When The Mood Strikes...

I don't think I can tell you the exact moment that we decided to take on this little venture of ours. It is something, that in one way or another, we have talked about for as long as we have been spending time together. When we worked together (yes, I am that girl that was dating her boss.. oops?) we always talked about how we could make things better for people! We just wanted to create an environment where the people we worked with could be themselves and feel safe from all of the big bad things that were happening outside of those 4 walls. These weren't little things, these were pandemic and riot things. These were threats against the safety of ourselves and others. We had mall shootings and threats that brought heavily armed officers into our place of work to "clear" it on more than one occasion. There were nights I sent people home with notes for being out past curfew. None of us really knew what the hell was going on. We just tried to do the best we could with what we had. We did not always succeed. We tried, and it broke our hearts when we failed, but we always tried.

We were working with amazing people who were barely 18 at

the time. I don't think anyone was ready for 2020. I don't think anyone has really recovered from covid, politics, ugh the politics and what they brought along with them... The riots!! Let's face it, this world that we live in has its challenges! It seems fairly reasonable that a couple of 30 somethings that worked too much and both had much bigger dreams for their future would fall in love, move to a new (and old) city together and through illness, time apart, stupid arguments, common ground, an amazing support systems (seriously, we have THE very best family), and a sometimes unimaginable amount in belief in one another would find a way that they could do one tiny thing to try and make the world a better place. Well, here we are, and this little dream of ours, IS our tiny little thing! We have such big dreams for what this dream of ours can become. But the work comes first!

We have learned so much, so many things that we thought we knew, that we were 100% wrong about. Like all good things, Leafy is a work in progress. We are a work in progress! We are doing as much of the work on this project as possible and saving things such as, getting our electric set up to the pros. This comes with silly fights that we will (likely) laugh at one day, and perfect days spent together building our Leafy Dream!

Sometimes I look at the amount of work we have left and get wildly overwhelmed that we are so far behind, and then I remember that we brought this baby home 11 days ago!! 11 days!! In 2 weeks we have learned how to create and obtain a LLC and domain name, build a website and set up social media accounts for our business (although, I did manage to lock us out of our Linkedin account for the moment), bring home the container farm needed for us to build our business, remove all 250 towers to sanitize along with the entire inside of the container, looking for anything with the interior and/or exterior that may need to be repaired, getting basic design ideas, stabilized and added a railing to a platform and stairs, which was, in a very real way, we put in so that our nieces and nephews would have a hand rail that was perfectly suited for them (which has been inspected and approved by our local favorite almost 3 year old), as well as started prep for them to be stained. Paint has been picked, SEEDS have been picked, electric is coming in, we are getting ready to start work on the towers to reinstall them into the container... Things are going 1000 miles an hour at Leafy Dreams and sometimes we have to take a moment to remember that at some point we decided, together, that the mood had in fact struck, that our time was NOW, and that we weren't going to let anything stop us from providing our community with the very best homegrown Iowa greens. We are the kind of people that love to feed people! We love hosting dinners and gatherings for our family and friends. Food is a part of our "love language" if you will, and providing the best possible food for the people we love the most is our way of sharing that love. I may or may not have just the tiniest bit of hopeless romantic in me (although those that truly know me are likely laughing), for whatever the

reason may be, I do believe that there is still a little bit of magic left. I have seen too many good things in the midst of all of the bad that this life has to offer to believe anything less. I do believe that sometimes the right people, the right mindset, the right team, or just the right chance, can be all of the difference. I believe that if you find the person that believes in you with the same amount of cray that you believe in them, and the two of you know you can go up against life's hardest punches together, you have a responsibility to give a little bit of that magic back to the world! When chance happens, and you find your moment when the mood strikes just right, grab it! Go after it with every drop of energy you have left! When you lose faith in yourself look to your partner and know that they will keep you going!

As with everything truly good in life, keep fighting, keep learning, keep growing, grow together. Grow your community, surround yourself with the people that push you to be better, the people that believe in you! If the mood strikes, CLAIM IT!

#peaceloveandleafydreams

until next time,

Stay Leafy :)

Amy