We Bought a Farm: The Bauernhof has PIGLETS!!!

Vietnamese Potbelly x Gloucestershire Old Spot crosses = 5 females and 3 males!

It’s a Season

By Wendi Kitsteiner

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” ~Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV

Once upon a time, I was a Division I college basketball player.

My favorite phrase from that time in my life was “It’s a season.”

As an athlete I knew how powerful and truthful those words were. When the last game of the year rolled around, I inevitably felt one of two very different emotions depending on how the season had gone.

If it was a good season, I felt sad to see it conclude. We had so much fun. I wanted to capture the positive things that had occurred and recreate them if possible the next season. If it was a bad season, I was relieved to see it end. Maybe next season would be better. I would be more prepared. Time to start fresh!

To read the rest of this post, please jump over to THE GLORIOUS TABLE by clicking here. 

Fender's Farm

Our church had their fall "get-together" at Fender's Farm. This is the second year we have attended, and my kiddos just LOVE it. These fall celebrations are very new to us. JB and I both grew up in South Florida. I'm not sure if it was the era or the location, but I'd never heard of a pumpkin patch or fall activities like these during the 18 years I called Florida home.

The first time I experienced these amazing fall productions was when I went to Western Kentucky University in 1995. But as a parent, living overseas meant we didn't experience them until last year, when we returned to America. Boy are they fun!

These huge jumpy trampolines are a hit with my kiddos. My girls are in pink in the video below:



And Hannah? Well we realized that she is by far the bravest of our kiddos. I'm not sure any of them would have done the zipline at three. She begged us and probably did it about ten times before we pulled her away from it! (You'll hear her ask to do it again the moment she stops.)

A fun picture of Abigail jumping:

My two girls! (Hannah on left and Abigail on far right):

And here I am, standing in line with the kiddos as they waited to get on some fun go-karts:

Even though we have now been back in the States over two years, I am still absolutely in love with these fun opportunities for my kiddos in America. I am also so blessed that ew have found such a great church and such wonderful people. I still sort of feel like a fish-out-of-water here, but every day, every week, every month, I am starting to more and more feel like this can be my forever home. :)

Review: Read and Share Look, I'm Reading! Bible Storybook

Folks we have found our new FAVORITE Bible for toddlers. Without a doubt, this book gets my HIGHEST recommendation. Hannah (three-years-old), who doesn't like to read or be read to, LOVES this book and is asking to read it regularly. 

First I should mention this book is not small. It is 184 pages. And each two-page spread includes a beautiful picture and a selection that Hannah can help me read! Check it out below:

Truly! Take my recommendation and buy this book for the toddler in your life. You will not regret it. Just an outstanding, awesome book that I cannot stop raving about!

Curried Turkey Salad

We have a LOT of turkey around these parts yesterday. Just made this the other day. Absolutely scrumptious. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1. Shredded cooked turkey -- 4 cups
2. Mayonnaise -- 1.5 cups
3. Plain yogurt -- 1.5 cups
4. Thinly sliced scallions -- 1.5 cups
5. Golden raisins -- 1.5 cups
6. Small cubed apple -- 6 cups
7. Curry powder -- 1/4 cup
8. Salt 
9. Pepper
10. Lemon -- 2 tsps
11. Honey -- 2 tbsp
12. Ground Ginger -- 1/2 tsp.
13. Celery (if desired) -- 2 ribs
14. Pecans (if desired) -- 1/2 cup

Directions

1. Heat curry in skillet (just until aromatic)
2. Add yogurt, lemon, mayo, honey, and ginger
3. Fold in turkey, apple, raisins, scallions (and celery and pecans if you want them)
4. Salt and pepper to taste
5. Serve on croissants or greens

Sunday Sermon

Fit4Life Farm

We attended our second annual Homeschool "Field Day" at Fit4Life Farm. I wanted to take a moment to share just a few pictures and highlight this great place. Fir4Life is a family owned and operated farm which combines beautiful view with indoor and outdoor fitness programs. They host various sports and fitness activities for kids and adults of all ages. They specialize in CrossFit and youth soccer programs. Here are just a couple of pictures of some of the fun things the kids got to do here.

Isaac is in the blue and Sidge is in grey! They were on the same age group team.

