Just another day on the Farm

pickled squash, oh my oh my!

I LOVE raw sweet corn!! So does Arden!

Where there is one there you will find the other right on his heels!

Retirement, how did I miss this!!??

I can't believe that I missed blogging about my Mama retiring from the postal service!! She retired March 30th! I am sure if you asked her how she is enjoying it she may tell you that she hasn't slowed down long to do so! ha.  Because my parents house has an open door policy, well, their doors are always open and someone is always there!  Mama insisted she did not want a retirement party instead she wanted to do something with the family so that is what we did.  Memorial Day weekend we loaded up and headed to Pelahatchie to Jellystone Park, Home of Yogi Bear!  We had so much fun, in fact Arden tells me weekly "mama we need to go back to Yogi Bear".  :)  Mama spent her days fishing although turtles is mostly what she caught, Patrick racked up on some fish though.  

This is where Mama spent most of her weekend, catching turtles for the kids :)

Ella had a tough life lol

I ate it all!

Our friend Leanne went with us

The sign said "No Jumping" hmm, bunch of rule breakers! Alese, Jason and Malaine

Pictures are Memories

This may be why one of my kids seems to always be injured! ha 

Papa and his right hand man

My lil redneck child Arden

It is almost impossible for Arden to stay dressed or for  Ella to find a matching swim suit!  :)

Cash trying to fill Papa's shoes

Mama's catch

Love my mama!!!

Two of my favorite men, Austin and Patrick and Senior night at PCS

Cash and Arden with the Bobcat

Arden LOVES Austin

And she loves Dylan too!

I HAVE THIS FRAND aka FRIEND WHO......

So I have this bestest "frand" who is a faithful follower of my blog, she may be the only one but that is okay by me! :)  So back to my bestie.  I won't name names, maybe I will just attach a picture of her to this entry, she thinks that because I have not blogged since JULY that I may never catch up.  PULEEZ! I have all intentions of catching up at some point before the years end and I committed one hour today to doing just that.  I know how far behind I am and I am glad that she loves my life enough to read my blog and know that I am behind.  :)  So best frand, this blogs for you!!! Enjoy your night shift and thank you for loving me and understanding why I am scatter brained lately! I LOVE YOU!!! 

"Be true to who you are"


"It is impossible to live without failing at something,unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you fail be default" J.K Rowling


"You were born an original, don't die a copy" John Mason

Hello Faithful Few....

If you are wondering where I have been I have a very easy answer:  I have been on the farm! Actually I have been in my car on the road between here and there ALL summer.  The kids and I have not spent an entire week at home since they got out of school.  It has been fun, it has been hot, it has been hard work, it has been good for  my soul and exhausting  for my body, it has been memories made but most of all it has been HOT! Did I mention that?!   This has by far been a really busy summer, much busier than I would have chosen but starting an agritourism business is hard work, even harder when your farm is an hour away.  I am almost done with our "Farm House" and can't wait to post the before and after pictures of that! :)  


One night last week I had Arden sitting on the kitchen counter with me and I was just staring at her crying, she asked "Mommy why are you crying"? I had no answer except, please Lord Jesus give me a pause button! She is growing so fast, she is so much fun, she is such a challenge and she makes me smile a thousand times a day.  I love her more and more every second, I think she looks like me when I was her age, I see it in pictures all the time and I imagine my Mama and me when I was 2.  People are always telling me how smart she is, how intuitive she is, how aware she is and how clearly verbal she is.  None of this comes as a surprise to me at all, she was VERY clearly verbal last week when she yelled at Cash, "CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR, CASH".  Go ahead, cover your mouth in disbelief and then laugh, you know it's funny.  I never said I was proud but it is funny :).  She learned that from drum roll please...me! I told her that we made Jesus sad when we said that and she asked me if Jesus was crying and I told her yes and now I am learning to take the "d" word out of my "irritated vocabulary", it just doesn't make for good supper talks.    


I can't really focus right this moment on  all the things I want to blog about but I did want to spout out a few things while I had 37 seconds to myself, umm scratch that, here comes Alese with another question :).  She probably wants to borrow a shirt or something.  How does that happen?  Seems like yesterday she was pitching fits in the back seat of my car at the ripe ole age of 4, now she is pitching a totally different kind of fit! :)  Teenage daughters! I am certain I was NEVER like that, maybe I should ask Bonnie Jean, on second thought, maybe I will just keep assuming.! 


It is good to be back! I have missed my blog! :) More to come sooner or later.

Cashism's

 So many times during the day I feel guilt over things like, I should be playing with him more, I should not be feeding them spagetti-o's for lunch(again), I should be helping him write his name etc etc etc....  Sometimes I feel like I just don't do or give enough.  I mean the enormity of the needs of our kids is nothing we could have ever prepared ourselves for, it is all day long, every 3 minutes it is mama this or mama that....I always wonder am I showing them Jesus, am I taking advantage of teaching moments to tell them about Him.  I try to follow up discipline with "Jesus wants us to obey mama because..." Sometimes you wonder if ANY of it sinks in, he is in fact 4 years old, does he absorb any of this?  Sometimes Cash will sass me to be cute, for example if I tell him if he does something again I will spank him, he may say that he is gonna spank me.  Sometimes he does this in a funny voice and sometimes he does it with a "tone".  I have been talking to him about this and have began to put my foot down with him doing it.  Cute or not now, when he is 13 and doing it, it will not be cute.  So the other night I corrected him for something and he started sassing me but right away he looked up at me and said "Mama, I am sorry I said that like that".  :)  Somethings are sinking in, the hard work showed for that instant, it made not only me smile but it made my heart smile so much that I got tears in my eyes.  Even though those little moments are fewer than I would like, they make me see the results of the hard work of being a mama.  


One day a couple of weeks ago the kids and I were traveling home from the farm and out of nowhere Cash asked me, "Mama, when is Jesus coming back to get us"?  I started telling him that only He knows that and we have to have our hearts ready so we can go home to Heaven with him.  He then followed up with, "how are we going to get up there, how will we get back home"?  When I told him we wouldn't come back home that Heaven would be our new home he didn't seem to like that idea much, he said he wanted to come back home.  After he thought for a minute he asked, "will there be a farm in Heaven and will it be Papa and Gigi's farm, will Papa and Gigi be in Heaven with us"?  Another heart smiling incident.  


May 26 was my Pappy's birthday, for those of you that knew him you know how very close I was to him.  I spent a lot of time with him as a child and as an adult.  He was a special man, there will never be another like him (Praise).  I have told the kids about their Pappy enough that they know his pictures and they know a lot about him.  When I told Cash that it was Pappy's birthday he quickly asked me if we could call him and tell him happy birthday.   When I told him that we couldn't call heaven he asked me why pappy didn't have a phone there!  I told him that you can't call heaven but if we love Jesus and he lives in our hearts that one day we can go to heaven and see all the people we love.  Cash excitedly announced "I LOVE YOU JESUS".  :)