Learning to Submit.........

Does anybody remember this post?  One of the reasons I enjoy/enjoyed blogging so much was reading back over my posts to see how God talks to me.  You'd think I'd know to "never say never" and to NEVER try to guess what God's future plans for me are.  Maybe someday I'll learn, although I have to say I'm getting closer every day!  :)

So anywho....it's this part of the post that is funny...

"I have no intention of ever entering the "real" work force again"

After we moved back to KY from Montana, we went back to the trailer next door to his sister like I said.   The Man and I still desperately wanted to work together in some capacity.  We tried several things that just didn't work out.  We tried "property preservation".....lets just say that didn't work out at all.  We cut wood, but that wasn't enough to make ends meet,  so we prayed and we talked and we prayed some more.  I applied at the school as a cook (because that's what I did in IL for a little bit) and I didn't hear anything. 

Pretty much this entire time I knew what God wanted me to do.  I could feel it, and He was saying it and I wasn't listening (STILL) because it wasn't what I wanted to do.  (See how that works there, I)  Finally in desperation because we were SERIOUSLY out of money, I did it.  What was it you ask?  It was to go apply at the Mickey D's in town.  I thought there is no way that I'll be able to work days, no way I'll get weekends off, no way I'll like it.  Off to town we went with a sour face and a bad attitude.  A toddler attitude of FINE if this is what you want FINE!  I walked up to the counter and asked for an application.  The girl said she'd get a manager.  The manager (Colby) came up and asked if he could help me.  I told him I was interested in a application.  He told me to go home, apply online and put his name down as the referring party.  I did so, and within a couple hours he called me for an interview for the next day.  I went to the interview, he asked me if I had transportation, what shift I wanted (days), he asked me if 3 am was too early to start and I said nope the earlier the better.  He asked me if I could go to orientation that day (it started in 2 hours) and could I start tomorrow at 3 am?

Do ya see a pattern here?  When it's what HE wants, it tends to happen very quickly for me.......

So I started working at McRonalds........I had a love / hate relationship with it.  I used to come home crying and telling The Man I couldn't do it, I just needed him to tell me I could quit.  I wasn't going to quit, but I needed him to tell me I could, (even though after a few weeks of working there I informed them that I wasn't working weekends anymore.  They could have me Mon-Fri or not at all, and they said ok, no more weekends for you).

I worked in the kitchen and there was a specific co-worker that just rubbed me the total wrong way.  I had good days, but I had lots of bad days.  I was good at it, very fast, accurate, and my days flew by, but I was so tired when I got home that I slept the whole afternoon away!  I was like a spoiled little brat, still telling God, I don't WANT to work here.  But then something happened.  I started taking my Bible to work and leaving it in the truck.  On my break, I would go out and read my Bible.  On the 10 minute drive to work in the inky black with the huge starry sky my only company, I'd talk to God.  I began to pray for that co-worker that I didn't like.  The change was pretty immediate.  I began to love my job!!  I had so many opportunities to witness.  So many opportunities to share God's love with people who maybe didn't know.  God led me to so many wonderful scriptures that have taught me so much.  He helped me to see (once again) that it isn't about me.  It really isn't.  AT ALL.  Life is not about us.  It's about what He wants for us.  It's about total submission to His will in our lives.  It's about recognizing and accepting that what God wants for us, and what we want are most often wildly different and learning to be really ok with it.....

I was pretty lost and confused, trying to figure out who I was without all my animals.  Without Champ, without my goat girls.  I was sort of like a ship without a sail.  I'd sort of lost my way.  It's hard to explain, but God had a whole lot to teach me, a whole big lot that I needed to learn.  I feel like He had to strip even more stuff away so that I had no distractions, so that I could really listen to what He had to teach me. 

During all this, The Man had his own things going on with our Maker.  He was looking for a job and not just any job, but the job that God wanted him to have.  He had several opportunities, but the one that he felt God leading him to take was at a small, family run cabinet warehouse.  We saw the job in the newspaper.  He went in and spoke to them one morning, and he had an interview with another company later that afternoon.  After getting out of the interview with the second company, the first place called and offered him a job.  He took it and quickly became the receiving manager.  It's the first Mon-Fri, 8-5 job he's ever had. 

After being at MD's for a little over a year, (and learning to joyfully submit to God's purpose in being there)  (and after actually getting hired at the school as a cook, and staying at McD's for 4 am to 7 am, then going to work at the school from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm and deciding I didn't like it at all and after summer break, deciding not to go back to the school but to stay at MC's full time...)  the inventory position opened up at The Man's warehouse and I went in and talked to them. I was offered the job at $2 an hour more than I was making in my current job, plus I would have health insurance.  See when insurance was offered to The Man, it was going to be too expensive to put me on the plan.  We prayed about it, and then just put The Man and The Youngun on it, having Faith that God would provide insurance for me in His good time.  And He did............in His good time!

We went to Montana because we wanted to work together.  God led us out there and it was a wonderful experience, but it didn't work out for us to work together out there.  God led us there as one more learning experience. I'm so thankful that in His good time, he's allowed us to work together.  We get up together, get ready for work together, ride to work together, work together, have lunch together, and ride home together.  It is a wonderful blessing.  I'm sure not every couple would feel that way, but we truly love being together and we work very well together. 

The job hasn't all been sunshine and roses.  We've had moments of frustration.  Not with each other, just with the job.  Of course those come with every job.  We went through a spell a few months ago where we really thought God wanted us to go elsewhere.  There was a whole lot of prayer, and a whole lot of job searching, and a whole lot of job applications.  We kept praying for God to show us what He wanted us to do.  Well guess what??  We finally figured out that we are RIGHT where God wants us to be.  There's much more for us to learn right where we are!! 

Till next time.....I remain yours in Christ.....

Funny How That Worked Out..........

When I was a little girl I wanted nothing more than to marry a cowboy (I was always partial to bulldoggers cuz they were big guys) and live on a real ranch in Montana.  I had a two posters of half nekkid cowboys on my bedroom wall. (Who didn't though right?)

Pay no mind to the little cowgirl.  That is a little girl we babysat for.  She called my folks mom and dad and her folks by their first names, and I had to do my best to corrupt her!

I used to write the Montana tourism folks and they would send me packets of information on life in Montana.  I used to have dreams about it, one dream in particular that I was living on a ranch in Montana with my cowboy husband and I called my mom because I needed to know how to roast a ham.

