I'm a 'City Mom'

     Early this spring, I became a participant in a unique Illinois Farm Bureau program. Developed to introduce non-rural families to agriculture and educate them about farming practices in Illinois, urban and suburban dwelling moms are recruited to participate and have the opportunity to tour several Illinois farms over the course of the season to see firsthand how crops and livestock are raised. Sponsored and coordinated by the Illinois Farm Bureau and Illinois Farm Families, tours are hosted by Illinois farmers and include presentations by a variety of agricultural professionals.

     
Previously referred to as ‘field moms’, participants have been given the new and appropriate title of 'city moms' this year. When I was contacted with acceptance into the program, I was delighted. I was also a bit surprised by my new title. Despite having lived all of my life in cities or suburbs, I've never really considered a city label for myself. Something about growing up in Nebraska just one generation removed from the farm, I suppose. So even my initial acceptance and participant title in the program has had me re-evaluating some of my own views; despite my love of and desire for more time in the country, I am a life-long city dweller.
     
As one of the "city moms" I have the privilege of touring Illinois farms with the group. During each tour we are presented with information regarding the farm itself, what products are produced there and given an overview of farming practices and techniques that are employed in the production of food by the hosting farm family. Each tour has included information presented by the farm family members and by other professionals involved in the agriculture industry.  Presenters have included; dietitians, farm bureau representatives, industry representatives and most meaningfully, Illinois farmers themselves.
     
We have been given an abundance of information and food for thought.  It is clear that there is a lot more going into every decision and practice that occurs on each farm than can be communicated in a short sound bite or one blog post.

A few of the facts about farming in Illinois that have stood out to me include:

• 97% of farms in Illinois are family owned.
Many are incorporated, like other family owned business'  for legal purposes, but continue to be family owned, farmed and operated, often with many extended family members joining in.

• Cook County has a farm bureau.
This was really a surprise to me. Cook County, Illinois actually has 8,499 acres being farmed on 127 farms.

• Illinois is a major producer of pumpkins.
I love knowing the ingredients for my favorite fall recipes are locally grown.

Other general farming information new to me:

• USDA certified organic does not mean raised completely pesticide and chemical free.

• The use of GMO seeds reduces the need for the use of pesticides by the grower, actually improving the health of the soil and safety for the farmer and consumer.

• Farmers continue to produce what the market demands.

• Farmers have a wide variety of choices about the practices employed on their farms.

Sweet corn in a no-till field.

Nick Saathoff, 4th generation family farmer and ‘city moms’ tour host, farms the Meyer- Saathoff farm with his wife, Missy, three children and extended family members. They gave examples from their farm.  Nick plants both GMO and non GMO corn.  He also plants both sweet corn and feed corn. He explained his use of GMO seed and some of the benefits of using it, including the reduced need for pesticides on the GMO crops. He has no reservations about using GMOs but he is making the extra effort to plant non GMO corn, which adds to his many farming considerations, including keeping those crops separated. He plants both because there is a market demand for both crops. Farmers, like any family business, respond to the market to continue to be an economically viable enterprise.

• Farmers choose viable (reproducible and sustainable) options for making a living and continuing to do so. 
The farmers we’ve met have communicated their deep concern for the land.  They care about the land and the soil. They have to consider the costs of production and maintaining the means of that production. They cannot use chemicals indiscriminately on their crops because they depend on the continued health of their fields for production. They have to consider the costs to themselves and their land to stay in business. 

• Farmers use advanced technology to assist them in food production.
Despite at times, having a bit of a techno phobia myself, and despite believing myself to have an excellent sense of direction, I love my GPS. Living in a large urban area it is nearly impossible to know the names of all of the surrounding suburbs, finding ones way to new locations sometimes requires an extensive atlas. Enter GPS technology - I can find my way to a new destination more quickly and so much more safely. Farmers take the use of this technology a few steps further. They use GPS systems for soil evaluation and planting. Theirs GPS system provides details about their fields and landscape equivalent to us having a system that could inform us of a newly developed pot hole on the streets of our daily commute. Smart farming.

Farming is a unique business with only 2% of the population still farming nationally, farmers are unique business people with a myriad of concerns and considerations.  A farm family in 2015 has to consider; soil health, technique choices, advanced technology and market demands.  Along with all of these practical considerations there are the intangibles.

