Why not homestead? Why the “ish”? 

I’m writing this 6 days before I turn 28. In many ways, the idea of a homestead feels like just that— home. It’s going back to my roots, what I grew up knowing, and a sense of familiarity. Part of me wants nothing more than to feel that way again, but part of me isn’t sure if I want to give up what I’ve worked so hard to get. (More on that another day.) 

So I’ve landed on this idea of homesteadish. 

Where I can spend hours reading books on homesteading, modern pioneering, and learning skills… while also making plans to go to Target, too. It’s where I can still shop at Madewell, spend time at yoga, and find new restaurants to try… while propagating plants and figuring out how to thread my sewing machine. 

Homesteading felt so black and white to me. It was like giving up the current life you have to live a completely new one. And part of me wants that, but I’ve also done that before when I moved from Wisconsin to South Carolina after some major life events that I plan to talk about someday. 

But to abandon those seasons completely feels like I’m forgetting about my past. I’ve come too far to pretend I didn’t. 

I’m not saying that I’m going to forever be in the in-between, but for now it’s a place I feel at home.