Kings Castle Farm

Dinner at my sisters

This afternoon we went to my sister Tracy's house to see it and have dinner.  Tracy and her husband Andy bought this house a coupleweeks ago, but have just finished painting and fixing it up.   The house is cute and big, I love it.  I love the color she painted it.  This is her 1st time owning a house.  There was only one problem . "How many men does it take to hang one picture"?

We girls were laughing so hard. We kept telling each other if we did it we would be done by now   !!

From left to right is my husband Shannon, my dad Mike, my b-i-l Andy.  Shhh, it took them about 15 + minutes !

Dinner was great.  It was Tracy and Andy , our parents, our aunt and 2 cousins and Michelle, Gill and the babies and of course us 4.   We thought that the babies would come with us because when they see us they always want to come back "home".   The grand-babies cam home with us .

We had a blast and can't wait to go again.

God Bless all, mj

God loves a cheerful giver

God loves a cheerful giver

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:6,7 NASB

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You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

Deuteronomy 15:10 ESV

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O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own.

I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.

1 Chronicles 29:16,17 KJV

Budget Friendly supper....

Dad's home, first week of school, Lauren's tonsilectomy...

Ok, I've decided to stop saying I'm going to post more often, as every time I say that, I seem to go days without getting on the computer.

Here is an overdue update on us...

Dad is home from the hospital, and is doing 'ok'.  He found out Wednesday he has kidney failure and had it before the back surgery was done at the beginning of August.  None of his doctors ever mentioned this, so he / we had no idea.  They say his blood sugars being out of control probably attributed to it and they raised the dosage of his glucotrol.  He doesn't take insulin at home, but they do give it to him at the hospital, when he's there.  He has never been diagnosed with diabetes, but his sugars are all over the place.

He was discharged on Thursday and assigned a visiting nurse to have his vitals checked every other day.

My mom and dad will be moving again around September 20th.  The home they are renting now is in foreclosure and they don't know when it will be posted.  They've already put some of dad's things into storage, so they mostly just have the house things left to move. 

They will be moving into a very nice place located one block from Lake Michigan and less than a block from my brother Dustin's place.  The new place has 7 acres and yardwork/upkeep/plowing is all included in their rent.  It seems ideal.  Dad is happy about the room to roam and get into troubles with Lilli, and mom is happy that it's a nice area for walking.  I hope this place works out for them.  :)

Lilli started school with just a half day on Tuesday.  Wednesday through Friday were full days, and so far, she seems to enjoy it.  She did say that she doesn't like first grade because she doesn't like doing all that work.  I tried to warn her that it was probably going to get a bit worse before it got better.  LOL. 

She hasn't had any trouble going to bed at night (we have a 8ish bedtime), nor getting up in the morning.  She's been great on both of those, even falling asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.

She started dance on Thursday.  She had signed up for ballet and jazz.  Then decided she really wanted to take tap as well.  She stayed and tried the class and loved it, so it looks like we'll have to buy tap shoes this week, and figure out what we owe now, since we already paid for two classes, not three. 

Ballet is from 6-6:45.  Jazz is from 6:45-7:30.  Tap is from 7:30-8. 

So we'll be at dance from 6-8PM every Thursday evening.

The only reason we ok'd the third class was because it is back-to-back with the other classes she is taking.  We can't make the drive more than once per week, so she had to find something that was all on one night.  I was glad when she DIDN"T want to take tap, as that class ends at 8PM (our bedtime).  I really don't mind her taking it if she likes it though, and it's only once per week, and it's on Thursday nights, so she only has one day of school left in the week after her late night.

There are also two little girls in all three classes with her that were in her Acro class last year.  She was very happy about that.

She starts her horse riding lessons tomorrow morning, if it isn't raining.

Lauren had her tonsils out on Thursday this last week.  At 22 months, she's very young, so they told us she'd have to spend the night in the hospital following the procedure.  We made all the preparations for me to stay at the hospital with her and Lance to come home and get Lilli from school and take her to dance, etc. 

