A lot can change in five years...

Five years ago...

• I was a corporate trainer for a Fortune 500 health insurance company.  
• I was on the fast track for a promotion.
• I lived in the middle of a small town and commuted to the big city.
• My yard had LOTS of flowers and strawberries, but no vegetables.
• I had a big dog and a small bed.
• I had never heard of pastured poultry or Joel Salatin.
• I didn't buy organic food.
• My parents and I went out to dinner often at our local cafe.
• THE FARM still had a garden and animals.
• I was dating a machinist who made me laugh.
• I thought this machinist and I had broken up over the issue of eating raw vegetables.

Five years later...

• I am a full-time wife, mom of three children, farmer and part-time non-profit executive director.
• I am on the slow track for food production.
• I live a mile and a half from the county road, 90.19 miles from the nearest Starbucks (just a frame of reference for you coffee-addicts), and I the only reason I go to town is to deliver fresh food to our customers.
• My yard has LOTS of vegetables, raspberries and strawberries and very few flowers.
• I have a big bed and an outside only dog 
• I love pastured poultry and my kids refer to Mr. Salatin as Uncle Joel.
• I buy organic food.
• My dad is gone and my mom has moved away.  And I miss having breakfast at the Fiddlestix so much I could cry in my sausage and cheese omelet with hashbrowns.
• THE FARM is overgrown with untamed grass and the only animals are some deer and two wild cats.
• I'm married to an ex-machinist turned grass farmer/chicken man/soon-to-be-pig-and-sheep man.
• Turns out that machinist and I aren't perfect, but we're perfect for each other.  We complement each other while we grow LOTS of raw vegetables.

Today is the five year anniversary of the night Hubby asked me to marry him.  When we promised to marry each other, we had NO IDEA that our life would look like this just five years later.  God certainly knew what He was doing when He brought us together.  

My favorite place in the world is next to him, working on a project, growing food for us and our members, raising our fabulous kids.  That isn't the enlightened, 21st century modern woman perspective.  I love to be with him and my kids.  I love to stay home and work on our farm.  

Happy Anniversary, my love.  I'm savoring the anticipation of the next 55 years...