That's Right Folks...

We are expecting another little family member somewhere on or near June 16, 2011!!! We have been suspecting for a while, since mama has had more heartburn, airheadedness/forgetfulness, and need for food and water than normal. So, this morning we were able to test and find out. I love seeing those two little lines! :) You can always see how far along I am, how big the baby is, and what the baby is doing in his or her development by looking at the timeline on the top of our blog. It updates automatically and shows the size of the baby compared to various food items. Right now the baby is approximately the size of a large poppy seed. Enjoy! Please be praying with us for a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy. May the Lord be with you all,
My Family
Wife Speaking rather excitedly (it's 4:30 in the morning and my wonderful husband encouraged me not to call and wake up all of our west coast famiy.... so I had to blog!)

Lifestyle Changes Aplenty

Since our last update, we have seen Wife's parents come and go in a whirlwind visit that, though wonderful, was just too short! We all had a great time together. We also accomplished quite a bit. I think my parents had to go home to recover! Dad was terrific and installed a solar panel system. Which means - woohoo! We have power! Yes folks, we can now run our small electric appliances indoors. We are truly blessed to have wonderful parents. We also got the woodstove in working order thanks to mom and dad. This came in handy with a few nights where the lows were in the mid to upper 30's.

And just as we got the house winter ready we found out that we had been approved as houseparents at the maternity home / pregnancy help center we have been involved with. We moved in last night (we still maintain our real home and will go there on our off days). Our first resident arrived today and is currently settling in to her new surroundings. We would appreciate your prayers for the grace of God to sustain us through this time and figure out all of the ins and outs of this position.

Just today we were told the horrifying news that a friend of a daughter in law of a friend aborted her eight month old baby while her husband was out of town. everyone is devastated, most of all the husband who was very much looking forward to holding his little girl. The world truly is growing colder and more reprobate. We need to work now while we still can. My heart was grieved and my stomach churned at the realization once again of the horrors done in this country in the name of choice. Do you realize that at 24 weeks 90% of babies will survive with medical care? By eight months the odds are even better. All a baby does that last month is get chubby! I don't understand how people can murder an innocent like that and not think anything of it. Sorry for the rant...

Well, I suppose that is all for now. See you later!
My Family
Wife speaking

The Guineas Have Arrived!

Finally, after a few months of waiting, the guinea fowl we ordered are here. 31 made it here alive and we still have 28. Three died in one day of unknown causes (we were not home... it looks like they got trampled in a guinea pile). Everyone else looks healthy, though there are about 4 that are much smaller than the rest. THey are getting bigger and growing their wing feathers. With these feathers they are also starting to flap around in their box. THe girls love to watch them and play with them, though they do need CONSTANT supervision, for the safety of the birds.

Meanwhile, we have been busy. We helped orchestrate a Vacation Bible School last week. It was enjoyed by an average of 15 kids per night. We also have begun working with the local Pregnancy Help Center and would appreciate prayers for this ministry, our part in it, the other volunteers, the young pregnant woman who lives at the center and the upcoming Walk 4 Life (annual fundraiser).

We have pictures. i'll send them soon. :)

Accidents Happen...

And sometimes they are good! Husband has been planning to build the girls a play area under the stairs in our home for a while and he finally got to work on that project and complete it, just in time for McGee's birthday! Though this was not planned it worked out rather nicely. Both girls love their area. It is a playroom downstairs with a few shelves for toys and books that Bernard can chew on and then there are some stairs leading up to a library area with more shelves for books and toys and a chair for reading. Since its completion we have hardly been able to keep the girls out of it long enough to sleep. They even took their nap in their the other day.

We have been blessed lately to find an abundance of fruiting plants on the property. There are two plum trees, numerous blackberry vines, a couple of blueberries, a persimmon tree, some grape vines and even sassafrass. Can anyone say root beer? :) Along with out native vegetation we have been able to get a handful of berry plants in the ground, along with some tomatoes, cabbages and beans. We look forward to the harvest this year and celebrating God's goodness in our lives.

Until next time,
My Family
(Wife Speaking)

A Little Of This and A Little Of That

Woohoo! We remembered the camera today! We are at the local MacDonald's (20 miles away) for some wireless time and playtime for the girls. They are excited! It might be the ice cream Daddy got for everybody...




Our woodshed area is coming along nicely. The floor is pallets that we were able to pick up for free and the sides are a few doors we found at the Jefferson City Pickup (also free).






Here is the stove we purchased and installed in our home. We haven't had a chance to use it yet, but we are looking forward to it. It is in great shape and should do well to suit our needs. (Mama is very excited about having a flat, indoor, chicken free place to cook.)









