Is your milk this good?  Does your two year old like to kiss the milk jar?  For all of you that do not have your own unpasteurized, un-homogenized, un-messed with, raw, creamy, jersey milk—— I am truly sorry.  I was once just like you.  I once thought that milk from a grocery store tasted swell until I had my first taste of well, actual milk.  No, I don’t kiss the milk jar, but I have thought about it.

It does a body good!  Click here if you’d like some info as to why.  Me, I’m just gonna go have some more.

We love you and wish you were here!

She came tonight as I sat alone,
The girl I used to be.

And she gazed at me with her earnest eye
And questioned reproachfully,
“Have you forgotten the many plans
And hopes that I had for you?”

“The great career, the splendid fame,
All the wonderful things to do?”

“Where is the mansion of stately height
With all of its gardens rare?”
“The silken robes that I dreamed for you
And the jewels in your hair?”

And as she spoke, I was very sad
For I wanted her pleased with me …
This slender girl that I used to be.

So gently rising, I took her hand,
And guided her up the stairs
Where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay
So innocent, sweet, and fair.

I told her that these are my only gems,
And Precious they are to me;
That silken robe is my Motherhood
Of costly simplicity.

And my mansion of stately height is love,
And the only career I know,
Is serving each day in these sheltered walls
For the dear ones who come and go.

And as I spoke to my shadowy guest,
She smiled through her tears at me;
And I saw the woman I am now …
Pleased the girl I used to be.

~ Rowena K. Lewis ~

At least I’ll try!

I received a few “so how are you doing that?” kind of questions in regard to the last post, so I’ll try to answer a few.  I’m a little pushed for time so this will probably be a little choppy and uninteresting.  Probably most of you know this stuff already, so just skip it if you’d like!

My Beloved sold his landscaping business two years ago, sold our house (which we did have equity in), sold our vehicles, and basically scrounged up everything we could in order to purchase a home and some land debt- free.  God gave us the desire to support ourselves from our own land as we all worked together.  We moved to Nebraska from Tennessee because he had a job offer here and the land was so much cheaper here.  We needed for him to have a temporary job as we transitioned into this lifestyle and got our own operation off the ground.  He worked and we rented a house for about a year while we looked for our own place.  We finally bought our property this past January:  a house and five acres for  $17,500.  It’s not as much land as we had hoped for initially, but God has a way of being smarter than we are, and we are finding that it’s just perfect for our needs.

So, how do we plan on making this work financially?  Good question!  Wish we knew!  Okay, seriously, we’re taking this day by day, praying for wisdom, and trusting in our faithful God’s provision.  At this point, we are still dipping into our savings.  We are trying to live, as much as possible, as though we don’t have any.  Our hope is to sell enough honey and produce to supply what little cash we will need as we attempt to grow and raise almost all of our own food supply. (You can’t grow salt, bananas, and coconut oil round here, ya know.)  We know that this is a process and will take at least a couple of years to accomplish, by His grace, hence the need for savings and hence trying to live as if we don’t have any!!!  This year our goal was only to grow our own food, not to sell any yet, but He provided us with a great crop and we were able to make a little cash.  Yes, it was enough to pay property taxes, should Beloved decide to use it for that purpose.  Which reminds me of one more advantage to having a small piece of property, and that is low taxes!

Yes, this lifestyle will require a lot of adjusting and reprioritizing.  There are going to be a lot of sacrifices needing to be made, but there is just no comparison to the trade-off.  We know that this will teach us a level of dependency on Him that we’ve never had before and that it is a huge investment in the lives of our children.  We are honored and excited to be on this journey!

I’ve been so anxious to share with everyone how abundantly our Lord has blessed us this year.  I fear I could go on all day and still not do Him justice!  I want to try, however, to give you a taste of His goodness concerning our food supply.

The picture above is our main pantry.  The shelves are three jars deep, and there are also boxes and boxes of jars along the floor that you can’t see.  Oh, and let’s not forget the two freezers in the back room, full of meat and vegetables.  We have over 200 quarts of corn and 150 quarts of green beans alone!  I don’t have a good count on the other produce, but there’s looooots  of:  whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, pickles, saurkraut, applesauce, beets, salsa, zucchini, carrots, and cherries.  Oh, and don’t forget the 2000 pounds (really!!) of potatoes and 400 pounds of onoins in our neighbor’s cellar and 36 gallons of honey harvested!  Not to mention all the fresh, raw milk, butter, and cream we can hold.  And eggs.  Yahweh is so merciful to us, and we are so full!

By the way, lest you think I slaved over the canner all summer in my hugely pregnant state, well, I didn’t.  My Beloved took care of the vast majority, and included the children in much of it.  They much preferred the canning to picking and breaking beans— which they did all by themselves!

Here are some pictures of tomato processing.  This took place right after Nathanael was born, when my mother was here serving us (for a month!), and I was sooo glad someone was here to help Josh.  You know you have a lot of tomatoes when you just about feel like crying for your husband when you see another bucket or box full!  I don’t feel like crying, though, when I want to make vegetable soup now!

We’ve also been enormously blessed in the wood department.  A summer storm brought down a GIGANTIC oak tree in town, which was generously donated to us.  My dear daddy and Josh spent many days cutting and hauling.  Daddy was so good to split the wood for Josh while he was occupied with many other things.  Running the splitter is one of Ashlynne’s all-time favorite things to do!

