Normally I like to post a farm update on Fridays, even if it’s just pictures from my phone from the week. But here’s what real life looks like sometimes–this week I just don’t have anything. I am tired, world-weary, and trying to find rest.

This week I am just a momma with a sink full of dirty dishes and 7-inch tall grass to come home to tonight. I’ve got a house full of kiddos that need baths and a pasture of sheep that need to be wormed and some sassy ducks that find their livelihood in laughing at me every time I pull in the driveway. I’ve got more rooms to be painted, and vintage signs to be hung, and donations to be sorted and school clothes to be sewn. I’ve got a truck in the shop for new tires, school bills to pay, a weekend trip to plan for, and chickens to round up.

And in the midst of all, our Pastor speaks of “that I may know Him.” (Listen here.) And I walk this life in new shoes…

And I walk this life in new shoes…

A confirmed Roman Catholic, re-baptized, reborn, immersed and raised up a new creation this past June (2013). These new shoes that squeak when I move too fast, and leave blisters where they rub when I am in the Flesh. They are slippery when the rains pour down and the heels can get caught in the cracks.

And the yoke doesn’t always feel easy and the burden doesn’t always feel light. (Matthew 11:13)There are still needs that are unmet and wounds that are unhealed and words that came out too fast, and sometimes being salt and light stings against the open sores of sin.

And I am just a tired momma in these new shoes.

These new shoes that any day can look like muck boots, like high heels, like combat boots too heavy to lift up and march on…like dusty sandals that need to be washed by living water.