It's the little things

Yesterday as I was getting ready to walk out the door, I remembered my son had prepared my lunch for me to take to work. As I pulled out the containers/lunch box he had put it all in, I noticed he had made my lunch as well as my breakfast. Too sweet!!!
I opened up the containers to see what I had and noticed a note that read:



It's just the little things that let you know how much you are loved. Thanks Adrian, lunch was delicious, and because you made so much, I had lunch yesterday and today as well!!!! Mommy totally appreciates all you do!

My first digi scrap page

With the help of my dear friend, I completed my first digi-scrap page. I'm currently working on my second one on my own...trying to remember half of what she taught me! LOL


Credits: Sunshine in my soul Add-on-Britt-ish Designs

Journaling reads: I can still remember what it felt like each weekend when I came home with another cake I had decorated all on my own. Now to see how excited you all are each weekend is amazing. A new skill you can use in your home for the family God blesses you with, as well as future opportunities. At any rate, it is amazing to see your creativity and the excitement you have each Sat. for the new skill you will learn that day. It is a pleasure and an honor to watch you all blossom before my eyes.
Feb. 14, 2009

Just a few of the favorite people in my life!

I talk about them all the time. I'm so blessed to be their mom and aunt. They each bring such joy to my life and when I think about them, I thank God for blessing me and allowing ME to be a part of their lives.

Mommy loves each of you & Nani loves you too Pudge!!!

My Mother's Favorite Hobby...pay no attention to the music, not my choice

When we lived in apartments, I had pots of various plants. I was always growing something, be it indoors or out. Then when we moved out to the country I gave up flowers for growing food. If we could not eat it, I wasn’t interested in growing it. Then my mom moved next door and she had the space to grow all her favorites, all of which I’m sure I’ll inherit someday (none of my siblings really care for the country life).
Well, with spring in full swing, all her flowers are in bloom and looking beautiful and smelling fragrant. Even the bumble bees and humming birds pay her flowers a visit daily. I think we were able to capture the bee, but not the humming bird.

As I was taking pictures, my daughter was asking me why I was taking pictures of flowers.
I was glad she asked. It was yet another opportunity to share about our Lord & Savior.
I do enjoy being able to see His majesty in His creation. To feel the wind blowing upon my face and see the vibrant colors in the flowers. God, in His infinite wisdom paints a picture of His glory in His creations day by day, and all we have to do is look around and see how awesome and wonderful He is. When we look at the trees in the fields, no man put them there, no man would have been able to fathom such a creation. But to look out at the vastness of this portrait...you can’t help but wonder what Eden must have looked like.
Enjoy and be blessed!

Our First Egg!!!

FINALLY, we have our first egg.

We started out with about 15 hens and 1 rooster. For various reasons (even some I don’t fully know and understand) 12 of them died. Frustration set in and not just over their deaths, but the fact that I spent so much money on them.
Then someone came over and looked at my hens and swore to me the three I had left were roosters. Serious frustration set in!!! I didn’t need roosters without hens, and I most definitely didn’t need 3 roosters! Another lady (the one that gave me the first rooster, looked at the chickens and assured me they were most definitely hens. HUGE SIGH of relief.



But my greatest dilemma was that they were supposedly older than what they really were and if that were the case, they were late in laying eggs. I was told to just give them a little more time (patience...are you serious?)
Well, we continued to feed them and wait.
Yesterday morning I sat out on the porch and just watched them go about their business. We let the 2nd rooster that was given to us, after the 1st one escaped, free to roam with the hens. He immediately let the ladies know that HE was now running the roost. It wasn’t long before he went about taking care of business either. To my surprise the ladies knew exactly what to do.
We headed to church this morning and upon returning, I noticed this white object in the hen house. At first I thought it was the duck egg my son found at the park, insisting the hens would set on it and hatch it. Needless to say, they didn’t. But I digress...
Suddenly I realized that was NOT the duck egg, but a much smaller egg!!!!
WOO HOO my lady’s, well one of them anyway, laid an egg.

The egg is relatively small, but that is typical of the first few eggs they lay. They will gradually get larger. This one is from one of the white hens (Leghorn), they lay white eggs. The golden colored hen is a Buff Orpington and will lay brown eggs. At any rate, we will soon have more eggs and I won’t need to buy them from the store. There’s nothing like free ranged eggs.

HE'S so AMAZING!!!

Akyra wanted to take pictures of the things from God. I encouraged her to do the wild flowers that were popping up all over the property. When she returned with my camera and began to show me what she captured, I was in awe of God and amazed at how well her pictures looked.
No one had to direct God where to plant any of these flowers, nor how to set the sun at the end of the day, but He did it and for that, I'm in total awe.
As for Akyra, I think she has found something else that has captured her interest...photography.

Enjoy and marvel at the Lord. Magnify Him for this is the day that He has made, we must rejoice for He is a Masterful Artist!!!

Enjoy the extras of her cat Chicken!!! LOL

J-O-Y

I was reading a devotional yesterday and it was talking about prayer and the way we should get in the habit of praying for His kingdom first, Others second, and Ourselves last. That sounded really cool to me. That would transform my prayer time totally...I tend to get stuck on the me part and do a quick prayer of thanks and praying for others.
Well, as I sat here, I thought that sounds a lot like the acronym Jesus first, Others next, Yourself last.
So, I gave it a try yesterday and instead of just my verbal prayers, I also wrote prayers out. My prayer time went from a scant 5-10 min. to an entire 45-60 min. Not that I pray for the length of time, but I was just amazed at how much I had to really pray about.
I'm really terrible at keeping prayer journals soooooooooo, I've thought of this as well. Taking a simple notebook and each day, put the date at the top. Divide the paper into 3 sections...J O Y. Throughout the day you hear something in the news about something going on in the world...I put that under the J heading. (ex. government bailouts/homosexual agenda across the world)
People I regularly pray for and those new requests I get from people, I place under the O heading. (ex. children - relationship with Christ, education)
And then mine under the heading Y (which incidentally has become much shorter as I tend to take my focus off of me and turn it towards Christ and others...my prayer requests pail in comparison with importance or need).

