Oh how I've missed this...

I haven't blogged in forever, but I haven't forgotten about it. Nearly every day I have a line of thinking that strikes me as something I'd love to share here. I've mostly lacked a computer from which to share it (had another drive crash in June). Thanks to a great sale at Best Buy, I have a new laptop, and thanks to my dad, a new desktop too. So my excuses are gone and I need to carve out the time to sort through my thoughts and dust off my writing. I realize that my blogging is not really for you, my readers, although I appreciate your being here, and your words of encouragement are valuable in ways you will never fathom... but really I write for myself.

So many times I am struggling, imperfect, lonely, despondent, and feeling like all I do is tread water. Going back to my journals ans seeing where I was before and far my Lord has brought me can be such an encouragement to me. So here I am. I'm going to attempt to write out my thoughts here on a regular basis again. I've updated the look of my blog and hope you enjoy it. If you find any view-ability issues, please comment!

I'm not sure what kinds of content I will be including here just yet, but there are a few things you can count on:

• Scripture, I'm studying in several places right now and need a place to record my discoveries and thoughts. 
• School reviews. We are back in the midst of our homeschool year and have discovered so many fun things I can't wait to share with you.
• Thoughts on Life. My thought-life has been a roller-coaster lately, especially when it comes to marriage and friendships. As I work through some weighty issues I will share what I can without violating any trust. Just know that whatever is shared here is just a ripple on the surface of a deep, murky, and fast moving river. Somedays I feel like I'm rowing along and enjoying the river for the sights and recreation, and sometimes I'm just drowning in a whirlpool. 
• Rural life. Get ready for LOTS of pictures, recipes, fun farmy thoughts. 

©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Lost in learning...

(written several weeks back and finally posting, that crazy here...)

In the past few weeks I've been learning a lot. Learning so much I haven't had time to share. I am so thankful to the Lord for putting people in my life who grow and stretch me in so many ways. I often have a deep thought (yes, at times) and think to myself, "Wow, I should explore that further in a blog post!" But time gets away from me and the next big lesson wipes me clean. So much is going on around here I rarely get time to sleep, let alone reflect for long. But today is different. I have a sinus infection. :P I'm stuck in a chair wearing a turtleneck, a jacket, and a blanket... and I'm shivering.  I'm coughing like mad and have been drinking LOTS of fluids. That makes this mother of 4 think that the next lesson might be about bladder control. (Sorry, tmi)

So I have a moment to reflect, finally! I didn't realize how short I had been cutting myself until last week. I was doing a crazy diet with my sister, that required me to cut my coffee intake. At 9 pm I found myself passed out sideways across my bed, drooling on my hubby's pillow. Thankfully my kids took that cue and bid me goodnight and went to bed. (Mommies of littles, hang in there, this moment is coming! - not that it happens often.)

So, what am I learning? I'll peel back the onion in the next few posts.  Starting with today:

Dry outer layer: body learning. I'm learning to be more traditional with my foods. I've been making Kombucha for months now, and my kids love when I flavor it with strawberries. I've even been caught handing off SCOBY jars to friends. (Leave a comment if you want to know more). This week a good friend brought me some milk kefir grains, so I spent this afternoon gleaning the wisdom of my younger sister, Mics, as to how I should prepare it. I had a small (given my cold, and the dairy) kefir/coffee shake today and it was really yummy. Further along my traditional foods journey, this winter completely depleted my stockpile of gallons of frozen home made broth (from our own chickens). Every sore throat was soothed and our round of influenza took half as long as the last go-round a few years back. So this morning the edict was issued that the 3 roosters waiting in the barn be butchered, and they are now in the fridge and the bones and such boiling away on my stove for some more healing broth. Tomorrow I intend to drink the entire canning pot if I'm no better than today.

-update- It didn't take the whole pot to get over my cold, so now I have broth in the freezer again. Between that and the salt sinus rinses, I am thrilled to say I beat the sinus infection without antibiotics... for the first time in a long time. I am so happy, since I didn't want to start over on all the pro biotic work I've been doing. Speaking of pro-biotics, I am having a great time with the kefir, and I have figured out how to make a really yummy herbed cheese spread with it. Now everyone is gobbling up pro biotic goodness as a chip dip or spread on crackers. I hope to post a recipe soon.

