TREES!!!

With all the gardening that we were doing we decided that trees should be planted as well. We decided, of course, on getting two pear and two peach trees. We love fruit and we have a vegetable garden so the next thing was fruit. Micah did such a good job! He was so tired... I've plum worn him out lately! He loves it though I'm sure!

This is Micah hitting one of the stakes in so we could tie the tree to them so the wind wouldn't blow over. It gets a little windy here.
Here's a picture of all four trees in the yard. Well, 5 if you count the one that was already there. The trampoline is to the right. You can't see it in this picture though.

Pear tree number 1.

Pear tree number 2.

Peach tree number 1.

Peach tree number 2.

I'm praying great things come out of these trees! My husband did great with getting them in the ground, now I have to water it enough so it doesn't die.

More Gardening Pictures

I would've posted this earlier but I had the whole post ready to go and I hit Publish and it didn't go through. The page said hit the back button so I did and my post was gone! I went to edit posts since it's ALWAYS saved there. IT WASN'T. Anyways, at least I'm getting this posted now. This post is on my gardening that I've been keeping busy with. But first I decided to post a picture of my front yard.

Meems is on the right side of the picture letting the girls go down the driveway in the wagon. They have so much fun doing that. I'll post pictures later if I have time.

The green beans coming up, when they first started.

The green beans... these have been my favorite because I can SEE them growing the best!

Micah came home from work the other day with another garden box for me so I decided to go ahead and fill it up too. Here is my garden thus far.

This is the new box. I ended up moving that middle plant (squash) to the middle so it would have more room to grow. There's another picture of it towards the bottom of this post.

This is my purple tomato plant. The girls got a little carried away with the water the other day on the tomatoes in the pots so this one doesn't look too good. Hopefully it will turn around and do better.

This is the yellow pear tomato plant. It's got 5 little tomatoes on it. It's doing pretty well except that the leaves look kind of funny sometimes.

These are my green beans!!! They are getting so BIG! So excited about these... and Samara said last night that she likes green beans now... hopefully that's not just talk but that she's actually going to start eating them.

Oregano, Basil, and Parsley that the kids started growing.

Natalie has been a huge help with watering the garden, she loves it!

Carrots (I've been told that carrots, onions, and regular spinach are out of season so we'll see how they go. But vine spinach is okay.) You may have to click on the picture in order to see them. Same for the onions.

Onions

Peas

Green Beans coming up in my second garden box.

Bottom right, Elite Squash; Middle, Sweet Dumpling Squash; Top, Vine Spinach (I need a treillis for that!)

Baby Butter Lettuce

Red Bell Pepper

Green Bell Pepper

PLANTING

Over the weekend we went to Lowe's to get a few things for the yard. Alyssa and Samara were playing on a cart and it bumped Mara's chin pretty hard. Hard enough that a trip to the urgent care center was in store. She ended up getting her chin glued together, thank God she didn't have to have stitches! Anyways while Micah and Grandpa took her to the urgent care clinic Grandma, Alyssa, Nattie, and I stayed at Lowes to get all the stuff we needed. So I ended up deciding that now was as good a time as any to plant a garden! Yes, last minute decision as far as buying everything for it but I'd wanted a garden for a long time. My husband is amazing! He goes with me on these things... I think he has had a lot of fun building a garden with me.

The ground in our area is ROCK. So we decided to build an above ground garden. This meant that we'd have to buy a lot of dirt.

At the farmer's market we bought some tomato plants and a red marconi plant, along with some garlic flavored chives. This is our purple tomato plant. We decided to put two tomato plants in pots near the house.

These are yellow pear tomatoes. I'm excited about these. Maybe because there's already some growing on the vines.

Micah started tilling the ground where the garden was going to go. He had a hard time doing it. Like I said before our ground is rock. Here is the proof. These rocks came out of the ground. We tilled more than what the above ground garden was going to take on purpose so we could buy another above ground garden at the end of the season and put it up. I want to start out with something I feel I can keep up with first and then get bigger.

Old Grandpa telling Micah how to work the tiller. Micah struggled, the thing just bounced everywhere. He is such a good sport though! He did an excellent job getting it done the way I wanted it.

Taking a break... I am quite the slave driver! BACK TO WORK!!! ;-)

We had to put these metal things around the tomatoes so they wouldn't fall over. If you look closely (click on the picture to enlarge it and then click the back button to come back) you'll see the little tomatoes on the vines.

Micah got done tilling pretty late. Thank you baby you are awesome!!! We put the edging stuff around it to keep the grass out. Hopefully it works. It works pretty good for our bush bed out front so I think it will be fine.

