Fruitful Endeavors

Jul. 28, 2009

Craziness of Life

When I last wrote I was packing and since then I have been doing anything but packing! My mind is actually blank on some of the goings on here but I cannot seem to forget the amount of corn we shucked on Friday! My husband was busy building the chicken coop for all those chickens when he realized the corn was ready (our garden is within throwing distance of the eventual coop). He called and asked me to come and help shuck all that corn...all 486 ears of it! I got about half through when I had to take the little ones back home for naps. I hauled what was done in the house and cleaned until about dinner time that evening.

After dinner that same evening I took off to our homeschool fair to get needed supplies and to enjoy browsing the wonderful books on hand. You know there is just never enough money or time for all those books! I have decided to use My Father's World this year and am very excited about it. I looked through the manual when I returned home and was very pleased with the set up of the program. I think that if this summer is any indication of our school year, I will need an easy set up! For math I will be using Saxon again this year. I am very pleased with the curriculum thus far and hope I will not be disappointed this year. And I am trying my hand at teaching art this year. My seven year old loves to draw and he always amazes me with what his eyes see when drawing out in nature. It is usually something I have completely overlooked. I will be using Artistic Pursuits with them for that. I am anxious to getting moved and settled so we can get our year underway.

Saturday I was back at that corn! I might have finished half of the seemingly never ending pile when I ran out of bags and steam. I have twenty-four quart bags to add to my already ten bags in the freezer. We then ate an early dinner before heading to finish the chicken coop. Alas the coop is still not finished but it felt good to work on it and be that much closer to checking something off our list of to-dos.

Sunday we celebrated my husband's birthday and and generally laid low...basically trying to recoup from the corn and coop! We did ride around a little while looking for a place to rent but still have not had any luck.

And then Monday came...! I had family from out of town drop in for a quick hello that morning. And I did a little packing. In the afternoon, I laid the girls down for their naps and you would not believe it but I worked on corn! At least until my son came to the back door grunting. My mother's heart knew he was badly hurt and when I opened the door I knew without looking that he had broken his arm. This was our first broken bone experience but I think I handled it all very well. I called my husband who was running errands in town and proceeded to get the girls up and in the car. In the meantime, my husband's truck broke down. Long story short I had to pick him up on the way to the hospital. Little man is doing well. He broke both bones in his arm just above the wrist. It was a clean break and they were able to set it without any trouble. Now we wait until Friday for a cast. We did have to laugh though when they put the IV in. He raised his hand to take a look at it and said, "Wow! That is cool."

Our emotions are up and down. Our fatigue is great. But we still try with all our might to trust God in all of this. I admit there are days when I scream, "WHY?!?" as the tears stream down my face. But for the most part I am too busy to focus on anything other than getting past the next five minutes. And with His grace I will.

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Jul. 20, 2009

Packing underway

Well after a weekend to dwell on the fact that we are moving I am now in a better frame of mind and have begun the process of packing. This has been such a hard thing for me and I am not entirely sure why except that our circumstances at the moment are not what I think warrant a move. But the Lord has seen to it that the house we have been in for four and a half years sold. And He will see to it that we have a place to move to that we can also afford. So whether or not I think this move is warranted, He does and I have to trust Him through all of this...hard though that may be at times!

When we originally moved here we believed it would be for a mere six months but again the Lord always has other plans. One has to wonder why we, His people, ever make plans on our own...when will we ever learn?! So upon moving in, I put most of our things in the storage area of this house...and the storage is abundant here! I left out only the things I knew we would use daily. I have now started pulling out all of that storage stuff and am amazed at all of the things I had forgotten. I am also amazed at all of the things within the house that I still have to pack! Why does a person need so much stuff?!

In the meantime, we have begun searching out a new place to live--all while dreaming up ways to build something debt free on land that is to be ours. Our ideas are limitless it seems but again I find that I have to wait on God to make His plans known to us.

More later on the move and the upcoming homeschooling year...

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Jul. 17, 2009

Busy, busy, busy

I am really not sure where to begin since I last logged on. We have had a whirlwind of activity around here. I was reminded the other day of that phrase, "the lazy, hazy days of summer" and would like to know who coined that silly thing. I have not had a lazy day all summer long. And yet I crave sometime to just relax before we get back into the swing of school and football, and my husband's long anticipated hunting season. The Lord however has other plans for us this season and I am trying with all my might to go His way without complaining or arguing.

This journey the Lord has us on has actually lasted a lot longer than just this summer. This has been a nearly five year hike up some pretty steep hills, down some very low valleys, and through some of the narrowest trails I have ever been on. I am exhausted. I am weary. I find at times my faith being so shaky that I get scared of what I might do. At other times I find myself full of anger...there I admit it! I get angry at where I am in life. "Why am I here?," I scream. "Where are You?," I sob. And yet, I see His hand in the little things each day. And that is hard too. "I do not care so much about the little things," or so I think. "I want to see You in the REALLY BIG things, Lord!" And He is silent. My eyes search the sky as though He is going to show His face through the clouds or give me some kind of thumbs up sign to let me know all is well and He has it under control. But there is no face. And there is no thumbs up. All is silent.

I have no idea when God will lead us to meadows with blue sunny skies. Where the field is wide open and flat. I have no idea when we will rest. I look forward to that day but until then I will gather up all the strength He has given me for each moment and listen intently for that still small voice and search for a thumbs up, "I am in control, I have been in control and will always be in control" sign!

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Jul. 13, 2009

You say potato...I say what is that smell?!

After a long day of running and lots on my mind, I attempted to pull a meal together for the family. I already had a venison roast in crock pot so it was simply a matter of getting some veggies and rolls ready. I cut up some beautiful potatoes from our garden and tossed them into my pressure cooker and then went about the business of folding clothes while they cooked.

Some time later I head back to the kitchen and noticed that the pressure cooker has steam coming out of the sides. I alert my husband to my little problem and he asked a very simple question which had me completely aghast that I could have done such a thing! I forgot to put water in the pot! Thankfully all was well other than the horrible smell.

And after dinner, we headed back to the garden for more veggies. Hopefully these withstand my stressed out mind!

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Jul. 11, 2009

The Beginning of a Blog

OK, so I am not sure that this whole blog thing is or me but I am going to give it a try. First of all, I should say I am a mom to four wonderful darlings...1 boy and 3 chatty girls! Their ages start at 7 and trickle down to just shy of 17 months.

It has been a whirlwind of activity since our oldest arrived seven short years ago. I say short because I refuse to believe it has been seven years already and worse that I am that much older. We had just moved into our newly built house three months prior to his birth. And it was not long after his quick arrival (barely made it to the hospital) that we knew we wanted more and soon! Just after our son's first birthday we learned we were expecting again...this time a princess was on the way. And with her arrival came our leap into the world as small business owners.

My husband is a landscaper...he loves to design and transform a property. He has quite a talent for not only designing but selling the job to prospective clients. I am not kidding when I say he could sell a freezer to an eskimo. Long story short business boomed but not enough to cover the costs of the business and keeping us afloat. We sold our home, made major cutbacks and basically regrouped over the course of two years. And just about the time we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel, the economy fell on its knees and we are learning more and more to trust and lean on God.

Throughout the ups and downs we have stayed steadfast in our journey of homeschooling and have begun leaning toward creating a homestead as the Lord sees fit. I begin this school year with a preschooler, a kindergartener and a second grader on the homeschooling side of life and forty-one chickens and three turkeys on the homstead side. Life is never dull and I have to wonder when my idea of normal will ever fade from my thoughts and a new more realistic "normal" will encompass it. ;)

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