I’m Lisa. I’m a brown-shouldered mom living near a seaside vegetable farm with my husband and my kids. We work hard and play hard and our fridge is truly an embarrassment of riches.

When I moved to a farm in Virginia from my beloved New York City more than a decade ago, I thought I was just taking a sabbatical year or two. When I married my farmer husband and we bought our own farm, I realized we really weren’t going anywhere. I missed my city life fiercely at first, and for a couple years I scurried back on visits as often as I could. But curiously – because I wasn’t fleeing the city when I left it – it really didn’t take so long before country living got into my bones, before our land felt like home. I never lost my love for the city, but I lost my need for it.

I did assume, what with all those big commitments – marriage, home ownership, running a business, motherhood – that life had fewer surprises in store for me. It has been humbling, exhausting, and delightful to learn that’s not how it works. In an initially-heartbreaking-but-now-quite-exciting turn of events, we put our farm on the market in early 2013, spent a growing season in the Hudson Valley, and are now settling into a life near the sea.

You can reach me at coffeeinthewoodshed (at) gmail (dot) com.