoolers and the toddlers are trying to tell us something. Guys, we're made to be outside. It's so nice to be inside. It's cozier. The air conditioning, the heating, whatever. But there's something that our brains are craving that we can only get when we step outside. So we are going to make it a goal for all of us to be outside for at least minutes a day to really experience the seasons, to have that breathe in moment like I told you about with those wild geese the other day, a moment of observing. And one simple thing you can do is you could start in your journal, like charting your sunshine and your weather. So a really fun thing to do as you, as you journal your days for 2021 is just Mark, you know, how many hours of sunshine were there today? What were the temperatures? What was the weather like? You could draw it, you could write it out and how it made you. I think that we are more affected by the weather than we realize, mostly because we're inside so much. But when we step outside, we realize our connection to nature and how it has so much to teach us. So we will be going outside all year long. So get ready. Okay, finally we are gonna fill up. If you haven't listened to the episode podcast. Wait, wait, switch that. The podcast episode. Fill up on the good stuff. That's what we're gonna be doing all year. We are going to find ways to finish fill up on plants, fruit plants, vegetable plants, green plants, red plants, purple plants, all the plants. We are going to fill ourselves up so full of good stuff that there's so little room remaining. We're going to drink the garden, we're going to snack from the garden and we are going to eat from the garden. We're going to try to find as many creative ways as we can to eat plants next year. Sound good? Mostly Plants. Have you heard of this, this recipe, I mean, what's it called? Cookbook. So Michael Pollan is one of the leaders in the local, the seasonal food movement. If you don't follow Michael Pollan, you should read his books. You could put those actually on your learn list. And Michael's, he has assist some sisters, I think, who wrote this great book called Mostly Plants. Because Michael has this, this little mantra and it's like, eat Real food, not too much. Mostly plants. And so I've actually, I. I have goals that I wr down for myself and I'm learning the art of writing more specific goals, especially like numbers goals. And so I'm switching from writing a sentence like I am healthy or I eat healthy to something like, I eat mostly plants. And that's what we're gonna do in 2021. Mostly plants. Okay, guys, so we're gonna focus on that in the summer. So those are the outside goals we've got. Create, move, go outside and fit, fill up. Now the together goals. So these are the things that are going to bring us together as a community. These are about supporting and growing our communities together in the very best way. So the first one is sustain. We all know that our climate is in crisis. I hate saying that word, but it's true. And you know, I live in Chicago and it's cold here, obviously colder than I'd like it to be. But we've actually had one of the hot, hottest, warmest falls ever. I've truly enjoyed it. I'm so thankful. But there's this little voice in the back of my head that's like, this isn't right. And I don't know, maybe the weather's just shifting and it has nothing to do with global warming, but I can't help but wonder. In our gardenary summit, so many gardeners said it's been a much warmer fall and winter than they've had before. So, friends, it is time for us to make small changes. Little things. Doing little bit, bitty steps together that will add up to sustain our world, to regenerate our world, and to make a difference. And the garden is one of the most incredible places to do that. So a couple simple things you could start doing is composting, reusing water that you have in your cooking or saving water, having rain barrels, any way you can conserve water. Creating sanctuaries for butterflies and bees, maybe even something as advanced as raising bees or raising butterflies, creating spots for birds and native plants. There are so many simple things that each of us can do to add sustainability to our gardens, to our homes and to our communities. For me, I mentioned already that composting is going to be top, top of my list. I've already got a brand new, amazing, huge composter I can't wait to share with you all. And I'm going to be experimenting with a lot of other ways of reusing and composting in my, my space. Building soil is another great, incredible way that you all can Participate in sustainability. The second one is connecting. So connecting with our local farmers and growers, connecting with local suppliers, and then connecting with local gardeners. So we're going to make it a goal in the gardenary community to connect you inside of gardenary with people who are growing near you, with suppliers that are near you. And then we'll also be supporting you as you reach out and find those, those people in your community. As you know, our theme for 2020 was Eat Seasonally, buy locally, grow naturally. And a big piece of that was buying from local farmers and supporting local growers. So we want to do that to the next level in 2021. The third thing we want to do together is to share. So we're going to be exploring ways that we can share a harvest, share our seeds, how we can can even share what we learn. As you know, I lead gardeners in the Garden Coach Society to create their own garden consulting businesses. This was a huge year for Garden Coach Society. We have over 300 new garden coaches join the Garden Coach Society from around the country. But our goals for 2021 are even bigger. We're aiming to teach and train and certify over a thousand gardeners around the country to start their own garden consulting business. So as you grow and create your own garden cent, if you're interested and excited about sharing the knowledge, you gather the passion of a garden centered life with others in a profitable way that would pay you, then we would love to help you do that inside of Garden Coach Society. We will only open the school twice in 2021. Once in February and again in late September, early October. So be on the lookout for that. If you're interested in growing a business, we would love to help you do that. But even if you're not ready to start a so much you can share with your neighbors, with your friends, with your communities that you've learned from the garden. Listen, everybody wants to garden. Most people are just afraid that it's not gonna work out or they're under the misunderstanding that they