It seems that I rarely have a space of several hours, alone, when things are quiet, to just write and think…. Our small home is full; my husband and I have 5 children, they often have friends over and our family dog Daisy. There is never a dull moment on the Cone Family Farm.
I guess I should start by explaining the name “Prudent
Picks.” Prudent Picks has been many things over the years…originally I used the
name when I was an independent sales representative. I represented companies
that were made in the U.S.A. or were environmentally friendly, thus being
Prudent Picks. Later, I used the name when I had a booth in a local antique
store. My shelves were filled with finds that I deemed to be Prudent Picks. And
now, well now I feel that it has become a part of who I am. I think I spend a
lot of time talking about choices with both my family and my friends. I am
constantly thinking about choices that include: what to buy, what to cook, what
to grow, what to save and how to raise our children.
When I look back over the choices I have made in life, I can
pinpoint that one moment, that one choice that changed everything! The tipping
point in my life was in December of 1990. I had come home from college and gone
out to dinner with a “guy” I had dated in high school. We had only dated
briefly our junior year and then he dated a friend of mine our senior year. I
was surprised when he began calling me during the fall of my freshman year of
college. So during Christmas, we went on this “date” and on the way home we
stopped at the airport to sit and watch the planes taking off and landing. We
sat and talked, and then he told me that I was the one he wanted to spend the
rest of his life with. I made a choice in that moment… I told him I wanted to
date someone else.
Fast forward to 2013 after all these years, children and
difficult divorces….I went on a date with this same “guy”, who took me back to
that same airport and asked me if I would change my mind. And… I said, “Yes!”
Many years of pain and heartache could have been so different if back in 1990,
I had made a different choice. We have five perfect children and I would never
change a thing about a single one of them. I look at them, and I see why I had
to say no back then.
Now however, I think a little longer and I evaluate a little
more thoroughly when making a choice. Sometimes, I drive my husband crazy. I
realize that often there is not a right or a wrong choice; there is only a best
choice, for this moment, for this situation.
So join me as we build our family, and move back to my
husband’s family farm. I know I will make mistakes but I also know that we will
learn and grow…together.