And now with our new cookstove supplying all of our heat, hot water, and cooking, I feel like the most blessed woman on the planet!  Truly all the glory goes to our Father.  Without Him we could do nothing, and without Him all this would be meaningless.

Soli deo gloria!!!!!

It was a pivotal moment in our family’s history.  A day that will live in infamy.  (Has that been used already?)  All the longing, praying,  and dreaming of so many hearts in our household culminated in this blessed event.

What could it be?  Wait with us, and you shall see.

A delivery truck?  What could it be bringing?

Such excitement abounds!  (Could I be a little wordy today?)

Eeeeeasy now!

What on earth?

It’s a KITCHEN QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy, happy Mama.  I just can’t stop smiling.  Come to Nebraska and I’ll cook you a mess of beans!  Well, I’ll have to get it installed first— another monumental day!

He’s beginning to chunk up!  (compare this to the picture in the last post)  Our Nate is finally beginning to be a bit more demanding when it comes to nursing and it’s starting to show.  Most of my babies have been borderline obese by now.  Well, maybe not obese, but definitely “chunky monkeys” !

So here you go,  grandparents!  He’s missing you guys a bunch, as you can tell by the forlorn look on his face!  He also said to tell you he can’t wait for December to get here so he can get his chubby little cheeks all pinched and kissed.  The rest of us are excited, too, but not to get our cheeks pinched.

Long time, no post, huh?

To say things have been busy would be almost laughable, but my brain is too tired and full to think of a more eloquent way to say it!  I have many, many great posts rolling around in my head…. ah, well, in due time, I hope!  Here are some pictures I just want to do something with:

Here’s Nathanael sporting his very first cloth diaper.  This is the first time I’ve had two children in cloth full time.  It’s working quite well now, though I spend quite a bit of time with the toilet!  (Die to self, die to self….)  This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, so there’s lots more chubby goodness on those legs now.  (Check out his “man socks” as us girls call them!)

This was our first outing with six children.  It was yard saling, of course. I hope no one reports us or anything, but we have two children sharing a buckle presently.  Let me hear someone say 15 passenger van! Actually, we are looking and praying about one right now.

Did I mention that Pop and Grannie got to come meet Nathanael?  You would not believe how wonderfully full our home has been lately!  Oh, the Lord has blessed us so much!  Oh, the stories I’d like to tell!  This was Grannie and Nathanael’s very first meeting!

Nathanael may actually hold the record for number of kisses received from siblings.  Caleb kisses him constantly! He’s never been anything but gentle with him, however, Nathanael is getting a bit weary of all the attention as of late!  And there is never, never a lack for someone to hold him.  Nope.  He’s spoiled all right.

This little one will actually sleep throught the night occasionally already!  Other nights he usually only wakes me up once.  It has taken me six children before I had one that would do that!  He’s very easy going.  As long as you fill that little tummy up every three hours or so, and find a pair of arms that are willing to snuggle him up (which isn’t hard),  he’s very content.  Well, except when you put him in the bathtub.  Not a happy man then!

More news to come, Lord willing!

May He bless you all!

Just start somewhere.  Right?

My Nathanael is almost one month old.  So much has happened,  so many dear loved ones have come and gone, so many wonderful memories worthy of recording have been made….

And I don’t know where to start!

So….  in no particular order of time or importance…..  my mom, Josh’s mom, and I decided we’d get the children all gussied up for a picture.  Well, it was my mother’s idea.  I told her I would rather be hung than try to get a picture of six children all at the same time.  She, however was undeterred.  While we certainly did NOT ever get that “perfect” studio picture, we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs at this gang of goofballs.  I’ve been looking over them in somewhat of a daze.  Are they ALL mine? I think I might officially have a big family!

Nope.  Not perfect shots, but they’re just precious to me.

(Lauren’s knees were pulling Ashlynne’s hair down.  And, sigh, I haven’t yet learned how to crop my pictures, thus– the closet in the background.  Ok, Kevin, fix it up for me.  I still love it.)

(Too dark.  Poor Nathanael.  Ashlynne looks too grown up.)

Do you think Nate has cause to worry?  I mean, look at Caleb’s angelic face.

Little boy blue.  It may be temporary, But Nathanael’s eyes are very blue.  If they don’t turn, he will be my first blue-eyed child.

Mr.  Grumpy pants gets the award for most uncooperative.

Sepia, right?  Ok, here’s another since she likes to model:

Sweet, sweetheart.  Another one:

She likes to pose.

See?

Just call her “Hair.”  Check this one out:

So, I’ve started.  If I could just do one post a day, maybe I’ll catch up.  No promises, though.  I’m a wee bit busy lately.

Thanks for stopping by!

Do you see a happy boy?

Josh always takes one of the children when he runs errands.  The girls always keep up with whose turn is next, of course.   The outing usually consists of running to the feed store, hardware store, bank, and of course a trip to Casey’s General Store to pick out the doughnut of their choice.  Oh, yeah, it’s a very big deal.  Josh almost never leaves without one of them.  This time, however, the girls had to step aside and make way for The Boy.  It was tractor buying time— and time for Caleb to fit into the rotation.

Sisters had to kiss and kiss him before he could leave.

Could there be anything more exciting for a boy?