What's Been Happenin'

Well, I am back!

And I have missed you!

I have decided to keep the blog as it was and recommit it to the Lord.

In the past, I said that if only one person is encouraged or challenged by something I write, than it is worth my time.  I will continue to share about our family, farm and faith and trust that the words of my "pen" will be pleasing in His sight and encouraging to at least one of you. 

 To catch you up on what has transpired in the last few months......

Ben turned 25 on Jan. 1st
On his birthday, he had whiskers and I did not get a picture of him.  :(
Now that it is warm, he decided to say "goodbye" to the them.
This was a surprise picture, but he is handsome, don't you think?  :)

Oliver turned 11 on Feb. 4th
Enjoyed having his cousins over to play.

 

Beginning of April we found out we are going to be grandparents 

again at the beginning of December, 

Lord willing!  :)

Kelsey was baptized on April 20th.
Beautiful, happy day!

 

I turned 48 on May 1st

There is no photo to prove it, so I guess I can just say that I turned 30! :)

Toby turned 1 on May 8th

Dave turned 48 on May 10th

and since I did take a photo to prove it, I am now married to

a wonderful man 18 yrs. my senior!  ♥

 

We are finished with our home school co-op for this school year.  

We will miss everyone, but we were also very ready for summer break.

New addition to the farm....

Bacon & Sausage

Things we have been enjoying......

The color reen

 

Blossoming strawberry plants and addition of blueberry plants 

mixed with dandelions :)

 

flowering apple trees

 

 I always wanted a dogwood tree ever since I was a little girl who listened over 

and over to Al Shade singing the Legend of the Dogwood Tree.  Finally was able to buy one at

a nursery auction.  They are so beautiful!  They have flowers on them with 

2 long petals and 2 short petals - likeness of a cross - and the middle is the crown of thorns.

 

Now don't go criticizing the mason who laid the crooked

little side walls!  The head honcho mason around here is super busy

(which we are very grateful for after the winter we had), so the lady of the 

house had to do the best she could at making this project complete.  

Do you think he would hire me?

this is what it looked like before....

 

And then there are the 5 sons who always amaze me with their strength!

These 2 brought topsoil up for the one garden and 

this one cylinder dump wouldn't lift it, so they had to shovel some off .....

 

until George just decided to lift it himself!  :)

 

Just kidding!

Solomon took on the task of putting up a volley court on the farm....

Wolfe House Mover equipment arrived....

 

and the task of taking a useless area .....

 

and making it into a court begins....

Quite some zippy drivers!  Wow! 

Very impressed!  It was fun to watch them.

 And then there was and is and always will be.....laundry! 

But it sure is nice to hang it outside again!

 

Remember the cool lady that we posted a picture of years ago?

This lady?

  

well, here she is today, even more cool!!

 Somewhere out of the blue, this silly monkey arrived on our doorstep

and we decided to adopt him!  :)

(can't you tell it had been a very very long winter?)

 

We managed to freeze about 4 cases of bananas (for the adopted monkey, of course)!

No, honestly, there was a truck accident and it happened to be hauling.....

bananas!  They make delicious milk shakes! And for those of you

who remember.....so do hotdogs!   :)

 

This past winter, we experimented in baking grain free desserts!  

I highly recommend the book, "Against All Grain."

 

Uriah is starting an endeavor of his own - growing chickens to sell.

Today the first 100 arrived at the Post Office.

 

And last, but not least, I am still traveling the highway to better health.

I know....broken record....broken record

Thankfully, this Spring is going MUCH better than last Spring and I have

high hopes that this Summer will continue to bring improvements.  

I am learning to say "no" (most times), and listen to

when my mind & body is saying "enough, I need a break!"

(It really is good for you to sit a read a book in the middle of the day!)

  However, I also had to say a reluctant "no"

 when my mind & body was screaming "beach" and "Hawaii"

in the middle of this past winter!  Boy, that was a very hard "no" to say!

One thing remains, no matter how time ticks away,

no matter the sad conditions of this world,

no matter what good or bad situations happen to us

no matter how old or young we are

no matter how busy we are

~ God IS still there!  He IS bigger than the boogie man!  :)

And HE loves each of us!

Until next time............