Welcome Josie Pie!

We decided to add another farm animal to Storybook Farms!  How Fun!  We have our VBS coming up and we want to bring some of our animals for the kids to see and some for them to pet.  We thought a piglet would be a fun addition! We also thought a little pork roast later would be nice. 


  It was quite an experience picking her up.  We found someone on Craigslist.  It was quite a hog farm!  You could smell the pigs the moment we got out of the car.  They had bunches of them!  The adult ones were huge!  And the piglets were adorable!  So many colors to choose from. The owner warned the kids to not put their hands in the cage of the adults.  They are quite mean.  She caught the one we picked with a net.  The momma pig was not very happy about that!

We decided to name her Josie Pie.  Any ideas where that name comes from? ;o)  I have to admit.  I giggled most of the way home with all the sounds she made.  She's fitting in quite well around here.  She's made a big mudpit and I'm thinking it might be time for little Josie Pie to have a bath!

To Realize

I've been trying to find the word to describe the moment of thought I had last Sunday. 

Surreal?  Maybe.
Unreal? Somewhat.
 Deniable?  That, too.
 Blissful?  Oh Yes.

Last week was Father's Day.  I called my Dad that morning and told him I loved him and wished he was here.  I hugged my sweetheart and was so thankful he is the father of our children.   It's always a sweet time at church where Fathers are recognized and given a gift. When it was time for all the men to stand up, I noticed my son was standing as well.  Of course he was.  Liberty is 6 months old!  But, it was one of those Surreal and Blissful sort of moments.  My son is a father!  He's a man that has a family that he takes care of.  He has a little girl that her eyes light up when she sees him and then she watches him and kicks her chubby little legs in excitement when he walks her way.  He's a Dad.  And he's a great one, too.

 Lots of moments like these lately have been happening.  I think it's part of being a parent of an adult.  It's Surreal, Unreal, Deniable, and Blissful  all wrapped up in one.  No wonder I'm a mess! ;o)

Redo is done!

I'm so excited about how our room turned out!  Patrick and I both love the light colors and how it brightens up the room.  after moving furniture out, we decided we liked it that way!  So, it's pretty simple.
First thing we did was to put up the wallpaper.  You can't tell it in the picture, but a few of the pieces of wood are a bluish color.  I love that!
Then, we shampooed the carpets and painted the furniture white.

We bought new bedding.  Yay for Big Lots deals!  And new curtains...yay for amazon deals, too! :o)

I love how the bench turned out!  I'm still able to store all my treasures in there (baby blankets, clothes and letters) but it now flows well with the room.  I added some of my birthday goodies to the top.

And remember that canvas that I painted over?  I added some pictures of my sweetie and I that I love, then I used the lettering that used to be over our bed and added the quote.

So thankful the room is done!    It's so peaceful!

Redo is underway

First step in the redo of my bedroom.  We like the idea of having a bench in our room.  We just weren't crazy about the back of the bench.  Patrick took his saw to it and it looks so much better!

I like the look of barnwood on one wall.  We thought about getting pallets and nailing them up.  But, that seemed like a lot of work and not such a good idea to put that many walls in our mobile home!  We found this wallpaper on amazon and decided to order it.  We LOVE it!  It is quite a tedious job.  But, Patrick is awesome at finishing tedious jobs.  So thankful for that!

Then we moved out all the furniture and painted it chalk paint white.  See the bench in the front?  Isn't it great?

Remember this big canvas picture?

I painted it and have an idea of what I want on it.

Things are going well!  Final pictures soon to come!

You know your child is learning when....

...they take their history lesson and recreate it outside!  My Silas loved learning about the Alamo this year.  He was very proud of the fort he made in our driveway. :o)

School is out for the summer!  Yay! We finished up strong and my kiddos had a great school year.  I now have a 4th, 3rd and 1st grader.  Fun years!! So excited for the summer.  We already have our list of fun things to do.  It's going to be great!

