Today there is another birthday in our family (we celebrate a lot!). This time it is my 3rd son's big day. He is turning 8. I love birthday milestones as they help to remind you where you were a year ago, 3 years ago, 5 years ago, just by looking back on what you were doing at their last birthday. This boy is no exception. We moved into the farm when he was turning 5, 3 years ago. It helps to mark our city to country transition. We had owned the farm for a whole year already by that point, but hadn't moved in as we had been building the other house and renovating the farm. How we did all that is still an absolute marvel to me.
Even then, I saw God working. It was such a busy time and of course, money was tight, so we had a hard time finding a moment to even buy a gift! The day of his birthday, God stepped in. Our neighbours, whom we had bought the farm from, came over with boxes of toys from their own son who had outgrown them. This also included a basically new bike. I was in awe. It was everything a boy of 5 would have wanted - tons of cars and trucks and most of them were tractors and farm vehicles. Just another great reminder that God cared for us in such a tangible way.
That same night, through a bizarre series of events, we had a truckload of cows arrive on our property - another great gift for a boy turning 5 - cows! Who wouldn't want cows?! We had never had any animal other than a hamster or a guinea pig or fish prior to moving to the farm and here we were suddenly owning 17 cows. I'll never forget the night they came in. It was dark. The huge truck and massive trailer came on to our property and drove right down to the field where we were putting them. The whole month before they arrived my husband had been nearly killing himself organizing all sorts of fencing that needed to be put in. We had someone put in the major posts, but everything else, including what seemed like 100s of t-posts were put in by himself as well as all the electric fencing. He was a machine that month and somehow got it all done just in the nick of time.
As the cows came in, I heard the funniest sound. I really don't think I'd ever heard it before in real life! Mooing! Cows really moo! It was hilarious! The majority of the cows were mommy cows as 6 of them had just delivered earlier that summer, so they were quite upset about the transition. Off they came out of the truck, mooing their heads off. It was amazing to hear. I felt like such a city person still. We really threw ourselves into farm life head first. It has been so wonderful having these animals on our property. If it is possible to say, they are beautiful. We didn't get regular cows. We got Scottish Highland cows. I've heard them described like the Beattles. They have long curly hair that covers their eyes and they are in all sorts of different shades of browns and reds and even beige and white. They are also delicious! They are like a bison in that they are made for winter with their beautiful fur coats. They have next to no fat on them and so are better for you than even a chicken breast! They also have low cholesterol and are extremely high in protein. They've even made some money for us as we've sold sides of beef to friends which helped us get our farm status. So, as you can see, we love our beef!
This is the year we take our 8 year old and share the birds and the bees with him. Some may think that is too early, but we love the age. It is old enough to start seeing animals reproducing and think to themselves....hmmmmm....that's weird......oh! the cat had kittens! We also have calves born each year.......hmmmmm....how did that happen? They are still young enough to have an innocence about them and be open to the conversation without freaking out, though we have had some pretty funny reactions, "Ewwwww...that is so gross!" One of the boys came running up to me after he arrived back from his talk and said, "Mom, you'll never believe this....." Very funny. So it is a big year for him, though he doesn't quite know it yet! Daddy will take him away for a night and go somewhere fun to make it a great experience. It's been a neat tradition we started with our oldest and now we're at number 5.
He was also our first child born at home. I had tried to have the 3rd and 4th born at home, but they wouldn't cooperate. One was too overdue, 13 days! And the next one was too little. I would have 100 more babies if I could just because having a home birth is like nothing else. The 3 kids after him were also born at home. Having banana bread and coffee, not to mention 17 people in the room right after he was born, was a super cool experience and I'll remember that for a looong time.
He turned out to be not unlike the current four year old - a challenge! He had a hard time sleeping through the night in that first year. Then he turned into a toddler that only ran and always was getting hurt with his multiple falls into shelving. Then he turned into a boy that loved to get mommy frustrated. I started to tell him the verse, "I want to be a joyful mother of children!!!!!" Then he turned into a dare devil jumping into pools with no floaties and nearly drowning twice. But then as he started to hit the 5 year old mark, things started to change....a maturing....less disciplining....more focusing in school.....reading early.....completely grasping all math concepts in just a few lessons...skipping whole grades in math! It always gives me hope when I look back to what these challenging kids were like as infants and toddlers and seeing them change into wonderfully maturing children! He'll only really know farm life. When our oldest boy (who is now 15) was 5, that was when we first started dreaming of living on a farm. He didn't get to really enjoy it until he was 12, but that worked out perfectly as we needed him to work! Our 8 year old, on the other hand, did get farm life starting at age 5 and is truly benefitting from living here now for 3 years. I'm grateful God determined when we would live here and who would benefit the most at exactly the right ages.
What will he be when he grows up? Not sure. He was lots of interests. He does NOT want to get married. Hopefully that will change over time! He's already talking about getting baptized, but I told him I need to see a little more fruit just like with his younger brother! So I thank God for him today, such a blessing to have him in our family. Now I'm off to make his dream breakfast....crepes with bananas, whipped cream and nutella. We used to go out for breakfast when we weren't as careful with our money. We would go to a restaurant that made those kinds of crepes, but for 5 times the price. Now, with a little, ok, a lot of effort, I try to reproduce the same meal for a lot less. It is delicious and every kid asks for it on their birthday. It's going to be fun! Ok, off I go.....
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