I have to admit, I’m getting excited about this series because I have some really fun things planned now that harvest is here!  You are going to get to experience some firsts with me and my little farm man!  A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how my husband claims we didn’t move to the farm and how I don’t quite believe him here, in case you need to catch up.

Today, I am going to talk about the “why”. Why we got here, why we are living in the country, something I never thought we would be doing!  And it all started with one thing:

Ok, that’s not entirely accurate.  We did not move our entire lives, change our entire lifestyle, because of 2 year old son.  But he was a HUGE part of the decision!  You see, I believe that most (all?) little boys love vehicles.  And trucks, and tractors, and animals. And ours was no exception.  But in addition to full on obsession with these things, we watched him and noticed E’s behaviors.  We noticed, from birth, how he would instantly calm upon being brought outside. And as he got older, we noticed how he absolutely came alive at the farm.  Full of so much joy and adventure and fun.  And sure, we found that in our old yard all the time…but it just wasn’t the same.  That was the first thing that stuck in our hearts- I had a genuine, full time farm boy on my hands…like his daddy.

The second thing is family.  I have known for a long time now, since my teaching career began in central Illinois, that I wasn’t going to likely live near my parents for a long time.  It was SO hard in the beginning, but has become something we have all adjusted to (says the still new-ish mother who claims we are moving wherever our kids go to college! My mom says their teenage years will cure that! ;-)).  But I admit that Michael’s large and close family has always been one of my favorite parts about being a Gum.  And as we had our children, especially since we are so lucky to have Michael’s parents watch them while we are at work, we just knew we wanted to be very close.  There was no other way for us, as much as we dreamed about moving out west to the mountains, or to Alaska, our favorite place ever.  Disclaimer here: I KNOW that a lot of people move away from their families by choice or life circumstances, and I totally get why! It’s just not us, not now.  We wanted to really bear witness to each other’s daily lives…and this move has so completely given us that.  We eat random dinners with brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and parents. We get to see our nephew’s games and concerts.  When out of town family visits, we can do so much more than just one dinner before we have to hurry out and get the kids home for an already very late bedtime.  And the farm? It is like home to my kids.  I wouldn’t want to trade that for anything.  We won’t get this time back, with our families, and we are living it in a way that suits us so well, and we are so thankful for that!