Who's Ready For Spring?!

This is the time of year that short glimpses of spring start to appear but then give way to a harsh reminder that it is still early March in Iowa. A time of transition, a time of anxiousness and a time when you have just about had enough of another Iowa winter. This year, I am more excited than ever to see the weather change and begin a new chapter at Simple Ridge. Big plans for our first full year here. With that comes a lot of preparation work. This is the kind of work that I don’t mind doing. When the work you are doing is getting you closer to the dream, if you don’t lose sight of that, it doesn’t feel much like work. Plus, I have three boys to help and to learn right alongside me and their mother. This year, we will be preparing an ideal apiary location and installing bees, building a chicken coop, a chicken run, preparing a garden, planting wildflowers and other plants and making sure the location is just right for all of these things as we look toward the future. I am sure that there will be more things that get thrown on the list but we will make that choice together. All of this as we navigate baseball practices, tournaments, work travel and maybe even basketball tournaments and practices as well. We choose to be busy and we can choose to prioritize what we are going to be busy with. Our family has always been full throttle and on the go but this opportunity that God has given us allows us the chance to be busy and to slow down at the same time and we are grateful for that. As long as we keep our eyes on what is important and prioritize those things in our life, we will come out the other end with feelings of accomplishment, appreciation and plenty of great memories. Since my last entry, we have adopted 5 barn cats and we are on the verge of “opening the door”. I have a good feeling that this group will stick around. They are much more friendly than the last two cats that we had and don’t seem to mind their surroundings. Next week, 15 baby chicks will arrive, and we will all learn together how to take care of them. A lot of firsts for us this year and we look forward to enjoying them all…