Storybook Farms

When we first moved to North Central Florida, and God provided 5 acres for us, I joked that we were starting our little family farm.  It's been fun!  God has provided so much for us!  Well, as we've grown, we've joked that we needed a real name for our little family farm.  And...we decided on one!

It's been fun naming our goats after childhood classics, so when Brenna thought of this name, we thought it was perfect!  And with a perfect name, you just have to add some more chickens!

Our girls are laying great, but we wanted to add a few more.  It's been fun giving away eggs and eating lots of omelets!

We bought some young ones that should be laying in a few months.  Callie was quite excited!!

We bought 2 Rhode Island Reds,

And three Barred Rocks.  That makes 14!

And with such a cute new name for our farm,we decided to add another goat as well :o)

Now we have a herd ;o)  of 6!

Introducing Heidi! We've enjoyed going to the Livestock Market not far from us. We've never bought anything, but it's fun to go and figure out what's going on.  When a sweet friend gave us some "date money"  Patrick and I decided to take a date to the Livestok Market buffet and bid on a new goat.  We've acclimated quite well to North Central Florida living! :o)  There were over 400 goats that went up for auction. 

There were so many cute ones.  We knew we wanted to get a boer goat.  When this little cutie came up, I elbowed Patrick and said, "I want her!"  He bid and bid and we won!  I was so excited!  I was very proper and refrained myself from jumping up and yelling, "Yay!  We finally bid on a goat!"  Although my smile was so huge the auctioneer announced, "He got a smile for that one!"

She was quite skiddish at first.  You can tell she's not used to a whole lot of people interaction.  But, after some persistance, she's doing well and likes us!

One proud little goat farmer. :o)

 Patrick set up a movable fencing area that we move around our property.  It saves on hay, and it mows our lawn!  They've done quite well staying where they are supposed to.  But, every so often they all work together and figure a way out!

We get them back to their pen at night with a shake of the grain bucket.

Having so much fun!  And I think Corduroy (the goat jumping in the picture) is too!

And now I want to add something to Storybook Farms.  I'm planning on getting 6, hopefully in the next week.  Any guesses what I'm adding?

Ponder ~ Whatsoever things are Honest

Close your eyes.  Just for 20 seconds.  Just think...Just Ponder.

So, what did you think about?  Does your family member in the same room, that probably thought you fell asleep, know what you thought about?  What about your very best friend, your mother, your husband, your Pastor....do they know what you chose to think about?  No.  It's just you and the Lord.  So then, why is what we ponder in our hearts so important?

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he;"  Proverbs 23:7  Our thoughts are so important!  What we think about will eventually come out in our actions and our words!

The next Ponder word in Philippians 4:8 is Honest.  As I studied this word out, I confess it was quite convicting. 

Honest~ honourable, dignified, noble,  that which inspires reverence and awe.  Geneva Bible notes says, "Such things as beautify"  

Hefty list for what we should be thinking about, isn't it?

Often we can check to make sure our thoughts are lining up with God's Word by checking the negative sense of the word and what it produces.  If our thoughts are not honest what happens?  We usually focus on the sins and assumed faults of others....and it comes out as gossip.  We have a problem with gossip when our thoughts aren't right ---it starts with our hearts first!



How to know if we struggle with pondering what is HONEST:

1. We often need to vent (to husband, mother, friend,sister)  Venting is just a form of complaining about another person.  It is gossip.  Often when we "vent'"  we are actually trying to build ourselves up while talking about the mistakes and faults of others.  What happens to the person we are "venting" to?  Now they have those judgmental, hateful thoughts embedded in their mind.

2. We leave a conversation thinking, "Why did I say that?"  "I hope she doesn't tell anyone what I said!"

3.  We start a conversation by saying, "I need to share something with you, but you can't tell a soul!"

4.  Our main topic of conversation is about other people in a negative sense.

Remember Prov 23:7.  If we're struggling to ponder that which is honest, it will eventually come out in the our actions and words.

How do we start thinking on what is honest:

1. Be careful of idle times in our thinking (blow drying hair, doing dishes, driving)  Use that time to have Holy Ponderings!
Patrick said recently in a message that another definition for holy can be "of the highest quality".  Our thinking should be of the highest quality!
I've heard of Mommas that use their folding and ironing time to pray for the person that wears those clothes.  While doing dishes we can work on a scripture we are memorizing, listen to a great sermon,  or sing!  While driving we can play games with those in the car or talk about their day.   

2. Remember, our thoughts are our choice.  Choose to think on what is true and honest!  It will take effort as we "take every thought captive"  2 Corinthians 10:5

It does take effort to have Holy Ponderings, but, God wouldn't have commanded us to do something impossible!

Purpose to think on what is True.  And what is Honest.

Day out from Mom and Dad!

 My parents sure are special people.  Growing up they made a big deal about every holiday.  I loved it!  Easter time we received big baskets full of chocolate and jelly beans and always something to wear to church.  Sometimes it was black pattened leather shoes, or gloves or a new purse.  We always colored eggs and we always had an egg hunt. 

Well....I grew up.  I moved away.  But yet, they still find ways to make my holidays special.  A lot of times I receive fun packages in the mail, or envelopes telling us what to do.  We love it!