need some magical green thumb for it to be possible. So it's your job to reach out and say, hey, this is doable. Look, I am evidence. So sharing is gonna be an important part of our year and we'll be talking a lot about it and diving in the early fall in September. Finally, and maybe most important, we will be celebrating. So we will spend the end of the year in December, believe it or not, a year from now celebrating. We will be taking time to relish in all the things that We've accomplished all the incredible things that we've gotten done, all the things that we've learned and plotted and created, all the times we've gone outside, all the times we've moved and all the harvest we've had, we're going to take time to revisit, really reflect and not just be thankful, but also to throw a big old party. So a couple of things you could do to up your celebratory efforts right now is to start a gratitude journal or even just start a picture journal where you take daily photos of harvest that you have or things that you're growing or, you know, maybe even documenting every single day in your garden. I think that would be so amazing. Planning monthly celebratory meals. So something that you do each and every month to take time to reflect on what you've gotten done, what you've harvested and to share that with other people and then finally to find ways to save and enjoy your harvest for longer. So we're going to all be stretching ourselves a little bit in 2021 to make make the most of everything we grow. Ways that we can dehydrate it and dry it and ferment it and turn it into we never expected before to make our harvests and our celebrations even bigger. So those are the four pieces of the together goals to sustain, to connect, to share, and to celebrate. And friends, that is the garden centered year. So we are going to be working on our inside, we're going to be working on our outside and we are going to be working together as a community. It is going to be an incredible 2021 no matter what challenges come our the other day we were working in our basement. I'm trying to create a new office space for myself to record these podcasts so I don't have to do it in my closet in 2021. And we're working in our basement and the guys have been down there a lot working. It's very loud, very disruptive, very dirty. And I told you guys, I've got my apple watch. Every morning I wake up, I go and do my exercise. So I went early that day, I went for a swim, actually swam a mile, came home, got in the shower and my daughter came in and she said, mom, oh. And I had already picked some kale from the garden and made a smoothie. So I literally, I had gotten up, I journaled that day, I wrote down what I wanted to do on Saturday I went for a swim, I took a shower, I had a green smoothie from the Garden. And I was in the shower. My daughter came in. She, she said, mommy, the men are here. I said, okay. And she said, they found a leak in the basement, a flood in the basement. And I was like, can you repeat that? She said, they found a flood in the basement. The basement is leaking and they found it and they need to talk to you. And I'm like, in the shower. I'm like, okay, I will be there. Give me five minutes. So I finished my shower and just my mind immediately goes, oh, my goodness, this is going to be quite the day day, right? This is going to be a challenge. So get dressed, go down and, you know, sure enough, it is a pretty big disaster down there. And the day is suddenly now, you know, kind of up for grabs. Like, who knows what's going to happen because there's a lot to deal with. And I thought to myself, I am so thankful that I got up that I took the dogs on a walk. I went outside, I wrote in my journal. I exercise, exercised. I filled myself up with really good stuff. I'm ready for this. This is not fun. I don't want to have a flood in my basement. I'm not excited about this, but I'm ready for it. It's just a little micro picture, just a little mini, mini picture of what we can accomplish and what we can be ready for in 2021 when we take time to tend to ourselves, to grow ourselves first, and to live a garden centered life. I didn spend the whole day gardening. I didn't spend the whole morning gardening, but I have now these ideas of growing inside and outside and together so ingrained in me that I know when I get up what I'm gonna do. And that prepares me for the challenges that come my way once I'm done with my green smoothie. So all that to say, listen, we don't know what 2021 is gonna throw at us, but we know what we're gonna give it. And that is a garden centered. I cannot wait to do 2021 with you. I hope you will commit to hanging out with me here on the Grow youw Self podcast. We're gonna have incredible guests joining us. We're gonna be diving into each of these categories each and every month. I'm gonna be showing you how you can make this practical and possible in your everyday life and how you can be. You can be growing no matter what's coming your way. So let's grow together in 2021. Sound good? I think so. Thank you so much for spending 2020 with me here on the Grow youw Podcast. I cannot tell you how much it means to me. I would absolutely love it if you would review the podcast, subscribe and share it. Sharing is the most powerful way to grow this platform and to help other people grow alongside us here on the Grow youw Self Podcast. Thanks again for listening. Have a happy, happy, happy New Year. Stay safe, stay well and I'll see you with a Garden centered life and 2020 21. Bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self Podcast. Are you ready for a garden centered year? I am so ready. I hope you have a great Happy New Year. Do not forget you can grab your seat for our late winter Garden Planning workshop. It is coming your way the very first beginning of January so you need to get in, grab your seat. I think I'm just hosting the workshop maybe two times, maybe three in the first few weeks of January. And then we are kicking off the winter class of Kitchen Garden Academy. So don't miss this opportunity. You get a free a free shot at this class. It'll be an hour long class to help you plan your late winter garden. We'll be talking about ordering seeds, making plans and being ahead of the game. Don't forget to the theme for January is plot, so the way to start plotting is to join me in the workshop. You can register@gardenary.com blog where you can read the show notes for today's episode and get a link to sign up. Thanks again for listening. Grow Yourself is so so thankful to you for being part of this community and this podcast. I'll see you in 2021. Bye for now. Now.