Then & Now

Five + sixteen =?

I reenacted this picture of me sixteen years ago. What do you think?

I hope you all are having a fine day.

birth announcement, my morning thoughts, and spring pictures...

Three more kids joined the herd. On sunday Hopli had triplets and they are so adorable! Two does, one white and one grayish brown with dark brown markings, and a big white buck. The buck weighed seven lb. and eight oz. The brown doe weighed five lb. and four oz., and the white doe weighed six lb. two oz. All together Shneahopli was carrying nineteen lb. and four oz. I think that would be alot to hold! They are doing very well. They already want to run and play outside. It is a little cool out this morning so I am going to wait till it warms up a little and I will bring them out in the sunshine today. I took Hopli out to get some grass this morning. It was so pretty out there. The morning sun shining on the dewy grass as she ate. I sat on a stump and sang while out there watching her. One of my favorite songs to sing in the morning is Morning Has Broken. When I sing and give thanks and praise to God, everything that seems so big and overwhelming in this life melts away and I know it no more. I think this has been the most pleasant of springs ever. It is so beautiful and nice outside. David has been getting the fields ready for planting. Lambs and kids are running all around the barnyard. Robins hoping about the garden. Busy birds finding nesting materials. Freshly wash wool drying in the sun and wind. Clothes on the line. Wild flowers in the meadow and woods. Leeks and morels sprouting up in the woods and orchard. Geese trying to set on eggs. Ducks trying finding good nesting spots. Daffy-down-dillies a blooming in the ditch along the road. Crisp frost in the morning covering the freshly plowed earth. Beautiful little pink blossoms on the peach tree. Bright green catkins on the birch trees. Golden dandelions popping up there cheery faces everywhere. Barefeet running everywhere. Buds on the lilac bush. Compost piles steaming in the morning sunlight. New leaves on the rose bush. Bright new leaves on the maples. Forsythia bushes in full bloom. Wild cherry trees clothed in white blossoms like star clusters. Bunches of new onion plants to plant in the garden. Chickens scratching everywhere. Wooded hills covered with new growth. Rivers and streams flowing down where they are directed. Lower and lower still,ever singing, giving water and life to every thing they touch. This is my Father's world! A place that He has made for His pleasure. May every thing that we say, do and think be pleasing to Him. He has made us for His good pleasure.

(I wrote the above at 8:24 AM this morning)

Here are some pictures from today:

my nephew's flowers

planting peas

pounding in a stake

smiling sisters

Fun!

Big Smile!

This morning me and Hannah visited with Rebecca. Daddy,David and the boys had to go to a farm and pick up some bees for David. Hannah and I were going to go to the library but it was closed so we had Daddy drop us of at our sister's. We helped her plant peas and onions in her garden. It was very fun. Then Daddy came and picked up some bales of hay that my sister's husband said we could get. We visited for a little longer then we left. Went to the library and checked out some books. Last night I finished the book "The Meeting Place" by Janette Oke ,and I had to get the sequel. If you are a book worm like me then you know just how it is. When you finnish a good book and it says at the end that there is a sequel to it and that sequel is 9 miles away on a library shelf you just have to get it in the fastest possible time that you can. Then when we got there I saw that there are even more sequels to that sequel so I got three more books all in the same series. On the way home we stopped and got more hay from a neighbor. We are still feeding our animals hay as the grass is still growing.

When we came home I got the clay oven started and mixed up a batch of natural leaven dough. I had taken a little brake from baking bread on the clay oven. The reason why? Well go to this link HERE and you will see something that I made. I was so mad I could not even blog about it at the time. At least someone was able to laugh at what happened! The oven was too hot and I was getting tired as it was getting late in the evening. I put the bread in too soon and that is the result, burnt dough!. In that picture you can see Daddy in the kitchen. He is scraping off the burnt part of the other charred lump of dough.

I hope this time it turns out very well.

I am going to do chicken for dinner. So I must go and get stuff ready for that.... enjoy the spring!

Spring! Oh how I love It!

He weighs 5 lb. 14 oz.