Well I happened to fall in love with a butcher (he was irresistible in that white apron that framed his adorable little booty), who became a Schwans man, who became a trash man, who climbed the ranks and became a big boss man, who lost his job and worked at a factory, who hated that and became what??

a COWBOY

where???

in MONTANA!

Louis L'Amour would be so disappointed in how he skylined himself, but it made for a great shot!



He doesn't wear a cowboy hat, and he doesn't wear cowboy boots.  He works cows with a dirt bike and a flat bed pickup instead of a horse, but he's a cowboy all the same.  I've always been so thankful and proud to be his woman, no matter what job he was working, but a couple days ago I remembered those old dreams and thought.......



Huh.....it's funny how that worked out!



Oh how I love this sexy man!!



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

Answers to Asked and Unasked Questions...........

Ok, ok, so some of the questions were asked, and some of you couldn't care less......since when has that ever stopped me?  Baaahahahhaaaa!

1. Is The Youngun still being homeschooled??
2. Where is Champ??
3. Where does Willow (the cat) now live??
4. Are you insane??
5. Do you ever get sad, down, depressed.....ever??

K.........thats enough questions for now. If you have any others though, please do feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Answer to question new-mare-o eww-no.......

• No.  We were feeling nudges to put her back into the public school system while we were in Kentucky.  I wasn't crazy about that idea as I wasn't fond of the Bowling Green school system (waaaaay to big for this goodwife) but we did want to mind the Lord and we had been talking about it as a family and praying about it.  When this Montana gig came up I began googling the school up here.  I was pleased, and even more so after meeting with the principle and staff.  The Youngun was excited though nervous.  She attended Thursday and Friday of the first week and then Mon.-Wed of the next week before being off for Christmas break.  The school is tiny and there are 7 kids in her math class.  Lots of one on one attention and yes they do still call it Christmas break here.  A wonderful and refreshing change from IL schools.  She goes to school 26 miles away from our house and Mouse or I drive the girls 14 miles one way to meet the school bus, where the bus then takes them the remaining 12 miles to school.  Same drill in the afternoon.  Did I mention The Youngun loves it, and she re-entered public school seamlessly??  God is good!  I also strongly feel that it was His plan for us to pull her from school in IL when we did because of all the turmoil we were headed for.  Moving from IL, to KY, to MT in the space of 6 months would've been a bit traumatic if she'd been attending school in IL and in KY!

Moving on past question twa for now, (and that means two in goodwife speak).  The answer to question three lies in the following picture........

My days now consist of........ feed the dogs, let the dogs out, let the dogs back in, feed the cat, dogs eat the cat food, feed the cat again, cat poops, dogs eat the cat poop, repeat until bed time..............

Question 4.......ah dear sweet question 4.......

• Probably............but not for the reasons you think.  We have faith..........if that makes us insane then we're proud to be nutty!  Life only scares us when we think we are in charge.  When we know we are letting God make the decisions it's all just a really fun and exciting journey!

Question 5.........the meat of it all............

• YES! Although it isn't very often sometimes I'm get so sad I don't think I can go on.  Usually it's related to my monthly cycle (see above question cuz I for sure am then) (sorry if TMI) and I can usually power through it but sometimes it's the hardest thing I have to do.  A few days after we moved to this beautiful place I was PMSing and feeling terribly sorry for myself.  The Man was having the time of his life learning the ranching trade and I was feeling as useless at tits on a boar.  For the first time in 13 years I have no critters that depend on me and I was feeling low, low, low.  Then I was laying in bed and I had one of those smack upside the head moments that God often graces me with.  I remembered........I am here because God wants me here.  God has a plan and a purpose for me and if right now all that purpose is is to keep my house nice, feed my family and my dogs, and scoop that dang cat box, (see the above question about where Willow now lives), well that's ok.  That is what God wants me to be doing.  Then I felt better!  And you know what?  About 2 days after that, Mouse started calling on me and having me help her with cow stuff.  And God said...... SEEEEEE, you must give Me time to work.  And I said..........sorry Big Guy, I failed you again!  And I was once again so thankful that even though I fail Him constantly, He never ever fails me!

And now........to answer question twa..........my heart constricts on question twa........

• Champ is gone.  He couldn't come to Montana with us.  Champ was 24 years old.  He was an old man in horse years, and I couldn't bring him 1600 miles north in December.  The climate and altitude would've been too much for him.  On a totally practical note, we aren't exactly rolling in cash and transporting him would have been a financial outlay we simply couldn't afford.  As I've stated many many times, selling him was not an option.  He left this world relaxed and happy and that's all I'd really like to say about a very painful subject.  ♥
  He gave me 11 years of wonderful horsey love and I'll never have another like him, if I ever even get another horse.  I'm a lifer and a horse can be a 20+ year commitment for a person like me.  I'm also not too sure that God has ever had horses in the plan for me.  I think He's allowed me to have them because I've wanted them, but I'm not sure it's ever been what He's wanted for me, though we do talk about that often as my heart yearns to ride over this 30,000 acres on a faithful steed.  God will let me know in His time what the plan is regarding that!

So that's those questions answered.  There was another question posted by anonymous on my last post, about bear eating cows..........no wait........maybe it was about cow eating bears??  Anyway, I'll answer that question next time..........

oh yeah.....ps.........is this font hard for you to read???



Till then...............God Bless..........

So What Exactly Are We Doing???

Ranching of course! 

God has led us to a 30,000 acre family ranch smack dab in the middle of Montana, about 2 hours northwest of Billings and about 2 hours northeast of Bozeman.  Hank Jr sang a song about the little town we are near, though we are 14 miles away from it even.

It's always been a dream of mine and The Man's, to live in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.  We thought we'd have to wait until he retired to make this dream come true because you can't exactly commute from where we are, but God in His infinite wisdom led us here, where we get to live on 30,000 acres of deeded loveliness for free, and get paid for it even!

So now you know.............the rest of the story.........but it's only beginning isn't it? 

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

Sunday, January First, Two Thousand and Twelve..........

Good morning dear readers and blog friends!  I've been waiting on this post for a couple weeks now.  How fitting that it should begin assembling itself in my mind on the first day of a new year! 

If you are new to this blog and would like to catch up on what's been happening please click here...... that will take you to a lot of blog posts and you can catch up on what's been going on!

If you are a faithful friend then I'm sure you are sayin'.....yadda, yadda, blahhh, get on with it sister!!  So I will!

