Hi friends! Ok, so I’m just putting out a little flag to our dear faithful reading friends and family to let you know that we are here and doing well! ALERT blessed us with new family pictures for the holidays, so I thought I’d share them with you.

Love to you all!!!

We took a trip out to the Bell Family Farm for a day at the pumpkin patch with our friends! It was great fun! Hay piles, mazes, hay rides, a playground, a pumpkin patch, a fish pond, scarecrows to dress up, tractors to ride, and even a tractor/train ride thing. All of it, great fun, and great for pics! I had so many to share that I put them in a gallery for you. I hope you will not be too overcome by cuteness, but if you are, I promise you will recover.

[View with PicLens]

Happy Harvest!

The other day I was making bread and trying SO hard to involve my little girl. But, impatient momma as I am, I got frustrated. First I was frustrated with her head in “my” light and her fingers in the the mixing bowl. Then, I was frustrated with myself for getting frustrated! I know that children can enjoy doing real things around the house and not just playing. While she is longing to be helping and working right next to me, I want her to be there!

So, I’m working on me. This morning I read this:

Seeking Simplicity: Child’s Play is a Job Well Done by Kitchen Stewardship

In her article, this mom talked about involving her children in the daily activities of life around the house – cleaning, baking, cooking, etc. She also talked about simple play and contentment. I enjoyed it! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. This is what I long for, a simple life. Maybe one baby step at a time, I’ll get there!

So, tonight, there are three men sitting around the table in my dining room. They just finished dinner at 9:30. They are dressed in camouflage that smells like dirt. They are COMPLETELY engrossed in talked about wild hogs – what they sound like, look like, how they move. They just came in from traipsing through the woods seeking out a hog that one of them shot with his bow.

I love overhearing the conversation. I could care less about wild hogs and how they move, but I love the conversation because it’s full of energy from men just enjoying what men love. Men who love to be outside and get in the dirt! Men who love the earth. Men who love to hunt, and who love to just be men.

Isn’t it great how God made me, me and made him, HIM?

P.S. I hunted and hunted for a picture of Chris all decked out in his camo gear, but I can’t find one. Hmmm… Maybe, just maybe, that’s the point of camouflage.

A year ago, Benjamin Riley was born into heaven. It was a sorrowful day for Chris and I, but I thank the Lord for the gifts He gave us on Benjamin’s birthday. He gave us peace, hope, friends and family, comfort, healing, and He gave us our son, to have and to hold for all eternity!

I’m sad and tearful not to be able to hold him and have a special birthday party today, but I am comforted that he is with my Beloved Lord, praising Him.

Rev. 12:11 has been on my heart the last few days.  “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” God is giving my family a testimony, and that testimony is powerful and effective against the enemy of our souls. The word of our testimony is formed in the fire and sharpened with iron making it quick and able to overcome.

Will we embrace our testimony with joy and thanksgiving to God, or will we push it away? The Lord didn’t. He asked God to take away the cup if He willed, but then He took up His cross. By the blood of the Lamb that was shed, we are overcomers.

In celebration of Benjamin’s life, I wanted to introduce you to my cousin Kate and her husband Casey. In just a few days, they will welcome home their new daughter, Ayla. She is coming home from the Ukraine, no longer an orphan! I am so happy to have a new cousin! Please pray for Casey and Kate, Ayla, and baby Chandler! God’s love for children just fills my heart with smiles. What a wonderful God – our Healer, our Father, and the Father to the fatherless!