Bitter or Better

So it's 1 in the morning. Since becoming a mother, most of my nights end around 10, maybe 10:30 if I am feeling a little dangerous. But I've been awake since midnight and the Lord and I have been talking. And I had the feeling He wanted me to write, so here I am. Perhaps these late night thoughts will speak to someone….

This past week has been tough. Having five children down with the flu is not for the faint hearted. And don't let me fool you that I am tough. I have been beyond weak during this ordeal, and it ain't over yet. But tonight after dinner, I was lying on the couch, disappointment and frustration eating away at me. Silently in my head, I started naming all the injustices and inconveniences that I felt I was given this week. I will spare you that one, but a small voice whispered to me, "But what are you thankful for?"

And I felt quite convicted. Because I am a gift lister. I have a little notebook that I write down things that I notice during my days that I am thankful for. Do you think I touched it this week? Noooooo. "But Lord, if only I could cough this junk up and out and breathe deeply, I'd be able to be more thankful."

"In all things, give thanks."

"Oh, right. I am sorry. I will try."

"Right now?"

"I am thankful that even though we are under the weather now, it won't last forever. I am thankful for eyes that can still see beautiful sunsets. For a husband who even though he is sick, is still out working and providing for us. For friends who call or text to see how we are doing. For children who are playing and trying to get along even though they don't feel well. For little girls that want to cuddle and a little boy who will walk through a room and tell me he loves me."

"Feeling better?"

"Yes, Lord. Please forgive me. I forgot."

I forgot that when we close our hand to God, we think we are protecting ourselves and what is "ours", but we are only closing ourselves off from receiving His gifts. Sometimes they don't feel like gifts, sometimes we feel like we are on the punching block, but there is always something to be thankful for. Look for it. It's there. You might not see it that day, but a week from now, a month, it could take years. There are things I have experienced in life that have taken years for me to see the gift.

I want to live life openhanded. Not just so I can receive and receive from the Lord, and believe me, I do want to receive good things from the Lord. But I also want to give back to the Lord. Give back myself, and allow Him to mold me and change me, to draw me closer to Himself. To take my eyes off myself and what I feel I am owed or deserved.

We have an amazing example in Christ. On the night he was betrayed, he broke bread and gave thanks. The night before he was to go through the most agonizing pain ever experienced to man, He gave thanks. And there are many other times throughout Scripture where it is mentioned Jesus gave thanks. That isn't in there just to sound amazing. It's there to teach us an important truth. Even in the midst of intense battle and heartache, we are to give thanks. God is there.

I just want to encourage you today, friend, that God is there. Always there. But we must live open handed. Giving and receiving, and always, in everything, giving thanks.





"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." I Thessalonians 5:18

I think I have a problem with social media. Well, not all social media. Just Facebook. And honestly, I don't "think" I have a problem, I know I do. Three weeks away, I kind of got out of the habit of checking email, Facebook, and reading blogs. And I thought that once I returned home, I would not go back to some of those addicting behaviors. Wrong!!!! After about a week home, I noticed I had slipped back into some bad habits. You know, Instagram, Pinterest, they don't suck me in like Facebook. I can literally space out on Facebook, completely become oblivious to what's going on around me. I found myself even getting on while on the phone. And if I posted a picture or a status update? I was constantly checking to see if anyone liked it or commented. The Lord very kindly showed me that I was seeking approval and affirmation through this form of social media and it needed to stop. So I deactivated myself Friday night, the 31st. Today is day 2 of my detox. I deleted it off my phone, my computer's opening page….just realized I need to delete it off our iPad, but I don't use that very often. It's almost a relief. For right now. I am sure after a few days the novelty of it will wear off, and I will start to downplay my need for it and talk myself into checking to see if anyone posted anything earth shattering, or if anyone has missed me. But I am sticking to my guns.

I found that even on Friday night, family movie night, I would fix the kids up with a video and retreat to the computer. Now the computer is in the same room, but I wasn't actively sitting on the couch and watching with my kids. And I also found I would waste time during school time or in the afternoon when I should be doing something else, just scrolling. So now I am hoping this month of November my house will be cleaner, my laundry caught up, my meal plans completed, and my children interacted with more. Who knows, perhaps I will even blog more regularly?

