My husband was in a car wreck with a deer this weekend. Luckily no one was hurt except for the deer. He was traveling down a dark highway headed home, when a deer ran out from nowhere. He slammed on his breaks, but not in time. He hit the rear end of the deer going at least 65 miles per hour. It took out our grill plate, our right head light, and caused a leak in our radiator. So now our only "real" mode of transportation is sitting in the driveway, undriveable. We have an old truck that has a transmission fluid leak, and is "driveable", but not dependable.

The insurance is supposed to contact us on Monday and tell us what we need to do, but all bets are off that we're going to have a dependable vehicle before Thanksgiving. The bad news here is that my due date is only 2 weeks away, and we probably won't have a car within that time. The good news is that my parents live 2 blocks down the road and are available to drive me to the hospital if the time arrives.

I'm a little down  because I was intent on doing the bulk of my Christmas shopping either yesterday or on Monday, before baby's arrival, but that is not to happen I guess. I'll just continue on working on my homemade gifts for now and will have to do the rest of my shopping over the next several weeks.

I'm praising the Lord, however for my husband's safety. If he would have hit it any sooner, or any faster, it would have come up on the windshield, and if he would've swerved, which would've been my reaction, he would have hit oncoming traffic, and he and someone else could've been severely hurt.

Blessings, sara 

November 23

Giving Thanks Is Better Than Casting Blame

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house . . . ; he kneeled upon his knees three times a day.

Daniel 6:10a

Beep, beep, beep! “Why is that vehicle in front of us rolling backwards while we wait on the red light?” questioned the driver we were traveling with. The eighty-year-old man did not realize that he was to blame, for it was his vehicle that kept easing forward until it almost made contact with the car ahead of us. My wife and I were witnesses from the back seat of his car.

How often the Lord sees our misdeeds, while we blame another. In the Scripture reading today, Daniel was put to the test. He would have had plenty of reasons to blame others. Yet not one accusation escaped his lips. Daniel was aware that the prohibition against prayer had been signed by the king, but it did not make him stop praying to his God. He trusted God and blamed no one. He did not even blame the king for signing such a decree. Because of Daniels fervency in prayer, his life was spared.

We are going to go see Shannon's (my hubby) grandmother in the morning.  We went to see her about 2 weeks ago.  We did not think she would make it this long but she has.

Grandma will be 82 years old on Monday.  She has been going down hill for the last year.  Only 5 % of her heart is working.

I am going to miss her.  I love to hear her tell of the good old days.  She talks of the times when her and her hubby grew food to feed the family because they could not afford to other wise.

To hear of how the went from town to town picking veggies and fruit. To the lessons her mother taught her. How they survived all this hardship and still helped other out.

We all feel blessed to have her as long as we do/did.  The start of this year the Dr.'s told us to see her because she will not last much longer.   Grandma is still here.  We are even more blessed because we got a picture with grandma and 5 generations!!  Our grand babies made the 5th generation.

Mom called us to tell us she is much worse and passing out today.  So we will go see her. Mom says grandma will be here for a few more days, she thinks.

The world is a much sadder place when we lose people with such history that they can and do share with us.  When the world was a nicer place, people cared and helped each other out even when they had nothing them selves. 

I miss my grandparents.  My grandfather went home almost 14 years ago and my grandma went home 6 years ago.  I loved to sit a listen to them tell me about the good old days.

God Bless, mj

I am in need of prayer for the grand-babies.   Michelle went to Vegas to pick up the grand-babies.  She took Gill and his parents.   They were to meet my father but he is the hospital  because his liver is not working. 

What we need prayer is because  Michelle's father is coming to Vegas to see the babies.  Michelle's father molested her and more.  We were in court for 14 years with him.  He was found guilty but, nothing happened to him , no jail , nothing.  His mother kidnapped Michelle 5 times too.  Again nothing happened

Michelle has never told Gill or his parents about that.  So in the morning Michelle father is going to meet them and be around the grand-babies.   I would not mind so much if Michelle told Gill and his parents the truth about him.  Not here is my dad.

To me I see then meeting just Michelle's father.  Not the man who took her childhood away.  The man we were in court for almost 14 years with trying to keep her safe.

Yes, I know she is an adult, she can make her own choices.  But when it comes to the babies that is different.  She wants to send the babies to stay with him for 2 weeks.  The babies are 2 & 3 years old. They can not protect themselves from him.

I asked Michelle if they know the truth and she gets mad.  I feel that they need to know the truth and then decide for themselves.

Please pray for the grand-babies to be safe and that Michelle does not let him see them alone.

God Bless, mj

Blessings!