This is the finished product. I didn't take any in between pictures... maybe because my hands were all dirty trying to get the 7!!! tomato plants planted, they're in the back. (We thought there was only two but in the two containers one had 4 and one had 3 in them so now we'll have a TON of tomatoes!!!) The two you see up front are a red bell pepper and green bell pepper. These were all already growing and we transplanted them into the garden bed. Then I planted seeds for carrots, green beans, peas, butter lettuce, spinach, and onions. I'm super excited to see how these do!!! Hopefully I'll reap a good harvest out of them! And I planted marigolds all around the edges of the box.

My BIG helper. She's growing up so fast. Nattie loves to use the house or her watering can to water the garden, the tomatoes and the grass, oh and the tree. She walks around with the water on and just waters whatever she feels like. I tell her to make sure she doesn't spray in the open windows!

Such a good girl. If you see the garden in the back you'll see to the right that there's nothing over there. That's where I'm going to put the other box when I get it. Maisy (our dog) learned pretty quick already not to go near the garden. I thought it was going to take more but she's really learned quick.

This is a blossom on the purple tomato plant.

The tomatoes growing on the yellow pear tomato plant! I'll have to take pictures of these when they're done. I've never had them before so this should be interestingly fun.

If you look very closely I noticed today that my Marigolds were already sprouting. These aren't in the garden box but around the edges of it. I'm super excited about them. I kind of goofed though. I planted these all around the box and now have no room to stand to garden. I may have to pull some out and maybe transplant them. I'll do it different next year!

These are the garlic flavored chives... yummy! I just go and get what I want when I want.

So that's one of the projects I've done lately. Hopefully it will turn out well or what doesn't turn out I hope I'll learn from so I can do better next year. I'm loving trying new things out!

Thanks Meemo, Old Grandpa, and Micah for being such big helps... oh and of course thank you to Syssa, Mara, and Nattie!!! They are helpful too!

This is what happens when tired girls watch one of their favorite movies!

They are my precious sleeping beauties!!!

Grandpa Ozzie's Surprise

The last month or two have been quite crazy! There have been a lot of little things that have happened and lots fo big things too! One of the HUGE things was a surprise visit from Grandpa Ozzie (who lives 22 hours on a motorcycle away, that's how long it took him to get here). It was a good time!

His goggles are starting to fall apart. I guess that's what happens after riding on a motorcycle for so long.

He decided to try on Nattie's hat.

When Ozzie comes he is famous for going to restaurants that have an enormous amount of food or he goes to a regular restaurant and buys an enormous amount of food. This time was no different. We went to Big Lou's pizza parlor. The pizza was HUGE!!!! We had about the size of a regular large pizza left over.

Samara getting ready to EAT! She ended up eating the same amount as I did (a whole piece of pizza!!).

Nattie taking a drink waiting for the pizza.

Daddy with the three girls waiting for the pizza.

Mommy eating the HUGE piece of pizza.

Look at the size of that thing!!

Our friend Eric getting ready to demolish his piece.

Mara amazed me.... she was really going after it.

Erin eating.

The girls love Grandpa Ozzie's motorcycle. They won't let him rest until he takes them for a ride. Alyssa went first. She kept saying "I wanna go on a motorcycle ride!" over and over again until finally Ozzie took her. She spent a month with Grandpa Ozzie and Mama Jay one summer riding the motorcycle around so she is a BIKER CHICK through and through now.

Ozzie and Alyssa getting ready for a ride.

Samara going for her ride.

Nattie's turn.

We always have a good time with Grandpa Ozzie! He is such an awesome Grandpa! Wish he could be here more often, with Mama Jay too (she didn't get to come because she had to work).

The Thankless Job...

I have been thinking lately about what moms say (and even I've said many times up until maybe 3 or 4 days ago).  "Being a mom is a thankless job".  I understand what is meant by this statement but I think I am a little off when I say this.  We, as moms, don't get the kind of thanks that we would like to get from people, our spouses, or our children, but more important we get the approval, and I believe as I've been feeling the last couple of days, we get thanks from God!  WOW!!!  Isn't that amazing!  The only approval that I want is from the Lord!  I don't want anybody else's approval more than His. 

He has entrusted me with 5 special, precious, unique girls!  He has great plans for them and for myself; part of that is to rear these girls to the fullness that GOD has for them... not the fullness I have for them!  I praise the Lord for this because on my own I don't have much to offer except a lot of faults, but God has ALL things and He only gives good and perfect gifts to us! 

In my almost 8 years of mothering I've had some kind and encouraging words spoken to me as well as some mean and hateful things spoken to me.  Some things that built me up and some things that tore me down.  When people speak kind and encouraging words to me I try and see them as people sent by God to be a comfort to me especially when my girls seem to have LOST THEIR MINDS!  (If you're a mom you'll know what I'm talking about!)  But when someone comes along and says something that's not so nice or very discouraging with their words, actions, and sometimes even their looks, I have to know and be secure in the way God sees me and not the way that man sees me.