In recovery, the Dr came in several times saying that she'd probably need to spend the night, but the nurses kept saying that she would rally and probably go home soon.  She was crying and incoherent, so we weren't sure what was going to happen.  She did finally snap out of the anesthesia and when the nurse asked about a popsicle, she said, 'sicle, sicle'.  LOL.  She ate 4 popsicles!  The Dr came in and said she would be fine to go home.  LOL

They told us that french fries were great to feed her as they were soft and salty (which would make her drink more), so we stopped by McDonald's on the way home.  She seemed to eat a lot, but then we figured out she was chewing them, but not swallowing them.  She would get a mouth full and then spit them out in the box.  Ah well, she was going through the motions anyway.  Ewww.

She went right back to drinking and eating normal within just a short time of being home.  She did sleep a lot, and has been sleeping a lot since then, as she's on Tylenol with Codeine every 4 hours around the clock.  It makes her tired, fussy, and a bit confused and wobbly.  She does sometimes seem to be in pain before the next dose is due, so we continue to give it to her as directed.  Hopefully we can slow down on it tomorrow sometime. 

They also put her on an antibiotic (Amoxicillan) as her tonsils were infected when they took them out.  I had pointed them out to Lance the night before the surgery, as I didn't know if they'd still do the surgery or not.  I'm glad they did though, she got sick with them so often :(  The doctor assured us we were going to see a new little girl.  He said he didn't know how she could breathe with them being so big, much less sleep (she snores) or eat/swallow. 

Lance is doing good, but working a lot.  Usually 6AM-4PM, Mon-Fri, but lately it's been Saturday and sometimes Sunday too.  He worked today and I think he's doing some work for his cousin tomorrow.

He fixed my vaccuum today.  I'm not sure what was wrong with it.  He found that I'd somehow vaccuumed up two bouncy balls ??  I honestly have no idea how that happened.  I really don't think I did it, but I can't think of any other way they'd have gotten in there.  I don't know if that's why it broke, but he did inform me that he didn't want me running over any more.  LOL. 

I hope to take Lauren to storytime at the library, and to playgroup this week.  Both are right here in our small town, so there aren't a lot of miles involved.  Playgroup is weekly, but I don't think storytime is.  We'll have to see.

I'm off to put Lauren down for a nap.  I hope to post again SOON.  LOL

The Start

My name is mj and I am Shannon's help meet.  Shannon is a Mr. Command Man, as described in Debi Pearl's book.   Some times it is hard to be a wife of a Command Man, if you are a strong dominant woman.   I am just about as hard headed as Shannon.  It took me years to give him the head of the household role and I do mean YEARS!   But it was all worth it!   To have him in charge of it all is such a weight off me. 

But some times there are problems.  An example is with our older daughter Shayna.  Shayna is a very good girl, but boy is she strong willed, I have no clue where she got that from .   The problem was Shayna spoke to me rude and then to her dad.  He and I talked to her about it but stopped when it was dinner time.  Shannon said he would talk to her again after dinner but did not.   That was hard for me because it was not resolved.  I wanted it done and over with.

It was hard for me to not say something about his not talking to her more.  He knew I wanted to say it, but did not.

This blog is a part of my journey of working everyday on being the help meet Shannon needs and God wants me to be.

God Bless, mj

Family Identity

Every night we share the most special time as a family – devotions.  We sit around the kitchen table and we read from the selection for the evening.  We are reading through the New Testament right now and are in Acts.  The children that are too young to read, repeat after Dad as he reads a scripture.  Then each family member who can read takes a turn.  We discuss the reading and then close with prayer.  Some nights we focus our prayer on our family, other times we rotate to pray for our church, friends, extended family, missionaries and other topics.  Occasionally we will also enjoy a time of signing before or after our devotion. 