Daddy built a kitchen counter and some shelves for Mama. This has been a real blessing to begin organizing the chaos that is our home right now. Again, a chicken free zone to prepare food is awesome!!! Our three chickens have the bad habit of stealing our food if we are not watching diligently.






Yay! We have a front door now! We put an eave over the top after I took this picture and it works nicely to keep out the rain and still let us have some air.






The peach tree we picked up at Lowe's has about a dozen peaches on it. McGee is looking forward to eating them "when they grow bigger."

Missed Opportunity

We have the perfect opportunity today - time to blog due to the rain. However, I neglected to bring the camera so there are no new pictures to add of the construction. We have all of our walls and roof up, the roof is waterproof and we are able to sleep in the house now. Praise the Lord! We also have our stairs in and finally completed the door and got that hung. We purchased a beautiful wood stove and it is now sitting in our living room. However, we have not had a chance yet to actually install it, so no indoor fires yet. We look forward to that with this long, rainy spring we are having. We have also had a little time for gardening and got some cherries, blackberries and blueberries planted this week. McGee loved getting her hands all dirty to help us get the job done.

Oh! And for all those that we have not spoken to yet for one reason or another, our family is expecting a little one this December and we can't wait to meet Blessing #3.

Have a wonderful day!
My Family
(Wife Speaking)

House Building

Due to a camera malfunction, the pictures we took of some of the middle steps have been lost. I will try to track down some from our PS133 Friends. For now, here are some of the pictures we have taken of our house building endeavors over the last month. Enjoy!


Putting in our foundation was an interesting process. About half way through it snowed five inches! Missouri weather always keeps you guessing.








Here is our subfloor going in (yes there is snow on the ground).

We are trying to clear a spot in front of the house to plant a small garden this year. To do this we have to take a few fallen trees and turn them into rounds and put them in the woodshed (that we haven't built yet) to season for later use.

Our water storage system has been a blessing for life on the old homestead.
Our temporary staircase enables us to reach the loft without having to take time to build the stairs right now.

Here is our roof, nearly completed. We can hardly wait to finish this project so that we can start sleeping in the house.

My wonderful husband built an adjustable grill over the firepit to make outdoor cooking easier.

Here are a half dozen each tomato and cabbage plants, given to us by a wonderful family here. We look forward to planting them in the area pictured above.

So far, this is our redneck chicken coop. Thanks to the Jefferson City pick up day, we will soon be building a bigger coop. We were able to find some corrugated plastic roofing to top our pallet coop construction. The chickens are going to love it!

The truck received an upgrade to help with the construction efforts. The lumber rack has really been a great help in transporting our materials.

One of our first projects was a mailbox installed in the turnaround area at the top of the easement.

Well, that's all for now. We hope to have the house liveable soon. Stay tuned!

My Family

(Wife Speaking)

FINALLY!!! Soon has arrived...

For all those who have been asking when we would update the blog and kept hearing the same answer, "Soon," soon has finally arrived. And we have so much to share with you!

Since we last updated we have completed the floor, the first floor walls, and now the floor of the loft. Next on our project list is to waterproof the work we have already completed before we are blessed with more rain. :) Then it's on to the roof! We are excited to be making progress and thank the Lord for every day that we are able to work on our new home.

Other than home construction, we have been able to take care of some of the other tasks related to moving (changing over our licenses and all to Missouri). The rain sometimes forces us to get other things done, and for that we are grateful. It is nice to finally have all of that taken care of.

We were also blessed recently to find a cheaper source for clean drinking and wash water until we get the well dug. And with the addition of a few washtubs, we are now able to bathe in our home and more easily wash dishes and laundry. This is truly a blessing for us (I'm sure our PS133 friends will appreciate this as well).

Bernard is still not walking yet, but remains close to that milestone. She is enjoying having more room and better weather to play. Meanwhile, McGee LOVES helping Mama and Daddy with the house and chasing the chickens (in a loving and gentle way of course) whenever her help is not needed.

All in all, we are enjoying a simpler, though still quite busy, lifestyle in the woods with our family. The Lord has been teaching us alot about loving each other and working together and Husband has been teaching me alot as well (to include house building, driving in less than fabulous conditions, fire building, etc). It has been an interesting, exciting, very busy and productive month.

