Grounded in the Middle.

Hi there! Thank you for joining me today in the middle. Today's podcast is a bit unique as I'm unscripted and sharing openly with you the latest hurdle of this old house and how I'm trying to reach a point of understanding through it all.  {Let's Connect} Find me on Instagram @farmhouse storyteller Visit my website www.farmhousestoryteller.com {Let's collaborate} Email Danielle Foulk at...

Have you ever gone to a chain restaurant before and it wasn’t very good? Maybe you tried it a second time and went to a different location, but it wasn’t any better? I’m guessing, unless you’re really forgiving and optimistic, you likely never returned to the chain restaurant again. So often we take our experiences we have in life and let it dictate their place in our lives in the future. Bad rest...

Have any of you made any goals for cleaning out the basement or maybe that pesky linen closet where more than linens are crammed and is likely where that missing birthday present you hid was swallowed up. Or maybe it’s time to purge and organize the dreaded Tupperware cupboard that has turned into a daily game of Jenga? While I have tried to become more cognizant about what I hold on to and what I...

Hi there! And welcome back to another episode of grounded in the middle.  Today I have a confession to make. When I was about 13 years old, I became a Golden Girls fan and I believe it’s when I figured out I was in fact a bit of an old soul. I still remember waking up in a hotel room while vacationing with my family on my birthday and turning on the Golden Girls in the morning. My dad gave me...

After taking some time off during the holidays, it feels good to be back sharing small moments from out here in the middle of nowhere that help keep me a bit more rooted each day in what sometimes feels  a bit topsy turvy.   During the break, my husband, Aaron shared with me  from an account on Instagram, @farmranchlife, that said, “You wouldn’t plant a seed and then dig it up every few minutes to...

It’s hard to believe we are at the top of Christmas week, and I am sure most of us have a list of some kind that is made of all the things that need to be accomplished before this Friday. I hope that today’s podcast will be a way in which you are able to keep the Christmas spirit by learning about why we engage in certain Christmas traditions each year as well as learn about some of the most popul...

Can you believe we are already to the middle of December and only about two weeks out from Christmas day?  I don’t always say it every year, but this month has gone by considerably faster than years past. Maybe it’s because with every year that passes our lives are different than the previous or that our Calendars are a little more or less full. I’m not sure, but I’m to the point where there...

Hello there! Thank you for joining me today out here in the middle!  This morning I asked my children in carline what I should share about on the podcast and my son belted out from the back seat, “why don’t you write about all the unfinished projects around the house, like the bathroom upstairs. “He then went on to list the other things that need to be addressed around our 184-year-old house. I’ll...

I know the holidays are branded as the happiest time of the year, but for many people, it’s one of the most difficult. For some, holidays serve as permeant place cards within their year found on every wall calendar to phone calendar making it nearly impossible to completely avoid. Not to mention how stores these days seem to have the next holiday retail items up for sale before the current holiday...

While I may be guilty of putting my Christmas décor up before Thanksgiving, which I’ve never done before, I have found that it hasn’t interrupted my train of thoughts when it comes to all thing’s turkey. For a matter of fact, I have found that with the excitement to pull out the red and green I have a felt more of a shift in my focus on our family. From reminiscing of those warm summer days togeth...

Hey there! Welcome back to another episode of Grounded in the Middle. Do you ever think about your future self? When I was younger I thought about my future self all the time, but at some point in adulthood I quit thinking about what I wanted to do in the future and I have found myself in a valley trying to climb my way up to where I would like to be. This time though, I want the climb to be diffe...

With November here and Thanksgiving only week’s away I have began to reflect and take inventory on all the fun we’ve had this summer but also how much we have to be thankful for this year being able to kind of get back to some normalcy. One thing that stands out to me from this summer is our family vacation to the outer banks now this trip was extra special because we were able to make a stop at a...

