Goats on Parade.........Goodwife Farm's Star................

Star is Tulip's daughter from her first freshening and along with her brother Jesse was one of the first babies born here at Goodwife Farm.  Star is the product of some really nice linebreeding, in that Tulip was bred back to her daddy and we got Star from that pairing.  I love this goat!  Star is shy and a little bit timid by nature, but she is so very sweet that you can't help but love her.  As she gets older she is hard to tell apart from her mama physically, but she is nothing like her in attitude.  Where Tulip is a bold, brash, false eyelash wearing, trailer park mama with a fat belly hanging over her cut off jeans and tube top, Star is a quiet little mouse hanging out at the library wearing a dress that covers her from her neck to her ankles and being just a little bit embarassed and intimidated by her mama's loud and somewhat obnoxious antics! 

Star didn't always used to be so shy, but she had a terrible experience at the vet when she was disbudded and this has made her very afraid of being confined to this day.  She will come up to be petted and to give a little kiss, but if you try to restrain her, she gets very panicky, very quickly.  This doesn't bother her on the milk stand, I'm assuming because there is food involved on the stand! 

Star has the sweetest bleat of all my goats.  It's very plaintive and lonely sounding and will just break your heart.  Star is also very vocal when she is in heat.  Gracious!  She will bleat herself hoarse when she is cycling.  Star is number two in herd hierarchy because she is Tulip's oldest daughter.  I'm very interested to see how this changes (or if it changes) as Maggie Faith and Isis grow up.  Maggie Faith being Tulip's daugther from this year, and Isis being Star's. 

She has a gorgeous udder, so lovely that it will make you weep!  This is also her first freshening udder, and I can't wait to see what it looks like next year.  Her udder is this gorgous little basketball with NO pocket and just wonderful attachment.  Her teats are nice length and even though they are small, they will be bigger next year.  Just lovely! 

Like Tulip (of course) Star isn't registered, but again, doesn't bother me in the least. 

Goats on Parade........Faith Farm's Tulip.........

Tulip is boss goat around Goodwife Farm. Let's be honest, she's a total hag! Tulip hates all other goats, unless they are her babies. She loves her kids and that love never goes away, although they do get demoted down as new babies come along. When food is involved Tulip will bellow like a rodeo bull in the bucking chute. We like to comment that she sounds like she's got the rabies and it's true. I've never heard anything like it.

That all said and done, Tulip is a wonderful loving goat to us humans. She's the queen of kisses and love nibbles. No ear is safe from her questing goatie lips, and no booty is safe from being rubbed by her precious goatie head!

Tulip is a wonderful mama and a great milker. This year, 2010, is her third freshening. First time she freshened with twins, a buckling and a doeling. Second year she had triplet bucklings, and this year she had triplets again, but two girls and a buckling this time. She has a very nice buttery soft, elastic udder with good attachment and only the tiniest of pockets. She's got decent sized teats and lets her milk down easy. She gives around 2.5 to 3 lbs of milk per day, milking once a day. I usually only milk once a day because I leave the doe kids on the mamas until mama wants to wean them. This allows me more flexibilty in my milking and allows me to be gone for an evening if I have to, especially in the first few months. Last year with Tulip having triplet bucklings I had to milk her twice a day. She had so much milk that the wether I left on her couldn't keep up. Tulip is also the star of our goat milking tutorial.

Tulip is not a registered Kinder. She comes from a wonderful line of percentage Kinders. A few years back the KGBA decided that percentage Kinders were too hard to keep straight so they disallowed them in the registry, therefore Tulip isn't registered. That's totally ok by me though, I don't need a piece of paper to tell me she's a wonderful goat!

Till next time..........God Bless!

WI Report...........

First things first.........today is my anniversary so if you want to hear about that go to my other blog!

Ok, so things aren't going so well on the healthy front. I really don't even want to talk about it because I know what to do, I'm just not doing it consistently. I was so totally focused on my health and not the scale, and I'm still totally focused on my health and not the number on the scale, but I've been torturing my body lately and I'm not proud of it.

I'm in good spirits for the most part and very thankful that I'm on WW because if I wasn't I'm pretty sure I'd probably have gained 15 lbs by now! I'm still clinging to the wagon with my broken and bloody fingernails, I haven't fallen off totally as yet. I do good for several days, then fall apart for several days, then back to doing good, then fall apart, a terrible vicious cycle.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching trying to figure out why I'm doing this to myself and I'm coming up empty. I love myself, love my body, love my life. I'm not sad or down or depressed, I'm just..............I don't know what I am to tell the truth.

