My Whole House is Outside - and the significance of Grand Openings

I have a friend who recently moved away.  She was my go-to friend if I needed help decorating for an event or for ideas if I was hosting a shower....I could call her and she would show up and the place would turn into the coolest looking space.  But then she moved.  Why would she do that and leave me on my own???  

Now we're hosting this Grand Opening.  So funny.  Still can't believe we're doing this.  I wanted to buy all sorts of decorations.  I wanted to make it super "Grand Opening-y", but I wasn't sure how.  I wasn't sure how to do that cheaply and yet make it super cool.  I wanted my friend to help me.  But she moved.  So then, as I thought and thought about it, I don't know if I prayed about it, all of a sudden these ideas kept popping in to my head.  It was as if my friend was telling me what to do!  I ignored them at first.  They were crazy thoughts and each thought seemed impossible.  Too much work.  I could never get everyone on board, but then I finally decided to just see if I could pull it off and I went for it.

In my head, I kept hearing, "Take it all outside".  First thing I thought of were the tables.  That would be cool.  Then, the chairs for the tables.  Ok....and then I heard, the leather chairs, all  of our single-seat upholstered chairs.  Next, all the vine balls and trees throughout the entire house.  Oh, and all the crates, candle holders, and anything that looked farm-y like our window frames and antiques laying around.  I would also need a dozen hay bales and pumpkins.  That wouldn't be a problem.  My husband bought 100 pumpkins a few weeks ago, so we had lots of those.

Then, I went to work.  I had all the kids go get all those crazy things and bring them to me outside and then I just started running around the farm, decorating every nook and corner creating "vignettes" of farm life.  It is hard to decorate the outdoors!  In a house you have a small enclosed space with defined walls and ceilings, but the outdoors?  How do you decorate the outdoors?!  But, I'm convinced God used that voice in my head and directed me on how to do it.  And I cannot say it enough - it looks amazing!!!!  Instead of walls to lean things against, I used giant hay bales in our maze or the farm gate.  Instead of area rugs, I used grass and I positioned all our soft chairs in a cozy seating arrangement for the seniors coming tomorrow.  Instead of lighting, I used the sky and place dall our tables (I didn't know we had so many) and made it like a restaurant, but instead of a couple feet apart there's lots of distance so my "restaurant" is soooo spacious and yet still so inviting!

I wanted people who had been here many times to see that it wasn't our regular space.  I wanted it to look like it wasn't Dollar Store decorations, though I have balloons from there still coming.  I wanted it to look like you had come to my house, but instead of coming in, you would be outside.  Well, the irony is, that it is my house, just OUTSIDE!  It is amazing.  I don't know how it all came together, but I give all the glory to God who somehow placed it in my head to think like my friend.  

We had Harvest Host people come last night while I was in the middle of setting it all up.  The couple just loved it.  As she started to see what I was doing she just went on and on telling me how amazing the atmosphere was, or as my kids say, "she loved the vibe".  I love the vibe!  And it was free!  I just had to move my indoors outdoors!  The only problem now is that my house looks awful now inside and the dust bunnies have now shown themselves.  I guess it was time for a good dusting anyway.  And, sadly, everything will have to go back in as rain is coming next week.  The other amazing thing is that no rain is in the forecast, so I was able to put it all out knowing it wouldn't rain all over the upholstered chairs.  I'm just so happy.

I've said this before, but I just see how God loves me when He speaks my language.  I know decorations don't matter, or do they?  Isn't it a way God helped me?  Isn't it a way that God reminded me of my friendship with this special lady?  I think so.  I didn't have to hire someone - I wanted to!  I didn't have to get a special events planner.  I wanted to!  It doesn't look Dollar Store-y - it looks amazing!  I always wish my husband would give me everything I want, like an unlimited decorating budget, but when he doesn't, oddly, I find myself forced to stretch, forced to grow and then, the amazing thing that happens is that I find I have abilities and skills I didn't know I had!  

Grand Openings are for the birds.  They're hard.  Starting new businesses. Also - for the birds.  Yet, the whole experience keeps opening new doors, keeps stretching us way beyond what we thought we could do and it keeps showing us we can do more than we ever thought.  By God's grace, we are more capable than we give ourselves credit for and, also by God's grace, He keeps supplying our every need, even decorating ideas.