Next layer, personal discipline...


©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Half way through

I'm not gone.

I'm just taking a break. A "breather." A moment to indulge in my family. January has become my "less computer time month". I envy my sweet mom-friend who can get a whole month of no-screens in January.

I'll be back in February. And I'll gladly catch you up on the fun we've been having:
Snow ball fights
Out of Town company
New experiences
Recipes
Scripture!
Birthday celebrations

But right now I'm just enjoying living it. Blogging it will come. -LL

In the mean time, something I enjoyed reading today:

A Letter to Myself:

"I don't know how it will turn out in the end. But I do know that I will wake up tomorrow excited to be my children's mother. Eager to learn and explore with them. At peace with the little world I've created for us all to learn and grow in. It's all helped me become a better person. I think that's been the biggest surprise about this whole thing. That homeschooling isn't only a good thing for kids. It's great for mamas too."


©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Short Term Missions: Guatemala 1997

Should a teen, or family, or anyone go on a short term mission?  Wouldn't the cost of the travel be better spent in a large donation to a mission that is already doing the work?

These are questions I've heard and wrestled with. I can't speak for anyone but my own experience. Last week, after the Armstrong family left our home, I took a  moment and read my journal from my one and only missions trip. I was 17. Feel free to do the math. It was a long time ago.

I remember when I was getting ready to go to Guatemala, I only chose to go because it was the opportunity that came up. We knew a family that served there frequently. They said they needed someone to fly down with a water purifier system checked in their baggage. My friend and I decided to go together. We wouldn't be alone that way.

We raised the support, and bought the tickets. When the other family brought the water purifier to my house, I remember their daughter asked me why I had Central America on my heart. I'm sure I gave her a very spiritual sounding answer.

Truthfully, in my mind I was thinking, "because this was a cheap and easy opportunity to do this missions trip my mom wanted me to do before I graduated."

Ugh. When I read my first journal entries I feel sick. Probably the same way God describes it:

"‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." -Rev. 3:15-17

I thought the orphans where were the poor, naked, the blind. But actually, it was me.

My mom was awesome. She packed me a journal, and asked that I please write in it every night. She wrote me a letter for nearly every day of my trip, and tucked them, sealed and dated, into the front pocket of the journal. It became my lifeline:

May 30th, 1997: Got here about 4:30pm yesterday. Guatemala is nothing like what I'd expected... Sarah and I were SO TIRED we were in bed by 8pm.... Today for lunch we had "I have no idea what's in it soup"

I was staying with a family of 11 (12 by the time I left) who were the directors of an orphanage outside of Guatemala City. Not an institution, but a place where abandoned and often abused children are assigned to houseparents and live in large family units. Those families were AMAZING in the sacrificial love they shared for those children. Half of the children in the director's family were also adopted.

May 31st.  Went with the director to the city to pick up the new baby [who had been abandoned]. They don't have carseats, so I rode along to hold the baby. His real name is very long and I can't pronounce it, so I call him Charlie.

June 1, Sarah will be staying at the orphanage, and I at the director's house. I must admit I'm a bit disappointed though. I thought the while idea of this trip was being together, not 1.5 hours apart...

My grumbling went on for half a page, about the mosquitoes, the food, the lack of sleep since the new baby was in my room... I was a self-centered mess. The typical American teen actually. And I got sick, a lot. And I had hormonal issues. And I was homesick, and the phones didn't work well. I had to pay to get an email at a cafe. And I was such a grouchy mess that the director actually offered to fly me home (just to be rid of me). It was that bad. Those poor people! I am ashamed of myself when I look back.

As the time goes on I write about loneliness. About the only English speaking people in my environment being gone all the time, and me taking care of the children alone, with the housekeeper. I did laundry and bathed all the kids each day. I took the bigger kids to lessons on the public bus, where I was a foot taller than everyone. I wrote about looking forward to Sarah coming up on the weekends (since Sundays were my "day off") so we could eat out and go shopping together. I wrote about nighttime bottles with Charlie, and burning myself while sterilizing his bottles, and I even started keeping a count of my mosquito bites in my journal. (In hindsight they were probably bed bugs, eek!) Still nothing but complaining.