I was on plan (but not eating the best) Sunday - Thursday. Then fell to pieces Friday - Monday. Weighed this morning as I always do on Tuesday, and I was up 4 lbs. I'm at 186, and back on March 2 I was at 180. In between then and now, I've just been going up and down. I'm thinking that the upheaval of pulling The Youngun out of school has gotten me a little derailed. Of course as I stated last week, I've been off track since our kitchen remodel. This is of course just an excuse, but I'm trying to be honest here and figure out what's going on with me. I have to re-commit to taking care of myself each and every day. I started that this morning with a 30 minute jog and I realized how very much I've missed jogging. The Youngun went with me and she just walked/jogged while I jogged along. I'm a slow jogger so this worked out well. I have to remember that I'm worth the extra time it takes me to take care of myself. There's nothing wrong with me taking good care of myself. If I don't take care of me, there won't be anything left to take care of everybody else!

I'm going back to the basics. I'm going to take it one meal at a time. Then I can progress to one day at a time, then one week, then the rest of my life!

Till next time...........I'm trying to be unTHICKINand working on theTHINNIN!

14 years.........

14 Years ago today, I became a wife.  Before God I stood up and declared from this moment on, just as the Bible says in Genesis; chapter 2, verse 24, I would be one flesh with this man.  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  There are so many places in the Bible that refer to marriage and how it should be, but this is the first one.  Marriage is important and I take it very seriously.  It is important enough that woman is created in verse 22 and the first Biblical law regarding marriage is mentioned in verse 24.  When I talk to The Youngun about marriage, we talk about this verse.  I tell her.......If you don't love the man enough to leave your Daddy and me, then he just isn't the right one to be marryin'!  Marriage is forever and you need to choose your partner very wisely.  I pray for her future husband all the time.  I pray that she will have the good sense to wait until God sends her the right man, and not to get married just because. 

Anywho, 14 years ago today I became Mrs. Man and they've been 14 good, good years.  What's that?  You want to hear the story of how this all came about?  Well pull up a chair, getcha some tea, and here we go!

Our story begins way back in June of 1995.  I had just graduated high school and my dad decided for me that I needed to get a job........as in he came in the living room one morning and said GET A JOB......TODAY!  LOL!  So I waltzed into the IGA store an unemployed high school graduate, fresh faced and eager, and waltzed out an 18 year old with a full time job, complete with benefits!  Have you figured out yet that God had a hand in this from the beginning? 

I worked in the deli there at the IGA with a lot of really fun older (than me) ladies.  The meat department manager was a guy named Mike, and let me tell you he was a BEAR!  The other ladies didn't like dealing with him, so they decided to send the new meat back there to get the chicken each day.  I would bounce back there all perky and happy and just let his grouchiness bounce right off me.  After all, I grew up with the grouchiest person on the planet (DAD)!  There was this other fella that worked in the meat department, and he was younger, cuter, and not near as grouchy, but it was a little while before I really noticed him. 

About a month after I started working there, I developed this crush on the produce guy, a kid of about 19 named Casey.  I was trying everything I knew to get Casey to like me, but he just wasn't bitin', not at all.  We would talk and that sort of thing, but he wasn't interested in me romantically.  I spent alot of time in the produce room, which was adjacent to the meat room and at that time, just happened to be where everybody went for smoke breaks.  I didn't smoke, but I wanted to be wherever Casey was so I was back there a lot. 

Then this little blond meat guy started coming up to the deli every morning as soon as he got to work to buy a fountain Mt. Dew.  My ever so helpful older co-workers always made sure that I rang him out.  Me being the friendly sort asked him his name and then every morning I would say Hi! ----!  He would blush a little, and grin, and say hi back.  This went on for several months, until we were into winter time. 

