• Filling the spaces of my home with worship music (it’s @steffanydawn’s “The Undoing” album today) & diffusing this combo while I clean & silently reflect re-centers me. It fills me up. It helps me release emotions and it draws me closer to my Father (not the oils, friends, the action - the quiet, the calm, the worship in doing the mundane). Honestly, I truly don’t know how people do life and stay sane without the one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ - not religion. Just Jesus. His pursuit, his comfort, his steadfastness. Jesus is enough today in this moment, yesterday in all the failures and the successes and the chaos, and forevermore (repeats to self). 💕 “Steady heart that keeps on going, steady love that keeps on hoping, lead me on. Steady grace that keeps forgiving, steady faith that keeps believing, lead me on.”
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    Filling the spaces of my home with worship music (it’s @steffanydawn’s “The Undoing” album today) & diffusing this combo while I clean & silently reflect re-centers me. It fills me up. It helps me release emotions and it draws me closer to my Father (not the oils, friends, the action - the quiet, the calm, the worship in doing the mundane). Honestly, I truly don’t know how people do life and stay sane without the one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ - not religion. Just Jesus. His pursuit, his comfort, his steadfastness. Jesus is enough today in this moment, yesterday in all the failures and the successes and the chaos, and forevermore (repeats to self). 💕 “Steady heart that keeps on going, steady love that keeps on hoping, lead me on. Steady grace that keeps forgiving, steady faith that keeps believing, lead me on.”
  • 7.14.2020// “Mama, ya wanna know what I thought of? You would think that Heaven would have video games and everything fun you could dream of, but really, it has the greatest thing of all: peace.” ~Adalyn, age 8 💕 • You’re wise beyond your years, sweet girl.
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    7.14.2020// “Mama, ya wanna know what I thought of? You would think that Heaven would have video games and everything fun you could dream of, but really, it has the greatest thing of all: peace.” ~Adalyn, age 8 💕 • You’re wise beyond your years, sweet girl.
  • I miss the way things were. I hate that the world has lost its ever-loving marbles for a virus with a 99.7+% survival rate. I hate that so many are choosing to remain blind to the agendas hiding in plain site. I hate that not enough people have been paying attention over the years to even be able to recognize corruption when it’s happening...evil disguised as good. It’s hard to imagine things likely never being the same and what kind of brainwashed world my kids will grow up in. • But the truth is, the world has always been brainwashed, all throughout history. That’s why God tells us to be IN the world but not OF it. So that’s the goal. • That’s what I’ll teach these sweet arrows - to be strong enough to stand and walk the other way when the herd is walking off a cliff. • You, WE all, were created for such a time as this, (as scary, uncertain, and frustrating as this time in history is). We need to remember the importance of seeking & standing up for what is right & true in God’s eyes, despite the critics. The only one whose judgement of you should matter is God’s, anyway. • This world might never be the same, but God remains steadfast yesterday, today, and forever. • What keeps me sane is holding tight to the peace & freedom we have through Christ, knowing that no one can take that away & that one day the world won’t be crazy because God wins. • So, in the midst of the craziness, I’ll hold memories in my heart, advocate for freedom, recognize and reject lies and corruption, speak the truth for the few that will listen & choose the narrow path, seek God’s wisdom and discernment first & foremost, refuse to conform to the world and its ideologies, and press on. I’ll keep my gaze on Heaven, because this place isn’t our home. • I want no part of this “new normal,” but ultimately the Bible warns that the world will get worse before it can get better. It’s important to know what and who you stand for so that “...we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14).”
