Emma's 13th Birthday Celebration

 This was no ordinary birthday.  Our 2nd oldest was turning 13!!  We are blessed to have another young lady in our home.  Unfortunately the label "teenager" comes with a bad rap.  We have decided to use the term young lady (or in our son's case young man) when they reach 13 in our home.  It is a standard to live up to and it comes with a certain amount of responsibility.  So on with our celebration ~


Emma asked for sausage, egg, and cheese bagel sandwiches with fruit and milk for breakfast.

 

 

 

And Cowboy Calzones for supper!

 

 

The cake ~ 2 layers of chocolate cake with ice cream in the middle. 

And pigs.

Emma LOVES pigs.

The potbelly variety to be exact.

She has one, her beloved Hazel Nut!

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

She said, "That is the cutest cake I have ever seen!" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the gifts ~

 

 

          Sam and Joe got Emma a pocket knife that she has wanted for soooooo long and

 

Gus and Henry got her a small purple camouflage Swiss Army knife for her purse.

Hey, she's a very active farm girl who needs a knife.

 

Even farm girls need to look pretty!  Emma got some Honey Bee Garden pressed powder

with a compact and a quilted zippered bag from Mom and Dad.

   

 

Hazel Nut (the pig, remember?) got Emma a purple flower to hang above her bed. 

(Emma's bed ~ not Hazel's)

 

 

And from all the sisters ~ a memory foam bed topper!

 

 

 

At 13 Dad presents a purity ring to our daughters. He asks them if they will accept it on the condition that they allow him to protect them and their heart until one day God brings them a husband to take over that role.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

 

 

 

 

                                       

 

Emma and Dad's hands on his Bible.

 

 

Another really special thing that we do with our children when they turn 13 is we take them

to a hotel for an overnight stay.  Mom takes the daughters and Dad will take the sons. 

So Emma and Mom went into Madison for our Mother/Daughter Overnight.

 

 

 

Sisters and best friends.

My 2 young ladies before I left with Emma.

 

 

 

Madison, here we come!

 

 

 

Our hotel.

 

 

In our room.

 

 

Hanging in the cozy hotel lobby.

 

First we went to Whole Foods and did some shopping and had a late lunch.  Then we went to the

Dane County Humane Society just outside of Madison.  Emma LOVES animals and wanted to stop

by the shelter.  We left empty handed.  Ha!  It was the most beautiful shelter we had ever seen. 

They even had a barn with farm animals.  It was unreal.  Wish I had gotten some pictures there!

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Barnes and Noble and looked at books and Hobbit things and had a frappuccino at the on site Starbucks!

 

 

Then we did some shopping at a near by department store.  Oh, the many hats of Emma!

                           

 

These hats were actually called "church hats" in the store! 

Make sure you don't sit behind Emma

at church!  

 

 

Emma chose Olive Garden for our special evening meal.  It was so special.

 

 

Calamari, chicken and dumpling soup with bread sticks, and

 

 

Emma's favorite ~ MEATBALLS!! 

 

 

Tiramisu with a birthday candle.  Can it get any better than that??

 

 

So after our meal we headed back to our hotel and stayed up until after 2am laughing,

praying, talking, and just being girls.  We had an amazing time.  I love this girl.

 

So the next morning we went to the hotel breakfast and we were sang to by our server.  He

imitated several singers and was soooo good.  Again, didn't have my camera for that.  Bummer.

 

 

 

We did some thrifting and found beautiful tops and skirts for both of us!  Hannah too!

 

 

And then a stop at Cool Beans Coffee Shop for a Chai Tea Latte.  Me and this girl Emma,

we are cut from the same piece of cloth, I tell ya.

 

 

And of course, before we head home we stop at Potbelly for lunch.  And yes, we told

our sandwich maker all about Hazel Nut!  (Emma's potbelly pig, remember?)

 

 

Tuna melt and Oreo shake, please.  Thank you!

 

AND FOR THE ICING ON THE CAKE ~

 

Yes, I know, they look like they were made just for Emma ~

 

 

 

AWESOME.

 

I am so very blessed to be Emma's Mama.  I thank God that He chose me to teach and train

her to be a Godly, virtuous young woman.  Wow, what a calling!  Lord, help me to point her to you

in everything I say and do.

I love you Emma ~ more than you will ever know! 

