It’s a date!

The Farmhouse Artist and I are going on a date.

A date to the sunny south.

Each year either myself or The Carpenter take one of our brood to the sunny south on an exclusive date. We enjoy these special times as it gives us the opportunity to connect with them in so many ways.

This year the Artist and I will mix business with pleasure.

We head out next week for 5 days of sun, sand and seashells!

We will be flying…her first time since she was a baby. She is so excited that she has been packed since Friday afternoon…one week ahead of departure!

She hasn’t stopped talking about all that we will be doing and seeing.

We plan on eating at our favorite tea house, walking on the beach, getting our nails done and then meeting grandma for dinner.

I will be spending some time with my Advocare friends, my ministry friends, and my sister during our stay as well.

In April we  head down as a family to stay for 6 weeks and minister in 7 churches during the Passover season. The chicks and I will be dancing to the song, “Glorious Day” by Casting Crowns. I will also be ministering in the dance to the song, “Watch the Lamb”by Ray Boltz.

I am looking forward to some sunshine and seashore with my youngest chick.

Farmhouse Chicks

Treadmill of Life

Life can be like a treadmill, running as fast as you can and not getting anywhere. Putting all your time and energy into just trying to keep up. Time spent is time gone, you can never get it back. Is my time being spent on the things that mean the most to me or is it being spent on the "treadmill" of life? Done with a "JOB" (Just Over Broke), done with the "treadmill" of life, done wasting time on things that don't mean the most to me. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes and placing this door in front me.

 

Farmhouse Chicks

Technorati Tags: Treadmill,Life,JOB

Pigtails and posies

It’s been a great week this week. 

We have had consistency in our daily devotions….reading Jasher each and e.v.e.r.y. morning. And, reading “The Princess Bride” every night.  The kids really look forward this time with their dad and me.

We all sit in the living room with the crackling fire burning in the fireplace.

Farmhouse Fashionista can be found bent over her fashion book, creating the newest modest fashions around. She will definitely have a fashion line one day.

Farmhouse Artist can be found creating family portraits from the shelves of our living room. She puts a picture of one of her siblings or, lately it’s been a picture of her dad when he was about 5, up on the table and situates herself in front of the fire with her easel, charcoals and pencils and draws her little heart out.

The Farmhouse Baker is always curled up in her Snuggie,

with her puppy,

crocheting a scarf or bag for someone…..trying to get her to put these up on an Etsy page.

Mr. Tankman (Rooster #2) is the one reading “Princess Bride” to us. He does voice overs and can mimic each voice in the book v.e.r.b.a.t.i.m. We spend more time laughing at his voices and distracting him!

We absolutely L.O.V.E. these times of reading. Now that the brood is less fidgety older we actually can read without too much interruption.

Another great thing that happened this week: We have been praying about finding a violin teacher for the smallest chicks. We even asked the Lord if we could maybe barter out the lessons somehow…..how? I dunno….but I figured God did.   Well………………

Mr. Rooster Man…the main man….is working in a home where the wife is a retired (this year) Detroit Symphony Orchestra violin player. She held the 1st chair. She has committed to teaching our two small chicks the violin in exchange for work in her home! WOO-HOO!

And….to top it off….our Farmhouse Artist will be taking art lessons from her as well!

Whaddya think of those cookies?!

Can ya tell I’m a little excited?

And that’s not the entire story of our week either!

Mr. Tankerman had the opportunity to visit TACOM. This stands for Tank Automotive Armaments Command.  Basically, they make tanks for the military.

This has been a dream of his for as long as he was knee high to a grasshopper!

He was ushered into the world of tanks, thanks to a wonderful new friend….a LT. Colonel who is THE project manager of the Abrams Tank Systems at TACOM, spoke with senior engineers, sat in the newest of the Abrams tank….something like an M1A2, tossed around ideas with those creating the future tanks, and enjoyed the general splendor of the day.

Not only did he get to do this but he is now being considered for the summer hire program at TARDEC….a similar place to TACOM.

The Lt. Colonel wrote an amazing recommendation letter….words like…

mature

future innovator of combat design

highly motivated and passionate about tanks

should I go on?