Hey there everyone! With the holidays quickly approaching, gathering with friends and family is an innate thing to do but what if we were more intentional about gathering throughout the year and not just at the holiday? And what if you even gathered with people whom you’ve never met before? Today I’ll be sharing some stories of how I have observed others gathering unexpectedly as well as times I h...

Hey there everyone and welcome back to another podcast of Grounded in the Middle. I’m Danielle Foulk your host and today my friend Dawn Kendrick from Cleveland Ohio is joining me out here in the middle for the first time to share how we met over a tweet that Chip Gaine’s posted during the pandemic and how together we have found common ground through our storytelling that moves us forward in our pu...

Hi there everyone and welcome back to another episode of Grounded in the Middle.  Today I’m going to be sharing my thoughts with you around how we create ripple effects in each of our days and how those ripple effects impact those we go through life we as well as those we merely interact with for a moment.

Hi there everyone! Welcome back to another episode of grounded in the middle. Today I’m going to be sharing how living out here in the middle has limited our ability to participate in the sport of social media scroll and click and how I’ve realized we’ve been able to engage in more meaningful conversations that have revealed dreams, cleared up misunderstandings, led to good discussions and heart t...

Hi there everybody and welcome back to another episode of Grounded in the Middle. For those of you who have been tuning in since the beginning thank you for your listenership and for the encouraging messages and review. For those who may be new to Grounded in the middle, welcome! I am thrilled to have you listen in to todays podcast that focuses on being intentional as we move into a new season an...

Well hello there! Thank you for stopping by and listening in! Do you ever find yourself getting lost in the simplicity of the past? You know the “good old days” before responsibility came into view or how about all those TV shows you watched repeatedly and could probably still recite lines from today? While it’s often difficult to find simplicity in our present lives as adults, the nostalgia of ye...

Hey there everyone!  How often do you find yourself thinking about what’s ahead of you just as much as what’s right in front of you? Sure most of us hold a calendar of some kind, but have you ever found yourself so over scheduled that life has just become a series of boxes that you’re just check marking? And what happens when the busy in life doesn’t stop. When you have gotten so used to bein...

Hey there!  Do you ever find yourself day dreaming?  Is it a reoccurring daydream or is it something new every time?  Today, I’m going to share with you some of the dreams I’ve dreamt up since moving out here to the middle and some of the surprises I have received that I could have never seen coming.

Hey there friend! Thank you for joining me again out here in the middle! Over the past month, I have ran into an acquaintances, an old friend from high school, and a gal I met at the soccer field at our kid’s game and they all had one thing in common, they were willing to do something different when it came to their careers but they all had their own approach. Today I’ll be sharing what I’ve learn...

With these hot summer days lingering in the Ohio Valley, I’ve found my thoughts drifting into the memories of winter which led to me reminiscing of the snowiest winters we had when we first moved into our farmhouse in January of 2018 which was full of many unexpected events. Today I'm going to be chatting about what it was like our first month in our fixer upper farmhouse and how the journey wasn'...

Hello from out here in the middle (of nowhere)! Have you ever stepped back and reflected on your past and noticed how a series of events lead you to where you are today? Or maybe you made a decision that changed your trajectory? Today I’m going to sharing a few stories of experiences I’ve had out here in the middle and how I’ve not only discovered a bit more about myself, but also some stories of...

Have you ever had a gut feeling you couldn't ignore? In 2017, I no longer could ignore this feeling that it was time for us to move. But where? After a summer of aimlessly driving around, my gut feeling led us to our new adventure which left our newbuild home in suburbia behind and set us out to explore life in an old farmhouse in the country. In this episode, I'll share the events that led us out...

Hi there! Thank you for joining me today. This podcast is a brief story of how I said good-bye to "normal" three years ago and how author Laura Story's new book, So Long, Normal , has been helpful in navigating the past and helpful in how I can move forward in the days grounded out here in the middle.  This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thefederalfarmhouse.com/2021/08/25/so...