When last I reported to you the goings on in our lives The Man was working at a factory in Bowling Green, KY and God had led me to sell my goats.  We were beginning to feel nudges about putting The Youngun back in school, and although I wasn't really feelin' that in B.G., we wanted to mind The Lord. 

Now I'm usually not a good one for remembering dates, but these are cemented in my mind.  On Tuesday, November 15, 2011 The Man came home from his second shift at the factory miserable.  Well he'd been coming home miserable for about a week now, but especially miserable on that day.  He really didn't like working at the factory.  He didn't mind the actual work, but the work ethic and the mindset of the folks he was working with were really getting to him.  He also wasn't enjoying being cooped up in that building for 10-12 hours a day.  As always, we'd been praying without ceasing for God to show us the way.  For Him to show us what He'd have us to do. 

I began telling The Man about this lovely lady and her family.  Mountain Mama and her family strive to live for God and to have the courage and faith to go wherever He leads them.  At one point, He led them to manage a lodge in the mountains.  As I was telling The Man about this, he didn't really say too much and I just let it go, praying all the while for His direction. 

The next morning when we got up he asked me if I thought I could find us a job like that.  I said I don't know but I can try!  We all three marched back to the computer and I stared googling jobs for couples.  It took me to a site called working couples dot com and I started searching the jobs there.  There were several jobs on there, jobs in Florida, Georgia, and Texas.  I asked The Man if any of those sounded interesting to him and he said the one in Montana sounded pretty good.  There was a name, and address, and a phone number, or you could apply online through the site.  I told him to call the number.........he took a deep breath........I said, do you feel like God is telling you to do it but you are scared to death??  He said.......Oh yeah!!  I said, then call!  So he did......

The job said no experience necessary and while The Man had a little bit of experience doing this type of work, he didn't have a great deal, but he had faith and he called.  After speaking to the lady, she told him to send her 5 references and a resume.  She wanted 3 references of people he'd worked with in the past, and 2 of people he was currently working with at the factory.  He went to work that afternoon, Wednesday November 16, 2011 and asked two fellas if he could use them as a reference.  They said yes so when he got home from working second shift, at around midnight we sent the resume and the references.  By the time he got to work the afternoon of Thursday the 17th, she'd called both of those references, as well as two of the others.  She couldn't get ahold of the last one because he was up a tree.  It was deer season in IL ya know.....

K.........hate to do this to you, but I got to take a break.  I will leave you with another picture though, and promise to continue this story next week!

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

Just kiddin!  Would I do that to you??  Baahhahahaa!

Ok, so anyway, she couldn't get ahold of Brandon and she was determined to talk to all of his references.  We didn't hear anything from her and The Man continued to go to work at the factory.  We continued to pray for His guidance and He was really telling us this was going to happen.  We went to IL for Thanksgiving, leaving on Thanksgiving day and coming home Saturday the 26th.  While we were in IL, we visited with my family, telling them we'd applied for a job in Montana, and doing the same with his family.  My family was very supportive as they always are.  His family didn't believe us.........

We got back home to KY on Saturday and got up Sunday morning the 27th to go to church.  We loved our little church in Barren County KY and really hated to leave it!  During a church service a few weeks prior our preacher opened up the church doors for membership, but we didn't go forward.  A couple Sunday's after that we told the congregation that we didn't come forward because we didn't know how long God was going to leave us here and we didn't want anything holding us back from going where He led us, including church membership......After church The Man called to follow up on the job.  The lady told him she'd filled the job, but the guy hadn't shown up yet and if he didn't get there quick she was going to call us. 

We knew were were destined for Montana, so we began craigslisting everything we didn't want to take with us on a 1600 mile move.........

On Monday November 28th she called The Man to tell him he was her pick but she wanted us to talk it over and be sure we wanted it as a family.  She also had to talk to her dad and her husband about us......meanwhile, while The Man was on the phone with the lady, Missy (Brandon of the deer stand)'s wife was frantically calling us to tell us she'd finally called and talked to Brandon!

Tuesday, November 29th The Man told the factory he was done.  What???  Without knowing for sure he had the job???  Yup.......FAITH.......

We began listing stuff on craigslist in earnest and going through stuff again.  I don't even know how much stuff we sold, but we unloaded lots more "stuff" that was weighing us down.  It all sold almost as soon as we listed it.  More of God telling us this was going to happen. 

I called my dear friend Jennifer of Our Little Farm (remember she bought Tulip and Star?) and asked her if she'd take my 6 laying hens.  She said she would, and we kept selling stuff, my trio of Muscovy ducks included.

We told my folks we were leaving for Montana on the 9th of December and they planned to come down and visit us the weekend of the 3rd and 4th.  Now mind you we still hadn't gotten the confirmation call that we'd gotten the job.  Going on faith here folks, which is a heady and glorious feeling!!

Saturday morning, the 3rd of December the lady (who I'll from here on out be referring to as Mouse) gave us the call and said, well if you think you want to do this, then come on!  We told her we had to take The Youngun to the orthodontist in IL on December 8, and then we'd be on the road the 9th. 

We went to our little church one last time and told them where God was leading us and with some tearful goodbyes we were that much closer to being ready.

 We took Ellie and Ginger in to get spayed on the 7th, made a trip to IL to the orthodontist on the 8th, and spent all day on the 9th getting packed up and loaded, with help from The Man's family in KY. 

We intended to get on the road by noon on the 9th of December, but that didn't happen.  The first uhaul we got was too small, and of course we didn't realize that until we had it loaded!  Back to Bowling Green and a bigger uhaul.  Brought it home, unloaded the first one into the second one, loaded more stuff into the second one, took the first one back to Bowling Green while The Man and The Uncle finished loading the second one......whew!  We didn't think we'd ever get on the road! 

With the three dogs, we had to pre book our hotels to make sure we were in a dog friendly one, so we had to go ahead and leave to stay on schedule.  We stopped in Columbia MO the first night but it was around 3 am before we got there!  Then on to Chamberlain SD the second night, then to Laurel MT the third night and on December 12 at around 11 AM mountain time, The Man, the goodwife, The Youngun, the three dogs and the cat arrived at our new home!

Now I really am going to make you wait to tell you what job The Man is doing, and tie up some more loose ends you may be wondering about but that's ok cuz suspense is the spice of life right???

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

Hmmmm.....Where Are We????

Right now this is all I've got for you........but they'll be lots more to come! 

Stay tuned!!

