About Me

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Married twenty-five years to my wonderful husband and best friend. We have 3 "home-grown" kids and 1 hand-picked by God from Africa. Our life is blessed. We are a close knit family with strong Christian beliefs. Come along with us on our journey…you might have a great laugh or two.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Great restraint….

Yesterday we just happened to go to "chick days" at the Tractor Supply store here in town.



I. Showed. Great. Restraint.

If you ever want to see something so very cute go see some baby chicks.  Oh, have mercy.  Cuteness all rolled up into a fuzzy ball.  Makes you just want to say….I'll take 19 bazillion, please.


But no.

I walked out of there empty-handed.  Okay, technically my mom bought me the newest issue of Hobby Farm magazine, but it's just not a cute as a fluff ball.

Practicality won over this time.  I've got a house not done just yet on the farm.  A barn that needs a new roof and painted. A chicken coop that hasn't been renovated.  Yet.  And in our rental we are only suppose to have our one dog.

Hmmmm, I wonder if our landlord would notice if we hid the fluff balls under the bed.  Our luck they would all tattle on themselves with their little peeping.

It is hard right now to reign it all in.  I want to do it all.  Right now.  I want the chickens with the newly renovated coop.  I want the barn all spiffed up and painted.  I want the greenhouse and gardens all beautified.

Great restraint.  Trying to take baby steps in my kangaroo shoes.  Ain't easy folks….


Saturday, March 28, 2015

A house update….

We are terrible house building people.  Every single one of my friends have told me…."you need to go to your building site everyday just so you can see the progress made".  Well…that would be great, if I didn't have to survive the life I'm living at the moment.

Apparently you have to feed, clothe and transport these children of mine to every place imaginable during my 24 hour allowed time limit per day.  Trying to fit in a trip to our farm just so I can go and see what my house looks like does not happen often.  I know.  I know.  That's awful, but it's what I'm dealing with at the moment.

I pick out the items to go into the house and then let go of the reins.  I have confidence in our builder.  He really is good.  And boy, do I wish I could go out there everyday.  But for now, I have to live with seeing it when I can and trusting the people I have hired to build us a great house.

So with that said, I went out yesterday (because I had heard through so many people that had seen our house and I hadn't…ugh) that we had a roof with shingles, and our windows were finally in.

Yay!!!

With the rainy spring season coming up I really wanted to enclose the house as soon as we could.  I say "we" loosely as I had nothing to do with it whatsoever except to say this is what I want.  And let's face it….that's the best part anyway.


The roof we chose is black with a little bit of gray.  We plan on going with some black shutters and I'm not sure what color our front door will be, but the outside of the house will be painted a nice light beige.  In this picture it has not been painted yet.  That's just the color of the hardiplank they put on it.

The windows still have that plastic film on them that the manufacturer sends them with so these pictures are not the best.  You can get the basic idea though.  Think about it this way….big windows = amazing views of our farm.  These pictures are from our family room looking out the back.  Love my big ol' mound of dirt I'm sporting back there.  Also, you can see to the left my sunroom right off of the kitchen.  That's gonna be so nice to have.



They tell me that when you get to the drywall stage things will begin to "look like normal rooms" rather than being able to "see-through" your entire house.  Can't wait for that stage.  For now, we are just so excited that things are moving quickly.

Because every month that passes our rental seems to get a little bit smaller and smaller…..



Friday, March 27, 2015

We all win.



The first time we met him we were going to a pumpkin patch last October and we invited him to come along.  I noticed what a kind and gentle demeanor he had.  With my mom and with the kids.  That was so nice to see.

Then throughout the next few months we began to really get to know him.  And to be honest, what we found out was that he is such a nice person.  I mean the real deal, folks.  In a moments notice he will help you out or give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.  He truly cares.  He treats my mom like she is a queen and loves all of us.  Which is good because technically we are a packaged deal.

You want to marry my mom?  Good.  Now you do know you get the rest of us as well, right?  Our whole crazy family.  You up for the challenge?

Without hesitation.  He said yes...

My mom has found love again.  And we are so happy for her.  In a couple of months, they will be married in a small ceremony.  It will be nice because we'll all be with them.  Every single crazy one of us.  Their own little built-in cheering crowd.  We are excited for him to join our family.  Not because he cares for only her but for all of us.  So in the end.  We all win.


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Turning 11….

This past Monday our youngest daughter turned 11.


She is spunky and wild all rolled into one.  She is my hugger.  And is oh, so very tall.  She loves to play with her our generation dolls and just begged for a brand new bike this year….because she outgrew her last one (that's what you get when you have a tall daughter).

I love the fact that even though she is eleven and she doesn't want to grow up too fast.  She can play for hours with the best of them.  I love it.  But more importantly, I love her.  With all my heart.  Happy birthday my little noodle….whose technically not so little anymore.

A really fun trip...