Running the Race

Well, hello there! It's been a while since we've visited. I've been busy with beginning of the year schooling, and then a big trip to the East Coast and now we are knee deep in harvest. But I did want to get on and share with ya'll something special I have signed up to do. I signed up last week to run the 10k in the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Marathon race in Phoenix in January 2015. I signed up with Team Compassion to run as an individual and raise money for Compassion International. The money I raise will go toward their Child Survival Program (CSP) and for clean drinking water. My goal is to raise $1,000.00.

I started running a few months ago with a friend, mainly to get out and exercise and to feel better. I was really struggling with midday burnout and exhaustion. We run three times a week and it has helped me a lot. I am sleeping better, feeling better, and can be a better mama and wife to those near and dear to me. But the other day I read an inspiring post here. It inspired me to run for more than myself. Running for myself will get old rather quickly. I already find it hard to get out of bed and run when I know my friend won't be able to meet me. But to run for someone else, to have a goal to help others, will hopefully continue to be my incentive. Plus, my husband and I were just in Haiti in February, (you can read about our trip here) and we know how this money will impact the communities it is sent to. So that is what I am doing. I am running for clean drinking water and for babies to have a chance at life. As my feet pound the pavement and I am getting closer to that 6.1 mile mark (which is what a 10k is, for us Americans), I can pray that God will take the intentions of my heart and this small offering, and increase it a hundredfold. Will you join me? This is where you can go to my personal page and donate money to a great cause. I love this because I don't have to be responsible for any money. It never touches my hands.  Team Compassion .

So, moving on from that, I am also finding myself struggling with social media. I have come to the realization that a Facebook fast may be in order. I end up wasting so much time on there. Time that could be spent with my kids, reading a book (you know I have a stack of about 10 books to read), or writing on here. There was a time in my life when I thought I was going to be a writer. But even if I don't write a blockbuster novel, part of the reason I started this blog was to document our life for our children. I don't scrapbook or put together cute photo albums, so this is it. I should put diligence into my efforts, instead of getting sucked into the world of Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my ramblings. May you have a blessed last week of October.

What we've been up to….

I haven't got on here in a really long time. I can't believe that one of my last post's was in October, and here it is, the week before Christmas. Life has just been zooming by. I feel like a lot has happened. Harvest wrapped up, and we said goodbye to one of our close friends, not really goodbye, but they moved to Kansas. And so we won't be able to get together as often as we'd like too…..

Childhood friends are some of the best and the ones we look back on so fondly. We love this family so much!
It was then Thanksgiving, and we had a surprise birthday party for my wonderful mother-in-law…

She was totally surprised! It was great.
We got our tree and decorated for Christmas. It feels so much different then last year, trying to move in at this time. Much more relaxed and enjoyable.

And we received this from Compassion International….

It's our sponsor tour information box!!! It has our name tags, luggage tags, bubbles, stickers, and a tour book, explaining about our trip.
Yes, Nate and I are headed to  Haiti in February! We are so excited! For a few years now, I would get emails from Compassion about going on a sponsor tour, but we also had a tiny baby, still nursing infant, or I was expecting a child. This is the first time that it worked out.
So we are flying down, touring the Compassion facilities and seeing what they do down there, and we also get to meet our child and spend the day with him!
Friday we went to Tucson to get our shots for the trip. By the time we got home, we both had sore arms, and I had a fever and headache. Saturday and Sunday I was nauseous and Sunday evening I broke out in a rash. Today, Tuesday, the rash is almost gone and so are all the other side effects. And we haven't even taken the rare diseases (at least for the U.S.) yet. We have typhoid fever and malaria pills to take. But it will all be worth. We are so excited. I am hoping I will be able to blog about it either while we are there or at least take lots of pictures to blog about once we get back. The kids will be spending time with Nate's parents and their other cousins, so they are super excited about that.

But this is a little of what's been going on around here. I am looking forward to being stretched and grown by the Lord on our trip and just in general in the coming year. There are lots of changes coming to our life, some in good, but bittersweet ways. We will be losing another set of dear friends early in the coming year and that is always hard. Especially for our kids to understand. Moving is never easy, but we must be obedient and faithful to where God calls us to go. It's the "Great Adventure" and we get the privilege to come along!