Fun obstacle course

Warming-up

Incentive Discipline

This chick. 

I love her so deeply it hurts. 

She is so passionate. 

So full of life. 

So independent. 

Such an individual. 

So her own woman. 

So much older than her three-year-old little self. 

But I have made it no secret that she has been my fiercest challenge. My first three children, as most of my friends will tell you, were almost a bit unfair. They were all truly easy. Of course no child is perfect, but I really didn't face any major issues figuring out how to direct and discipline them.

But God did decreeth: "Wendi shall be humbled."

And Wendi was.

And then it was the seventh day and I rested. 

Oh. 

No. 

Wait. 

God rested. 

I

'm still parenting. 

Never mind.

Last night Hannah and I had a conversation while she laid in bed. It went like this:

Me: "Hannah you are going to change the world some day."

Hannah: "Yup."

Me: "I think you are going to be the President of the United States."

Hannah: "No I'm going to be a mom."

Me: "You are?"

Hannah: "Yup."

Me: "How many kids will you have?"

Hannah: "Three."

Me: "What are their names?"

Hannah: "I don't know their names."

Me: "Is one going to be Ginger?"

Hannah: "No, that's a silly name. They are going to be Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle."

We are constantly having conversations like that. She's always coming up with something new.  

Hannah is biologically my oldest child, and she acts like a firstborn. She is a leader. She is strong-willed. 

And she could care less about discipline. 

A spanking? She does thus scoff at spanks.

A time-out? She finds a way to play in all situations. Even in an empty, boring space. And she truly doesn't seem to care that she's in time-out. It's almost a goal of her's to get there. 

So ... I brainstormed and reached out to some friends and decided to completely change strategies the fourth time around.

We went to Yoder's. She picked out a favorite candy. And I decided to simply reward her anytime I caught her listening and obeying the first time. 

It has worked very well. I wanted to take a moment to document and update my Blog with this small success for anyone else parenting a strong-willed child. I'm not saying I do not discipline her. I still have to do that. But instead of going to war with her every time she doesn't listen, I've started saying something like:

"Oh, are you going to listen right away? If you do, I think I'll have to reward you with a gummy bear?"

And she has started saying, "Mommy could you ask me to do something so that I could be a good listener and get a gummy bear?"

It's working. For now. Baby steps!

Friday Funnies

Sidge: "Hannah, you aren't in charge."
Hannah: "Actually I am."

*****

Hannah believes that age 3 means she is a big girl. She tells us repeatedly that that is what she is. Recently Abigail stopped needing pull-ups at night.
Me: "You are officially a big girl Abigail!"
Hannah: "Yeah! Just like me!"

*****

I've been rewarding Hannah for listening. Today she said, "Mommy could I have a piece of candy since I was actually a good listener?"

*****

Oh and I'll end with a video of what happens when you turn your head for a moment:



Oh, and while we are it, how about a first for our family - -an imaginary friend!
 

Medi-Share

With all the news hype in regard to increased insurance rates, I wanted to take a moment to share what we have done with our family.

When we got out of the military, JB started a job as a contract employee as an Emergency room physician. This meant he didn't work for the hospital and was therefore not eligible for insurance through his job.

We quickly got in touch with Blue Cross and picked up the cheapest plan we could.

It was $1,800 a month for our family of six. In addition, we had a $10,000 deductible, and the only thing covered under the plan was one well visit check-up for each of us each year. Isaac had to go to the ER one time while he was out of town and away from JB, and it cost us $1,000. Our insurance covered nothing until we hit $1,800. Even our prescriptions were not covered until we hit $10,000.

We decided after that year to try something different. We are using Medi-Share. I know this may not be an option for everyone, and I know that it is not fool-proof, but it does quality under Obamacare. We are paying around $215 a month for our family. We pay everything out-of-pocket until $10,000, but we figured, even if we paid $10,000 for the year, we'd be well below the $21,600 we paid just in rates last year.

We have a savings account for our medical care, and we put a certain amount in that every month as we work toward making sure we have $10,000 saved. In addition, when you hit $10,000, you have to pay and file for reimbursement. I truly can't say how well I'd recommend Medi-Share until we really needed them which we haven't yet.

Hope this may help someone who, like us, was completely overwhelmed with the cost of insurance!

