Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Sorry for not writing in awhile! I've been rather busy. I writing a book and am working on getting that finished and I'm also starting a small jewelry business. I'll be so glad when school is done! (Though I love to learn, don't get me wrong ;o) The puppies are growing so fast! We weighed our biggest male yesterday and he topped the scale at 13 lb at 7 weeks!! That's HUGE!! (I always thought he was a lug, even when he was born.)

Our house is up for sale and hopefully, we'll be able to move to North Carolina come Spring. We're praying that some people will come by and absolutely love the place! (What a lovely thought!) Could you all pray that my Dad would get a job out in North Carolina? He will have to go out there before us to get everything "going". We're not sure how everything is going to work yet. We'll have to but another vehicle and hopefully, Angel won't have puppies while we're moving!

Well, I'd better be going. I have a lot to do today. (Hopefully, shopping as well :o)

Homesteading: A Way of Life

I thought I would share with you all something I did for school. This is just the outline of it, and there will be more posts to finish it. I hope you enjoy it and please, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

A Cotswold Cottage

Homesteading: A Way of Life

By: Kaitlyn Becker

Homesteading and living self-sufficiently is a God honoring way to live. I believe that living on a farm, raising godly children in God’s creation, is one of the best ways to live. You can glorify God in many ways. No matter where you live, you can glorify God as long as you live it to the fullest for Him.

In this report, I am endeavoring to show you how you can live a self sufficient life on 10 acres. I will be comparing the homesteading way of life to the scriptures, as that is my basis for wanting to live this way.

I feel so strongly about this, that I want to share it with everyone I meet and tell them that there is a better way to live than going to the store every other day and depending on the government to supply you with the things you need when the Lord has blessed you with the means to do it right in your own back yard. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therin." Psalm 24:1 Yet we are too lazy and depend on others beside God to give us our daily bread. I hope that at the end of this report, it will inspire you to be self sufficient in some way. You can start by baking your own bread, having a garden to supply most of your food. Have a few chickens to provide meat and eggs. Take back what we, as Christians, have lost as we have become more and more like today’s culture. Let us take a stand for freedom in Christ and start providing for ourselves with grace from God to follow through with it. May we always strive to honor God in all that we do and be a living testimony for what He has done, and continues to do in our lives.

Soli Deo Gloria!

(Glory to God alone)

Puppies!

I thought I would post pictures of the puppies.........but for some reason it's not working. So, you'll have to go and visit our blog to get pics of all the round butterballs! I hope you enjoy!


http://www.autumnacreslabradors.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the New Year!

Blessings in Trials

A couple of days ago, we went to get our hair cut and to do some errands. I got my hair cut, about 5 1/2 inches off and all layered! I don't even look like me! Yikes!!! I like it, a lot, it's just something totally different. Anyway, after we got our haircut, we went out to lunch at our favorite tea shop, Cricket Meadow. We had a lovely lunch and we went to get in our car and it wouldn't start! Well, Mom had accidentally left the lights on and the battery was dead. Where we were parked, we were in the perfect spot for someone to jump us. So, mom called State Farm Insurance and one of the agents came out to give us a jump. He popped to hood and found that we had more than a dead battery. Oil was EVERYWHERE and there was no oil cap. My Dad had checked the oil that morning and didn't put the cap on all the way. If our battery hadn't gone dead, the engine would have blown up on our way home from lack of oil and we would have all probably died! What a blessing! My Dad called our mechanic and he came, gave us oil, a new oil cap, and a jump and we were on our way home. We were about 2 hours behind schedule, but we got home safely! God is so good to use some not-so-pleasant circumstances to protect us in the long run.

On another note, Kelli and Chet are going to be here Christmas Eve, spend the night, and be here most of Christmas day! We are really excited! On Christmas Eve, we always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart and have lots of munchies.

I hope you all have a great Christmas! Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season! Merry CHRISTmas!

God is So Good!

My family has been in constant prayer over our house selling. We really don't want to put it on the market if we don't have to. Well, about a month and a half ago, a woman came to our garage sale and asked if our house was for sale. We had just started talking about selling our house when she asked. We said yes and she asked to see it. So we showed her around the place and she said she really liked it and would get back to us. About a week later, she called us and wanted to bring her fiancee out to look at it too. After we were done showing them,they left and said they'd give us a call. We didn't hear from her for about a month and we had pretty much lost hope that she'd ever call us again. As we had called her many times before and she had never returned our calls. Out of the blue, she gave us a call yesterday. She is still very interested and is going to give us a call tomorrow and give us her answer! Just when you are loosing all hope, God is always faithful!
We are hoping and praying that she will buy our house! If she does, we will probably be moving to North Carolina mid to later February, beginning of March.

