Long Time - No Post

Yes, yes, it's been quite a long time with no post... but I'm back at it. :-)

We enjoyed almost a week of Mom M. being here, which was great! This was the first time for her to meet her newest grandson! And the rest of us hadn't seen her since Christmas. Thanks again for coming, Mom, and come again very soon! It was super to have you!





Our friend, Laurel, posted a link to a blog she'd recently found... and I was inspired by this project, and ended up letting Clara paint rocks and shells today. We've only tried painting a few times before and she normally doesn't stick to it for very long... but she worked at this project for a while.


Clara's toenail got ripped kind of deep and the toe looked sore and maybe a bit infected, so we got out the foot bath yesterday, put in epsom salt and let her soak her feet. She thought it was great and was NOT a happy camper when I took the bath away.


And she had another foot bath today. What a life. :-)



And here are a couple shots of our precious boy from a while back.

Friends

And they ARE friends! :-) After getting up this morning, Stephen was changing Clara and one of the first things she asked was "Kiah?". After getting done, she came walking by my room and looked in and whispered "Sleepin'?" I told her that, no, he was in his swing, and she was off to see her little brother!

The picture was taken yesterday.

Saturday Afternoon

This is Stephen. There was a little napping going on at our house this afternoon. Does it ever seem tiring just being awake sometimes? Today we got a big girl mattress for Clara, so this was the last nap in the crib (if she is up to being a big girl that is!).



Some people just need a soggy thumb and a special blanket to sleep well. (Not that I ever needed the same...)



Some thoughts from Ps. 47:4 "He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah."

According to Eph 1, this inheritance that believers partake is that we have been predestinated according to the PURPOSE of a sovereign God. And the outcome of that purpose is that believers in Jesus Christ are the praise of His glory. Are we willing to accept from God's hand his choice for us in this life? William Secker says "We are not to be troubled that we have no more FROM God, but we are to be troubled that we do no more FOR God. Christians, if the Lord be well pleased with your persons, should not you be well pleased with your conditions?" He knows what is good for us, far more than we do. It says that His choice is the EXCELLENCY of Jacob whom he loved. He is prepared to give the very best he has. Do not be like the children of Israel in Josh 18:3 where Joshua says to them "How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers HATH GIVEN YOU?"

Saturday Morning Moments

Yesterday Evening

Yesterday evening turned out to be one of those lovely family times. We went out and took a stroll around the neighborhood. Hil enjoys being outdoors and both of the kids were happy and content. We then spent some time hanging out in the back yard, checking out the garden, watching the chickens and enjoying the lovely weather. After coming in Stephen and I settled down in the living room and took in another chapter of the book we've been reading: "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyers Guide To Farm Friendly Food". The book is by Joel Salatin and if you think it's probably just a super boring book by looking at the title, then you likely haven't heard Joel Salatin speak or read one of his books. :-) We might have to do a post one of these days about some of the things we've been learning! But for now, I'll just say it was a special family time evening. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the dear little family you have blessed us with and the fun, relaxing time we had last night.

And here are a few pictures of our precious boy, taken last night:

How Could You Be Upset About That?

I had put Hil down today, hoping he'd be down for a good long nap. Before too long, I could hear that a little girl had gone in there, and I wasn't terrible pleased about that. However, when I walked in I discovered a precious sight. There was Clara, next to Hil's bed. The little guy was asleep (amazingly :-)), and he had been very nicely covered with Clara's favorite, life-would-not-go-on-without-it blankie, and she had tucked one of her baby dolls in next to him. Too cute!

Congratulations Anna!!!

My dear sister and friend, Anna, is graduating from high school today! Where does the time go???!!! Not so long ago, I was nine years old and getting to hold my first little sister for the first time! Now, she's a lovely young lady and a dear friend that I would love to live closer to!! And she's graduating, already!

If you don't know Anna, you've missed out on knowing a very special person! She likes to be authentic and not fake. She has brought me TONS of smiles and laughter with her humor and goofiness! But she can also be serious and is willing to confront people when she thinks they're wrong... she has brought conviction to my heart before! She loves babies and is super good with taking care of them! And she's also a bit crazy... she wants to go sky diving when she turns 18! :-)

We love you, Anna! Have a wonderful graduation! And we'll be praying for you as you seek the Lord Jesus' leading for your future!