The second weekend I was there I attended a wedding at my host family's church. It ran late and caused me to miss out on my lunch plans/shopping, but I didn't seem to mind. My perspective shift had begun. I began seeing people as relationships, not projects, and situations as opportunities, not sacrifices.

June 8,  The evening service at [the orphanage] was fun. We're starting to make friends here. I met this cute little boy named Henry who speaks English. He is so funny! He has a gift of facial expression and a sense of humor to match. 

June 9th, Today I was happy. I can't explain it, but God sent me His joy and contentment. 

June 11th, [I found out] there are people who want to adopt Charlie, but that it will take at least 2 years for him to just get through the legal system. The Holy Spirit was heavy on my heart for Charlie and I agreed to sponsor him until he gets a home.... I've learned so much, I love you Charlie! 

June 12th was a the halfway point. I began to write about how I was SO glad the director family could utilize me to get a bit of a break while I was there. There was just so much work to do and they were so very worn out, physically and emotionally. In my journal I see that this is the point where I stopped complaining, and started praising. Is this the same Laura?

From that point on in my journal, my only complaints were about a group of kids from Michigan who came on a group mission trip to "help" and they ate like kings and queens while the other staff went without. I had packed the children's lunches, I knew they often shared a single slice of bologna between two sandwiches. These missions trip kids were rowdy and ungrateful and I referred to them as "the gringos" . I no longed identified myself with them. Never-mind that I had been them just 2 weeks before.

I grew so lonely for someone who understood where I was (heart-wise), but my friend was still not posted anywhere near me. In the night times, when I was up with Charlie, I felt the most lost and alone, as the rain beat down on our tin roof. It was then that I realized that I wasn't alone after all. I clung to the words of the Psalms:

Psalm 139
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and [b]when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
5 You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

June 13th, I'm so glad no one can take Him [Christ] away!

June 16th, When I first got here I was counting the days until I could go home. Now I wonder if I could stay longer. There's SO much I was want to do!

The next two weeks are a log of laundry, diapers, chores, and baths. The work was no less, and I continued to be sick for weeks after returning home, losing 20 lbs in all. But my tone in my journal changed. I was feeling comfortable with getting around in this country. Thankful for meals of hot dogs or half-a-slice of bologna sandwiches. I began taking detailed notes about the individual children and their needs and personalities.

They weren't just some people, some place... they were my heart and soul. I LOVED them. I loved serving them. When it was time to pack I found I was missing a couple pairs of socks, and found them on the little boys' feet. :) I was part of their family too.By the time I left Mr. Director was joking he wished I would "marriage with" one of his sons. It was a tearful parting for all of us. I was just sure I'd be back soon.

I'm certain of it, I'm the one who benefited the most from that trip. David Armstrong, a missionary friend of ours called it: "being stripped of our perspective." How true that is. I had to lose my familiar view of the world to gain a fresh one. The one where the world doesn't revolve around me, and God has a purpose and plan for everything.

The last of the "pre-sent" notes from my mom, June 26th, 1997
"You are probably really busy today. Is today sort of bittersweet? Hard to leave; anxious to come home? Wel, I probably didn't sleep well last night because I am excited to get you back - and a little worried about you and Sarah getting through customs by yourselves.
What did you think? Was this worth doing? Would you recommend this type of trip to other teens you know? I'll love to hear your thoughts.
James 2:14-20 'In as much as you have done it unto the least of these... you have done it unto me.'
Hug those babies for me one last time, O.K.? I will be praying for you all the way home. I love you, Laura.
-Mom

I'm so glad my parents required this of me. This week our church commissioned a young high school senior to go to Haiti for a short term trip. I hugged her and told her I'd be praying. She has no idea what her Father wants to show her there. But I think I might know. A new perspective on life.

For more about how you can become involved in short term missions, visit Mission Data International. 