The time we do devotions is 8:00 PM and it is a wonderful way to wind down the little ones before bed.  The children also get to practice sitting quietly, closing their eyes during prayer, and saying prayers.  As parents, this is a time as a family that we can offer spiritual direction but also correct our children’s behavior.  This is one of the ways we are establishing a family identity.

If you have followed my blog for long, you now that our six children are adopted.  We also have a niece that we are raising.  Our goal for our children is to be more influenced by our family than by others that may enter their lives.  Therefore, we want to create a strong family identity.  This is who we are. 

When my niece came to live with us, my 8 year old daughter told her, “we are a hard working family, we raise our own food, make our own clothes, we don’t watch television, we wear dresses, we go to church, this is just who we are.”  At 8 she already knows some of the core ideas of who we are as a family.  We have family sayings like, “Makaleas never quit!”  We have funny names that we refer to our family as, like the Makaneeta Monkeys. 

On this blog you read lots about what we accomplish on our homestead as a family.  This is all done as a family unit.  It is building our identity.  It is part of who we are and it connects us.  We don’t live this lifestyle just to have done it.  We live this lifestyle because it is a core belief that it enriches our family in so many ways. 

Pictures

Here is a picture of my husband and  one of his fish he caught on one of his trips to Mexico, my hubby is the one in the red tank top:

Here is one from 2 weeks ago:

Have you ever seen a horse drink from a park fountain:

That is Kristi and Cody. It was taken last fall.

This next one is my father on his bike with his little dog George.  They ride around Vegas like this.  Aren't they cute!

Moose for sale.  As Shayna was listing some books for sale on E-bay her cat Moose was helping out.  Yup he wore some stickers that said 50% off and 75% off.  I think he thought he was worth more as you can tell he was not happy about his price .

God Bless, mj

Mom ,what one do you like ?

Kristi is a bad girl .  While we were out shopping she picked up on 3 guys, three!!!

Here is boy friend number 1, he's cute but kinda stiff:

Next we have boy friend number 2, but he is kind of two faced:

And last we have boy friend number 3, my favorite, he cost $74.36 just for 1 date, so he must be worth it :

Who says shopping at Sam's with a cell phone is not fun .  Kristi and I had a blast .  But really Kristi you need to stop picking up new boy friends when we shop.  LOL

Teenagers what can I do?!?!?!

God Bless, mj

Why again did we buy pigs.....

Oh, yes, it's part of this whole self sustaining lifestyle we are trying to lead.  Well, the pigs are getting bigger and they love and I do mean love to try to get out of their pen.  My honey built them this nice big pen in our barn that keeps them sheltered from heat and rain.  Do they appreciate all of his hard work?  No.  I guess the grass is greener on the other side , as they say.  So honey has been doing all sorts of fence mending, LOL, to try to keep these little devils in.  They are still so small that they can squeeze their little bodies through the hog wire.  So yesterday hubby wove barbed wire through the holes.  Well, this was the scene this morning.

I think Betty and Wilma were getting the best of him.LOL

So now the love of my life, has wood pallets lined up all over the pig pen.  It looks horrendous but oh well.  It's just until they are too big to squeeze through the holes.  We will soon have our garden spot fenced in so that they can graze on it.  We will have a door on the side of the barn for them to go in and out.  That way they will have shelter and be tilling and fertilizing my garden spot. 

We fared very well from the hurricane.  We got lots and I mean lots of rain.  My yard is a sopping wet mess but it could have been so much worse.   Here's a pic of the horses yesterday.  I think they were just tired of the rain but they wouldn't get out of it.

We have had so much going on here since the buying of the new homestead.  We love it so much here.  Here is the hammock that my DH put up for us before the rain came in.  The kids love it!!!  They will take their pillows and blankets out and read a book in the hammock.  I hope to see them out there a good bit between now and winter.

