Womenfolk Revival

’You're too young. You don’t even have land.”

Hailey Marcionette heard the doubts and started anyway.

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, we sit down with Hailey of Biting Flower Farms for a raw, honest conversation about homesteading before you own the homestead, building a slower life in a fast-paced world, and preparing for the future long before everything is perfectly in place.

Hailey started her business at 19 and has spent the years since learning, building, saving, and creating a life that reflects what matters most to her. She and her fiancé are working toward the dream of owning a future farm where they hope to grow flowers and herbs, keep bees, produce essential oils, preserve food, and build a more intentional, land-connected way of life.

But one of the biggest parts of Hailey’s story is that she is not waiting for the farm to begin.

She is learning the skills now.

In this conversation, we talk about what it really means to start where you are, whether that means cooking from scratch, learning to preserve and can food, growing what you can in a small space, supporting local farmers, learning from older generations, finding mentors, or simply changing the way you think about what a homestead has to look like.

Hailey also shares how being homeschooled shaped the way she learned, explored creativity, and thought differently about work and life. She reflects on growing up around rural life, watching neighbors raise animals, and how those early experiences helped form the dream she is building today.

We also talk honestly about being underestimated.

Hailey has heard people question why she is thinking about homesteading before she owns land. She has been told she should wait, that she may change her mind, and that she is too young to know what she wants.

Instead of waiting for permission, she kept learning.

That is one of the biggest themes of this episode: you do not have to have acreage, animals, or the perfect farmhouse to begin living more intentionally.

Homesteading can begin in a townhouse.

It can begin with a deck garden.

It can begin with learning how to preserve food.

It can begin with making dinner from scratch, meeting local farmers, growing herbs, learning an old skill, or deciding that you want your future family to live differently.

Hailey also opens up about her hopes for future motherhood and the kind of childhood she wants to create one day, one that feels real, present, connected, family-centered, and close to the natural world.

We talk about children being included in daily life, family meals, letting kids get dirty, learning by doing, spending time outside, and carrying forward the kinds of skills and traditions that were once simply part of everyday life.

Her business, Biting Flower Farms, has become part of that larger vision.

What began with candles and wax melts has grown into a clean home scent and skincare business with a deeper purpose behind it. Hailey shares how the business developed, why she became interested in cleaner products and herbs, and how Biting Flower Farms is now helping her move toward the long-term dream of land, farming, and a more self-sufficient life.

We also talk about the financial reality of that dream.

Buying land is expensive, especially where Hailey lives, and she and her fiancé are working toward a major savings goal to make their future farm possible. Instead of pretending that slow living is always simple or inexpensive, we talk about what it looks like to build toward a dream patiently, one step at a time.

This episode is for anyone who has ever thought:

“I want to homestead, but I don’t have land.”

“I want a slower life, but I don’t know where to start.”

“I want to learn traditional skills, but I didn’t grow up doing them.”

“I want to live more intentionally, but my life doesn’t look like that yet.”

“I’m too young.”

“I’m too late.”

“I don’t know enough.”

“I’ll start someday.”

Hailey’s story is a reminder that someday does not have to be the starting line.

You can learn now.

You can build now.

You can begin where you are.

Sometimes the life you want starts long before the land does.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Homesteading without owning land

• Building a slow and intentional life

• Starting a small business at a young age

• Being underestimated and continuing anyway

• Homeschooling and how it shaped Hailey’s outlook

• Learning traditional and practical skills before owning a farm

• Cooking from scratch

• Food preservation and canning

• Small-space and deck gardening

• Supporting and learning from local farmers

• Finding mentors and community in the homesteading world

• Preparing for a future farm

• Bees, flowers, herbs, and essential oils

• Raising future children with more connection to family and nature

• Building a business around a bigger life vision

• Saving for land and working toward a long-term dream

• Why you do not need to wait until everything is perfect to begin

ABOUT HAILEY MARCIONETTE

Hailey is the founder of Biting Flower Farms, a business she started at 19 that began with candles and wax melts and has grown alongside her interest in cleaner home and body products.

Biting Flower Farms is also part of a much bigger vision. Hailey and her fiancé are working toward eventually purchasing land and creating a farm centered around flowers, herbs, bees, essential oils, and a slower, more intentional way of life.

Right now, she is focused on learning the skills she wants to carry into that future cooking from scratch, food preservation, gardening, learning from farmers and older generations, building her business, and preparing for the family life and homestead she hopes to create one day.

FIND HAILEY + BITING FLOWER FARMS

Website:

https://www.bitingflowerfarms.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/bitingflowerfarms?igsi=NWJoOHgxZmpsajY1&utm_source=qr

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/BitingFlowerCandleCO?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=LAR8o0hdMDAjcqmA&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F1C5jLZap6w%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr

JOIN THE WOMENFOLK REVIVAL COMMUNITY

If conversations like this feel like home to you, come join us in the Womenfolk Revival Facebook community. It’s where we keep the conversation going homesteading, homemaking, gardening, old skills, intentional living, family, and learning as we go.

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CPQnbj5KJ/

If this conversation spoke to you, like, subscribe, and share it with another woman who might need the reminder that she can start where she is.

Stay ...

Marriage does not stay the same after the wedding.