Do I want to host a Grand Opening every weekend?  No.  I don't.  But what I like about it is that it shakes things up a bit.  I get super bored keeping my furniture the same way all the time.  I had actually just finished rearranging things in our home just last week.  I do that all the time, so this is just rearranging furniture again, but on a whole other scale.  My kids complained, at least a couple of them, the whole time.  It was like pulling teeth, but then when it was all done, I think they liked it.  So, maybe I'm a little crazy, but it could just be that they appreciate that part of their mom.  One said, "Whose parents do this?  Whose parents start wineries?  Whose parents take all their furniture outside?"  I have to admit, I don't know.  Just us, I guess.  Sorry!

But, as I spoke with our guests yesterday, they were super encouraging as they heard our story and it was fun to retell it as I do almost every time we have someone come by.  And each time I tell it, I marvel at our new freedom.  We wake up each day pinching ourselves that we can make an income off our farm.  It goes back to the sound of "marching in the trees".  We were told to quit when we heard that sound.  And, as I walked around the farm that day praying "should we quit?"  I felt the breeze in my face and I looked around the land, felt the land under my feet and I thought to myself - this is the sound of marching in the trees - we have land in Niagara!  We can make the land work for us!  I didn't know how, but I knew we could figure it out.  And, one thing people keep saying as they come to our farm is, "you're going to be ok, you'll do fine, you've got this" and I'm starting to believe them.  I think we'll make it!

Grand Openings don't sound Biblical, yet they are in Scripture!  King David wanted a Grand Opening.  He wanted to be the guy who built a house for God, but he wasn't allowed.  It was going to be his son instead.  But he thought to himself, "Ok, I can't build the house, but I'll do everything in my power to help my son build it".  He brought every single thing he could think of so his son would be prepared. He also asked everyone who was willing and able to offer their skills and freewill offerings.  Everyone did.  Everyone helped.  Everyone used their skills.  Then, when everyone had brought their gifts and saw all that had been accomplished, they all sat back and rejoiced.  1 Chronicles 29 says, "Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly."

David then praises and thanks God because he knows where everything comes from and who should get the glory, "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you....O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own."  Only God, he's saying.  Only God.  Yet, God uses people and, in our case, our family.  The kids have literally used their skills and their time - freely.  We don't pay our kids.  We speak of an inheritance, but we don't pay them.  We do a lot of bribing with Mcdonald's and ice-cream or gas and coffee money, but no one gets an hourly wage.  So, we say, along with David, "and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you."  Freely is the key word here.  Joyously?  Not always, but they are willing and they see the big picture.  I'm so grateful for that.

Today our official "merch" should arrive.  We will be celebrating with its arrival as it means something.  We're official.  And we will give thanks.  David offered sacrifices on the altars.  We won't be offering any animal sacrifices, except bbq'd sausages, but we'll be thanking God for sure.  And that is why I think the Grand Opening is so significant.  We're celebrating God's goodness to us.  We're celebrating the work of our family.  We're  celebrating all the preparations that went in to getting us this far.  David got it.  Verse 22 puts it this way, "And they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness."  That's exactly what Saturday will mean for us.  We will eat and drink with great gladness and it'll be so fun.  

Favourite Day Ever - the power of family

Yesterday has to go down as one of my favourite days ever.  First, back story. We often do this to ourselves - we create an impossible deadline and then we have to scramble to meet it.  This Grand Opening is a perfect example of impossible deadline.  Not enough time.  Not enough resources.  Too much to do.  Oh well, let's do it anyway.  Sure, why not.  Hey kids, we just booked a Grand Opening date.  All in?  Uh, what?!  But, Lord bless them, they're all in.  