In the Bible it talks about how we, as Christ followers, are aliens in this world.  We should act differently, talk differently, be different.  I believe that this ultimately comes from knowing who we are in Christ and not allowing anybody to persuade us differently.  And in this I know I need to watch my tongue and what I say to others so I'm not one to say hurtful things but be an uplifter instead.

I knew this before but I'm understaning at a greater level that my children are not my own.  They are a gift from God for God!  I need to pray daily... hourly... for wisdom, which He grants (Godly wisdom is far greater than human wisdom) so that my girls will be exactly what God wants them to be, not what I want them to be because I don't necessarily have a full picture of what their greatness is.  I get a picture of their greatness but I'm definitely NOT all-knowing. 

Motherhood is not a thankless job.  If you don't feel appreciated for what you are doing with your children that will effect eternity then I encourage you to examine your heart and ask yourself "who am I looking to for appreciation".  I know I need this advice more than most that's why I believe I've had this on my heart so much lately.  God is the one I would like the appreciation and encouragement from more than any other!  And remember we are just borrowing our children for this life.  They are ultimately God's children not ours!  Thanks for letting me share my heart today.  Go and make great disciples out of your children.

Calling

I shouldn't be on the computer right now. My mom is coming so I should be getting prepared for her to be here. But what is there to prepare? I can clean but I've already cleaned up a bunch and haven't put a huge dent in it anyways. I need to get some of my feelings out in writing here so that I can do what I need to get done around the house with a clearer view of what is going through my head. I don't know about you but I guess writing is just how I do that.

I got back from a 6 day trip to Haiti on Monday. It was awesome. We are adopting two girls from that beautiful country and I got to go see them. It was an answer to prayer!! I had just starting praying and telling God that I really just needed to go and visit them and make sure that they knew that I loved them. I wanted to spend some bonding time with them and be able to hear them say "Mom, I love you!" Which I got to hear a lot. But we really didn't have the money to pull off a trip. Maybe 2 weeks later I got a phone call and got offered a portion of the money to go!!! Absolutely amazing!!! Praise the Lord!!! It ended up that at the end of the trip I only spent about 20-40 dollars of my own money! God is so good!!! I am so happy that it all worked out the way it did!

Before I left the word PREPARE kept popping into my head. What! I know that we are supposed to be ready in and out of season to preach the good news of Christ (it's in the Bible, I'm not really sure the reference but it's in there) but I wasn't sure what this meant for me while I was headed to Haiti. I have yet to know understand fully what I'm supposed to be prepared for even now I still feel a sence of urgency to be prepared. So that's what I'm trying to do as much as I can. PREPARING! I mainly feel like I need to be prepared spiritually for whatever is going to happen next but I also feel as though I'm supposed to be prepared in other ways as well.

While I was in Haiti I was able to be with some of the greatest kids I know, as well as some of the greatest adults. Pastor Jean Fritz, the pastor of the orphanage (he also pastor's a church, runs a school, and is trying to do about 30 adoptions right now) is an amazing man. If you ever think about it please pray for him. He has so much going on right now! It's absolutely amazing to me that he can keep things straight. I pray that he soars on wing's like eagles, he runs and not grows weary and walks and not faints. (It's in the Bible and again I'm not sure of the reference.)

Haiti really is a beautiful country! If you look past the destruction of the earthquake and into the heartland of Haiti, the mountains, the trees, the rocks, the concrete homes, the wonderful people.... The people need a love that knows no end. They need Jesus, just like all people need Him! I'm just believing that Haiti is going to have a great revival come to it. Haiti is going to see the Lord in ways that it never has before! People are going to be set free from bondage that they have been carrying around forever. People being healed and Jesus restoring lives and marriages and families. I just know that the Lord wants this! He wants the people of Haiti to rise up out of the ashes and into His Glorious Light!

Anyways, like I said I just got back from Haiti so of course I have a ton of pictures! My computer cable broke when I got back to the states so I have to wait til I get a new power cord before I can post any pictures but as soon as that gets fixed I will be going crazy with pictures. I was so excited to see my girls, and they were so excited to see me. I may post a little bit about some of my experiences while I was there but for now I need to at least clean up a bit before my mom comes. She'll be thinking... what did I teach you about cleaning!? Haha. Anyways if you think about it say a prayer for our family and that our paperwork would get through smoothly and that nothing would stop God's calling on our lives!

By the way it worked out perfectly because Fafane's birthday was on the 7th of February and Guerline's birthday was on the 5th of March! I went on the 16-21st of February so I was there between their birthdays! PERFECT! PRAISE THE LORD! He is so GOOD!