Time for a Redo

When we moved into our home over 3 years ago, it was a total renovation.  Every room had to be redone.  Not that we were picky, but we couldn't live with mold growing and plywood floors.  The Master bedroom had rotting walls and floors that had to be taken out...there was much work to be done.  We decorated our room and loved it.

But as the time has passed we have felt that it was dark and a little dingy. The bookcase we bought at Walmart came crashing down a few month ago.  We sawed off the half and used the bottom...but still too many books were in our room.  Not so romantic of a sight!

Some of the furniture we picked up here and there, we liked at the time.  After a while it just seemed to be old and grungy.

A couple of years ago we went to a Marriage Conference.  The speaker for the ladies session said that the bedroom should be like a bed and breakfast...clean, decorated nicely, with no photos of your children! ;o)  It should be a romantic oasis, not a place for laundry.  I told Patrick  that I would love to do a little updating in our room.

I was so surprised when for my birthday in May, I opened up gorgeous wooden P, K and & for our bedroom with $50 to spend.  I was so excited!  Then, a couple other gift cards were given to me. I had a total of $135 to spend on a new romantic room for my sweetie and I!  So I scoured Pinterest and came up with a plan.  I've had Patrick working all week helping me and I'm so excited with how it is turning out!  Pictures coming soon!

The Garden Saga Continues...

 So, if you've read my blog for any time now, you know how I want to be a good steward of this land that we have.  We never really thought about owning property since our desire was to be on the foreign field planting churches there.  But, when God changed directions for us, and then changed our heart's desire, he opened up 5 acres for us to buy while planting a church state side.  So thankful for the Lord's leading.  We love where we are!!  And we love trying our hand at farming and gardening and a little bit of homesteading.  It's been interesting as we are definitely south Florida grown, and have no idea what we are doing!  I just know that my Mam-maw and Pap-paw had the greenest thumbs ever, so that has to pass down through the bloodlines, right?

I planted lots of goodies in my raised garden bed.  Things were going great...until about 3 weeks ago.  I noticed my tomato plants not looking so good.  The tomatoes that were growing were striped and a lot of their leaves were turning spotted and brown.  I googled some problems that are native to our area and talked to a local farmer.  The farmer said we need to pull those plants and start all over again.  Seriously?  Am I going to make this work?  Yes, I am!! I'm going to keep trying.

So, I pulled them up and planted three more plants.  Hopefully these will do better.

The other plants in my garden are taking off very nicely!! My peppers are growing a beautiful green!

My eggplant is flowering its gorgeous lavender blooms.  I love eggplant and hope we have plenty! And my cucumbers are doing awesome!  Yay!

One thing that is doing very well is my pot out front of the house.  I had bought some clearanced and dying plants at Lowes.  I know.  Me of all people to buy dying plants to revive.  But, I planted the Dusty Millers and they are taking off!! I've even divided some of them into other pots.  Unbelievable!  Maybe I can do this!

And then I bought a new plant that I'm hoping will take off....lavender.  I would love to have a garden full of lavender!  We'll see how it goes!

And just because my sweetie loves me, he bought me 2 gorgeous ferns for our front porch.  They are so beautiful!

So, the gardening adventure continues!  Hopefully I'll eventually have posts of my bounty of veggies.  But for now, I'll keep watering and praying and watching.  This really is great fun!

Continuing To Walk

As I sat down to write this post, I realized this post is a lot like the last one.  I posted an answer to a question I received on my blog  about my children accepting the Lord at an early age.  I mentioned that I would post what Patrick and I and my girls thought made them to continue to walk with the Lord after their salvation.  Now, I realize my oldest 3 are 21, 20 and 18 (very soon to be 22, 20 and 19). I know they have much of their lives left to live and they will daily face choices of whether to serve the Lord or not. They have not arrived.  And Patrick and I are far from perfect parents.  But, I am very thankful that they have grown and blossomed in their walk with Christ.  They have a personal walk and relationship with Him. They have joy in serving Him.
  So, how did that happen?
  I chatted with my girls about this and the answers they gave lined up so much with the previous post on how they accepted the Lord as their own Savior.   It really is the same 3 steps.