In late December, Casey had a birthday.  I was still trying so hard to get him to like me (poor thing), so on my day off, I baked him a spice cake, and set off in a blizzard to bring it to him.  Every day at work, I wore my IGA polo, with a ball cap on and my ponytail through the back.  So this day I got myself all dolled up, hair curled, make-up on, the whole nine yards just so Casey could see how good I cleaned up.  I took that cake back in the back and said Happy Birthday.  He wouldn't even eat a piece of it.  As a matter of fact, he told me to lose 40 lbs and come back.  Nice fella huh??  Well The Man happened to be sitting back there smokin' a cigarette and he came over to see the cake.  When Casey said he wouldn't eat it, The Man said......I'll eat it!!  And he proceeded to eat about half of it.  After that we started talking pretty regularly, and he was trying to get Casey to take an interest in me.  Meanwhile, one of the older meat guys stopped me one day as I was walking past the meat case.  He said........We sure do tease him about you!  I said........Why?  And he said........Cause he's got a really jealous girlfriend who'd kill him for talking to you.  I was horrified!  I said..........Well I'll quit talking to him then!  I don't want to cause him any trouble!  And Mac said.........Don't you dare!  He'd kill us if you quit talking to him.  It makes his day!

Along about the end of December '95, first of January '96 The Man and I started talking about deeper stuff.  Hopes, dreams, life goals, morals.  We talked about the relationship he was in and how it wasn't good.  I asked him.........Don't you want to get married?  His reply........Not to her.  Don't you want kids?  Not with her.  That made me unbearably sad and I asked him why he didn't end the relationship.  He said Cause I buy a dog when it's a puppy and I keep it till it dies.......That may sound corny to you, but that spoke of a deep commitment to relationships to me and again made me very sad for him. 

Mid January 1996, I was talking about my birthday coming up.  The Man came to work one day and said, You wanna go out for your birthday?  Me being the ever so sophisticated one said suspiciously.......With who?   See I knew he had a little brother and thought he was trying to fix me up with him.  He said.....With me.   To which I tartly replied....Not as long as you are living with that girl! 

The Man came to work the next day and told me he moved out of his house and would I go out with him on January 30 (my 19th birthday).  I said yes. 

Meanwhile he had a time getting her to move out and accept that things were finally really over this time.  It took 3 days and he had to stay at his folks the whole entire time.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had already went and bought an engagement ring during those three days, before we ever went on our first date.

January 25, 1996 The Man asked me if I would like to spend our day off together and go visit his grandparents.  I said sure, at this time still thinking this is just a casual date.  We spent the day together and had our first kiss on the way home that afternoon.  That evening when he took me home he told me he loved me.  I said.......excuse me?  He said he loved me and I told him he was 7 kinds of crazy.  He said.....no I'm not, I love you.  I thought he was nuttier than a pet coon!  Good gracious, who says I love you before you've ever even had a real date??  I also thought he only wanted in my pants and I told him so.  He said.........no, I love you.  I said.......What if I don't say it back?  He said........That's ok, I'll wait till you do. 

I fell in love with that crazy 23 year old boy right then and there.  I loved him because he loved me first and that is a beautiful thing. 

January 30, 1996 I had to work in the morning and got a dozen roses delivered to the deli that morning.  After I got off work, I went home, cleaned up, packed a bag and informed my mama that I wasn't coming home.  She was so wonderful about it.  She said to me, I knew when it happened for you it was gonna happen fast and I'm so happy for you.  The Man picked me up, we had a flat tire, went to Steak n Shake, went back to his house and snuggled on the couch together.  From that moment on, in 14 years, we've never spent a night apart.  I'd also like to say (even thought it totally falls under the category of TMI), that we did not consumate our relationship until our wedding night.  Remaining a virgin until marriage was always a huge priority to me and The Man knew and respected that.  We got married on March 30, 1996 exactly 2 months after our first date, but in my heart I was his wife the first night I spent in his arms. 

Our marriage is rock solid because we put God first.  We look to Him for guidance in every thing.  I strive to be a good wife, a wife that is a loving helpmate, supportive, kind, and generous.  The Man is exactly the husband the Bible says he should be, a good provider, the head of our household, and he cherishes me.  He doesn't use flowery words, or expensive gifts, instead he shows his love in the ways that really matter, never leaving the house without kissing me and saying I love you, showing me respect when I'm with him and even when I'm not.  He would never be out with the guys and discuss another woman, or flirt with a waitress.  He even gets teased about that from the other guys.  We are completely open and vulnerable with each other, we have no secrets from each other.  We don't believe in "girls night" or "boys night out".  We married each other because we love each other and love being together.  We are apart for the 12-14 hours a day that he works, and that's enough!!

