garden fresh berries !!!!!!!

**** Bethany updated her blog.....finally!!!! and
new picture of Lilian/ Mavie on the side, she's 5 months now, she is soooooo cute!!!!!!

There is nothing like garden fresh veggies but garden fresh strawberries are a pure delight!!!!! My husband has known all our married days that I love strawberries, so two years ago he set to work on building raised beds for strawberries and this year is the prime year for a big harvest! We have had several bowls this size so far. They were brought in, washed and devoured! I did manage to save the guys a cereal bowl full and Mercy was trying to "sneek" some! I think Terry is going to have to keep expanding the strawberry beds because there are more people that like them besides me now! When I see fresh fruit and vegetables like this, grown on ground that is cursed, can you imagine the beauty and taste of fruit grown upon the New Earth as it speaks in Revelation!!!! I can not wait to eat some strawberries with Joel under the Tree of Life one day!

Goodness, to re-cap the last few days makes me tired! On Friday, Terry, Bethany, Anna, Micah and Andrew headed to Dewey Oklahoma about 3 hours away to the Nubian/Dairy show. Caleb and Daniel worked and were at one job site and Elijah and a hired friend were at another job site! Lotsa work and we are soo grateful! Now with the goat show, that started up Sat. morn, Bethany had an incredible day, a day for rewards for her all her labors, she had several first, seconds and thirds but the great win of the day was Grand Champion with one of her Nubian bucks and also a Reserved Grand with another buck! Anna did a great job with her picture taking endeavor. The goat crew did not get back home until Sunday morning at 3 am!!!!! Then some of the guys on Saturday night played basketball and then went to check trout lines on the river and they did get in until 2 am, so it was hard for me to go to sleep with so many gone and not getting in so late. Thankfully the Lord allowed everyone to arrive safely! Thank you for praying if you did for safety.

Mother's Day was a blessing, we went out to eat in the late afternoon. Nice not to cook and clean up!!! So blessed by each child!

Suppose to be serious weather here this evening. Last evening as we were coming back from eating we saw 4 ABC weather channel news vehicles from New York, so I guess it is serious! They were headed North, so don't know if they were staking out more towards Kansas or what, but we cleaned the storm shelter out and have it prepared if needed. I just try to make sure we get hard drives with pictures, Anna gets her camera (and her boots) LOL!, Bethany gets inside puppies!

Dave and Kate are coming for dinner tonight! Italian is on the menu with Garden Spinach salad and Anna is in charge of dessert! Thanks for wishing Kate a HB! They are working so hard on their new house. If you would like to keep up them here's their blog. Be prepared for lots of adventure!!!!!!!!!

I have a surprise post in store for tomorrow with some exciting information! I have to get all of you wondering!!!! (no baby though)

my mother's day !!!!!!

Hope everyone has had a beautiful Mother's Day! I have! We all went out to eat, 14 people x $= "why we do not do it often!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was sooooo nice! I thank all my children and my dear husband who treated me! We then went and took a few pictures for the record. It was windy, can you tell?????My hair was all over the place :) Oh, well, maybe its a look of fun and frolic with my family!

Blessings to you!

i love flip-flops !

I love flip-flops and therefore a certain little girl loves them too!!! And colors to go with every outfit! I really like Old Navy, cotton stuff and flip-flops that are cheap! Although flip-flops, gardens and snakes don't go too well together. Yesterday I stabbed one with a pitchfork and had it pinned to the ground and Micah came and finished it off for me!

New glasses were it!!! Thank you for all you kind comments.....blush, blush! Now I just have to get use to looking out of the bottom of the lens and not under because I had trained myself with my old ones since I could not see out of them up close. If you see me and my head is bobbing up and down, I am just trying to get all the invisible lines in place to see!!!!!! LOL!!!~!~!

Today is Kate's birthday!! She is 20! Done with the "teeny bopper" years. Twenty years old, married to a one of a kind guy, Dave and the sweetest baby ever, Lilian and building a new house. How blessed! She is like our own, her and Dave are super special to us! So wish her a Happy Birthday!!!



Things are spinning around here. Mercy and I went on a little town trip this morning, to get some fabric to make the curtain for the goat show that Anna will be taking the winners pictures in front of and we got the flip-flops, we got every color they had in size 6, have to check out the other store!!!!! One of Bethany's Nubian goats had twin does this morning, so glad for girls! Terry and the guys have more work happening than 4 men can do, great thing! The can lights for the new space are in boxes awaiting guys to put them up maybe tonight and keep moving forward with progress.