On that note - we are headed to our home away from home (the local Lowe's store) for more supplies to get started on our next round of projects. Thanks for checking in on us! Until next time, which may or may not be "Soon,"

My Family
(Wife Speaking)

MISSION MISSOURI: DAY SEVEN

From Van Buren, Arkansas to Laurie, Missouri – 333.82 miles

Surprise, Surprise
We realized Wednesday, with the help of one of Arkansas’ finest, that we had no running lights on the truck. This morning we discovered the problem – a blown fuse that we missed in our first round of searching. We replaced it with the 4WD fuse in the truck that we don’t need since we don’t have a four wheel drive truck. Praise the Lord this fixed the problem and we were street legal again!
Our second surprise was the most awful, foul stench in the cab of the truck when we opened it this morning. It turns out that if you leave a thermos full of poor man’s mocha (coffee mixed with hot chocolate) in a truck for a few days, enough pressure will build up from the rancid liquid to blow the top off of the thermos and spew the contents all over the inside of the vehicle. Pretty gross!!!

Weather Watch
We found it fairly ironic that the only wintery weather we have seen was in the desert right when we left. All throughout Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri we have had nothing but blue skies and 60+ degree weather. What a blessing! We know we will not be strangers to cold, snowy weather, but it has been tremendous to have good weather for driving.

Home, Sweet Home
Well, almost. We are in a motel in Laurie, MO for the night. In the morning we will meet up with our PS133 friends in Versailles for a meeting of the church and then we will go on to actually see the property. Before we could get that far today the sun went down and we were forced to wait for tomorrow. We are very excited to be here and eagerly await what lies ahead.

***Note - This post is a little late in getting up and way out of date as far as what we are up to. More information will be coming as soon as we get a breather enough to type it all up for you. But, rest assured, we are safe and doing well and we miss all those who are not here with us.***

My Family
(Wife Speaking)

MISSIONMISSOURI: DAYS THREE - SIX

From Clinton, Oklahoma to Van Buren, Arkansas - 289.70 miles

Weather Watch
Blue skies, smilin' at me! That's what we saw most of the day Tuesday. It was absolutely gorgeous driving weather and we were thrilled to have the shortest leg yet of our journey. We pulled into Husband's sister's house in the early afternoon, just in time to attend Niece's choir performance.

Entertainment Encounters
The choir performance was interesting to say the least. Niece's group was missing half their members and this was their first performance as such a small group. Needless to say, their harmonies were lacking a bit. After a v ery brief concert, we were headed to dinner. (Note - If you are ever hungry for Mexican food in Van Buren, Arkansas, think again.)

Thursday evening Husband's family surprised us all with a birthday party for Husband's 25th birthday. We had a nice time, fellowshipping over cake and ice cream and playing one of the new games he received for a gift. It's called Times Seven and seems to be a neat Scripture memorization game (for the seven verses used in the game anyway).

So, we are still here in Van Buren, thinking about leaving in the next day or two, after spending a little time with Niece and Nephew (who have had to go to school, do homework and go to bed early since we arrived on Tuesday). We will update y'all later.

My Family
(Wife Speaking)

MISSION MISSOURI: DAY ONE

From Sierra Vista, Arizona to Albequerque, New Mexico – 450.75 miles.

Departure Musings
Upon leaving, we noticed that the clouds that moved in last night made an interesting picture that corresponds to our life right now. The road immediately lying in front of us is clear, yet clouds obscured the mountains in the distance. This is as our life at this point. The Lord gives the direction and foresight for what immediately lies ahead. We are not in a fog, not knowing where we are going or where we are at the present time, but our horizon remains shrouded in mystery. We are given a vague picture of what lies behind these clouds, but how to get there, whether we shall pass through or stay we know not. Psalm 119:105 came to mind, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The lamp spoken of here was typically a little lamp that attached to a person’s sandals, illuminating only the very next step for the wearer, while leaving the rest of the path in darkness.

Arizona Wine Country
As we were leaving, we passed Highway 80-something toward Patagonia and Nogales and were reminded of the last time we went down that road. We saw an interesting sign that said “Wine Country.” For the next several miles, observing the landscape of lush plentiful weeds, we thought to ourselves, “There seems to be something missing here.”




Weather Watch

Aside from some beautiful desert scenery on our journey, we have encountered some interesting weather patterns. Throughout the day, we have seen everything from rain to sleet, snow, hail, clear sunny skies, clouds, and strong winds. All the while, the outside temperature was moderately chilly (without the wind) and downright nippy when the winds picked up.

New Beginnings

We thought it interesting that as we embark on this new phase of our lives, we are also beginning a new book in our daily Bible readings as a family: the book of Psalms. Already this has provided thought provoking discussions for our drive. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that we begin these two journeys at the same time. As we learn more and more about how to be a family together, we are simultaneously learning about the praises of God together. Consequently, it may also prove interesting that shortly after setting up on the property and getting things underway, we will be learning wisdom from the Proverbs.

