Someday I'm going to plant an apple tree...

Tonight as my husband and I were looking over this month's budget and planning for my Beth's birthday in a couple of weeks, I heard him say,  "She's really going to be 17.  I can't believe Beth will be 17."

It wasn't said in an excited way as if she will be reaching a milestone and we are so happy for her, but in a way with a lot of thought.  I could hear the ,"My baby girl is is turning into a lady, growing up too quickly before our eyes, and once again I am not ready for it,"  sound in his voice.  I think more and more he is realizing this. 

 And I've been realizing that our older girls are at an age where they could barely mention a desire, and their Daddy will work his hardest to make that happen!

When Beth and Brenna picked out which room would be theirs, Beth looked out the window and said, "Someday I'm going to plant an apple tree right there so I can watch it bloom while I'm writing at my desk."

So, when Patrick and I went shopping to spend his birthday gift card, it was no surprise to me that when he saw the apple trees for sale  that that was what he chose to buy with his money for his girl.

 I loved the look on her face when she realized it was an apple tree.  It was a sweet moment as they dug the hole and planted the tree.  Patrick was so excited to make her dream come true.  It makes my heart so happy to see their love for each other.

It reminds me of the Lord....you see I'm His daughter and there are countless times that I have a desire, one that wouldn't really amount to anything if it came true, except to put a smile on my face.  And the Lord does it for me.  Not because I deserve it, because I sure don't.  But, because He loves me.  What a thought!  The Creator of the Universe loves me and gives me the desires of my heart!  And I can't help but think that as I smile for His wonderful gifts He showers on me,  that it makes Him happy that I'm His girl.

A tree for the toddlers

As we've been planning for the new church here in High Springs, we have had fun picking out paint colors and brainstorming about how things should be.  I told Patrick that I wanted a tree on the wall in the toddler side of the nursery.  We looked at some of the vinyl wall art, but I couldn't find one that I wanted and they are quite pricey.  So, I decided to talk my creative husband into painting one.  After a little bit of encouraging, he agreed!

 He first sketched out the outline of the trunk and branches in pencil.

 After painting the tree he started adding the leaves.

 Then, decided we needed two colors of leaves...

 And Voila!  A fun tree that is exactly how I envisioned it!  Love it!  We're moving right along towards March 22nd!

Moving along with the Renovations!

 3 weeks ago I posted that we have leased the building for Victory Springs Independent Baptist Church.  It has been a busy 3 weeks getting fire code permits and beginning the work on the building.  We're loving it!  Our signs that we ordered came in and look great!

 As we put up the signs, it was exciting to see how many cars pass by throughout the day.  It's a busy highway and we're right on it!

 My little blessings have loved workdays at the church.  We have had some great things given to the church and some of them are nursery toys and books.

 And can you tell it's been quite cold lately?

 You can't tell because of the green in my sweater, but we are painting the ladies restroom a really pretty mint green called Cucumber Peel.  I'm loving it!!

 Brenna said, "We must have gotten pretty good at our painting if Dad is letting us paint the auditorium!"  The kids did have a lot of practice with our home!  It is so neat to see them now use those skills in the church!

 We picked out a very many blue for the Men's room.  It's called Mercer Blue and it looks great!  I can't wait to show the after pics of this room!  The guys are going to love it!

 We are painting everything!  Nothing like a fresh coat of paint!

Beth painted the toddler side of the nursery a pretty buttery yellow called Star Bright.  It is bright!  But, we've added a few fun things to tone it down and say "Come on in!" to 2 and 3 year olds.
Notice the interesting garage door?  Yes, that's the auditorium of the church...and there are two garage doors.  But, we've come up with a way to sort of camouflage them.  I'll post on that soon!

The other day we were all praying together and Josh asked the Lord for us, as a family, to enjoy this process of starting a new church together.  It sure is an exciting phase!  God sure is answering his prayer!

Introducing Sugar Rose!

As I mentioned in the last post, we began to pray that our girls would find the right horse...no biting, no bucking, very calm and in their price range!  It took about a month of searching when we came across an ad for a dead broke mare.  We were interested! :o)  The farm was about an hour away.  Beth and Brenna were chatty and giddy the whole way!  When we found the place, there was a little 7 year old girl leading the horse around.  Then, she began to ride her.  The mare was very gentle and very calm....Beth and Brenna were sold!

