Gratitude
This Thanksgiving, I thought I would carve out a little time to "journal" some gratitude on this blog and share some pictures of what we have been up to around here. There is so much to be thankful for that I'm not sure where to start. I haven't always been a "grateful" person. It's something I've had to work on and in time and with God's help, He is changing me into an extremely grateful person. I'm not perfect. I can have bad days just like everyone else and easily give into fleshly complaints, but how does the song go? "He's still workin' on me!" :)
It feels sometimes like the blessings OVERFLOW when I think about how much we are blessed, even just with simple things in life...nutritious food, family to love, our beautiful farm and animals, flowers, the smell of rain, the smell of freshly bathed babies, wonderful books to read, cozy quilts to snuggle up with and take a nap, the written Word of God in our language, our church family...I could go on. See how that works? You get started and can't stop! (grin)
(I'm thankful for this amazing guy, my husband of 22 years, and twin daughters.)
Thanksgiving was a lovely day today. Robbie and I got the twins asleep and after some evening self care (I am working on this also), he turned on a Christmas movie for him and the older kiddos while I got a few moments to share with you all our utmost blessings. 
One special blessing this year was adding my FAVORITE dogs to our farm! Golden Retrievers! :)
Robbie's and my first dog was "Riley", a spunky Golden Retriever we got shortly after we married. We fell in love with the breed and so while we have to keep Livestock Guardian dogs on our farm for our sheep and other small farm animals' protection, they're certainly not pets. They don't come into the house or jump into the truck when you ask them if they want to come with you on a ride. Nope. They like being with the farm animals and thus, we are back having our favorite breed of dog BACK! I couldn't contain myself the day "Scout" came. A sweet girl in her 20's from Kentucky spoke to me over the phone and sent me pictures. I was hooked! She heard our story of adopting our three kiddos last year and even offered to DRIVE TO US and deliver free of charge. (I did pay her for gas!) "Scout" has been such a hit with the family that we wound up getting another, "Bear". More pictures to come.
We also took a nice mini-vacation to Tennessee's highest ranked state park Fall Creek Falls. We have always enjoyed going there and this time, we stayed a few nights and really enjoyed the fall colors, hiking, a great family dinner at their new restraunt and some games, fishing and bonfires.
Here is Anna at a local restaraunt with a new book Papa got her for her first birthday.
(Did you k now there's a flower called "Sweet Annie"? I'm planning on planting some next spring. I think flowers are my love language.) Anna is my clingy one. Josiah gravitates towards Rob (but is still very much a mama's boy) and Ruthie is "little Miss Independent". She gets lots of mama cuddles, but this girl is ready to walk and explore the world around her. The twins are crawling and standing now. Walking is next (gulp!). :)
Breakfast with the babies is always entertaining and sometimes loud, but always a JOY to see their smiling faces in the morning. Robbie is our main breakfast fixer while I get our room tidied and clothes laid out for the babies for the day. We have settled into a great routine with these little guys.
Ruthie and Anna love going to the homeschool P.E. class each week. We sometimes walk the track inside the gym and "talk", eat snacks and nap in the stroller. Then we pick up the big kids and off to lunch together! We love these special days. The big kids especially love dodgeball. There's always a good turnout of kiddos.
This is one of our BIGGEST (literally) blessings this coming year. Drumroll please...
Our new house rennovation!!!!! (Praise the Lord)
Our sweet, little 1800's farmhouse got a complete gut and remodel right before we bought it 5 years ago, but we need more bedrooms, bathrooms, a bigger kitchen, diningroom and homeschool room now. God is so good to always provide and as this is an old picture, the foundation is now complete and we start walls and roofing the first week of December!
We went to the town next door's Christmas Night celebration and Josiah loves the lights. He stood staring at them. He's so cute!
Anna, with the sun shining on her on a new quilt I bought recently. I'm a sucker for a soft quilt, especially ones at low prices that I know how to quick fix. Well worth it! Anna approves of it too. :)
Our Jersey cows are thriving as well as our sheep. We scaled down on our sheep this past year when we found out we'd be adopting our little ones. We scaled down on pretty much everything! I even had to let my gardens "go". It's a season in life and when I look into the eyes of our sweet babies, it's well worth the sacrifice. I've honestly enjoyed the year of REST! I'm hoping I'll have them out with me playing in the garden this next year though.
Ah, and Thanksgiving! We always have Thanksgiving in the woods. We spend all morning cooking and load everything up into our farm's mule and drive it out to a special spot we've prepared with tables, chairs, a bonfire and decorations. Everyone grabs a plate, after the blessing, and loads up their plates with yummy food straight off the mule. It's so much fun! We play music and have a great time.
Here's the "dishing up part".
Anna and Ruthie sat in their seats and loved tasting all the different foods, especially the cranberry orange bread.
The "crew".
Our bonfire started out small, but we made it bigger and enjoyed some great laughs around it after our meal. :)
I have been experimenting with drying flowers lately. These are cosmos (one of my favorites!). I'm making homemade bookmarks with them as gifts this year. I'm hoping they'll go through the laminator without a hitch.
Some of the flowers, goldenrod and other grasses I dried to make the bookmarks.
The twins and I take a walk everyday (unless it's too cold or rainy). Silas and the puppies like to join us. It's such a peaceful time I look forward to each day. Sometimes, I listen to a podcast, sometimes music, sometimes I just walk and pray for things laying on my heart and sometimes, Silas and I talk about the important things in life like dinosaurs. :)
Anna and I at Thanksgiving. I'm afraid to blink, these kiddos (all of them!) are growing up too fast. Where does the time go? They are so precious.
I hope this post finds you (reader) well and THANKFUL! The art of gratitude really is an artform. It's a mindset. It's Scriptural and of God. We can all find something to be thankful for each day. We can start a gratitude journal or even write down verses/quotes about being thankful and post them around our homes, visually reminding us and our family members to have a heart of thankfulness always. I pray this Thanksgiving was a good one for you and that this upcoming season of the celebration of Christ's birth is even better.
Many blessings! Kelli
No comments:
Post a Comment