He is so cute! he has the cutest little baa. This time of the year is so nice. Spring, everything so fresh and new and full of life! Shwanli and Shneahopli are getting full with kids. I am sure they will give birth very soon. They waddle all over the place looking very big. We are letting the goats and the Shetland sheep free range and browse around the farm. We are waiting for the pasture to grow more and David ordered some new fencing. In a few weeks all the animals will be out on pasture free and happy with all there new little ones enjoying the green grass. The last two Shetland ewes are going to lamb any day now. Their udders are looking very full. The rest of the bigger sheep are going to have there lambs in May. I am getting more milk from Autumn. At the start I was getting less than a half pint now I am getting a little more than a pint. Plus what the kid is getting from her I think she is producing very well. She is a Alpine/Saanen/Nubian. The father is a Alpine/Nubian. That is where the floppy ears come from. :)I think it is so cute!

I am really looking forward to getting back in to cheese making. I checked out a cheese book at the library on monday. It is about all the different types of cheeses. I have not gotten a chance to look at it yet but I hope to tomorrow. The book is still in the truck and the truck was away most of the day today.

On sunday I borrowed two books from a friend and I have

finished the first one, titled Star Of Light by Patricia St. John.

I really like that one!

The second Book is titled The Lost Clue by Mrs. O. E. Walton.

I am reading this one right now.

It is very interesting. It is one of the books in the Lamplighter Rare Collectors Series.

Things that I am learning from the Lord. Contentment, Joy, peace,

controlling my anger and not bursting forth with it on others.

The Love of God, Trusting. I need prayer in these areas of my heart. I let the cares and concerns of this life pull me down and I act out in my flesh towards my family and those I love dearly.

I want to find rest in Christ, the place that He has prepared for me and stay there. A place where I am in Him and He in me and together one flesh moving and living and growing alive and maturing in work of the Lord.I must have His spirit in my daily

life alive and flourishing. I don't want to do any thing of my self any more. I am so selfish. When the things that I want to see God do in my life at a certain time that I think it must be done and when It does not happen, I get discouraged and think that it will never happen at all. When I am in this place of unhappiness and

despair. I find my self acting out towards others in a non Christ like way. I want to be delivered from this bondage.

Please pray for me.

what should I name him?

Me and the little goat. I am thinking of a name for him. I thought of naming him Frankincense does that sound like a good one?

He weighs 4.5 lb.

The Shetland lamb

My older sister gave me her sheep. We picked it up yesterday. I am so glad to have my own wool! She is a Polypay. My sister named her Sunrise.

And here is the new mama and her kid resting.

I milked her this morning. We are going to keep the kid with her. We always used to bottle feed all the kids. Last year for the first time we kept a doe with her kid and it grew so much better. So now we have decided to keep all our kids on the mothers. It will be alot easier for us too. Getting up in the middle of the night and feeding them every two hours with a bottle does not seem very natural to me. Plus it is a lot of work. I am going to milk Autumn two times a day to keep the milk production up. Then when the kid gets a little older, like maybe around four weeks old I can take it away from the mother just for one night. Then in the morning I will milk her and then put the kid back with her. That way we can have milk to use and the kid can drink when ever it would like.

Picnic with Nephews...

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord

Oh how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Thy word is very pure: there fore thy servant loveth it.

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is truth

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways

Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto His name for it is pleasant.

O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever

Hello all!

I am once again so very tired. I always get on this computer very late and am not always in the mood to post! I just wanted to say hello to any of you that might be stopping by this blog.

I had a very fine day.

I took a nice walk today and went up to the bench in the wooded hills that overlooks the beautiful manistee river, the hills and caberfae peaks and beyond. I brought my knitting and got some done on the sock I am working on.

When I am up there I feel free and everything feels just right.

