Summer’s must have accessories

Yesterday my husband promised a surprise for his girls when he returned home from work. The waiting was difficult, but worth it. He returned with some fashionable accessories no young girl should be without!

Shovels, hoe, and cultivator, oh my! Is the Green Acres theme song running through your mind? Josh has them weeding sometimes at 6:30 in the morning. Which brings us to our next must-have. The family food plot.

Of course, the most well dressed yards of the year should always feature a few free range hens.

A few corn fields, just for show, wouldn’t hurt!

It may be snobbery, but I can’t imagine any place without a Kate and her Lamby Bam Bam.

Father-son bonding is always in fashion.

Finally, if you really want to knock ‘em dead, throw in a fiery Nebraska sunset, courtesy of the Creator of the Universe.

A very special day ’round here!

The most wonderful man I know turns 31 years young today! I’ve never been very poetic, but on a day like this I wish I were! I’ll borrow my favorite!

To my Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

“To my Dear and Loving Husband” from Several Poems. Anne Bradstreet. Boston: John Foster, 1678

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Here is a first-born son with his first-born son! Check out that farmer tan. I like it lots.

My darling works all day and comes home to work again. As tired as he must be, he never turns the children away when they want to help. He has taught me so much about patience and kindness in parenting. Yes, sometimes he conks out on us, but usually not without a child in his arms!

We are all so thankful for and proud of our Beloved!

Here were all the “olive shoots around your table” tonight, my love. They wanted to wish you the happiest birthday ever!

Pray for Daniel Lockwood

The Lockwood Family are missionaries in Mexico. They have just found out that the father of the family, Daniel, more than likely has cancer. This is a dear family who truly has a passion to see the gospel preached to all the world and also to raise up an army of warriors for Christ. They have eleven young children and are begging for the prayers of the saints. Please pray for them! Please spread the word and be a part of a massive prayer chain that is stretching all over the world. I believe God is going to do amazing things!

If you can, please visit their site and leave some encouragement and tell them you are praying. Daniel is hospitalized and Jaynee cannot be with him because children are not allowed at the hospital. She desperately needs the help of the Church at this time!

lockwoodfamily.blogspot.com/

Friday night is date night

Friday nights are a pretty fun place to hang out around here.  My husband has officially deemed it date night.  He treats all his women to pizza, popcorn, and Little House on the Prairie.  I’m telling you, it doesn’t get much more exciting than this!

Nature lesson for my two year old

See the large hawk circling our chicken coop?

See how all the chickens are hiding inside the coop?

God made chickens smart!

Lost and … found?

Our little Rachel lost a most important top tooth. Actually, it had been dangling for a few days and Ashlynne helped it out with a little horse play. Yes, my little women in training do that sometimes. Here she is in all her toothless glory!

Coincidentally, (are Christians supposed to use that word?) her little brother got his very first tooth the same day she lost hers-and it was the same tooth! Well, not the same tooth, naturally, but the tooth in the same spot. Looks like Caleb was none too happy to have to share this milestone.

I could use more clothesline, Beloved!

Isn’t it exciting to see your family grow?

More clothesline, bigger mixing bowls, doubling recipes, more kisses, longer vans, taller stacks of laundry, more time on my knees, adding benches to my table, rubbermaid totes full of hand-me-downs, supersized crockpots, additional fingernails to trim, begging God for wisdom, many hands make light work, and love multiplies!

“Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation… Thou art glorified.” Isaiah 26:15

“I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.” Jeremiah 30:19

Thank you, Lord!

Spurgeon for breakfast

The children are now getting a healthy dose of Charles Spurgeon at the breakfast table.

I thought the Prince of Preachers might be a little too advanced for some of them, but they are actually quite attentive. (The food helps!) I even get reminded if we happen to forget.

I’m always looking for ways for us to have corporate study of the Word.  At this stage in my life, independent, quiet study is not realistic most days.  I could turn it into a source of real frustration and blame my children for needing me too much and hindering my relationship with God.  Wow that sounds terrible!  I might as well start requesting some “me-time”!  I’ve been encouraged recently to bring them along in my pursuit of knowing my Redeemer. I shouldn’t go to great lengths to get away from everyone to meet with him.  Serving my family is serving Him, not getting in the way of serving Him!

Studying with your children is no less holy or spiritual than studying alone.  Sure, a lot of the material we use is on a child’s level, (who’s to say I don’t need that, too) but it is also good to give them something to grow into, to ponder.  I love John and Noel Piper’s booklet “The Family: Together in God’s Presence.”

“Not everything children experience has to be put on their level in order to do them good. Some things must be.  But not everything.

For example, to learn a new language you can go step by step from alphabet to vocabulary to grammar to syntax.  Or you can take a course where you dive in over your head, and all you hear is the language you don’t know.  Most language teachers would agree that the latter is by far the most effective.

Sunday worship service is not useless to children just because much of it goes over their heads. They can and will grow into this new language faster than we think-if positive and happy attitudes are fostered by the parents.”

So, today is Spurgeon.  Tomorrow, Baxter and Edwards!

Contentment on the Journey

I”m the kind of woman who likes to know where I’m headed.  I prefer to know far in advance, too.  I like to make plans in my head about what it’s going to be like and what I’m going to do once I get there.  In other words, I find I spend far too much time with my head in the future and far too little enjoying what God has blessed me with today.

Well, my Father has a way of changing me in a very hands-on style.  Sure, all I need for life and Godliness is right there in His Word, and many times His Word and His Spirit are all I need to change.  But for the toughest cases in my life, like patience and contentment, it seems I’m on a lifelong journey.

So now he’s brought me a thousand miles from home, and I still don’t know where I’m going to be this time next year!  A couple of years ago, Kim would have fallen apart if she could have seen where she would be right now.  How scary, how unstable, how alone, how could you possibly plan things for goodness sake!   But oh, He is so faithful!  He changed me!  He knew where I was going to be and he changed me and gave me exactly the right amount of grace and experience I was going to need.  Wow!  I’m getting excited just typing this!  The creator of the universe is sovereign over all the little details of me! I can be content no matter where He takes me!

Knowing this, I can enjoy what’s going on right now.  I don’t have to worry about what piece of land we’re going to buy, or if our savings are going to be enough to buy it, or if we’re really going to be able to bring Josh home to us and still eat regularly.  Today we have enough to eat.  Today my children’s closets are embarrassingly too full.  Today this wonderful rental house is home, and home is the nicest place in the world!

And tomorrow?  It doesn’t matter.  He is there.  And He is getting me ready for it right now.

Oh, He is so good!

Afternoon at the park

About one mile from our house is our tiny town.  It is all of about three blocks and has a bank, post office, co-op(every town has one out here), taxidermy, and pub.  Population 57, or so I’ve heard.  However, it has the nicest little park smack dab in the middle.  I think you know where I’ll be hanging out!