I Need An Intervention

It is baby season...  

This was our view to the birthing pen.. we spend a lot of time hanging out here waiting and watching.

This year has been a lot of fun, because the kids can handle most of the animals. They keep after everything for me. I go to the barn to help milk and keep tabs on the babies once a day. 

The one momma totally rejected her baby. She refused to lick her etc.. so Elizabeth got to bottle fed her. 

Another momma was unable to feed her babies, but she supplies us with an abundance of milk, so we are bottle feeding her babies. The first week, they need round the clock feedings, so Elizabeth kept the babies in a box by her bed. 

We were rather disappointed that our 6 mommas only gave us 8 babies. Many were new moms so it was not a big surprise, but it was still disappointing. So I found a couple goats on craigslist and somehow.. still not sure how.. I ended up buying 6 more goats. So now we have a total of 14 baby goats, 9 which are bottle fed. I think I need an intervention...  cause if my counts are right, we somehow ended up with 20 goats on the farm. 

Valentines Day

Ten years.. Ten years ago, I celebrated my last valentine's day with my love.

Sometimes God just blows your socks off..

 Valentine's Day a delivery man shows up with these beautiful chocolate covered strawberries, no name attached.  They were such a special God hug. It is the kind of thing that makes you feel truly loved by God.

Later that same day, I got a call from the local pool. Someone had send in money and was paying for a family membership for us! I had just been praying about finding a way to fund a pool membership this year! Another wonderful little God hug.

The week BEFORE Valentine's Day a good friend  of mine had blessed me with 40 lbs of chicken, some spinach and 2 doz beautiful pink roses.

This kind of thing totally blesses us beyond measure. Two things are so clear here. 1. God loves us and cares about the things that make us feel loved and special. 2. We have no idea who blessed us with these two special gifts. But it is very obvious that someone was obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit and allowed themselves to be used to carry out God's message to us.

Several weeks later, I had a birthday.  This season of healing and regrouping has been so amazing. God is doing good things. I don't always understand the how and the why... but God is always good.

Several days before my birthday, a sweet friend brought us all the above pictured meat. My children eat an incredible amount of food. So this is an incredibly much appreciated gift. We canned 23 quarts of chicken breasts. We made the ribs for a birthday lunch. We popped the rest of the food into the freezer for later! This friend also brought us subs, soft pretzels and a ton of cheese! My kids love food and this was such a wonderful gift!

My birthday was a wonderful day. I had Nesiah stay in respite for a couple days prior as I really needed to do some thrift shop runs to get summer clothes for the kiddoes. We made it to a number of thrift shops and discovered a GoodWill where you buy clothes by the lb. I bought 30 lbs of clothing! My day did not go quite like I had planned but we had a lot of success in finding nice summer clothing for all 6 kids!

The morning of my birthday, the kiddoes presented my gifts.  Lee had made a bird feeder, the other 3 kiddoes bought me a necklace, bracelet and an umbrella. My in laws brought us a yummy dinner and spend the evening with us.

I feel incredibly blessed to savor these gifts, these blessings from my Father, the God of the Universe. The God who cares about the smallest details of my life.

I keep finding random photos of the kids legos on my camera. So I shall leave you with this random set up of the vet clinic that the girl's set up.