Well here we are at the start of another year. The clear crisp blue skies of January are both a blessing and a time for reflection on all we experienced last year. For our family 2022 was about growth, survival, hard work and witnessing God’s full circle of humanity take place. Of course there were many blessings during the time in-between, lots of celebrations both for our family and as witnesses to our clients big milestone moments.
I believe that’s my favorite part of the New Year, it's a time to both set new goals for the coming year and reflect on how our last year went. There is a power in both. Upon reflection we can see the big picture. We can see why we pursued certain goals and the deep driving force that was behind them that created a powerful reason to keep going. Meanwhile, this time of reflection also shows our blind spots and reveals where other goals fell away to make room for more important ones to grow. I can see the joy and the pain, the euphoria and the grief, it’s all part of the journey.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “To every thing is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones , and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
This past year I have been reading my way through the old testament and still have a bit to go, but this scripture stood out. Some of these verses sang through our year more than others, in particular A time to be born and a time to die really sang its song in 2022. Throughout most of our summer season my Grandma Joyce fought off heart failure until August 12th when she relinquished the fight and went into the arms of the lord. If any of you have ever stayed at the Lady or been to one of her events then you probably saw one of my Grandma Joyce’s many paintings scattered throughout our 3 floors. Not even 3 weeks later my nephew Fred Lawerence was born and my cousin Will was married. We experienced the full circle of humanity within only a couple weeks,but it felt like a couple quick breaths. It happened so fast. It was quite something to live through, however God wasn’t quite done. My Grandpa Bill followed my Grandma Joyce on October 15th, a little over 2 months after her passing. I am rediscovering once again that humanity is not for the weak of heart, but to say good-bye to these two in 2022 has truly been the hardest thing. So I have been quiet for a long while. Our Instagram page stayed quiet and all we could do throughout the season was focus on our work, breath and survive by God’s grace. Sometimes that is all you can do when faced with losing your loved ones. By now grief is an old friend of mine and time it's great soulmate. What I find amazing is when living through so much sorrow it is also coupled with much joy of new life and love. Through this experience I realized the ultimate test of life is to witness it, witness the fragility, but also the amount of resilient strength it takes to keep living through every milestone God throws at us.
Personally, as I look back I can see why pursuing my health and the healing of many underlining things lead me down so many positive paths of healing in 2022. This past year I am thankful I remained dedicated to my health and searching for tools to better allow me to fight off life’s stresses that come in all the physical and mental forms. For many years prior to Covid I lived in my own Ms. Busy world and I was good at it, but it takes its toll and sometimes the best time we can spend is in the reset of our own health and lifestyles. That has been a compass for me the last couple years, but 2022 was definitely a year of dedication toward health.
One of the most important things I learned is that when you take on any goal, especially the hard ones like your health, it's all about the team of people you surround yourself with to help you stay accountable on your journey. My team was primarily made up of my nutritionist/chiropractor, my local chiropractor and my sports chiropractor. All three use different methods, but all worked wonders when put together. Primarily, my biggest accountability coach was my nutritionist/chiropractor. Over a year ago I started seeing my nutritionist and she started muscle testing me for what areas of the body came up as priorities and which types of Standard Processing vitamins I needed to utilize. Every 2-6 weeks just depending on the session and how my body was responding, I would be muscle tested and have a new vitamin protocol created.
Some people might think this is intense and I have to say it has been, but that’s what our health is, it is intense and constantly changing. My nutritionist calls it the onion, each visit shows a different level of the onion. Sometimes it will show things you had a reaction too long ago in your life ring or sometimes it's a recent reaction, you never know, but the goal is to clear each ring of the onion to better allow your body to heal and fight new diseases as they come. The hard part is accepting each diet change, accomplishing it, taking your 3 a day supplements and coming back for more. Throughout my journey I have had to do a yeast cleansing diet, quit drinking coffee, go gluten-free, avoid certain metals or foods, do a liver gallbladder cleanse and just recently avoid a long list of foods with a 6 ring carbon make up. Being up for the mental challenge of accepting each change as it comes has been hard at different points on the journey especially at the beginning of each new challenge, but it has been extremely worth every second because I feel so much better.