People change. Bodies change. Families grow. Careers shift. Faith deepens. Stress builds. Children arrive. Hormones change. Financial pressure happens. Grief happens. Sometimes two people who deeply love one another can look across the room and barely recognize the version of the person standing in front of them.

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Meara and Maggie sit down for an honest conversation about what marriage looks like beyond the wedding day and what it really means to continue choosing one another through different seasons of life.

This is not a conversation about having a perfect marriage.

It is about real marriage.

The kind where there are seasons when you look at your husband and think, I would choose you all over again, and other seasons when you look at the same person and wonder, Who are you exactly?

Because marriage changes as the people inside of it change.

Meara and Maggie talk openly about their own marriages, including difficult seasons, communication problems, becoming emotionally disconnected, feeling more like roommates than husband and wife, navigating blended families, cultural differences, motherhood, stress, faith, work, changing identities, and learning how to understand a spouse who may not be the same person they were when the marriage began.

One of the biggest questions in this conversation is:

Can you keep learning your spouse as they change?

And just as importantly:

Can your spouse continue learning you?

Meara shares how her marriage required learning how to live together after years of being physically separated by different countries, cultures, expectations, and circumstances. She talks about raising children together, surviving periods where marriage felt more like simply getting through the day, and learning how communication, listening, trust, boundaries, and emotional openness can slowly change a relationship.

Maggie shares her own experience of looking back at difficult periods in marriage and realizing that sometimes the person standing in front of you is dealing with much more than what is happening in that single moment.

Childhood experiences, trauma, military service, grief, family history, stress, parenthood, work, and personal struggles can all affect the way someone responds inside a marriage.

That does not mean harmful behavior should be excused.

But understanding the whole person can sometimes change the way a husband and wife approach a difficult conversation.

We also talk about what happens when marriage becomes a roommate relationship.

Children need you.

Work needs you.

The house needs you.

Bills need to be paid.

Somewhere between parenting, schedules, exhaustion, family responsibilities, and everyday life, two people can forget that they actually enjoy one another. Many couples eventually have to learn how to find each other again.

Sometimes that looks like date nights.

Sometimes it looks like sitting together on the couch after the children go to bed.

Sometimes it is simply learning how to talk again without trying to win the conversation.

Marriage also requires learning new versions of one another.

Pregnancy changes women. Motherhood changes women. Hormonal changes change women.

Perimenopause can affect mood, sleep, patience, energy, anxiety, intimacy, and emotional regulation.

Men change too.

Work stress, grief, responsibility, aging, fatherhood, faith, family expectations, health changes, and life experiences can reshape the person someone becomes over time.

The person you married ten years ago may not exist in exactly the same way today.

And neither do you.

That does not automatically mean something has gone wrong.

Sometimes it simply means the relationship has entered another season.

One of the most important parts of this episode is understanding the difference between a hard season in marriage and an unsafe relationship. Those are not the same thing. A difficult marriage season may include frustration, exhaustion, communication problems, emotional distance, disagreements, or feeling disconnected from one another.

But fear, intimidation, threats, manipulation, control, degradation, coercion, or abuse should not be dismissed as simply part of marriage.

If you are trying to understand what is happening in your own relationship, some important questions may be:

Are you safe?

Are you respected?

Can you communicate honestly?

Can both of you admit when you are wrong?

Are both of you willing to work on the relationship?

Can boundaries be expressed and respected?

Are you allowed to disagree without fearing what will happen afterward?

A terrible week does not necessarily mean you have a terrible marriage.

A difficult season does not automatically mean the relationship is over.

And choosing your spouse does not always look romantic.

Sometimes it means apologizing.

Sometimes it means setting a boundary.

Sometimes it means learning to listen differently.

Sometimes it means giving your spouse space.

Sometimes it means asking for help.

Sometimes it means recognizing that the relationship has crossed into something unsafe.

If your relationship feels unsafe, please know that reaching out for help does not make you weak.

Sometimes the hardest part is making the first call or sending the first text.

You do not have to have everything figured out before you reach out.

You do not have to know exactly what decision you are going to make.

Trained advocates are there to listen without judgment, help you understand your options, and support you in whatever next step feels right for you.

Help is available for both women and men.

This conversation also touches on faith and marriage and how faith can become an anchor when a couple is struggling to understand what comes next.

This Episode Is for You If You’ve Been Wondering:

Why does marriage change after children?
 Why do married couples start feeling like roommates?
 How do you reconnect with your spouse after growing apart?
 How do you keep choosing each other through difficult seasons?
 How does perimenopause affect marriage and relationships?
 How do cultural differences affect marriage?
 How do you communicate when both people have changed?
 What is the difference between a hard marriage season and an unsafe relationship?
 How do faith and boundaries work together in marriage?
 How do you grow together instead of growing apart?

For both Meara and Maggie, faith has played a role in their marriages not by making marriage easy, but by helping them think more carefully about commitment, forgiveness, accountability, grace, boundaries, and what it means to continue growing alongside another person.

We also talk about the value of trusted friendships.

Having women in your life who can listen to what is happening in your marriage without immediately attacking your spouse or automatically taking sides can be incredibly valuable.

Sometimes people do not need someone to tel...

There was a time when growing old was simply part of family life.

