Throwing it way back to March and the Maple Syrup Festival. We have been going to this the last couple of years. It is one of my favorite field trips because even the big kids go with us.
I love it when we are all together. LOVE! These are the times when I step back and just look at them all together and I am just so thankful that God has been so generous to me. My people, my family, I love them so much.
This is going to be filed under 2015 Blog Catch Up. It's old news but I don't want to not have all of this documented. Thanks for bearing with me.
Julia and her basketball team had the opportunity to play at the Indiana Pacers arena. It was beyond amazing to watch her play in that huge arena. I don't remember if they won or lost. See, in the long run it doesn't really matter. (smiley face)
Joe and track...he had another tough season. He suffered a hamstring injury and he was never able to bounce back to his pre injury speed. I am praying for him and that he has a good season. It will be his last as he is a Senior this year. (sad face) He has already started training. Track season doesn't start until February. I'm impressed with his drive.
Thanks for playing along!
Well hello there! It has been a long a time (a really long time) since I have been on here. My absence wasn’t intentional. To be honest with you I am having a very hard time believing it is October. It’s OCTOBER!! What happened to the year?! Life seems to be flying by and I am having a hard time keeping up most days. I am trying to wrack my brain to see how I can slow it down and stay on top of it. I’m not even sure that is possible.
I have quite a few blog posts in the que that need to be touched up and posted. This blog has become an online journal for me, a scrapbook of sorts, and I don’t want to miss out on documenting these memories. I’ve also had some people ask me when I am going to blog again, which makes me happy because that means people are still reading.
So here is the quick lowdown of what is going on, in hopes of expanding on all of this later on. You know me though so don’t hold your breath. Okay?
All of the kids are in school. Gasp! (except for Henry) I know! It is going mostly OK. Big adjustment for all of us. With the kids being in school, I am busier than I’ve ever been. I thought the opposite would be true. They are getting what they need everyday (education wise) and that is a huge load lifted off of my shoulders. I can do a lot of things, but I can’t do everything and do it well. Not sure yet if the pros outweigh the cons, but this is where we are right now.
The farm population has exploded. About six weeks ago we ordered 40 more layer chicks. They will be ready to lay this upcoming spring. Bessie and Pepper have calved. Bessie’s calf didn’t make it and Pepper had a little bull calf. We also bought a miniature Hereford herd. A bull, two cows and their calves.
So, with Bessie and Pepper calving, that means I am milking cows twice a day. We have a lot of milk! I am working on our herd share contracts and I am also getting a website up and running. I am laughing as I write this because I can’t even keep up with this website. But, I thought this would be a good way for the herd shareholders to keep up with the goings on of the farm.
Would you believe I am on a little vaycay right now?!
Guess where!?!?!
Here’s a hint!
This trip with my wonderful husband, only made possible by the MOST AMAZING FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!
My dearest friend Sussette is holding down the kid, cow, chicken fort so that we could take this once in a lifetime trip to California. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve cried as I have looked around at the scenery. Scenes that I have seen so many times in pictures but can’t believe I am seeing with my very own eyes. This beautiful world is amazing!!!
We had a big snow yesterday. The kids have been in and out all. day. long. The dryer has been running constantly drying mittens and hats and snow pants. Whew. It's dark now so we are done for the night. I am loving the rosy cheeks (love them!!) and am so enjoying watching them all play together. I watch from inside behind the glass. Maybe tomorrow I will brave it and go outside and play with them. Patrick and Joe have taken over animal care for me. I am such a wimp. (I miss you Florida, and your gorgeous winters) What I am going to do when the cows are in milk and I have to be out there twice a day milking them, I just don't know. Actually I do know, I'll just do it because that's how I am made. But the thought... shudder.
Anywho, It is Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras I am sitting here having a glass of wine. Terry is cooking a low country boil. We're living it up before Terry, Julia and I start Whole30 tomorrow. Terry brought home some chocolate and soda for the kids also. Fun! Live it up people, because tomorrow it starts!
Do you like my pantry door? The idea is from Kendra at Catholic All Year. (I tried to download her document and print it out, but our slow country internet wouldn't allow it, so I spent over an hour searching for lenten clipart and made my own. Because that is the kind of crazy I am.) She has so graciously shared her ideas for Lent on her blog. If you are looking for some great ideas check her out. She is so inspiring.