Holy Ground

Your home is holy ground. The place where your kids see and learn about God.

Your home is holy ground. The place where your actions and words reflect his love.

Your home is holy ground. The place where you are present and available to your kids.

Your home is holy ground. The place where your kids feel treasured and accepted.

Your home is holy ground. The place where the Word of God is honored and valued.

Your home is holy ground. The place where mistakes are forgiven and mercy is shown.

Your home is holy ground. The place where guests are welcomed and cherished.


Your house can be just a house or it can be holy ground. The choice is yours. The effort and commitment come from you. God promises to be by your side, to give you wisdom and help you start over when you make mistakes... Would you do what it takes?

I'd like to introduce you to a beautiful woman of God. A wife and a mom who takes every effort to make her home holy ground. I hope her interview encourages you and challenges you today as it does to me!

Hi! I am Stephanie Beams and Angelica invited me to share a little about our home and family.

My husband and I, along with our 4 children, live on the island of Okinawa, Japan, serving as missionaries to the US military and Japanese locals here. My husband is the Worship Pastor and I am over our pastoral care and counseling ministries at Koza Baptist Church. We have 4 awesome kids from ages 5 to 14. When we watch the Olympics we get to cheer for 3 countries, because our second daughter is adopted from Russia and our youngest son is adopted from here in Japan! Adoption has been a beautiful gift to our family and we can't imagine our family any other way!

1. What makes your house a home?

Since we have moved often and rent while living in Japan, we certainly know that a house doesn't make a home. We have been able to make wherever we are feel like a home because of who lives in our home and the shared experiences and memories that we have together. Of course, I love to decorate and make our home feel cozy with things that we love. We live on an island in Japan, but we are from Texas, and we've also been on mission trips to places all over the world, so we have all of those things represented in our home. I love antiques and unique pieces that still fit into my current style. The main thing that makes our house a home, is that it is a place comfortable for everyone... for our kids to play and have friends over, but also a place that is organized and not cluttered or chaotic. We want it to be a place where we can welcome friends and do ministry. It is not perfect, but it represents who we are as a family. 

2. What are some of your favorite decorative accessories that speak about you and your family in your home? How do you reflect God in your home? 

Some of my favorite accessories for decorating are those things that have deep meaning for us. We have a tea set that we purchased in Russia when we adopted our daughter that we will eventually pass on to her.

We have some great Japanese art from a family trip to Kyoto that is a daily reminder to pray for people we serve in Japan.

I use scriptures all over my house that have a deep meaning to us. When we were moving to Japan, this Texas girl was having a hard time letting go and God spoke Psalm 139:10 to me... assuring me that even on the far side of the sea He would be with me. We have it in vinyl in our entryway as a reminder as we go and come from our home that He is always with us!

We also walked through a very long and difficult adoption with our son and the promise that we prayed and clung to was James 1:17 " Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Such a beautiful promise as we were waiting for our son in the midst of so much struggle. We could trust that God was the one giving us our son and we were not dependent on man to make it happen. We keep that spiritual marker up right outside the door of our kids bathroom as a reminder!

3. In what specific ways do you teach your kids about God at home?

Our goal for teaching our kids about God is first and foremost to live out our faith at home, in an authentic way so that it becomes natural for our kids to do the same. We want them to see us loving people, serving in the church and giving generously, though many days we fail in this! We strive to admit when we are wrong, that we are all sinners in need of Jesus everyday. We want to teach them the disciples of a relationship with Christ by modeling those disciplines in front of them, very imperfectly I might add. We do have some very intentional things that we do with the kids to develop those habits. We strive to have morning devotionals before we leave for school each day and pray as a family each night before we go to bed. We trade off girls night and boys night on who prays each night.  We also have a memory verse board in our house that we keep up for about a month (or more when I forget to change it!) and we focus on memorizing it and applying it to everyday situations. Some other great resources that we have utilized have been Passport to Purity from Family Life and It Starts at Home.org for family night activities. We know that one day our kids will leave our home and that it's so important for their faith to become personal to them. We work hard to make it as personal as possible by having open conversations about individual struggles and successes. God speaks to us all in different ways and has different purposes for us. Our heart for our home is to grow our children to know Christ, have a personal relationship with Him and walk in His purposes for them as they are in our home and long after they grow up and move away. We want to, as our family motto says," Live Fully, Praise Loudly, Love Generously" all of our days!!

