23 years later and nothing has turned out as planned

Not sure what exactly I thought our future would look like, but it wasn’t this.

23 years ago, I said I do. I was young, going to school to be an English teacher, and marrying the hot boy I’d fallen head over heals for in the whapping 10 months I’d known him. We wanted to live in FT. Worth our whole lives. We were going to have 1 birth child then adopt a 2nd. We were going to live simple…normal lives.

Now, here we are 23 years later and amazingly still head over heals for eachother. We have 2 bio kids, 1 adopted child, and one nephew/kinship kiddo we are raising. I have a step-son that we found out about a few months before we got hitched, and a nice that we temporarily raised a couple of years. Our family tree is kind-of all over the place. We no longer live in Fort Worth in that simple life we dreamed of. Nope…kinda hard to do simple with 4, sometimes 5, and as many as 6 kids…

Simple does not reside here. Neither does sanity, in case you are wondering…

There is plenty of wine though.

To top off the crazy, this year, we decided to buy some acreage of land in East Texas, to…wait for it…raise cattle, and chickens, and maybe bees. Ha, and people called me crazy when I added a puppy!

That’s right, Matts gonna build our dream house in the middle of nowhere and we’re gonna be ranchers. In fact, I’ve already started with backyard chickens. And, do you know the craziest part of it? I love it! This girly girl, completely loves every part of it. I love nature, and no neighbors for miles. I love cultivating land, and creating. And I love those stupid birds! I will sit in that chicken coop like the crazy bird lady as they hop on my lap and shoulders. Who have I become? Seriously, I’m asking! I wonder how I’ll be with the cows…

I’ve always been a dreamer. Matt and I have dreamed about our future for over 23 years. Most of it has not turned out as planned. Some of it is way harder than I would have ever dreamed. Other parts far exceed anything I could have imagined. I’m not sure I would change much if I could, because it’s all led us to this amazing chapter. I’m not sure where the journey will end, but I am sure it’ll continue to be one wild and crazy fun ride.

Did I mention I’m now a part of a Texas cattle rancher forum and a raising chickens forum? Again I ask, who am I? Many blogs to come about homesteading, off the grid living (yup trying to do this completely green and self sustaining), home building, chicken raising, and eventually cattle ranching.

And so the adventure begins…or continues…