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Dreams, then & now

Writer's picture: KathiKathi

Do you ever dream? Not at night in your sleep. Those can be super weird. I guess they can be cool too, but that's not what I was thinking about. I mean life dreams. As a kid, maybe you dreamed of being a ballerina, or an astronaut, or a firefighter. One of my kids dreams of being an engineer. He's 8, almost 9. I think he'll make a fantastic engineer. My grandfather was a rocket scientist, after all!


When I was a kid I dreamed of living on a farm. Probably because that was my mom's dream. But, hey, there's nothing wrong with that. As I got a little older, and met Matt, I still wanted to live on a farm, but I also wanted to marry Matt, and have kids, and help him work from home making beautiful furniture. Wonderfully enough, he shared my dream! We were blissfully wed, and built our silly little one bedroom house. Read that story here.


From our little house we drove to work each day. That's right, we didn't start out with our dream business. Matt worked at the cabinet shop, I worked for his dad. Over the course of the last 20 years, we have helped raise pigs, cows, chickens, bearded dragons (funny story), goats, hay, various vegetables, and a goose. Some were a joint effort with my parents and sister, others were all on our own. Truth be told, however, it has all been a total side gig.



It has only been more recently that we have begun feeling the dream kindling a little flame in our hearts again. Perhaps it's because we have these children, these arrows, that also have dreams. Fresh dreams. They are excited. They have passion. Passion that maybe we once had as well, but has fizzled and faded over time. Time given away to someone else. Now our children's excitement to DO something WITH us is spurring us on to dream again.


I have to say that the dream hasn't changed all that much. Farm life is still very appealing. I know it's hard work. I know it involves putting off other fun things. But if we can make it successful, the way we dream it, we'll be together, and that's the ultimate dream. I dream of working along side my sons and daughters as long as they are here. I know the Lord could call them to anywhere in the world, at any time. That's OK too. I would want them nowhere but in His will. But in the mean time, if we can work together, building life-giving homey-ness; how rich!


Today we went on a field trip to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village. The way of life that is exhibited on the campus is a pretty good picture of my dream. The big, beautiful gardens of vegetables and herbs, the Scottish Highland cows, the sheep, the simple furniture, the weaving, the basketry, and doing it all with friends and family. Who could ask for more?! Oh, and those pegs all around the walls for hanging EVERYTHING on. Yeah, I could use those.


Doing everything in its season is a way of life. We throw around the phrase, "it's just a season" when life is hard, kids are teething, or potty training, or pre-adolescently obnoxious. I can't help but think of Ecclesiastes chapter 3.


1. For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven:

2. a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3. a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4. a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5. a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6. a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7. a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8. a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.


We've also been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House in the Big Woods." They did what needed to be done according to the seasons. It was all hard, but it all brought with it that satisfaction that comes from working with your hands. Knowing that you worked hard and get to reap the rewards makes it all worthwhile. Things like smoking the meat when Pa brought home a deer or bear. Or making the butter when the cream was collected.


I get excited thinking about what wonderful things we can make with our own hands with a sawmill! We are working on cutting the lumber for a new chicken house this fall. It will happily house up to 25 - 30 hens! Eventually we plan to build a barn of our own. Our goats, Blackberry and Juniper will appreciate that! Plus we'll be able to keep our hay close at hand. Hay that we work hard to cultivate and harvest!


There are plans for a new garden, where we hope to grow green beans, corn, broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, radishes, some squash, and other stuff, I'm sure! Daughter number 2, Lydia, is fascinated with herbs and all that can be done with them. She and I want to expand her herb garden, and she hopes to delve into medicinal herbs and herbal remedies. Not to mention flowers, just because they are beautiful. Isn't it amazing how many colors God mixed and poured out on the flowers?


Other dreams include the goats; kidding, milking, and making things with the milk. When we had cows, we made yogurt, cheese, and soap. I'd love to get back into that with the goat's milk. Combine that with some of those herbs!! Yum!


Bees we tried once. It was a bit of a disaster that first time. We never do anything the easy way. You probably should know that about us, if you haven't figured it out yet. Matt had a coworker who was also interested in bees. They set about building a couple of top bar hives. That's right, not your standard, everyone knows how they work, langstroth hives, no. We had to get fancy with top bar hives. Cathedral top bar hives at that! It was beautiful. We got the box of bees, tied the queen box in the hive, and waited. Well, we waited a little too long, and the bees started building comb crosswise around the queen's box, because we were too late taking it out. It was a mess. We did our best to help redirect the bees and their comb, but it was too, little too late. We didn't get plugged in to a beekeeper support group, and come fall, we lost the bees, they swarmed away. Then to make it all worse, a mouse promptly moved in and made any honey they had left unfit for consumption. But why not try it again? I'm game. We use a lot of honey here in this house. And we want to grow flowers and veggies. They'll need pollinators. Why not supply them?


So, yeah, I'm dreaming again. Not just because it's late at night, but because God gives us the freedom and creativity to dream and imagine. He gives us hands to work with. He gave us 5 kids who are dreaming too. Don't you want to see your kids' dreams come true? I do. And I believe my Heavenly Father does too. And I trust He'll let the right dreams come true, and the rest, the ones I don't end up seeing happen, they must not be what's best for me. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."


I don't have to worry about my dreams, or my children's dreams coming true or not. He has them all worked out.


Blessings,

Kathi

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