12-12-12 ( OK, just had to)

I'm pretty sure I won't be seeing this number combo anytime again in my lifetime.

Orders packed, school work, lunch, little nap, more orders packed. Yup, pretty much our day.

Family Christmas party on Saturday, yay!!! Doing things a little differently, instead of buying gifts we are sharing what we appreciate, a prayer, a Bible verse or thought about our "giftee". Who would have known how excited I am over the prospect! Even more so....the kids!

We have been doing yoga stretching for the past two weeks. Can.Not.Believe the difference. We are still super tight and under toned but totally loving how quickly the two are improving.

My eyes are closing....starting to slump forward. Guess that is my clue to go to bed!

Emptiness

Only when you are emptied can you truly be filled.

I prayed a prayer Friday that went something like this,  " Burn away what binds, refine me, bring out the gold. I will praise you, no matter what."

Sunday found me in church, desperately wanting to be anywhere but there. Crying and yet as I promised in my prayer, worshipping. It found me going up for prayer and hearing words of wisdom and truth.

God is filling.

Should be baking

but I'm not. Should be working on "the renovation room".....but I'm not. Instead I'm watching my eldest son ( he is JUST 10!) taking the tractor out with a bale on it for the beef. His father yelling last second instructions and letting him take yet more steps into the realm of being a man. I'm SO proud of him. His gentle heart, yet full of mischief and fun.

                                      Eathon climbing small rock walls in early Fall

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We just celebrated Thanksgiving with a small crowd this year, but ever so thankful that we are all home and healthy! Was awesome to open our home, to have it filled with laughter and jokes, good food and family. Someone mentioned to me how we were such a tight family, always seeming to do stuff together. Well...took me a couple of weeks before I pondered what she had said and realized how thankful I am for family. Two years ago, we ended up having a total of 3 Thanksgiving feasts. One just wasn't enough, ha!

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This has been the BEST year yet of homeschooling. Finally seem to have a system everyone likes and is excelling at. Both boys are free to do more scheduling of there day which in turns builds responsibility. Reading is improving but even better is the attitude towards reading. So hard for this Momma to learn, I was the girl who would pile 30 books on the librarians desk just to see if I could. I LOVED to read, the adventure, the turmoil, the geography covered while snuggled in blankets in my bed. One day, perhaps they too will love it as much!   

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                                                Eleven years....where did they go?

It can't seriously be eleven years, right? What do you say....we have fun! Goofing off and teasing is daily, we get upset at each other and we are much better at listening and forgiving. We are so thankful for God's grace, His melding together of two people. Pretty sure its only going to get better!

Weeks, days, minutes are flying by me, much like the Canadian geese to their southern grounds. They say, "hurry, hurry now, no time to sit and enjoy the grain, no time to rest, must hurry". Me, I'm saying the opposite. Sit, relax, enjoy this time, it is fleeting.

Two weeks of vacation, took one week just to relax enough to enjoy the second. SO worth it though. We lolled, played, worked ( who really ceases to do anything productive?) and thought, a lot. Eathon is ten, Cole nine,  a mere 18 months separates them and not much else. Work, play, imagination, each unique in their ways of doing but rarely separate when doing. Our thoughts range to the future for them, what will they be doing in another ten years. Are we molding them to use their gifts God has given them? Our prayers, they are being answered. Now, soon, not perhaps the way I imagined them but they are answered. Thank you Lord. Eathon needs work like breathing air, it gives him happiness to know he is serving a purpose. His little 'bull muscles' are getting larger and while a bit shorter than me for this minute, he probably does not understand his own strength and not just physically. Cole is two parts compassion to one part frustration. Whipping between the two is giving him a measure of patience for his fellow man ( or girl, or animal, they all rate about the same to him at this moment). He can now take himself away to cool off and yet come back to play and care with the tenderness patterned on another who won my heart. I'm loving this season, looking forward to every little second of it.

Bits and Bites

                                                     This boy makes me oh so happy.


Today it is raining, SO thankful.

We have a bunch of Amish men and boys coming and going today, our silo is being taken down bit by bit. Talk about up-cycling, it will be turned into two smaller silos for them. Cole is running around offering his oh so bright red Indian umbrella to a stately older Amish gentleman who kindly accepted it. Eathon is our photographer, a mighty good one at that. Who knows, he may have a future in it!

                   

Reading through Habakkuk today for the first time...wow.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food, 
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls, 
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

¹⁹ The Sovereign Lord is my strength; 
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

It has been forever again.

Back when my diary was written in daily, secrets & dreams were penciled in every page and shared with no one. Now, a husband, children and an AMAZING God keep and stretch every dream, fill my days and utterly exhaust me ( in a good way). So, no journal is kept, no memories recorded. Most days I'm happy to revel in the 'todayness' of exciting discoveries by the boys or conversations with Bill. Sometimes though, I think, perhaps I should write this down...

