Count your many blessings

In these hard economic times and times when we are unsure about the future of our country, I have to remember to count my blessings...my family's blessings. I have to remember that God is still in complete control...of EVERYTHING!

Here are just some of the many blessings I am thankful for:

My salvation - I would be nothing without Christ

My husband - loving husband, a godly christian man, wonderful father, brilliant businessman

Mary Blakely and Emily - my sweet girls and the love and joy they bring

Baby #3 on the way- What a joyful blessing!

My parents - always loving and supportive

Our home - such a blessing to be able to raise my girls here

True friends - the ones that love you even when you screw up....the ones that support you through it all...the ones that accept that we are all different...the ones that you can only count on one hand...if that.

We are very excited about the coming arrival of baby #3...due June 4th. That is the official due date, however, because I will have a c-section, it will probably be the week before that. Happy Birthday to me! Because we live in a small 2 bedroom house, Brett and I have been tossing around ideas of where to expand. We are thinking about putting our bedroom down in the basement and redoing a few minor things down there to make it less...well, let's say...."basementy." We had been planning to add on, but with the downturn of the economy, we just can't seem to justify spending the money on an addition. We really can rework our exisiting space and make it doable. If only we could just move to the beach house....now there is an idea!

It's TWINS!!

We proudly announce the birth of two sweet baby goats! A male and a female. They were born today...I was headed out to the barn around 4:30pm. About halfway to the barn, I heard a "new voice." I ran to the pasture and saw one little black goat standing next to Kisney (the dame). At this point, I bust through the gate, ran up to the crew and saw another little one on the other side of the mother. What a sweet surprise! What is even more surprising is that they are mostly black with white patches. Both the buck and the dame are mostly white with black, so this was a super-duper surprise! The female baby will be named Patch and the male will be named Oreo. Patch is really small, so we'll just hope and pray that they do okay in this first 24 hours. They've had milk, but not much....They are literally hours old as I post this. I would say they were born around 4:00 or 4:15 pm. Kisney is really worn out, too...more so than when she had her first (just one). I guess twins can really wear a mom out!

This is Patch.

This is Oreo.
We just came in from checking on them...it's 8:35pm...and babies and Mom are doing well.

I'm not the only one...

I have this thing that I do....I worry too much about the way I come across to people...about how I say things - even worrying about what people think of me. I have lost many nights sleep worrying. I pray and pray trying to get peace when this happens. It does eventually come, but I am left weary and somewhat defeated. Satan loves that, doesnt' he? That is exactly what he wants me to feel. This type of worry is also quite selfish...what about ME? What did I do to them? Why don't they like ME? I continue to pray that the Lord strengthens me and gives me wisdom, healing my selfish attitude.

There are so many wonderful resources to encourage us as we seek wisdom. First, and most important, the Bible. There are also great books and articles written by godly men and women to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. I came across this article this morning and I HAD to link it to my blog. Surely I'm not the only one that struggles with morbid introspection from time to time. Here is the link to the article by Nancy Wilson.

What about Queen Esther?

This post is continued from the previous one after much more thought.

God's purpose for each of us is unique. God chose women throughout history to make huge changes in the world and do His will. Queen Esther and Deborah (a judge) just to name two of many. He also called women in the bible to do things that would go against everything they were taught in that day. Ruth went to Boaz in a forward way - totally out of place in that time of society. There are so many more ways that God has used women to "get the job done."

Francine Rivers is my all time favorite Christian author. She has a series of books about women of the bible that were in the lineage of Christ. These books are good reads and scripture based. My point is that if God calls a woman to run for vice president, she should do just as he commands. If God calls a woman to be a helpmate to her husband and to stay at home and homeschool her children, then she should obey.

McCain-Palin

After watching the RNC, I am more comfy casting my vote for McCain-Palin. I just want to say a couple of things....

As we watch the campaigns of our nominees begin, I think of the many doors that will be opened for women when McCain and Palin are elected. My views on womanhood have changed so much in the past year. While I am pleased with the vice presidential nominee, I only wonder the impact that will have on my daughters. Over the past year, I have learned what the bible teaches about womanhood...God's design for women, for mothers....biblical womanhood. If I were president...don't laugh....who would mother my children? Not just care for them...I am sure we could hire very capable and loving nannies, but who would mother them? God teaches us specifically on what a wife and mother should be and how that fits into His plan for us. Yes, I know that God's plans are different for each of us...just something to think about.

