Wow! 21 years already?

How time flies! Today, 21 years ago, I gave birth to my first baby. He was an 8# 13 oz bundle of questions and animation. There has never been a dull moment with this one and for that we are truly thankful. He has kept us guessing, made us laugh, made us cry, made us ever proud and drove us nuts at times. :) Anthony has always been inquisitive, asked questions until we thought we'd go crazy....we were ever so thankful when this boy learned to read, we could direct him to a book and say "read about it". I don't think he appreciated that much, but he learned to look for answers to his many questions.

See..never a dull moment! Last day of high school.

While things have not always been perfect in our lives and in our relationship, he is such a joy, such a blessing! Anthony has an amazing heart, he loves, works and plays with every part of his being. Much like his mama. :)

Anthony and his dad at his boot camp graduation in San Diego. Trying to keep a strait face was proving difficult..my handsome guys! Love them!

This boy has challenged me beyond anything I ever expected as a parent, he has stretched me, we have grown up together. He was born just shy of my 20th birthday, so young to have a baby, but it was my dream come true to be married to the man of my dreams and be a mama.

What a smile....taken at a Portland Beaver's baseball game.

I don't regret starting our family at such a young age, but I often wish I could go back and talk to that young girl and tell her some of what I know now. I know there are many things I could have told her...but not so sure she would have heard it all, or received it. Guess that's why we live and learn, grow with each passing experience in life.

Anthony's graduation

Being a mom has been my lifelong dream, having my kids has been a continual blessing! Can't wait to see what they all become in their lives. Where the Lord will lead them...how He will use them!

Being the mama to an adult child is such a different world. He's working and trying to support himself, learning what it takes to be a man in this crazy world. Mistakes are made and learning the hard way often happens, but it's exciting to see him grow more with each passing week.

Our Marine! So proud of him..isn't he handsome in his uniform? :)

Watching your adult son fall in love and find himself thinking about someone other than just himself is another blessing as a mama! Anthony has been dating a lovely girl for over a year now and we have grown to love her like she is one of our own. She's so good for our boy...often keeping him a bit more grounded than he would be otherwise. :) It's been amazing getting to know her and seeing how she fits into this crazy group of people we call our family. We all think that he has made a very good choice in Rachael!

This is Anthony with his girl, Rachael. Her sister took this amazing photo of them and shared it with me (thank you Jen). I think they make a beautiful couple...love them both!

Happy birthday to our oldest boy! You are an amazing young man with amazing potential...you can do and be ANYTHING in this life! We love you...so very much and we are SO proud of all that you have become. Keep asking questions, keep learning, keep growing! It's a process that never stops in this life. We love you!

Thankful for Friday!

It's been a while since I last posted a "Thankful" post. Not that I haven't felt thankful, but time has been getting the best of me. There always seems to be more to do around here than I have hours in my day. :) Not all bad, mind you, just busy.

So, what am I thankful for this week? Oh so many things...but I'll only list a few. :)

This amazing man I married and our beautiful calf. My hubby has been such an incredible support to me...my best friend, my champion, my encourager and he's so supportive of my dream here...HE encouraged me to buy Daisy Girl. I'm still in shock every time I go to the barn and see her. Some girls hope for her man to buy her diamonds and pearls...I just wanted a cow. :) 

 I have some amazingly talented and awesome kids! Our second oldest son wanted to build a cider press, so he set to work on planning and with a little help from my hubby, he finally finished it this past week. He made a batch of cider right away, turned out GREAT! I am continually amazed at what this kid comes up with.

 

Our daughter has been playing with my camera, I'm loving the pictures she has taken of various flowers around our yard. So pretty! She's got a creative flair, I'll have to plan a post around some of her photos. She's been learning to edit photos and enhance some of her already stunning pictures. It's been fun to see her perspective and take on some of the beautiful sites around our place.

 

 Our lilac was such a welcomed sight this spring. The fragrance was amazing, made me wish we had even more of these around our place. I had intended to pick some and bring that wonderful fragrance indoors, but never got around to it. We did enjoy them while they were in bloom...that season never seems like it lasts long enough though.