Nick

Nick's son

As Nick puts it, "The farm is more than land and crops.  It is our family heritage and future."

http://www.watchusgrow.org/about-us/meet-the-farmers/nick-missy-saathoff-family

     
The Illinois farm families hosting the city moms program are communicating that sentiment. They are sharing their concern for that heritage and allowing us, to see firsthand how that concern influences their livelihood. Regardless of the number of generations we are removed from the farm, we all continue to be connected to the land by the food we eat. 'City Moms' are developing a deeper understanding of the work and the heritage, our connection to it and each other.

Wheat

Into the World of Competition

One of the amazing places my youngest, my beautiful and talented daughter, Adah, has

led us to, is into the world of competitive gymnastics.

We didn't set out to be gym parents but as a homeschooling family, we looked for opportunities to have our children interact with others and to be physically active. Play dates worked for quite awhile, especially when my children were toddlers and when my boys were under five. As they grew and their interests broadened, they gravitated toward the learning of more nuanced physical skills. While they still enjoyed and valued unstructured play, they desired the learning of specific skill sets. Developing and incorporating new physical skills requires teaching, training and practice. So we began to supplement the free play with some structured activities.


Organized sports programs.

Community organized sports offered interaction, physical activity and the opportunity to learn specific sports skills. Pursuing all of the above, we have found ourselves involved in organized sports programs with our kids for over a decade now. Our boys have participated in organized baseball, basketball, hockey to varying degrees, as well as in friendly neighborhood pickup games. There are more than a few stories, current and from recent family history about those activities to share. However, the given moment of the season is with my daughter; this post is about the amazing and demanding sport of gymnastics.

The gymnastics pursuit all began as an innocent interest on my part in getting my daughter into an activity of her own, where she could meet others her own age, where she could have an experience of physical activity in a structured class of her own. She had been spending a lot of time at her older brothers' baseball games and though they willingly taught her baseball skills, she showed no interest in following that beaten family path for herself. The most appealing thing about a baseball game to her was the park playground.

The climbing, tumbling fun of the playground, her interest in dance, her desire to meet and share time with other girls and probably significantly, winter, led us to a community tumbling class. I never dreamed that class would lead us into a competitive sport with my youngest. She enjoyed it and she was good at it. One class lead to another, to a training team and an invitation to join a competitive team. Eight years later, we are entrenched.

Gymnastics takes a huge family commitment for a child to participate beyond a class or two and into competition. 

As she achieves new skills and advances through the levels, I marvel at what we and so many families do to support the participation of a child in gymnastics. Despite the fact that it is her sport ( I work really hard to keep my own issues separate and to maintain the resolve that it is her sport, not mine, not ours, hers) it is a sport that requires a huge commitment from those supporting an aspiring gymnast. A gymnast's, almost daily, attendance at practices requires transportation and family scheduling to accommodate. Everyone else in the family has to adjust. We continue to eat dinner as a family regularly, but that meal isn't usually served until 8 pm, after practice. There is a substantial financial commitment that is placed on a gymnast's family that can be a burden when money is tight. (For more on that ask a gymnast's siblings).

The rewards are great as well. 

To watch a child grow and learn from the demands required is inspiring. To achieve the series of movements it takes to perform a seemingly impossible routine on a balance beam, or to finally tumble a dreaded pass across the floor with grace is a truly remarkable feat and a joy to behold. There are benefits that make providing the support behind the scenes worth while. 

The benefits of participation in the sport of gymnastics that I have observed for my now teen daughter include:

• Excellent physical conditioning, 
• a strong sense of what she can accomplish,
• an understanding of what it takes to excel in an elite sport or in any endeavor,  
• confidence,
•  positive self and body image,
• discipline, 
• strong bonds with teammates and friends who participant in gymnastics,
• appreciation of the challenges and accomplishments of others, 
• required healthy eating habits, 
• an interest in maintaining good health, 
• an interest in women's sports in general.

                                                                                 

So we are off to the next level of competition. I am looking forward to witnessing the culmination of all of the hard work my daughter has put into this endeavor. I am grateful for the opportunity. I am most grateful for the opportunity to have a very special trip together that rewards her dedication and her hard work and will more importantly, allow us to create lasting memories of love and support. 

Good luck, Adah! No matter where you place, you will always be a 10.0 in my heart!