One of the many things we had to do was get the bottom of the barn cleaned up.  I wish I could explain the bottom of the barn.  We are super amazing at moving junk around on our farm.  That's how we clean up.  We take it from one building and just put it in another because that's sometimes faster than removing it right away.  So bad.  When we cleaned out the building for the wine cellar we moved it to the other side of the shop.  Then, when we wanted to clean out the shop for the stained glass studio, we moved it to the bottom of the barn.  Now, we are cleaning out the bottom of the barn, we have no where to put it!  So we've forced our hand which is why it was my favourite day ever.  We were finally getting rid of stuff that I've wanted to get rid of FOREVER.  It's not quite done, but it's way better than it was before.  And the BEST part was we did it all together.  It was an eternal moment for me all day long.  I couldn't have been happier. I felt like I was in a dream.  As upset as my son is who still doesn't have a job, I was so grateful to have him home.  We're still praying for the miracle job, it hasn't happened yet.  My other son and daughter are on reading week.  That is another miracle from this week. We didn't plan that when we booked the event.  We should have planned it around that, but by God's grace we were given that miracle.  In fact, I'm even on reading week this week from my "school".  So all of us were down there getting black lung from all the dust, but I was totally loving it.  My husband was home since he has no job, my 3 oldest sons, my daughter and myself (the little guys were laying on couches sick with colds, sadly) and we were killing it in the barn.  The music was blaring, stuff was moving out of there and it was getting better and better by the minute.  It was like it used to be when the kids were young.  We all had a goal in mind and together we were getting it done.  It felt so good.  So, a favourite day because the property was getting cleaned up and also because we were accomplishing so much, having a fun time and it was as a family.  I was just thanking God all day.

Will we get it all done in time?  I sure hope so!  Only a few days left and lots still to do.....

The Numbers Speak!

This past weekend was record-breaking - still can't believe it!  I can't believe people pull up, get out of their cars as if they are at a winery or something, walk over and expect a tasting or a glass of wine.  I can't believe they want to come.  I can't believe they enjoy our wine.  I can't believe they've heard of us or that they've seen or read reviews about us.  I can't believe they chose to come to our winery.  It is mind-boggling!  

We ran the numbers last night and discovered what we had thought, that over time since we opened at the trailer in July, we have definitely seen the visitor numbers go up, the sales go up, the interest go up.  In July we had a few on the weekend and then we'd be closed during the week, but then after a few weeks of that and great weather, we thought, why not just keep it open all week and see if people come in?  Well, they did.  Slowly, but surely, a trickle of people, one here, two there, would pop in.  Then in August there were more, but still there were a few days when no one would show up if it was cold and rainy. By September we had people for sure every weekend and then by October, every weekend was steady and we almost always had people all through the week.  What we DIDN'T expect was to see that FIVE TIMES the number of sales had occurred since we started!!!  That's a 500% increase!  We were so amazed and thanking God for His goodness and faithfulness to us.

The stained glass classes have been great and people are enjoying them.  Sales for the Grand Opening are amazingly happening and we expect to have a great day.  We're now looking into having and Air BnB (or two) going by next Spring on the property.  And maybe even a food truck!  So, lots is happening and all because RM quit his job.  It's so wonderful to have the freedom to do all these things.  We HAVE to do all these things.  We CAN'T NOT do all these things.  We are paying our bills, but we have so many repairs and things on our current house that need to be done that we need to make more in order to get those things done, so we have to keep coming up with crazy ideas.  And, amazingly, we have an endless amount of crazy ideas.  Our poor children.

I have to wake them up because today we have to clean out the bottom of the barn....so much to do!!!!

A Snapshot of Life

Over the years I've started many posts with this phrase, "What a week!"  I think having so many people in the family is why that phrase gets used so much.  We have 9 living here now and those 9 lives represent a LOT of life.  That's not even including my daughter and her husband's life and now baby to come!  With my older son alone, who has been looking for a job for months now, we have been praying, watching, waiting and seeking jobs alongside him.  He's gone through the depths of discouragement where he literally says, "I hate my life" to moments of hope where he gets an encouraging tip or meets a person who prays for him.  I have to admit, though I am his biggest cheerleader, I've also had moments where I ask God, "Why? Why aren't you helping him?"  But there's always this thought in the back of my mind, "Thank me.  Thank me for even what you don't know."  So, by faith, I always stop and try to thank God for his unemployment.  Then I've seen almost right away all the ways he has helped me or my husband and all the ways we couldn't have accomplished what we needed to do if he hadn't been around during the harvest season as he's so strong and he's helped my husband so much.  