P.S. If you are interested in my clipart I can get it up here for you. Just let me know. After I printed it out I wrote the date on them from tomorrow to Holy Saturday so they will know which pictures to remove each day. Feast days included. Amelia cut them all out for me and taped them up! Voila!
Happy Mardi Gras!
When Terry and I were out shopping for food for our New Year's Eve dinner, I ran into Barnes and Noble real quick to see if Lara Casey’s new book had come out yet. Have you heard of Lara? She is the creator of Southern Weddings magazine and the Make it Happen Power Sheets. Anyhow, lucky me they had the book, Make it Happen
In her book, Lara shares her story so openly and honestly about her struggles and how she has gotten to the place where she is now; living a life with purpose, a life God-centered, doing His will. Make it Happen walks you through the steps to live a more intentional, purposeful life. It will fire you up. It is an interactive book, so grab a pen and a journal!
I myself have been working through the steps and I am seeing those areas that I am needing to change. I can also see where fear has left me paralyzed to move on with my life.
I have started journaling while reading the Bible and during Mass and I can not tell you enough how much of a difference this has made in my prayer life. While reading scripture I see how our Lord is speaking to me! Reading, praying, and writing. Why haven't I done this sooner!! Looking through my past journal entries there is an ongoing theme. Can you guess? Fear!
I was reading Mark 4:35-41, you know the story, the disciples are in the boat and there is a big storm and they are all afraid and worried and the boat is tossing them around and filling with water and they are terrified. They wake up Jesus as they are freaking out, “Do something!” He awoke and rebuked the howling wind and said to the raging sea, "Peace. Be Still." And it stopped. There was an instant calm.
Well, the storm….those are my storms. The storms in my life are the fears and anxiety when I get myself all worked up with all of the “what ifs". The Lord is saying to me; to my storm; “Peace! Be still.” BE STILL.
He said to them…he says to me, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
These past two years have left me fragile. Having Thomas was such a huge blessing to us, however the pain and longing for him is still there. I’m sure it always will be. I trust in God’s plan and how He worked in that situation, and still does. I wouldn’t have done one thing differently. But, to be honest I am afraid. I am afraid of that pain again and it kind of has me stuck. I don’t want to be stuck anymore. I want to live with purpose and be ALL IN. I want to not be afraid to do what HE asks of me.
I am following Lara’s steps in the book to help me move forward. I am writing it all down and praying over all of it. I have been moved to tears quite a few times. There is something healing about writing it all down and physically seeing your fears and dreams in black and white. It is on the page looking back at you. It isn’t hidden anymore and you have to face it. I'm ready to.
#2015GoalSetting
What an absolutely beautiful day we were blessed with. It was sunny and almost got to sixty. Heaven!! We soaked it all up! We opened up the windows to air the house out a little.
The little boys were asking to do some "activities" as they call them. I have been slacking on this lately, so today, I pulled out some new lavender beeswax
Terry started building our compost pile frame. Henry was one of his helpers. Kind of.
Patrick built a tree fort and they spent quite a bit of time up there. John Paul called me for help. He claimed he was stuck. I just went over and talked him down. After he was down he thanked me for getting him out of the tree. I told him it was all him, he just needed a little encouragement. Don't we all!
The chickens are finally starting to lay! Yay! Everyday we get more and more. We have about 23 hens so soon we will have extra eggs. Patrick is in charge of the chickens, he has been waiting for eggs for eight long months now. He is excited to maybe make a little money on his egg business.
My Amelia made her first confession today. What a sweet heart. Terry took her, as it has become our tradition that Terry takes all of the kids to their first confession. For whatever reason the kids seem to have a tougher time when I take them for that first one. We have learned this over the years. It's a mommy thing I guess. No tears or fears, she went in like a boss, she was the first in line. Daddy took her for ice cream after and she came home and told me she was full of grace! Indeed dear girl. I didn't take any pictures of her beaming smile. Darn! Tomorrow.
Today was just a simple good day. Those are the best kind.
(Amazon Link)
~PRETTY~
I treated myself to some tulips on Monday because February. Tulips are my favorite flower. They make me think of spring. I think I may invest in fresh flowers every week until spring hits. They really lift my mood.