God Bless!

Life in Kentucky, and A Few More Changes.........

If you've missed posts one, two, three, and four, you may want to read them first!

As we settled into our new lives in Kentucky, I was still fighting God on some things.  I'm not proud of this.  I think usually I'm pretty good at letting God have the reins, but on some things I have to take my time coming to terms with His plan.  One of those things was letting my goats go.  I held on and cried, and held on and cried and then I finally accepted that God didn't want me to have goats right now.  As you may remember from this installment of our story, my goats were over at The Aunt and Uncle's place.  Tommy had to be housed with Tulip, Star, and their six kids and that wasn't working out so well.  A buck will run does ragged because they are pretty much always ready to breed, even if the girls aren't, especially a Pygmy like Tommy.  The 3 buck kids were also running their sisters ragged and I was stressed to the breaking point. 

I put Tommy and 4 of the kids on craigslist and sold them quickly.  That alleviated some of my stress and I settled in to milking my girls.  The Aunt and Uncle's 100 acre farm is only about 4 miles from where we live, but I had to make that 4 mile drive in Black Betty.  It was costing me $20 a week to go over and do my chores.  As a few weeks went on, the grass and brush in the 1 acre paddock they were in was gone.  My girls were losing weight.  We are not in the financial position to be spending money on extras, and sadly that includes critters.  I had to make a choice between Champ and the goat girls.  I lay on the couch in The Man's lap crying my fool eyes out and then I accepted that God wanted me to sell my girls. 

I got on the computer and emailed my dear friend Jennifer from Our Little Farm.  She lives about 45 minutes from where we are now and she's been a saving grace to us on this journey.  I asked her if she knew anybody that would want to buy my girls, each with a doe kid at their side.  She said she didn't really know of anybody, but then she emailed me back and said she was talking with her husband about it and would get back with me.  In the meantime, I also sold off a bunch of my little pullets, leaving me with only 6 pullets and three ducks.  A really perfect and manageable number.  Jennifer got back with me and said she wanted to buy my girls!  Whew!  Such an answer to prayer.  They have a wonderful home with Jennifer and her family and she is milking them and loving them and that means everything to me. 

We still have our three dogs, our cat, the 6 laying hens, and our Muscovy drake and his ladies.  They free range during the day and are giving us enough eggs for us to eat.  No extras, but that's ok, we have enough for us and I can afford to feed them!  I of course still have Champ, and he is here at our house with me now.  He's right out my bedroom window and I love hearing him nicker for me in the mornings.
 

Notice that he's nappin in the sun right out my backdoor, see the doorknob?

Selling Champ is not, and has not ever been an option.  If the Lord leads us somewhere else and I can't take him, I'll put him down.  He will be 24 in the spring and I'll not take the chance of him being neglected somewhere else.  Of course, if God were to present me with a home for him, I would follow God's direction, but the thought of trusting his welfare to another person is oh so difficult for me, especially as I'm surrounded by horribly neglected and starving horses.

God has provided The Man with a job.  He makes in a month what he used to make in a week, but he is relatively stress free, and happy.  We have enough.  Having enough is huge, and God is good.  We aren't on any state aid, although we do qualify and if it gets to where we need it we will apply.  We don't have health insurance anymore, but our faith in our Heavenly Father is better than any insurance policy on earth.

Our bankruptcy is final and our credit score didn't take as big a hit as we had feared.  I think because it was so high to begin with.  However, we've both decided not to borrow money for anything.  If we can't pay cash, we'll do without.  We were able to sell The Dodge and we've got that money in savings, to be used for emergencies.  We wanted to live the self-sufficient lifestyle, but there is absolutely nothing self sufficient about being deeply in debt.  This is the first time in our marriage that we've been footloose and fancy free.  The first time we've ever rented, the first time we've been unfettered and it is a good feeling.  We are constantly praying and asking God to show us.  Show us what to do, show us where to go, show us how to be better servants to Him.  Our family is closer than ever and our marriage is still steady as a rock.  I know the reason for that......God is the head and the center of our lives. 

Will we stay here?  Who knows!  We certainly don't.  We are asking God to guide us where He would have us.  Use us, let us be shining lights for Him.  We are still homeschooling Shayla but are beginning to feel strongly that God wants us to put her back in school.  We've told her to pray deeply about it, as well as praying about it as a family.  We are His to do with as He will.  Our faith, while already strong, has grown by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait to see what He does with us next!

Thank you dear readers for your comments, thoughts, and prayers.  Please know you've all been on my mind and I've missed you dearly.  I'm back though because I love to witness through my blog and I love sharing with you all.  Reading about your triumphs and your trials is a great comfort and inspiration to me. 

We may no longer be Goodwife Farm, but I remain, as always, the Goodwife!

Until next time,

God Bless...........

Kentucky Bound, and Tragedy Strikes........

Installment one, two, and three.....

I'm going to take the time now to tell you a little about The Man's sister.  She is his older sister and his only full sibling.  She has two young adult children and at the time of our move was married to a man 12 years older than her.  Her husband Ron was very ill with diabetes and heart disease.  He had lost a leg several years ago.  Ron was a character to put it mildly.  He was the kind of person either you loved or you hated, with no middle ground. 

A couple days before our move, The Sister and Ron drove out to California for an experimental medical treatment.  A last ditch effort.  You see the doctors had told Ron there was nothing they could do for him.  I don't know how many heart attacks he had, but in January of this year he was in the hospital for over a month, and they spent last Christmas in the hospital with him as well.  He also had one two days before they left for California.  The doctors told him he would simply continue to have small heart attacks until he had one big enough to kill him.  The Sister was his rock.  She was his caregiver, his lover, his friend, and he was her knight in shining armor, albeit his trusty steed was a wheel chair and a golf cart instead of a shining destrier!

We made it safely to Kentucky and got everything unloaded.  By Sunday July 3 (The Man's 38th birthday) we were totally unpacked and settled in.  As you may remember we don't mess around when it comes to work!  My folks left to go home on the 4th and we began to acclimate ourselves to our new home.  Champ and the goats were over at his aunt and uncle's 100 acre farm and I went over every day to tend to them.  The Youngun decided maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all and we were excited to see where God would send us.

