Knowing When To Say When contd...

 Wanting good government in their states, they first established order in their own families; wanting order in their home, they first disciplined themselves.

Confucius

Soon after our fourth baby was born we had planned to surgically insure that we would have no more children.  We had 2 girls then 2 boys-  the perfect family.  

Before we could take this step the Lord intervened and we were relieved of part of our business which made it economically unfeasible to carry out our plan.  At least one person offered to make us a loan to pay for Breadwinner's procedure.  But the hole in our bank account served to encourage us to reconsider our plans and decide if they were truly in line with the Lord's will for our family. 

I clearly remember one night when #4 was about 2 months.  He was an ornery baby.  He cried easily and wanted to nurse constantly, especially in the evening.  I thought perhaps he had colic or some other health related issue.  Turns out babies often display parts of their coming personalities early on.  Even as he cried, Breadwinner and I looked at each other and declared we could not stop with this one.  Even through his orneriness he was a great blessing.

There were other encouragements around this time that helped us form our philosophy of family.  My dear friend Deb lent me a CD of a preacher named Voddie Baucham.   I was truly convicted by his message.  God calls children a blessing.  Why would I want to limit the blessings God had for me?  It made me question all my preconceived (hah!) notions about "family planning".  If God can do anything, including allowing me to conceive while on any attempt at birth control, why do I think that I should be the one that is making that decision?  

It was also around this time that while researching forms of birth control we found that birth control pills can cause abortions.  We felt shocked, saddened, let down, and embarrassed.  Before we had decided to use the pill in the first few years of our marriage we had discussed it with our Pastor in marriage counseling and my trusted gynecologist.  As we both have degrees in biology we thought we had all our bases covered and knew what we were doing.  No one had ever even hinted that by using the pill we could have killed our own baby.  Randy Alcorn wrote a book called Does The Birth Control Pill Cause Abortion.  You can find it here in a condensed form.http://www.emmerich1.com/Does%20the%20Birth%20Control%20Pill%20Cause%20Abortions%207th%20edition.pdf


Breadwinner was all for having a passel more kids.  I, although convicted at heart, was a bit reticent.  What about all my plans and dreams and projects?  More kids would definitely cramp my style.  Didn't kids cost a lot?  Would we have the money to bankroll my plans and dreams and projects?  If we had more kids we wouldn't fit into our truck that pulled our 5th wheel travel trailer.  Each new baby meant about 4 months of all day sickness for me at the outset.  My grumblings to myself went on and on.  Then my friend Linda lent me a book called Be Fruitful and Multiply by Nancy Campbell.  I took a good hard look at myself and finally saw my self-centeredness.  I wasn't thinking about loving the Lord and considering His plan for my life, I was thinking about what would cause me the greatest pleasure and ease.  I realized that on my current trajectory I would never have been a consideration for the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.  If I truly believed that God was in control of all the universe then I needed to live that way.  By faith.


Opening our bedroom to the Lord was very freeing.  We are open to the "rewards" God has for us.  I no longer have to consider if the time is right or whether we are "ready" to have another baby.  

Since we made this decision in faith we have seen God's hand on our lives more than ever.  He truly provides all our needs.  Faith in one area of ones life tends to radiate outward like the ripple from a pebble in a pond.  It hasn't ensured our lives are trouble free, it just reminds us we have reason to sing His praise as we tread the rocky road.

God has allowed us to be involved in His plan for His creation.  He has given us warriors to train up to follow Him.  Can there be any greater joy? (3 John 1:4)

Our quiver holds potential arrows for God's army awaiting being loosed on targets we could never reach.

How Do You Know When To Say When?

When I was in junior high my dad's mom had a stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body.  She and my legally blind and pretty deaf grandpa came to live with us to be cared for by their daughter-in-law.  The fact that we had to give up 1/3 of our living space which contained our "rumpus room" was of little concern to me.  Two things about this situation made life changing impacts on me.  


1. I convinced my friend, Ellie, that we needed to take all our science notes with our left hands on the occasion that we ever had a stroke and would not be able to use our right.  We needed to be prepared and since we had to take the most notes in science class we would get the most practice there. 


2. Even though I didn't want to get married or have children I decided it would be a necessity.  It was obvious to me that I would need to create someone to take care of me in the event that I was ever incapacitated.  Incidentally, I also convinced Ellie of this and she has duly given me credit for the existence of her two darling dear boys...


From this you can pretty much surmise my feelings about birth control.  I was recently asked how many children Breadwinner and I plan on having.  When we married my answer would have been four sounds about right.  With that number at least one should end up liking me enough to take care of me in my old age and we would fit comfortably into society's expectations.   I also wanted to wait a few years after marriage before adding to our family, but I wanted to be done by the time I was 30.  That way I could teach school for a couple years, take some time off to have my kids, and get one with my life by the time I was 40.  As I write this I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry at my self-centered thought process!