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    I miss the way things were. I hate that the world has lost its ever-loving marbles for a virus with a 99.7+% survival rate. I hate that so many are choosing to remain blind to the agendas hiding in plain site. I hate that not enough people have been paying attention over the years to even be able to recognize corruption when it’s happening...evil disguised as good. It’s hard to imagine things likely never being the same and what kind of brainwashed world my kids will grow up in. • But the truth is, the world has always been brainwashed, all throughout history. That’s why God tells us to be IN the world but not OF it. So that’s the goal. • That’s what I’ll teach these sweet arrows - to be strong enough to stand and walk the other way when the herd is walking off a cliff. • You, WE all, were created for such a time as this, (as scary, uncertain, and frustrating as this time in history is). We need to remember the importance of seeking & standing up for what is right & true in God’s eyes, despite the critics. The only one whose judgement of you should matter is God’s, anyway. • This world might never be the same, but God remains steadfast yesterday, today, and forever. • What keeps me sane is holding tight to the peace & freedom we have through Christ, knowing that no one can take that away & that one day the world won’t be crazy because God wins. • So, in the midst of the craziness, I’ll hold memories in my heart, advocate for freedom, recognize and reject lies and corruption, speak the truth for the few that will listen & choose the narrow path, seek God’s wisdom and discernment first & foremost, refuse to conform to the world and its ideologies, and press on. I’ll keep my gaze on Heaven, because this place isn’t our home. • I want no part of this “new normal,” but ultimately the Bible warns that the world will get worse before it can get better. It’s important to know what and who you stand for so that “...we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14).”
  • The garden is coming along; I took these pics about a week ago, so things have grown a bit since then. I still haven’t quite planted everything, but I’m just considering it “succession planting” instead of laziness 😬🙈⠀ • In my defense, we did expand our garden by at least 2000 square feet, so it’s way more than I’ve ever committed to growing. I can’t wait to see (and taste and share) the abundance God blesses us with through growing our own food! • I need to come up with a solution to hold the garden tools so that I can plant some perennial things in the ground & tidy up, but it’s already so satisfying to look at, especially with a backdrop of painted skies like this!
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    The garden is coming along; I took these pics about a week ago, so things have grown a bit since then. I still haven’t quite planted everything, but I’m just considering it “succession planting” instead of laziness 😬🙈⠀ • In my defense, we did expand our garden by at least 2000 square feet, so it’s way more than I’ve ever committed to growing. I can’t wait to see (and taste and share) the abundance God blesses us with through growing our own food! • I need to come up with a solution to hold the garden tools so that I can plant some perennial things in the ground & tidy up, but it’s already so satisfying to look at, especially with a backdrop of painted skies like this!
  • In light of where the world is at these days, my heart is heavy & weary in a lot of ways, but I keep thinking about how I’m so dang thankful for homeschooling. I’m thankful to be able to focus on & teach my little arrows whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). • I’m thankful I get to help teach them how not to conform to this world, but ask questions and seek the truth in all matters. • I’m thankful for them being able to learn from the comfort of our home, or wherever we want to be. It can be a relaxed, cozy learning day, or full of adventures and discovery. • I’m thankful I get to be with them all day every day, even though it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. • I’m thankful God gave me a love of learning from a very young age, a passion for teaching, and the conviction in my heart to homeschool my kids, even despite the ones that scoffed and thought it was weird. • A lot more people are considering homeschooling now. I’m thankful eyes and hearts are being open toward it. It’s beautiful, hard sometimes, but really rewarding. • If you’re considering homeschool, good for you! 👊🏼 I’m cheering you on. Don’t let your doubts or society discourage you - you are capable and worthy of teaching your children if that’s what God is leading your heart to do. You’re not going to fail your kids when God is in the lead. 💕 • Side note: the forced distance learning many people had to adjust to is not at all a good picture of what homeschooling really is like, so my personal suggestion is to not base your opinion on homeschool off of that. • 👇🏼Do you homeschool already? Are you even remotely considering it? Another one of my fave things about being a homeschool mama is finding other homeschool mamas to be in community with.