Here's a couple shots from a visit back home last year:

Did I mention she's goofy? :-) Oh, yeah, I guess that IS me in the picture with her and I AM the OLDER sister! Maybe it's not totally her fault that she can be like that sometimes! :-)

Big Sis - Little Bro

Here's the Big Sis and Little Bro, as of this morning! :-) Clara likes her little brother and showers him with kisses, pushes his swing, puts his pacifier back in, puts toys and blankets on top of him... and has to be reminded to "be careful", "don't hurt him", etc. :-) And, as you can see above, she occasionally likes to hold him too.

Precious Memories of the Week

Earlier this week, I tried to take Clara to some fun fountains that kids are aloud to play in... thinking she would have an even better time in them this year, now that she is older. No go. Granted, it was kind of a cool day... and if she'd gotten in she would have been cold, so maybe that was part of it, though I'm not sure she reasons that kind of thing through. But for whatever reason, she was not interested in playing in the water. Got her to stick her hand in one of them, but that was it. Oh, well, still got this sweet picture of her and a beautiful flower. And in the end, we got out the double stroller, that our dear friends blessed us with, and took a stroll around a block of the mall.


A precious something that happened this week: Clara "reading" to Kiah! It was so cute! She went on and on, loudly proclaiming gibberish.


Out to the count


So cute! Yesterday, Stephen dressed Hil up in this outfit, which was a gift from our kind neighbors.


One more precious memory from this week: Hil was lying on our bed and Clara was making me somewhat nervous by jumping around him. However, the cutest thing was happening at the same time. After jumping about for a little bit, she would squat down beside him, take his hands in hers, ask "More? More?" and make his little hands go together for the sign for "More"! Then up she would go and do some more jumping, then down again for the "more" exercise.

So, Hil's signing lessons have already started, thanks to our precious little teacher! With three teachers instead of just two, he should be signing away in "no time"! :-)

Precious Moments

French Fries and a Birthday

Friday, we got to pick up Mc Donalds and meet Daddy at work for a picnic, which was a treat!

And speaking of Mc Donalds, our girl LOVES french fries! And she's figured out where they come from! We were driving along on the freeway about a week ago and she saw the "golden arches" off to the side and suddenly announced "fre-fries". :-)

Friday was also our little Hilkiah's one month birthday. Where does the time go?

Here are a few pictures from the picnic:










And here is the precious birthday boy and his cute little six toes!

Pictures of the Day

A Precious Little Package:


He looks happy here, but he sure had some unhappy times today! It's often hard to know what's bothering him. There's always challenges with these precious packages... but joys come too!!!

And here is the action shot of the day! Clara's friend, Abby, out grew her scooter and kindly handed it down to Clara the other day! And Clara's been having fun with it! We even got a scraped knee today... which produced A LOT of drama, but is part of growing up!

Home Grown Chicken!

First prize goes to Sarah, for the first correct guess! :-) And she's followed closely by Dad F. and Mom M.

Yes, yes! Monday morning was butchering day. And might I add here that this post DOES contain some butchering day pictures, so if that would be disturbing to you, you may want to skip this one. However, none of them are terribly graphic! :-)

A couple days earlier I snapped some pictures of our little farm girl and her flock. The white birds are the meat chickens. The red ones are the layers. Unfortunately, these were also the final pictures of our turkey (he's the tan and white one). He was missing Tuesday morning.







And then butchering day arrived. Our chickens were about 7 or 8 weeks old. We started small and only had 4 of the meat chickens (a 5th one had already fallen prey to some critter).

Some very good friends of ours willingly came to show us the ropes. Different members of the family are pros at various parts of the process, and they demonstrated their expertise and gave us lots of great instruction. Thanks again you all!!! You were super teachers!

We also had a neighbor as well as a co-worker of Stephen's who both wanted to come observe, so we had quite the crew out there!


Stephen... trying his hand at gutting. He did a great job!!! He's gonna be a pro in no time!



Plucking and head and feet removal:


Clara had such a blast with her friends!

We weren't sure if we should let her watch the proceedings, but in the end she did, and seemed very calm and undisturbed.


Our precious little farm girl!



My involvement in the slaughter process was "observation"... and then cooking the first bird the next evening!

It was fun to eat our first "home grown" bird. We found the meat moist and with quite good flavor, but unfortunately, it was also rather stringy and chewy. We think that may be from letting them run around and be too active. If we have another batch in the future, which is quite likely, we will probably try to keep them contained. Any of you chicken experts out there, feel free to give us more advice!


And our little chicken fan consumed great quantities of it!