One of our chickens went downhill fast over the weekend and died Sunday morning. As is our practice, we took her out to the big oak tree in our pasture under which Freckles the horse was the first to be buried - and now rests alongside several other animals. Farming teaches so much about life and death, and I have noticed the kids do not react to it the way I always assumed kids do. My friends often ask, “How did the kids handle it?” And the answer is, “Fine, honestly.”
With this chicken, we had prayed for her Saturday night and asked God for His will to be done, petitioning that she either be healed or taken swiftly so she would not suffer. And when she died in Lily’s arms the next morning, Lily said, “well, God answered our prayers.”
Someone told me once that there are two kinds of animals on a farm, living ones and dead ones. There is no escaping the reality of death on a farm and while I spent much of my early life completely petrified of sickness and death, both TV reporting and now farming continue to remind me of Jesus’ teaching: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Remember when herding animals required manual labor? Actually we were shooting video but the animals thought it was the end of the world and ran straight for the barn. It was the fastest feeding time on record, maybe we use the drone more often?!
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I wasn’t a committed homeschool mom from the second my first child was born. I did quite a bit of research because I wanted to learn more about how kids learn - and truly what kind of environments are not just best for learning ABCs but for overall health and development. I wasn’t even sure I would be a good teacher. After reading many books written by education “experts”, we landed on homeschool.
I really had to unravel quite a bit of what I thought was “school” before I could even begin. I went to the same private school K-12 and equated learning with perfect exam scores. As a student, I forgot a lot of what I crammed into my head because I wasn’t learning for the joy of it - I was learning to survive.
I have come to see how much a child learns through simply living - and being bored! They are innately attuned to art, nature, science, nutrition, play, language - if only we give them a chance. I have truly loved homeschooling my kids, especially all the time we get to spend...
I lived for many years with the idea that I would be a career woman first and someday get to kids.
Biologically, this makes little sense as it gets harder to have kids as a woman ages. But even more mind boggling, I didn’t really even think much of it, like the way one considers what he or she is having for dinner. Actually I probably put more thought into dinner. Being a mom was a complete afterthought. One day a friend and I were eating lunch in downtown Seattle and she smacked some truth into my noggin. I decided, ok what the heck. What do I have to lose? We had our first when I was 38 - I found out I was pregnant the week I resigned from my TV news job. Our second came when I was 41.
If I could talk to younger me, I’d tell her that no career is worth delaying or sacrificing motherhood. It has been the most incredibly humbling, soul-stretching, heart-throbbing, belly laughing adventure I’ve ever had.
And don’t forget to grab the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil from...
