Storybook Farms Goats Milk Lotions

I have been enjoying my new hobby so much lately! It has been fun creating new scents. My favorite by far has been Ma Ingall's Peach Cobbler. This one smells like a Peach Pie with a fresh vanilla crust right out of the oven. I love it!

I also created Pooh's Honey Cake. This one smells great too! It has a light vanilla and honey scent.

In honor of my favorite season that is now upon us, I created Kanga's Autumn Pie. Oh I love it!! It has the scent of apple, spice and vanilla. So nice!!

 And in honor of Beth's book I made Elaina's Waterfall Mist. It has a nice outdoorsy and fresh scent with a touch of mint. I put some on this morning and it was a great way to start the day!

I think part of the fun has been to name these scents too. 😊 

You can find all these at our Etsy shop StoryBookFarmsFl. 

A well deserved celebration

It was so nice to be able to surprise my mother-in-law for her 70th birthday!

We invited a couple of her friends from Fort Myers as well as some friends from church.

She received many wonderful gifts!!

 She is loved for sure 😊😊

Trying to Walk More

Wow it's been hot around here!!  Our family loves to walk down our beautiful road, but it has been quite hot this summer for that.  Last week the temps didn't dip that much, but the humidity did!  That meant gorgeous walks down our road.

I decided to do a 3 month subscription to 99Walks.  Has anyone ever heard of it?  You set a goal of walking and if you reach your monthly goal they send you an inpsiratonal bracelet.  It's not to count your daily steps, but it is to count the distance when you on purpose go for a walk.  I set a monthly goal of 25 miles.  It's going great so far!! 

 It's amazing how much my kiddos open up and talk while walking.  I love this time with them!  And Peaches loves it too.

Fall is right around the corner and we are ready!!

She did it!

Its been years in the making. Elisabeth has put in a ton of work into her book. And now it is published on Amazon!!

We all gathered around her when her "Proof" came in the mail. It was surreal to see the title of the book she had talked about for so long, and then to see her name on the cover. It really brought me to tears.

Once she had looked over everything carefully, she was able to have her book go live and be available for purchase. 

 When my copy came in I was so excited!! And so proud of my girl. 

The book is so very good! If you are looking for a wholesome, pure, Christian fiction book, you can find it here in Amazon.

Have I mentioned how proud I am of her? 😊

Hurricane Idalia

What a roller coaster ride this past week has been!! Last week about this time we started to hear of a tropical system that could be moving our way. 

Patrick met with some of the leadership at our church to discuss plans for our Tuesday night service and what to do about our building.

The plan they decided was to board up the church. Without windows and doors there was a fear that wind would lift the building. We don't want that! Our windows and doors are still being fabricated, so they chose to board the building up. 

On Monday we had a bunch of our guys come out to help. Its always so inspiring to see how many come out. They have a love for our church and we really are a family. 

They also decided to keep our Tuesday night meeting. The forecast was for the weather to not get very bad until late Tuesday night .  I'm so glad they chose to keep our services, it was exactly what we all needed!! Bro Hopkins is one of our favorite preachers. But especially that night it was a God ordained sermon on being a servant. He had humor at the right times and we all laughed so hard!! Then, there was much conviction as the Holy Spirit pointed to areas in our lives we need to work on. It was truly a blessing to be there. 

We went home and finished up the prep work. We boarded some of our windows and made sure our animals were safe. We filled up the bathtub and lots of water jugs to prepare to be without power. When we went to bed it was forecasted to be a Category 3, possibly a 4, and for the eye to pass over us just before noon. It really was in the Lord's hands.

I'm amazed at the sleep we got that night. We were sooooo tired from the work the past few days that we slept well. When we woke up the next morning, the wind was blowing good, but we saw the storm had moved to a more westerly track. Then our power went out.

We did get some wind, but we were really spared the brunt of the storm. We have branches down, but that's about it. 

Everyone in our church is safe with only branches and trees to clean up. Praise the Lord!!

Patrick made me a coffee warmed by candlelight....it tasted so amazing as we sat there and thanked the Lord for our safety. 

Micah kept busy with his tanks and army guys with just a flashlight. 

The next couple of days were very very hot. That's not water on the girls, that's sweat!!  That cantaloupe tasted so refreshing though!! We laughed at the hundreds of beads of sweat on Micah's nose. 

Patrick has been running here and there helping where he can. I fall more in love with him everyday. He's still just as handsome as ever, but his servants heart is attractive too. I just love him.

