Lana Stenner - The Grace-Filled Homestead: Lessons Ive Learned about Faith, Family, and the Farm

THE

grace - filled

HOMESTEAD

LANA

STENNER

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Photograph on page 158 by Carl Molle

Photographs on pages 120 and 212 by Makena Hubbs All other photographs by Lana Stenner

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The Grace-Filled Homestead

Copyright 2022 by Lana Stenner

Published by Ten Peaks Press, an imprint of Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

ISBN 978-0-7369-8466-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-7369-8467-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022931419

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TO MY

PRECIOUS FAMILY

CJ, Colton, Cameron, Isaiah, Sophia, Madalyn, and Riley Rose

You Are My Sunshine

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Contents

Let us dance in the sun wearing wildflowers in our hair and grace in our soul.

Susan Polis Schutz

Homesteading is literally in my blood.

I descend from the pioneering spirit of my great-grandparents, who crossed the plains in a covered wagon to stake their ground in Missouri. Many of the flourishing branches of my family tree have lived lives of self-sufficiency and simple beauty. And I am no exception. My parents were both raised on small farms in different states. I loved hearing the stories of chasing escaped baby pigs, using the cold creek water as a natural milk refrigerator, and my Nonnie heading to the coop to select the Sunday dinner chicken. While some kids may have cringed at the rawness or work of it all, I found it exciting. Even magical.

Years went by, cities crowded in, and my grandparents began the transition to city life. By the time I came along, the family home was in an average Midwestern suburban neighborhood. I grew up with all the typical trappings of a 70s and 80s childhood, including roller skating rinks, peach Nehi soda, and fabulous TV sitcoms. For entertainment, I searched for coins in the couch cushions so I could ride my bike to the convenience store and play the Pac-Man video game machine. All these activities were enjoyable, yet by the time my mother hollered for us to come in for dinner, my friends and I had made our way to the woods behind the neighborhood and were catching tadpoles in the creek, jumping on logs, and building forts in trees. The new video games could never compete with the alluring call of the outdoors.

This was my happy place.

My parents kept our homesteading heritage alive in the suburbs in small ways, including the creation of a small garden in the backyard. Some of my fondest memories are of spending time in the strawberry patch with my mom. It was pure delight to pop a juicy berry in my mouth, straight from the plant. The large ones we would buy from the store in off-seasons were nothing compared to the sweet burst of flavor from those tiny homegrown berries that we harvested from our own yard each June.

I hold these memories with such gratitude because those moments collectively got me hooked on gardening at a very young age. And this fascination with gardening became my connection to loving the land and wanting to spend my time honoring and interacting with it. This childhood of digging, planting, and enjoying the fruitfulness of the earth prepared me for the life I would share with my future husband.

I grew up and married my high school sweetheart, CJ, a true outdoorsman. We began dreaming of our future life together in a home surrounded by fields of flowers, vegetable gardens, and lots of room for babies. Our first five years of marriage, however, were a fast-paced blur. After college, I started my career in the corporate financial world with long hours and lots of stress. CJ worked at an intense job for the airlines, but it came with the wonderful benefit of free travel. From the outside, it looked like we were at the beginning of a successful, on-track life. We had a house in the right neighborhood, two incomes, no little ones yet, and weekend trips to the coast or wherever we wanted. But we knew the toll that this good life was taking. We worked too hard and too much, striving to be happy. By the way, striving to be happy is not a healthy formula for actual happiness!

Like a lot of people in this stage of life, we soldiered on and managed the fast-paced hustle as exhaustion set in. Then when child number one was born, we recognized that we were both spiritually dry and, honestly, depleted in every way. We became reinspired by our dream of the simple homestead lifestyle God had laid on our hearts years before.

It was time to follow a different paththe right path for us. With anticipation and an occasional case of nerves, we started planning an exit. We found ways to simplify our careers, home, and spending habits so both of us could enjoy what was more important to usour growing family. Every month, we took another step toward our homestead lifestyle goals. Within a few years, we had four babies and had greatly reduced our expenses, so I became a stay-at-home mom. And best of all, we moved to a small hobby farm on four acres just inside the city limits.