Thanks so much for letting me share a little about us! We pray the same for you as you each endeavor to make God the center of your home.

                    Love,

                               Angelica

Homeschooling .... keepin' it real!

In an effort to keep thing totally real, I present, what one minute in our homeschooling adventures looked like today. I was feeling so exasperated, so I decided to just film for one minute in an effort to show a friend I was texting with what was going on. If I sound a little exasperated, it was because I was. Absolutely. Without question. I just wanted to eat my carrots and hummus in peace. And even that was taken over!

 

I never want anyone to think our home is something that it isn't. Keepin' it real folks,

We Bought a Farm: Breaking Even on the Turkeys

It feels SO wonderful to say that we have officially broken even on our turkey sales. This is a great accomplishment on a farm. This means that we can now eat the rest of the turkey meat in our freezer for free.

Very exciting!!!

We had 48 turkeys. We sold about 25 of them to reach our $3,000 amount. This is how much it cost to purchase the turkeys and to feed them for 18 weeks. We have now been making lots of ground turkey and will celebrate throughout the rest of the year eating our meat for free.

FREE of course is an overblown word. We are NOT counting the countless hours we put into taking care of these turkeys. Our WWOOFer Mary Ann was by far the most involved with the turkeys!

Review: CrossTimber

All righty. It's October. Almost November. Which means the scramble is on to find some cool gifts for some cool people in your life without buying uncool things that they don't want or don't need. I have some special people in my life that I want to leave with memorable gifts. And I want to share with you a company that is doing just that. Let me introduce you to CrossTimber and specifically, I want to emphasize their Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse. 
In exchange for my review, I was given the ability to pick out a FREE personalized framed plaque. Here is the one I ended up with. I am showing you a picture of it and not my Elijah "Sidge" holding it because I am going to surprise him with it at Christmas:

My Elijah (aka "Sidge") absolutely LOVES Eagles which is one of the reasons I finally ended up picking him to make this frame for. Here is the ordering screen which just briefly shows some of the other options for your purchase:

Here are just a few of the other things you can get over at CrossTimber! They even have music boxes.

I wanted to really take the time to emphasize the individual attention and customer service that John and his family provide. This is a home and family-run business. They are passionate about names and what they are doing. They responded nearly immediately to requests and emails and would take the time to give you the meaning of any name you asked for.

In addition, I made an error when placing my order. The mistake was obviously mine, but the company took the time to correct it for me without consequence to me. These are Christians and a family, and I LOVE to support places like that. 

You can read more about their passion on our website:

"Names can have such rich and insightful meanings that encourage, motivate and inspire.  My name, John, is a continual reminder that I am here for the blessing of others, whether it be to a stranger through a smile, to my children with a guiding hand, or to you, right here and right now through these unique name meaning gifts. Click the chat box on the lower right to ask me the meaning of your name!  It would be a joy to meet you and tell you what your name means! And in doing that, I’d be living up to the meaning of my name, John: Gift of God: Messenger with Good News. I hope the name meaning gifts you find on this website will encourage and inspire you and those you're buying them for.   And don't worry about unusual names; we're experts at researching name meanings!  Choose any design for Framed Name Meaning Prints,Coffee Mugs, Keepsake Name Music Boxes, or our one-of-a-kind, Multi-Name Plaques! Each Name Gift includes the origin, cultural meaning, Life meaning, and a hand-picked Bible verse that connects with the meaning."

While the website can be a little challenging to work through because there is so much content, you will not regret taking the time to support this company as Christmas comes upon us. These are GOOD FOLKS and you will feel good about giving your money to people like this. Please take a moment and give them a try.

And if you aren't convinced by my post, please check out some of these cool coupons and give-aways!

The folks over at CrossTimber are doing a fantastic giveaway post!  Click here to see all the ways you can enter for free stuff!

And here are some coupon options for you:

Please take the time to check them out CrossTimber on Facebook and Pinterest. 

Wee-wind Wednesday

Let's jump back to this date ... 2010. Our house got "Booed" and Isaac thought it would be great fun to put the bucket the surprise came in on everyone's head -- include Elijah AND Scrubs.