Grandparents lived nearby. Children grew up alongside their elders. Families noticed the small changes because they were close enough to see them. Caring for aging parents was not always something families suddenly had to learn in the middle of a crisis.

It was woven into everyday life.

Somewhere along the way, that changed.

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Meara and Maggie sit down with Nicole Hilgenkamp, founder of Your Parents Keeper, for an honest conversation about what happens when the people who once cared for us begin to need care themselves.

And why so many families feel completely unprepared when that moment comes.

Nicole created Your Parents Keeper after caring for her own mother through dementia and realizing how much she wished she had known earlier.

Her work helps adult children understand the stages of caregiving, prepare before emergencies happen, navigate care options, ask better questions, and make difficult decisions with more information and less guesswork.

This conversation is about more than caregiving.

It is about noticing.

Preparing.

Protecting dignity.

Having difficult conversations early.

And understanding that helping an aging parent does not mean taking over their life.

When Do Aging Parents Start Needing Help?

Sometimes there is no dramatic moment.

It may begin with small things.

A missed medication.

A fall.

A forgotten appointment.

A change in driving.

Bills becoming confusing.

Meals becoming less consistent.

A home that is becoming harder to maintain.

More frequent hospital visits.

Or simply the feeling that something is different.

Families often wait until there is a major event because nobody knows exactly when concern becomes action.

Nicole helps us think about what adult children can begin paying attention to before a crisis happens.

How Do You Help Without Taking Away Independence?

One of the hardest parts of caring for aging parents is the shift in roles.

You are still their child.
They are still adults with preferences, history, pride, routines, and the right to make decisions about their own lives.

So how do you help without making them feel like you are becoming the parent?

We talk about approaching aging with respect, preserving dignity, asking instead of assuming, and having conversations before fear and urgency take over.

What Should Adult Children Know Before There Is a Crisis?

Many families do not know the answers to basic questions until an emergency happens.

What medications are they taking?

Who are their doctors?

Where are important documents kept?

Who has medical or financial decision-making authority if needed?

What are their wishes?

Would they want to remain at home as long as possible?

What kind of care would they accept?

What financial or insurance resources are available?

What happens if they cannot safely live alone?

These are difficult conversations.

But they are often much harder when everyone is trying to figure them out from a hospital waiting room.

Preparing does not mean expecting the worst.

It means giving your family more information before you need it.

Aging in Place, Assisted Living, Memory Care & Skilled Nursing

Elder care can become confusing very quickly because there are so many different levels of support.

Home care.

Aging in place.

Assisted living.

Memory care.

Skilled nursing.

Rehabilitation.

Hospice.

Community-based services.

Each exists for different needs, and families often encounter these terms for the first time when they are already overwhelmed.

Nicole helps explain how families can begin thinking about these options and why knowing what exists ahead of time can make future decisions less frightening.

Dementia & Family Caregiving

Nicole also shares what she learned while caring for her mother through dementia.

Dementia caregiving can change family relationships, routines, communication, safety concerns, and the type of support a person needs.

It can also be incredibly emotional for adult children who are watching a parent change while still trying to honor the person they have always known.

We talk about how families can prepare, learn, ask for help, and understand that caregiving is rarely something one person should carry alone.

The Caregiving Crisis Families Often Do Not See Coming

A fall.

An emergency room visit.

A dementia diagnosis.

A hospitalization.

A sudden inability to drive.

An unsafe home situation.

A medication mistake.

Sometimes the event that changes everything arrives before the family has had a single conversation about what happens next.

That is why one of the strongest messages from this episode is simple:

Preparing for your parents to age is part of caring for them.

Not controlling them.

Not assuming the worst.

Preparing.

In This Episode

• Caring for aging parents
 • Preparing before a caregiving crisis
 • Early signs an aging parent may need more support
 • Helping elderly parents maintain independence
 • Dementia caregiving
 • Family caregiving roles
 • Falls and safety concerns in older adults
 • Aging in place
 • Home care
 • Assisted living
 • Memory care
 • Skilled nursing
 • End-of-life planning
 • Important documents families should know about
 • Medication and healthcare information
 • Talking with aging parents about future care
 • Preserving dignity as roles begin to change
 • Caregiver burnout and support
 • Family communication
 • Medicare and elder care questions
 • Building a caregiving plan
 • Nicole’s seven stages of caregiving
 • Life after caregiving and loss
 • Why caregiving takes a village

This Episode Is for You If You’ve Been Wondering:

How do I prepare for my parents getting older?

When should I start talking to my parents about elder care?

What should I know about my parents before a medical emergency?

How do I help an elderly parent who wants to stay independent?

What are signs that an aging parent may need help?

What is the difference between assisted living and memory care?

What is aging in place?

How do families prepare for dementia caregiving?

What documents should adult children know about?

How do I talk to my parents about end-of-life wishes?

How do I prepare for a caregiving crisis?

How do I know when my parent should no longer live alone?
What should adult children know about Medicare and elder care?

How can families share caregiving responsibilities?

You Are Still Their Child

One of the most important things to remember is that becoming involved in an aging parent's care does not erase the relationship you had before.

Modern life was supposed to make everything easier.

Less walking. Less cooking. Less waiting. Less work.

So why do so many of us feel more rushed, more distracted, and more disconnected from the way we actually want to live?