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    In light of where the world is at these days, my heart is heavy & weary in a lot of ways, but I keep thinking about how I’m so dang thankful for homeschooling. I’m thankful to be able to focus on & teach my little arrows whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). • I’m thankful I get to help teach them how not to conform to this world, but ask questions and seek the truth in all matters. • I’m thankful for them being able to learn from the comfort of our home, or wherever we want to be. It can be a relaxed, cozy learning day, or full of adventures and discovery. • I’m thankful I get to be with them all day every day, even though it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. • I’m thankful God gave me a love of learning from a very young age, a passion for teaching, and the conviction in my heart to homeschool my kids, even despite the ones that scoffed and thought it was weird. • A lot more people are considering homeschooling now. I’m thankful eyes and hearts are being open toward it. It’s beautiful, hard sometimes, but really rewarding. • If you’re considering homeschool, good for you! 👊🏼 I’m cheering you on. Don’t let your doubts or society discourage you - you are capable and worthy of teaching your children if that’s what God is leading your heart to do. You’re not going to fail your kids when God is in the lead. 💕 • Side note: the forced distance learning many people had to adjust to is not at all a good picture of what homeschooling really is like, so my personal suggestion is to not base your opinion on homeschool off of that. • 👇🏼Do you homeschool already? Are you even remotely considering it? Another one of my fave things about being a homeschool mama is finding other homeschool mamas to be in community with.
  • I’m a little late in posting this, but WE GOT PUPPIES! 😍 I’ve been pondering getting guardian dogs for our homestead for quite a while, so when some large dogs I’ve never seen showed up on our property and killed a bunch of our chickens a few weeks ago, I decided it was time. • Meet Daisy and Barley, left to right, respectively. • They are sisters from the same litter - Great Pyranees/Anatolian Shepherd mix - and the sweetest & super smart little ladies! • Initially we were just going to get the fluffy one (the one the kids named “Daisy”), but there would have only been one puppy left without a home! I mentioned it to my husband, and then literally two seconds after the breeder messaged me saying she’d give us a discount if we took both, so I told Eric and he decided we could get both! 😍 For being such a “man’s man” he really is such a sucker for cute things, but I digress. • Our puppies will be trained to work as a team to guard our property, our chickens, and our kids. • I’ve never taken on TWO puppies at once, and we JUST got our 1-year-old puppy pretty well trained, so I anticipate (but welcome) the challenge! • Welcome to the adventure, sweet babies!
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    I’m a little late in posting this, but WE GOT PUPPIES! 😍 I’ve been pondering getting guardian dogs for our homestead for quite a while, so when some large dogs I’ve never seen showed up on our property and killed a bunch of our chickens a few weeks ago, I decided it was time. • Meet Daisy and Barley, left to right, respectively. • They are sisters from the same litter - Great Pyranees/Anatolian Shepherd mix - and the sweetest & super smart little ladies! • Initially we were just going to get the fluffy one (the one the kids named “Daisy”), but there would have only been one puppy left without a home! I mentioned it to my husband, and then literally two seconds after the breeder messaged me saying she’d give us a discount if we took both, so I told Eric and he decided we could get both! 😍 For being such a “man’s man” he really is such a sucker for cute things, but I digress. • Our puppies will be trained to work as a team to guard our property, our chickens, and our kids. • I’ve never taken on TWO puppies at once, and we JUST got our 1-year-old puppy pretty well trained, so I anticipate (but welcome) the challenge! • Welcome to the adventure, sweet babies!