Living Epistles

When I was in middle school and high school, I dreamed of writing the next great American novel. It would become one of the most beloved novels of all time. It would touch and change lives. I would think out plots in my head, dream up characters, and have conversations between said characters in my head. I had favorite heroine names....Ariel, Emma, and Alaina. I took my drafts into my middle school Language Arts teacher, for him to edit, correct and critique. Looking back now, I can see how foolish I was. I believe truly great writers don't set out to write the next blockbuster, but rather they have to write because they will go crazy if they don't. It doesn't matter if anyone else reads it or not.

When I got married, I took an online writing class, but once I found myself pregnant, my heart lost interest. After having Charlotte, I felt the itch to write again. But everything I would write felt generic, like I'd read it before. I wanted something original.

I was thinking the other day, about the end of Anne of Ingleside, after Anne has met up again with Christine Stuart, the girl who tried to win Gilbert's heart in Anne of the Island. Anne is feeling frumpy and not very interesting next to Christine who has traveled the world. Christine makes a snarky comment about all the children they have and how when Anne was in high school she had such high goals of being a writer and is now only a mother. Anne retorts that now she is writing "living epistles".

Sigh. I love that. I am writing "living epistles". I may not write the next blockbuster novel that turns the world upside down and restores world peace, but I am helping to write the lives of my five children. There are so many days when the never ending laundry, dust, stickiness on the floors, and sibling fights and ungratefulness grate on my ears and heart and I wonder if this is all there is. Does anyone notice what I do? Do I make a difference? The answer is always yes. I want my children to look back fondly on their childhood. To not feel as though they couldn't play and imagine their hearts out. To feel safe and loved. To know Jesus love through my prayers, touch, and care. It is a constant battle to see the bigger picture. It's always so easy to become consumed with the small, the frustration, the weariness of motherhood. I don't wake up most mornings feeling like I am embarking on some great adventure and I am so excited to teach and train my kids. Most mornings I just want to be left alone so I can finish my cup of coffee. That's all I ask. Please. Lukewarm coffee is just not the same. But it's my life. And reheated in the microwave just isn't the same.

But the grace and mercy of Jesus. Right there for the taking, if I just stop and ask. To stop and thank Him for the gifts. The countless gifts of each and everyday. Even the messy, ugly and inconvenient gifts. There is always a blessing, an invitation to come closer. From Him who gave all, to us, to me, who just whines to drink a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

So I just want to encourage those writing "living epistles". It truly is a marathon. Pace yourself. Rest in His perfect love and strength. Trust.....

Friday's Photos from the Farm....

Is it Friday again, all ready?!? We are in full swing monsoon around here....

thunderhead building in the afternoon out my back door

raining down at the south farm

thunderhead

isn't that cool? My hubby took this..

looking for some mud

sunset out my back door

The clouds are awesome this time of year. There really is no other word to describe them. You can see a tiny puff of white in the morning over the Chiricahua's and by lunchtime it's this huge, anvil shaped cloud with amazing height.

We have been getting rain the last few days. Last night we did get some hail as well, which isn't desired. We have a half circle of corn that got hit pretty hard, but we will just have to wait and see how bad the damage is. At least it's just a half circle and not everything! :)

With monsoonal rain comes life. I love the rain. I love watching the desert come to life, hills and roadsides green up. You see the occasional wildflowers and poppies springing up alongside the road. The corn seems to grow a foot overnight.

The downside is the mud. Oh, the mud. if there are puddles of water within 50 feet of the house, our kids will find them. I don't mind them playing in the mud as much as I mind the cleaning it up later. But you can't have one without the other.....and if you want to see the wild woman in me unleashed, just trek mud across my just cleaned floors! :)

But I do love you monsoon.....just please don't hail on our corn again!

A Daybook for Thursday

Outside my window..... I see glorious white, puffy clouds, building into storm clouds...hopefully bringing us a "gentle" rain today.

I am thinking....how beautiful a still house is...not an empty house, but still, where everyone is resting, taking a break, refreshing themselves. I am also thinking that we will be starting school in a month and where did the summer go?????

I am thankful for.....a sturdy home from the blowing winds, air conditioning for humid days, a morning run, children willing to help (at least today)

From the learning room.....waiting on schoolbooks to arrive...science, history, oh the fun of opening the boxes. The girls have been doing 4 pages of workbooks everyday and reading to keep some things fresh. We finished Little House on the Prairie and have moved onto the The Banks of Plum Creek. And the missionary book on Adoniram Judson. 

