Early Mornings

I don't get up early because of the farm, I get up early because of the baby. Even when I was pregnant with her, she would wiggle early in the AM. As a baby, she slept and slept, except for at 5 AM- and if that was her only alert awake time I was not going to insist that she go back to sleep! But now, she still gets up early and now she can also wiggle out of bed and take off running.

Somethings have not changed though. Every morning the sunrise is absolutely incredible. This morning it was not colourful, but a gradation of pitch black to dark grey to a light bluish silver over the brilliant white hay fields. Every morning, every single morning I get the gift of baby laughter set to remarkable vistas. I get to begin each day at the farm reminded that I am in the presence of blessings, in the company of God.

A friend just emailed me her dream, one that she imagined (though she's never been to our farmhouse), that our living room was set up with the sofa facing the big windows instead of the center of the room. That's not far from the truth actually, though we have it offset right now to make room for the tree, but I love facing the bay windows with the southern view. My dining room has the same view through another picture window. It is funny though that our view is not of our farm, but of the neighbor's hay. It is a reminder that we are not all alone out here in the wild.

Which brings me to another thought set that I had this morning. We are not isolated here, as much as we were in the city. I get questions all the time about homeschooling isolating us- perhaps it does veer us away from the mainstream (not a bad thing), but then I get people asking if farming isolates us too. Geesh, we must be hermits! The opposite is true though. Through farming and homeschooling we sought out and found community, found others with similar interests, found lifelong friends. Out here in the country we decided to go to church, to find community, to better able to teach our daughters our faith. In the city if we were sick, our neighbors probably never knew- out here someone from the church (actually several people) took the time to drive out here and make sure we were ok. Then we got a lovely card in the mail wishing us better. It was that simple act that really made me feel woven into the hem of this community.

As an aside, it takes me the same amount of distance to go to the local grocery store here as it did in the big city, almost exactly, and yet it takes about 5 minutes less to drive there. Ha! Plus it takes less time to actually shop and the clerks know my girls. If I had any concerns about price and selection, I do not now. They order the few items I requested, like Greek yogurt, coconut oil, and method hand soap (grapefruit scented). I don't buy much at the grocer anymore though I will soon need to buy some vegetables again.

It is quiet here at night. A quiet that I remember distantly from my childhood, summers spent on my Aunt's farm. Sometimes we hear coyotes, which can be scary. We also can here gunshots during hunting season, but that is not so different than where we lived in the city! I do not miss the thumping of car bass turned to loud rattling my windows, I do not miss ghetto doorbells, and I do not miss living surrounded by the noise of other people living. We can hear our neighbors here, but it is not the same thing. It is really lovely, the quiet. For years I had a buzzing tone in my ear, constant. It is gone here but for a few moments now and then. Where we lived in the city the sex offender map showed 20 within 2 blocks of our home and hundreds within 3 miles. Here there are 3 in the whole county and two are teenage love issues. That 1 left is still 15 miles away. Not to say that it really changes how I parent or trust strangers, it is just an observation of a contrast between our city life and our new farm life.

In the year that we have been here I have gone through many changes too. The peacefulness of this place has really crept into my heart. I am a better person for it. Not a perfect person, but a better one than a year ago. I am working on a year in review post for later, but this morning in particular I feel the movement in time, for a full year has passed. I usually do not feel like time has passed, forever stuck feeling the same as I did at age 6, but this morning it is different.

Sorry for the rambling! Good morning to all!