Random Thoughts

Ahh...It was a blessing of a day. Love the stillness of our house as children dose off to bed, rain is falling and I take in the day's moments. Moments of imperfection, but moments God gave me to grow. Moments of pure joy and bliss as I realize our babies are growing up, walking, talking, running, swimming on their own, weaning, becoming independent. Becoming beautiful children of God.

Lincoln, Norah and Isaac all shared their birthday parties today with family and friends. What a special time.

Got choked up reading this today. {To God be the glory.}Been pondering on how we're bringing God the glory through what our passions are, our gifts/talents, fruits and our little disciples we're raising up.

Trying to clean and organize school stuff. Due to birthdays, a funeral, company and busyness, we've not yet started our "summer school" session yet. I'm determined to get our old schoolroom/spare bedroom/everything room back into working order as we set it up as a schoolroom again. Not a 100% schoolroom, but workboxes (so to keep the door shut from a certain, curious crawler who gets into everything) and desks have returned to the room and I'm getting excited to start Norah on her boxes and see how she does. I've found some really neat things to help in this area. (Workbox activities, Activity Bags and some here at Cultivating Home). These have been my saving grace as I'm teaching Norah and doing school with the big kids.

My amazing husband built me a brooding box for our chicks. I know. I know. Just the thing you'd want your own husband to build you, right?! :) Well, it made my day. We've never had one and always used a large, Rubbermaid storage tub for the first few weeks as they're young, but eventually they can fly out. We found some old fencing and pieced it together on the porch, hooked up the brooding lamp in the corner and placed clean wood shavings on the bottom. Simply fabulous! You're jealous, I know. {wink, wink}

The rain this afternoon has been nice. I'm grateful it held out instead of raining at the kids' party this morning.

Looking forward to ordering some wheat berries through a local co op and trying some grain grinding for bread in the future. I guess I need a grain mill first. Eek. Still looking.

Received a very sweet gift in the mail (early anniversary gift I'm guessing) the other day. A new blender. Welcome back smoothies...whoot-whoot!

Been learning some fun, new songs on guitar. Hoping to get together soon with a guitar buddy to practice. :) My hubby has been transposing songs I want to play (but don't know certain chords yet) into chords I can easily play. I love our evening jam sessions, just him and I...me on guitar and him on the piano. Such a special time, especially when we play praise songs together.

Lots of little babies being born. Lots of baby announcements. Families expanding with blessings. So precious!

Looking forward to an escape from the city. Taking the RV down to the dairy farm soon for a few days and nights. Looking forward to loosing track of time. Milking cows (I'm such a sponge right now, soaking up all I can as I learn). Eating dinners together. Talking "farm talk". Letting the kids just run and "be". It's so serene there. So peaceful.

Thinking about Molly all the time (our Jersey calf) who is 6 months old now. Miss her so much and wish she was here, but seeing her on the farm makes me happy to know she has more space and little buddies to play with.

Enjoying our new dryer! I still like to line dry, but with all the rain lately I'm so thankful we have a "plan B". One thing I do miss is the smell of sunshine-filled, line-dried laundry. Hopefully, we'll have some sunshine this week.

Funny. I've always been a person to annotate (aka: "mark up") my literature. I've also always been one to annotate in my Bible as well. I'm a visual learner through and through. Well, I stumbled upon this a bit ago and have to say that right away I sharpened some colored pencils, threw them in the jacket of my Bible and went to town. I love visually drawing in my Bible and truly studying it, marking it up and letting God's words come alive. I love how I can use this study system to also remember where certain Scripture is located to share with others, remember in times when I really need certain verses, etc.

Rejoicing today and thankful for my three little birthday monkeys. For how much they have taught me in the parental realms of learning patience, self-control, true love (as a choice, not a feeling), and how much closer they have brought me to my Heavenly Father without them even knowing it.