Tag Archives: faith and family values

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…

10 Little Daily Routines for the School Year

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I have to admit, I love daily routines. I’m not a detail person, so having a solid routine keeps me from being stuck dealing with details all the time and leaves me to think big thoughts and make big plans and dream big dreams. {In contrast, Mr. Fix-It takes “fly by the seat of your pants” and “taking the scenic route” to new and undiscovered heights!} This year’s school change has been really big for our household. Really big. It’s completely changed up our household routine and made it much … Continue Reading…

Getting Our Craft On

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Since we were together for 4 days, I suppose it’s only natural that my sister and I would break out our scissors and glue and get our craft on. Saturday night after eating and shopping and sleeping and shopping and cleaning and drinking lots of coffee…we spent a few hours ripping and tearing and gluing and glittering and waxing philosophical about all the things of faith and God that we’ve been learning over the last year or two. I didn’t really expect to stay up until 4:30 am–especially with only … Continue Reading…

It Still Hurts…Grieving and Growing

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I’ve been writing a lot about the farm and lambing lately. And then I took a few days off because we had snow and I was busy keeping up with the kiddos and catching up on work from days out of the office. I don’t talk about it very much, but I do work full-time outside the home and trying to be all there when I am home, means the paperwork can really pile up when I’m off for a few days. So when I sat down to write a … Continue Reading…

In Which God Shows Me a Tiny Glimpse…

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I had the next post about summer learning plans all planned out…in my head…and ready to be typed up last night. Football practice was even cancelled by the rain, so I had extra time to get the kiddos in bed on time! Then the homework war commenced with the Ladybug. Tears, tantrums, torn papers, broken pencils…40 minutes into a 20 minute assignment she walks up to me and says, “I need to talk to you about something in your bedroom.” Um…ok. How about we talk about it here, in the … Continue Reading…

It Just Takes Time…the Daily Farm Adventures {51}

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It’s been a bit of a hectic weekend, but only in good ways! {smile} Sort of. If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen that I saw a coyote trotting across the field next to our place the other afternoon. I thought my eyes were deceiving me at first (since it was black!) but I whipped out my camera and tried to snap a few shots and they’re definitely good enough to confirm for me. Although, you really can’t mistake that wild-dog trot. He stopped and looked right … Continue Reading…

More Than Happy…the Daily Farm Adventures {53}

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I think we might just erase the word “happy” from our vocabulary around here. There is biblical happiness in scripture, but our common vernacular has turned the word into something else entirely. Socially we’ve elevated the word into a philosophy of life. We want happiness. We crave happiness. We chase happiness. We’re trying to find our happiness. We reject things simply because they do not bring happiness–including marriages, loved ones, careers, and fiscal responsibility. Culturally, we are pursing happiness right off the side of a cliff! If you search Pinterest, … Continue Reading…

There Is a Price…the Daily Farm Adventures {54}

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I can’t seem to get back everyday words after everything that’s happened the last couple weeks. After losing Grandma Koeller, and facing some lingering demons of my own, the end-of-the-school-year fervor and fuss (K5 graduations, spring concerts, field trips, sports tournaments, etc.) and then the transition to summer fun…it’s all just left me…tired. I have heavy thoughts and words that go with them, but little to offer about book lists or baking projects or summer picnics and popsicles. I find myself sitting in the truck in the driveway…looking over the fields … Continue Reading…

Thankful Thursday…On Grief and Coping and Digging Deep

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  Today would have been my Dad’s 55th birthday.  Sometimes it gets very hard to be thankful always in the past tense. My heart hurts so much it’s hard to breath and reality starts to get a little mixed up. I start remembering great things from the past and suddenly I find myself looking forward to the future…then there’s this horrible, wrenching shock when I have to remind my heart and mind that that will not be the future. There will be a future–but that won’t ever be part of … Continue Reading…

Camping and Hiking at Tallulah Gorge State Park, Georgia

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Camping and hiking as a family is something we do a lot of–but not normally in a formal public campground. On our Spring Break Road Trip it was a brand new experience for our crew to “camp” with access to an electrical outlet and a hose! I don’t think we even used the electricity at any of our campsites. We didn’t even think about it being there. (What? Not even to charge your phones for all those great family pictures? Nope–invest in an external charger. You’ll never have to worry about … Continue Reading…

How to Redeem Family Time Gone Wrong

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Have you ever sat down and planned out a great family fun day, where to go, what to eat, activities to do or attractions to see–maybe even already bought the tickets!–And then it rains? Or someone gets hurt right before you leave? Or the car breaks down? Or the toddler has a meltdown? (Or in our case, the teenager…and how did we get here?!)  And suddenly your great family day is ruined, right?  Nope. It doesn’t have to be.  I can’t name the times we’ve had family plans and something … Continue Reading…