Not that I even imagined 15 years ago that I would be working in a factory. 15 years ago, I was preparing for the" rest of my life"... I was going to college! I was an art major. I had big dreams of becoming an animator for Disney! I actually had connections! So I took off to fulfill my dreams.
Fast forward through the struggles of college: being away from mom and dad for the first time in your LIFE, parties, friends all the time, HARD classes that have NO relevancy to your major, horrible diet, BOYFRIEND.... Ah. Let's put the breaks on here. I met the perfect man after my first year in college, while I was working at home during the summer. FAST FORWARD... that man is my husband.
Marriage happens. Pure happiness.
God in my life, for real this time. Not just KNOWING there was a god, but knowing He was GOD.
Baby boy number 1, now I'm a mother and a stay-at-home mom! Baby boy number 2, I can't believe I have 2 boys. My mom had 4 girls and 1 boy. My mother-in-law had 2 girls and 1 boy. I have 2!!! Sell the first home of our new little family, find out I am pregnant with baby number 3. First broken bone (boy #2). Move. Baby boy number 3. ANOTHER BOY! Broken bone #2 (again on boy #2). Move again. Broken bone #3 (AGAIN on boy #2).
OK. Stop the fast forward... We had now moved into a home that needed LOTS of work and even more love. This time, we had 10 acres, and a barn. We had just looked at the space for the boys to run! We did in fact have 3 boys! Soon after that, you guessed it. Baby. BOY baby. 4 boys. What ARE the chances?! God must really want us to have boys!
Back to being a farmer... It started with a dog. Then some chickens and guineas. Loved this. During the second winter, several chickens died. Problem? Open Barn, wind swept straight through and froze them. We worked on repairing the old barn. And decided to get more chickens. Then since we had a nicer barn, how about something COOL. Like a heritage breed! That's when we got our Jacob sheep...
Wait.
Now look at me. This morning I was in the barn at 7am, the sun is shining... Last night I DREAMED of planting the rest of my garden. LITERALLY. I smell like the barn as I type. I probably will for a little longer because I am going back out to the garden. I'm not even a FAN of the smell. I have POOP on my boots!!!
Wait. I can't believe I go from dreams of Disney, to a small farm in the Midwest. I dreamed of a beautiful home in Florida, and now I have a nice farm house and a baby goat that thinks he's a dog....
Some days, I just MARVEL at where God takes us. People talk about their lives and where they have been, and sometimes where He ends up taking us is NOT where we thought we would ever be!
I HATE dirt under my finger nails! THERE! I said it! I am a girly-girl. I love to be clean. I like to have cute clothes. I don't like poop, or dirt, or snot, or WORK! I am, by nature, very lazy. I would LOVE to sleep until 9 or 10 am! AH!
So HOW is it that I LOVE being a farmer?
I have gardening gloves. :)
I want more than a life of laziness. Laziness produces nothing. Laziness doesn't feed my family. Some people "don't have time" to have a garden or to raise a few chickens. For MOST people, time has nothing to do with it. It has EVERYTHING to do with priorities. If my priority is to sleep, I WILL get 10-12 hours of sleep! (Imagine!) If my priority is to watch TV, and then feed my family from the drive thru.... that's probably EXACTLY what I will do!
But I want my husband to be blessed. I want my children to be healthy. I want to pass along a good example. I want the Lord to tell me when I enter His gates, "well done...".
So I work beyond my laziness, and I make priorities.
I love putting on those muddy, poopy boots because I love going to the barn and seeing all of those animals that produce food for us. I love gathering the warm eggs. I love pulling warm loaves of bread from the oven. I love when my boys say that my food is good! I love when my husband doesn't have to work so hard, because I worked a little harder.
I love being a farmer. Well, a small scale farmer. And I have set even more priorities. My garden I have BIG plans for... I have plans for the animals too.