My Dad already has a great job opportunity to be able to work for a wonderful Christian company. The Lord is providing for us so much better than we could ever imagine. I would really appreciate all your prayers for us!

I know this has nothing to do with the above, but I got this in an email this morning and thought it was really good. Enjoy!

THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL

It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas--- oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it overspending ...the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma---the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts,sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended;and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly black. These youngsters,dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class.And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids --- all kids --- and he knew them, having coached little league football,baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --- one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters, to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew,the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure.

The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad.

The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always. God bless and Merry CHRISTmas!

A Safe Return from North Carolina

Last night at about 9:00 pm, we returned from our trip. All of our flights were on time and they all went smoothly. The one on the way home we hit some turbulence that was a little rough, but other than that , it all went well. We had a wonderful time out there. We went shopping to look at prices and the only thing that is a lot more expensive is their eggs. They go for $2.49 a dozen! And that's not even for organic!! We also had to buy a North Carolina sweatshirt. We were told that we had to choose a college football team as that is really big out there. We chose the N.C. State Wolf Pack. Since we talk so much different than them, they kept making fun of us, and we kept making fun of them. They use the words, y'all, ya know, a lot and they don't say "Hi" or "Hello" when they answer the phone, they say "Hey". We ate and Chick Flay and Bojangles. It was really good as we had never had either one of them before. They are really big on fried chicken, biscuits, and sweet tea. When you go to a restaurant, the first thing they ask you is if you'd like sweet tea with that! They don't have pop, it's soda. I had to laugh when I check the weather there. It said "Tonight 20 F , cloudy and very cold." Then I checked our weather for Minnesota and it said "Tonight, -2, clear and cool." Now what's wrong with that picture!?!



We also visited Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest. It's a wonderful church. We met a lot of families while we were down there. We met the Peter Bradrick family, the Philip Bradrick family, The Valenti family and a couple other families that I can't really remember there last names! {how bad of me!! :o( } Mr. Scott Brown gave a wonderful sermon.



We were so blessed to have the couple that did our chores for us while we were away. Everything went smoothly and Krissy didn't have her pups! When we saw her this morning, she must have grown 5 inches all around! She's HUGE!!! It's amazing what 6 days can do, especially when you don't see her. She should deliver in about a week. We are hoping and praying that all goes well. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas season!!!

~A Vacation~

Tomorrow, we are going to our grandparents house to spend the night before we go to the airport. We are going to North Carolina for 6 days.  We are so grateful that Dad's job allows him to be able to take off and get payed. We are going to stay with my Dad's cousins who we are all close to and are Christians. :o) We haven't seen them in a few years so it will be nice to fellowship with them once again. While we are there, we are going to visit our friends church, Hope Baptist. Mr. Scott Brown is one of the elders there and is going to be preaching that day. Our flights have 1 stop in Atlanta, Georgia, so I hope we can find where we are supposed to go!! I would appreciate all your prayers that we would have safe travels, our flight changes would go smoothly, that my ears wouldn't hurt,{they didn't do good on our last flight, they just don't pop! :o( }, we would be able to go through security without any problems, and that while we are away, all of our animals will be well taken care of, especially since we have a dog due to have puppies about 12 days after we return! It's hard to be able to go on a vacation when you have to find someone to do chores for you. Thankfully, God sent us a wonderful couple just 6 miles down the road from us who are able to care for them in our absence. God is so good!!

We had a scare yesterday though. My Mom got a "finale details" email for our flight and it said that we hadn't booked it yet and it would be an additional $1,700!! Well, Mom was going to have none of that! She called the airlines right away and there computers said we hadn't payed for it, but our bank account did! We would of had to pay all of that if we didn't have our airline conformation code. All was taken care of then, as it was a mistake on there end of it.

Another blessing. Kristina and I are (for the most part) over our colds! Just in time for our trip. We haven't been on one for about 3 years!!! It's long overdue!

I'll have to post pictures when we return!! Stay tuned for updates!!!! Thanks for all your prayers!