Since we do not have a horse trailer, we hired the sellers to deliver the mare to us.  That was an exciting afternoon with 8 excited Gimenezes!

The sellers saddled her up for us and gave us a few pointers since they know we are new to this.  They put on a child's saddle first, so our little ones rode first.  Callie is fearless and loved it!

Micah wanted to ride so bad, but was a little afraid.  He got over his fear pretty quickly!

Silas is my cautious one.  He told Patrick, "Daddy, don't make her race!"  There were no worries there, the horse was very sweet and calm.

Then, an adult saddle was put on and our older 3 had a chance to ride.  It was amazing the difference in the horse.  You could tell she knew an older rider was on and she was ready to trot!  The seller showed us that the horse had been trained with basic commands and taught Beth how to make her go and stop.

Even Josh rode, but I think he was ready to take the reins and go for a ride!  Maybe soon that will happen, but for the first day we took it easy on her and after a few quick rides with the lead rope, we showed her her stall and she ate and ate!

She's even calm around our chickens!  I love this picture of Mrs. Peabody eating up the oats that fell to the ground.

The girls thought about it, then chose the name Sugar Rose.  Love it!  They are so happy about the horse God has blessed them with!

Another desire of their heart

My girls have always been horse lovers.  Always.  I think you can see that when you look at pictures of their room!  When looking at moving to North Central Florida the girls noticed many, many horse farms.  They asked (maybe begged?)  if we could get a place that has room for a horse.  We decided we would try and make that happen for them.  So, when the Lord opened up the door for us to buy our foreclosed home in Fort White, my girls were pretty giddy!  The only problem?  No fence.  The money we borrowed to buy our home and fix it up was quickly spent on the inside of the house.  There just wasn't any left for a fence.

Beth and Brenna talked about it and asked if they could use some of their money in their savings account that we set up for them with the inheritance from my Grandma.  Patrick and I thought about it....this was money we wanted them to use for college, or a car, or just a need they would have after high school.  But, then when we thought about it and prayed about it, we realized our girls are growing up too quickly.  Before we know it they will be graduated and starting out on their own.  The whole horse idea felt like a now or never situation.  So....we said yes!

They measured out the place they wanted to put the paddock.  Then, they bought the materials to put up a fence.  They worked hard digging post holes!  But, they loved it!

Of course, they enlisted help from Josh and their Daddy.  They worked plenty hard, too.

By the middle of January the paddock was complete!

Then, they worked on the stall for the horse.  It worked out perfect to use the extra space next to the chicken coop.

Then, the hunt was on to look for a horse that would be perfect for a beginner, that didn't buck or bite, and would be within my girls price range.  We began to pray.....

Welcome to the family, girls!

 When we closed on our house in December, and knew we'd be living out in the country, we decided then that we wanted to have chickens.  We loved our chickens in St. Barths!  So, we decided to use this shed and transform it into our chicken coop.

Patrick and Josh did a great job!

 One of the things I loved about having our chickens is that it gets the kiddos involved.  They help put in the work to let the chickens in and out, give them food and water, clean out the coop, and gather the eggs.  Then, they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the form of sandwhiches, country breakfasts, and cakes!  Yum!

 We found a local farm that had chickens for sale.  We bought 10 hens.  7 of them are old enough to lay, and 3 are still young.  We weren't going to get a rooster, but I talked Patrick into the importance of waking up to the sound of a rooster crowing.  Now, we really feel like we're in the country!

 We decided to name the chickens mostly with names of food. Patrick said that way when it's time to eat them we won't feel too bad.  I don't know if his line of reasoning will work with our kiddos!

 We have Ceaser, our manly rooster.  He's actually quite protective of his girls.  We've noticed that he will give a grunt that almost sounds like a dog and the hens will quickly flee to either the coop or the woods.

 Marsala

 Nugget

We also have Mrs. Peabody which thinks she is a dog.  Patrick and I went for a walk yesterday and she followed us around the whole time!
And we have Coconut, Marsh, Tender, Dumpling,  Parmesan and BBQ.

We're loving our little farm!