At the risk of sounding a teenie weenie bit contractictory to the above thought, I do applaud the success of Sarah Palin and plan to vote for Senator McCain and Gov Palin. I applaud their views on issues, their determination, their experience. I feel that the McCain-Palin ticket is best choice for our country and I will continue to pray for our country, and for our current and future leadership.

Feed Your Bread

The summer before I started seventh grade, we moved from a neighborhood to a house "in the country." It was actually in the same town, just with a little more room to spread out. Anyway, we had neighbors right next door that we shared our long gravel drive with. Once, when I was visiting at their home, I noticed a note on the fridge that said:

Feed
Bread

It was written just like that. Now, me being an inquisitive child and thinking it was her shopping list...I asked,"Why do you need feed? You don't have any animals." She laughed and replied, "No, it's a reminder for me to feed the bread." I must have looked at her like she was crazy. I had no idea what that meant. In my house, our loaf bread did not get fed, but was fed to us! She went on to tell me that she made her own bread and that was how you started Amish bread. Oooooh. Okay. Now I get it....I think.

Now, My mom may have made home made bread before, but I don't remember....I must have been too busy playing with Barbies or something. If I remember correctly, our neighbor may have given Mom some Amish Bread starter after that....that's when I remember that we started to feed our own bread. Mom, correct me if I'm wrong.

Fast forward to present day....my friend passed along some starter for sour dough bread. I have "fed my bread", let it work, mixed the dough, let it rise, punched it down, made some loaves and they are now rising in the kitchen. I can't wait to pop them in the oven this evening. Let's just hope they turn out like bread and not bricks!

When I think about feeding the bread, I am reminded each day we are to feed ourselves with daily bread...The Word of God. "Give us this day our daily bread." Matthew 6:11 Jesus is the Bread of Life. "The Father gives you the true bread of heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world...And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:33,35

Oh the stinking smell of apples!!!

One of the great things about having 5 apple trees are, of course, the apples....then there is the down side....the stinking, rotting, bug infested apples that lay on the ground under the trees. I know, I know, you are saying, "Just rake them up!" Well, honestly, it got away from me. They started falling....I didn't get out there to rake them. The ones that fell got mashed in to the ground. Then more fell on top. We aren't mowing as short during the summer so the grass is thick and the rake won't reach down far enough into the grass....IT'S HARD! Last summer, Melecio, Brett's AWESOME maintenance forman, would always pile them up for us and then we would feed them to the cows across the street. Well, advance one year, Melecio went back to Mexico to be with his family (also a great guy) and we have a new forman. He does his job, just not like Melecio. Brett doesn't want them getting too much overtime and I think if the crew started to clean up those apples, they would certainly be into overtime! There are a ton....and my entire point of this is that THEY STINK! I just have to go out there, suck it up, pretend I am a pioneer woman and work my booty off!

So back to the up side of 5 apple trees....I made four loaves of apple cake/bread with peeled apples to spare....I found a recipe for Apple Scones, but I've not ventured there...yet. I've never been good at "cutting butter into flour" and it calls for that in the scones recipe. Besides, Brett is using my huge mixing bowl to hold his precious...and I'll add delicious....yellow meated watermelon. So my bowl is in use at the moment.

After our lessons today (which went very well), we ate lunch and headed out to the barn for the second time to check on the goat family. Still no baby.... Then we headed out to run some errands. While we were out, my "magic" back door on our van quit working. It won't stay open when I open it with the auto feature aka "magic" OR if I open it manually. Ugh! I took it by the local Japanese Automotive (great guys) and they will take a look at it next week. I hope it's not too expensive...it's out of warranty...of course! At least it's not a horse and buggy, huh? Maybe that would actually be easier....hummmm.....

Oh, that sweet apple smell!

Today, during the girls lunch, I peeled about 10 apples with my handy "apple, peeler, corer, slicer." It made such quick work of the job! Now they are awaiting some chopping to be put into apple cake...with NO nuts....per Mary B's request. I think I should have enough apples for 3 small cakes. The remaining peels and cores are sitting in bowl on the counter next to the door. The sweet smell is permeating my kitchen. The scraps are waiting to go out to the goats. My luck, they won't eat them...they've become so spoiled!

