Life

Life is a series of moments. A conglomeration of hundreds of little things all shoved together to define itself as one day in my life. And all those days stacked end-to-end will be the whole of my life. How many years will I have to live? How long will that life be? What will I do with my time here?

And even more importantly, what will I do with all those little moments shoved together to make that life I am calling my own? 

So many things I do that don't seem that important. Ballet buns. Making lunch. Organizing closets. Sorting laundry. New shoes. Lost stuffed animals. Defrosting dinner. Making the bed. A movie as a family. Farm chores. Cleaning. Disciplining. Listening. Loving.A quick kiss. A hug. A reprimand. 

On and on the moments go ...

I am not sure when life started just flying by. It seems to me that it took forever for me to become an adult, and now that I am one, it feels like it is going by way too fast. I yearned for children for a decade. And now I have four of them and they are nearly half-way raised. 

I know all this. And yet I find myself frustrated so often ... Why can I not savor the moments better than I do? Why do I get so frustrated by the lost winter gloves and disorganized schoolwork and messy rooms? How do I lose my cool so easily? Why can't I see the big picture clearly? How does it so quickly get sucked out of my perspective? I want so much for my children to look back and say: "My mom, she was present in the moments." 

And while I am for some of them, for so many, I feel like I forget the big picture. The point of those little moments. 

To feel love. To give love. To share Christ's love. 

In our entire life.

In all the moments. 

Writing these words so that I can try to remember, 

52 CLUTTER-FREE GIFTS

I continue to strive in my life to simplify. To live simply. To live freely. STUFF doesn't always allow that. Having children has been so hard as they have their own STUFF to add to the STUFF John and I already have. The more organized you are, the more free time you can have to do the STUFF that really matters.

We Bought a Farm: What my life is like right now

It's been awhile since I just flat-out wrote about my life on this-here Blog. 

So this post, is about my life.

I thought I would share what my life looks like right now.

• I farm.I am dirty. A lot. I'm a dirty farmer. Some farmers stay clean a lot. I am constantly dirty. Poop. Mud. Whatever. It's on me. Right now we have guinea fowl, sheep, ducks, geese, and chickens. The winter is always a lot slower with daily chores but we fill it with things that we have put off for awhile. 
• I homeschool. I really like homeschooling with the 9 children together. It works really well for me. I like teaching the older kids. Some days are easy. Some are harder. Kids have a lot of moods. And so do I.
• I clean. I have a housekeeper. She comes once a week. She is my friend Jennifer. She rocks my world. I couldn't do what I do without her. But despite the fact that she does the hard stuff once a week, I am doing the day-to-day stuff everyday that keeps us from ending up with too many junk drawers.
• I delegate. I give my kids whatever I can for them to do. The girls and boys rotate emptying the dishwasher. (Girls one time. Boys the next.) The boys do their own laundry. The girls are getting close to it. The kids keep their own rooms clean. Anytime the house starts feeling cluttery, I call an audible and ask everyone to join me in the living room for 5-15 minutes of help getting us back to the starting line. The boys each have an animal they are in charge of. The girls help with the dogs. We talk often about how we are a team here on the farm. I do understand why old-time farmers had a lot of kids. They are very helpful. :)
• I manage. I am the farm manager. I don't want to be but I am. This means that I am communicating between grandparents and husband and Jacob and Anni and the Kotynskis and other farm volunteers to keep the farm moving in the right direction. It's my main job. Everyone has what they are good at here. That's what I'm good at.
• I communicate. So much of my day is communicating. To sell eggs and meat and coordinate deliveries and what-not, I have to be available and connect with people. I wish I could simplify this part of my life, but I don't really see how I can. 
• I try to limit my technology. I am constantly working on simplifying my need for an online presence. I have removed the Facebook app. for my phone. I have stopped texting lengthy discussions/conversations with people and try instead to call them or MarcoPolo with them. I do play Scrabble everyday with 4 family/friends, and I really enjoy that. It's the only game I keep on my phone. I work to not be on my phone in public as much as I can. I want to set an example for my kids that we don't need gadgets to fill dead time. 
• I read. I read some sort of book (usually historical fiction) everyday before I go to sleep. I like to read it during the day too if I get me time. I try to bring my book with me wherever I go and read during down times. 
• I nap. I still nap but a lot less than I used to. I am lucky if I get a nap once a week. It's still one of my favorite things to do for ME. 
• I pray. I want to spend more time with God than I do. I try to keep a constant ebb and flow of prayer in my day-to-day life. Reading the word, scriptures, prayer ... as much as I can. But I do NOT get daily time at a certain time in a certain chair everyday. I take what I can get. I would love to be more diligent about this, but I am not sure how to do it with the type of life I live. 
• I chauffeur. I keep the kids going with their activities which include:
• Ballet (Abigail -- 2 classes a week and Hannah 1 class a week) plus usually 2 rehearsals a week for the play Pollyanna which will be presented at the end of January.
• The boys Karate (1 class a week)
• All four kids gymnastics (1 class a week)
• Speech (Sidge and Abigail 1 time a week)
• (Tennis is done for the winter)

We Bought a Farm: Our Country Kitchen

At long last, our kitchen is finally .... complete. We never got our backsplash finished during our renovation. I love that my husband grew up with a contractor for a dad who taught him all of this handy stuff. 

A day later — our backsplash is complete. I absolutely love it. My forever kitchen — well done hubby of mine!!

Tuesday Truth

Blokus for half price!

Folks, we LOVE this game in our house! And right now it is 50% off at Amazon! And even better, if you click on the image below, Because of Isaac will get between 5-8% of the purchase price! This is a great Christmas present. A wonderfully family game for the WHOLE family. All ages can play together. Check it out!

We Bought a Farm: Some Farm Pics from Joni

While Joni was here she did her usual awesome photography, and I got some fun pics that I wanted to share. First up, Isaac wants Joni to have an opportunity to feel the softest duck head ever on one of our crested ducks. So, he caught the duck as illustrated in the photos below: 

Next up, a photo series showing our guinea fowl steal food from all the other animals on the farm: 

Next up, an attempt at getting some pics of the girls in their Tuesday homeschool gymnastics class: