Why I do, what I do.

I've been thinking about how my life has come to be lately. When I posted the Wannabe Farmer post it got me really examining things. When I got right down to it, there really should be no surprise that I'm now returning to a simpler, albeit, busier life. Its the way I grew up to a certain extent.

The blame falls squarely on my parents' shoulders. Its all their fault. You see, I grew up with 2 of the most wonderful people you've ever met. When I was born, my Dad was a mechanical engineer with a good job. He had scraped and struggled to make it through college so that he could make himself a better person. My Mom was a teacher for the deaf, from a family who was a product of the depression. They both knew how to work hard. My Mom never went back to work after I was born, but continued to work hard for our family.

When I was 8, my father was called into the ministry. They packed me, my sister and brother up and moved 500 miles away for my father to attend seminary. This meant leaving his good paying job behind. I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say we never had much from there on out. My mother made us clothes, grew gardens and canned the excess and learned to bake the most delicious bread. In addition, they provided the most wonderful childhood imaginable. We didn't have the latest toys and gadgets and certainly didn't have the latest styles, but we had a close and happy family.

My parents are both very intelligent and well educated people. They would take us out of school and take us on trips to the Science Museum, Plimouth Plantation and Sturbridge Village. I think if it had been 10 years later, they probably would have homeschooled us. It was just their style.

So, here I sit with my family. I could certainly have taken the path that led to me working full time. The kids in school, living in the suburban mcmansion with a dog and a housekeeper once a week. There are many that feel that is the life for them, and that's ok. Its just not for me. I had to work hard to have my kids(maybe I'll talk about that later). I worked hard for this house as well. For me, it is more important to teach my kids to be stewards of their world. I want to instill in them a love of learning, a love of the earth and a love of hard work. It is so important to me to be able to feed my family nourishing foods that I grew myself. To show them that the fruits of our hard work should not necessarily be the latest video game, but a simple homegrown, homemade meal and a happy family. That spending time with the people you love is more important than buying them the latest thing.