From the kitchen....canned peaches with my sweet sisters a little more then a week ago, still have strawberries to make jam with in my freezer, made fudge with Nutella and it was super yummy. Used coconut oil for the first time today..

I am reading.....I just finished Brennan Manning's Furious Love,  Gloria Furman's Glimpses of Grace, and now am reading What is a family? by Edith Schaeffer and a book by Timothy Keller. Can't remember the title. Yes, I am on a reading kick right now. 

I am hoping.....for a good year of crops, health, remembering life isn't an emergency, there is time to get all that "needs" to be done and to know the difference...

I am hearing.....the music from "A Holy Experience", Ann Voskamp's blog on my computer. I like to listen to it when it's quiet....and the sound of my husband's diesel pickup going down the road (smile)

Around the house...oh dear! Projects, projects! Grass is growing, kids play area needs done, landscaping, and the list goes on! :)

One of my favorite things....a cup of coffee in the late afternoon to help me push through the remainder of the day...(decaf or else I can't sleep at night)

A few plans for the rest of the week....some cleaning, laundry, reading, Awana meeting, family night at church, baptism service Sunday, my husband and I teaching children's church...busy, but good weekend in sight.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing....

Photo Friday from the Farm.....

I thought it would be fun to add a weekly post...perhaps to make it me more disciplined in writing? or not....but photos from the farm....which of course would happen on Friday so I have the perfect alliteration going on!!! My language arts teacher, Ms. Fetterolf would be so happy...her name even begins with an F! 

So here we go...pictures from the farm.....

sunset over the mountains

corn

and more corn!

grain bins up

beautiful view

So this is a little bit of my world.....through my husband's camera phone!! He does a great job.
Life has been crazy the month of June. I am glad that we decided to take a break from homeschooling for the month. Both my sisters were out and we had a great time....making nutella fudge, canning peaches, watching BBC shows on Netflix, and reading. So.much.fun. And VBS was thrown in there and the kiddos were sick for like two weeks and we were MIA in general. So glad that's over! :)

Hope you had a great 4th of July. Maybe next week I'll have more to say....

Spring

Here is a little taste of what's been going on around here. April we have two birthdays....Charlotte turned 6 and Larissa turned 9. The last year of single digits for her.....Nate and I are starting to feel older.... May also brings birthdays. My husband turned a year older and our sweet baby Anne will be ONE next Saturday. I don't know how that happened. It doesn't feel possible that it's already been a year. She has a mouthful of teeth and crawls around like no one's business. Soon she'll be walking...and then it will feel like my baby's grown up.

Now that our commitments are starting to lighten up, we are potty training in more earnest. My goal is to have the boy done by the end of June. One in diapers.....I can hardly wait. He does pretty well...it's just the #2. As you can see, we added some new members to our family. We have our pony, Autumn, our dog, Doc Holiday and now we have two pups. Blue is our two blue-eyed pup, and Scout is our black/blue eyed pup. They are super cute and the kids love to play with them. We also got goldfish to eat the algae in Autumn's water tank. I jokingly told my husband the other day that we have more animals then children....it feels like it's been a while since that's happened. The last time was when we had chickens and we haven't had any for a few years.

We also built a bigger area for Autumn. She has lots more room to wander around and explore. She seems much happier since moving over to the bigger pen. We also got one of those cute barn sheds which reminds me of my native Pennsylvania. It's lofted, so I have storage space. We are using half of it for tack and the other is the kids' play area.

We have been blessed with lots of amazing sunsets these last few weeks. There have been clouds in the sky in the evening which gives the evening light a different look. I love the mountains.

The guys are cutting and baling hay. I am looking forward to them cutting and baling some here by the house later this month. I love the smell of fresh baled hay. And Nate has started planting corn.

 Spring is always a fun time of year. Planting hopes and dreams and waiting to see what comes up.

the newest member of the family....

Meet the newest member of our family.....

This is Autumn. She is a pony that a friend of ours blessed us with. The kids are beyond over the moon. She receives lots of attention...brushing, petting, feeding, and leading around the pen. This is a total learning experience for us. The kids seem really into it right now, and I hope it will continue.

