Do not lose heart

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9

It has been a really tough week or so. It is very hard sometimes to stand for what is right and do what the Bible says.

Things that have happened in our lives the past seven years have not at times been easy. We endured. Did we endure in a way that was uplifting to Christ, where others may say, "look at what they are going through and still they are praising God the entire way"? No, we did not endure each situation with the most Christ like approach. Looking back, we could of handle things much differently.

About a year ago, my husband took a drastic change to the way he was handling a certain situation that had been going on for some time. I followed suit, not immediately, but after seeing how much better he felt, I was not far behind. Well maybe a little bit further behind than I would like to admit!!

It was hard to look at the way we were effecting the lives of not only ourselves but our children also. We wanted for them to see that, hey, we are human, we made a mistake and from this moment on, we are going to do what the Bible says and not expect others to change, but we can change how we are doing things.

It was good, the Lord has blessed us, not only with learning about forgiveness, but with a mighty sense of peace.

Doing what is right is not always easy, but doing what we know is right, feels really good!! It's hard being persecuted, but when you fall under attack by other Christians for doing what is right, it really hits hard. That's ok.

When reading tonight I came across Galatians 6:9. That verse was God's awesome way of telling me keep on doing what you are doing and do not be weary, if I do not give up and lose heart doing what I know is right, better things are to come.

For those that may be going through hard times, I hope that this verse will bring you some comfort as it has brought me tonight!

Moonlite Drive-In

Last night Bradley wanted to go to the drive-in here in Woodbury, I really was not in the mood, Jeremy was working and I really wanted him to go with us. Who am I to rain on the parade, so off we went! The good thing about the Moonlite Drive-in, is you pay $6 to get in, but you see two movies. The movies we chose were Indiana Jones and Iron Man. Here are some pictures....

The Drive-in Bradley was messing with DJ, so he was smiling all cheesy!

Here is one of Bradley acting all sweet and innocence.

Joey bored and ready for it to turn dark, so he can get something to drink and eat so he can watch the movie.
Of course, a cheesy one of me!

DJ's Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, DJ had an opportunity to have a senior session for free, so the photographers could do a practice run. He just finished 10th grade, so it was a little early for senior pictures.....but I can't past up free!! Here are a few of my favorites.

Survival 101

Well it is 56 days until we leave for the Dominican mission trip. I do not allow my children to talk to me about plane crashes, episodes of LOST or episodes of Man vs. Wild. It is their passion in life to scare the wits out of me about flying. Granted, I do not need much help!

Tonight, Joey walks up to me while I heating up left over spaghetti for him, so sincere with his eyes full of complete love for me. He says, "I need to tell you something before you go to the Dominican."

Mind you, usually if one the the kids are going to terrorize me about flying, there is this evil gleam in their eyes.

I was like, o.k. baby what is it? Fully expecting something so sweet to come from his mouth. He says......."if you get stranded on a beach and need fresh water. Dig a hole in the sand, put sea water in it, then pee in the water. The next day you will be able to drink it." (Thinking to myself.....Oooooooo.K!) "I wanted to tell you this, so you will be prepared when your plane crashes. The man on Man vs. Wild drank it and he survived." (He said WHEN!!)

I love Joey, so much.

Weekend Review

Well as the weekend is drawing to a close, and a busy week is getting ready to unfold, I thought I would share what went on the past two days and some things that are on my mind.

First, my friend Cindy invited me to join her on Saturday, where I have found a new passion in life.......PEDICURES!! Yep, I never had one and I am totally in love with this place called Nails So Happy!! Of course I was a little nervous when we sat in this chair that vibrated and this little Oriental man walked over and begin to talking to me, which I did not understand a word he said, by the way. But then the happy began!! My feet were horribly yucky and cracked, just plain embarrassing! When he was done, ooh la la! My feet look wonderful! I had to change my whole outfit for church this morning to wear something that required shoes where my toes would show! Like I said, a new passion in my life.....poor Jeremy! Here is picture of Cindy.

Another of my feet!!

When I got home from the wonderful pedicure, new babies where born. Our last expecting goat had twins, a boy and girl. They are so cute!!