Pray About It- After praying for your child's salvation, your job is not done.  Continue to pray fervently on a daily basis for them.  You know them best and you see their struggles.  Have you talked to the Lord about it?  Pray they will be faithful.  Pray the Holy Spirit will convict them when wrong, and encourage them to do right. Pray they will make wise choices.  Pray protection around them.  Pray, pray, pray!  And it does your child good to know that you are praying for them.  Do they ever "catch" you praying?  Do they wake up in the morning and see you on your knees praying to God?  I love it when I just finish praying and a sleepy eyed little one comes into the room, fresh from a good night's rest.  I love telling them how I just prayed for them.  And then tell them exactly what specific needs I prayed for for them.

Talk About It-  You can tell what someone's interested in by what they talk about.  What is your primary thing to talk about?  Do you tell your children what the Lord is working on in your own heart?  Do they hear you thanking God for His blessings?
 Let them hear how good God is from others as well. Surround them with people you want them to be like.  Influence is so important! Who is influencing your child? 
Let them hear preaching.  Don't miss one service at church.  Their faith will grow with hearing the preaching of God's Word!  Of course be at church for every single service, but strive to hear even more preaching in between.  Revivals, special meetings, missions conferences....all those caused my children's heart to grow closer to the Lord. 
We also have to be careful about the wrong kinds of influences in our children's life as well.   We want the voice of righteousness to be louder than any other voice they will hear!  Don't be afraid to tell them no and not let them do things that other people are doing.  Protect your child and what they will hear!

Live It- Just like I mentioned before, be real to your children.  Don't be afraid to ask forgiveness when you've failed.  They need to see real christianity.  And they  need to see it in you!
 Also, your child's love for God will grow if they get to know Him.  How do they do that?  Same way that you and I do...read His Word!  As soon as my little ones learn how to sound out words, they are having their own devotions in the morning.   Is this something they desire and do on their own?  Not at first.  This is something that I tell them they need to do.  I explain that God wants to speak to their heart and for them to spend time with Him!  I tell them to look on the page for any words they can sound out. When they finish a chapter I tell them to have time talking to God.  As they grow in their reading, their understanding will grow.  They are developing Godly habits that I pray they will keep the rest of their lives.  They know that when they wake up (after brushing their teeth!) that they are to grab their Bible and begin their day with God.

So these are  just some of the principles we've put in to place with our older 3.  And now we're using them with our younger three.  How impressionable and precious they are!

 I pray that they will live their lives for the Lord.  I pray they will make Godly choices.  I pray that they will hear God's voice above all others.  I pray they will want to start their day with Him and live the hours He gives them for His honor and glory.

 I pray they will have a heart for souls and to do the Lord's work.  What a responsibility that we as parent's have. 

"I have no greater joy 

than to hear that my children walk in truth."

3 John 1:4

At an early age

I had a comment on my blog not too long ago that caused me to stop and think. I was asked...

"its amazed me that all your kids accepted the Lord as his savior so early age, can you help me how you did it , to bring them to understand more and accept Him. thank you"

What a question to ponder! As I thought about this question, I realized that there is not one single answer. There are many ways a parent can influence their child. Our influence on them is so important, though. They really do hang on our every word and weigh our every motive. Sobering thought!

When Joshua was little, we started asking lots of questions to parents around us. If we saw a family with children that loved the Lord and wanted to serve Him, we would pick their brain and pepper them with questions! I am so thankful for their influence on us!! There are many things I learned from others that I wanted implemented in my life and the lives of my children. So, I thought I would  the things I've done and why I feel they helped my child to know the Lord. But, before I do I wanted to mention 2 things:

~Ultimately, it is up to each and every person to decide if they will accept Christ. That's the liberty of having a free will. I can point my children in the direction of Christ. But, the decision is up to them. If it's not from the heart, then it doesn't matter in light of eternity.

