Growth

Autumn is...

 

Picking fruit at a friend's farm

 

Playing Conkers

 

Drinking Caramel Apple Spice

Playing in leaves

 Pumpkin Farms

Leaves changing and foggy days

mums blooming

My Milestone Birthday

I have now spent more of my life WITH my beloved than I have without  him!

Farm Sitting

It is so great having friends with farms, when you can't have a farm of your own. 

We have been able to farm-sit again this month, and it has been so much fun!

We were responsible for 6 baby ducks,

watering the many plants

  picking vegetables,

 

 

collecting eggs from the chickens and handful of ducks (and checking the food and water)

 

And loving the cats.

My kiddos loved crawling up the hay stacks every chance they got. They long for farm life almost as much as their mama!

It was surprisingly hard, but very enjoyable work!
We were so blessed to be able to help!

My dream has come true!

 I have my own baby chick!

Although I am only his foster mama, and he will go back to the farm when he is grown,  we are so excited to raise this guy. He is probably the most spoiled chick ever!

 

Does it get any better than a great book, with a chicken snuggled up and sleeping on your lap? 

 Andrew taught him a trick at only 2 days old. Who knew chickens were so smart?!?

A Mary Dress

 

 

Abigail outgrew her "Laura dress", and she was a little worried about not being able to wear it. The Lord provided a  friend selling a similar dress, in a larger size  just in time. The day Abigail popped a button on her "Laura dress", the "Mary dress" arrived in the mail, and she LOVES it!  Of course neither were really the kind of dresses that would be worn back then, but they are close enough for her, and that is good enough for me!

The End of Kindergarten

Things that make me smile

Mother's Day

 I admit I did not start this day with a positive attitude. 

My husband had to work, and I have no motherly figures in my life to celebrate. 

As a kid I HATED Mother's Day. In school we always had to make a craft for our mothers, and I didn't have one (in a nutshell she chose drugs over me and left when I was 2). But I always was forced to make the craft anyways...I guess that bugged me more than I realized.

And my family doesn't do much. 

Which I am really OK with. I don't like receiving obligatory  gifts because the calender says they have to buy me something.
I prefer gifts that are spontaneous because someone was thinking of me and wanted to bless me. 

All that to say I didn't start this day with a cheerful heart. 

But it turned out to be beautiful. 

I shared part of an amazing book with my children. I worked in the garden. I went to the store to buy ingredients for a delicious salad. My husband got off work and grilled some steak and we had a delicious dinner. We had gorgeous weather, and 

I was reminded that I am blessed EVERY DAY to have been chosen to be a mother at all. That I have been redeemed, and He has allowed me to break my family's history of brokenness. My family is nothing short of a MIRACLE.

Just some Kitty Photos

15 years

 This year marks 15  years with my beloved. When we first started out, everyone (quite vocally) thought we were stupid. No one had faith that we would last. But we did. We've proved them wrong. 

We were told we were too young, we were wasting our lives. But I have never, not even for a heartbeat, regretted getting married at 17. In fact I am so thankful we did it earlier rather than later. 

 Marriage is about becoming one. 

We got to grow into the people we were to become TOGETHER. We were able to weather life's storms as one. I believe it has made us even stronger. Instead of spending years becoming set in our own ways, and then having to undo that to become one, we began as one. 

I know that The Lord doesn't bring everyone their spouse when they are 16, but our culture is pushing for later and later marriages. The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. He has used our young marriage to bless us abundantly and grow us together.   

Birthday Time

My sweet little firstborn turns 13 today, and I turn 31!

I am so blessed that this boy calls me Mom!

My Mud Monster

My daughter is as girly as they get. She loves all things pretty and feminine.
But she also loves MUD!

She has since she could crawl, and now at 5 she still hasn't outgrown it!

She cleared a corner of her garden, added water to the exposed dirt and for 2 days has been happily playing.