Where It All Began

In my last post I mentioned sharing more about our homesteading story. But before I talk about our journey after we moved I have to take it a step back to where it all began. We can all go to a point in time where change was birthed in our lives. Our journey wasn't derived from a tragic event, or a huge life changing moment. Ours began from something a little more random- a food documentary. In early 2013 we were browsing through Netflix and a documentary about our broken food system caught our interest. It was called Food, Inc. At that time we had been married ten years and our boys were 7, 6, 5 and 2- and we were in survival mode.

We were in the thick of toddler-hood and early elementary years. Life was a tornado and we lived off of fast convenience foods, especially ones appealing to picky eaters- "chicken" in fun kids shapes, blue box neon orange colored mac and cheese and nitrate filled mixed-meat hot dogs and lots of packaged snack foods. I remember feeling like we were drowning in the busyness of life with four young children so close in age. I was doing all I could just to keep them all alive and clean and fed at that point! For the past three years we were catching every cold and stomach bug going around school and then passing it back and forth within our family. This meant numerous doctor visits, antibiotics, over counter meds for everything and breathing treatments. We even had a hospital stay from a case of RSV when our youngest was a month old, and treatment for pneumonia with another. We were literally sick and tired of being sick and tired! 

After watching this documentary we realized we weren't making the best choices for our children or ourselves. The information opened our eyes to the fact that the quality of our food was affecting the quality of our health. I was interested in making some change for the better in our diets so I began researching what "real food eating" was all about. We then made major cuts of highly processed packaged foods we were consuming and swapped them with whole food options, as well as buying organic dairy and produce. Some of the changes went great while others (insert homemade cheesy crackers that did not taste anything like the orange box we were so used to) were received with less enthusiasm. I eventually started making our own bread, granola, and yogurt at times. It took more time, planning and learning how to do these things but I felt really good about what was going into our bodies. 

I began wanting to know where our foods were coming from so I started visiting our farmers market and eventually subscribed to a bi-monthly CSA box. 

I loved picking up our box full of fresh, local and seasonal produce! I loved the smell of it, the colors and varieties of things we couldn't always find in our grocery store. I fell in love with the fact that it was just harvested, knowing how it grew and where. This eventually got me wondering if I could grow some of our own veggies. It couldn't be that hard?

I picked my packets of seeds from home depot and we dug out a little space in our backyard lawn for a couple of tiny garden beds. Start small! I had never grown a thing in my life but all of a sudden we were starting seeds on our kitchen table and attempting to grow veggies- in triple digit heat! It obviously was not an instant success as I didn't know anything about the best time to start seeds. I failed at my first try but I tried again as cooler fall weather approached. And I bought a couple already started plants just in case! After a few attempts we were able to grow a few tomatoes, lettuces and broccoli! 

The little victories fed my spirit and soon I was daydreaming about chickens for eggs and learning about clean living and essential oils. By the end of this year, the year of awakening I'd call it, there was a stirring in our hearts that there was something more for us. We wanted more space, more of a country life to raise these wild boys, and to possibly grow more of our food. There was that one song some of you might remember...."Oceans" by Hillsong United. That song really just tugged at my heart, challenging me to go deeper and step out into unknown places. The words "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior" really drove deep. I remember towards the end of the year sitting in my walk in closet (probably hiding from my kids) and just having a moment with God and being engulfed in tears. Like full on ugly cry. Have you had one of those? Sometimes just tears, sometimes a little rage or singing or even crazy laughter?! I've had a couple of those "moments" in specific seasons of expectation in my life. In this season I didn't quite know what I was wanting, but I knew I didn't want to live settled in this place of comfort any longer when something was pulling at my core for more. There was a yearning for change, for deeper purpose, a desire to fully trust God with my life, and to grow food of course. Little did I know we would be selling our house and moved out of town six months later. It wasn't a far distance but we stepped outside of almost everything we knew.