Because of Isaac welcomes new little one!

I LOVE when I get the opportunity to share this news. One of our Because of Isaac couples -- Kevin and Tessa -- have met their forever son this evening. Please join me in celebrating the SIXTH child to find their forever family through our organization!!!!

Introducing: 

Carson Allen Yawn

Tribe Life Tuesday: Don't Quit Your Daydream

Welcome to the tribe of daydreamers!

We’re all daydreamers, mind wanderers, and reality escapers, some are just more identifiable than others. These days there seems to be a lot of negativity around daydreaming, some even equate it to laziness. But for the next few moments, let’s go on an adventure.

Take a minute and picture the biggest dream your currently have…

Dream big.

The sky’s the limit!

Do you have it?

Awesome!

That, my friend, is an amazing dream!

Here are 2 of my dreams:
            1. Own a luxury plane ☺

            2. Adopt children from various countries and have a beautifully diverse family.

*If you feel comfortable sharing some of your dreams, please comment below, I would love to hear all about them! (You can comment anonymously too) *

Now that you have your dream in mind, let’s go after it. Let’s pretend for a moment that there is nothing holding you back. Imagine that you have endless resource, how would your dream change? Would it get larger?

It may seem far-fetched, even impossible, but I believe we can make these dreams happen! Two of my favorite words are “why” and “not”, so I have to ask you: Why not? Honestly, why not go for it? It may take a while and it will probably have some painful moments, but the dream is worth it, and more than that, the process is worth it!

The amazing Walt Disney once said, “All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” and boy, does it take courage to follow a dream. It seems as though dreams are free in the mind and costly in our actions. Our dreams rarely take reality into account and it can be hard to balance the two. I find it particularly difficult to dream when I have a lot going on in my life or when I have experienced disappointment. During those times it feels like that precious, dreaming, mental space can be easily ransacked by the normal things of life like the job, my family, money, etc.

Dream space has to be fought for. I have to fight to get it back and fight to protect it from invasion. As adults, more accurately, “responsible” adults, the notion of daydreaming is too lofty and practicality is most important. But boy, oh boy, is that FALSE. The practical details of life are essential and they will ALWAYS be there but it is the splendor of dreaming that fills us with hope to keep going. My advice to you is: allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to see what doesn’t exist, to believe in a bigger life, a life where anything is possible. Let’s break open the bottle of imaginative thinking and drink up!

Think that daydreaming is just for kids or anyone other than you? Think again! Even science backs up the practice of dreaming. Science says:

You daydream less as you get older.

Peter Delaney, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, has done extensive study on this and notes how daydreaming is the imagining of the potential future. But as we grow older and into adulthood, daydreaming slows, as if the future before us is shrinking.

Daydreaming turns off other parts of the brain.

Empathy and analytics are two key systems in our brains that keep us functioning well. When a tricky numbers problem comes up at work, the analytic side of your brain effectively shuts the empathetic side off to maximize your ability to solve the problem. There’s no room for empathy when you’re deep in analytics. But, when you’re daydreaming, your brain cycles beautifully through these systems seamlessly as they turn each other off.

Daydreaming makes you more creative.

Creativity is really just the association of things in a new or unique way. Oftentimes our daydreaming mind will be able to make connections that, if we were thinking about it, we would never come to.

If you want to learn more about what science has to say about day dreaming, check out this National Geographic article.

While daydreaming is wonderful and hold many benefits, I do know there should be a balance in everything. Dr. Kaufman, an NYU psychology professor and author, has advocated for each person to “balance your focused mind with your wandering mind. … The latest research on imagination and creativity shows that if we’re always in the moment, we’re going to miss out on important connections between our own inner mind-wandering thoughts and the outside world. Creativity lies in that intersection between our outer world and our inner world.” To learn more about Dr. Kaufman’s thoughts, check out this article.

I want to leave you with this: to dream is to explore untapped realities, to lend your soul to ideas and concepts that have yet to hit the real world. I encourage you to reflect on the world around you, visualize your big, bold, bright future, and let that passion fuel you to take a step. You have great dreams inside you that are just waiting for you to be courageous. I believe in you! You can do it!

Thank you for dreaming with the Tribe today!

See you next Tuesday.

~Carrie