We've been so blessed, living here and pursuing a dream. I am continually amazed at all that we are able to do, though in my frustrating moments I'll admit to feeling like we will never do enough. If I can keep my focus on how far we've come, however, I see the many steps we've taken here to providing so much for our family. The beauty here is hard to miss...and I often forget that even THAT is a blessing. Not just the eggs, produce and such that we can help to bring to our table, but to be able to look out our windows to a sight like the lilacs blooming or the birds that frequently visit our yard. It's all a blessing and something to enjoy. God's handiwork, the beauty of our landscape...how often we miss that in our rush to "do" and mark things off our list.

We are blessed!

Changes.....

It's hard to believe that it's already June 13th! Where is the month going? We've been so busy around here. So much to do to wrap up the school year...finally done...Yay!!! In addition to school, we've been focusing on the garden, selling a few goats and adding a new resident to the barn. 

A new calf!!! 

 This is Daisy Girl. She's a 3 to 4 month old Miniature Jersey/Milking Shorthorn cross heifer. Her sire was a full sized Jersey bull, so we do have the potential of having a bigger than a mini cow.

She is  as sweet as can be and is adjusting to live away from her mama quite well. We are all enjoying her and can't wait to see her grow and have her own calf....and give us lots of milk!

We took her out of her stall yesterday to give her some fresh air and a bit of a walk. Our pasture and fencing is not quite finished, so she's being held in a stall in the barn until we have a safe place for her to run free. I think she liked the sunshine and fresh grass. She is learning to follow our lead and walk with a rope nicely. We are hopeful that she will do well here.

Our family is thrilled to have added Daisy Girl to our homestead and can't wait to see her roaming free in the expanded pasture. As much as I love my goats, Daisy has a very special place here. She is a keeper, for sure! We are all loving the "cow sounds" that come from the barn. The goats, however, are not so sure about her. They'll adjust, I'm sure.

Busy days...

Life here has been a big blur lately, so much that needs doing, so much that doesn't get done....updating my blog is one of those things that has been left undone.

We've been busy with baby goats, putting in a garden, trying to stay on top of the weeds (the weeds are winning in some areas of our place), wrapping up our school year and trying to enjoy every ray of sunshine between the showers. It's been one WET spring...some say the wettest in 100 years, I for one believe them! The upside to all of the rain is things are growing...huge change from last year's spring where most of the garden and plants around it drowned in the rain and cold. It's been a bit warmer than last year, I think, and that has helped things grow. Gives me hope for our garden this year.

Another project that has demanded some attention is our pasture...we are expanding it! YAY!!! The hope is that we'll have our electric fencing up and functional in a matter of weeks, between my husbands busy work schedule and the rain, we are working slower than I would like. The fence posts are set and waiting the wire...all in due time. :) Once this pasture is ready, our goats will have even more forage to enjoy and hopefully will save us a bit on our feed bill this summer.

Our goat numbers are going to be going down soon, Lord willing. We've decided to downsize our herd and focus more on the smaller breed, Nigerian Dwarf. Our beloved Minikin will stay...she is the queen of the barn and none of us could bare the thought of her leaving. She'll live out her days here. Tinkerbel and her babies will all be sold. The hope is that we can cut back and save for a Jersey milking cow. While I LOVE my goats, we don't enjoy the milk as much as we do the cows milk....so we are transitioning our focus a bit. Who would have thought it would be so hard to sell a silly goat....some think I'm nuts, but I simply love my goats.

We've raised them for 7 years and they have become apart of our place here, apart of our lives. While I don't want to raise them for milk, we will keep the smaller Nigerian Dwarfs to fill the "goat need" and give us an animal we can breed and sell each year. If it doesn't work out, we are out very little in the end and have much of love in the mean time from these sweet animals. :) Thankfully, my husband is fully on board....he knows how much I love my goat babies. :)

Now the search for just the right cow for us will begin. I don't see us adding this animal to our place any time soon, but it is on the horizon...maybe in a year? I think we'll have a steer before we have a cow, and that's fine. Beef in the freezer is always a good thing!

So, while we've been busy planting, weeding, schooling and trying to keep up with the other household chores, it is suddenly June! Where did May go? My goodness! Praying your spring has gone well, that your gardens are growing and that you have a bright and sunny summer coming your way! School is out, for the most part in just a matter of days here. While we will be doing some school through the summer, we are all ready for the summer break. :)