The kids and I helped pick up a neighbors yard. We were quite warm!!

After 3 days our power is back on. God protected in so many ways, and we are so thankful!!
 

And we are off!!!

We are off to a GREAT START to our 2023/2024 School Year!

Like last year, we have decided to meet together at the table for what we call our "Genesis Moment."  This is where we pray, memorize Scripture, study the Bible together, learn a hymn for that month and its composer, and read a book together.  I love this time!!

We are starting off with memorizing 1 Chronicles 16:8-12.  Such powerful verses on praise to the Lord!  This gets our focus right as we start our day.

We are doing an overview of each book of the Bible and also finding it's path in history with Adam's Synchronological Timeline.  Last week took us into a deep dive of the Tabernacle.  I have a feeling we might stick to this for a couple of weeks.  There is just so much to learn!

This month we have been singing, "Will Jesus find us watching?"  This is a new one to us, and we are loving it!

And then we have chosen to first read through God's Smuggler.  Wow, we are hooked already!

Silas is my highschool freshman this year.  I was a little sad as I realized that this is my first time in a very, very long time that I don't have anyone in elementary school.  How did that happen?

Callie is in 8th grade.

 Micah is in 6th grade.

It's going to be such a great school year and we are so excited!!

Finishing up our Summer

So what did we do this summer besides camp, kayaking, and swimming in the springs?  We did a ton!! And since school is starting I need to wrap up our summer here on my blog.  I love having this resource for my kiddos to look back on and remember the good.  Lots of good happening around here!

So what did we do?

We had lots of fun time with our grandbabies.  Lollipops sure does love them! Hoping they feel the same. ;o)

We love being in Nursing Home ministry ever other Saturday.  Bro Munson does a wonderful job caring for the people there and making a difference.  He gives Micah and Silas turns preaching too and it's been great for them!

Lollipops and their grandsons.  I just love these boys to pieces!!

Silas has been on a Monopoly kick.  Wow that game takes a long time!!

The kids have been staying up late.  Probably too late.  That means they sometimes crash for naps.  They will love me for snapping this picture. :o)

More monopoly.  Micah and I played Catan this time instead.  I love that game!

And we squeezed in a couple of date nights!

We found out that July was Ice Cream month!! How fun!  So each Friday we let our kiddos take turns picking out ice cream.  We tried some very yummy flavors!

Time out with Beth,

putting lots of puzzles together, 

and taking care of our animals.  Storybook Farms has been a little more challenging this summer.  We've lost 2 of our animals and that's always sad.  But, Caliope Jane here is doing great and hopefully bred for some Christmas kids!

And more naps and more...

puzzle time!

We had plenty of time to act a little crazy and be creative, and also to

keep putting puzzles together!  For our Ladies Bible Summer Bible Study we had a puzzle theme, so we were all putting together a bunch of them.  It was fun!

In July the ladies of our church surprised Tabitha with a birthday party.  It was so fun!  And then they showered her with Kate Spade goodies!  She was surprised and felt very loved!  She deserves it, that's for sure!

My kiddos decided to grown up this summer and start looking older.  I have always said the teen years are great.  I still believe that and we are savouring these years.

Beth wrote in her book a ton!  I mean hours upon hours worth of writing.  Big news coming on that soon!!

I made lots of lotions and I love this new little hobby of mine!

We said goodbye to Wendy.  It's never easy to lose an animals.  Callie cared for her and tried to save her, but I think she was just an old rabbit and it was her time.

Patrick taught me how to play Backgammon and I love it!!! Although I am not very good at it.  I'm trying to get better!!

Time with my adult kiddos is priceless.  I love when I have time with my family!

I baked with the grandbabies.  I love doing that!

We made new friends.  I am so thankful the Harris Brothers could come by and sing!  We have them on the calendar for next year, too, so that's exciting!

We had an Anne of Green Gables night with friends and made a Fry Bar.  So yum!!! And so fun!!

So much laughter that night!!

I looked at Curriculum just about constantly and prayerfully made some decisions of what we will use for the next school year.  I am so excited about the Adam's Synchronological Timeline!!

 I began Physical Science.  Silas is doing this course this year and honestly Science (Especially High School Science) is NOT my strong point.  So, I decided I will take this class with him.  I'm getting a jumpstart to hopefully give me some extra study time!

And just like that summer is over.  And school is started.  But, that's okay.  I can always tell when it's time to begin.  And it's TIME!!