Trip to celebrate 30 years!

30 years! Wow! That's a long time to be married 🙂 I'm so thankful my sweet and I were able to spend some time away to celebrate our 30 years.

We drove up to Michigan. We were able to spend the night at my Aunt Robin's.

She's always such a wonderful host and spoils us!

The weather is absolutely perfect! It was about 75 and no humidity! Perfect for sitting on the porch and enjoying family time chit chatting. 

Then we drove up to DeWitt, Michigan where Patrick was invited to preach for my youth pastor and the man that led him to the Lord, Shawn Smith. It was good to see him and Sandy and going to eat with them.

And being able to watch my handsome man preach is always one of my favorite things to do!

Then we drove down to Pigeon Forge and spent a few nights where we explored the sights, are way too much food, went to Dollywood, laughed and just had a wonderful time

We also went to the Dixie Stampede which is probably my favorite!

I love any one on one time I get with Patrick.  What a wonderful time we had!

Sweet Tabitha

To celebrate Tabitha's birthday, I invited teens and ladies her age to join us to play laser tag and to go to a Mexican dinner. We had so much fun all together! This sure is a competitive bunch. I have to say laser tag is not my strong point! 

And then we feasted on Mexican and talked and laughed and of course ended the night with ice cream.☺️

I am so thankful for the Godly daughter in law that I have. She is the perfect helpmeet for Joshua. She really does complete him and they are such a wonderful team. She is a godly, fun, prepared mother. So thankful to share the ministry and this life with her! 💕💕💕

 

To Blog or not to blog....

As you may (or may have not 😉) noticed, my blog has started to grow quiet. I seem to be posting less and less. I've been asking myself why. 

Too busy? Maybe

Too many other things going on? Yes

 

Are blogs becoming a thing of the past? Probably 

Things have become busy ministry-wise at VSIBC. Which I love that. But any busier than 9 years ago when we first started? Maybe a little.

There are lots going on with homeschooling my 3 that are still in school. We have changed up school a good bit and it takes more of my time. That and having 2 high schoolers and one middle schooler takes lots more effort. And I am loving that! 

We are also working hard at having a successful little hobby in Storybook Farms. Our little registered goat business is taking off and we've had fun posting videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram showing off our little cuties. Silas and Micah's rabbit business is going well too and hopefully we'll have new babies born in the next week. So taking care of my little budding farm has been fun 🙂

My health has also taken a little bit more effort. Even though things are going well, I'm noticing that things like heat and doing too much, too many days in a row takes a lot out of me so I'm having to pace myself just a little more. 

So I guess these are the reasons why I just haven't been blogging as much.

I've been asking myself lately, "Should I keep posting?'

 But then there comes something that we talk about as a memory and I'm able to go back in my blog and see a post where I posted pictures and shared my heart on a certain thing that happened in our family. It's almost like our own little history book of the Gimenez family. It's times like that that I am thankful that I took the time to blog.

Or there are times when I was post a devotional type post and the feedback or a personal email I get are such an encouragement to me. 

So I've been rolling around in my head. Should I still blog?

For now the answer is yes. It is definitely my intent to have more posts happening because there's just too many crazy things that happening around here that I want to talk about! So we'll see how it goes and hopefully I'll be keeping up better in the near future.

 

 

Meeting Azariah

 We all love anytime my parents are able to come stop by for a visit! And we knew with the birth of Azariah they would be up soon to come and meet him! They're such good great grandparents!

Our family is growing!

I love how mom and dad are so proud of their family. And love them to pieces!

And as you can see, we all love them too. Victory was very intent on telling Mom a great big story. I wish now I could remember what it was!

And just like that, the visit is over too soon. But I sure do treasure these times!

 

Kidding Season

 It has been quite the kidding season and it is so fun watching our little farm grow! 

When we got goats 9 years ago we had a lot to learn! And then last year when we decided to move more towards the registered side of goats, we had even more to learn!

We've learned about testing for diseases to make sure our herd is clean and safe.

We've learned how to give tattoos to identify them.

We've learned how to disbud them when they are really young so that they will not have horns. Honestly that's not my favorite duty at all! So I just let Patrick and Silas handle that one 🙂

We've learned how to give vaccines and what to watch for. We've also learned how to be in contact with other farmers and watch for kids born with traits that we would like to bring onto our farm.

And I'm pretty proud to say that through this, we've been able to see some amazing goat kids born on our farm! As we've developed what we desire to see, it's so fun to see that come to fruition!

I love raising my family on our little farm!

 

This says summer

 My favorite place to be in the summertime is on the beach with my family. 

I love when you get out of the car you can instantly smell the ocean. 

I love the sand between my toes and the sun on my arms. 

I love hearing the seagulls and the waves on the shore.

I love reading a good book with my feet in the water.

I love how the kids can find adventure!

I love how it makes us slow down and laugh and talk and play.

And I love how at the end of the day you can watch the sun as it sets and praise the Lord for another beautiful day!

 

Learning to be a big brother

As you can see, Asa had been reading up on his baby skills. 😊

He has done incredible with the adjustment to becoming a big brother and loves his baby Azariah. 😊

Has there been a little jealousy? Maybe, but not much and he's doing great. I love this picture though of him at his pops knee.  He's proud of his brother, but we still give him plenty of Asa attention too. 

Azariah is growing and doing great. And Brenna is too! Praise the Lord!!

Enjoying this life as Lolli. Each season keeps getting sweeter. 💕
 

A Place to Write

 A really great opportunity came up for my Beth! We heard of a small camper that came up for sale for a really great price. She decided to buy it for a place to write. 

 Our home can be quite hectic and busy and not all that conducive for a place for her to write. If you've read her books, you know that they are very good! But they also take a lot of time. I'm so proud of her for letting her light shine for Jesus and using her talents for Him! She told us she's just not quite ready to move out yet and that's perfectly fine with us! But she and we have recognized that she needs a little more space for her. 

So she has had fun painting and putting her touches to this camper. She still has a little ways to go before it's done but it is amazing and awesome to watch God provide!