I lost a friendship with a woman who simply couldn't respect my marriage.  It bothered her no end that we did everything together.  She liked to tell me I needed a life of my own.  As I stated in the beginning of this post.........when I married The Man we became One Flesh.  I can't have a "life of my own" because without him, I'm half a person.  I joined my life with his and we became one life and that's the way I like it and the way I want it.  I don't force my views on others........you can have whatever kind of marriage you want and I'll respect it.  I may not understand it, I may not agree with it, but I'll respect it.  All I ask is that people respect my marriage as well.

It's been an amazing 14 years!  I love The Man so much that I can't even put it into words.  He is my lover, my husband, my brother, my best friend in the world.  When something exciting/scary/funny/great happens he is the first person I want to tell and I thank God every day for sending us to each other.   I could go on and on, but since you've probably already fallen asleep at the computer, I'd better stop for now. 

Till next time...........GOD BLESS

Homeschooling Update.....

Well we've been homeschooling for about a month now (I think).  It truly seems like we've never done it any other way and I'm so thankful that God led us to this decision! 

We are still studying Alaska for social studies.  We finished up our study of wolves and are now studying tapirs.  This is going to be really fun and we are going to conclude our study of tapirs by making a tapir habitat complete with our own little tapir.  The Youngun has a fan-tab-u-lous imagination and will really enjoy making this and then playing with it in the future.  We are taking math so incredibly slowly and are just focusing on the multiplication tables right now.  Her math foundtion is sorely lacking and I feel like you can't move on until you've got a firm foundation in the basics!  In language arts we are reviewing nouns, common and proper and long and short vowel sounds.  This is stuff that The Youngun is good at, we are just reviewing to give me a solid idea of where she is at.  She is reading Racso and The Rats of NIMH right now.  Our Bible study is still in Genesis and we are learning alot about character issues, such as honesty, integrity, and obedience.  In geography (which is a part of every subject we study) we are learning about floor plans and their uses for every day life.  The Youngun really enjoys floor plans! 

I have been telling everybody I know how wonderful homeschooling is for us.  God truly does give us the strength to undertake the tasks He gives us.  I was worried about having the patience to do this.  It was something that was a concern for me.  I am a solitary person and enjoy my time in the house by myself.  I know that God was tapping me on the head about this homeschooling thing and I'm glad that we listened and pulled The Youngun out of public school.  It has been a constant source of joy so far.  I know there will be rough patches ahead, but I also know that God will guide us through those difficult times! 

God Bless!

Sunday Scenes and Scriptures.........

Song of Solomon

2:12

Flowers appear on the earth; the seasons of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

I was outside hanging wash on the line, watching my goats, talking to God. I was praying for my blog friends, just talking to God in general as I like to do. I had my camera with me and after getting the wash on the line, I began wandering around looking for good photos to take. I asked God to inspire me, to show me what would be a good picture for this week's Sunday Scenes and Scriptures. After wandering about taking pictures of different things, I was getting ready to head in. I looked up and saw this dove in our maple tree. Thank you Lord Jesus, for always showing me the way!  The other dove picture is from when we built our hay barn a couple years ago.  I was on a ladder after a brief rainshower.  I looked up and saw this dove sitting on her nest. 

GOD BLESS.......

Project Update.....

Remember this?  The Man and I had this dresser done the weekend that I bought it from Goodwill, but then we started on the kitchen remodel and I sort of forgot about it.  It was out in the Hillbilly Hotel patiently waiting for me to remember it was out there.  I had been going to put it in the back room, as an apartment for Steve but  hadn't gotten the room cleared out enough to get it in there.  God works in mysterious ways because then we started homeschooling and I needed a place to keep all of our books and supplies.  The Man and I carried it in and it fits beautifully on the wall behind our dining room table (which is where we do most of our school work).  

It's so beautiful, and the entire time we were refinishing it I kept saying to The Man, I can't believe anybody would paint this!!  To each his own though, and I'm just thankful that God led me to stop into Goodwill that day, and that He kept me from getting it all set up in the back room for Steve.  It's suiting our purposes much better as the chest for our homeschooling treasures! 

 Till next time...........GOD BLESS!

Some Thoughts on the Bible and Other Matters of Faith.....

I know some unbelievers, and I follow the blog of an unbeliever or two. Most of the female unbelievers I know were once believers who have "left the faith". Most of them have done so because of bad marriages. They say that being a Christian is demeaning to women by forcing women to submit to men, keeping women in bondage, condoning and encouraging abuse and worse. Wow. They aren't reading the same Bible that I'm reading.