   Well, we finally met the Landlords...well have of them anyway:P

   Last weekend we received an email from his lovely wife letting us know that he would be arriving the next day (Sunday)~! It's not easy finding a day in the fall up here in Oregon, that is dry let alone sunny:P So, it's important to check the weather daily to see if there will be a window of time. They did and he was on his way.

   I want to share a wonderful thing here quickly. I was blessed to see the title of the email that she sent..."Greetings!! From your landlords wife!" It was wonderful to see that she acknowledged that she belonged to her husband:) Not as a possession but rather as his helpmeet, his adoring wife! Something not to be ashamed of in the least. It was truly refreshing:)

   Back to the visit:)

   He showed up Sunday morning around 10:30am. I had not been feeling well the night before and so had not slept well. This meant sleeping in just a tad the next day;P Miss Sarah was the only one dressed so she greeted him first while Miss Mary-Ann and I got dressed. Shame on me for being so lazy that day:P

   I went out to meet him and my what a blessing. He was very sweet and pleasant. For all of my silly conserns about things, it was wasted as he had no real expectations of us and so the fellowship was quite sweet and encouraging:) He spent time speaking with our Miss Sarah while she helped him at one point which she enjoyed greatly. She has since shared some little stories that he shared with her about himself.:)

   I had the blessed opportunity to correspond with his lovely bride and get to know her a bit better. I am looking very forward to getting to meet her in person. Perhaps Spring:) Lord willing:)

   We sent him home a few days later with some homemade soaps, peaches, pearbutter and oatmeal cookies which I've been told he ate half of on his ride home:P

   We have truly been blessed by the Father in our moving her. He has given us godly landlords, plenty of room for our homesteading needs and the sweet fellowship of this past week:) How could we ask for more?

   I know they read our blog now and again so I want to say...Brother and Sister...thank you for your sweetness and your encouragment here. You are truly a God breathed blessing in our lives.

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

I love the movie It's a wonderful life.  How a bout you?   I love the love story, faith, how people help one another out.   What made me and my best friend Janet laugh was how much the price of a home was.  In the movie they talked about a home costing $5000.00 !!  For some people that is just a monthly payment not the total price of a new home!!

What happened to those days??  When a neighbor cared and help out a neighbor??  When you broke down (cars) people would help.  Where you would share you blessing more, like the extra in your garden.  Where people really respected each other.  When it was safer for children to be children.  What do we have for the kids today?  On t.v we have sex, drugs, drinking violence , porn.  Do you know that some underwear adds would have been porn back then??  What happened???  We need to go back to stronger values , to what is really important.  God , family , friends, others.

Bring back the good old days......

God Bless, mj

Blessings!

   Well, it's always something. Just as Miss Mary-Ann and I were arriving home from our class, there was Miss Sarah sitting at the front porch. She had gone out to feed the animals and found one of our whethers laying oddly in the pen. Closer inspection showed he was dying so she gathered him up and came to the front of the house to wait for us. He died just as we had arrived. Poor little thing. And our poor Miss Sarah. It seems she's always the one that is on hand at these times. Perhaps the Good Lord has given her this gift of comforting the dying animals we have.

   We were all saddened by Pi's passing but we expected it. Well, at least I did. I had been giving him injections for what i suspected was pneumonia. This was positively revealed at his passing this morning. I had hoped the medicines were working but it was already too late by the time I had figured out what it was. Such is farm life.

   This winter is supposed to be colder than last year and much wetter so we've decided to sell off the goats for this year and look into purchasing bred does in the Spring. We'll see. In the meantime, the ones we have, both Nigerians and Nubians, need to be sold.

   We will still have our chickens and ducks and rabbits. Of course the inside animals too but Brother Craig and I thought we would maybe take a break from the larger animals for a bit. It will be easier for us to afford wintering if we aren't feeding goats as well. It's a very difficult decision to make but we feel it's the best thing to do for this year.

   The Lord has brought us this far and we know He will walk us further on as we endeavor to do His Will in our lives. Times are going to get tougher before they get better so we are sure that the Lord is guiding us to make these changes for now. It will be better financially if we are able to cut back in a few ways and feeding the goats while they are not producing anyway is not a sound thing to do. One day, we won't have to pay for the feed, but until we are able to grow our own it's choices and decisions that need to be made:)

   Well, that's the haps for this day. We still have plenty of chickens for meat and eggs, ducks for meat and eventually the rabbits will be a good source for meat:)

   Now to pray for our Sarah as she needs a bit of uplifting this evening. God is so good! I know He has another wonderful adventure in store for us. I can't wait to see what it will be:)

God be with thee!

Sister Lori