He could have had a job this summer, but he quit to write the MCAT for the THIRD TIME. Writing it once would have killed most people, but three times he's written it now.  He tried to have a job and study the first summer, but that made him very sick because of the stress, so the last two summers he's studied full time and then written it.  He went back to work last year after the MCAT, but this time he knew he had to quit working at Marineland and get more experience in the medical field in order to get in to med school.  He's applied to over 40 positions.  It just makes no sense, but again, there's this nagging feeling that maybe just maybe God is purposely testing him, keeping him humble, always trying to show him He has something better than we could ask or imagine and that He's ON PURPOSE keeping his resume from the eyes of certain employers so that he doesn't get the jobs he's applied to.  

Finally this week he had an interview at an ophthalmologist's office.  Tomorrow he'll get his final interview where he meets the surgeon.  This job is ideal.  My son is pinching himself if it works out.  First of all it's close.  That matters these days with gas prices.  Also, it's in a doctor's office where he would be alongside a highly respected doctor in Canada who is one of a couple doctors who performs certain surgeries.  This doctor apparently is amazing to work for, loves to train and mentor his employees and is just a good guy it seems.  My son came back from his first interview and was so excited about the opportunities this job would give him.  The techs who interviewed him said this guy will get him into med school.  Well, we'll see about that, but it sure gave him hope!  They were fascinated by my son's experience in Africa alongside a doctor who did eye surgeries in the bush.  Looking back, of course, you can see how God prepared my son for a job like this.  I just love how you never know why you do certain things and then you see later how they all come together.  So, we'll hopefully know tomorrow if he gets this job.  I'm already praising God, but I have to wait for official word.

That same son, in the name of getting volunteer experience, has started coaching basketball at a local church.  This is hilarious as he's not a basketball player, but because he's 6 ft. tall and the kids he's coaching are 8, he appears to be an expert.  There were no spots for my 12 year old son as they had no programs for his age, but miraculously, they said, "Just bring him!  He can help coach!" What?!  I couldn't believe it.  He now goes in with my older son each week and helps "coach".  This is also truly hilarious as he's no expert, but this is the BEST thing for him, getting him out, helping younger kids, giving him responsibility.  I just love how God has my kids in the palm of his hand and is literally guiding them each day and putting things in front of them I could NEVER have planned.

Back to job hunting and that full day....My other son, who is 16, got a job on the same day as my older son's interview.  He's also been looking for work.  We don't like sending our kids to "regular" jobs.  There are certain environments that are so toxic and dangerous.  We also love sending our kids together, which isn't always easy.  But this time, it worked out really well.  My older daughter works at a bakery/cafe where she works for a Christian family who run a business together.  My daughter has been watching how they do things and has been very impressed with their success.  I kept saying, "Could J work there, too?"  Well, now it has worked out.  My son was interviewed last week and then they asked him to come in tomorrow and possibly Saturday.  Again, looking back, it's amazing to see how my son was prepared.  At camp this summer we volunteered in the kitchen together and he prepared all sorts of food alongside me.  If he had had his way, he NEVER would have gone and he was so socially anxious that he HATED his first few days there, but I saw it as a spiritual battle that had to be won, so I persisted in the darkest of times and by God's grace, we made it through and my son thrived.  That experience is what got him the job I'm convinced as he learned to work under someone else's direction not just mine.  And, the best part is, he will be with his sister, working together at times, driving in together, maybe even being trained by her.  I look up at heaven and just say, "Thank you!"

That's just two kids.  I'm telling you, I could go on and on...

RM and I see God's hand in just about every person who comes to our trailer.  We had a discouraging day a couple days ago, the first day in weeks where we didn't get anyone coming by to buy wine.  But that same day we sold our Pilot, the vehicle that had been sitting on the property for nearly 3 years just taking up space.  Out of the blue my husband saw on Instagram an ad saying "We'll buy your junk cars".  He applied online and the next thing you know someone was here buying it for more than we'd ever been offered before.  It'll be picked up today or tomorrow and we already have the cash.  We feel like we are slowly, with God's amazing help, getting the clutter off the property.  It feels like we are going from one broken down space to another and making it great.  The stained glass studio is an example.  I never thought I'd see the day that that was done.  It's a whole new space!  The shed where the truck was parked is going to be great, too, and that's where the winery making equipment will ultimately go.  It's all happening so fast.

