Blessed....Again!

Well little did I know on Thursday when I wrote my post about waiting on our grandchild to be born that a few hours later we would get the news that we have been blessed with a precious little granddaughter!

We are so overjoyed to announce the safe arrival of MAKAYLA FAITH. She was 7lbs. 14 oz. and born right on her due date....November 10, 2011!

I've had a few cuddles with her aready. We are so thankful to the Lord for bringing this little life into the world. God is so good!

Congratulations to Joshua, Rebecca and Andy. We love you guys, thanks for another grandchild :)

Where Has Time Went?

Wow, just realized it's been over a week since my last post!
Where does time go anyway?

Well here is some of what has happened around here in the last week:

We got our machine shop cemented 

(Yeah for that being done and yeah for all the helpers....it was a big job!)

We celebrated our grandson, Andy's 2nd birthday. 2 years ago from now we were wondering what his future would be like. Being born 10 weeks early, plus being diagnosed with 22q deletion syndrome a little while later was all something we were not prepared for. But God in His mercy has brought this little man so far! He is growing, walking and I'm sure it won't be long until he is talking! All glory to God for this precious little guy!!! We love him to bits!!!!

We welcomed a new little niece to our family. My brother Jeremy and his wife Laura waited 6 long years for Elyana to be born! What an amazing answer to prayer! We went to visit her yesterday, and she is truly a little sweetie!!! I had fun making this little hat for her :)

We got the last of the cows home. And everything went great! We chose to chase the herd home again this year. We had 3 vehicles, a four-wheeler, and a tractor with a bale of hay on the back. Last year it didn't go so well....this year....IT WENT GREAT!!!! So much easier than hauling them all, as long as it goes well! So all the cows are safely home and munching happily on hay :)

We started a parenting class. We are excited once again to be able to mentor young families in raising their families according to God's Word. We always come away from teaching these classes feeling like we received more than we gave. What a blessing to be able to do this!

We butchered the last of our chickens. This was a job that I was not looking forward to, but on Saturday we were motivated by the forecast (SNOW!) and figured we better get it done. As usual the thought was worse than the actual doing it. So glad they are now in the freezer :)

First snowfall happened on Sunday. We are thankful the weather has stayed so nice this long. But looking outside I am thinking winter might be here to stay!!!

Rebecca's due date was yesterday and we are still waiting to meet our 2nd grandchild! Looking so forward to another little one to love on! Please keep them in your prayers!

-My pregnancy is going well. Baby is growing and moving lots! I am feeling very well. So far my blood pressure is behaving itself. I am trying to walk 2.5 miles every morning and I am hoping and praying the exercise will help me stay healthy.

-Tomorrow we are going into the city with a group from our church to record a few songs. I am most excited to see how a recording actually takes place. The girls and I have wanted to record a cd for many years now but have never known quite where to start. I am hoping tomorrow we will find out if this is something we really want to pursue!

So that is our life in a very quick nut shell this past week. Of course there was the regular every day life that we lived besides this, making life go by very fast! But it's better to be busy than to be sitting around twiddling your thumbs wondering what to do with yourself :) I don't see those kind of days being in our future any time soon .....and I am glad :)

Fruits of the Spirit Series: JOY

Joy is so much different than happiness. Happiness is fleeting, happiness changes with our circumstances, happiness is temporary. That's why it's so important to teach our kids the importance of having joy. We can have joy because we have a God Who loves us unconditionally. We can have joy because even though our circumstance may change HE will never change. We can have joy because we have eternal life. Joy is not an emotion, it is an attitude of the heart. The joy of the Lord is bigger than us and our circumstances.

There are too many people walking around on this earth today who are emotional yo-yo's. If  things are going good, they are up. If things are going bad, they are down. I would like my life and our children's lives to be different. I don't want our circumstances to dictate whether we are having a good day or not. That's not Biblical, and it's not healthy. I want to have joy...always.

We teach our children from a very young age that they need to be joyful in all circumstances. (Phil.3:1) We are not commanded to rejoice only when things are going right, but in everything.....did you get that???? IN EVERYTHING!!!! If we could get this into our spirit, if we would choose to live it, how much more contented we would be.

How do we teach this practically to our children? Once again, example is what will speak the most to your children.  Do my children hear me complain a lot? Do I complain about our house, our health, our family, our work, our finances, the weather.....and the list goes on and on. If my children hear me complain about these things often, why do I think that they will react any differently?

An area that we always find a opportunity to teach joy is in the area of work. It's not hard to tell when a child is less than joyful about doing a job! Often it is body language that gives it away, (stomping feet, pouting, or even crying). This is not acceptable behaviour in our home. If a job is given, that person is expected to reply with a "Yes Ma'am" and go about doing the job with a good attitude (without "bad" body language). We  often talk about being joyful when we do our work. We talk about doing everything without complaining or arguing like God asks us.

God says in His Word that the "joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). The opposite of joy drags us down. But when we choose to have joy, our spirits are lifted and it's amazing how much better things seem to be even though our circumstances have not changed!