This year, we received money for a special family day out.  We went bowling and out for pizza!  All of us!  It was so great!
We love our bowling alley in Lake City.  The owners are christians and very kind and encouraging to church groups.  The atmosphere is clean and we've loved it every time!

Liberty even had a great time bowling!

Then, it was off to Little Caeser's for some pizza and cheese bread! Yum!

And then, we ordered something new from the menu....these are my new favorite!  In fact I told Patrick I want them for my birthday cake! ;o) Cinnamon Loaded Crazy Bites....oh me oh my....they are heavenly!

Such a fun day out.  Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Build a Puff Family Fun Night

We had a very fun Family Fun Night this past Friday!  I love how we look forward to this time all week!  Time together is never regretted!

We decided to have some fun building with marshmallows and toothpicks.  I printed out 4 different things on the computer that we had 5 minutes to build. 

We had to build a person, a house, a bicycle and a watermelon.  We had fun with our creations, although it was harder than it looked!  Pinterest has a ton of very detailed creations.  Ours were more Gimenez style. ;o)

Every so often I would catch Callie remodeling her creation.  It somehow kept getting smaller!

Silas was concentrating very well!

Of course, he had some remodeling to do as well!

It turned out to be quite sticky!

This was so fun!  So simple and cheap!  We are loving making great memories together!

Goat Fever

I posted not too long ago that we were interested in getting more goats.  There really is a market for goats in our area.  Our financial situation is in the process of changing and we want to make sure we are good stewards of what God has given to us!  Patrick and I were looking for ways to supplement our income.  So, we are trying our hand at goat farming.  Fun!  Surprised?

As we told Josh about our ideas, he soon came on board.  One thing about him, he loves to research things out and look from many angles.  He found that the Boer goats bring in a good bit of money.  He scoured craigslist and waited patiently and found an adorable boer goat buckling to start his little herd.  He named him Bubba :o)

We introduced him to Jenna and Paddington.  Jenna is definitely the oldest and bossiest goat.  Poor Bubba.  He's been headbutted quite a few times.  But, the crazy guy just keeps going right back to her.  I think he's in love. :o)  He is so soft!!  Not wiry like our other goats.

Then, we found a couple of goats we were interested in on Craigslist, too! (anyone else love looking on craigslist?)  We found a Boer/Nubian Nanny that had just delivered a buckling 3 weeks prior.  Her baby boy is 1/4 Nubian and 3/4 Boer.  When we arrived on the farm where they were for sale, we saw tons of goats!  It was fun to pick the brains of the owners about how they do with their goats and things they do to make a profit.  Very interesting!  The nanny goat was a little skittish and didn't want to have too much interaction.  We weren't too crazy about that.  We want goats that our children won't be afraid of and can play and take care of them.  But, when we saw her little buckling baby, we were sold!  He's so adorable!
Introducing, Charlotte and Corduroy!

At first, they hid in any place they could find.  I told the kids to be patient, but keep trying.

We all tried to give them attention!

By day two, they acclimated to us very well.  We were amazed!  Charlotte is very sweet and calm and is such a good goat Momma!  Corduroy is bouncy, energetic, but loves us too!  yay!

Our little farm is growing, and we are enjoying it so much!!

Micah's Day and Olustee Battlefield State Park

My sweet Micah had a fabulous 6th birthday!  I love to have my kiddos plan out their day.  I love what they pick to do and we always have such a good time!  Of course, we started our day early with lots of presents!

Then Micah said he wanted to go to a state park we had never been to before.  I read him some of the ones within an hours drive and he picked Olustee Battlefield State Park.  It's about a 45 minute drive and is east of Lake City.

We started off in the visitor's center where we learned so much about the Civil War Battle of Olustee.  My kiddos had never studied the Civil War in school yet, so they were full of questions.  We watched the short movie in the visitor center.



We rounded a corner of the museum and it scared Silas half to death!  He wasn't expecting to see a statue of a soldier!

Outside the Visitor's Center is a huge monument.

Micah was excited when he found this snakeskin crawling in to the monument.

There were lots of canons to look at, which my kids loved!

Then, it was off on a hike!  They have a one mile hike through the actual place of the battle.  There were signs and quotes all along the way. It was quite sad to know that many men lost their lives in that very spot.

It was very informative and really piqued the curiosity of my kiddos.

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and very well marked.  We enjoyed walking on this cool morning.

 But, then my busy, birthday boy could take strolling along no more.  It was off on a run for him!  That's my Micah!

Towards the end of our hike we could hear lots of birds.  Then, we heard a woodpecker!  If you look on the first branch on the right you can see the Red Headed Woodpecker.  There were several of them that we ended up spotting.  How fun!

We really enjoyed this park.  It was clean and a perfect little getaway for our morning.  It really did get my Silas to thinking about the Civil War and how America fought with itself.  He's had lots of questions since then and has been looking through his history book.  It just so happens that next week he begins studying important people during the Civil War.  So he's excited to learn more.  Yesterday he was really thinking hard about everything and said, "Momma, do you think America will ever fight against itself again?"  I don't know son.  I pray not.

Then, it was off to McDonalds for lunch!

And lots of bike riding that afternoon!

We ended the day with church and cake afterwards.  My boy had a great day!  We all did!