Anyone who knows us knows that we have been "building a house" for about two years now. And with the exception of many ideas, hundreds of pins, and pages of graph paper sketches, we have nothing to show for it. Ask either one of us and we'll give you that drawn out "weeellllll" and the look that says, "we-have-no-idea-how-this-is-ever-going-to-happen."
We moved into our current house as a 5-7 year plan until we were ready to move to the farm. That was almost 12 years ago. But the truth is, we've been really content here. We love our neighbors. We love our neighbors' kids, we love our house and floor plan, we love that the school bus comes to our front door, we love the proximity to Target (well that part may be just me).
But it is time.
It is time to raise the kids on the farm. It's time to watch planting and harvest from our front yard. It's time to stop responding, "Well, yes we are farmers, but we don't actually live on the farm." I need a closer commute for Aaron's lunch delivery. Aaron needs a hot cup of coffee and dry set of clothes within reach. And the kids need to soak up all the good stuff farm kids soak up: how to care for animals well, how to work with the willpower it takes until the job is done, how to smell fresh country air because it reminds you of home, how to look out on newly green fields or ripe golden crops to see beauty, and mud. They need to know how to soak up mud like it is their birthright: the ground from which they came. And they need to learn that being the hands, feet, and sweat of one of God's most basic Provisions (i.e. milk) is a GIFT.
So it's time.
I've been ready. But now it seems that God and Aaron are ready too… So we begin... this new, unique, awe-provoking act of worship.
We're building a house!
We moved into our current house as a 5-7 year plan until we were ready to move to the farm. That was almost 12 years ago. But the truth is, we've been really content here. We love our neighbors. We love our neighbors' kids, we love our house and floor plan, we love that the school bus comes to our front door, we love the proximity to Target (well that part may be just me).
But it is time.
It is time to raise the kids on the farm. It's time to watch planting and harvest from our front yard. It's time to stop responding, "Well, yes we are farmers, but we don't actually live on the farm." I need a closer commute for Aaron's lunch delivery. Aaron needs a hot cup of coffee and dry set of clothes within reach. And the kids need to soak up all the good stuff farm kids soak up: how to care for animals well, how to work with the willpower it takes until the job is done, how to smell fresh country air because it reminds you of home, how to look out on newly green fields or ripe golden crops to see beauty, and mud. They need to know how to soak up mud like it is their birthright: the ground from which they came. And they need to learn that being the hands, feet, and sweat of one of God's most basic Provisions (i.e. milk) is a GIFT.
So it's time.
I've been ready. But now it seems that God and Aaron are ready too… So we begin... this new, unique, awe-provoking act of worship.
We're building a house!