Today we read Psalms 1-3. In Psalm one, we learn the importance of God’s Word. Psalm 2 shows us the importance of trusting in Him, for His kingdom lasts forever, whereas the kingdoms of this world constantly rise and fall. Even when they take counsel together against Him and His anointed, He simply laughs. Psalm 3 illustrates God’s sustaining power. We learn about trusting God to sustain us even and especially in the midst of trouble.

We look forward to continuing to study through the Psalms as a family while are on the road and as we start our work in Missouri.

Entertainment Encounters
Along with a few episodes of “Life at the Pond” and some classical guitar music, we spent part of our day listening to preaching. We found them to be quite beneficial and were especially impressed by a quote from A.W. Tozer,

“A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen, talks familiarly everyday to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so that he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge.”

(From The Knowledge of the Holy)

The premise of the sermon was that if this characterizes your life, people would say that you are out of your mind. If this is so, you are in good company. Christ was declared “beside Himself” as was Paul, as well as countless martyrs throughout the ages. So are you an out of your mind Jesus freak?

My Family
Collaborative Effort

Quick Update & Moving Plans

It's just the four of us again; Husband's Cousin and her Husband moved on to California December 31. It was nice to put the house back in order and start getting everything ready for the big move.

For those of you who don't know, we are planning on moving to Missouri at the end of March. With some friends of ours(hereafter known as Ps133Husband and Ps133Wife or Ps133Friends for both), we purchased five acres of forrested hillside just outside Laurie, Missouri in the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks area. Our friends are currently in Jefferson City, Missouri collecting farming tools and trying to stay warm while working part time at Best Buy.

So, basically our plan is to pack everything we own into a 5x8 enclosed cargo trailer and drive out there, spend a little time with our Ps133Friends and then head on out to the property. Our first priority once we are actually on the land is for Husband to build us a house! McGee and I will enjoy helping of course, but the bulk of the responsibility will lie with him. (Though Bernard might enjoy playing in the mud, she probably won't be all that helpful in the house builiding endeavors.) To keep costs low, in keeping with what we feel the Lord is calling us to do, we will be building a stone house using an adobe/cobb mixture for mortar (basically that is a spiffy way of saying mud and weeds).

We are already getting things ready. Mostly this involves downsizing to the essentials and a few frills (for instance we will be bringing the trampoline that Grandma and Papa got for the girls. I'm not sure which category this would fit into...The girls love to jump! Though Bernard more bounces than jumps. :) ) We are also trying to get used to life without all of the conveniences, such as electric kitchen gadgets. We feel that the Lord is asking us to work our way toward a completely self sufficient farm environment. To do this, we need to minimize costs, such as utilities. We plan to have some solar power and a generator for needful things, but for a lot of things, we want to simplify and learn new ways to do things or learn to do without.

This last part has actually been pretty easy so far. Rather than plug in the electric vegetable steamer, I now use a steamer basket inside a pot. This will make veggie prep a breeze with a woodburning cook stove. We love steamed veggies! Rather than plug in the crock pot, I will just simmer a pot on the stove. You get the idea. The hardest appliance to replace with a non-electric version was the clothes washer. We bought ourselves a good washboard from Lehman's General Store and I started washing our clothes by hand. It didn't take long at all for us to figure out that we had to find another solution. (Even just for our family of four, laundry took a LONG time.) So, we did a little searching and found this great tool to agitate laundry by hand, much like a conventional washer would. This cut our laundry time down significantly, making the switch manageable. Plus, McGee loves to help with laundry now. Her favorite part is agitating the laundry (however, it still needs a good once over from Mama when she is done). We have also found that the clothes get at least as clean and often much cleaner this way than they used to in the washer. Since I already used a laundry line most of the time anyway, that was one less thing to adjust to.

Our third way of preparing for the move is research, research, research. Husband is focusing on studying up on different building methods and such, while our Ps133friends are looking at vegetables and herbs and I am learning all I can about the animals we would like to have on the farm. So far, we most definately want to start with guinea fowl and chickens and eventually have a few sheep. Right now I am learning about guinea fowl and we are pretty stoked about these little birds. Keep your eyes open for a post on my research findings. You just may learn a thing or two, and maybe even wind up wanting a few guineas yourself. :)

All in all, we are excited to see where the Lord takes us and all that is in front of us, though we will miss Grandma and Papa being so close.
Rejoicing in the day that the Lord has made,
My Family
(Wife Speaking)