Lego club at dance class!

My three boys (on the right....baby was crawling around somewhere) were told to stay on the blanket with the Legos. Then other kids came and were welcome to play too, so they got a little strung out, but not bad. I have to entertain 4 boys for an hour while their sister is in dance class, so this is perfect. They are never ready to leave after an hour! Incidentally, the other kids aren't either. Hehe!

Boundaries

I found this statement so simple and yet so profound.....

"Boundaries actually *inspire* creativity." (Daniel Schwabauer)

He gave a 60 second writing exercise, first with no boundaries (write about "anything") and then again, giving something specific to write about. Having boundaries, it was easier to think about more to the story!

He was speaking in regards to writing, but his statement can really apply to just about anything, even parenting. We have to set limits for our children, but inside those boundaries, my children are FREE to be who YHWH created them to be.

Wow! Think about that! As believers, we all have boundaries, and that is the Torah (because sin is breaking the Torah - 1 John 3:4, and YHWH never changes - Mal. 3:6), but as long as we stay within those boundaries out of our love and respect for our heavenly Father (John 14:15 - just like when children obey their parents), we are FREE to be unique and set-apart for HIM!

And honestly and truly, I have never been more FREE in my life, because now I KNOW where the boundaries are! HalleluYAH! \O/

The Name of the Blog

Our Life in the Wilderness. Why the wilderness? Two reasons, really.

1. We live in the country now, for just over 6 months. We absolutely love it out here and will never go back to the city! We are working on growing our little homestead; animals, garden, etc. We plan to increase the amount of food we produce for ourselves and live off the land as much as possible. We actually only have a couple of acres and can see lots of neighbors out the front windows, but there is no one behind us but horses, who have 35 acres to run around with lots of trees and a creek. Okay, the creek is actually dry, but it is really cool to explore! So this is our little "wilderness", and I plan to blog all about it.

2. Our lives have undergone a lot of change over the last few years. Because of our spiritual beliefs changing, we feel like many of our family has pretty much abandoned us, on both sides, and quite a few friends as well. We already felt like outcasts because we're pretty crunchy in many ways, but as we continued to change and find out who we really are, our desires, dreams, goals, conform to what we believe the Scriptures are saying.....we are really feeling alone now. But that is not necessarily a bad thing! It just.....is. We are much closer to YHWH and to each other, so maybe it was necessary and GOOD. Nevertheless, we feel like this phase in our lives is like the wilderness. YHWH brought the Israelites out of Egypt to wander in the wilderness for 40 years before leading them into the promised land. I'm hoping it won't be nearly that long before we get to the promised land that He has prepared for us, where the milk and honey flow, but He is teaching us so much during this time. We are now out of "Egypt", but He is still getting "Egypt" out of us!

So this is my place to put down my thoughts, things I have been learning, updates on the homestead, etc. I hope that you enjoy the pictures and will come visit us if you are nearby. :)

About this blog

Here I am again, starting another blog. This time however, I am going to combine all my old blogs into one and not apologize for being open and honest, confident of who I am. I am a passionate person, and sometimes that just doesn't come across well in print, but I assure you, and please listen carefully and remember this......I speak only in love and do not intend to condemn anyone who disagrees with me. It just doesn't always come across well in text form, but I have to write it down!

So here we are, putting everything on the table. Well, maybe not everything, but I am not going to lie to you. EVER. Anything you read on here is the Truth, at least to the best of my knowledge and understanding. Please just take it for what it says and do not try to read things into it. If you come across something you disagree with, just ignore it or prove me wrong. No reason to get angry here. We can reason things out together without all the intense feelings. :)

Now on to blogland! I'm about to import my other blogs to this link, and I will only update this one from now on. Thanks for subscribing!

Pinterest

Well, I have finally been sucked in, and I admit, I love it! Pinning things to Pinterest is so much faster and easier than blogging, even though it isn't exactly the same thing. I love that we can follow others and kind of keep up with our friends in their interests when I can't always keep up with their blogs. My blog is mostly about my family, so if you happen to just be interested in the same things I am but don't necessarily want to keep up with my family (sniff, sniff), go to this link and follow ME on Pinterest! My boards (so far) are all about homesteading, homeschooling, DIY projects, really cool houses (like cob, underground, etc.) and things like that, some we have done and some we want to do. I hope you enjoy my pins!

A Random Update.....

.....just because I feel like blogging, and the house is quiet right now!

Myles has been at Hobby Lobby for almost 16 years now! He got a $500 (yes, that is 5 HUNDRED dollar) gift card to spend at the store as a thank you gift. He got one at 10 years too. We always enjoy spending it, and I think we even still  have some left!

We recently bought a new camera, so I don't have many pictures to post yet, and the few I do have were taken on my cell phone. Here is one inspired by Myles. He had a minor accident.....the only thing that was damaged was the mirror. The plastic part holding it on was broken, so he used his OU duct tape and "rednecked" our van!!!!

Nothing much has changed for me. I am still enjoying life, seeking to please YHWH in all I do. I mess up, but HalleluYAH, He forgives me and teaches me and helps me mature more in Him. I have been more withdrawn from others lately, but I think it is good sometimes. I am closer to my family and my heavenly Father, so I am very happy and content right where I am.