I have been reading in the book of Job again, we just have too much in common as far a loss and grieving so to learn from one that made it through is good to my heart. Once we can come to the place of fully resting in God's wisdom instead of our thoughts and ideas of what makes life smooth, good and happy, I think anyone going through grieving will begin to see the light that shines brighter and brighter until the full day, when we will see our little ones again. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Job 28:12 In that same chapter it says man does not know the price of it, and its not found upon the land of the living, it can not be had for exchange of gold and there is not enough weight in silver to receive it, gold and crystal can not equal it and if you were rich with jewels you could not exchange it for wisdom. It is hid form the eyes of the living, even death and destruction can not apprehend it. There is only one place to get it v.23, God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. It is only through and in Him that it can be known.It says His wisdom knows the ends of the earth and all of eternity. I love the next verses, 25-26, To make the weight for the winds and he weigtheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightening of the thunder. The reason I am blessed by those verses because it is talking about storms, yes He is in control of the elements we receive on this earth but more than that he is in control of the "storms of life." It says he weighs the winds and waters by His measure. Even though it feels as though they might "crush" they are really sent to conform. The weight and it does literally feel like your carrying weights in a trial, is measured for us personally. It says He made a decree for the rain, the trial will not exceed into something beyond grace that is given to walk through it and the last part of the verse, and a way for the lightening of thunder, there is a way to go through the shadow of death, a storm and its by and through Jesus and trusting in His wisdom that perfected the storm for our life. The last verse in chapter 28 says, and unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord , that is wisdom...... He told us all the places we humans often look, the world, through riches and things of this world would not even come close to gaining wisdom but he "told man" you get it from fearing Me. I heard a definition one time of what a healthy fear of the Lord is and I think our children are very familiar with it, older ones anyway. The fear of the Lord is to know that God's eye is upon us at all times and that every thought, word deed and action, we will have to give an account of before the Lord. I am thankful that I am learning to trust His wisdom with this trial because I really do not know what is best for me or my family, except it come from scripture.

Gotta get with it.....dinner??????.......look in freezer!!!!!!!! guys want meat!

something new.....

something new
can you guess what it is?



(hair color the same :)
guess again......

blessed by a scripture this morning .....

We got a busy week ahead, as always! Some friends are coming for a visit on Tuesday to check out and investigate Mr. Morris' garden, grocery week, and Bethany has a her first Nubian/ Dairy show this weekend and it will be an out of town/hotel and all that stuff ! She is ever busy clipping and getting 9 goats ready to show! She is very dedicated to our farm, her goats and giving her very best to this endeavor and it keeps her busy! Anna will be going to the goat show as well. She has a big opportunity to do some photography work . They needed a photographer to take pictures of the winners from each class and there is 80 classes. It will be a paying job so she is very excited about that and surely goats will not be difficult customers ! ")

Getting a bit of school done, laundry and thinking I might grill up some burgers tonight before volley-ball in the gym night.

There are a many things/character a family our size will always need work on. We are imperfect people living amongst imperfect siblings/parents. There are many things I desire for our children, as you would likely share many or most of the same desires. One is that our children would dwell together in unity. Now they don't have knock down drag-outs by any means and many times it has to do with opinions and preferences which is all ok, we are each our own in what we like and dislike and of course keeping all those choices in line with scripture. Sometimes there are discussions or perhaps misunderstandings that just need calm talking about instead of "I am going to have the last word," or it would be a good idea if you just be quiet and not pursue that conversation. I am grateful for something that does exists amongst our children and that is they do try/seek to make restitution maybe not as quickly as I would like but at least they do seek it. We have several "leaders" in our home and that is so exciting, we just need to always lead toward godliness, edification, and to build each other up. Ok, that was class 101 for the older ones!!!

There are a few readers here that I know their personal stories of having a toddler/small child die. They are the only ones that could possibly relate to the statement we have heard so many times in this grieving journey. People throw it out to help I know, give comfort, but it is a statement that I can not stand to hear, a statement of "why would you say that if you have not experienced it," its a statement I want to scream and say, not out of anger but its just not true! Its the statement of " time heals." I want to say emphatically even after 3 years, it is not true. My heart aches, hurts and tears fall everyday! I read a verse this morning that every person needs to tuck away in their minds and heart and use accordingly instead of saying "time heals." God will heal but it will be in eternity, right now its grace. Ok, here it is, Job 12:12, With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. In the length of days or time that has passed since Joel went to Jesus, I have not been healed but what has happened is profound to my heart. I have no idea or understand the "whys" of it all but in the length of days that has gone by I am growing in understanding, not of why but of Who! I am growing in "understanding" of a Great God that I knew very little of, the time or length of days is giving me understanding in the God of Creation that holds every breath we take and sets every bound around about us and we will not exceed those bounds by a second. I am gaining more understanding of what its like to "see" what I can not see right now, I am growing in understanding that God's works are all done out of love, justness and his plans are all wise and that the integrity of His heart can be trusted. The length of days are not bringing a healing to my broken heart but the length of days is feeding my dusty heart. So much more there as I meditate upon that verse, it felt so good to find a way to describe other than the "time heals" phrase, that is so weak and trite, but length of days as we apply ourselves to His word will give us an understanding of the One that has called our little ones to Himself at such a young age! May you grow in understanding as the length of days continue until we hold them again.

Its beautiful, hot weather today, I just love it!!! Getting some sun outside! We finally got the drywall up and the room cleaned for church on Sunday. We still have to do another round of tape and bed and sand. There is drywall dust that I cannot get out of here. Next phase will be the can lights in place and then the wood ceiling and then texture but not where the cabinets will go and after that it will be the most expensive stuff, getting cabinets, counter top, double oven and flooring. That phase could be way down the road but progress is progress. I am grateful for hard working sons and husband that want to do the work as the Lord provides resources.

Blessings on this Monday to you!