I can talk and sing my thoughts out to my Maker and He speaks His word to my heart. I feel close to God out there. I really can understand the meaning of these words:

Psalm 121

¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. ⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. ⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. ⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Our help comes from the Lord. This is what I am finding out. I can look to so many other things in this life to find fulfillment. But I can only find it in Christ alone. He is my only hope. I will stand in Him. All the things of this world have grown dim to my eyes. I can only see Jesus. I have desires in my heart. I want to be a wife and I want to walk with a man in this life and I want to share it with the one chosen for me. All these things are of this earth but they are a picture of the spiritual and heavenly things of God. If God is calling me and bringing me to a earthly man. I want to joyfully go with the flow. This life in Christ is like a river. I have stepped into this river and I am going where it is taking me. There are many bends and turns and I cannot see beyond where I am. In faith I have plunged my self into His life. I am carried away by His Love and washed,cleansed and purified. I can remember very clearly when He called me by name and filled me with His spirit. I was laying in my bed and crying out to Jesus and asking Him how I could be filled with with His spirit. He spoke and said: "You must believe. God above gives you the holy spirit. But you must believe that He is able and He is faithful and He will give you His holy spirit. You must believe." I told Him that I believed that He would give me His holy spirit. And right then and there He filled me. I felt like a fire and a cleansing went thought my whole soul. I felt so free and clean. Being filled with the spirit is not just a one time thing that happens and we can't just go on our way and think "Ok, I am free in Christ" No, it is a daily continual filling and being filled with the spirit. We must ask Jesus to come and continually daily fill us with His Holy spirit. Without His spirit we cannot live. We need to be alive and growing and active in Him. A continual walking and living in spirit and truth. I want His spirit to rule over my whole being. My thoughts, words, motives, attitude, eyes, ears, feet, hands, my will, my life. I give it all to Him. My mind can wander and wonder, what and when and where and how and who. But when my mind is stayed on Him I find perfect peace. This is where I want to stay.

In Him and Him alone-

I got some new sandals the other day when me and my sisters went out to town. I really like them!

I am hoping to do some picture posts soon about my weeks here.

But for now I will bid you all Good-night!

Looking forward to comments! :)

stuff I did today...

I made a batch of muffins for tomorrow's breakfast

made soup for dinner

Baked bread

Here is how the kitchen looks after a week of working in it.

Compare with the pictures I posted HERE

I put a hubbard squash and some ribs in the clay oven to slow cook over night. So... that takes care of tomorrow's meal. I did do dishes today even though it looks like I did not. There are just somedays when I can do them up really fast and other days when the pile just never seems to go away! I am really getting a longing to have a time when I can make a meal for just two people. I am content where I am right now. But sometimes the longing is really there. I don't think it is at all bad to have thoughts like this. Some might say that you should have your heart set on what is right now and not to wish for what is to come. But I think it is alright to dream. And give these desires to the Lord. And delight our selves in Him. And if we delight our selves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our hearts. God is bringing me to this place of resting in Him. He will give me the desires of my heart.

...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

1 Corinthians 2: 9-12

I want to be fill with His Spirit. Daily alive and growing in the strength of the Lord! Don't you?

Let's press on toward the Goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I hope you all have a good night

I am tired, so I am off to bed.

He gave us today, and I am thankful

I worked on some pants that I started sewing yesterday, I cut them out about two years ago. I was not sure if they would still fit Nathanael. I am not much of a seamstress but when I do sew it is a lot of fun. I have one problem though, I start something and I do not finnish it until a long time. For an example, there is an unfinished dress upstairs waiting to be sewn and worn. I really want to get it done. I'll probably get it down one of these days and sew it up.

It took a while for me to figure out how I could sew the inner side seams, They would just not line up! I thought that if I could not get things to work out, they would have had to be worn like this!

Could this be called a pair of skants? (Sk-skirt, ants-pants)

I was able to make them go together. One leg is a little on the twisted side, but Nathanael says they fit very nicely. And I am glad he can wear them this way rather than that other way! :)

I am thinking of putting some belt loops on. It is a little loose on top.

For dinner I made a pot roast. It tasted really good. The spices I put in were cumin and mint. A good combo with Lamb. Remember this if you ever are wondering what to season lamb with.