The Bible clearly states that women should submit to their husband. We all know that, even if we may not like it. The kicker is, and the part that most people don't acknowledge or recognize or whatever is what the Bible says about MEN and how they should act toward their wives. In that oh so famous verse of

Ephesians 5:22-24

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

I suppose to some that may seem to be totally unreasonable and impossible, and yes even foolish to do. Yet if you read on...

Ephesians 5:25-25,28,31,33

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

There are lots more verses like this, but I'll let you look them up yourself if you are interested. The point is this... God gave us a brain. He gave us the tools that we need for living. He commanded women to love, respect, and submit to their husband. If you can't love, respect, and submit to the man you are dating, then DON'T MARRY HIM! If he doesn't love you as he loves himself, cherish and respect you and enjoy taking care of you, then DON'T MARRY HIM! There are people out there who think the Bible condones spousal abuse, extra-marital affairs, and who knows what else. I think they believe this because they aren't opening the Book and reading it themselves, they are looking for others to tell them what to believe. You must use the brain that God blessed you with, dig into the Word of God and read it yourself, then figuring out what is true and what isn't.

I chose my husband with God in full control. Therefore I am blessed with a man who loves me as he loves himself, and I have no problem submitting to him in all things. Does that mean we don't discuss? Of course not! Does that mean he doesn't take my opinion into account? Again, of course not! We talk, discuss, debate and consult on every single decision that we make, from what type of toilet paper to buy, to if we buy new appliances. It does however, mean that I respect my husband enough (or I wouldn't have married him) to respect his decision as final. It also means that because of the love and true respect my husband has for me we usually arrive at the same decision!

In closing I'd like to say this. (I know you are so ready for me to stop typing :P) The Youngun's Bible verse for Wednesday was Colossians 3:20
This opened up a discussion about blind obedience. I asked her what this verse meant to her. She said it meant do what your folks tell you because it makes God happy. I said that's right. But what if a parent were to tell a child to go up to the store and steal them a soda. Should the child do it? If they don't do it, they are disobeying their parent. She said, but if they do it, they are disobeying God. I asked which was worse. She said disobeying God. Good girl! God's word is law, first and foremost. If you've got some nutjob who blew up an abortion clinic because "God told him to" his Christian education fell apart somewhere along the way because the God that I know, love, and walk hand in hand with every day wouldn't tell somebody to do that. If a husband beats his wife because "the Bible says she must submit, and I'm teaching her to submit!" then again, his Christian education is lacking! And yes, if a woman embarrasses her husband in public, puts him down and totally disrespects him, then her Christian education is sorely lacking.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord

Choose your spouse wisely. If you don't particularly even like them, then don't yoke yourself to them for life! Use the brain God blessed you with.

Sorry for the soapbox, but I was folding laundry and had this whole blog post in my head, so I had to come post it! :)

Till next time............GOD BLESS!

The Elusive Tapir......

Right now we are flying by the seat of our pants for our science curriculum. The Youngun loves animals and wants to be a zoologist or biologist when she grows up, so for science right now we are just picking an animal and learning all we can about it. We did wolves first and really enjoyed it. I asked her what she wanted to learn about next. Tapirs, she promptly replied. Hmmmm Tapirs.

I logged onto the library network and started searching. In the entire library network I found one book on Tapirs, and it is actually Animals of the Tropical Forests by Sylvia A Johnson. It has one small page about Tapirs.

Off on a wild internet search I went! I was thrilled to find this site which is just chock full of wonderful information about Tapirs!  I emailed the chief Tapir lady Sheryl to see if I could print out some of the information for our homeschooling use.  Sheryl got back to me within hours to say absolutely and to let any other homeschoolers I know about the site.  I, of course, thought of you my awesome blog readers!  If your children are interested in Tapirs at all, this is the site to go to for wonderful information and photos. 

Thanks Sheryl for all the wonderful work you are doing to promote and take care of the endangered Tapir! 

Till next time........GOD BLESS!

Allowances..........and the Lack Thereof........

