Blessings Abound

I was setting at the computer about an hour ago messing with the Facebook page and all of a sudden this crack of thunder jolted me out of the chair. It was one of those thunder sounds that wakes you up in the night with a loud crack and boom. Of course, half of the dogs were in the front yard and the other half were inside. None of them are fond of thunderstorms so I had to get them quieted down. 

Then the amazing sound of rain on the tin roof. The sound that brings water for the field, the raising of the ponds, cooler temperatures so the animals are more comfortable, less noise in the house because I can turn off the AC and enjoy the windows being cracked and getting fresh air, as well as the feelings of joy, peace, and being blessed.

Some people find rain to be an annoyance. Something that makes their hair frizz, their make up run, the trip into the grocery store more miserable. However, I find rain to be a blessing! I am thankful when it rains, but I didn't use to feel that way.

Before I lived in the "country" and on a "farm" I was seriously irritated by the rain. I ran a nationally franchised restaurant and rain tended to make sales go down, labor costs go up, food costs to go crazy, and a miserable day of extra cleaning for myself and my crew. I lived in a pretty good sized city and was irritated by having to "run" to my car between work and home. 

Since moving to the country and owning a farm I have found that the complete opposite is true. I pray for rain. I walk in the rain. I enjoy the smell of the rain. I enjoy watching the ducks play in the rain and rush in and out of the pond. I revel in watching the goats lay around lazily and rest in their "building" as they watch for clear skies so they can go eat more grass. I find the way the chickens run for the barn during the rain and leave to search for "goodies" when it is over such a joy.

I wonder, sometimes, if we realize what we miss when we live a life so quick and fast that things are an annoyance rather than a blessing. I know I didn't realize it until I was able to experience it for myself.

Life on the farm has a different kind of stress. The farm is much more labor intensive. It also requires a lot of preparation, planning, and desire to maintain it. Managing a restaurant was more mental stress. It required me to be mentally there even when I wasn't physically there. I had little time or energy to communicate with my family. Nights were spent going over every aspect of profit and loss statements, employee schedules, health department regulations, etc. 

The farm has a peacefulness. When something needs done you know it is probably going to amount to a good deal of elbow grease, 15 different attempts to get it to work, and then the satisfaction of seeing it do for you and your family what it was intended to do. The restaurant had an urgency. When something needed done there it took an act of congress to get corporate to come off the money, you never knew if someone would show up to fix it, and when they did you got to see it make the higher ups get a pat on the back and a raise while you watched your crew struggle on minimum wage. 

I make roughly $30,000 dollars less a year now than I did when I worked for a corporation. My house payment hasn't gone down any. I have repair bills, I have feed bills, I have all the bills that I had when I lived in the city. The funniest thing about it all is that I don't have the fancy car (or the payment), the cost of the insurance and tag for the fancy car, the drive to another city to work, the cost of going out to eat with my family all the time because no one was home to make dinner, the cost of fresh meat, eggs,  or vegetables because we have our own here on the farm, the cost of a baby sitter because I am home to enjoy my kids, the cost of the movie tickets every week because I am so stressed I wanted the kids out of my hair, the cost of the gas to commute to work and to take the kids running around all the time, the extra cost of washing and  drying my uniforms, and things of that nature. 

I live much more comfortably on the roughly $30,000 a year we make on the farm than I ever would have on the $62,000 I made at the restaurant. More than half of my income went to work related "issues", I stayed stressed out all the time, had high blood pressure, high blood sugar, headaches, and anxiety. My cure for anxiety now is to walk out my back door, watch the animals, breath in the fresh air, go to the garden and get me some fresh stuff for a salad and eat healthy. 

Oddly enough I prefer the lifestyle I have now. I am not sure I could ever return to the city and live. I enjoy going and having a shopping day there once in awhile but living there just isn't for me anymore.

I am blessed beyond measure to be a farmers wife!