Fire Recovery Update - Mar 16, 2023

We are behind on starting seedlings. We haven’t made much progress on cleaning out the burned shop. The gardens haven’t been prepped yet.

Sometimes I find myself getting a little anxious about the future. I don’t necessarily mean the next six years, but the next six months. I tend to be a person who works backwards in time and then puts the pieces in place. For instance I start with…”Ok, we will start school the third week of August…” I then put in the commitments in August, July, June etc. I start to realize that the pieces that have been delayed in January and February because of the fire, have affected my schedule in August and September and October. The problem is that my August dates aren’t flexible and then I realize that late tomatoes and peppers means processing them during the start of school, which is a difficult set of overlapping duties. I then start expressing my anxiety about how in the world I will process tomatoes and peppers while teaching classes two days a week and helping seven children at home the other days. I look around, start cataloging the busiest season of our year and wonder how in the world we will get it done.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Matthew 6:25-27

The fire, the clean-up of the destruction, the need to re-create our entire product inventory and create a new space for the business in the busiest time of seed buying season, a loss of customers and sales, a wrecked car…all these things are exhausting and valid reason for stress and anxiety, but more so, they are an opportunity to minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, submit to the will of God for our lives. We know that nothing happens without the hand of God. He has not turned his back on His people and he draws near to us even in the midst of fear and doubt.

It is important for us to catalog all that happens each week so we, extended family, friends, our children and future grandchildren can look back and see how God uses trials for His glory. So often we make life about us. The reality is that life isn’t about our family. This world, and all of creation, including us, is about Him. When we take our eyes off of Him and look at ourselves, we have anxiety. Cataloging the details helps me relieve that anxiety for myself and family and hopefully is a blessing to many of you.

This week the kids and I went back to school. We do a hybrid style school where we are in class Tuesday and Thursday with other children and teachers, and home Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I teach a very rowdy class of 11 sixth graders, 8 of which are boys. Adjusting to this after an amazing vacation nearly led me to hand in my resignation after Tuesday’s class, which my other teachers refused to accept. We started to hit a groove with school by the end of the week so I am hoping this should push us to spring break with less tears and frustration.

Jason worked many, many hours this week. Just keeping up with orders and marketing for the business is a full time job. Our two employees that work two days a week are amazing and manage to mostly keep up. Our children and a couple friends’ children fill in the gaps after school work is done to keep us operating on the off days. This hasn’t allowed Jason to spend too much time this week working on the construction of the new office. He did get the second window installed and was able to install the HVAC system.

We were able to finish the internet conduit and bury it, and spread the gravel so the path from the house to the shop is clean and the area between the buildings is passable again.

Last week we told you about a deer strike totaling our older Honda minivan. After considering all possibilities, we decided to take the insurance money and start a search for a new van. This task has consumed way too many hours of my time this week. However, after deciding to venture to another city to car search, we were contacted by an old friend about the purchase of their vehicle. I will share more details once that transaction is completed, but this has been just another example of the very thing God told me weeks ago…”I am in the details.”

Thank you for walking this journey with us through your support, prayers, and even just reading these entries each week and responding with encouraging words. Truly, send encouragement. It helps on the hard days.

Much grace,

Shannon and Jason, for the whole family