If you give this a try, tell me what you think about it!!!

The Rooster is GONE!!!!

Yep, that's right, he is gone. Well not far but still gone. A neighbor gave me a rooster yesterday afternoon and he was struttin' his stuff with all those ladies to himself. He was really proud and cocky and crowing like a champ. He was the king of the roost and there was nothing no one was going to do about it.

Until evening came...

I guess he started missing home and I KNEW I was supposed to put him in a cage for a couple of days. But did I do that? NOPE. Did I even think about it? Absolutely not. Then we go out to make sure everyone is locked up as they should be and...

WHAT? Wait a minute. There's something wrong, something missing. Where is he? Where did he go with all his uppity-ness (is that even a word? LOL)
It was dark, he was NOT about to crow, but we searched anyway. Heck he didn't even really know us, yet I fully expected him to jump out of the dark at some point and say here I am, save me from this big land out here and put me back in the pen where it's safe.

YEAH, not a chance. Well, wake up this morning and what do my ears hear? The crow of a rooster not far away. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I'm already late for work so really no time to go hunting for him. But I walk into the direction I hear the crowing coming from and I can hear him, but I still can't see him. Good grief, are you serious? That close and I still can't get him?

So I had to leave him and just hope and pray he'll get hungry. Yeah right, he's in the woods with LOTS of bugs. He's got plenty to graze on. Maybe he'll miss his new lady friends. Ummmmmmmmmm, it's after 4 and the children say they still hear him but haven't seen one feather of him.

Will he ever come back? Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted!!!

Ever prayed for something and then...

realized afterwards that you made a mistake? Well, that is my latest revelation from the Lord. I'm still on my journey with the Lord and I've been asking LOTS of questions and getting LOTS of answers. Some answers I'm like...Oh or Wow, others, I am literally falling on my knees in tears.

I remember praying for this job I have now. The two part-time jobs I had before were not taxing or overwhelming. I still had time in my day to school my children, spend time with them, cook for them, and do things around the house, as well as partake in some of my hobbies. Then I began to get discontent. I could make more money out there in the real world doing something more meaningful, that would allow me to do more things (financially) with and for my children.

I never once took into account the distance I would be driving (on the road approx. 3 hrs. total, daily) nor did I ever stop to think about the time away from my children. There was only one thought in my mind...more money- more things.

I won't say the income from those 2 part-time jobs was great, but my bills were paid. I won't say there were things we wanted to do but couldn't because there was no extra money. But as I look back I can see I got caught up in what others were telling me, that we were missing out on the good life. I deserved so much more. My children deserved so much more. On and on and on. Sadly, I bought into it all. the lies of the enemy to make you even more discontent. Lies that take you further and further away from God's plan for your life. Now, I was already out of the home because of no choice of my own, but I had to make more money...which would take me even further away from home. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH! LIES & MORE LIES.

Now daily, I go to work, thankful for a resource of income, but dreading it and 95% of the time I'm crying that I even have to come to this place. I miss my children, I miss being closer to home, I miss having to be resourceful to find things to do with my children. We used to go to the library once a week or once every other week. It is now hard to schedule that in my days. Sometimes it's months before we step foot into a library. I miss thrift store shopping (sounds silly but it's true).

Money is nice but it's not EVERYTHING.

When God blesses you with something, He will also bless you with the ability to do it and maintain it. If you're OVER-stressed and OVER-burdened, then possibly what you are doing is not what God intended for you to do. Sadly, I've come to this realization and conclusion.

Well, I don't know how to get out of this one. He gave me exactly what I asked for. I've started by admitting to God that I was wrong and confessing that I realize this was NOT what He had in mind for me. I'll continue to search for jobs closer to home or a legitimate way to make an income from home (without selling make up, jewelry, or legal services, etc.). The difference now is that I am asking God what does He want me to do. Prayerfully He will answer soon and I will hear Him speak and obey.

Please be in prayer with me as well. God bless!

What do you get out of this?

Rick Warren denied ever saying he supported Prop 8 in California and President Obama is quoted as saying we need to throw off the old way of thinking and morals so that we can move forward in this world. I'm interested in knowing your perspective. Please read and share your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Rick Warren...Another Easter Denial

This Journey is not easy...

and it's really only just begun. I've read through chapter 1 of Choosing Forgiveness by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It was a bitter pill (wonder what the rest will be like) to swallow. It all seems so unfair that I, the victim, (yep that's how I was seeing myself) had the responsiblity of forgiving the wrongs done to me and my children.
I did learn within myself that I not only blame my husband, but I had begun to blame God as well. I won't go into detail just yet, I'm still working on this area. I see it now for what it is and covet your prayers to get through this moment in time.

As I was reading a devotional this morning, I thought it only fitting to share. The title...Following My Father's Directions. Thought it might make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, as it did me. Enjoy!!!

Eggs in the Incubator

A very dear friend let me use her incubator for the next several weeks.

In just a few short weeks we will hopefully have a dozen healthy guinea keets and 39 baby chicks...if they all hatch. We've been diligently watching the water level so that the humidity in the incubator is just right, as well as the temperature. The temperature must remain between 99.5 to 100 degrees. The only time it dropped below 99.5 was while we were adding the chicken eggs.
The guineas take around 28 days to hatch and the chickens about 21 days, so we had to stagger when we added the chick eggs so that they would all basically be hatching within the same day or two.