-Laura

©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

The 5-year Plan

Oct 2007

I'm sure you've all been there, sorting out the checkbook and day dreaming about a vacation. Maybe sorting through bills that should have been paid off long ago. I do it regularly: I make a 5 year plan. If we stick to this budget, if we do a few projects, if we wait patiently, if we work hard.... In 5 years we will: be able to buy the dream vehicle, be able to go on the dream vacation, be out of debt, we will finish the barn into a recreation room, etc. etc. etc...

The only thing I can count on about the 5 year plan, is that something we didn't plan on will happen in about 5 months, and there will be a new plan. Often, I get frustrated with how my plans aren't working out and I try and scheme up a way to fast-track the plan. This time last year I was interviewing for a job. I was going to work for a year, maybe even 5, and see if we couldn't get to a better place with all these plans. But as I began thinking about office attire, and business networking, I also got to thinking about what schools I prefer, as working and homeschooling wouldn't work out... and I got to thinking about my kids spending 8 hours a day in separate classrooms, never seeing each-other, and I got to praying about it... and God got a hold of my plans.

Isaiah 55:8-13“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
So is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
    for an everlasting sign,
    that will endure forever.”

His ways are not my ways? Higher? How does that work? I called my interviewer and let them know I was going to pass on the job. That was hard. A year later, I have no regrets.

Oct 2007

Well, when I turn my plans upside down, I can see it better. Five years ago, if you had shown me a snapshot of the life I live now, and said "How does that look for a 5 year goal?" I'd have been SUPER EXCITED! I lived in a trailer-home in the middle of a small town. A farm? In the country? At the time I had a newborn, a toddler, and two kids just starting school. To see them all in (home)school now, and independent? Really?

Yes. Please!

How funny to me that this life I'm planning to change (in a 5 year plan), is exactly what I would have dreamed of... 5 years ago.

Oh, and never-mind all the things I miss about 5 years ago! LOL Reading through my old blog posts from 5 years ago, I am amazed. Were the kids ever so little? How much time has flown! If I had gone to work last year, sure, I'd be in a nicer car, but would I have noticed I was missing all this? Not for anything.

Oct 2007

Job's friends once questioned God's plans, and God responded, showing Job all the ways He is in control of all things...

Job 42:1-6 Then Job answered the Lord and said:
"I know that you can do all things,
    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

It is so humbling to see our plans contrasted with the awesome things God has in mind. Even just a glimpse, and one of the most faithful men in history was humbled to "dust and ashes."

Thankful for the blessings He plans, and for 5-year plans that never materialize...

Oct 2007

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ 

declares the LORD, 

‘plans for welfare and not for calamity 

to give you a future and a hope. 

Firsts, Lasts, and Always...

As a scrapbooker, I have always celebrated firsts. First haircut, first bath, first smile. I have pictures, stories and pockets full of memories. They are all stuffed into books and overburden my bookcases in the living room. I remember the excitement of each first, they are easy to recognize, as my kids do things they never had done before. So easy to document, celebrate, and remember. 5 years ago I first held my little baby boy, Wyatt. and I will never forget those first moments of sweetness.

Last fall I attended Women of Faith in Denver, and I heard Karen Kingsbury read her new book, Let Me Hold You Longer.


When she was done, there wasn't a dry eye in that room filled of thousands of women... as we all missed our kids and grieved our yesterdays. I think the only book that made me cry more was "I'll Love You Forever."

So today is a last... the last time I'll have a 4 year old. Tomorrow is a first: first day of my "baby's" fifth year... but I'm not crying, because I choose not to dwell on yesterday OR tomorrow. I'm here, now, in the best time of my life. Sure, there are things to look forward to: life at the end of the budget, the feeling of a clean kitchen after all the hard cleaning is done, a time when we will leave suffering behind and spend eternity in the GLORY of the Father... But when it comes to my kids, today is the best day. I'm in no hurry. THIS is my favorite stage, and it always will be. In five years, when they are *gasp* 16, 15, 11 and 10... I will still say the same. " THIS is the best it's ever been, and I love where we are right now."

