Sons of Agriculture

I started this blog to document the life change of moving from a full time Agriculture teacher to a full time mom. It was a hard transition for me because I swore I could never stay home with our kids. If anything, my husband was the one who volunteered to stay home. I was also pregnant with baby number three at the time, so rational thinking wasn't always possible.

When I started telling people about my transition the responses were varied, but one in particular got me thinking. The response was, "I know a lot of people that don't use their degrees." My degree is in Agriculture Education with an endorsement in biology for middle school and high school. This seemed like a challenge to use my knowledge and "degree" for my own kids instead of someone else's kids. So this blog was also started as way of holding me accountable.

I love Agriculture, and as I look back at the last year these are some of the ways that I have shared that love with my sons:

1. Iowa State Fair: this was the first year that I wasn't working, and the boys were able to enjoy it.

2. Seedlings: the boys were amazed when a seed grew into a plant when it was smushed between wet cotton balls.

3. Butchering: the boys were respectful of the animals that we would eat. My 5-year old puts on his play apron and asks if he can wear it to butcher chickens next time.

4. Combine rides: this year during harvest the boys saw a couple of deer come out of the corn.

5. Chores: Christmas morning my husband and I drove the van down to the pig pen with the kids strapped in their car seats, so they could watch us do chores. We did chores before opening gifts.

6. Pulling weeds: identifying veggies from weeds and then deciding how the weeds hurt the veggies was an important task.

7. Flower picking: treasure hunting for flowers and then putting them in food coloring water was memorable.

8. Horse rides: They were nervous and didn't want to, but they took the risk. After a while they loved it.

9. Ticks: if you want a pet you have to take care of it, which includes pulling ticks off.

10. Recycling: my 5-year started recognizing the triangle arrow recycling sign, which means that we are at the top of our recycling game.

Agriculture doesn't mean that you have to live on a farm, we don't. But Agriculture is everywhere. It's what feeds us, clothes us, and shelters us. Be an opportunistic farmer, and go find some Agriculture.