Grandparents and farming are God’s gifts

On the heels of our week in Lynchburg, Philip and I said goodbye to our little man and headed back to Richmond for a little “stay-cation” while Wade spent the week in Lynchburg with his Mimi and Papa. Yes, we were kid-free for an entire week! Pardon me if I seem overly enthusiastic about this little break, because I do love my son, but it was a much longed for respite that Philip and I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving us such a wonderful gift. There are really no words to express our gratitude…

Of course we had no cause to worry about Wade while we were apart—he was livin’ it up in the ‘burg! Between his first tractor ride, his visits to see the horses, trips to check out the construction happening at the neighbor’s house, and fun in the tree swing, I’d say he had his fair share of excitement. In fact, I felt kind of bad thinking he’d be coming home to such a boring existence compared to his life in Lynchburg!

Anyway, Philip and I spent the majority of the week in Richmond, obsessively watching many episodes each night of this show and making sure to get our fair share of house projects checked off the ‘ol list (although, who are we kidding, we could never accomplish all that we set out to do…our sights were set high and the week just went by so darn fast!). We did decide to take a little time away from casa Worthington and make the trek over to Staunton, Va for a fun little getaway. We love visiting interesting new places, and Staunton had peaked our interest before. We were not disappointed; in fact, we’re thinking we may just have to put dear Staunton on our list of “places to consider moving when the time comes to settle down somewhere (ie. a long time from now…)”

We stayed at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel & Conference Center. It was really nice, and we especially loved that it was located right downtown, so we could easily access the fun shops and restaurants of downtown Staunton. We had a fabulous dinner here and a tasty breakfast here. We were drawn to visit these places for our meals in large part because they serve food grown at Polyface Farm, of Food Inc. fame. And the food was superb. I’ve never tasted pork tenderloin like the one I had at Zynodoa, and the pasteured Polyface eggs I ate for breakfast at Cranberry’s were equally delish.

{out for dinner}

What was particularly exciting about our trip to Staunton was that we capped it off with a visit to Polyface Farm itself! It’s located about 15-20 mins outside of Staunton in the beautiful countryside (where our food should come from!) of Swoope, Va. Our only regret was that we didn’t remember to pack a big enough cooler to hold lots and lots of high quality meat, poultry, and eggs! We did manage to secure an insulated bag, so we didn’t leave empty handed!

Polyface chickens get to see sunlight and roam around! Then they go into the little shelter to lay their eggs.

Look at all the precious little chicks! Wade would have loved this part.

Wade would have really loved this part for sure!

And look who we got to meet!!!:

Joel Salatin himself! Definitely a very cool thing for us. Those of you who know me shouldn’t be surprised by this picture—of course I have no shame when it comes to times like these. We were so excited when we saw him, and I wasted no time rushing up to meet him. We chatted with him a bit and told him how much we appreciated his refreshing take on the Gospel as a motive for environmental stewardship. We were actually surprised that we were the first people to point out that Tim Keller of Redeemer PCA in New York City had referenced his work in one of his sermons, “Can faith be green?” It’s a free listen through Redeemer’s site. It comes highly recommended from us and you can listen by clicking here. It raises issues with which Philip and I are trying to wrestle, so I’d love to hear what you think of it.