Homestead Update

David: 

Got work at Boeing and has enjoyed the past year as an Equipment Engineer. 

We moved! We are renting four acres to get our feet wet with real Homestead work.

We have been here a year and love it!

This year we are gardening. Last year with the move and expecting the newest member of the family it just did not happen. We did build a chicken coop together and got Mr. Roster and the Ladies (five hens). We got them as pullets in August and had eggs by Christmas. We are enjoying them.... Mr. Roster might be soup soon if he keeps attacking me when I feed them.

The Chicken yard.

I think he is a handsome roster. If only he would let me feed them with our flying up at me. He really dose not like my boots.

We did a good job on the coop!

The Kids love collecting the eggs each day. We have tracked how many eggs we get from a bag of feed for our Homeschool. 

Okay, Children Update

Isabel: six years old! O.o Man time flies. Reading books faster then me, helping me and a joy to talk with... My MaggieBel.

Isaac: four years old. Man of the yard, any sport or game. Likes guns, slings, bows and arrows...Manly boy, Little Mr.

Elizabeth: three years old. Destruction on Two feet. I do what I want, when I want... Extreme fun our Fireball.

Ezekiel: eight months old. He is a joy and has 7 teeth. Farsighted with glasses, easy going Man... Moose

ME:

I am fighting illness and down in weight but happy to be here. 

Hope to start work as a Doula on the side soon and need to get some things in order. 

I am very thankful for friends who speak truth into my life and help me to see my sins and short comings in the Glorious Light of Christ.

Isabel took this shot of me at a Family Wedding.

May this find you and your family well.

Luke 6:35-36..... and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and dyou will be sons ofethe Most High, for fhe is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 gBe merciful, even as hyour Father is merciful.

Work

Ecclesiastes 3: 9 "What gain the worker from his toil?"
Ecc. 3:20 "So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot."

We all have a job or work we do in this life and that changes during different seasons in our life.
My job now is to wake and care for my family physical needs most days.
My children have the job of learning about how to love and obey God and take care of this world.
My husband........ is looking for payed work.
We came to this point at the end of July. We had just fixed our van's fuel pump and gone on a wonderful family vacation with my husbands family. We were refreshed and relaxed. Which was great because for months I have felt on edge. I needed to prepare... but for what? The Lord is so gracious to give the answer to that question.
We were prepared for this event and don't fear tomorrow. We can see the blessing of this job loss in some areas already. We are excited to see what adventure God has planned for us. We are resting in Christ and that this is for our good and His glory! Pray that having Daddy home will allow all of us to grow in godliness  as we love and serve one an other. Also that we will focus our hearts on God at this time and not the fears of this world. Thank you.

Identity in a Changing World

 

Who am I?

I have struggled with this question of who I am for years. For years my identifying  markers have changed. In the last 10 years nothing about me has been the same every year. So who am I?  I have gone from Miss to Mrs. My last name changed. I have gone from High School to College student to Homemaker. I have been pregnant five consecutive years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). My name is often "Mommy". I have moved four times in three years. I have been debt free, to in debt, to debt free but the house. I have been jobless and employed, self employed and retired. I have gone from enmity with God to child of God by faith in Christ. There I am,  that is my resting place in Christ alone.

In the next decade.... am looking forward knowing not what changes will lay ahead. I do know my dearly loved Grandparents are aging and probably will not be with us on earth much longer. I savor every visit with them, every interaction. I love them then the know as life races around me I feel I don't tell them often enough....

We may be blessed with babies that may come or not come...yet I know I will have a teenager in 2020. Life is so fleeting. She is four and time only pass faster. I must remember to savor her. I must remember nothing is as important as giving her the Lord. I have to remember who I am and share.

The Lord has plans for the next 10 years... and if He wills I will see them with him guiding me.

Psalm 119: 111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever,

for they are the joy of my heart.

Discouragement

Well.... Life. I don't like were we are. How did we get here? Okay deep breath. THIS is not what life is to be like is it? Well, God and I have been having some words. I have been struggling to understand what is wrong... what to change and how to change it....
The only thing that can change is the hearts of the people who live in this house. The only one who can change the hearts of the ones in this house it the Lord

19And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will [4] bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.” Ezekiel 11: 19-21

The wonderful thing about God's Word is that when I am discouraged and down hearted and read anything, I come away encouraged... a spark of hope. May God's glory begin in me today.

The Best Money I ever spent....

Five years ago we were like most young couples facing a wedding. We paid for most of our own wedding and asked for help instead of gifts. The one thing we almost did not do was have our wedding videoed. If a high school friend of David's had not offered to do it discounted, we would have passed.

That was the best money we spent on our wedding.

I have had the joy of watching my wedding several times in a week because it is my three children's favorite video. They love seeing all their family. It is a sermon and a testament to Christ's love for us all so watch away sweet blessings!!

Heritage Homestead Estabished

Welcome to the "First Post". The name of this blog is a combination of things I love. I represent my family and speak for them. We have a family verse from the bible, it speaks of children as a heritage. We have three lovely children, so far. We am learning to trust God at his word daily. We truly believe our family is a heritage given by the Lord! Our work is not what we produce with our hands, that will fade away, but it is the lives we shape and form with our words and actions. Homesteading is a way of life, a self-sufficiency way of living. I would say our homestead is more about learning to trust in God's sufficiency in all things. Our home is a place where we learn and grow in God's truths, so welcome to our Heritage Homestead.

Psalm 127 (English Standard Version)
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

 ¹Unless the LORD builds the house,
   those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
   the watchman stays awake in vain.
²It is in vain that you rise up early
   and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
   for he gives to his  beloved sleep.
 ³Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
   the fruit of the womb a reward.
⁴Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
   are the children of one’s youth.
⁵Blessed is the man
   who fills his quiver with them!
6He shall not be put to shame
   when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.