At the end of the day, we still try to sit around and debrief.  We always say, "Come and sit for 5 minutes please", but it always turns into an hour long discussion.  This week it's been all about the Grand Opening.  Our kids shake their heads at what we take on, but this week another lady came by and I always ask where the people come from.  She said she used to live around the corner and then mentioned the name of a local winery.  That winery is beautiful and super successful and I couldn't understand why she would have left it and moved away!  But she said, "Oh, I didn't live there when it looked like what it looks like now.  I was only a teen.  If I'd only known what I could've had!"  That really hit me.  We talk about selling every day.  Sometimes seriously as it's so much work to live here.  Sometimes in jest as we just want a vacation.  But then I picture my kids driving by when they're 40 and seeing what someone else managed to do with our farm, rebuilding it, making it beautiful and I don't want them to drive by and say, "That's our farm?  That beautiful place was where we used to live?  I had no idea it could look like that! I wish we'd never left."  So, we asked them yesterday to once again, hang in there.  We have a vision of victory!  We are doing everything we can to make it beautiful and it is coming along, it's taking time, but it's happening.  

So much to do before our Grand opening, so we will be scrambling, but we had to make a date.  We had to force ourselves, otherwise it never would have happened.  I'm curious how it will all come together, but when I see what God has already done, I'm sure He'll be in this, too!

Gathering up Supplies for the Future Generations

I'm sitting here this morning wondering who we are and how this all happened.  I have created several events online in just the last two days - stained glass classes and then hay mazes - and I'm just about to created another one for our grand opening at the end of the month.  It's incredible - I don't even recognize us!  

My husband gave me a tour of his new "stained glass studio".  It's starting to look really good!  In addition to teaching courses now, he's always selling all the supplies, tools, glass, etc.  When he went to go pick up the glass with one of my sons a couple weeks ago, my son said to him, "Uh, did you just start another business?"  "Yaaaa?"  And that's literally what happens around here nearly weekly, or so it seems.  We didn't sit there thinking, "Should we start another business?"  It just kind of happened.  We needed the teaching income from the stained glass and, well, you can't just teach stained glass and hope the students know where to get the glass and tools, so suddenly we were selling all of that, too.  Turns out, it's been a lifelong dream of my husband.  He's been doing stained glass since he was in his 20s and has always wanted to have his own stained glass studio.  How cool that he's able to do that now!  This is the thing I'm noticing about his retirement - he's trying to pack into a short time what he's always wanted to do his entire life!  That might explain why we're so busy.  I know you can't live in regret, but it kind of makes me wish we'd figured this out a little sooner.  When you look back with hindsight, it was always fear-driven, in a way, that motivated us to get "regular work".  And, we didn't know where to start, even though he's had these skills as long as I've known him.  I was never the entrepreneurial type, but he was.  It's a funny thing to be married to someone so long and just be figuring him out and myself out only now.  I wonder what would have happened if we'd discovered these things about ourselves earlier on.  Just as an aside - people always say don't get married young because you don't know who you are when you're so young and you'll drift apart.  But I say, when you marry who God planned for you, then you figure each other out as you get older and you become one as you get older.  I'm really loving this whole marriage thing.  I wouldn't be who I am today without him and he wouldn't be either.  I think that other way of thinking is hogwash (love that word) and is entirely worldly thinking.

Meanwhile, I have overwhelmed kids - by us, by school, by lack of work (one needs a job BADLY).  As I read in 1 Chronicles yesterday, I was immediately struck by how David longed to be the one to build a temple for the Lord, but God said "no", it'll be your son.  So, David, in his fatherliness said to himself, "Ok, if it can't be me, then I'm going to prepare everything I can for my son so that when he's ready he'll have a better head start".  Well, ok, not in those exact words, but pretty close.  That kind of describes how I feel.  I want to be the one who experiences success in my lifetime, but it's starting to look like it won't be me, maybe it'll be the next generation.  We are running out of life to be as successful as I'd hoped.  However, maybe we're just the ones to set up the next generation.  RM's parents moved to Canada so that their children would have more opportunities and "success" than they did in Europe.  In so many ways, that's exactly what they've done.  Each generation stands on the shoulders of those before.