Since the purchase of the house, groceries and gas have tripled.  This has really dipped into the budget.  We have not had the resources to buy all of the supplies that we have wanted for the new homestead.  However, we did read in the Market Bulletin this past week that a guy wanted someone to come and take down a shed and do the cleanup and you could keep the materials from it.  Dh went over to look at it today.  It was an old smoke house.  So he and our son will go start to take it apart in the morning.  We are so thankful.  We will be using the siding for our garden shed and hopefully the roof will be used for a new chicken coop this spring.  We hope to triple our flock but we will need a new coop.  This will put us on our way. 

Like I said, we have had a lot going on.  One thing as of late, is our muscadines and pears are ready and I have been making jelly and jam.  I am so thankful for what the Lord has provided.  These will make wonderful Christmas gifts on a very tight budget.

I hope you are all doing well and bless you!!!

Benefits of the new day and perspective

 And so dawned a new day.
Thankfully yesterday is but a pale distant memory.
Add snicker here.
Well, it’s enough of a memory.
Today was a much more FANTASTIC 2^nd day of school.
I thought to try my schedule for Mr. Conductor one more day before trying a revamp and I’m glad we did.
Today was great. We did everything on the schedule and had so much fun together. Plus we were done in 45 minutes and he was off painting his latest masterpiece with his new watercolors while I worked with the girls. In order to work without much interruption with Mr. C, I assigned Sassafras to read one of her assignments to herself rather than doing it with her. It went well.
The only blip is that it seems I have misplaced one of Maiden’s grammar books. I didn’t do the frantic search like yesterday- just a quick one- but fruitless all the same. We decided to make it a matter of prayer and pray that it shows up within the next day or so----- or my memory becomes equally clear as to where I may have put it . . . . . .
That could be a bit of awhile.
No matter- today was a good day. We enjoyed our learning, had great discussion and just plain fun doing it.
It is my hope and prayer that we have many more days like today than days like yesterday.
To do that one needs to have perspective.
Perspective.
It starts with me- if I wake up in a lousy mood it’s a pretty safe hypothesis that we’ll have a lousy day.
If I sleep in and don’t get up ahead of the children and have my coffee and quiet time . . . . . well, it’s just not good, people.
Today could possibly have gone down yesterday’s road if I’d let it- what with the missing grammar book and all that.
But it didn’t.
It was icing on the cake to have Mr. C do so well- but I was also prepared to let him run off if it was necessary.
There is only so much one’s sanity can take.
I continue to learn that even in the small every day stuff it is necessary- no VITAL, for me to go to God’s strength first and not go “own my own”. I work with the children to make it a habit to commit our day to the Lord first and ask Him to help us to accomplish all that He desires for us today.
We are never suppose to go it on own strength and then go to God when we’re burned-out and strung-out, gasping for air and begging for mercy. That’s backwards. He is our strength even in the mundane day-to-day-ness of each 24 hour period.
He’s my strength when we’re just starting the day and we’re eager to crack our books and get started.
And He’s my strength when I’m juggling teaching 3 school levels and the doorbell chimes along with the ring of the phone.
He’s my strength when we stretch one meal to two- including leftover for Mr. Steady’s lunch.
Just as He’s my strength when Mr. Steady takes the wrong container of leftovers to work and it throws off the dinner plans.
He’s my strength when Mr. Steady and his brother take turns driving to work to both economize on gas.
And He is my strength when Mr. Steady reveals to me that he put the spare tire on his car because one tire was so bald he thought it would blow-out.
Amazingly enough- I have no idea what kind of strength I will need for each day but I do know this---
What I have on my own will never be enough.
Not ever.
And so being the ever practical sort- I find it best to lean on and invite God’s strength at the beginning of each new day.
Sure I’ll still have those bad days- those Oh-I-just-want-to-go-back-to-bed-and-start-over-or-just-skip-it-and-sleep-through-it days. I’ll have those days when I “forget” to commit the day to the Lord and ask for His strength to lead me through.
And I will fall completely flat on my face.
Good thing God makes each day new.
Thank you Lord for the chances and opportunities each new day brings.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not His benefits. Blessed be the Lord. Who daily loads us with benefits. Psalm 103:2, 68:19