Where We've Been, Where We Are, Where We Are Going

Homeschooling has been a part of our family's lifestyle for our entire parenting career.
As with most families, we have played, worked and learned together from day one. Despite the original plan for me to go back to work part time after my oldest was born, my husband and I made the choice for me to be a stay at home parent. That choice grew into our becoming a homeschooling family. A full time around the clock, growing, learning and asking "what's next" parenting choice that has been one of the most rewarding decisions we have ever made.


We have been there to show and describe expected behavior to our children and to set an example of a life long love of learning. We have been together day in and day out, to learn, work and love together, enjoying each others company and following each others interests as individuals and as a family along the way. We never tried to use bribery or monetary rewards system to create a desire to learn. The built in cheering section our family provides has been witness to the reward of learning itself. Being and learning together has been the positive reinforcement for continued learning, skills mastery and growth in developing relationships for each of us, myself and my husband included.

Learning happens at every stage.

It's interesting that the early days pre-K with our children aren't always considered homeschooling. Maybe it's the lack of formal instruction that negates the attempt to use the label homeschooling, for the early years of in home learning for the youngest ones, but those pre-K years are filled with continual and intense learning. Life with an infant is a quick start out of the gate into homeschooling. Fun filled and intense, life with a  baby demands learning of everyone in the family.

As Rahima Balwin Dancy said in 1989 in the title of her book published that year "You Are Your Child's First Teacher." The title, the sentiment and the book itself are all still relevant for families today. Rahima's book was one of my early parenting "handbooks" that led us to a homeschooling lifestyle. Thank you, Rahima!

"Here is an extraordinary work for those who want to develop a truly intelligent child and,

in the process, unlock new levels of their own intelligence and spirit" Joseph Chilton Pearce.

Our choice to homeschool almost two decades ago, was simply an extension of the lifestyle that we developed with babies, toddlers and young ones. A sudden arbitrary break from a fulfilling lifestyle that we had only just begun to build just didn't make much sense to us at the time. Plus, I was having too much fun and enjoyed my children too much to hand them over to someone else for the bulk of their waking hours.

And so the journey continues...

I didn't plan on homeschooling initially, but our children lead us to unexpected and exciting places as we support their interests, goals and dreams. I never planned on being a baseball mom, a gym mom or a dance mom. I never planned on having any interest in golf or being such a staunch supporter of local community colleges either, but here I am, loving the adventure of it all.



We've been through Little League Baseball, days in the sand box, park days, playgrounds,
ice rinks in the yard, bedtime stories and read alouds. We've included crafting, knitting, drawing, painting and creating from the cardboard of cereal boxes and legos. A few of these activities continue on even as my children enter the teen years and young adulthood. Some of the interests that were mine before following the uncharted, unplanned path of where you lead, I will follow, are still mine and I'm finally finding time for them again in a more uninterrupted way.

Now I create my own interruptions - another cup of coffee?

Art making, creative sewing, knitting, travel and writing about it all are just beginning to be at the fore front for me again. Being so intensely involved with my children didn't always allow me as much time as I would have liked for documentation. The thought of a blog 10 years ago was an entertaining one, but alas, I was at the baseball field or trying to show my kids where vegetables came from by planting them in the yard. Now there is the sense that documentation of life is a requirement. A life well lived is shared on the internet. The level of technology in use in our home was introduced to me by my teenagers and I am still learning to use most of it, compelled by the wonder of what can be done with it and by the cheering (chiding) of my teenager technology tutors. It's a tool, it's a tool, it's a tool, should be my mantra. I spend more time on it now than I should because it takes time to learn and I want to show my kids - I can do it!

I'm looking forward to writing more, blogging, returning to creating art in more "mature" ways.
I'm still homeschooling one, my beautiful and talented daughter. Because of her, I'm still a gym mom. There are still baseball games to attend (and it's finally good baseball to watch). Ice skating is still a winter family activity. I still try to grow vegetables in the yard though I don't get much interest from my kids anymore, they claim that they now know where vegetables come from and it's not our yard!

So, though it's based in my interest in writing, even this blog is a product of my kids interests meshed with mine, their time in history leading me down an unexpected road. I plan to blog about some of the unexpected adventures, some from the perspective of looking back, some from the perspective of looking forward and some from the thick of it right here and now.

May you enjoy my written meanderings, posted associations and maybe a few recommendations along the way as I look forward and back and hopefully, mostly, stay in the here and now.