When David finally gets the gold, silver, bronze, cedar and iron all ready for him in quantities so large that they can't be measured, he then charges Solomon with amazing words, "Arise and work!"  And then later, "Arise and go build!"  It's as if he's saying, "Ok, I did the background work for you, now it's your turn to finish up...."  I love that he didn't leave him like a rich teen who doesn't have to do anything.  No, he says, Go, do it.  The rest is up to you.  So that's what I read to the kids yesterday.  I told them, "I know school is hard - one child is really suffering in his science classes and wants to quit - but you can't!  Arise and work!"   So I was encouraged and I tried to give them the pep talk of a lifetime (which I do just about every day).  If Solomon was told to go and do it, so can you.  But you have to ARISE - get up!  Move forward!  My job as a parent is to gather the supplies, which, Lord help me, I feel like I'm doing.  I tell my husband almost daily that this would be WAY EASIER if I didn't have to homeschool my children, and oh, also homeschool 9 others (not including their parents) on a daily and weekly basis.  But, that's not changing any time soon.  So we press on, trying so hard not to complain.

It's Thansksgiving weekend this weekend.  Back in the olden days, this would have been a relaxing wonderful weekend sitting around a table, eating great food and enjoying family.  Now, I'll be running around like a mad woman, stuffing food in my family's face and scrambling to pull off a dinner while entertaining my entire town.  What a different time.  I'm still thankful.  It's still fun for me.  In the last two days alone I've met people I never would have met from our town and we are making really cool connections in our community that we would have never made.  I'm feeling very connected to the community for the first time and I'm really loving that.  There's a cost for sure and I'm praying God will use us for His glory.  There's a big picture I haven't quite seen yet, but I'm praying our farm, our family, will draw people to Him somehow.  

It's only been three months since this went nuts.  Three months since RM quit his job and there's no looking back.  Every day we feel like we are hunting and gathering for our food and in so many ways we are.  The first month or two there was only a few cars on the weekend.  But now there are people every single day.  We are seeing regular people and they are slowly, unknowingly helping feed our family and get what we need to pay our bills.  Every time someone pulls up we shake our heads in awe.  Then when they purchase, we shake our heads again - unbelievable.  So there are lots of reasons to be thankful.  Hopefully, it'll be our way of gathering up gold, silver, iron, cedar and bronze for our children.

Harvest Hosts

Right now, on our property, we have two camper vans parked by our hay maze.  Two couples (and a little baby) have driven across the US, on their way to the east coast and are currently staying the night on our farm.  We've never met them before and probably won't ever again, but from what we can tell they are the nicest people!  We recently signed up to become Harvest Hosts and this is what happens when you do!

By becoming a Harvest Host you have people come and camp on your property for usually just a night entirely for free - except there's a catch - Harvest Hosts are typically farms or wineries and the deal is they have to buy from you whatever you are selling.  We sell wine, so last night, they bought wine!  We've had just three couples come so far, but as of yesterday two more have booked.  We want to do an Air Bnb one day, too, so this is kind of like that, just that we don't have to provided anything for them, not even a bathroom.  They have to be self-contained.  I have to say I love this soooooo much.  It is soooooo fun for me meeting new people literally every day.  I am having my best life.

We are absolutely in awe of how we are being sustained daily, literally our daily bread.  We continue to sell hay and that has been a miracle in itself.  This past weekend was record sales.  People just keep driving by and stopping.  People are wondering who in the world, what in the world, is going on.  It is just so funny to me who drops by and over and over again the feedback is amazing.  Even if we get a retail space one day, the trailer is a keeper.  People just love it.

Stained glass classes are slowly filling up, it's amazing.  We still need many more students, but it's a good start.  We are trusting for more.  So, this living by faith thing is hard, but so incredible at the same time.