Sheep, Emma, had babies!

 

Emma had twins Saturday night!! The other sheep stood guard while she labored. We just let her do her natural thing and lo, two healthy adorable babies!

They are so tiny and  perfect. We are holding them as much as possible so they will be more tame than their mothers.

Spring is here with her two daughters for a month. It's so awesome.

Ben and Courtnie came by Friday and spent the night. It's always so special to have family here.

So my heart is full for my little lambs and my other lambs🥰

You know, loving others is how you show Jesus you love him. In the Bible he asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" When Peter said,"yes" Christ said Three times .."Feed my lambs", "Feed my sheep", "Feed my sheep".

What Jesus meant was that if Peter loved Him then should teach the children (lambs) and adults (sheep) about Jesus. So if you want to be fed. Come visit us and hold a lamb and let's talk about Jesus.

Reg is left behind!

 

This week we had the pleasure of making a delicious lunch for a group of 150 missionaries.

The event was supposed to start at 10am and was right next door to the Kansas City temple so we reserved a spot for 11:30. 

We went in to the recommend desk and I went through but Reg was stopped. His recommend had expired in September! Wah! So I went on without him and he went back to help with more serving and clean up.  

On the way home we made appointments with our leaders and the next day we went back to the temple together. Then the next day Ephraim had time to go with us so we went again. THREE days in a row! That's a record🥰

You may wonder why we care about temples so much. They are not open on Sunday, only during the week. Temples are a place where we can help our ancestors to make the covenants they need to move forward in the spirit world and be sealed to each other.

 Eternal marriage vs "death do us part". It's a beautiful gift and it's not forced upon them. They can choose to accept or reject the work.  It's our way of showing our love and respect to those who came before 

It's also a way of healing broken family relationships. There are so many people I know who have done work for deceased parents and grandparent who they have hated all their lives due to abuse and offences. They find peace and forgiveness and relief! 

The work for our dead heals forward and backwards.

Also this week we drove 12 hours to drop off Autumn's boys. We drove six hours and met her half way to save her two 12 hour drives! It was so fun and literally in the middle of nowhere!

Spring is coming in Wednesday with her two daughters and will stay for a month!! I am so grateful my children want to be near us. We are blessed in our old age. Thank you Jesus.

Ponderings on Parenting

 Last week we had the joy of babysitting our grandsons, Emmet (age 9) and Taran (age 4).  They go home on Wednesday this week.  What a delight and adventure it has been to be a 24/7 parent again and to be honest, it's been exhausting too.  

Just the weight of "alertness" keeping them safe, keeping them at peace, keeping them learning, keeping them focused.  It's not a part-time job, it is a FULL-time job.  

Some of the highlights have been, HOMESCHOOLING....I had the privilege of seeing the excitement in Emmet's face when he conquered long division which at first, he said he didn't need to know, then tolerated my efforts, then started to get it and by day 4 was saying, "I can't wait to show mom I know how to do this!!"  He's really quite bright.  I never did master long division in 4th grade, It just didn't make sense to me. He picked it up in 4 days.

Little Taran used the abacus to learn + means "add to" and - means "take away" from.  BIG concepts for a four-year-old. Plus his phonics skills are fantastic. I love to listen to him read his Bob Books.

We kept busy ALL day doing "farm chores", sit down learning, play learning, art, costume building, book reading, free play, and CLEAN UP, CLEAN UP, CLEAN UP.  lol.  So many opportunities for things to be out of place.

Then there's the COOKING.  They are really good at trying one bite, but figuring out what they loved to eat was tricky and of course then trying to match that with what WE love to eat. HAHAH!  |I went to a relief society conference on Saturday and learned how to make healthy cheese crackers (sharp cheese, butter, salt, and flour-NO preservatives, no dyes) and healthy peanut butter cups!! Whoo HOO!!  Also at that conference we did Zumba for 30 min and Yoga for 30 min.  I was inspired.  ZUMBA is SO FUN.

MUSIC!  What fun songs and rhythms we learned on piano, drum, Music Ace Deluxe (a great computer game), singing and kazooooo!

We exercised a lot by playing outside, riding bikes, or running around in the great room upstairs...When I say WE were running, I mean, I sat on the couch and directed them as they chased each other in circles around an obstacle course I created and THEY jumped on the mini trampoline and dove over and under boxes from Amazon.  It's what Reg and I call "Horizontal Parenting"...you still appear to be involved, but you are not moving and they are getting all their energy out.  Try it, you'll like it.

Then there was the SPIRITUAL nurturing.  So many great conversations about Jesus.  "What if the bad guys throw a nuclear bomb at Jesus? Would he survive?", "Why do we have to pray? Can't we just know God is there and if He can read my mind, why do I need to pray?"  "What does faith LOOK like?"  "Why do you still love Farley even when he chases the sheep and you yell at him?"

I want to testify that the time and effort you spend with children (your own or otherwise) to help them become closer to Christ and develop their own super powers of physical, intellectual, and emotional skills, will be BLESSED.  You will be blessed with good ideas, energy, and rest.  Involve the Lord in all things from food to reading, fort building to math....HE is great at all of it and will inspire you. 