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Meara and Maggie sit down with nutrition and fitness coach Lisa Franz for a wide-ranging conversation about food, movement, family, screens, culture, and what we may have lost in the name of convenience.

Lisa has traveled extensively, lived in multiple countries, and worked with hundreds of clients as a nutrition coach. That gives her a unique perspective on how different cultures move through daily life, how families eat together, how much people walk, how meals are experienced, and how modern routines can shape our health in ways we do not always notice.

We talk about the difference between intentional movement and simply building more activity into everyday life, why walking is still such a natural part of daily life in many places outside the United States, and how city design can either encourage or discourage movement. Lisa also shares what she has noticed about family meals, restaurant culture, eating slowly, and the importance of sitting down together rather than constantly eating on the go.  

The conversation also moves into screens and overstimulation, and why being more intentional with technology may matter just as much as what we eat. Lisa talks about single-tasking, creating moments of stillness, eating without constant distraction, and giving ourselves enough quiet to actually notice what we need. 

We also explore whole foods, home cooking, processed foods, mindful eating, slowing down between bites, waiting before getting seconds, and becoming more aware of the habits we have built around food. Lisa shares practical ways to start small without turning healthy living into another overwhelming list of rules.  

One resource Lisa mentions is the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, including the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen. The 2026 guide ranks produce based on pesticide residue data and is intended as a shopping reference, not a reason to avoid fruits and vegetables. 

You can explore those lists here:

EWG 2026 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce

2026 Dirty Dozen

2026 Clean Fifteen / Full List

Some of the broader themes in this episode include slow living, intentional living, mindful eating, whole foods, simple nutrition, family meals, screen habits, walking, everyday movement, Blue Zones, social connection, home cooking, food culture, healthy habits, and finding ways to participate more fully in your own life.

At the heart of the conversation is one question:

What have we traded away in the name of convenience?

Maybe the slower way is not always the harder way. Maybe it is simply the way that gives us enough space to actually experience our lives. 

Connect with Lisa Franz

Lisa is the owner and head coach of Nutrition Coaching and Life and host of the Nutrition & Life Podcast. Current public profiles list her website and YouTube channel here. 

Lisa’s Website — Nutrition Coaching and Life

Lisa on YouTube — Nutrition Coaching and Life

Lisa on Instagram

Join the Womenfolk Revival community

Come continue the conversation with us on Facebook, share what this episode brought up for you, and connect with other women who are choosing a slower, more intentional way of living.

Join the Womenfolk Revival Facebook Community
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Stay Rooted. Stay Wild.

You Don’t Need a Homestead to Live This Way | A Slower Life Starts Where You Are

What if the life you’re longing for doesn’t begin someday when you finally have the acreage, the chickens, the garden, the farmhouse, or the perfect kitchen?

What if it begins exactly where you are?

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Meara and Maggie talk about what it really means to live more slowly, intentionally, and connected to the life already in front of you. Because slow living isn’t reserved for women who live on farms or own acres of land. You can begin living differently in an apartment, a rented home, a neighborhood, a townhouse, or right in the middle of the city.

Meara shares how her own journey toward a slower, more intentional life started years before she ever had acreage. It began in a rented home, learning to make bread and food from scratch, spending more time outside, walking barefoot in the yard, paying closer attention to home and family, and slowly changing the way she wanted to live. 

Maggie and Meara also talk about the reality behind the picture-perfect idea of homesteading. Having land doesn’t automatically make life peaceful or simple. There are chores, animals, gardens, responsibilities, mistakes, learning curves, and plenty of days when everything feels like a lot. The important part isn’t creating someone else’s version of a homestead. It’s building a life that actually feels meaningful to you.

For one woman, that might mean growing vegetables.

For another, it might mean baking bread, sewing, supporting local farmers, learning traditional skills, cooking dinner from scratch a few nights a week, spending Sundays with family, taking walks outside, or simply turning off the noise long enough to notice the people sitting right beside her.

Because intentional living is not a performance.

It isn’t about having the right aesthetic, the right amount of land, a pantry full of mason jars, or a sourdough starter bubbling on the counter. It’s about becoming more present in the life you already have and choosing what deserves your time and attention. 

They also talk about something that often gets lost in conversations about slow living: community.

Slowing down doesn’t have to mean withdrawing from everyone around you. For generations, people depended on neighbors, extended family, friends, and community. Food was shared. Children grew up surrounded by grandparents, cousins, neighbors, and familiar faces. Skills and knowledge were passed from one person to another.

Today, we can order food, work, shop, entertain ourselves, and move through most of our day without ever truly connecting with another person. Convenience has given us a lot, but it may also be costing us something.

Womenfolk Revival was created in part because Meara and Maggie wanted that sense of connection again: a place where women from different families, cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and walks of life can sit at the same table, learn from one another, share what they know, and remember that we were never meant to do everything alone. 

And maybe slow living isn’t actually about making your life less full.

Maybe it’s about filling it with things that matter.

Cooking food.

Learning something with your hands.

Watching your children play.

Sitting around the table longer.

Knowing your neighbors.

Getting outside.

Caring for your home.

Listening to your body.

Spending time with the people you love.

Connecting with your Creator.

And remembering to participate in your own life instead of rushing through it.

This week’s Words of Wisdom are simple: start where your feet are.

