Cows, Goats, Rabbits, and Chickens

                  Sunday, October 28, 2012

On an evening walk not too long ago, Mark and I were playing one of my favorite childhood games that has carried over into adulthood.  You know the game we could probably be safe calling "When I grow up my life is going to be like this."  

But since we are already grown up, we played the "What do you want our life to be like after physical therapy school?"version.  

By the end of the game, we jointly decided that post physical therapy school we would like to live in a mountainous, somewhat rural area in a modest home, on some acreage, with a garden substantial enough to collect most of our own produce, some fruit trees, a cow or two, some goats, chickens, rabbits, and maybe a few other minor details that escape me.

Often I, Amanda, have been disappointed with the discrepancy that exists between the kind of life I want to live and the actual life I am living.  I'm not talking about the big stuff - it goes without saying that I don't love living off student loan money, collecting debt, living too far away from family.  Those are necessary parts of this stage of life for our family.  Real choices we have made to benefit our family in the long run.  What I am talking about is how I spend my time day to day.  The small decisions that ultimately shape what kind of wife, mother, and friend I am and will be.

To assume that I could jump from my life as a stay at home mom while my husband goes to school all day and studies all night to a future life of working in the garden, feeding the livestock, maintaining the pasture, and taking care of even more kids than we have now would be absurd.

Sometimes it takes some time of being disappointed with oneself before real action is taken.  No matter what, it takes courage and discipline to change.  In a small way, this new family blog is an attempt to help us make that change. 

One of the changes we are making concerns Facebook.  Facebook has become an unnecessarily large presence in our home.  In an attempt to fill our lives (mostly mine because Mark deserves accolades for his accomplishments at school) with more productivity and increase the number of quality time activities we are ditching Facebook.  We have discussed the issue and believe despite some of the blessings of Facebook it is in the overall best interest of our family to kick it to the curb.  Hopefully, this blog will help you stay up to date with our family, our achievements, milestones, and if I am brave enough to write about such things, even our trials and heartaches.  

The people in our families that have lived in earlier generations have displayed extraordinary character which is no doubt attributed in part to hard work.  Our technological society has changed the way we live and interrelate with one another.  I understand that our goals as a family will not be accomplished merely by eliminating Facebook.  I think it would do much good for the development of our family to simplify and filter the things that we allow to enter our home.  By so doing, when the time comes for land, cows, goats, chickens, oh yeah, and even more Mini-Marks running around, we will be better prepared to put our shoulder to the wheel.

I have a tendency to beat a dead horse.  I think we can consider this one beaten (notice there were no horses on our farm... now you know)! 

Anyhow, WELCOME TO OUR NEW FAMILY BLOG.  We are excited to document some of the happenings of our family.  For those of you that may also have blogs, leave a link in the comment section so we may follow along with you too.  We look forward to more face-to-face social time, emails, phone calls, altogether a more genuine and in-depth way to stay connected with our friends and family.