Here is our little almost ten month old....eating corn and mashed potatoes!

She is growing so fast and is so much fun. She is trying to crawl. She inches around like a worm. She babbles at you and looks at you like you should know exactly what she just said. It's so sweet.

Yesterday I took a Sunday afternoon walk up the cemetery up the road from our house. I haven't been up there yet. It might sound a little crazy, but I enjoy walking around the cemetery reading the stones, imagining the lives and stories buried there. There were quite a few little ones resting there. It makes my heart tender to think of the sorrow of those parents, and to imagine how that would feel. How could you even try to memorialize your child in so few words?

We had a winter storm over the weekend. I caught the sunset Friday night. It was breathtaking....

With the wide open spaces and the mountains in the background, God has a huge canvas to paint our evening sunsets and sunrises on. I am so thankful to be able to witness it.

That was our weekend in a nutshell.....hopefully off to a good week!!

Yes, I am still here!!!

Yes, I am still here. It feels like I can hardly find the time to check off items on my "to do" list, let alone sit down and try to compose a somewhat coherent post. And to be honest, I don't even know why life feels so busy right now. We are just doing life. School, cleaning, eating, cleaning, sleeping, reading lots of books. Not my books, but toddler books. The boy has decided he loves books. Which is so awesome, yet after the fourth book, I am feeling tired and he is just getting started. And we must read "Goodnight Moon" at naptime and bed time and he must practically punch the book out of my hand as he looks for the "mou". That's mouse for those of you who may not know Landonese! :) He has this habit of not finishing his words.
I took the tribe back to Pennsylvania in January. We were there for three weeks. My sister flew in and drove back with me. Bless her. The trip in went amazingly well. Even baby girl did awesome. Unfortunately Alaina came down with the flu on the second to last day and then Larissa got it once we got to PA which meant we were down for like a week. Then baby girl decided to push through a tooth and kept me up all hours of the night and would only sleep if she were next to me. Did I ever mention that her nickname around here is "Roo" because she kicks like a kangaroo? Seriously. I'd just fall asleep and be awoken by a kick to the gut.  And to wrap it up I got sick the last week we were in. So needless to say, we didn't run around a whole lot. Which is actually okay. We spent lots of time with just my family, which is so nice. My family are some of my most favorite people in the whole world. And I don't say that lightly, because I know there are lots of families who can hardly stand to be in the same room with each other. I know it's a rare gift, and I am so thankful for it.
The trip back didn't go as smooth. It's funny how everyone is just so excited to get to the destination, but once it's time to go home, the novelty has worn off. Plus we had to drive through snow/sleet/slush in Virginia and Tennessee, till we reached Nashville. Landon probably did the best the whole trip. He never complained. He couldn't fight with anyone because he didn't have a sister right next to him. He was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. My sweet mom volunteered to drive home with us....bless her heart. She still loves her grandkids, and that's all I have to say about that! :)
So now we are home and I am still unpacking boxes from our move the week before Christmas. Yes, who moves the week before Christmas????  And I want to take pictures of the house so I can post them, but I haven't got around to it yet.
As soon as I posted that I felt the Lord was telling my word for the year was ABIDE, I was feeling a little leery. Because I am thinking the only way I will learn how to ABIDE is by going through circumstances that require me to ABIDE. It's like saying you will never ever do something and then 10 years later God completely humbles you when you do it! And I must say there have been incidents in my life recently that cause me to step back and ask God, "where are you in this? Are you here?" So with the move comes new routine, and I am struggling here. I just can't seem to find a daily rhythm that is working for us. I used to make meal plans and for some reason lately, everything inside of my revolts at the making of a meal plan. Yet I panic the next day if I don't know what's for lunch. (We eat our main meal at lunch because I know the farmer will be in between noon and 12:30....after that it could be anywhere from 6-9 in the evening!) I don't know why I do this to myself. Making a meal plan for the week only takes 10 minutes at the most, but I just.don't.want.to.
I am also struggling with the whole media thing. For the kids. They want to play games on the ipad. They want to watch Brady Brunch reruns on Hallmark. How much is too much? I'd rather they not at all, yet at the same time technology is part of our lives and you can't just ignore it. They have to learn how to use the computer. I am at a loss. Suggestions welcomed......
One thing I just started doing, like it's the second time, so it's still totally new....is having coffee dates with my girls.  Everyone goes down for naps except the one whose turn it is, and we brew some decaf coffee and sit on the sofa and talk. About anything they want. If they want to play a game, we play a game. I actually got the idea from my sister who took each of my older girls out when we were in Pennsylvania. Today was an extra special day because our darling second daughter, prayed , confessed she was a sinner and asked Jesus to be her Savior! Praise His Name. I am so completely humbled and baffled that I got the privilege to witness that.
Sooo, that's a little of what's going on 'round here. How about you?