Don’t wait for the land.

Don’t wait for the bigger kitchen.

Don’t wait for the chickens, the garden, the country house, or the imaginary season when you finally have more time.

Open the window and notice the weather. Cook something from scratch. Stand barefoot in the grass. Grow something in a pot. Sit around the table a little longer. Turn everything off for a few minutes. Get quiet enough to reconnect with yourself, your family, and your Creator.

A meaningful life isn’t waiting for you somewhere else.

It’s already happening. 

If this episode speaks to something you’ve been longing for, share it with another woman who might need the reminder that she doesn’t have to completely change her life before she can begin living it differently.

And come join us inside the Womenfolk Revival Facebook Community, where we’re continuing these conversations, sharing ideas, learning from one another, and building the kind of community we believe women are still craving:

Join the Womenfolk Revival Community:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18XA8b8kNZ/

Follow Womenfolk Revival on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss next week’s conversation, when we reflect on marriage beyond the wedding: the good seasons, the difficult seasons, how people change over time, and what it means to continue choosing one another while building a life together.

Stay Rooted. Stay Wild.

We have machines that wash our clothes and our dishes. We can have food brought straight to our door. We can buy almost anything without ever leaving the house.

We have more things saving us time than probably any generation before us.

So where the heck did all that saved time go?

Because somehow, we're still rushing. We're still exhausted. We're still saying we don't have enough time.

This week on Womenfolk Revival, we're sitting down to talk about something we've both been noticing in our own lives: somewhere along the way, we started treating normal human effort like something we needed to escape.

Cooking became a chore. Growing food became a hobby. Making things became a craft. Walking became exercise. Sitting outside became self-care.

Things that were once simply part of living became things we had to intentionally add back into our lives.

And it made us wonder: have we confused an easier life with a better life?

Why has modern convenience saved us so much time, yet somehow left us feeling busier, more distracted and more exhausted than ever?

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Meara and Maggie explore slow living, modern convenience, convenience culture, digital distraction, traditional skills, meaningful work, intentional motherhood, family connection and the quiet ways modern life may be separating us from actually participating in our own lives.

We have machines that wash our clothes and our dishes. We can have food brought straight to our door. We can buy almost anything without ever leaving the house.

We have more things saving us time than probably any generation before us.

So where the heck did all that saved time go?

Because somehow, we're still rushing.

We're still exhausted.

We're still saying we don't have enough time.

This week on Womenfolk Revival, we're sitting down to talk about something we've both been noticing in our own lives:

Somewhere along the way, we started treating normal human effort like something we needed to escape.

Cooking became a chore.

Growing food became a hobby.

Making things became a craft.

Walking became exercise.

Sitting outside became self-care.

Things that were once simply part of living became things we had to intentionally add back into our lives.

And it made us wonder:

Have we confused an easier life with a better life?

Why hasn't modern convenience given us more free time?

Before we even get into that conversation, we're trying something new.

Quite a few of you have told us that you want to hear more about us, not just the topic we're discussing that week, but what's actually happening in our homes and our lives.

So we're pulling up our chairs a little earlier and catching up before we get into the episode.

And this week, there was plenty to catch up on.

Maggie somehow managed to turn a barefoot family hike into a six-hour adventure lost in the woods.

Meara is still moving into her family's new little homestead, had their first fire outside, is making plans for the garden and is preparing to bring her older girls home for homeschooling.

We're talking about fall, old books, bread making, gardens, family life, slowing down and everything else that naturally comes up when two friends sit down at the table together.

Eventually, it brings us right back to the question at the heart of this episode:

What if some of the work we're constantly trying to eliminate isn't getting in the way of living? What if some of that work IS the living?

Can a harder life sometimes feel more meaningful?

Since moving onto land, Meara's life has technically gotten harder.

There is always something that needs to be cleaned, planted, moved, fixed, planned or taken care of.

But something else is happening too.

The days feel fuller.

The family is outside more.

They're making things.

Planning things.

Working toward something together.

They're talking more and listening to one another more.

Instead of simply existing in the same house, one person on a phone, another watching television, everyone waiting for the day to pass, they're participating in their own lives.

And Maggie has experienced much of the same thing as her family has intentionally slowed down and brought older skills and rhythms back into their home.

We talk about milling grain by hand, baking bread, hanging laundry in the sun, growing food, puzzles, old-fashioned games, looking at the stars, sitting outside, allowing ourselves to be bored again and teaching our children that everything in life isn't supposed to happen instantly.

What has technology taken away from our everyday lives?

We also talk about our phones and what happened to all those little empty spaces we used to have.

Waiting somewhere?

Phone.

Sitting in the car?

Phone.

Standing in line?

Phone.

When was the last time we simply sat somewhere and had absolutely nothing to do?

Because boredom wasn't always useless.

Sometimes that empty space was where we thought.

Noticed.

Imagined.

Created.

Figured things out.

And maybe our children need some of that space too.

Does boredom help children become more creative and capable?

We want our kids to make things, grow things, wait for things, mess things up and try again.

We want them to experience what happens when something is difficult and they finally figure it out for themselves.

That moment of realizing:

I did that.

That's how we begin to understand what we're capable of.

It's how children build confidence.

It's how people learn patience.

It's how skills are passed down.