  • Have you ever seen a unicorn drive a tractor? • Adalyn learned how to drive this old beast the other day. It belonged to my late grandpa, and has been such a useful blessing on our little homestead. We can mow with it, till with it, plow the snow, and now entertain the mini humans. It’s old but still a workhorse. 💕
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    Have you ever seen a unicorn drive a tractor? • Adalyn learned how to drive this old beast the other day. It belonged to my late grandpa, and has been such a useful blessing on our little homestead. We can mow with it, till with it, plow the snow, and now entertain the mini humans. It’s old but still a workhorse. 💕
  • It’s been a chicken-hatching frenzy around here this Spring! We’ve owned chickens for a couple of years now, but finally got an incubator recently & accomplished our first hatch. Of the 8 eggs that actually ended up being fertilized, we got 7 fluffy chicks! 😍 One of them I had to assist to get her out of her shell, and we lost one chick due to it getting stuck in it’s shell. I felt terrible that I didn’t know when to help it since assisting isn’t super recommended unless absolutely necessary. It’s hard to know when that is, though, especially your first time around. The one I *did* help was after that first one had passed, so I took the risk & helped her “unzip”, wrapped her shell in a warm, damp paper towel, and put her back in the incubator to give her a fighting chance. Thankfully she made it! It was a good learning experience, so now I feel better equipped for next time. We have our 2nd round going now. 🎉
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    It’s been a chicken-hatching frenzy around here this Spring! We’ve owned chickens for a couple of years now, but finally got an incubator recently & accomplished our first hatch. Of the 8 eggs that actually ended up being fertilized, we got 7 fluffy chicks! 😍 One of them I had to assist to get her out of her shell, and we lost one chick due to it getting stuck in it’s shell. I felt terrible that I didn’t know when to help it since assisting isn’t super recommended unless absolutely necessary. It’s hard to know when that is, though, especially your first time around. The one I *did* help was after that first one had passed, so I took the risk & helped her “unzip”, wrapped her shell in a warm, damp paper towel, and put her back in the incubator to give her a fighting chance. Thankfully she made it! It was a good learning experience, so now I feel better equipped for next time. We have our 2nd round going now. 🎉
  • Things have been busy around here lately! This week we (mostly Eric, obvi) have been building a greenhouse 🙌🏼 to expand our growing capacity, and maybe (HOPEFULLY) extend our growing season. Side note: Whenever we do a project, I do the design and show him & he builds it like it’s nothin’! If there’s finish work, I’ll usually take over at that point just for sake of time (& not feeling totally useless 😂). You’re definitely a handy man if I ever met one, @kickinitwitheric. He’s very gifted at his craft. • Anyway, if I can find a cheap or free way to heat it, we plan to grow a bunch of our food all winter long. • But my dreams for this greenhouse and the homestead we’re building is much bigger than ourselves. Yes, I want to have enough for my fam, but I told the Lord that if he blessed us with this house and the 3 acres that came with it, that I’d do my part to use it to bless others however he asks me to. And that’s what I want to do! • I want to be able to grow enough food to help provide wholesome, organic, fresh food to people in my community and circle of influence as much as we can. I want to share my journey and experience to inspire and empower others to become more self sufficient, too. • The Lord has planted some great ideas and dreams in my heart, and I’m excited to see things coming into fruition. This is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see what God does with our hard work and willingness.
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    Things have been busy around here lately! This week we (mostly Eric, obvi) have been building a greenhouse 🙌🏼 to expand our growing capacity, and maybe (HOPEFULLY) extend our growing season. Side note: Whenever we do a project, I do the design and show him & he builds it like it’s nothin’! If there’s finish work, I’ll usually take over at that point just for sake of time (& not feeling totally useless 😂). You’re definitely a handy man if I ever met one, @kickinitwitheric. He’s very gifted at his craft. • Anyway, if I can find a cheap or free way to heat it, we plan to grow a bunch of our food all winter long. • But my dreams for this greenhouse and the homestead we’re building is much bigger than ourselves. Yes, I want to have enough for my fam, but I told the Lord that if he blessed us with this house and the 3 acres that came with it, that I’d do my part to use it to bless others however he asks me to. And that’s what I want to do! • I want to be able to grow enough food to help provide wholesome, organic, fresh food to people in my community and circle of influence as much as we can. I want to share my journey and experience to inspire and empower others to become more self sufficient, too. • The Lord has planted some great ideas and dreams in my heart, and I’m excited to see things coming into fruition. This is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see what God does with our hard work and willingness.