~Everyone has goals for their children. ...goals for their schooling, activies, character and future. The really neat thing, though, is when "Loving God with all their heart" is our Ultimate Goal, all the other things we want for our children will fall into place. All their learning, activites, character, future...when they are based off a foundation of "Loving God" the results of these will be the best.

I divided what I've learned into 3 areas:

Pray About It- Ever since I found out about the new life growing inside of me, I began praying. I would beg God that my children would understand and see their need of a Savior at an early age. I asked others to pray. Patrick and I prayed together. As my little ones were born, I would continue to pray the same prayer. "Lord, please help my baby understand and see their need of you as a Savior. Help them accept you at an early age." It was always at the top of my prayer list. Always. As they grew they would hear me pray. I wanted them to know my desire for them. As I tucked them in they would hear it. As we prayed for other things, they would hear it. They grew up knowing the urgency of THEIR need of Jesus.

Talk About It – Talk about Jesus! Let your kiddos hear of when you got saved. Do they know your testimony? Tell them the story of Jesus. Let them hear it from you. Also, let them hear it from others. When our Joshua was little he had an amazing nursery worker, which also happened to be an amazing friend. She had such a heart for the little ones she had in the nursery. She was always telling them how much Jesus loved them. She never let a Sunday go by where Joshua didn't hear about his need of a Savior. I give her much of the credit of seeing my little guy saved so young to my dear friend. She didn't squander any of those moments in the nursery. It's great to have a church that also has the same Ultimate Goal in mind that you do! We also surrounded our children that had the same Ultimate Goal for them.  They heard the gospel Sunday morning and evening.  They heard it Wednesday night and at Sunday School.  They heard it from their Abeka Bible teacher.  They heard it from my friends and from their family members.  They were surrounded by people who cared about where their soul would spend eternity.

Live it- Time is truly a treasure. Live out a way that would make your children see what you have and want it. Do you live out a life with Christ that's appealing? Now, the negative side is that our children see us not just at our best, but also at our worst. They know the true us. But, even that can be a positive....if we are not hypocritical. And I think that is the biggest key. Let's face it. We make mistakes. We don't always live the way we want to. But when your kiddos see you ask forgiveness and get things right, it goes much farther in reaching them. Don't try to hide your failures from from them. Hypocrisy will destroy your witness with your children.

Children have such child like faith, they are so ready to trust! But we have to be careful. We never want to lead our children in a false profession of faith. It has to come from their heart and they need to have an understanding. That happens at different ages for everyone. When our children began expressing their desire to be saved and started asking a lot of questions, we knew they were close. But, we knew they had to decide. Whenever my little ones would ask to get saved, I'd tell them, “Let's talk to Daddy about it when he gets home.” It's not that I was putting them off, it's just that I wanted them to be so serious about it that they chose to remember to ask. Brenna was the one that made me most nervous with this. She asked about praying for months and months before she was serious enough to remember. I prayed so much during that time.

I have to say, that next to the day of my salvation and marrying my sweetheart, seeing my kiddos accept Christ as their personal Savior was the best days of my life. What a peace! It wasn't too long ago that Micah came into Patrick's office and realized that He himself needed to be saved. When I heard that prayer, and knew that I had also heard that prayer from my other 5 children, I knew we would all spend eternity together. What joy! What peace! So thankful for that!! My Ultimate Goal in life was met. Together. Forever. No greater joy!

So, all 6 of mine have been saved. Without a doubt we don't always have it together. It's easy to read a blog and assume someone has it “all together.” We fail. We make mistakes. Some days I raise my voice in a way that's not nice and my children disobey. Some days our attitudes aren't right and we complain and grumble. You know what I mean. But, honestly, in a real sense, my older three have shown an honest desire to serve the Lord with their life and my younger three are learning that as well. As they live, that will be a choice they face everyday. It's a joy to see them have their time with the Lord and make Him a priority. How did that happen? I talked to my girls about their personal relationship with the Lord after they got saved and why they felt that happened. I'll share in my next post their input and some ideas of what we've done as parents.  

"I have no greater joy 

than to hear that my children walk in truth."

3 John 1:4