As I look back at 2022 I can say how important it was for me to spend the time and money with my nutritionist because she was a strong accountability coach that was fighting for my health and that is no small thing. So if health and deep healing is a goal of yours in 2023 do yourself a favor and find a great team of health professionals that can help you.
Looking back on 2022 the Lady Florence was a thriving place to be with 12 large weddings, 15 Full House/Room Rentals and 8 Special Events! It was a joy to witness so many lovely couples say their “I do’s” at the lady, see their families celebrate in her backyard and party under the stars. We hosted clients that held yoga retreats, business retreats, music camps, school reunions, funerals, retirement parties, and a Hogwarts themed Halloween Party, so if you're local and looking for a great place to host your special event give us a call! It's always fun to see the variety of events that come together at the Lady Florence, no matter the size when it's during our PNW spring, summer and fall. And as always we love to offer the venue as a full house stay to families vacationing in the area or locals looking for a family reunion space on VRBO and Airbnb or privately through our website.
Our todo list was large last year to accomplish all of these lovely events, our days were filled with lots of hard work, cleaning, maintaining, watering, edging, mowing, weeding, raking, and let’s not forget power washing! We are so thankful for the many hands that help us around Lady Florence from my siblings, Audrey, her husband Roger Andrew, his wife Karmen, Grace and Dan to our professional cleaner Tracy and of course my mom, Elizabeth, it truly takes a village. This past year we also started offering licensed bartenders and servers and were so thankful for all of their hard work at a number of our events. 2022 was one of our biggest years yet as a venue and we look forward to hosting more events and rentals throughout the 2023 season and serving the greater Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and King county areas!
~Looking forward to 2023~
This year after many years of saying “I am going to start blogging this year!” This is really the year lord willing I start blogging. In the past when wishfully I made that declaration somehow other life goals and todos took control and I flew off in another direction, perhaps because I wasn’t ready or perhaps it just was not the time. So, one of my big goals this year is to start writing in multiple ways and one large way is to show up each week here on our Lady Florence page with a blog for the week. Look for it on Wednesdays!
As a family I am sure we will find ourselves neck deep in many unplanned projects, just you wait!!;-) That's the life of an old house: it makes demands or maintenance lists and we go around finding new things we can do to make the checklist more fun. On the top of my head we might get to changing our paint trim color, reorganizing all of our outbuildings, rehabbing our barn and possibly redoing our rental. And that’s a small list for us. What we know for sure is that we will be taking you on the journey and having good quality fun as a family!
Alongside my weekly blog, we are striving to continue to create some more written works and dedicate some serious time to telling our story and seeing it get out into the world :-) So look for more updates and maybe even some sneak peeks this year. In many ways we are looking to evolve our brand and mission beyond simply offering our guests a place to call home. This year we are striving to start providing products that carry our signature historic charm, high quality experience and memorable comfort, but add in a new look at our family, interests, projects and more behind the scenes at the Lady Florence. On the event calendar side of 2023 we have lots of ideas brewing for various local events we could start offering on a yearly basis. We have been exploring the idea of starting to offer mystery dinner nights during the fall and winter season, a Pizza/Beer Garden with live music in the summer, tea party events for Mother’s Day and Christmas time and a Santa’s workshop/picture event in December. If any or all of these events sound good to you, reach out on Facebook, Instagram or email us. We are looking to gauge community interest and see which events should be added to our calendars in the near future! Super excited for all the new creative endeavors we have in the works and cannot wait to share more as we progress through 2023.
Hopefully not all my blogs will be mini novels, but I offer no promises! Wishing you a glorious 2023 and remember to look towards the light because it’s always there to guide you.
Best wishes,
Amy Christanson and the rest of the
Christianson Clan!