Fun?

I have been reflecting on this word lately for a couple reasons.

The first time I really started thinking about it was after a customer told me “you live such a fun life”. I was unpacking our meat and other products from hauling it to the local farmers market on a Friday evening. Fifteen years ago, this is not what I saw myself doing for ‘fun’ on a Friday night. And even this summer didn’t think about it as being ‘fun’. But after reflecting I realized that we live the life others dream about and consider fun. I take for granted, and sometimes even complain that we are always working. Working on the farm, fixing equipment, haying, packing and unpacking from the market, sanitizing bottles, separating cream, feeding animals, …all of them, on top of working off farm jobs and trying to keep our house in order (which if you stop in our house right now, you’ll see this is what I have let go the most).

I realized it’s time I really step back and look at the fun we are having. Raising our kids on this land is just where God has intended us to be. We live the life others dream of and I need to remember to be grateful we are here.

The second comment that had me reflecting on the word ‘fun’ was in conversation with someone we just met at an event. He asked “what do you guys do for fun”. At first, I was sad that we don’t really have any off-farm hobbies, things we do for ‘fun’. Then I remembered we farm, so I told him that. He farms (on a much larger scale) too so he understood what I meant by that. We farm, that is our hobby. We have been blessed with a life we don’t need a vacation from. Now don’t get me wrong, I wish we could get a break off the farm a little more often than we do, but for the most part we are living out our hobby. It reminded me of what the first customer said to me, that we live such a fun life. We also have kids we are taking to and from sports 5 days a week, so that is taking up the rest of our free time during this season of life.

I close by asking you. What do you do for fun?

We farm!