To close out the weekend was a VBS meeting for a church that we were members at before we joined Calvary. For 8 years, I was their VBS director. Last year, we left Open Bible to join our new church home Calvary Baptist. We left Open Bible, not because of problems within the church, but because we felt like we needed a church that was more suitable for a family of teenagers and basically we felt a strong push from God, telling us it was time to move.

Well, how am I directing a VBS at a church I am no longer a member of? Good question! They needed someone that has directed before, and my prayer is that after Vacation Bible School this year, it will not feel so overwhelming for someone to step up and direct next year.

It took me some time to get to this point, but there is a song I continually listen to from a CD that DJ purchased called JESUS, Lover of my soul (it's all about You). I get much comfort from this song whenever I start freaking out about going on the mission trip to the Dominican. I pop it in and realize that it is not about me, but Him. After listening to the song, I am again energized! (I would love to post the song, but I am still new to blogging and can not quite figure it out yet, maybe soon!)

So, why not direct a VBS for this church in need. It is hard work, but there is a child out there that may be waiting to her about our Savior. Even though our summer is so jammed full, I would hate for that child to miss out of living eternity with our Lord.

Dominican Republic Update

We will be leaving for our mission trip to the Dominican in 62 days.

Goodness!

For those of you that do not know......I do not fly! I am so scared to fly that I start to get panicky in the airport parking lot. If it were not for the flight, I am sure I would be panicked about the actual trip itself....but I can not even process the events past the plane trip!

A friend from church works at the airport and told me tonight that she is going to see if she can get me on a plane to see if it would help. I am nervous about even getting on a plane that is not flying.

Seriously, last night I was watching tv and these two people were on a plane, and it was such close quarters. I turned and asked Jeremy, does it really look like that in a plane? Which he said yes......and I felt my heart rate start to quicken and asked the Lord, why me??

Last year, Jeremy and kids wanted to take a helicopter ride through the mountains. Trust me, not my idea. My oldest was scared to fly, and being the brave and good mom, that I try to be, told him, "Hey, we will conquer our fear together. It will be fun!" Famous last words.

As we climbed into this helicopter, and as it lifted off the ground, immediate panic attack. I tried very hard to hide my total fear, but it did not last long. To make a long story short, I ruined the trip for the entire family, except for Bradley, he was in the front of the helicopter and could not see me. As the helicopter made the final loop to land on the pad, I broke down into total panic mode. Needless to say, I lived, the kids loved flying and Jeremy swore that was the last time he would ever leave the ground with me with him!

The verse I have been hanging on so tightly to is 2 Timothy 1:7, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

God, with his wonderful sense of humor, has called me on this trip. Why He called me? I am trying not to question. I feel very insignificant, and really do not know what I can offer to those that are there. What I do know is I feel this very strong urge that I need to be there. I am praying for a spirit of courage and power, and I am so looking forward to what God is going to reveal to me and DJ on this trip. I am very moved to see DJ's excitment about this trip and his willingness to serve others.

Please pray for a sense of peace and mighty courage for me.

Mother's Day

As you know today is Mother's Day, always a very busy day. Last night, I did not go to bed until well after 3am, knowing the alarm was set for 6am. So needless to say, getting up and going this morning was a very hard thing to do. When I got out of the shower this morning, this was waiting for me outside my bathroom door.


Notice the wrapping job? Joey spent about 45 minutes yesterday wrapping this for me, some Christmas wrapping paper and a WHOLE roll of tape later, voila, my present awaits. So we all pile into our bed for the big reveal........

An ice cream maker!! Joey has wanted to get this for about a month. Now that he does not get sick off of raw goats milk, he has been ready for goat milk ice cream!

After a trip to the store, cookies and cream is mixing around.

A little chill time in the freezer.

The final product!!

Yummy!

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Proverbs 31:28

I remember reading this verse on one Mother's Day as a child, sitting at Long Branch Baptist Church, for a Mother's Day service, next to my Granny. With so many corsage's on, I am surprised she could stand up straight! It never occurred to me that one day I would be so blessed to be a mom!

