Day 291
All this talk about restoration is definitely fun, but it is lots of work. Anyone who knows me knows that I seek a healthy balance of work and play in both my personal and professional lives. My balance might even be leaning more to the play side.
Maybe it’s just because I am paying more attention to this area of our world, but barns seem to be used for much more than farm work these days. They seem to be transformed into event venues to host weddings, family reunions, and business meetings.
Our barn is more of a working barn so I don't see us hosting a wedding anytime soon. That doesn't mean we can’t use it for fun.
My wife and I volunteered to host our 4H club's Halloween party. This gave us a good opportunity to deepen relationships with our new 4H friends while simultaneously organizing the barn. My kids enjoyed decorating the barn and were very excited to have other kids meet our chickens, play on our playsets, go on a haunted candy hike, and make lots of s’mores.
Apparently, Mother Nature isn't a big fan of Halloween because she had different plans.
Still, we are flexible folk so we didn't let a little (actually a whole lot) of rain stop us from having a good time.
When the party was scheduled to start and nobody had arrived, we were wondering if the cold and wet weather had scared everyone away. But when one car arrived, it turned into a small parade and before you knew it, our barn was full of lots of 4H families ready to party.
With chickens squawking, guests talking, and Halloween music reverberating around the decorated barn, everyone enjoyed plenty of food and drink. Though everyone loves an assortment of appetizers and pizza, the highlights were the activities. The kids enjoyed painting pumpkins, turning themselves into toilet paper mummies, participating in a costume contest, and jumping on the trampoline while trying to grab handfuls of candy.
Through a lot of what we had planned was rained out, we now know we can host a successful barn party. I am sure this will be the first of many.