The world will be a better place because you made the effort to help another human being become inspired, enlightened, capable and feel loved.  

The least respected/honored and lowest paid jobs in our wicked society are that of PARENTING/NURTURING, teaching, and custodial.  

I believe THESE are, of course, the most important jobs to God. They help humans to be better people (when done intentionally). Unfortunately, because of society's disregard, some of the people doing these jobs see themselves in a "shabby" way and they slack.  Don't slack.  Honor your work.  You are helping the Savior do HIS WORK when you nurture, teach, and keep things clean, safe, and orderly.  

Staying home to care for your children is not something to do because you can't do anything else.  It is something to do because you can do everything with Jesus.

Karaoke and the magic of music

 

Sorry this is late. As we push to finish all the big projects before our mission work kicks in were blessed with many visitors and fun this week. Starting with Reg and I dressing up and going to the Renaissance Faire!

It was a really good one with permanent buildings and lots of great vendors 

We saw great shows and shared a smoked turkey leg and shouted Huzzah!!!

Reg finished Farley's insulated and cozy dog house. Ephraim went into it to convince Farley that was a place he really wanted to be, even in a storm.

How often do you sacrifice or go the extra mile to help others see where they will be safest or most taken care of? Well it worked. During a storm we looked out and Farley was cozy in his house!

One of my best friends in highschool who I have not seen in thirty years came to visit me while he was out here on a business trip.

We played piano and sang and laughed and cried. It was a wonderful wonderful visit! I'm so grateful he sacrificed his time to come!

Then Autumn's family plus her inlaws came for several days. It's been a big time party!! Too much fun food and lots of good work too. Then my friends came over for a karaoke night. As we chatted before we started I realized that every one of my friends was having a lot of stress and grief at home. Singing to and with their friends was a very good way to relieve that stress and self regulate. We had so much joy!

Then my kids joined in and my friends loved it.

Ephraim came home from being at the Ren Faire with his girlfriend and started charming the socks off my friends. The power of good music and singing, not just listening is so good for you. Not everyone sings great and no one cares!  All welcome, all levels, just sing and your heart will be lifted as well as those who listen.

An Irish Tale for Dark Times

 

This week we were able to lead our sheep in and out of the barn so nicely it was amazing.  Reg goes out three times a day to train them and I often go with him.  Yesterday I was able to lead them alone into the fenced garden area where they grazed down all the weeds.

Galinda came over to me as I sat in my chair in the field. She wanted to be petted and petted.  It was precious. The other sheep grazed nearby and it was so peaceful.  I was very grateful for my strange new life of farming and homesteading, preparing to help others by creating productive and peaceful places.

This week Reg and I were both sniffly and sickish but functional.  We took an hour drive in the country and bought six more chickens. We were still able to help a ward member clean her apartment and move to a better apartment.

We were able to host a Self Reliance Class (12 students!) for How to Grow or Start your own business.  We were able to make soup for a community dinner and help with a family history workshop and set up an ofrenda in our church lobby for people to put pictures of deceased ancestors that they have taken to the temple or plan to take to the temple so they can remember and bless their ancestors.

We also went to a fall festival with our kids, Ben, Courtnie and little Wells!

So now that Irish tale I was inspired by this week:

There was a ship sailing from Ireland to America and the captain looked behind his ship and was very upset to find a giant whale following the ship.  He looked around and saw a chair and threw it at the whale.  It swallowed the chair but didn't go away.  

So the captain looked around and found a goat and threw it at the whale.  The whale swallowed the goat but didn't go away.  Then the captain took up a small barrel and threw it at the whale.  The whale swallowed the barrel but didn't go away.  

Then the captain noticed the cabin boy.  He took the poor boy and threw him overboard and the whale swallowed the boy and went away.  The ship continued to sail to America and when it came into the dock the captain was amazed to find the great whale dead upon the shore with lots of people standing around it staring at it.

"Cut it open! Cut it open!" he cried.  So the people did and there they saw the cabin boy sitting in a chair and milking a goat into a barrel.  The captain was so shocked by the sight that he fell down and almost died.

And as the Irish storyteller always says at the end of her stories, "And that's my story and if there's a lie in it, so be it." 

BUT, what I loved was her observations afterwards.  That cabin boy had a dark time in his life and he looked around inside that whale and gathered his resources.  He made himself comfortable in the chair and nourished himself with the goat milk and he made it through his dark time.

So my friends, when you are in a deep dark time, look to your resources.  Make your self comfortable find a place to curl up and rest, sit in a field and stare at nature, clean your personal space, and make yourself comfortable.  THEN nourish yourself.  Nourish yourself physically with healthy food, healing tea or whatever.  Nourish yourself spiritually and emotionally by turning to Christ, breathing deep, meditating, etc.  

She added one more thought...that wretched, selfish captain who did whatever it took to save himself even hurting others.  She said that some would wish revenge and thinking it would have been just if he HAD died from the shock. But revenge is not healthy.  Your best revenge is to LIVE WELL in your trials like the cabin boy did and you will be blessed. 

Christ is always with you in your darkest hours.  He lived them all personally so He could know exactly how to bring you peace and nurturing in your adventures.  I know this from experience.

Love you ALL!  Have a great week.