Jonathan is so big and mature now. He hasn't "shot up" yet, but I know he's about to. He is just a few inches (4 or 5) shorter than I am now! He is going to be 12 in May. He is loving Boy Scouts, and in fact, they went camping last weekend in the COLD. Crazy boys! Myles went too, but he ended up getting a ride with someone and came back after the first night. Hehe! He admitted he couldn't take it and left Jonathan behind! Jonathan did really well though. He said he was actually "burning up" the first night in his military sleeping bag with hand/foot warmers. I guess I didn't need to worry.

Jayla is REALLY into horses now and has joined a 4-H horse club.  As soon as I finish a quilt for Myles (starting to cut it all out now), I already have everything to make her a horse quilt! Her furniture is already a dark brown, and she has a few decorative pieces already; a cowboy hat coin bank, a light switch plate with a pair of boots on it, a figurine of a girl barrel racing, etc. She got to ride "Peanut" last Tuesday night. Peanut doesn't like to go fast, in fact, you really have to work hard to get him to trot, so he was perfect for her as a beginner. She has never had a lesson, but she learned quickly how to guide him and make him go. Once she was confident that she really wasn't hurting him when she kicked his sides, she was kicking like crazy trying to go faster! That girl! She looked like she knew what she was doing after just 5 minutes or so! She was the same age as a couple of other girls, but she was the only one who couldn't reach the stirrups. She had to have help getting up and down, but she didn't seem to mind, as long as she could RIDE!

Jacob......every time I look at him and think how cute or sweet he is, he either farts or picks his nose. What a kid! I can't believe he is 7 now. He is a LEGO maniac, hoarding them all and playing with them every chance he gets. He even loads up his backpack and brings them along wherever we go. He also still loves trains (but not if they have faces), and in fact, just checked out several books on trains from the library yesterday. And Jacob sure is smart. And he is reading now! He didn't want to for the longest time, so I just never pushed it, but I know he COULD have if he wanted to. I told him that, and he laughed and said, "Yeah, I could have." That stinker! He is quite the engineer too, always building things or trying to figure out how something works. He has always been like that. His latest thing he did on his own was made some jet packs for him and his two little brothers. This may not be "genius", but I was impressed that he took a quick look at a picture (maybe 5 seconds) and declared, "I'm going to make one of those!" and then off he went! I don't have a picture of the ones he made yet, but this is what his almost looks like (this was made by an adult, so it looks more.....realistic).

Jack-Jack is getting so big! He is continuing to improve in his speech. He is still often difficult to understand, but we can understand a lot more as the weeks go by. I also noticed recently that the helix (outer rim) of his ears are plumping up! This is huge to me, as this is one of the characteristics or symptoms of his genetic disorder, and it seems to be going away! We are actually trying to HEAL him with proper diet, essential oils, prayer and other things. We don't want him to just survive, we want him to THRIVE, and I believe he can (and is). We love him just the way he is, but we want to help him be the best he can be, and he's growing, maturing and getting healthier all the time! In fact, it has been about a year since his last seizure. He even had a fever a few weeks ago, but he didn't have a seizure with it! All glory and honor to YHWH!!! Thank You, Father!!! Aside from health issues, he is talking in complete sentences almost all the time now. He absolutely loves to color and draw (always has), so he does that any chance he gets, and he's pretty good! He also still loves music, and we hear him break out in a random song quite often. He is such a joy. :)

Little Joe isn't quite so little anymore. That kid gained 2 1/2 pounds in the last 6 weeks!!! He is one week from turning 14 months old now. He weighs about 22 pounds, has 8 teeth and eats like CRAZY, still nurses (even at night!) and is about to take his first steps any moment now. He can say quite a few words too, but most of it is repeating. A few days ago, Jonathan was playing a game on the Wii and saying, "Die! Die! Die!" Joe was in his high chair eating and started saying "Die-die-die-die-die!" Too funny! He still needs Mommy quite a bit, but he is becoming more independent and just has to come "touch base" every few minutes now. Jack was never like this, and in fact, was completely the opposite, so not only is Joe my clingiest baby, but I haven't had a baby even close to this in 6 years, and the one before him was opposite. So I have been very busy for over a year now with this baby! I think I can finally see my independence in the near future. LOL! But really, this is such a short time in relation to our lives, so I'm here as long as he needs me. I love this little man!

Our homestead is coming along! We are still putting up fences and pens, but we now have two dogs, 7 chickens (still), 6 ducks and a goose. We probably won't get any more ducks now since they are mostly for pets (some lay eggs), but we do want to get lots more chickens, for eggs and meat. We also plan to get some meat and/or milk goats, and/or sheep, and/or a cow. We haven't decided yet, but we will definitely be adding more animals very soon, probably for milk first, then meat. We also want to get a guard donkey and maybe a horse or pony or miniature horse. So many decisions! I love that we are moving toward being more self-sufficient though. In fact, we already are buying most of our groceries now from co-ops and only use the grocery and health food stores for those occasional items we forget to order or run out of. I love it! So much fresh, raw, organic foods, many locally grown!

The younger three are up now, so I guess that's it for this update. Please leave me a comment and let me know how YOU are doing! I'm not good at keeping up with blogs these days, but leave the link to your blog in the comments and I'll check it out. Happy Thursday to you!