contentment

Oh, this has been a week!!! I don't even know where to begin. Life has just been feeling crazy for the last several weeks. And I notice when I start to feel overwhelmed, I begin to play the "if only" game. Like, "If only we were moved into our new house, I wouldn't have to walk out and turn the switch for the water to come back on..." "If only we were moved into our house, I would be more organized and the house would be cleaner, because obviously it's much easier to keep a "new" house cleaner then a not so new one.."..."If only the hay buyer would pay us from two months back, I would be able to get caught up on bills, and not be biting my fingers down to nothing!!!" You get the gist.....discontentment wells up big time in my heart and I take it out on my kids, my man, and my fingers!!! But God is showing me that until I learn to be content in my circumstances now, I won't ever be content in my circumstances later, when the trial has passed. Look for the gifts in the midst of the storm. God is continually blessing, always blessing, even when I am NOT blessing or deserve the blessing.
I could tell my frustration has reached the boiling point because I am getting mad at my children over things they can't control. And then I explode and then have to apologize later because I have been preaching to my kids they don't need to yell to express themselves, and then here is mom doing the exact thing she told them not to do. You may be surprised to know this sad little truth about me....but I am a YELLER! And I hate that about myself. It's something I am really trying to get a handle on, but it just bubbles out, more like a tidal wave, and I find myself raising my voice. Parenting is one of the most humbling jobs EVER!!! I think my job is to mold and shape my childrens' character and more often then not, they are molding and shaping mine. Bringing to the surface all kinds of junk I don't want to deal with. I am just preaching to myself.
Since this is November, I thought I would name some of things I am thankful for....the little gifts throughout the day I have been finding. I am still keeping my list. I just haven't been blogging about it. I reached 1000 a couple of months ago. It felt like a big milestone! :) So, just to remind myself to breathe and  slow down.....

fireplace on
pjs in the afternoon
flannel sheets
heater
boy going potty!!!!
butterflies breaking out of cocoons
last field of hay for the season
corn harvest over
activities slowing down
inching closer to moving day (Praise Him!)
encouraging talk with sister
making Christmas plans
carpet being installed
washer and dryer delivered (no more duct tape)
kids all bathed
afternoon quiet
quick forgiveness from  my middle child
hard lessons on patience & self control (grin)
being humbled
baby girl sitting up ( all ready!!!!)
learning contentment (please let it be a short lesson!)
school on the blanket
Thankgiving tree

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is.next.week. Where is the year going? My baby girl will be SIX months old in two days!!! Trying to remember to be thankful and content.......

Ramblings

I know it's been a while since I have written....it's not as if there hasn't been anything going on. I just haven't had the time to sit down and write anything. That's not really true....there's a lot of times where I feel as though I don't have anything to say....
But I did want to share a really neat thing from over at A Holy Experience. Ann Voskamp is offering a Thanksgiving Tree. You can download the pdf and cut out your leaves. The leaves have bible verses on one side and you can write what you are thankful for on the other....

It's a great way to get the kids thinking about things they are thankful for and the bountiful way God blesses us each and every day. The link is http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/11/a-christian-family-thanksgiving-activity-the-thanks-giving-tree-free-printable/

In other news....the boy is potty training! And praise the Lord he is so much easier than his sisters! I am so thankful. This is one of my least favorite parts of toddlerdom. But he is making it a breeze. And running me out of M&Ms! But hey, whatever works, right?

My baby girl is just growing like a weed. She will be six months this month. Half a year old. I can still remember every detail of her birth like it was yesterday. It seems unreal how time is just flying by.

I got bored the other night and cut my bangs. I have inherited expressive face lines. That's a fancy way of saying I've got lotsa lines on my forehead. I thought it might be nice to hide them, hence the bangs. Now I need to get my hair highlighted to cover up all my grays. Not that I am stressed or anything....