I am so thankful for my kids, and for their sweet bed time prayers tonight. At no prompting of my own, they each thanked God for giving them 5 years of Wyatt's life. And Wyatt thanked God for all the great mail he's been getting. (thank you friends for flooding our mailbox and making his birthday wish come true!) Yes, this is a great day, and so will be tomorrow when we look through his baby book and remember his firsts, his lasts, and then we will celebrate the day. And he will get more mail and say something funny, I'm sure. And he will even love this 'Mater' cake the kids helped me make tonight.

February 17, 2007 - Pondering Big Things

Since this blog is fairly new, and it's been a long time since I had one... I thought I'd go back and look through a blog I'd had a long time back. I found this post from almost exactly 5 years ago... I was getting ready for baby #4, just starting out into the world of homeschooling, living in a tiny trailer home, still had 3 grandparents living near us... WOW that feels so long ago!

_____________________________________________

Big Things
I am constantly weighing out big things. I see big life changes coming.

New baby this fall. Emma will start school at that same time. Tyler will be starting 1st grade and be needing more structure than I've been able to give him this year. (although, I must add he is doing GREAT, some simple reading and now doing simple addition and subtraction. Very neat to see it all clicking.) What to do for school? Continue homeschooling? Can I manage it?

Mayda is growing up so fast I can hardly fathom it. Once I get my pictures downloaded I'll show you all a video of her using a spoon for the first time. We finally had her real birthday party today. It was fun. She's just getting so big so fast! How will I keep ahead of her?

We need a different vehicle situation. Our one good gas milage vehicle (for Ben's commute) is also our best family vehicle, and even that will be too small when the baby comes. (yay for one more car seat! :P ) What do we buy? more miles and less money or the other way around? Should we sell and/or buy more than one vehicle? Maybe get rid of two vehicles so we can get Ben a better commuter vehicle? Can we get enough out of what we have to swing buying what we need?

Continuing care for loved ones. Diagnosis I'm still grasping to understand. Parkinson's, I hardly know what to expect. What exactly are the beginning signs of Altzheimers? Thyroid lows and depression; who knew they were such a devastating foe? How can anyone afford taking 5 meds when just one of them costs $265 a month? How long will some stay in independence? The other in assisted living and not full nursing care? How can I help extend that? What is physically possible for me?

As mom's trip winds down I'm realizing how much I've leaned on her this past two weeks. Ben jokingly said once she's gone we'll be back to the "shift change" referring to the way that whenever he's not working I'm leaving he kids with him so I can go help loved ones. How will I do that while nursing a newborn?

And then I am reminded. Every time we've found ourselves standing with our nose to the wall, a wall ten miles wide and ten miles tall... no way over and no way around... (a financial wall, a health burden wall, a spiritual wall). I stand there studying that wall, I measure and weigh my problems and solutions... and when I can see that absolutely nothing my human mind can conceive will fix it...

I surrender. And wait.

And He is there. He puts a way through the wall where there wasn't. Not with the cannon and gunpowder I'd thought of. Not by scaling its heights with a ladder of my fashioning. No, he thinks of things more infinite than I. (Isa . 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.") No, He finds something unusual to show me his might:

"When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD" -Joshua 6:20-21a

I'm shouting Lord; I believe you have a plan for this wall.

Trials? Count it all joy...

What scripture do you have hanging around to remind you of God's plan? I recently took down a sheet I've had taped to the cupboard, over my sink where I've been reading/meditating/memorizing it for quite some time.

During that time there had been a battery of trials in our life, and I had been struggling to deal with them. I honestly really struggled the most with the hopelessness that comes from thinking this will go on forever and ever with no end... and no purpose.

It was while looking for help from God's Word using the keyword "trials", that I came across a very familiar passage. Often I am amazed how the Scripture is opened to me, in places I've been, read, and even memorized before. But new light shines, and my eyes open. I feel about as dumb as the men who walk the road to Emmaus must have felt when their eyes were opened to see Jesus was with them. So here's what I found (and printed and read daily for months):

James 1:2-8 Trials are PROFITABLE

"2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Sound familiar? I've read it a hundred times. But what got my attention was looking at it the way it was re-phrased in a popular paraphrase, The Message. (I consider these a valuable tool for getting perspective, but not a replacement for original Scripture)

vs. 2-4 paraphrased:
"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."