Early the morning of July 12, The Man's aunt and uncle came over to tell us Ron had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away.  The Sister was in the room with him, alone, more than two thousand miles away and she performed CPR on him until the paramedics arrived, but he was already gone.  Our niece, who is 18, was across the driveway home alone, so The Sister had called Aunt and Uncle W to come over and break the news to her, and also to let us know because she couldn't get us on our cell phone.  The Man and I immediately thought perhaps this was God's reason for sending us here.  It took almost a week for The Sister to get home and it's been a long road with the grieving process but they are all getting there. 

At Ron's memorial service a wonderful man preached the service and we were in awe at his passion and devotion to the Lord.  He is pastor of a church about 5 miles from the house and we've been attending every Sunday since the memorial service.  What a blessing it's been to us to find a church that is truly about following God!!  Every single Sunday Brother Willie says, "Mind the Lord children."  Truer words were never spoken, and how wonderful our lives become when we truly do mind the Lord!  To say that things have been totally smooth and easy would be a lie, and I'm going to tell you more about that in the next installment.


To Be Continued......................

The Move to Kentucky..........

If you haven't already, please read installments one and two......


God was really pushing us to Kentucky, even though we weren't sure we really wanted to go.  We decided to take a deep breath and trust God.  The Youngun wasn't happy and there were lots of tears on her part.  She didn't want to leave Pop Pop and Granny, or the Darling Cousin.  We understood but we also explained to her that when you pray for God's guidance and direction in your life, you must be prepared for Him to give it!  We've always prayed for God to show us the way and for Him to give us the courage to follow.  Well He was asking us to put our money where our mouth was so to speak! 

Wednesday, June 29th, The Man and I loaded The Dodge up on a car trailer and pulled it down to Kentucky with our truck Black Betty.  I followed in our S-10 pickup.  We made it a one day run, so were on the road roughly 15 hours.  We dropped The Dodge  and the S-10 off and then went over to his aunt and uncle's place to hook up their stock trailer and haul it back to IL.

On July 2, 2011 we had a 26' U-haul loaded up with our belongings.  We also had the stock trailer with Champ, the goat girls; each with three kids at their side, our cat Willow, and the chickens and ducks. Our little convoy was ready to leave at 6 AM.  It was very hot and I was worried about the critters on our 7+ hour drive down.  The Man drove the U-haul with our dog Ginger along for company.  My dad and mom, along with their dog Pepper, drove our truck Black Betty pulling the stock trailer, and The Youngun and I brought up the rear in my folks' vehicle with our two other dogs, Annie and my Ellie-Girl, in the back seat.  We were off!

Leaving our place behind wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  I think because we were totally focusing on what God wanted us to do, and knowing that home is where the heart is.  Our hearts are with God, so home can be anywhere we make it!


To Be Continued.............

More On Our Whirlwind.......

First off I have to tell you all how much your comments meant to me!  I got tears in my eyes as I read them off of yesterday's post.  I've missed you all so much, and you can't know how much you mean to me!  K...now that we're done with the mushy stuff.....

Read the first installment here........

The next day we took my Challenger back to the dealership and asked them to buy it back. We knew what a precarious financial position we were in and didn't want to have the car repo'ed if we could do anything at all about it. They took the car back, paid off the note, and gave us 78 bucks to boot. We could cross that little worry off our list..........

We also put our house back on the market............

Next we went to our little local bank that has been so good to us over the past 7 years.  We had a $1500 note with them that we wanted to make sure was taken care of.  We explained to our dear friend and loan officer, Robin what our situation was and we paid the note off.  By the Grace of God we had that little bit of money in savings and were able to take care of it.  Robin was very supportive and said she would write us a letter of reference if ever we needed one.

We next began to explore our options.  As many of you may remember we've always wanted to move south, or west, or somewhere.  We began to pray and ask God where He'd like us to go.  We were feeling strong nudges toward Kentucky.  The Man called his sister.  She has 4 acres and there is a single wide house trailer on her property right across the driveway from her house.  It was fixin' to be empty and we could rent it for $350 a month.  We went down to check it out and see what we thought.  We didn't think......we came home thinking we didn't want to move down there.  We were still thinking on what WE wanted instead of what God wanted for us.  We had gone down there with preconceived notions of what it would be like and those notions were bashed bloody against a rock.  It wasn't at all what we'd thought it would be.

The Man began to look for work in IL, all to no avail.  We also weren't getting any interest in our house.  We weren't upside down on our mortgage, but we weren't in real good shape either.  We continued to pray, asking God to show us where He'd have us go.  We also began the process of filing bankruptcy.  This was so shameful for us.  A real blow to our pride, as we've always taken great pains to be sure our credit was impeccable.  At the time of our filing my score was 803 and The Man's was 798, however we had no choice.  We didn't really live beyond our means, but we lived at our means, that's for sure.  There was no way we could even pay our next house payment, let alone all those to come.  The Man didn't want to go back into a high stress job and I didn't want that for him either, so we chose to let God lead us and we filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  We also decided to accept that God wanted us in Kentucky...........

Continued soon.....

God Bless................

Hello Dear Friends!

I have no idea if anybody even still reads my blog since it's been months since I've posted anything.  If any of you are still there, I'm here to tell you of the ride we've been on!

Do any of you remember this post?  Well boy howdy, did He bring some changes to us!! 

In the 3rd week of May, The Man's employer sent him on a business trip for some training. (Remember he was the Operations Manager for a trash company.)  Naturally, since we've never spent a night apart, I went with him.  On Thursday, May 19th 2011 he was on the 4th day of his training, and we were scheduled to head back home on the afternoon of the 20th after his final day of training was done.  The afternoon of the 19th I was lounging on the hotel bed because my back had gone out and I couldn't do anything else, when The Man came walking in the door.  I said (jokingly because that's what I always say when he comes in earlier than I expect him to), "What are you doin' here, didja get fired?" To which he responded, "Well I think so, we have to go home."  I just looked at him..............uh........what???  He said one of the big head guys from the company had called him and said he needed to come home.  Well we knew what was coming.  We knew they weren't going to call him home with one day left if it was good news!  We threw everything in the car (my 2009 Challenger that I was so fond of) and headed back to IL. 

Upon our arrival back in IL, he took me home and then he headed in to his work.  They fired him.  They had already fired the GM the day before, and they fired him as soon as he got in.  May 19, 2011 God let us know without a doubt that He wanted us to do something different!  My husband has never been fired in his life.  He's never been disciplined at any job, this one included.  This came totally and completely out of the blue.  $80,000 a year one second and penniless the next.  No severance, no reference letter, nothing.  Seriously......we had around three thousand bucks in savings with a $1400/month house payment, not to mention the car payment of $500 and all the credit card bills, as well as a small loan at our local bank for the boat.

