Tag Archives: faith and family values

Great Football Movies for the Family

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Well, we registered the boys for football this Fall. Practice doesn’t start until August, but we’ve started accumulating their gear. And they are so excited that they’ve started wearing it around the house and to do their chores, especially walking the dogs. You know, just to get used to it. {smile} Speedracer is particularly excited about it and has been filling all his extra summer minutes with football movies–which then inspire him to throw his gear on and run around the backyard like a gridiron superstar. When it comes to sports … Continue Reading…

Easy DIY Luggage Tags

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As I wrote last week with our Summer Camp Packing lists (did you download your FREE copy?) our kiddos have been adventuring away from home a lot this summer. They visited my sister, my mother-in-law, and now church camp. This is Speedracer’s first year at church camp and we’ve developed several little rites of passage for the first year. One is that they get their first toiletry bag (or shaving kit bag for the boys) and one is that they get their personalized luggage tags. This is an easy and … Continue Reading…

Kids Need More Than Book-Learning

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Ok, we’re not even a month into the school year and I’m already over the homework. Sheesh. I’m just the Momma, it’s not even my homework! And the more I read and think and pray, the more oppose to homework I am, except for two cases… The child is not being diligent and getting their classwork finished and has to bring it home to work on it. This would go hand-in-hand with a student with a specific learning challenge that needs extra work. (Um, we have one of those. Maybe two. … Continue Reading…

A Tough Row to Hoe

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You know something I struggle with? Not getting my own way. {smile} But you know what’s REALLY hard? Compromising what I want for what I know is right–and things are STILL not easy. For some reason (Christian immaturity, probably!) I feel like when I submit to God in something, the clouds should break open and sunshine should pour through and everything should become rainbows and roses and suddenly I’m on easy street. I mean, I’m doing the Will of God–that means it should be easy, right? Ha! Not so much. … Continue Reading…

The Value of Serving TOGETHER

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If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen some of our summer posts about Mr. Fix-It and I leading a VBS class together this past summer. Not just being someone else’s helper, but planning, teaching, and leading our own class. Together. It was a completely new experience for us, as individuals and as a couple. I’ll just come right out and admit that I was nervous. One, because it was new. And two, because Mr. Fix-It and I are very different personality-wise and this kind of activity really, … Continue Reading…

Forest Sunrise and Taking Deep Breaths…the Daily Farm Adventures

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Sometimes walking the dogs at 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning lets you see some wonderful moments. Like the the way the sunrise lights through the foggy woods like a forest fire. And it lets you do a lot of thinking. Like about the school year starting soon and how awful the beginning was last year…and how you survived it. And it got better. And getting to the other side of it might have redeemed that heartache a little. Now we know we can do it. We’re ready to … Continue Reading…

Spring Break with Simple and Frugal Family Fun

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The crew has been on Spring Break lately, so I’ve been hashing together a schedule between work and home to spend time with them–even if it occasionally means I’m working while they’re playing. It’s a joy to be able to hear them laughing (and squealing!) in the background! What are some of the simple and frugal (actually, mostly FREE) family fun we’ve been enjoying this week? Well, scrubbing water troughs for one! The kiddos had to empty, scrub and refill all the water troughs. Since we just recently rotated the … Continue Reading…

I Think Perhaps I Will Write Again

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I think perhaps I will write again. I think perhaps I have words again. I think perhaps I have missed the weight of my camera in my hand. Perhaps it is a lie that a “smartphone” can meet all our needs in one neat little device. Perhaps there is a need for more than one lens. Perhaps there is a need for time, a need to find time, a need to slow down the moments and run our fingers through them as they flow by. Perhaps there is a need … Continue Reading…

Over the River and Through the Woods…the Daily Farm Adventures {76}

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This weekend was the weekend we had planned for our Master Club hike with our church junior group (4th-6th grade)…so naturally it rained. {smile} We didn’t let a little foggy, cold, misty, rain stop us! Nope, we loaded them up on the bus and headed out! We took them to the tree farm and walked around for a couple hours talking about growing trees, forest life cycles, wildlife habitat, environmental concerns in the Chesapeake Bay, and what is means to respect the land they visit for hiking or camping. We … Continue Reading…

Serving Muslim Customers at the Farm as Christians…the Daily Farm Adventures {71}

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We had our lamb harvest day on Saturday this year, so we’re wrapping up another sold-out lambing season here at The Lowe Farm. 90% of our customers are repeat customers, or a referral from a regular customer, and this is our 4th sold out year. Mr. Fix-It and I had a long talk the other day and we decided that being more transparent in our experiences might have a lot of value for our readers, and maybe some other small farmers out there. Based on some of the…um…unkind comments that we have … Continue Reading…

When There Are No Last Moments…Grieving and Growing

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All this chatter about Brittany Maynard makes me sad. Not just for her–although I have found myself praying for her so often since hearing her story–but for everyone in the conversation. So many hurting hearts. So many dealing with tough, tough choices. But what makes me so sad about this talk of “death with dignity” is that it assumes that cancer is taking your choices away and there is a way to wrestle control back from it and be in charge of “the end” yourself. I can see where you … Continue Reading…

Heartbreak and Mercy in Real Time

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This past long weekend,  we had some good times as a family. Unfortunately, not everything about last weekend was rainbows and ribbons. Farm life rarely is. {Note: The pictures below may be disturbing to people unfamiliar with the birth processes of animals, although I’ve tried to judiciously crop out some of the more…unsettling…aspects.} It started out like good news. We were shoving everyone into their coats and hats and heading out to pick up a load of hay on Sunday when Mr. Fix-It looked out the back door and saw one … Continue Reading…

Problem Solving Farm Kids…Thankful on a Thursday {LINK UP} 04/07/2011

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The last two weeks, I’ve finally got my fingers on the book One Thousand Gifts–A Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience, and started the journey of reading through it. Wow! It’s powerful, but it’s not an easy read. I’m not saying it’s not good–it’s excellent. But it’s deep. And poetic. And raw. All at the same time. I’m quite the avid reader, but I find that it’s not a book I can hurry through. I haven’t been able to read … Continue Reading…

Farm Kids

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I’m so proud of my kiddos. I really am. Sometimes I forget that they’re only 7, 4, and 3. (And even though the Ladybug is 7, when she does stuff around here she’s not cooperating with peers. She’s collaborating with a 3 and 4 year old.) On Friday, before I left for the Ladies Retreat, I sent them out by themselves to move some water buckets around for some new sheep we got. It was foggy, cold, and rainy. They had to open and close gates and make sure that … Continue Reading…

Mud on the Tires

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Sometimes life around here gets a little mucky. Sometime we get stuck in the mud and need someone to pull us out. The World likes to tell us that this is unusual. That it’s the sign of a problem. That life should be easier and tough times mean we’re doing something wrong. That we shouldn’t need to ask for help. But that’s not really true. It really just means that it’s been raining. And if there’s one thing that life on the farm teaches you, it’s that the rain always … Continue Reading…