Besides the usual fighting between brothers, Jeremy having to work and the cold weather today, I am a lucky mom! I thank my Lord every day for my wonderful husband and children.

Mommy's Baby Diary Goat

Well, here is my dairy goat I was telling you about. Right now I am calling her Mommy's Baby Dairy Goat, because I really can't find a name I like for her. I like old lady names, but just have not came across the right one yet.

For years my youngest Joey has been intolerant of milk, not lactose intolerant, but just plain 'ol intolerant. So for years he has been on either soy milk or rice milk, which can be pricey. We raise market goats and a friend of ours that raises dairy goats, told me to try him on raw goat milk. Well of course, I fought it and did not want to pay the pricey amount for the raw goat milk. I did tons of research and thought well, lets give it a try.

So here we are, Joey has been drinking raw goats milk for about a month now and has not once gotten sick! Praise the Lord! It has been such a long battle. He still has been sick this month, but due to something he ate with milk in it rather than drinking milk. So that is one step further in the right direction with his digestive tract!

Now comes all the hard work of having a dairy goat......I thought maybe I would post what we do twice a day for my non-farm friendly family and friends.

Here are all the supplies I use, a stainless steel bucket, quart jar, funnel, coffee filter, baby wipes and fight bac.

Here is Mommy's Baby Dairy Goat on her milking stand, eating her supper. I clean her teats and udders with the baby wipes really well before I start milking and then give the dog 6 squirts of milk before I actually start milking into the stainless steel bucket.

This is the milk in the bucket after milking her. When she is finished milking I squirt each teat with Fight Bac, which is a disinfectant to kill bacteria and help control mastitis.

After milking her, she is off to her pen, and we then bring her milk in and filter it into a quart jar, to make sure it's pure.

The finished Product! One quart of fresh, raw goats milk!

What a bad blogger!

OK, I guess it is official, I am a bad blogger!! I was just talking to my cousin on Sunday and telling her that I have so much to say and would do wonderful at my blog........except, I never write down my thoughts!! Ughh!

My excuses......

I'm to busy right now, I will do it when the kids are asleep, and I have a minute to myself.

What I wanted to say, is days old and yesterdays news, so I will wait until tomorrow when something interesting happens.

What I want to talk about are my fears of this upcoming missions trip to the Dominica Republic and nobody wants to read about that!

There are tons more, trust me. My replies to myself to the excuses are....

I'm always busy, why wait until the kids are asleep? They would get a kick out of things I might say and may actually offer some comments.

Everything in our lives are interesting, maybe to me, but never the less, why not post about last week? Is there a law?

Maybe, just maybe....someone out there could calm my fears about this upcoming missions trip to the Dominican Republic and offer some sound, encouraging, uplifting advice, or just "you can do it" chants, that would boost my self-confidence about this event!

So there are my excuses and my answers to my excuses. With that being said....here is what has been going on since my last post!

We had a wonderful time in Gatlinburg with the family. I hurt myself on a roller coaster and was out of commission for almost 2 weeks. A word of advice, when a roller coaster has a sign up warning you to the dangers of holding your hand in the air when the ride is in motion......PAY ATTENTION!! (I will never live that down!)

We now have a diary goat!! Tons of adventure with this one!! I can't quite pick a name for her, so I have been calling her "Mommy's Baby Dairy Goat". I will post much more about her tomorrow, along with a few pictures!

Our cat, Gracie had four kittens in March and we have just given away two of them, much to my dismay, because I LOVE cats and kittens so much! We have one more to give away if you are interested, his name is Big Bopper. Jeremy and I have fallen in love with one of them that we named Mable, she is just to cute. I almost fainted when Jeremy wanted to keep her!!

DJ had some pictures made today for his senior year. Although he will not graduate until 2010, it was a special promotional thing, I could not pass up. I thought I would break out in tears, because he looked so grown up. I will have those back in three weeks....I can't wait to post a few to show everyone how handsome he is!

So that is just a few things. My goal is to post.....REGULARLY!! We will see how that works out!