farm family of the year

Big weekend here in blogmother land. Our very dear and wonderful friends were named Farm Family of the Year and their award banquet was held last night. As soon as Mike heard they were being nominated he shot his hand in the air and volunteered to give the citation should they win. He's spent the past few weeks writing his speech and agonizing over delivering it. By late last week he claimed he was sorry he ever made the offer.

Here's the thing though, if you haven't had the chance to hear Mike speak in public.... he's good. Really good. Spending a year as President of a large volunteer organization gave him a crash course in public speaking and he graduated with honours. He likes to tell everyone that I'm the writer in the family, but when he has to he's pretty damn good himself. Last night was no exception. I do admit that by the time we got through dinner and the entertainment my heart was pounding just as loudly as his was up on stage. None of that was necessary because he knocked right out of the park.

Why were we both so nervous? You see we count ML and Terry among our very best friends in this world. They are the type of friends you can call in the middle of the night..... and we have called in the middle of the night needing help and they got up and helped, no questions asked. I can tell you all that they have shared with us and us with them, laughter, worry, happy times, not so happy times, movies, dinners, hands of cards, but it's really so much bigger than that. They've shared their lives with us, they've shared their family. We live two minutes apart which makes wandering in and out of each other's homes easy, which is good because we do it a fair bit.

They are very likely the most giving people I have ever met. Their volunteer resume is as long as my arm and I'd like to publicly thank them for inspiring me to do more and be more. I was very slowly working my way to becoming an active volunteer when I dipped my toe into School Council six years ago. ML sat as Chair of Council at the time and wow what a whirl wind it's been ever since. She really made me see how much good stuff came to your life when you did for others.

Farmers Feed Cities, that's the slogan and it's beyond true. I wish everyone had the opportunity to see the work day of a farmer. I have known hard workers in my life, but Terry is the hardest working person I have ever met. He has to be, farmers account for 1% of the population and are responsible for feeding the other 99%. So seriously, if you did eat today... thank a farmer.