The house is moving along S L O W L Y. We are ready for carpet except we have been waiting on closet doors for the last two months. Yes, TWO months!!!! I won't say from where, but now it looks as though they should be in Black Friday. Who wants to go pick up closet doors on Black Friday? Not this girl. You couldn't get me within five miles of a store on Black Friday. Guess it's good I live at least 30 miles from any store!!! :)

I think the reason I haven't had anything to write about is because I haven't been reading any mind stretching books lately. That could be because I have all my books packed up because I thought we'd be moved by now!!! Of course, I have been trying to read my Bible everyday, although I totally missed the last week of October. My mind should be stretched by reading that alone, however I think my approach to my Bible reading is wrong. I rarely pray before getting into the Word and ask God to show me something new. I need to start doing that. God's Word is alive and I need to approach it that way. Not in a familiar, nonchalant, indifferent way.

We are supposed to get really cold this weekend and possibly get snow up in the mountains. I put flannel sheets on all the beds in anticipation. I heart flannel sheets. They are so cozy and comfy. Too bad I live in the high desert where we hardly ever get snow. I love all the cold weather clothes but by lunchtime out here you are ready to break out the tank tops.

One of my oldest friends, we've known each other since 3rd grade (her) , fourth grade (me) is coming to visit me tomorrow! She's expecting her 4th in February and I can't wait to see her in all her pregnancy glory. I miss these things because we don't live near each other. I wish Pennsylvania was New Mexico. Life would be so much more convenient.

Well, my baby is starting to stir, so I must go. Have a great weekend!

Alaina turns 7

Time is just flying by this fall. I had every intention of getting birthday pics and a birthday tribute done LAST weekend, but here it is, over a week later!

Our sweet Alaina turned 7 last Saturday, the 13th. I can't believe it. I was pregnant with her when we moved into this house, and in the next few weeks we will be moving. It's kinda bittersweet. Lots of good memories here...four babies born here. But Alaina was our first and oh, what a time it was. She was and is our only baby born without our midwife present! She talked dad through everything on her cell phone as she was flying down Davis Road to get here! You can read more here. But everything went perfectly and we have had the privilege of having Alaina in our family these last seven years.....

Our  birthday girl requested spice cupcakes with nutella buttercream frosting. For those of you who pinterest, you may have seen the recipe floating around. Well, we tried it, and it was good!

spice cupcakes with nutella frosting

Our sweet birthday girl!

He's just here for the cake!

Happy Birthday to you!

Singing to the birthday girl

Grandpa teasing her with blowing out the match

She got it!

We had a fun evening with Grandpa & Grandma Zuck. Life has been crazy around here with harvest, house and everything else going on. It was nice to just hang out and be silly. :)
Alaina got an adventure backpack for her birthday which includes a sketchbook, magnifying glass, binoculars, flower press, butterfly net, and field books for identifying birds, insects and wildflowers. She and her sisters have been out catching bugs and butterflies to examine more closely. She also received a butterfly pavilion which we now have 12 caterpillars in which we are watching. They will turn into Painted Lady butterflies.

We love you sweet Alaina. You are so fun, very laid back, and we couldn't imagine life without you. Happy Birthday!!!!

The Farmer's Favorite Time of Year....

Yes, we have begun the most favorite time of year around here.....HARVEST!!!

My father in law is running the combine, my husband is driving the tractor and cart

My father in law is retiring this year....so I am sure it's somewhat bittersweet.

Landon waiting his turn to ride

Big sister just got done with her turn

Love this picture of him watching

Landon has become very attached to his "mammer". It goes everywhere with him...even to bed!

Here they come!

Love that picture of the harvest with the mountains in the background.

Filling up

Like father, like son.

Harvest is probably one of the most anticipated times of the year for a farmer. You get to bring in all that hard work and see how you've done. All those hours of working ground, planting, fertilizing, watering, and babysitting pivots is finally over! The kids look forward to combine and tractor rides. I look forward to being able to see again and not be enclosed by corn on all sides! :)  Plus it means the winding down of another year. The morning starts aren't as early, and the work day isn't as long. I especially like that!

But that's what's going on 'round here....for probably the next month or so. Then it's the holiday season. All ready!!! Time is just a flyin' by.....