Now you may be thinking that our heads were rollin' around and were were contemplating bank robbery or possibly even looking for the lost city of Atlantis, but such was not the case.  Wanna know why?  As we were in the car on the way home, The Man said to me......"If we get there and they don't fire me I'm gonna be really disappointed."  Excuse me??  What's that now?  He said as soon as they told him to come home, he felt a great weight lift off his shoulders.  The burden of responsibility he'd been carrying for so long, the weight of what did God want us to do.....gone......definitively answered with a loud and resounding call.  God had been nudging us for a long time.  We weren't getting the message so He just jerked the rug out from under us.  He said.....if you aren't hearing Me, then I'll make you hear me, and He did.  We heard Him loud and clear.  It was time for a big change.............. 


please tune in soon for the continuation of our story!  I promise it won't take me long to post another chapter!

God Bless.........

Thankful for Unanswered Prayers.............

For so long I was wrapped up in wanting to move.  I always wanted to live out of Illinois, always yearning to be in Montana, or Florida, or Alabama.  After our last vacation to Florida and the subsequent resolving of The Crisis, God instilled in me such an appreciation for this beautiful patch of earth He has blessed us to be the stewards of.  This afternoon I took Champ over to graze at the neighbor's and I just lay back in the grass and soaked up the beauty of the land around me.  Standing at the barn looking to the back of our pasture with the sun going down in the west...........the beauty nearly moves me to tears!  God is good, and He knows what we need even when we haven't got a clue!

God Bless.............

Feelin' the Pony Love..........

Ok, I'm sure my vast hoard of readers (haha) are tired of  hearing about my horse by now, but.......................tough noogies!  ;)

I've always loved horses, ever since I was a wee wittle fing in my mama's arms.  I got thrown for the first time when I was about 3 and things went downhill from there.  As a consequence of my rather dangerous encounters with the various horses I've owned over the years, I was never really keen on riding.  I actually gave up on horses a few months after The Man and I got married.  I sold my mare, but kept my saddle and all my schtuff.  Then I finally sold that stuff too and thought I'd moved on. 

Enter my friend Missy and a horse she rescued named Misty......

My friend Missy with The Youngun on Misty, shortly after she was rescued.

Misty was a chestnut mare of unknown age or heritage.  She was at least part gaited because she had a rather bizarre way of going.  I was over at Missy's house to see this mare, because while Missy liked horses, she didn't know much about them.  The Youngun was around 18 months to 2 years old at this time.....anywho, I went over and Missy was riding this mare all over the place and asking me all sorts of questions.  I was answering her questions on autopilot because I really didn't even want to be there.  Missy was badgering me to get up on this mare and ride her and I was busily refusing, but Missy won in the end.  (She was like that, she usually did win in the end!)  As soon as my butt hit the saddle all those feelings just started percolating and busted the cap right offa that well!  I can't even tell you what it was like to ride her.  She was skinny and didn't know a darn thing, but she didn't buck and she didn't try to kill me.  That very evening I told The Man that I needed a horse.  He of course balked at the idea, but I won him over in the end and started looking.  Missy and I drove all over creation looking at horses.  I finally saw an ad in the local paper for a grade horse for 500 bucks.  He was about 3 miles down the road from Missy and her boyfriend Brandon, and about 15 minutes from my house.  Missy and I went to look at him.

Champ about two weeks after I got him.  He was 12 years old.

When we pulled up to the place, I saw this scruffy fat sorrel horse with the rattiest halter I'd ever seen standing at the gate.  I knew it was the horse I'd come to look at.  When the guy got him out, I could tell he was scared and when he saddled him he was jumping all over the place.  He had his tail tucked to his butt like a dog.  I actually thought there was something wrong with his tail because the bone was tucked into his butt and the bottom of the tail was sticking out.  There was nothing wrong with it, he was just so scared and had it tucked so tight in!  Anyway, Mike (his owner) got on him and walked and trotted him around in this big field.  When he went to canter him, he tried to get his head down and crow-hop, but Mike just stopped him and then when he asked for the canter again, he did it ok.  I got on and rode him and fell in love.  This horse (unlike all my previous equine steeds) didn't have a mean bone in his body.  Every reaction he had was fear, and that was something I could understand!

The first thing I did was take that halter off.  I promised him I'd never leave a halter on him again, as he's still to this day got a scar across his nose and on either side of his jawbone from wearing that halter.  I spent literally hours sitting out in the pasture on a bucket, waiting for him to come up to me and trust me enough to catch him.  Riding him has been an exercise in patience and humility and really didn't go too well for the first 4 years or so.



Champ 2 years after getting him..

  At that time I was still trying to ride western and I just didn't much care for it.  I spent pretty much all my time just playing with Champ, grooming and bonding and such.  I rode a little bit, but just didn't like it much.  I was always secretly intrigued by english riding, but where I'm from folks just don't do that!  Finally I bought a dressage saddle from ebay and from the moment I sat in it, I knew this was my calling.  I really liked not having anything between my leg and the horse and just felt more comfortable.  Then we moved and I had to board Champ instead of keeping him at home.  I worked at this barn in exchange for my board and I met a professional Hunter/Jumper trainer there. 

Champ, me and my trainer at the boarding barn....Champ was around 16 in this photo

 It was during this time that I finally blossomed!  The things I learned in the 6 months or so that I took lessons were simply amazing.  I learned that Champ is the kind of horse you have to "ride" all the time.  He's a worrier and you can't sit up there and think about what you are going to do when you are done, or you are going to have problems! My trainer from the sidelines could tell when I stopped riding him (mentally) by the way Champ responded.  He has taught me to be gentle in my aids, to keep my seat quiet and relaxed, and to give him some advance notice before I ask for something.  This has translated over into the rest of my life as well. 

Champ and I schooling in September '06

 Champ and I are a good fit because he isn't a trail horse and I'm not a trail rider.  I like to school all the time, and he needs to be schooled all the time so it's wonderful.  Yesterday during our ride he was able to trot on a nice easy rein all the way down the pasture and back.  That is a huge feat for him as he likes to bolt and run off and half the time I feel like I'm ripping his face off to get him to slooooow dooowwwn!  Mind you he's 22 years old now and we've been together for 10 years this month.  When I go out to ride, I have to clear my mind and relax.  If I don't we aren't going to have a good ride.  If I think I'm steady and relaxed, Champ let's me know if it's true or just an illusion.  I can't fool him. 