 

 

 

 

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voddie Baucham - Marriage

A must see if you are married, have ever been married, plan on getting married, or know anyone who is married!!  We love Voddie's teachings in our home.  He is always spot on with scripture.  Enjoy!

On My Mind, In My Heart

 Something that I have been meditating on :


Luke 23:34

"Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing"

Lila & Gracie's 6th Birthday

 

Yesterday was Lila and Gracie's day and this is how we celebrated ~

                                                
                            Oh, these girls!!  These sweet beauties!!

 

A few weeks ago we were able to visit Grandma D (Julie's mom).  She made these beautiful aprons for the girls!  They LOVE to work in the kitchen!  And they LOVE their new aprons!!

 

 

The day before their birthday Papa and Grandma (Mike's parents) came from Illinois to see the girls!




   

 

 

 Papa and Grandma brought the twins a coffee maker and mixer for their little kitchen! 

 

                               And purple ballerina flats too!

 

 

Since their birthday fell on Sunday this year it was extra special to be able to go to church on their birthday.  They went up front and Mike prayed over them and also Mike happened to be doing the sermon too.  What a special day!

    

            For supper we took just Lila and Gracie out to a nice Italian restaurant while the older girls  prepared the house for a Cinderella party!

 

                 

We enjoyed a great meal and had so much fun at the restaurant.

 

 

Yeah, that's mine. Fresh peach, chicken and Gorgonzola with a balsamic reduction wood fire oven pizza!! DEEE LISH!!!


 

 

When we got home we had a party with all the brothers ans sisters!

 

 

 

 

Lila and Gracie requested strawberry shortcake for their birthday and I happily obliged. It was so fun to make! ♥

 

 

They each had 6 candles to blow out.  Green for Gracie and lavender for Lila.

 

Gracie Joy

 

 

An ice cream set from the sisters!

 

 

 

A doctor's kit from the brothers!  Lila and Gracie LOVE to pretend to be midwives!! 

 

 

 

And, what the girls have wanted for soooooo super long.......drum roll please........

dress-up dresses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our little princesses!  ♥♥

 

 

 

We often have toddlers and the younger children crawling into our bed at night.  On birthdays we always let the birthday child/children sleep with us too.  They are always so excited for that! 

 

And there you have it ~ Lila Rose and Gracie Joy's 6th birthday.

We are SOOO blessed to be given the privilege to be their parents.

We love you sooooo much! 

 Thank you God for these sweet girlies!  ♥♥

 

Why We Love Being Uninsured

We are a family of 10 and we have no health insurance ~ so to speak.  For years we went with the crowd and paid for traditional health insurance through my husbands job.  Health insurance that we rarely used and had a very hard time with because we knew that the entire system was not Biblical.  We have found EXACTLY what we have been looking for for so long.  God led us to speak with other like-minded families that share our same convictions.  We found Samaritan Ministries.  A God send.  It is a sharing ministry not health insurance.  It is flexible, personal, cost effective, and time tested.  There are more than 21,500 households that are currently involved with Samaritan Ministries.  The monthly share for a family of ANY SIZE has never exceeded $355, and is even less for singles, couples, and single parent families.  It is true that when we first looked into this that through Mike's job we could have paid less per month but the deductibles are so high and we did not feel at peace with being a part of that system.  We will happily pinch pennies in other areas to be able to be a part of this wonderful ministry.  We are blessed to not only send our monthly share to another brother or sister in Christ but also send them a direct note of encouragement and be praying for them.  And on the occasion that we have a medical need our need would then be published and monthly shares would be sent to us to cover our costs.  How wonderful it is to be part of a biblical health care system that is true to scripture in bearing one anothers burdens.  Samaritan does not pay for birth control of any kind or sterilization.  They do not pay for health care costs associated with unbiblical living.  They do pay 100% for home birth as they see that it is not only safer but also much more cost effective than hospital birth.  Two months ago I had some strange symptoms and went to our doctor with swollen glands.  Ten days later I was in the Urgent Care with labored breathing and chest pain.  I ended up having a virus that went into my lungs and I had to just get a lot of extra rest and wait it out.  We ended up with bills of $2300.  Unreal!!  Anyway, I called Samartian and was blown away by the wonderful treatment I received.  First the young man on the phone was so concerned about how I was feeling and asking if I was better.  Second, he patiently walked me through the process of filling out the 1 form that they need to process my medical need.  In the middle of our conversation I had to whisper to one of my older daughters that I needed her to check on the bread in the oven.  He must have heard me because for the next 5 minutes he wanted to know all about our homemade bread and told me how his wife also does the same.  Hannah and I were just stunned.  What a joy to be dealing with other believers and not insurance companies that do not really care about you, just about being paid.  So not only do our medical needs get paid we receive beautiful, encouraging notes from other members and the other members are also praying for us.  Just awesome.  Some people might be skeptical of this being "too good to be true" but it works.  It works really well.  We took a step of faith and we know that God will meet our every need.   

