Category Archives: Prayers

Goatsitting…

Leave a reply

We are helping some friends by watching their goats as they leave town for a couple days for a medical procedure. 2 mamas + 5 babies… They arrived at sundown, so these pics aren’t the best. I’m sure there’ll be better ones tomorrow!

We pray for the success of Brittany’s oral surgery – for the safety of their travel, for the medical staff as they help her, and for her family who travels beside her – may they be supportive & compassionate caregivers as Brittany recovers. And Lord, we pray that while these goats are here, they remain safe & enjoy our grass – may the fences keep them in, and our lives be entertained by their playful antics. Amen.

My (our) 3 precious nieces…

Leave a reply

Have enjoyed a visit with 2 of my (our) 3 nieces this week.  🙂

We don’t get many opportunities to see them, so it makes these visits, extra special! 🙂

Pulled the boys’ old Thomas The Train tracks out to play with Alyssa & Addisyn, who live in Nebraska. 🙂

And here I am with Abbi in February 2011.  She lives in Arizona. 🙂

Lord, I thank you for blessing our lives with these girls.  Though we live many miles apart, may that not be a deterrent for building a relationship with one another.  Thank You, Lord, for this day of technology that we live in.  May we be able to take advantage of all the modes of communication that you have inspired for this time period.  Help me to be a Godly aunt, Lord – may these girls see You, in me.  AMEN 🙂

the miracle of Peekaboo

2 Replies

A long story…

One of our “veteran” cows is named Pax. She came with the original herd of dairy cows we purchased back in 2007. She did/does NOT have a desirable personality – in fact, she is downright cranky – especially toward men. So, let’s just say she is not one of our “favorite” cows, hence the name category chosen for her line was “superhero villians”…

Each year, though, Pax has given us a bull (click here for more on how we name our bulls…) – so we haven’t been able to utilize that name category… (We’ve had a name all picked out, though – PoisonIvy!)

This year, as we’ve been watching Pax get bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER. We thought perhaps she might have twins growing inside… Here’s a pic of her from last week:

Tuesday morning, we went up to bring down the girls for milking and sadly, found Pax near a deceased calf. We searched and searched for a second one, but to no avail. While we were disappointed, we tried to focus on the other 9 healthy calves we have been blessed with this year – plus, Pax seemed ok, so we would still be able to milk her. She filed down with the rest of the herd & it was a normal milking.

Mike went up and checked on Pax several times throughout the day on Tuesday – both to make sure she was ok, and to make sure there wasn’t another calf stashed in the tall grass. There wasn’t… at least he didn’t SEE one…

Fast forward to Wednesday morning… Boys went up to bring down the cows and low & behold, there’s a calf with Pax, lol! 🙂

After all this drama, I thought it appropriate to change her name category. I had the name of Miracle in mind for her, but the boys really wanted to name her Peekaboo, lol. Sounded like a pretty appropriate name, too, so Peekaboo it is! 🙂 Guess Pax’s name category is “games”. Kinda funny, isn’t it?

Lord, we thank You for the blessing of yet another calf – and for the game of peekaboo she put us through. While it was a bit frustrating & sad as we experienced it, we see now how You can redeem all circumstances and continue teaching us life lessons through Your Creation. It is neat to see how Peekaboo’s story has redeemed Pax’s lineage – from “villians” to “second chances”. May that serve as a reminder to us that while we still have breath, it’s never too late to repent & humble ourselves before You. What a comfort to know that the mistakes of those before us do not eliminate the possibility of Your Saving Hand on our lives. In this game called “life”, keep us from being distracted by worldly, little things & keep our focus on things of critical, Eternal importance. May we overflow with Your Love which binds us all together. AMEN 🙂

Baby Shower

4 Replies

What a great day!

Mike’s sister & I had baby shower (party) here  for our future nephew on Sunday. 🙂  We had fun preparing for it, and I especially appreciated her willingness to help me tidy up our house for the big event…

Ben, Kristin, Alyssa, & Addisyn are in from Nebraska for the week, so we enjoyed an afternoon of food, fellowship, & fun.

[Click here to see where I got the inspiration for this “diaper cake”…]

Gotta say, originally, my boys were NOT very excited at participating in a girl party “baby shower”, hence our naming it a FAMILY PARTY, lol…

It became more fun for them, though,  when they were put in charge of “games”…

No typical party games here…

What did they do?  Well, potato gun shooting contest, of course! 🙂

By the end of the day, they were EASILY clearing this oak tree! 🙂

Lord, we thank You for this wonderful day full of laughter & sharing.  We praise You for the miracle of NEW BIRTH.  As our family grows, use us to reflect Your Light everywhere we go.  AMEN

Hay Prayer

5 Replies

Heavenly Father, as today marks the beginning of hay season here on our farm, I come before You and lay down our burdens. It’s so easy to become uptight as we fight the urge to dwell on all the unknowns. Help us to change our perspective to how You see things. Prepare us for handling the unexpected breakdowns or sudden rain showers. May we not condemn ourselves when we realize in retrospect we should have done something different. Instead, allow us to add that lesson to our walk – so that we can remember it in the future. Lord, I especially pray for my aging body in this season. Daily, I am reminded that You have not created this body to last here on earth forever. I accept that, and look forward to my new body in Heaven when You are done with me here. Until then, strengthen me physically to be able to help where I can, and strengthen me MENTALLY to know when I need to step aside and accept help. And Lord, when exhaustion sets in as this season progresses, and our patience wears thin, bring kind words to our tongues. May we be able to practice the grace You so perfectly have shown to us. We thank You for our hay harvest this year and pray for the animals who will receive it. May it richly bless them for whatever function they perform on our farm. I’m so grateful You love me & will listen to my pleas. Amen.