Leading up to and during The Crisis I had totally quit riding, and really even paying any attention to my horse.  I'm not sure if I was depressed, or if this caused a depression or what, but I know that I had for sure lost my way.  I'm so thankful that God is in control of our lives and He knows what's best for us even when we don't have a clue.  Since I've been making a point to go out and at least groom Champ every day, and riding at least 3 days a week, I'm amazed at how settled I feel.  Horses are my passion and you just can't squelch your passion.....it just ain't healthy!

Champ last month, 9/2010

Well I'm reasonably certain no one is still reading as I've pretty much written a novella here, but there will be lots more posts like this to come.  I don't really have any horsey friends and if you love horses you know that you could talk about them for hours on end.  Others just get that glazed over look in their eyes, so I'll try to just pour it all out here in my blog, at least you can stop reading and I'll never know! ;)

God Bless............

Finding My Bliss............It's Been MIA for Awhile......

Now that The Crisis has passed and things are settling down I'm finding my bliss again.  It's really been gone for a loooong time and I didn't realize it until recently.  I think getting so overwhelmed with my critter situation is what brought it on as well as some other issues that I may or may not blog about at a later time. 

I've come to understand that God didn't want us to move, he just wanted us to sloooow dowwwwnn.  We can be a little dense sometimes (especially me) and I'm always so focused on figuring out what God wants us to do that I can be a little overzealous at times.  (No kidding Goodwife??  You??).  I went through a pretty serious identity crisis and I have no freakin' clue what that was caused by.  I suppose it could be my 30's, my family history, my weight crisis.  Who knows and I don't think the why of it matters so much as the outcome.  I'm working really hard on finding me again.  There is a song by Miranda Lambert that is really speaking to me at this time.  It's called The House That Built Me, and I love it..  It almost moves me to tears everytime I hear it and that's a lot cuz it's on my ipod.  I was just listening to it a bit ago while I was building my character (scooping poop) and I was inspired to write this blog post.  For some reason I've been denying who I am lately and I'm taking steps to change that.  Getting back to my roots of who I really truly am.

Me and Champ, about 5 years ago.

I love horses.  I've loved horses my entire life.  It's an odd relationship that is directly related to my struggles to lose weight, but that's probably way more psycho-babble than you are prepared to read, but I will say that being heavy has made me feel unworthy in regards to horses.  Anywho.........I've been trying to convince myself for the last few years that I'm "over" this love.  HA!  Not even close and that takes away a large part of my bliss.  I'm the ONLY SINGLE PERSON in my family who has this sad affliction.  I'm not just talking about my little family of 3, I'm talking about my extended family.  Now some of you may know that The Man and I don't do things seperately on the weekend.  That's good and I won't change that for anything.  That said, I need to ride, I need to play with my pony, I need to smell him, and feed him carrots, and brush him and when I don't a little part of me dies.  A little part of me has been dead for awhile now.  I'm bringin' her back to life though.  My old man Champ is a partial nutball and I can't ride him down the road.  That and not having a trailer greatly limits my riding (since you can cover 5 acres on a horse in about 5 minutes!)  I do have neighbors though and if I wasn't such a dumbass I could ask them if I could ride.  I've decided to stop being a dumbass..........  I'm going to ask if I can ride the edges of their fields and find my bliss. 

The Man is finding his bliss as well.  My husband wants water.  He's always wanted water.  We've discussed buying a lake lot, moving to the lake, moving to Florida, anything to get him on water.  When we got back from Florida he said "Ya know, I'm standing here looking at our place and I'm thinking...if I had a pond full of catfish here, would I want to move?  The answer is no."  This week we've got a guy coming to give us a bid on a small pond, and BAM, The Man has his bliss as well! 

The Youngun will have her bliss as long as she's got her Granny and Pop Pop, her Darling Auntie, and her Cousin L.  With us staying here, she will not be taken away from them and that's another beautiful thing.

We are committed to slowing things down. Rome wasn't built in a day and our little projects don't have to be completed in a day either.  We have a beautiful place but we are so frantically working on it, that we never take time to just enjoy it!

God is good, and I'm so thankful that no matter how stupid, selfish, corn-fuzed, or messed up we get, He's still good and He's still there! 

Now go find your Bliss, or if you haven't lost it, go enjoy it!!  ;)

God Bless.........

The Midlife Crisis Report...........

We took the house off the market today.  As I mentioned it's been on the market for a couple months now and we've only had one couple look at it.  That is telling us that God doesn't intend for us to move right now, and that's ok.  Sometimes in the struggle to understand God's Will, we get it wrong.  Luckily for us, when we get it wrong, God usually steps in and does everything He can to prevent us from taking the wrong path.  That said, we sometimes STILL manage to side step Him and go our own way. 

We'd like to sell our place to be out from under the huge monthly payment......that's about the only reason.  Since we've downsized our animal situation, the stress level is much much lower and we have a lovely place that we are proud of.  God has provided The Man with a wonderful job that allows us to make our monthly payments without any trouble and that is another of His wonderful blessings!  If we did sell our place and rent for awhile, we would have to get rid of 3 of our dogs, and my horse.  I've had Champ for 10 years, and I didn't relish the idea of re-homing him.  I love that old man, even though I don't really do anything with him much anymore.  He is 22 years old and I made a commitment to him that I'd keep him forever.  Going back on that commitment was a source of serious agony for me.  I also was very saddened at the prospect of being without my Ellie-girl.  Gosh how much peace that big yalla dog brings me! 

Anyway, we currently have Champ (horse), Willow (barn cat), Ellie, Ginger, Annie, and Brandy (dogs) and Tulip and Star, (goat girls, not pictured)

That is pretty good, and I enjoy having that many animals.  I do miss having my own eggs, and I truly did enjoy milking.  Since we are staying here, I could bring chickens back and get my girls bred, but here's where the internal struggle part comes in. 