Don't try and get out of anything prematurely? It made me realize that there is a real process here that would be cheated if I were to have it all easy. That there is something beautiful He is creating in me that would be incomplete if it all just stopped and went away. The picture I have in my mind is one of a butterfly, working its way out of a chrysalis, and how that struggle is actually important in forcing the blood flow out into the wings. If we were to touch a butterfly and "help" it out... we would destroy it.  So I printed a picture of a butterfly and the verse, and put them above my sink, as a reminder of the purpose of the struggle.

Last summer Emma found a bunch of ugly, fuzzy worms in the weeds near my garden. We captured them in a jar, planning to identify them as I was just sure they were some kind of garden-munching pest... The jar was forgotten and when looked at again, they had all gone into little cocoons and there were lots of them! (don't mind the dirty pan in the background of the picture below, but it was the only one I had of the lil' wormies!)

It wasn't long before they began to hatch into lovely butterflies and the kids were able to watch the struggle from beginning to end. It was amazing! As was the process of letting them go. :)

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly."

~Richard Bach

We bought the "farm"

We discovered our farm in the spring of 2009... and while we were in no place ready to buy a house out-right, we knew we couldn't pass it up. While it did mean a few sacrifices (goodbye: New Expedition, hello: minivan we bought at a garage sale....), it was totally worth it. We went from a two-bedroom (ok, three bedroom if you count the converted porch) trailer-house on a city lot, to a three bedroom farmhouse with a barn, shop, garage, and several acres to spread out.

Plus, it had trees!!!! For those of you here on the prairie, who don't know understand what is so important about trees (and I'm not talking about a windbreak of Rocky Mountain Juniper)... let me explain.When I was young I would lay on the grass and look up at the light as it filtered through the trees and just wonder at the beauty of it. And yes, I have dedicated whole scrapbook pages to just trees. Trees nobody planted, but God. I digress... I grew up in Eastern PA, where you get views like this of rolling hills covered in trees, which turn a multitude of colors in the fall and just literally take your breath away.

Here on the plains, where trees only grow where you plant them. Here, the home of Arbor Day and the largest hand-planted forest in the United States... trees are valuable and, well, not really diverse. The upside, is that you can see your dinner guests coming from a mile away; the downside, is that the local nursery hardly even stocks "full shade" plants. Still looking for an affordable place to pick up hostas for the North side of the house. Another thing I didn't know growing up in PA... that the South side was sunny and the North shady. Every side was shady! But here you are very aware of the sun and it's path through the sky. I now know why we have a lovely tall row of pines on the south side of the house... except that they have been "topped off" at just the right height so that the sun shines full on the house in the heat of summer, but they shade the driveway nicely, so the snow there never melts in winter. (Lest I sound like I'm complaining: driveway shade is a much praised blessing from the Lord in summer).

So there you have it, we bought the farm. The one with a few trees. :) If my husband were writing this, his favorite feature to mention would probably be the shop, or the way the living room flows through the dining area into the kitchen. (I like that too!)The kids would probably talk about the barn, or the forts they build all over the place (the latest being a dug-out under the wood-pile; not sure what I think about that). But my favorite thing is that this place grows! Not only trees, which I plan to plant a lot more of, but three acres of real farm ground, and enough room besides them. I have been planting ever expanding gardens... and there's enough water access (irrigation/wells) to grow it all. That's something else I had no clue about in PA; we didn't even own a sprinkler!

Why is that so important to me? Because growing is a gift from God. Through watching growing things, creatures, and natural processes, I have been able to teach my kids about the nature of our creator. About His beautiful design for our lives. About the natural paths of time, through change of season, and winter hardship, to spring time: where faith really can be described by a seed.


Mark 4:30-32 "Then He said, 'To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.' "

Even Jesus knew a little bit of shade could be compared with Heaven. :)