This past weekend I took the two little ones up to the great city of Minneapolis to go to a Regional swim meet for my daughter.  It's really rare that I have only 2 of my 4 kids with me going out of town, and even more rare that we were without Dad as well.  He been on a mission lately to follow his college basketball team (Kentucky) around the nation so we have a tendency to "lose" him a lot during championship basketball season.  He just adores going to the games.  Can't say that enough.  That's okay though.  After 22 years of marriage, I'm pretty use to it.  

Anyway…..

So I left the older two with Grandmom and her fiancĂ© (more on that on another post) this weekend.  They seem to be in good hands there and so the little ones and I packed up the car and away we went.  The first thing my youngest daughter said to me was…."can we go to the Mall of America?"

Why of course she did.



What 10 almost 11 year old wouldn't want to go to a 5 story mall filled with any store you can think of, an amusement park filled with roller coasters and even a log ride, an 18 hole putt-putt golf course and my favorite, a maze of mirrors thingy you could go to.  That was where I drew the line though.  Me, mirrors and a maze put together just spelled disaster in my book.  So nope.  Not going in there.



So leaving early friday we headed to the mall to spend the day.  It was fun.  I'm not a "mall person" but I can really appreciate the vastness of everything there.  It was nice just to enjoy the things that the two younger ones love and not have to worry about the daily grind of life in general.

When it was all said and done, we were exhausted and happy.  What more could you want.



On Saturday and Sunday, my daughter swam in a regional swim meet.  She did awesome!  Her Medley relay got first and on many of her events she came in second and even third.  In the region.  I'm so proud of her.  They ran an extremely fast meet.  In less than an hour she swam five events both days.  She was worn out.  But oh so happy.  Way to go my little noodle!




Wednesday, March 25, 2015

It's called grace….

Teenagers.

(….long exhausted sigh….)

That says it all.

They test you and try your patience.  They make you laugh.  They are confusing and you blame their fashion sense on some crazy distant relative.  They can be loud and then a moment later quiet and moody.  They send you to your knees so often asking for guidance and wisdom.  They make you think….what happened?  What did I do wrong?  And then again, how did I get that right?

Teenagers.

How do you let go of a hand that you've held onto for so many years?  How….

This is what this is all about.  Letting go.  I have cried out to my heavenly father so often asking for the right guidance that my knees are worn down.  I am running out of time with them.  Panicked.  I blinked and they turned old on me fast.  In my mind they are still so young.  A time when they asked me for help.

Now….

Now, we battle more often than not.  And I am left to try and make sense of what happened.  Where did I go wrong?

But the truth is that this is God's way of allowing a parent to let go.  At some point you have to throw your hands up and let God take control of this.  Which if you were really truthful with yourself, would know he's had it all along.

My husband reminded me of the story in the bible of the prodigal son.  That son wanted his inheritance early and much to the father's disappointment, he allowed the son to take his money and leave.  On his own.  To do his own thing.

Letting go.

I can feel that man's pain.  The letting go part is the hardest.  Allowing them to make their own mistakes.  To fall flat on their face and for once, you not catching them.

But the story did have a great ending.  The son returned to a father who still adored him no matter what he had done.

And that's where we'll be.  In the end.

My husband and I welcoming our children back with open arms no matter what they've done.  Over and over again.  Because that's what God does for us.  Over and over again.  Welcoming us back.  No matter what we've done.

It's called grace…..


Thursday, March 5, 2015

Going vertical….

Wait?!  Is that our house?

I crested the hill on the way to our farm and there in the distance was our house.  It sits on top of a hill in the middle of our farm.  We angled the house so we could overlook the orchard.  In the spring it will be beautiful with all of the apple blossoms in bloom.  For now, you see miles of beautiful farmland all around.

The last time we went out to our farm was a little over a month ago and they had just poured our basement.  Trust me….it's a little bit hard to "see" a house when all you've got is concrete.  But now.  Now, we are going vertical.

The framers have been working for a couple of weeks and I'm pretty sure they have never seen a grown woman squeal so loudly with delight at wood and some kind of builder's wrap thingy all put together in a neat package we affectionally call our farmhouse.

"Homeowner."  I heard one of them say as he pointed over his shoulder.

Me?

Well….I just couldn't stop smiling.  It is absolutely beautiful.  At least to me it is.  And it's just getting started.





Tuesday, March 3, 2015

No one ever said that it was gonna be easy….

Well, I can finally say that we have officially moved into our rental.

It. Was. Not. Easy.

We moved in the pouring snow one day and in the single digit temps the next.  Talk about cold.  After a few seconds your face hurts and then you worry after an hour that it no longer hurts.  I would have probably panicked more about our situation, if it weren't for the fact that we crawled our way into the bed each night out of sheer exhaustion.  And I didn't have the energy to even think about it.

Now it's a matter of unpacking only what we need and storing the rest in the basement.  We are squeezed into this rental and are learning a new motto for the next several months….."making it work".  It ain't pretty but it will all work out.

So if you'll excuse me I'm on a mission to find the checkbook.  Oh, and the dish soap.  And a pair of scissors.  And...

Well….who am I kidding.  I've lost my mind too, but I'm not looking for that anymore.