Work ethic is very important to The Man and I. The Youngun has a chore sheet listing her daily chores and she checks them off each day as she gets them done. She then picks herself out a pretty sticker and sticks it on the bottom of each day once all the chores are checked off. Some of the things on her chore list are; make bed, feed dogs (2x), feed rabbits (2x), feed fish, wash face, brush hair, brush teeth, and set the supper table. She also knows to help me in any task that I ask. We do not give her an allowance for doing her chores and here is why....

The Man and I believe that work ethic is seriously lacking in people today. Not just young people, pretty much anybody under 35 (and possibly even older than that!). I've thought about this at great length and this is what my little pea-brain has managed to come up with. My little disclaimer is that these are my thoughts and opinions and that's that. If you disagree, I respect that and would love to hear your views!

First and foremost, parents don't allow their children to be responsible. It's quicker and easier to just "do it themselves" so rather than teaching children to help out and help themselves, they tell them to get out of the way and let me do it. Or perhaps the kid doesn't do it "right" so the parent would rather just do it themself. When my daughter first started making her bed, let me tell you it was very loosely made. However she was 4 or 5 years old at the time and all I cared was that she was making the effort, we can work on the finished product as time goes on! Another problem I see is that parents don't train their children when they are very young. You can't let little Johnny run wild until he's 6 and then start laying the law down! It just don't work thataway! I'll never forget when The Youngun was a toddler. She didn't start walking until she was 15 months old. As soon as she started walking, I felt she was big enough to pick up her own toys (cuz as we all know a toddler's most favorite game in the WORLD is let's empty the toy box!). She had done her usual, removing everything from the toybox and getting inside it to play. When it was nap time, I said.....Youngun let's pick up your toys. No Mama! Yup, come in it's time to pick up. No! I walked over to her, to take her by the hand and pick up toys and she started screaming NO! I very calmly stood behind her, took a tiny little wrist in each hand, walked her over to a toy, used my body to bend her body over (because she was screaming and stiff as a board) and picked up the toy. Then we proceeded over to the toy box in that fashion, dropped the toy in, and picked up all the toys in that way. Mind you, it wasn't a fun time, but it had to be done. I didn't spank her, yell at her, or punish her, I simply showed her that when Mama said pick up the toys, the toys were gonna get picked up! The next time I told her to pick up the toys she picked them right up and she was as proud as can be that she was a big girl and picked up her own toys!

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble here and you'll have to excuse me. Back to the topic of work ethic and allowances. The Man and I belive that if you take a job, you should do the job to the best of your ability. If you are the head french fry salter at McBurger World, making 6 bucks an hour, you'd better salt those fries the very best way you know how, with the intention of being voted best fry salter in the nation. The amount of your paycheck should not determine your quality of work. We both believe that paying kids an allowance to do their chores is in effect teaching them to expect payment for work. If you don't get paid, you don't work. Help the old neighbor lady in with her groceries? Not unless I'm getting paid for it! Work hard and do your best at your minimum wage paying job? No way......not enough in it for me! Work hard on your lessons? Not without getting paid a dollar per A! To me, you are in essence training kids to feel entitled! It just seems to me that you are teaching them to expect a return, instead of just doing it because it's right. In my opinion all you are doing is teaching them terrible work ethic.

It scares me that the kids being raised today are going to be the folks in charge of things in a few years! Kids who feel like the world owes them a living, owes them a paycheck (without an honest days work). Our country was built on hard work, ingenuity, responsibility, honesty, integrity and work ethic. As a parent I feel the best thing I can do is raise The Youngun to be an honest, hard working, productive member of society. I want her to be independent and capable of taking care of herself. Whether she lives across town, or across the world, I want to know that she is walking with God every day, and always doing the right thing!

Till next time..............GOD BLESS!

Little By Little............

I'm making my way back! Down 2.2 at WI today, that means 2 lbs to go to get back where I was before my 5 lb gain of two weeks ago. I've had 3 OP days and that in itself feels wonderful! I'm so very thankful to all my buddies that are so supportive, loving, encouraging, and just downright awesome folks who I feel blessed to know!

It's said so much but it's so true together we CAN do this!!!

Till next time...........I'm unTHICKINandohsoTHINNIN

Warm Weather + Sunshine = Silly Silly Babies!

So Scrappy........

If you buy a piece of rural property in Southern Illinois you will be blessed with many things.  You will be blessed with rich black soil that just begs to be tilled and planted.  You will be blessed with beautiful birds such as bluejays, cardinals, doves, owls, hawks, and many many more along with other wildlife like wild turkeys and whitetail deer, the occasional fox or coyote.  And if you happen to buy a piece of land with a creek, ditch, or most likely even just a big hill with a bottom to it, you will probably be blessed with this.........