And it's one of the reasons we're becoming more interested in traditional skills, simple living, homeschooling, growing food, making things by hand and raising capable children.

Is convenience bad?

No.

None of this means we're throwing out the washing machine and rejecting every modern invention we own.

Absolutely not.

We like convenience too.

Sometimes convenience genuinely gives us more room to live.

There are times when an electric grain mill makes a whole lot more sense than sitting there turning a hand crank.

There are days when the washing machine is exactly what we need.

The question isn't whether convenience is good or bad.

The question is whether it's helping us live our lives,or slowly replacing our participation in them.

We want convenience to help us live. We don't want convenience to replace our living.

And underneath all of this is something even deeper for us.

Our connection to our families.

Our connection to the earth.

Our connection to our Creator.

Maybe we weren't meant to rush through every ordinary part of life just so we could hurry up and get to the next thing.

Maybe making dinner matters.

Maybe caring for our homes matters.

Maybe sitting outside with a cup of coffee matters.

Maybe tending a garden matters.

Maybe learning a skill mat...

Six months ago, we sat down behind two microphones with an idea.

We thought Womenfolk Revival would be a podcast about slow living, intentional living, natural living, forgotten skills, motherhood, faith, homemaking, ancestral wisdom, and reconnecting with the ways women once lived.

We thought we'd be talking about the revival.

We didn't realize we'd start living it.

In this six-month check-in, we're looking back at where we were when Womenfolk Revival began, what's actually changed in our lives, what we've learned, what we still haven't figured out, and where we're going from here.

And when we really started comparing our lives then to our lives now...we realized a lot more has changed than we thought.

We're cooking more food from scratch. We're learning skills that once intimidated us. Maggie is hand-milling grains, making homemade stock and becoming more comfortable in the kitchen. Meara has moved her family onto acreage, started building the little homestead she'd dreamed about, pulled her kindergartner from online school, and begun homeschooling her children through everyday life.

Breakfast has become a lesson in measuring and math.

Old books have become treasures.

Cooking has become something our children participate in.

Homeschooling has made us rethink what learning actually looks like.

And slowing down has forced us to confront something neither of us expected:

Why are we so uncomfortable doing nothing?

Why do we feel like every minute of our day needs to be productive?

Why does a five-year-old need hours of structured work before we believe she's accomplished enough?

Why do we need to check fifteen things off a list before we believe we've accomplished enough?

Somewhere along the way, modern life taught many of us that being busy means we're doing life right.

But what if it doesn't?

What if slowing down isn't about doing nothing?

What if it's about finally having enough space to notice what we're doing, and decide whether it actually matters?

That's been one of the biggest surprises of this journey.

When Womenfolk Revival began, we thought returning to old ways meant learning traditional skills: making bread, growing food, cooking from scratch, becoming more self-sufficient, reconnecting with nature and remembering knowledge that previous generations took for granted.

Six months later, we're realizing it's much bigger than that.

This isn't about recreating the past. It's about returning to yourself.

It's learning to make something with your hands again.

It's thinking for yourself.

It's raising your children according to what makes sense for your family.

It's reconnecting with your Creator.

It's spending time outside.

It's rebuilding community.

It's questioning the things you've always done simply because everyone else was doing them.

And it's deciding what pieces of modern life you actually want to carry forward.

Because you don't have to become a homesteader.

You don't have to homeschool.

You don't have to mill your own flour, make sourdough, grow every vegetable you eat or throw away every modern convenience.

There isn't one correct way to live a slower, more intentional life.

That's something we've learned from each other too.

We're at completely different stages with different skills. One of us may know something the other hasn't even attempted yet—and the women listening to us undoubtedly know things neither of us has learned.

That's the village.

Womenfolk Revival was never supposed to be two women standing behind microphones telling everyone else how to live.

We're learning too.

We're experimenting.

We're changing our minds.

We're failing at things.

We're laughing about it.

We're trying again.

And we're discovering that some of the things we've spent years searching for weren't actually missing.

They were buried underneath schedules, productivity, convenience, expectations and the constant pressure to keep moving.

Six months ago, we thought we were starting a podcast about women coming back to themselves.

We didn't realize we were going to become part of the story too.

And perhaps that's the biggest thing that's changed.

We don't know exactly where Womenfolk Revival will be six months from now.

We don't have a perfectly mapped-out content plan.

We don't have all the answers.

And we don't want to.

We want to keep meeting women.

Keep asking questions.

Keep learning forgotten skills.

Keep challenging the things we've accepted as normal.

Keep reconnecting with the women who've already joined us around these microphones.

And keep seeing where this revival takes us.

Whether you've been here since our first episode or you're discovering Womenfolk Revival today, we're glad you're here.

This is our six-month check-in.

No giant lesson.

No perfectly packaged transformation.

Just two best friends looking around and realizing...

Wow. We really have changed.

And next week, we're taking this conversation somewhere we have a feeling a lot of women are going to relate to:

When Did Living Become So Much Work? | The Convenience Trap

Because after cooking from scratch, caring for property, homeschooling, making things ourselves and trying to live more intentionally, we've caught ourselves saying:

"This is so much work."

But is it?

Or have we become so accustomed to convenience that normal parts of living now feel like work?

Maybe the goal was never to remove every bit of effort from our lives.