No matter who is elected to office this month, the battle for the control of health care will continue.  Will we as a nation depend on God and His truth to direct us, or will we accept the provision and protection of the lesser powers of this world?  We need to cry out to God for His protection and provision.  Only He has enough power and resources to provide for all needs.  Only He can cause all things to work together for good to those who love him.  Anyone else, whether person, organization, or government, will disappoint and sometimes enslave.

If you are a committed Christian, you do not have to violate your faith by purchasing health insurance that pays for abortions and treatments of conditions resulting from other immoral practices that are included in the federal "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA).  You can live consistently with your beliefs by sharing medical needs directly with fellow believers through Samaritan Ministries' non-insurance approach.  This approach satisfies the individual mandate in PPACA. 

Galatians 6:2  ~

 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Cross references:

1. Galatians 6:2 : Rom. 15:1; 1 Thess. 5:14
2. Galatians 6:2 : [ch. 5:14]
3. Galatians 6:2 : 1 John 4:21; See John 13:34

Forgive Everyone Everything

We have recently experienced a very traumatic event on our farm.  Let me back track just a bit.  We live in the middle of nowhere.  A beautiful area in the middle of Amish country.  Scattered about there are non-Amish as well.  Obviously, because we are not Amish (well, almost but we will save that for another post!).   Anyway, we love being out in the country away from noise (except the noise which comes from our family of 10!), traffic, crime, and lots of neighbors with rowdy unsupervised children that in the city always wanted to flock to our house.  Even though we live in a very secluded area there is a boy.  A boy that lives a bit away but loves to come over.  He has 4 grown siblings and was a foster child turned adopted son of his family.  From what we know he had a very bad beginning and was in and out of several foster homes.  That breaks my heart.  It really does.  So when we moved to this area 15 months ago he was beyond thrilled to have "friends" down the road.  We are weary about having children over that are not visiting with their parents.  So against our usual rules we decided to give this boy a chance and thought that we might have a chance to witness to him as well.  Time after time there were problems with this boy.  Throwing rocks and breaking barn windows, spitting at our children, speaking foul language in front of our children that they had never heard before, pulling one of our older daughters down to the ground by her hair, hiding in our barn without permission to be in there and throwing rocks at Sam while he was riding his bike and it knocked him over.  This boy is angry.  Angry at the world, maybe angry at God, I'm not really sure.  But I am sure he is troubled and angry.  More than once my husband went to the boys father and explained the situation.  His father understood and agreed that they too have had many problems dealing with anger and even been to doctors and used medication to treat it.  Mike said that the boy was not allowed to come over anymore unless his Dad was present.  Problem solved, right??  Not quite.  About two months ago all of a sudden we have the boy here again.  And part of me does feel sorry for this child but I also have a God given duty to put my own children first.  So as he would be here I would try to watch out the window or be outside with the children as much as I could.  Things seemed to be better and the boy was behaving.  We wanted to teach our children that we always give 2nd chances however this past Saturday my husband took our 2 oldest boys to Illinois to visit family and I took our second oldest daughter out for a special occasion.  We went to town and had supper at Applebee's.  Hannah stayed at home and watched the 4 youngest.  We were only gone for about 2 hours.  As we got home just after 8pm it was pitch dark.  Because the older boys were gone, Emma and I were going out to do the evening chores.  We grabbed the lantern and headed out to the chicken coops.  As we were locking up the coops I noticed the boy riding his bike really fast around our chicken run.  I called out to him and said, "What are you doing out here?"  He replied, "I have to get something out of our boat garage."  (His Dad stores a boat in a garage behind our barn.)  I didn't buy it for a minute.  I said to Emma, "I don't trust that boy at all!"  We went on with our work and went over to our barn to feed the other animals.  We opened the big barn door and could not find our 3 eight week old kittens that would normally be playing and frolicking around in the straw.  We were stumped.  I looked down and saw all 3 kittens, who we adore, in a small wooden box on the floor sopping wet and shaking.  Emma and I were in total shock!  The barn itself was very dry and there was no possible way that they got into water themselves.  Two of the kittens were still alive but little Rosie (Hannah's kitten) was already gone.  We did not have time to cry or grieve.  