~This picture was taken before the roast was all cooked~

Yesterday I took a long walk and ended up on a high wooded hill. There the view was so beautiful! I am going to go back there with a camera to get a picture of it.

Here's something that brought comfort to my heart this evening

^{Romans 8: 35-39}

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Another thing that encouraged me today I was chatting with a good friend and sister. I was telling her: "I can get so many desires in my heart and get overwelmed by it all.I want to go to other lands but then I wonder when and how I will ever get there. I want to be married and have a Godly husband. I wonder when It is all going to happen. I get discuraged because I feel like I am getting older and nothing is happening!"

she said: "I know how you feel. God gives grace, but it also helps to remember that Jesus was 30 before his ministry started."

That was so uplifting to my heart! The word of the Lord spoken to my heart through my sister brought cheer to my heart and It has brought me to a higher place in Him. I don't want to worry over the future. It is all in His hands and He knows the best for me. He has willed for me to live on this earth. He has given me breath, and with it I will praise Him!

I think that spring is finally here!

I think that spring is finally here!

I feel it in the breeze blowing thru my hair

I see it in sky and the trees

In the birds and the bees

My heart is singing, overflowing

With a sense of happiness and knowing,

That the things that once were cold and frozen

Will grow into what's been chosen

Last summer, a flower, then fading

Is now a seed in the cold earth.

Watching and still waiting

For a glorious new birth.

I will not think of darkness

I will not think of death

I will only think of the likeness

When Life blows the warmth of breath

A tiny sprout will grow up from the ground

The seed I thought was dead is found

much more glorious then the other

A life to share with one another.

Last summer's love is but a memory

Today is where I stand

And no matter what I see

Tomorrow is unfolded by the Master Gardener's hand.

Hi, this is what I am doing today!

I am off to take care of my nephews. I hope to do a post soon. We have one computer and 7 users. So it is hard to find a time when someone is not on. And I like to do a post when I have all my work done.
Maybe I'll do a post this evening, if I am not tired:) I am coming back at 6:00
I am enjoying the spring weather I is so bright and fresh out side! The birds singing and the sky so blue. I hope that spring is here to stay. But I am sure we will get one more dump of snow by good friday. Well good bye and talk to you latter!

I am blessed

I had a very nice birthday. Thanks to all of you who made my day special! I will be doing a picture post of what I did today. But for now I'll leave you with the last picture that was taken of me when I was still 20! Last night the power went out so I wrote in my daily journal by candle light. So old fashioned!

So good night my friends and dear ones. And please pray for me as I start this new year in my life. I do not know what the future holds for me. But I know who holds my hand. And the chief end of us all is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

A very busy day!

Today was a very fun day! I baked three kinds of bread, that made 9 loaves. I made 2 pumpkin, 1 blackberry,and 1 apple pies. Nathanael made a batch of double chocolate cookies,and Enoch made a angel food cake.(we have lots of eggs right now!) Hannah made biscuits we had them under goose gravy for dinner. Yes It was it was very enjoyable! But I think the nicest and most enjoyable thing that I did today was calling my friend and singing Happy birthday to her with my sister Hannah. That was so much fun Cora! I am so glad we did that!

The dough, Rye and white, wheat and white, and rye-wheat

The rye -wheat turn out really good It is the first time I was able to have a whole grain bread(no white flour) turn out so well. The Family already ate a loaf!

I worked on this table all day!

Here you can see the kind of baskets I use for rising the dough in.

this is the apple pie

rolling out the crust

three were made with white flour and one i did barley that is something new for me I will have to see how it taste.

putting the blackberries in

A pumpkin pie hot out of the oven. This one is the barley crust

I like this picture!

as I was writing this I just remembered... I forget to take those little pumpkin pudding filled crocks ( the ones in the middle) out of the oven! I better go do that!! they are not,should not, be burning because the oven is quite cooled down.

Here is Enoch with his angel food cake

the bread ready to come out

the door is shut

everything is out.... well not really... those little custard cups!!:)

Now I am going to go snuggle up in a warm place

and go to sleep!

good -night!