A 2 year break... and I'm BACK!

So it's been about 2 years since I've update our little blog. Two years ago Sunday that we closed on our new house and moved our family onto a farm. What an epic 2 years it's been! Since I can't catch you up on everything that has transpired in the last two years, I'll hit some of the highlights.

The kids. Jaron just finished 5th grade. I can't believe I have a 6th grader coming up! He's 11, and growing so much in so many ways. He gave his heart to the Lord a couple of months ago, and we are so grateful. His current dreams are to be a well-drilling missionary doctor. I've told him that may be a bit much to handle... but I'm not going to discourage him from all God has for him! It helps him have a reason to dig into his school work and learn all he can now, and to save up for college some day. He attended 2 soccer camps last summer, which was an enjoyable new experience for him, though he has other things he wants to do with his summer this year, like helping me train the pony so he can ride Chief without a lead rope. His dearest dream is being able to chase cows on his spunky little friend!

Eliott finished 2nd grade in May. He is a huge help, and pretty much took over the mowing of our large yard. He loves machines, engines, and moving things. He's our self-proclaimed mechanic, taking apart everything we allow him to get his hands on. Every time we drive by someone mowing, he watches them as long as he can, dreaming of starting his own lawn care business as soon as we'll let him. He's been working with Jere a fair amount this summer, begging to go along to work to earn a little spending money... which he wisely spends on tools or puts in his savings account, mostly. He's been taking guitar lessons, and loving it!

Leanna is 2/3's of her way through 1st grade. I'm ok with that, as that means she's 2/3's of a year ahead! We're working at her pace, and she's excelling with the flexibility. Once summer break started, she decided she wanted to read the Little House books, so she's been working hard at that, and doing an amazing job reading far above "grade level". Whatever that's supposed to mean. Her greatest delight this summer is every 3 weeks she gets to plan a whole week's worth of supper meals, and help me make them.

And last but not least, is the firecracker of the family! Candice is 2, and keeps us well entertained with her pithy use of words too long for her little tongue. She is our youngest to stay dry all night without a diaper, and while summer has caused a relapse in the potty training department since she doesn't like to have to leave her play to potty, she's pretty much fully potty trained and I'm SO happy to be mostly done with that stage! Candi is by far the most active, energetic, and intense little person we've had. Some days she's a struggle for this introverted mama, and some days she's a great delight. She's standing next to me right now, as usual, cradling a baby doll in her arms, her horse baseball cap on, purse hanging from her shoulder, and the hem of her dress soaking from some water she just came in from playing with outside. She loves babies of all kinds, all of our animals, and all the people she meets.

The house we bought 2 years ago was in pretty sorry shape, as it was a foreclosure of a group home for mentally unstable adults. Fully furnished, including food in the cupboards, and not lived in for 3 years. It was an incredibly daunting task to think of taking on another such intense remodeling project so soon after just completing our last house, but for the price and with the acreage, it just seemed like it was right. It has consumed our "free" time, and most of our energy, just trying to get things livable. I'll make a separate post for descriptions of what we've been doing in that regard. In a snapshot, it's gone from a jungle to a working farm.

And on the farm end of things... as of this morning we have 13 cattle, including 4 calves just born in the last couple of weeks, with one more on the way. Tomorrow our steer goes to the locker, and soon we'll be enjoying some wonderful grass fed beef again! (If you want some, let us know. We have half still available for sale.) We just raised our 8th litter of Alaskan Malamute puppies, and said goodbye to the last one on Saturday. We acquired a second female last spring, so might have 2 litters next summer! Last fall we also adopted a little black mutt, who I hope will become my running partner. "Dixie" is thoroughly enjoyed by the children, while she grows up a bit before she can actually come running with me! Since last August we've added horses to the farm--an addition I couldn't be more excited about! We have a pony for the kids to enjoy, two adult females that were rescues, and a new little baby born 3 weeks ago who is the cutest thing EVER. So far we haven't been able to ride any except the pony, but I've been working with their training and hope to soon be riding the one who didn't have a baby. It's been a very sweet and demanding journey for me getting back into horses again after so many years, and the ones I have are quite challenging from a trainer's standpoint, being "older" horses who were either neglected or abused. But they have been also very therapeutic for me, in many ways.

Mama and baby

The last two years have been incredibly difficult ones for us. Underneath all the exhaustion of raising a family, remodeling our home, working the farm, and work, there has been a lot of things going on in our hearts. Difficult things, yet they have been good as well, as they have produced good fruit. Over the past number of years, we've come to an increased realization that we were missing the heart of God. He said to love... I chose to worry what people looked like and whether they were following the unwritten rules that spoke of being a "true" Christian (that were no where to be found in the Word of God). It would take a whole series of blog posts to even begin to touch the surface of where all we've grown in our spiritual lives, how our lives have changed so much for the better, and the healing Jesus has brought to the deep, dark, painful secrets and memories that used to haunt me. We've not "arrived", there are still hard days and hard situations, but the depression I've struggled with for years is gone. Beauty has meaning again. The colorlessness of life has burst into spring time. I am so grateful. So grateful for freedom... freedom from fear, freedom to love, freedom to revel in God creating me just how He wanted me, and He loves me.

GRATEFUL. THANKFUL. BLESSED.