Having a small farm is a choice for us. It is not the obvious path of some uneducated Midwesterners. You actually DO need to be educated to decide you aren't going to feed your children the JUNK that supermarkets sell. You aren't going to be happy with the statistics of 1 out of 3 children born after the year 2000 having Diabetes (from Food, Inc. the movie). I am not satisfied with genetically altered seeds, Roundup sprayed on my Roundup ready FOOD. I am NOT satisfied with my hamburger being washed in Ammonia. I will not be a lab rat. I will not allow my children to be lab rats either!
THAT is my priority. THAT is why I have a small farm. That is why I will continue to make priorities, and WORK. I will take one thing at a time, one CHANGE at a time to make my family's lives better. I have a LONG way to go, but my priority is change... Changing back to how God intended.
What are YOU making time for? What are YOUR priorities??? How are you changing your lives for the better?
I would LOVE to hear how you are changing things! Please share what priorities you are making!
6 comments:
Absolutely fantastic post! Well said. When people find out about our homeschooling, gardening, and farming and everything else we do...they usually ask my why I even bother. "What is the point?" they say. I get so frustrated and end up not being able to explain anything at all. Thank you for putting it all down in words for me!!
We want you to keep blogging!!! It is such an encouragement to me. I know it is to others as well.
Our changes: as of 1 week ago, we got 5 chicks. By August, we should have eggs.
We choose organic when we can and buy our grains in bulk.
Wwe joined a food co-op.
Got rid of our cable (kid watch much less junk now) about 2 years ago.
Homeschooling this year (my oldest-pre-school)
Green kefir smoothies almost every day
I freeze my own food for the nights when cooking is just unbearable, to eliminate the convienience isle.
We just moved to a 6 acre parcel. In June a barn will go up. We have dairy goats(we make cheese and soap) and chickens. Planning to have turkeys,rabbits and maybe a hair-type sheep. I have 12 fruit trees on my porch waiting to be planted along with raspberries, grapes, blackberries, loganberries, elderberries and the like. Big plans for a garden if I can ever figure out the seasons in this state.Greenhouse planned for next year.
It seems an overwhelming task at this point, starting over on a bigger plot of land in a new state. But I think it'll be worth it to my kids. We've homeschooled since they were Kindergarten, so this just seems like a new project to them. I'm somewhat of a city girl, so this seems like a huge shift to me!-- Serenity in CO--
Well I was in my garden for about 8 hours today!!!!
We've got chicks and bees now!! I'm getting rid of anything "boxed" at our house!!! Hubby is even pop free (except for pizza night!) It's so exciting!!
When we're out of something, I love thinking "how can I make this instead of buying it"!!! It's really turing into a major hobby!
Like you said baby steps., or I could really get crazy....
Nice post!!
Over from Homestead Revival... and love this post.
Our most recent move was very, very deliberate. To an outside job that will provide opportunity for us to be close to work, but still able to have some amount of land. We've been here 2 weeks, and I'm working on my garden. I loved(hated the implications)the movie Food Inc. because it uncovered things I 'knew' very clearly. and now I'm on a quest in my new hometown to make our life simple, healthy, Godly. I'm looking forward to a simple garden this year, and maybe, just maybe some chickens.
I really enjoyed your post- so nice to hear how others made it to similar life experiences, 2 boys at our house, and I love to sew.. lol God must really appreciate irony. :)
What a wonderfully written post! I live in a bigger city in the SF Bay Area, but decided that I wasn’t going to let the size of my yard deter me from planting a kitchen garden. I currently have 21 different fruits, vegetables and herbs planted…. From corn, carrots, and tomatoes… to sage, thyme, and rosemary ….. to strawberries, cantaloupe, pumpkin and watermelon! I want my daughter to grow up knowing what real food is… and where it comes from! After watching Food Inc. and reading Real Food by Nina Planck… I know even stronger in my heart that what I’m doing for my family is best! We are in the process of switching to organic where we can afford to, we have signed up for a CSA, we’ve placed our order for Grass-Fed beef from a local rancher and my daughter and I bake all our sandwich bread and bagels. I’m so glad that I’ve found blogs like yours which keep me inspired, give me new ideas, and motivate me!
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