Speaking of goats...Kisney (Like Disney, but with a K), our goat doe, is going to kid (have another baby goat for those city folks) any day now. She is a "scaredy goat" so she's never been one to let us pet her. I can't get close enough to her to feel her belly to see if there is more than one kid in there. She looks about as big as last time, so I think there is just one. The last time she kidded, Brett was in China and it was the coldest day we had all winter. Talk about timing! Dad and Mom rushed over to take care of my kids...you know...Mary B and Emily....so I could run back out to the barn to take care of Kisney's kid. Hee Hee. After all that, I think I can handle another baby goat in the nice warm summer. It will be any day now, probably right now as I am sitting here typing. I'll let you know...and will have pictures, too!

Today, we finished our first day of our homeschool lessons. In Mary B's words, "I liked the counting chip game, and Clara and the Bookwagon, and the Earth, too. I loved reading my Bible because it has everything God wants us to do." She is sitting here reading this post as I write it and requested that I put the "loved" in italics because it means "looooooved." Oh, from the mouth of babes! We covered Math, Language Arts, and History and Bible. I have to say that the K12 curriculum makes it so easy and fun for the parents and children. We add Bible...it's not included in the state funded curriculum....go figure. We spent a total of four hours on our work (required and extra). Emily enjoyed learning along while we read Clara and the Bookwagon, and studied the continents and the oceans. She even pointed out where Africa was when asked. Now, she's sleeping, while Mary B has some free play (and reads my blog entry).

Now, I am off to make that Apple Cake (with no nuts). YUM!

Playing at Pooles Mill Park

Today, we met the Woody's at Pooles Mill Park. It is a great park...with the exception of the yellow jacket infestation....makes it really hard to sit and have a picnic. We actually ate our pbandj's while running up the path trying to get away from those darn pests! It was an adventure to say the least. One great thing about this park is that it the home of a 107 year old covered bridge. It is really beautiful there! The kids had a great time playing together on the playground and swings while Brandi and I got some "mom" talk time...which is always a good thing!

Tomorrow, our lessons start with GVA! We are so excited! I'll update later in the week with a report on how it is going. Please pray for us as we continue our schooling.

The Beach

I just downloaded some pics from our vacation in July. We all had so much fun! Here are some pics from the July 4th celebrations at the village.

Every year the girls wait in line for "The Balloon Man" to make a shape balloon. Brett and I watched from the patio at dinner while they waited in line.

Amicalola

Monday, we took at morning trip up to Amicalola State Park with Michele and her girls.

We packed a picnic and the girls swimsuits for some playtime in the creek. The waterfalls were BEAUTIFUL! We climbed up 175 steep steps to get to this bridge...even the little ones. They are so brave! I was the one that was nervous! It was definitely a memory making trip...their first time playing in a creek bed at the base of a waterfall!

Time to Post

I feel kind of weird posting this...no one reads it...but I don't like to leave things undone. It has been over a year since my last post. My girls are 6 and 3! We just measured them and they have grown 1 inch each since May and a total of 3 inches each in one year. Our homeschool studies start next week. We have enrolled Mary B in the second charter year (if there is such a thing) of the Georgia Virtual Academy. It is a state funded and accredited homeschool program using the k12 curriculum. We are so very excited to try this. It is free! (Well, Brett says it's reallocated money that we've already paid in taxes...and rightly so.) They are sending her textbooks, science materials, even a dry erase board. That's so funny!

So living on a little farm is wonderful! Last night, after I cooked dinner, we all headed outside to play with our animals. I groomed Cupcake (our pony) and April Ann (the Miniature horse) while the girls ran around chasing Starflower (The baby goat). I'll post pictures later. After we all got really sweaty (it was 95 degrees) we came in for baths. While the girls played in the tub, I went back out to pull the girls dresses off the clothesline. I came in and told Brett that I felt really "country." You know.."country, but comfy."

I've been reading some great books by Nancy Wilson about Biblical womanhood. They are really encouraging to the Christian mother. Her blog, Femina, is great too. Being a stay at home mother, I need all the encouragement I can get. Interestingly enough, there are only three full time stay at home moms in our church, and I am one of them (and we are the only family that homeschools in our church!) Isn't that strange? If you go down the road to the "Big" First Baptist church in our area, there are a lot of stay at home moms and several homeschool families. Now don't get me wrong, we love our church and we know that God has a purpose for us there. This path that the Lord is leading us on is wonderful and so fulfilling...and definitely narrow!