That's right.............JUNK!  We have a deep seasonal creek that runs through our property and it is full, and boys and girls I do mean FULL, of junk.  Any kind of junk you can think of, we've pulled it out of there.  Several generations of junk.  Bicycles, cultivators, tires, batteries, sinks, cast iron bathtubs, stoves, cars (yes I said cars), furnaces......anything you can imagine.  Back in the day I guess people didn't know any better, or just didn't care or whatever.  If you've bought property in Southern Illinois and didn't see a mess like this, it's likely that an owner before you already cleaned it up!  Anywho, around here we call this stuff scrap and as good stewards of the land it's our responsibility to get it cleaned up.   

We have to haul scrap when the weather allows because we have to take Betty back in the back and we can't tear the pasture up too bad or Champ and the goats won't be too happy with us once the grass starts growing.  Friday evening when The Man got home from work we decided to head down in the back and get a load of scrap before the rain moved in on Saturday and Sunday. 

This is our truck Black Betty.  She's a good ole truck, named after the Ram Jam song and I love her dearly.  She's never failed us in pullin' scrap out of the creek!  She's a 3/4 ton Chevy and a jewell among trucks!  Anyway, what we do is each spring and summer we work on hauling stuff out of the ditch, loading it up on Betty and hauling it to the scrap yard.  Then we wait a season, letting the water bring more stuff up.  We've lived here for close to 5 years now and haven't even begun to make a dent in the junk!  I don't know how many loads we've hauled out of there, but it's been quite a few and the junk just keeps on comin'!! 

You can't tell, but there is part of a field cultivator, an entire cast iron bathtub (that was a doozie for The Paintiff and I to get loaded) and a huge old heater, not to mention a battery, and lots and lots of little pieces of scrap in this load.  Once we get a truckload we head here........

Then we drive onto the scale.  When we get "the nod" from the scale guy, we drive to wherever they direct us to unload the scrap.  The Man gets out and along with one of the scrap yard workers unloads everything.  Then we drive back over the scale to get the tare weight.  Once again, we wait for "the nod" from the scale guy, then drive off the scale, park and go in and collect our money.  Right now scrap is at 180$/ton for unprepared stuff, which is what we have. 

Here's our scale ticket, showing the weights, the price per ton, and our toal payout.

 

The gross weight is what our truck weighed loaded with scrap. The tare weight is what our truck weighed after we unloaded and the net weight is the difference between the two. 

This time we made $117, not bad for a couple hours work and getting our property that much cleaner in the process!
 
Here's to good stewardship of God's land and high prices for scrap!!
 
 
 

Till next time..............GOD BLESS!

Well, well, well........

I'd like to report that Saturday was a good day, food choice wise, but it wasn't!  Lets just say that I ended the glut-fest by eating Mexican food with Mr. Neighbor, and soon to be Mrs. Neighbor.  Mr Neighbor and soon to be Mrs. Neighbor are more than 10 years younger than us.  We get along well with them though, and decided to go see the movie The Bounty Hunter.  Before going to the movie we went and ate at the local Mexican restaurant.  The Man had cheese fries, cuz he doesn't "do" ethnic food.  He didn't like the cheese fries either, poor guy, cuz it was different kind of cheese they put on them.  Anywho, the movie was fantastically funny and I laughed myself silly.  We are for sure buying it on DVD when it comes out.  It was a fun evening, but another terrible eating day for me. 

On a bright note though, I got up this morning and The Man and I went for a 40 minute walk in the brisk cold!  I did my 200 crunches and am totally OP so far. 

Never fear dear ones, I'll battle myself back, it's just a process right now.  Right now I'm hunkered down in the trenches, and my demon is taking pot shots at me continually.  I've taken quite a few hits, lost some blood, but infection isn't setting in and moral is still high.  I'm still ok, and soon the tide will turn back in my favor.  I'm not giving in, or giving up and that's the biggest part of the battle!

Till next time..........I'm unTHICKINandsoTHINNIN!

Sunday Scenes and Scriptures..........

Matthew 6:28-34

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Till next time..........GOD BLESS!

Kidlet Report.........