Maybe some of the work...

is the living.

Until next time,

Stay rooted. Stay wild.

Meara + Maggie
 Womenfolk Revival

The Elders Knew Something We Forgot | The Lost Skills Modern Life Left Behind

One day, we're going to be the elders.

And when our children and grandchildren look back, what will they know because they knew us?

Somewhere along the way, generations of knowledge stopped being passed down. Not just the practical things our grandmothers and elders knew how to do, but the stories behind them who taught them, why they did things a certain way, what they learned through hardship, and what they understood about family, land, community, patience, resourcefulness, and simply showing up for one another.

We live in a time when we can ask Google or AI almost anything.

How do I grow this?

How do I preserve that?

How do I make bread?

What plant is this?

And we'll probably get an answer.

But an answer isn't the same thing as inherited knowledge.

A recipe online can't tell you why your grandmother made it, who taught her, what was happening in her family when she learned it, or what she changed during the year the garden didn't produce enough.
Knowledge has a history.

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, Maggie and Meara talk about what our elders knew that many of us were never taught — and why maybe our generation is the one that needs to start learning it again.

Meara shares what she learned simply by watching her mother care for the people she loved: staying beside her husband after a major heart attack, advocating for him, asking questions, paying attention, and later making sure her own mother was cared for after a stroke.

Nobody sat Meara down and said, This is how you care for someone.

She learned because she watched her mother live it.

And that opens a much bigger conversation between Maggie and Meara about caregiving, aging parents, family history, growing food, preserving knowledge, self-reliance, modern convenience, technology, motherhood, and the skills and stories we want our own children and grandchildren to carry forward.

Because this isn't about pretending the past was perfect.

It wasn't.

And it isn't about throwing away modern medicine, technology, washing machines, or everything progress has given us.

It's about asking a different question:

What was worth keeping?

Maybe our elders understood patience because everything wasn't immediate.

Maybe they understood resourcefulness because sometimes there simply wasn't more.

They knew how to stretch food, make something from almost nothing, work with their hands, grow things, wait, tell stories, care for people, and make do with what they had.

And maybe some of the inconveniences we've worked so hard to eliminate were teaching us something.

An aging parent walking slowly through the store.

A little child wanting to help cook when you could do it twice as fast yourself.

Someone who needs you to sit beside them when there's nothing you can do to fix what's happening.

We're obsessed with saving time.

But what are we saving all that time for if we don't have time for each other?

Maybe some of the things we've been calling interruptions to life are actually life.

And as Maggie realizes during this conversation, eventually there isn't going to be an older person there to ask.

It has to become us.

If nobody taught us, maybe we become the women who relearn it, so our children don't have to start from zero.

So instead of only asking:

What am I going to leave my children?

We're asking:

What am I leaving IN my children?

What will they know because they knew us?

What stories will they remember?

What will their hands know how to do?

Who will they know how to care for?

And someday, when one of our children or grandchildren is asked, “How did you know that?”

Maybe they'll be able to say:

“Someone I loved taught me.”

In This Episode

Maggie and Meara talk about:

• Generational knowledge and the wisdom of our elders
• Forgotten and disappearing traditional skills
• What our grandmothers knew that many of us weren't taught
• Caring for aging parents and showing up for family
• Learning by watching the women who came before us
• Family stories and preserving the history behind what we know
• Gardening, growing food, homemaking, and practical skills
• Self-reliance without rejecting modern life
• Google and AI versus lived and inherited knowledge
• Patience, resourcefulness, and learning to make do
• Why convenience isn't always the same thing as progress
• Raising children who know how to care, create, grow, and provide
• Becoming the elders our children and grandchildren will someday remember
• What it really means to leave a legacy

Join the Womenfolk Revival Community

Come continue the conversation with us in the Womenfolk Revival Facebook Community.

We're building a space for women who want to live more intentionally, relearn what was worth keeping, share what we're learning, and pass something meaningful forward.

Womenfolk Revival Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1ZsSWdug6T/

If this episode made you think of another woman, send it to her.

And if you've been coming back to listen with us each week, follow Womenfolk Revival on your favorite podcast platform, like the episode, and share the show.

Coming Next Week

Somehow, it has already been six months since we started Womenfolk Revival.

Next week, we're sitting down for something a little different:

Where We Are Now | Six Months of Womenfolk Revival

Where were we when we started?

Where are we now?

What's changed in our lives?

What have we learned?

What did we think Womenfolk Revival was going to be, and what has it actually become?

And where are we going from here?

No big lesson. Just the two of us sitting down six months later and talking about where this whole thing has taken us.

Stay rooted. Stay wild.

The Quieter You Become, The More You Notice

We spend our lives trying to find ourselves while filling nearly every quiet moment with someone else's voice.

So what happens when we finally turn down the noise and listen?

In this episode of Women Folk Revival, we talk about something that can happen when you begin slowing down and becoming quieter: you start noticing everything.

You notice how distracted people have become. How often people aren't really listening to one another. How quickly we respond before we've even understood what someone is saying. How much rushing, reacting, opinions, phones, and constant stimulation have become such a normal part of everyday life that we don't even realize how loud it has become.

And sometimes, once you become quieter yourself, everyone else's noise suddenly feels a whole lot louder.