As some of you know, we are a family of 3 and one of us is on Weight Watchers.  The Man leaves for work VERY early in the morning and he doesn't eat breakfast except for on the weekends.  The Youngun is a cereal or oatmeal kinda gal and when I'm being good on WW I eat steel cut oats or bran flakes.  (When I'm being bad I eat everything that doesn't eat me!).  I don't bake much at all anymore because, again, The Man isn't a sweet eatin' type of guy (other than ice cream) and I certainly don't need to eat it, and The Youngun isn't really into it much either.  That said when I sold my chickens back at the end of June, I had 3 dozen eggs in my fridge.  I didn't have to buy eggs until we got back from Florida LAST WEEK!  That means that 3 dozen eggs lasted me 9 weeks.  Now I ask you, what kind of sense did it make for me to have 40 chickens runnin' round??  It didn't make any sense at all.  I had them because they brought me joy, but then after 20 some odd years of having chickens, at home and after we got married, they weren't bringing me joy anymore.  I had a few egg customers that I'd sell to, and they were sorry to hear I was getting out of the business, but I haven't really missed the chickens a bit, until I had to go buy eggs.  I bought 2 dozen eggs on Saturday after we got home and I know they'll last me at least a month or more. 

On to the goats......same problem.  I really enjoy milking, it's soothing and I love the product.  But again, family of three......I got a minimum of 2 qts a day and that was only milking once a day.  That means in two days, I had a gallon of milk in the fridge.  In a week I had close to 4 gallons of milk.  A gallon of milk lasts us a week, sometimes more, depending.  I would feel simply frantic thinking of the waste and what in the world was I going to do with it all.  There are lots of ways you can look at it, but I would just feel this crushing panic when I had 6 gallon of milk and 16 dozen eggs in my fridge. 

So........God has decided we'll stay, and that's a very good thing.  Will I add chickens back into the mix this spring?  I've yet to decide, but one thing's for sure..........I won't be having 40 hens again in this lifetime!  If I do bring them back, I'll get around 4-6 laying hens and maybe some Silkies, just cuz I like 'em.  As for milking, I probably won't go back to it.  I truly love milking and if I could go out and milk when I needed the milk (much like turning on a faucet) then I'd do it, but it just doesn't work that way!  I just can't handle the waste of the milk. 

I'll plant garden in the spring, only on a much smaller scale.  We've got a list of projects to do around the place, but things are a bit different now.  Instead of tackling them like we have to do them, we are going to do the ones that will bring us the most joy at a pace that allows us to actually enjoy the beautiful home that God has provided for us. 

God Bless......

Where we At??......

Well we're here........we do know that much!  Our place has been on the market for 7 weeks and we've had one couple come look at it.  Pretty sure they were just tire kickers as they didn't even come in the back to see the land.  We are starting to believe that perhaps God just wanted us to downsize our critter herd and remain in our home.  We really have no clue what He's telling us at this point, but are just going with the flow and trying to remain calm!  LOL! 

Several material things that we sold, sold literally within minutes of putting them on craigslist......that tells me that selling those items was meant.  We've had The Dodge for sale for a couple months and can't get it sold.........that tells me perhaps we are meant to keep it.  Same with the house...........been on the market and is priced 20-30,000$ less than other places 'round here with acreage and we can't get a buyer, that tells me maybe we are supposed to stay.  I'm ok with staying and so is The Man.  We want what God wants and we have a beautiful place here.  We aren't sure if we are going to take it off the market right now or just hang tight for a bit, but I'll be sure and keep you posted.  I've missed bloggin' and am going to be doing more of it. 

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

The Changes God Brings..........

Whew, it's been a long time. I've got so much to share and don't know if I'm up to sharing any of it. It's all been good stuff, well all but the WW's aspect of things.


Our prayer as a family is always to have open hearts ready to go where God leads us and the courage to follow through. For the past 6 months or so I've been out of sorts, wonky, alternately unhappy, weepy, angry and back again. I thought my PMS had just gotten totally out of hand or that I had a humdinger of a hormone imbalance.

Then one day about 2 months ago it hit me..........I didn't want this lifestyle anymore. I didn't care about my goats, my chickens, my livestock anymore. Didn't have the desire to own them, let alone care for them. I fought this, and I fought it hard. This is who I am, this is a major part of what makes me, ME..........right?? I talked to The Man about this and he in his infinite wisdom said, "Wait two weeks (to be sure it wasn't PMS induced) and then if you still feel that way lets sell 'em." I waited two weeks, then a month and the desire hadn't gone away. I just didn't care anymore and didn't want to do it.

In the meantime The Man has been stressed about work and himself feeling like he wants to chuck it all and move to Florida if only we could win the Lotto! This prompted us to begin seriously thinking about moving to Florida. His company has a division in Pensacola and he could probably get transferred. That prompted a discussion about leaving his current job (which he actually really loves) and our families and we decided what if we just downsized and stayed in this basic area? What if we sold our place, bought a nice little house in town that was a whole heck of a lot cheaper and only had our dogs to worry about? We could go to Florida three weeks a year and take weekend trips besides if we didn't have this place tying us down. That sounded like a dream come true, so guess what? I'm out of the homesteading business. I sold all my rabbits, all my chickens, most of my goats. All I have out there now is my old horse Champ and my two older doe goats. The girls will stay until we move and then they'll go to my dear goaty friend Rhonda. Can I tell you how great I feel? Can I tell you it feels as if a weight I didn't even know I was carrying has been lifted off me? I've done some heavy soul searching and I've discovered that I haven't wanted this for quite some time. I was keeping it up because I liked the reaction I'd get when folks found out how we lived. How sad is that? Pathetic really....

Anyway, The Man is thrilled as well because he never wanted this life. He did it out of love for me. I never had any idea how much he didn't want it, until I said I was done, such a good, loving man have I. He never complains EVER and he's never once said to me, no we don't need to do this, or I don't want to do this. He's bent over backwards to make me happy, and now it's my turn to make HIM happy and I'm so excited about that!

So where are we now? Well I've cleaned and tossed and organized and that feels wonderful as well. We've hauled three truck loads of schtuff to the auction (and made over 700 bucks to boot!) a great big load of scrap, and another load of trash. Every piece of carp I give away, sell, or throw away is another weight lifting off. We finished the kitchen (and it looks faboo!) and the realtor is coming tomorrow to put the ole' homestead on the market. We continue to pray for God's direction and guidance and know that He won't steer us wrong. Even if it isn't God's plan for us to sell this place right away, we feel better not having the expense and responsibility of 11 goats, 12 rabbits, and 40 chickens!

I've got some weight and food related stuff to blog about, but I'll save that for another day.

God Bless you all, and may you open your hearts to His direction and have the courage to follow where He leads you, it's sometimes scary, maybe even rough and rocky, but He'll always lead you through!

Till next time.......