It's been literally months since I sat down to write. The wedding has come and gone and I have since found out even more exciting news that we are going to be grandparents! The summer was so full and there was no time to write. All the working laptops belonged to my older children and I didn't want to use them so I took a break. Sadly, I missed so many stories - so many - of God's faithfulness. But some of them are written in journals, all over the place, so not all forgotten. Even this laptop is an answer to prayer as I had prayed for one, never really thinking one would just show up one day, but it did. My Dad went to get one of his old ones cleaned up for me to get me through for the time being, but instead his computer guy convinced him I needed a new one and one thing led to another and here I am on a refurbished/new computer - literally my first computer of my own - in my whole life, lol. All my other computers belonged to someone else, so this one is pretty special and I really consider it a gift directly from the Lord.
We are now full swing into running the winery. Our last day at the college was June 30, so not even 3 months officially. I can't even believe how people love coming out to visit us. We have fairly decent steady customers all throughout the week, even returning regulars. We book events now and have had a runners club come out and now a family reunion this October. We have hosted birthday events and we even had our first limo come out this weekend where a group of 11 cousins came to the farm, enjoyed a tasting, walked the property and got a classic photo on the tractor.
I said to RM when we first were planning the trailer conversion, "No one will come"...so little faith...but they are coming. In fact, they LOVE coming. They CHOOSE to come. They enjoy being outside, with the animals, seeing the views....the feedback we've gotten has been fantastic. The trailer is their favourite and is very "instagrammable". It's been so fun for me - I could chat all day...and some days I do. Just this past week alone I think I convinced a young couple to get married, another retired couple to start an AirBnB and the list goes on and on....the funniest conversations happen at the trailer.
But one top of that, I'm convinced God brings just the right people to our trailer. Every time someone comes, they give us another good idea. We had basically decided we were going to shut down the trailer over the winter, but one couple immediately said, "Don't do it! Keep it open! Just have little fire pits all over the place..." So that's what we're going to do. We currently have a hay maze for the month of October, but then we're going to switch into skating and fire pits, so we think we'll be busy through the winter, too. We also hope to do cross country skiing and even a little tobogganing hill, why not? Everyone who comes and hears our story always leaves saying, "You are going to do great!"
Starting in October we are hoping for stained glass class sign ups where RM will teach stained glass as well. Our ideas are endless.
Meanwhile we are getting grapes in each week and the wine making process is in full swing. Our own grapes need to be picked and that has to happen fast now. So we're having fun, we're busy, and we have no chains from the college. That has to be the best part. We love the freedom. We aren't on easy street by any means, but we are making ends meet and there is food on the table and even that shocks us - something about "daily bread" comes to mind....God is supplying.
We made a drastic last minute decision to put our 5th into a couple of courses at the local Christian High School - who knows how that is being paid for - another daily bread situation for sure. He's loving it and I'm loving it. Not necessarily for every kid in the family, but it was a good situation for him because he suffered so badly from Covid lockdowns and it would have harmed him to keep him home. I'm still involved with Classical Conversations and have my younger 3 involved - loving it and now I'm also teaching which helps pay for the tuition. Gives our kids some community and it's also a closer location.
We are days away from a new niece and that will be amazing as my brother and his wife will be moving this way soon after her delivery as well as my parents, so we are on pins and needles for that. The best part is this little baby will have a best friend cousin with my daughter's baby...it's just soooooo amazing, I can't even believe it.
The goodness of God is all around me and so today, it's wonderful to be able to record it again as I know there will come a time where I need to reread it when I'm tempted to forget.
