Yesterday my baby brother and my brother-in-law (who I've known longer than my baby brother) came home safely from war. The day before that it was my oldest nephew Adam. It was baby Barn and Adam's second deployment. My other little brother faces his second deploy in December. My brother-in-law on the other side has already been twice. My big brother has seen a tour. We are no strangers to praying for soldiers around here. While we have been to more send-offs and homecomings than a lot of Americans it never gets old hat. The more times I see them go makes me all the more thankful to God that he has brought them back to us safely. We are very proud of them and the service they choose to perform for their country.
We studied Flying Creatures of the Third Day (of creation) last year. As insects grow to maturity they molt to shed their exoskeleton and make room for their enlarging innards. When the new shell is still pliable the insect fills its lungs with air to stretch and make room for itself as it grows.
We welcome our soldiers home and consciously or not expect them to slip back into their old skins. But much like a molting insect their old skins are no longer sufficient. They inhaled deeply, girded their loins, and with steps of great courage shed who they once were to become who they were called to be. War, while it causes the adrenaline to rush, is not a moving picture to excite and be turned off at the end of a Friday night before falling into a soft bed. As a life experience of any magnitude our soldiers are returned to us changed.
If I were to continue with the life cycle of the insect I might write here of metamorphosis. Giving up who you once were to become something better, more beautiful. This is not always the case in matters of war. Which is why our prayers do not cease for our soldiers and those that love them. We do not only learn in moments of comfort and ease. God has much to teach us through tribulation.
My prayer is that through the struggle of finding who they now are that God will be praised, we will be graceful, and they will draw ever close to He who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy!(Jude 24)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Back At The Keyboard
First off thanks to Alicia and Mom for encouraging me to get back to work! It has been a long break from the keyboard and not because I haven't written about 37 blogs in my head. Since my last post we have been pretty swamped here on Sunny Toad Farm.
I April I broached the subject with Breadwinner of us having a shared hobby. It is not very reasonable, considering the size of our brood and our distance from any cultural metropolis, that we have outings alone together as in "dates". I thought it would be fun to learn to weld together. The couple that plays together stays together, right?! I would like to make lawn statuary and he could learn to fix his own equipment. We already have a couple welders that were parts of machinery crucial to specific business ventures. They aren't presently being used. Because they are already in our possession I thought it would make it easy to make this hobby happen. In May he decided to get a milk cow...
We were both raised on farms. He on a hog and row crop farm. I on a hog, cow/calf, row crop farm. Neither of us on a dairy farm. We bought Rosie from a dairy with 300 or so cows. She was used to living in a barn and being milked by a machine surrounded by hundreds of her friends. She spent her first few weeks here with her nose stuck in the corner of the barn. She was so stressed out her milk was salty! The kids refused to drink it and we wondered what we had done. It wasn't a huge deal because she only gave a gallon of milk a day. That is about 2 gallons short what she will after she calves in October!
So Breadwinner and I have our new hobby together. We get up and milk the cow at 6:00 A.M., he sitting on one side and I on the other. Up until last week this was repeated again in the evening. Now we are down to once a day in the morning until we let her dry up at the end of this month.
We make our own butter and mozzarella cheese. Our food is getting more fresh and the days seem to be getting more long! This is one of my excuses for not having enough time to sit and record the happenings of Sunny Toad Farm. Stay tuned and I will provide you with more!
I April I broached the subject with Breadwinner of us having a shared hobby. It is not very reasonable, considering the size of our brood and our distance from any cultural metropolis, that we have outings alone together as in "dates". I thought it would be fun to learn to weld together. The couple that plays together stays together, right?! I would like to make lawn statuary and he could learn to fix his own equipment. We already have a couple welders that were parts of machinery crucial to specific business ventures. They aren't presently being used. Because they are already in our possession I thought it would make it easy to make this hobby happen. In May he decided to get a milk cow...
We were both raised on farms. He on a hog and row crop farm. I on a hog, cow/calf, row crop farm. Neither of us on a dairy farm. We bought Rosie from a dairy with 300 or so cows. She was used to living in a barn and being milked by a machine surrounded by hundreds of her friends. She spent her first few weeks here with her nose stuck in the corner of the barn. She was so stressed out her milk was salty! The kids refused to drink it and we wondered what we had done. It wasn't a huge deal because she only gave a gallon of milk a day. That is about 2 gallons short what she will after she calves in October!
So Breadwinner and I have our new hobby together. We get up and milk the cow at 6:00 A.M., he sitting on one side and I on the other. Up until last week this was repeated again in the evening. Now we are down to once a day in the morning until we let her dry up at the end of this month.
We make our own butter and mozzarella cheese. Our food is getting more fresh and the days seem to be getting more long! This is one of my excuses for not having enough time to sit and record the happenings of Sunny Toad Farm. Stay tuned and I will provide you with more!
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