Stairstepped kids!  This is everybody except Osiris.  From the ground......Cocoa Carl (Naomi's buckling), Lightning, Caramel (Tulip), Isis (Star), Maggie Faith, (Tulip) standing on the wall.  

All babies are fit, sassy, healthy and full of themselves!

Wednesday The Youngun and I were heading out to walk to the library.  I heard a human baby squalling as we were leaving and thought to myself, boy that little one is mad!  As we were coming back I heard what sounded like a plaintive little kid bleat.  I looked over toward the pasture and listened more closely, turning my head to the side the better to hear.  Sure enough a squall rent the air.  I could see Osiris standing at the barn door crying his heart out.  We started walking faster and as we got to the house The Youngun started running.  We blasted through the front door, out the back door and down to the barn all the while tellin' Osiris we were coming to save him.  I have no clue how he got out, but he must have slipped under the wall of the barn, and let me tell you he was NOT happy!  Poor baby!  The human infant that I thought was unhappy was actually my little buckling!  He was out with the boys too but it seems like they didn't bother him at all.  He's none the worse for wear after his ordeal and a quick slug of mama Star's milk and he was good as new!  He is such a big strong boy, I can't wait to see what he looks like as a buck!

Till next time...........GOD BLESS........

I'm back..........

I've decided I'm going to start posting here again cuz I need it for therapy and cuz I don't want to overwhelm anybody on my other blog with my craziness!

To be totally honest with myself, I've been off track since our home remodel, way back on February 18th or 19th. That's a month that I've been off track. Not seriously, totally, wildly off track, but a day here, or a couple days there. It's keeping me from losing and it's scaring me. The rationalizations I'm giving myself are tenfold and silly, such as........You're a homesteader, homestead women are plump and sturdy........or........you're a stay at home mom and should be nice and fluffy like Mrs. Clause.........RIDICULOUS!!!! The things that my demon trys to convince me of.

Anyway, I'm going back to ridin' the horse that got me here. I'm going back to blogging about my feelings and my weight loss, even if I've really got nothing to say. That's why I quit blogging about it, I was cocky and over confident and felt like I had nothing to report. Well God has slapped me down and let me know that I'm soooo not in control, not at all!! I'm also going back to running and taking time off from lifting weights. Now I know that I blogged all the time about how much I loved lifting weights, and I did and do love it. However, it dramatically slowed my weight loss and that part I didn't like so much, so I think I got discouraged and started letting my old behaviors creep back in. Not good when you've got the food issues that I've got. I'm also recommitting myself to the crunch challenge. I was feeling lean and strong when I was doing 200 crunches a day, and my back didn't hurt at all! I haven't consistently done them in a month and my back is telling me about it. I'm also going to do one more thing that sort of makes me feel like a quitter, but I feel like it's something I need to do. I'm changing my goal weight to 160 lbs. Once I get to 160 then I'm going to concentrate on keeping myself under 161 lbs, without putting myself on maintenance. If I can lose more then that's good but my goal will just be to not gain!!!

So that's where I'm at! I'm ok, still feel good, still love myself, haven't spiraled into the pit of depression or despair. I'm just recommitting myself to making every bite count nutritionally, and if it ain't bringing something to the table in regards to my health, I'm not going to eat it. I had really slacked on that part of things and that makes me mad at myself.

To sum up........I'm worth it, I love myself, I'm strong, determined, and fabulous. I'm a warrior and I'm strapping on my armor once again, can you hear me roaring??

Till next time..............I'm back to unTHICKINandsoreadytobeTHINNIN!

God bless!

Chickens Are Such Crazy Birds..........Seriously..........

Vat do you sink you are doink?  Are you stealink my eggs!!  Bring zat egg back here zis instant!

Are you my baby?  Funny, you don't look a thing like me, but I'll love you anyway, cuz I've been sittin' on you for 21 days!

I will dance the hula and scare you away from my hens! 

Do you notice my lovely wattles waving in my breeze?  I'm so beautiful and I flap my wings to show you how important I am!

Did you not get the memo?  I TOLD you to get...away....from....my....hens....

 That's it........I will flap some more!

Had enough?  Are you intimidated yet?  What is it going to take Sister?  Huh?  Alright......I'm pullin' out the big guns..........that's right..........THE REVERSE FLAP!

Talk to the tail, cuz I've got ladies to tend to!

Till next time.........GOD BLESS......