Mud boot planter – step by step

4 Replies

My weed patch flower gardens look like this (click here to read more on that…)  :

(Isn’t it amazing that any flowers can still bloom in there, lol?!)

…when I received this beautiful Gerber Daisy from Mike’s sister & her husband for Mother’s Day, an alarm bell went off in my brain…

“Now I will EITHER have to weed my weed patch flower garden, OR COME UP WITH A ‘PLAN B’…”

Still fresh in my memory banks was the inspiration I received from Jill about my mud boot dilemma.

OBVIOUSLY, that’s the direction I went… 🙂

Here’s where I wanted the planter to go.  I thought it would be nice & easy to attach it to the gate.

So, I took my broken boot, marked it with chalk, & and started cutting.

Next, I poked drainage holes through the bottom of the boot.  I knew better than to use a hammer to pound a screwdriver through the boot (I had made that mistake once before…), so I THOUGHT I was being ever-so-wise as I dug through Mike’s toolbox… and found this…

WRONG AGAIN.  😦 I was informed I used a tool incorrectly AGAIN, and was graciously forgiven for (slightly) denting the tip of Mike’s punch tool.

Mike decided to offer help with my project now (wonder why??), and drilled some drainage holes for me. 🙂

He also said he didn’t think the gate was a good place to hang it.

With all the “action” it gets, he thought the rubbery boot would not be sturdy enough & the flower could fall out.

So, a more stationary position was sought.

Next, I had the boys collect some rocks to put in before the dirt.

Once I planted the flower, I realized something was needed to hide the emptiness of the tall part of the boot.

I’ve had this bag of moss in my craft corner for YEARS – thought it might work for this…  (So glad I never threw it away, lol!)

Next, came the tricky part.  Attaching the boot to our porch railing.

I decided to use braided twine.

About 3 baseball seasons ago, I braided a big crate of used twine that came off our hay bales as I sat & watched the boys play.

(No, I’m not kidding.  I love to create or do things with my hands while I’m sitting!)

My original intention was to use the braids as Christmas roping to decorate our picket fence.  That didn’t pan out, so I have a stash of pretty, braided twine in my craft corner, too. 🙂

I must tell you, though, I am NOT an accomplished “tie-er”.  You’ll see in this pic from the backside, that I basically just kept wrapping & knotting until the boot seemed sturdy.

Here’s a pic for Susy over at Chiotsrun – I finally got to use my Ethel gloves for this project! 🙂

I knew right away what I wanted the tag to say.  I am always praying this for myself, so it is fun to apply it creatively in something I can visually see.

A remade remnant, just like me! 🙂

celery, broccoli, & cabbage in today

Leave a reply

Originally, we started our own plants from seed, in newspaper pots. We had good success at first, but steadily declined from that first year.
We began with growing them in our basement on top of our chest freezer (just like my Grandpa used to do…) under lights. 🙂 That worked well for the first couple years – until we started using our freezer more, lol. So, we switched to our heated garage under fluorescent lights. It worked well for a couple years – until our heater died… Then this year we used our milkhouse since it’s also heated. Once we started milking, though, we moved the plants to Mike’s parents’ heated garage. And just as they started looking really good, mice found them and ate off most of the tops! Grrrrr… Guess we just aren’t ready to start the amount of plants we need from seed!

How thankful we are for our friends at Skipper’s Greenhouse in Carrollton!! We picked our plants up this week & Lord willing, will be getting everything planted soon.

[Garden Journal: Today we planted 16 celery, 12 Red Acre cabbage, 16 Danish Ballhead cabbage, & 20 Packman broccoli.]

Sometimes it’s hard for us to admit we can’t do it all. But when the dust clears from failed efforts, the path becomes more clear. Thank you, Lord, for preparing us to be receptive to help, and for surrounding us with support & cooperative efforts. We pray for the “fruit” of these plants and our efforts. May the harvest be plentiful. Amen 🙂

A night out-dinner & a concert

2 Replies

A Mother’s Day gift from my 3 boys…
1st, a fun dinner in Akron. A friend recommended we eat at Luigi’s.(Thanks, Kellen!)

Next stop, Hudson – Christ Community Chapel – for a Fernando Ortega concert! I love his simple, melodic voice & that he writes/plays/arranges songs that are a witness to his walk with Jesus. 🙂 We were blessed with a front row pew – got to watch his fingers playing on the grand piano… I’m so grateful for being able to share this evening with my family. Thank You, Lord. 🙂