We submitted the application today and now we w.a.i.t….and wait and wait…until April to find out if he is selected.

If selected he gets to work as a Junior Engineer with Senior Engineers in the facility on whatever project is being done at the time.

AND….the main rooster and I are going to Texas on Friday to join thousands of others on our Advocare Team. We are headed to Success School.

Lawyers go to law school.

Doctors go to med school.

We go to Success School.

Godly people.

Fabulously fit people.

Incredible success stories and weight loss testimonies.

And we love it every time!

AND….the brood gets to have grandma all the way from the sunny south to watch over them all weekend!

 

 

Whew! It’s been a GOD week and it isn’t even over yet!

 

Be Blessed!

Farmhouse Chicks

Technorati Tags: Advocare,TACOM,violins

Farmhouse Theatre

Do you like theatre? Do you like theatre practice? Do you like bliss?

101 kids mixed with C.S. Lewis, popcorn, noisy toddlers and telephone talking mommies = mahem…bliss!!

My brood recently participated in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” play.

WE. LOVE. THEATRE.

nuff said!

Farmhouse Fasionista as the Wolf…face painted by yours truly.

scary huh?

Farmhouse Baker as the White Witch

…and she played her part beautifully.

 

Farmhouse Artist played Lucy Penvinsy…the main character. She stole the hearts of those in the audience.

This was their first M.A.J.O.R. play…and they rocked the house!

This is just the beginning of a theatre future.

 

 

Farmhouse Chicks

Technorati Tags: The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe,CS Lewis,theatre,plays

Mental Vitamin - Thirty-Fourth Day

 

I get these Mental Vitamins to my door weekly…they are so full of good meat to chew on! 

Read and grow.

“As a gentle reminder - or perhaps one that's a good bit more than gentle - this is now the thirty-fourth day of yet another year in your life. Now, let me pose a few questions; how many years have you been on the planet? How many of the things you once assumed you would do with your life have been achieved? Are you in one of those places in life - without knowing how you got there - in which one of the highlights of your week is Friday?

Your life and mine have a way of getting in the way of the life we once dreamed about, but never quite attained; that doesn't mean we don't have some of the treasures that makes life worthwhile, like a spouse, a family, a home and a reasonably dependable car. We have friends, we have an income and a career that provides that income, but another question is - just how tenuous are those things; how secure is that job, anyway? Is it allowing you to set aside a minimum of six months of income that will enable you to pay all of your fixed and variable expenses in case you become a victim of down-sizing at the place where you work?

How is your investment situation doing? I know we've all lost money - those who have a 401(k), an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) or some similar investment in the capitalistic system that can enable us to take advantage of the law of compounding interest, but we all have to remember that it's the nature of such investments to fluctuate in the short term, but they always have and always will grow over the longer term, IF you leave your money there and don't spend it on the unanticipated emergencies. Those who kept their money in their investments have seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase about 5,000 points in the past year; that's not quite back to where it was three years ago, but it's getting very close. And, those who kept putting a part of their income into their investments when everything was collapsing now find themselves with about 33 percent more shares of stock than they once had, so a few years from now they're going to see a significant acceleration in how much money they have because they had faith in the future of America and in themselves as a good steward of the money they earned and put away.

Remaining faithful to our carefully selected disciplines - instead of being unduly influenced by "what happens" - isn't always easy, but it is always necessary.

So, on this thirty-fourth day of what is no longer a new year, how are you doing? Are those resolutions still something that have moved from resolutions to disciplines that are nearly second nature, or have they faded along with all the other well-intended resolutions leaving you without any significant improvement.

Someone needs, I think, to keep asking these questions, because when everyone in your world stops asking them, then time will merely pass, and with the passing of time, all of your chances to do better will fade into nothingness until all that discipline, changing, and opportunity stuff just won't matter anymore. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Finally, please remember that I'm human like everyone else, so in writing these messages to you each day means that I read them each day, and I learn from each one, because they aren't "my" words, they're coming from somewhere else; I'm merely the "court reporter," so I'm not only "preaching to the choir," I'm learning as I read along with you. Keep it up!” Ron Reynolds

 

Farmhouse Chicks

Technorati Tags: Mental Vitamins,Advocare