~HAPPY~
It is sunny today! I am going to park myself on that couch in the corner of our schoolroom and soak it in. So Happy! YAY sun!
~FUNNY~
There are four children in that full size bed. The little boys are displaced because their big brother who is also displaced is in their bed while his room is torn apart. Which brings me to real...
~REAL~
Our oldest son's room is in the basement. It has always been damp and cold. He would wake up in the mornings with headaches and sinus congestion and just not feeling well. We had him move upstairs for a couple of weeks and the symptoms went away. This happened a couple of times.
We knew we were going to have to rework this room so Joe has never fully unpacked from when we moved in. We were finally able to get a contractor in to take a look and sure enough the walls weren't insulated. The room also had a tile ceiling so the drafty air was moving through there quite a bit. We went down to bare bones and started from scratch. He will also have a closest!! All of the furniture and such is sitting in our basement, which is also the family room/playroom. So we are in a bit of a mess. This project should be done in the next week or so. YAY!!!!
Linking up with the lovely ladies of Like Mother, Like Daughter for {PHFR}
It rose at 6:11pm. It will set at 7:49am. It's rising was glorious! We were all shivering on the back deck watching rise. It will be a sweet memory. I am so glad I pulled out the camera.
We are busy, my same story. I Instagram (new verb) here and there trying to record a little bit of life. I'm not on Facebook (yet). I tweet a little. My favorite is blogging, but it requires sitting and thinking. For whatever reason I am finding it hard to carve out the time for this. This is just the season I guess. So, for the record I should be folding laundry. But if I wait until all of the laundry is folded, I will never blog again. I'm not sure how this little post is going to turn out so I'm just going to start rambling.
We have been having a not so bad winter here so far. It's a little bit colder today but the sun is shining and it is making me very happy. I'm getting all spring feverish and having thoughts of gardening. I am starting to make a list of seeds that I want to plant this year. I'm going to place that order soon. Last year I kept a gardening journal and I am so thankful I did. For example, I know I'm going to start my seeds indoors a couple of weeks earlier. I missed out on a lot of lettuce and greens last year because I got everything started just a little bit too late. I also kept a diagram of my garden layout. This will come in handy for crop rotation. I am going to be a little more detailed with recording my planting dates. Towards the end of the spring planting season I started to get a little lazy. I would have loved to have known the dates for harvest times and such.
We celebrated three birthdays in January. Julia turned 16! John Paul turned 6! My dad turned....I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate me broadcasting his age! John Paul had a family/friend birthday party. We would like to have a bowling party or something fun like that for Julia and her friends because, SIXTEEN!! We celebrated my dad also, it was so sweet watching my dad, surrounded by his grandchildren, opening all of his handmade cards. We are so blessed that he is here with us.
We are prayerfully considering different options for school for the children next year. We have been homeschooling for about 13 years now. The trend in the education of our children seems to be that we send them to school around seventh or eighth-grade. Which is a really yucky time to send a child into school but for Joseph and Julia we found good options for them. Julia started a new school this year that has been a really great fit. We really like the curriculum, the teachers are amazing, The class sizes are small. We are really praying about sending all of the kids there. I have always always loved homeschooling and having them home with me but I feel that we are being called to something else and God is giving me the grace to look at it. I could really write a book about my thought process on all of this and the things that I'm feeling right now. It is really too much to blog about. Let me just say that things/dynamics change when you have a couple of your children in school and the rest home. I just can't pull it all together like I used to. It is just a different season I guess. I have to admit I'm struggling with this new season. I'm sure I will write more on this topic as time progresses and we get closer to a decision. I really don't like change!!
To close I'm going to share a link with you all.
Remember the pope and the rabbit comment? AHHHH....This mother articulates everything that I felt inside when I heard our Holy Father's comments but couldn't articulate.
Also, could you please pray for dear Lindsay and her mom.? They are dealing with so much right now. Lindsay is expecting their sweet baby girl soon and her wonderful mother is facing an illness. I pray and think of them so often during the day. I have met Lindsay once and felt like I had known her for years. I have met her dear mom a couple of times and I feel like I could sit and talk with her all day. She is praying for me and I am praying for her. She is such a saintly woman.
Since it is December 31st I am sneaking these pictures in at the last minute.