                                                                    Eathon & Fleas

On to some newsy stuff; We did chickens yesterday and will be doing more tomorrow. Everyone is at the stage of can't wait to get these DONE!. Not that we don't love our chicken, but at this point we are weary of plucking, gutting, fine picking and bagging chickens. Eathon and Cole are such a blessing, helping in numerous ways where they can. Next Wednesday is the last day ( God willing). Such a day to celebrate!

Today is the 1st Birthday of our niece, the "Miracle Girl" Ellie. Who despite her momma being told, 'there is no baby' and ' you need to move on', stuck true and leaned upon God and lo and behold on the 3rd ultra sound attempt a BABY!

Bill 'helping' Cole to trim a tree

Currently, I'm trying to work on three bedroom simultaneously. Stripping wallpaper and carpet in one, painting trim in another and the other is a store room right now. Thank goodness my husband is a patient man. My hope ( and goal) is to have less 'groovy, 70's feel' bedrooms and a more relaxed country home look. Either way, SO much fun to see the results of so many hours.

Chicken if frying, mashed potatoes are done, a salad will be prepped shortly for today's meal. Blueberries will be sorted and popped in the freezer for treats this winter. Laundry, dusting and some paperwork. A nap maybe later. Listening to the boys, 'stories beyond belief' and enjoying the breezes as they blow through the house will be the schedule for the rest of the day. We are blessed.

10 years ago

I am 7 1/2 month along. Tonight, I will be feeling huge and wondering how much larger could I possibly get. After packing a lunch for my sweet husband before he leaves for work, I will chatter with a brother-in-law who 'just so happens' to have a nasty cold. While piecing together a baby blanket that I'm working on there is a sudden gush of liquid which surprises me, it is warm and smells familiar. It dawns on me that my water had just broken.

The Nyquil induced fogginess of my B-I-L is totally blasted away after mentioning that;
1. My waters have broken.
2. It is a blizzard out.
3. I can't contact John.

He stumbles to the his car which doesn't start, runs ( still blizzard conditions) to his grandparents and borrows their truck only making it to the end of our driveway, with towel between my legs and winds yanking on my billowing dress we slip and slide our way to the truck. Totally youtube worthy, lemme tell you.

We inch towards Canton, nearly missing a Stop sign and driving off the road, make it to the mill and John covered in feed dust and unable to hear the phone with ear plugs in. We all make it to the Canton Hospital where they check me in and put me on a IV drip of something awful to try and stop the contractions, to no avail. There is talk of transferring to Syracuse and due to the bad weather it is decided, Watertown is the best they can do. Through all of this, in my naivete, my thought was; 'wow, this is easy!'. The contractions were easy, the hospital staff was wonderful and I can vividly remember calling my mom and telling her that this whole labor stuff seemed pretty easy, whereupon she assured me that it might get a bit harder before we were done.

Now, I watched all of my brothers come into this world. Mom had three at home, one in the hospital just to see what it was like and the last at home. Labor started slowly but quickly sped up and by the time the midwife arrived my seventeen year old self was getting scared that I would be 'catching the baby'. I remember now why the broken water smelled familiar.

We labored, for a while. Somehow my eyes latched upon Feb. 2nd as being Groundhogs day and determined I was NOT having a baby born then. The lovely lady Dr., her name escapes me, was wonderful. She came in and checked me and gave the go ahead to push, this was missed by almost everyone ( including me), except my mother. Who, after about an hour of her daughter being told to blow through the urge to push was at her wits end. The nurse again encouraged me to blow through the next contraction and my mother flipped. Not a crazy, all out flip but one of the highlights of when I look back. The ironic thing is, that once the Dr. and nurses were all on the same page, I was given the go ahead and started to push. 'Ouch. I'll just blow through, thank you very much.' Thanks be to God for a husband who had been up for many, many hours looking me in the eye and saying, "you are almost done, you can do this". We did too, Eathon came to us at a little after 10pm, almost exactly 24 hours after this whole story started. Our scientist, doctor, inventor, dreamer and serious boy was born.

For two weeks he stayed in Watertown while I cried for wanting him in my arms. His lungs were in need of just a bit more time and we were SO blessed with some wonderful nurses who cared for him. As we left the hospital I looked around, waiting for the manual they were going to give us. Or, better yet the nurse who was going to come along and help us at home. This was the first time I was scared.

It continues to happen, regularly. What do we do about this, or that? To raise a child? into a man? 'Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.'Proverbs - Chapter 22:6 What happens when I'm still in training, when we feel ill prepared to teach? Our heavenly and gracious Lord teaches us. The only thing that has happened over the last 10 years is we learn to cling closer to this truth, to Him. That in ourselves, in our naivete, life is not easy. But, with Him, all is possible.