Growing Kids

Although last year found us without a garden, that didn't mean things didn't grow in our world.  Our kids have all grown leaps and bounds since I have been away from the blog world.  Here is our oldest son, Matthew.  He hasn't come to visit us as much as I had hoped, but we do see him about once a month. In a few weeks, he will complete another semester of college.  I miss him being a part of our everyday life.  I cherish our daily phone conversations.

Joshua has done his fair share of growing this year.  He has adjusted well to our new life.  He is working two jobs and will be finished with his junior year of high school in May.  He has made many friends since being in his new school, and he has brought many of them to our dinner table.  I have enjoyed watching him grow into a fine young man.  Did I mention that I also love spending time with him? 

Jacob has probably grown the most these last few months.  He now outweighs Joshua and they are wearing the same clothes!  He earned several awards this year for football.  Next year he will be starting high school.  He is still very loving, unless it is early in the morning!  I think he misses the farm more than any other of the kids.  He told me just the other day that if he could have just one farm animal that he would choose the sheep.  He loved their personality.  Hopefully soon we can start getting animals again for this young man to tend.

Hope has gotten braces since we last spoke.  She has grown into quite the cook.  Here we are decorating Christmas cookies together.  She is still playing basketball and she excels in school.  I don't have to nag her about getting any of her homework completed.  She is on top of it all!  I have watched her grow in her relationship with her brothers.  She is learning how to take their jokes and responds back to them with great wittiness!  Did I mention that I enjoy having a daughter?               

Seth has grown a lot these last few months as well.  We celebrated his 7th birthday.   He is doing well in school.  He holds close to a 100% average in all of his classes.  He is still shy, but he is growing into being a more confident person.  Our neighbor has a grandson that is close to Seth's age.  These two boys spend a lot of time together, and Seth has been enjoying being with the grandparents.  He eats dinner with them a lot, and they invite him to come along on walks.  I am thankful that the Lord has put this couple into Seth's life.  It has been so good for him.  I love the fact that we still have a young child in our family.  It keeps us still seeing the world through the eyes of a child!

While all of these kids have been busy growing, Missy has been around watching it all.  Well I should say she has been busy watching in between naps! 

Michael and I have been enjoying the family that the Lord has given to us.  When my children were all little and it seemed like I would never be finished changing diapers, I often wondered what it would be like when they were older.  Let me just say, it has been great.  We have our ups and our downs just like any family, but the rewards are well worth the sacrifices.  One of our kids made a comment to us the other evening.  He said just think how much money y'all would have if you had never had any children.  We quickly reminded him that although our bank account would be much fatter, our hearts would be missing out on so much love.  I wouldn't trade that for any amount of money in the world!

grace and peace,

julie

Sunday Scripture

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."      Philippians 4:7

Garden Updates

 Several weeks ago, Michael borrowed our neighbor's tractor to plow up our garden area.  We decided for this year we would grow our garden in the traditional rows.  I love the raised bed gardens dearly, but they are expensive and time consuming to get started.  This year we needed cheap and quick to define our garden!  There is also something beautiful about a traditional row garden.  I remember as a child walking through my grandmother's garden, and I loved the flowers even then.  As you can tell by the picture, Missy is still part of our family!

After the garden was plowed, our neighbor then brought his team of horses up to do the rest.  I loved watching the horses work.  There was something very peaceful about the whole procedure.  We then began the planting process.  Unfortunately, our first planting of seeds washed away.  Last weekend, we tried again.  I think we will see success this time.  We are planning on having a huge garden this year.  I heard the CEO of Walmart say that food prices will rise considerably over the next few months.  That was all the incentive I needed to grow a large garden!  Plus, I missed out on the whole garden season last year due to our move. 

grace and peace,
julie

Hello Again

It has been awhile since I last posted.  I promised that I would come back once our Internet issues were resolved.   We are no longer using satellite for our Internet, but instead we are now DSL users.  That makes all the difference in the world!   I have missed being a part of the blog world.  I have lots of things to share in the coming months.  Of course there are many new recipes that I would love for you to try, and I have stories to tell about our kids, our dog, our garden and our home.  I hope you will come along and join me in the months to come.  I wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to all the people that have left comments on our blog during our absence.  You just don't know how encouraging those words have been to me.  As a matter of fact, they are the reason that I decided to start writing again. 

grace and peace,
julie