Meara opens up about how this has been showing up in her own life, including a recent interaction where she felt like she had explained something clearly, only to realize the person on the other end wasn't actually hearing what she was saying. It was frustrating. It was a trigger. And it would have been very easy to keep pushing, keep explaining, and let that frustration take over.

Instead, she stopped.

Not because it didn't bother her.

Not because she suddenly became perfectly peaceful.

But because she's learning something that is much harder than simply slowing down:

Noticing something doesn't mean you have to respond to it.

That realization becomes a much bigger conversation about what happens when we stop reacting to everything around us.

We don't have to fix everything we notice.

We don't have to make everyone understand us.

We don't have to have an opinion about everything.

And we don't have to allow someone else's frustration, distraction, or chaos to follow us into the rest of our day.

But that doesn't mean we never get irritated.

We are human.

We still have triggers. We still have bad days. We still get annoyed when someone isn't listening, when someone misunderstands us, or when something seems completely obvious to us and somehow isn't to someone else.

The difference is learning to recognize what is happening inside of us before we react.

Sometimes the most peaceful thing we can do is simply notice it, take a breath, and let it be.

We also talk about what happens when becoming quieter allows you to see yourself more clearly.

Because slowing down doesn't just make you notice other people.

It makes you notice yourself.

You may start noticing how tired you really are. What isn't working in your life anymore. What you've been tolerating. What brings you joy. What you've been missing. Your creativity. Your intuition. Your relationship with your Creator. Your relationships with the people closest to you.

And sometimes that can be uncomfortable.

When you finally become quiet enough to hear yourself, you may discover that you're not exactly who you thought you were.

But that can be a gift.

Because once you can see yourself honestly, you can actually begin to change.

We also talk about community and how much harder it can be to give people grace when we've become disconnected from one another. When we don't know the people around us, it's easy to assume the worst. We don't know what someone is carrying. We don't know what happened before they walked into the room. We don't know what kind of day they're having.

And sometimes choosing not to react isn't about letting someone "win."

It's about choosing your own peace.

It's about remembering that you can see someone's chaos without stepping into it.

Because there is a difference between noticing and judging.

There is a difference between being present and becoming hyper-aware of everything everyone else is doing wrong.

We don't want slowing down to turn into another form of chaos.

We want it to give us the ability to choose.

To pause.

To listen.

To notice.

And then decide what actually deserves our energy.

Maybe peace isn't about never being bothered.

Maybe peace is being able to say:

This bothered me. And I'm still okay.

As we become quieter, we may begin seeing things we didn't see before. We may notice the distractions, the rushing, the constant noise, and even the ways we've participated in it ourselves.

But we don't have to carry everything we notice.

Sometimes we can simply see it, take a breath, and come back to our own lives.

And maybe that's what we're really learning to do.

Not escape the noise.

Not make the whole world slow down.

Just learn how to live our lives without letting all of that noise pull us out of them.

So the next time something gets under your skin, pause before you respond.

Take a breath.

And ask yourself:

Does this actually need me?

Because sometimes...

it doesn't.

And that's okay.

Next week on Women Folk Revival, we're going a little deeper into something we've been thinking about since we started slowing down: the things our elders knew how to do that we weren't always taught.

The knowledge that used to be passed from one generation to the next.

The skills that were part of everyday life.

The wisdom we may have lost because we stopped practicing it, stopped teaching it, or simply stopped paying attention.

Because maybe some of the things we're searching for today aren't new at all.

Maybe our elders already knew.

The elders knew something we forgot.

Come join us in our Women Folk Revival Facebook community and continue the conversation with us.

Facebook community page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/www.womenfolkrevival.transistor.fm/

Stay rooted and stay wild.

Returning to Your Creator | What If You Don't Have to Leave Your Life Behind?

What if returning to your Creator doesn't mean leaving your everyday life behind?

In this episode of Womenfolk Revival, we talk about what happens when we begin to slow down enough to notice the Creator in the life we're already living. The dishes. The garden. Our children. A quiet cup of tea. A meal at the table. The ordinary moments we so often rush right past.

Maggie and Meara talk about the growing disconnect between modern life and the natural world, how busy and distracted we've become, and why reconnecting with our Creator doesn't have to mean checking another box on the calendar.

We talk about gratitude, intention, prayer, nature, putting the phone down, being present with our families, and remembering that returning doesn't have to be a huge life-changing moment. Sometimes it's simply stopping for a breath and remembering.

You don't have to have everything figured out.

You don't have to change your entire life overnight.

Sometimes, you just have to slow down enough to notice what's already there.

Because maybe we were never meant to choose between the Creator's world and our own.

Maybe we've been living in His world all along.

In this episode, we talk about:
• Reconnecting with our Creator in everyday life
• Why modern life can leave us feeling disconnected
• Finding God in nature and ordinary moments
• Gratitude and daily remembrance
• Slowing down and becoming more intentional
• Creating moments of prayer and gratitude with our children
• Putting the phone down and being present
• Reconnecting with family, community, and the natural world
• Why change doesn't have to happen overnight
• Learning to live with more intention, one small step at a time

If this conversation resonates with you, subscribe and follow Womenfolk Revival on your favorite podcast app and come join our Facebook community.

Facebook Community Page
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BttLY7Q9p/

Stay rooted. Stay wild.