We knew that if the two remaining kittens, Chewy and Coco, had any chance to survive we had to act immediately.  We scooped them up and ran them into the house.  They were freezing cold.  As we entered the house,  Hannah greeted us at the door.  We had to tell her what we had just found in the barn.  She as well as the twins and Gus we crying and in shock as well.  They all were part of these kittens lives since they were born on our farm and we were all very attached to them.  We interacted with them on a daily basis and loved them very much.  We carefully gave them warm baths and towell dried them.  I knew without a doubt that the boy had done this.  I had to call Mike as he was driving home.  I explained the situation and he was rightfully upset.  He too knew who was responsible for this!  If Mike had been home he would have gone himself but still being over an hour from home and knowing that this was something that had to be dealt with immediately we decided that I would go over to the boys house and speak to his Dad.  When  I got there his Dad answered the door and I asked him if the boy was home.  He said he was upstairs doing homework but that he had been in and out of the house several times that evening.  I asked him if he had asked his son to come and get something from the boat garage.  He looked confused and said, "No".  I then explained the story trying unsuccessfully to hold back tears and told him that I did not have actual proof but there was no other explanation for what had happened.  His Dad agreed with me and said that he thought that it was the boy as well and that he would ask him about it.  Mike soon returned and we went out to the barn to look at the situation .  Mike immediately noticed that the wheelbarrow right outside the barn door was full of recent rain water and straw.  The kittens were not only wet but had straw on them too.  The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together.  We now understood how the boy did what he did.  Why someone would try and drown helpless, defenseless, animals is beyond my understanding.  When we came in it was late.  We talked with the children a lot about what happened and Mike got down on his knees and prayed for the boy and his parents.  He also prayed that God would protect our family and animals from harm and that God would help us forgive the boy.  It was close to midnight by this time and knew that we would have to wait until Sunday to talk to the boys Dad again.  What happened was scary to us.  We felt scared for our animals and for our family.  NOT a good feeling to have!  Children that start inflicting pain to animals many times eventually hurt people too.  The following day we knew that we had to meet with the boy and his Dad.  Sunday afternoon we were surprised to see the boy snooping around and watching our family from a short distance away.  Who does this boy think he is??  Mike had every intention to wait and confront the boy when his dad was present but this was too much!  Mike marched right over to where the boy was hiding and said in a very firm voice, "What are you doing over here sneaking around?"  The boy was silent.  Mike then said, "I know you were in my barn last night and I know what you did!"  The boy replied, "I'll buy you a new cat."  He admitted it!  We were surprised that he didn't try to lie.  Of course we don't want a new cat!  Mike told him that he would be sitting down with him and his dad very soon.  Sunday evening rolled around and his Dad called Mike back and invited us to come and meet with them.  I was wanting answers and I was so hurt that this boy had done this to our family.  There we sat in their living room.  The 5 of us.  Mike, myself, the boy, his Mom and his Dad.  Awkward.  Quiet.  Surreal.  Mike did most of the talking.  The boy looked empty.  It was sad.  Very sad.  Mike told him that because Jesus Christ has first forgiven us for our sins that we forgive him for what he did to us and our kittens.  And then Mike asked the boy if he believed that Jesus died on the cross for his sins?  The boy nodded.  Mike continued to speak the gospel of Christ.  That part was amazing and I don't know if I could have done that.  Mike was amazing.  God was using Mike in a great way.  We also wanted to know why he would do this.  He shrugged his shoulders.  The boy said that one day when he was over one of the kittens scratched him and it made him mad!  This was his way of getting even with them??  We did tell him and his parents that we were considering getting the police involved.  The boy committed 2 crimes; breaking and entering and he killed one of our pets.  Mike decided that we would deal directly with his parents at this point.  Mike was VERY clear that the boy is to be NOWHERE in sight and if he does come on our property again the police will be called - no questions asked.  As we were getting ready to leave Mike told the boy and his parents that we will continue to pray for all of them.  The boys Dad said, Yes, please do."  Anger is easy.  It comes naturally in our humanness.  Forgiveness is hard.  It feels like the last thing we should do.  But it is freeing and Christ like.  We forgive the boy because Christ forgave us.