Our first baby fit the plan to perfection.  I went off birth control pills one month and got pregnant the next.  She was born a month after I resigned my teaching position when school let out for the year.  I was 26.  Sixteen months later her sister was born.  Our next baby took a little longer to arrive and ironically I was upset as we tried for over a year to get pregnant.  I was closing in on 30 when he was born, but since it had taken so long with him I decided it was okay to have another baby even as I had passed my self-imposed age limit.  Number 4 arrived a year and a half later.  Now we had 2 boys and 2 girls.  All had worked out according to plan.  Now was the appointed time for Breadwinner to take permanent measures to end our 6 year baby making run.  


When I was in kindergarten I failed my hearing test possibly the result of chronic ear infections.  I still miss out on things I need to know, once-in-awhile, if I am not paying attention.  The Lord used a unique dial to turn up the volume of His plan for our family with what happened next...


-to be continued...

Where Has The Summer Gone?

I finally successfully downloaded photos from my camera from the beginning of May or so.  There were close to 900.  It took awhile...  It also reminded my why I haven't had a lot of time for blogging.  

One of the first sets was from the purchase and retrieval of our milk cow Rosie.  We purchased her from Lyon's Jersey Dairy.  She is pregnant due in October with her 4th calf.  They were selling her because her production was down this freshening.  She should give around 3 gallons a day and we could only coax 1 out of her.  Don't get me wrong, that is quite all right with me!  It was the gentle way to enter the world of owning a dairy cow.  At times this summer we have had an excess of 4 gallons that we turned into mozzarella cheese.   We enjoy the fresh milk, but it is a lot of work.  It is safe to say I have harbored unkind thoughts against Rosie this summer as I have had to make time in my schedule twice daily to milk her. There were times that gained me greater understanding into why Grandpa Ed used such profane superlatives when working with livestock.  I have 6 kids to ride herd on and I'm chasing a cow around the pasture to gain teat squeezing position to extract what seems like not enough milk to lighten my coffee?!

Most days Breadwinner and I tandem milk.  A lot of days he works dawn to dusk then I play solo.  You may wonder why our freshly, in July, crowned 11 year old doesn't draw barn duty.  It took Rosie a long time to accept her new surroundings.  She came from a herd of around 300 living in a barn on sand to our wide open pasture with only the chickens for company.  For the first week she sat in the barn with her nose in a corner.  She was so stressed out that her milk tasted very salty for a few days.  -For the record my weanling loved this particular milk.  What does that say for his experience with my lactation?-  Rosie didn't cooperate well in the stanchion for a long time and still has fits that upset the milk pail if one does not have a quick hand.  We are hoping that after her calf is born we will be able to introduce the girls to the joy of being a milkmaid.

Our first glimpse of Rosie.

An explanation of why Rosie likes to lay with her nose in a corner.

Rosie's old digs.

Eric took the kids into the pit as they hooked up the cows at milking time.  He let them try to milk the cows by hand and feel the suction of the milking machine.

Eric (in black) and Joe Lyon mugging with the fam.  

  

Eric Lyon graciously gave us a tour of the dairy.  He is dedicated and excited about breeding quality Jersey calves.  We were there at the right time of year to see all the cute baby calves and he explained what qualities he prizes in a Jersey calf.

The Lyon Dairy may ring a bell to those of you familiar with the Iowa State Fair.  Duffy Lyon aka The Butter Cow Lady, was Joe's wife.  Sadly, she passed away a few weeks after we brought Rosie home.  Joe shared with us while we were there that she was to be grandmaster of the Iowa State Fair parade as the Butter Cow celebrates 100 years at the fair this year.  

We Interrupt These Excuses...

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)

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!

Music Fills The House...

Spring is a very busy time around here.  We are wrapping up our more formal school session and moving on to work outdoors.  We spend a part of every day weeding and caring for our garden.  One day a week is devoted to mowing.  It usually takes about 3 1/2 hours to mow it all.  I make the kids stay inside when I mow because there is always something hidden in the grass that the mower ends up throwing from one side of the yard to the other.  This courtesy of the dog and the kids.  It is getting easier than it used to be.  Since I have kids old enough to watch the babies I don't have to coordinate everyone's nap schedules while I mow as much.  We have a no t.v. on weekdays policy around here that is usually broken when I need the kids to stay inside on beautiful summer afternoons.  They don't seem to mind.

Spring also seems to be a busy time musically as it is a season of recitals.  We were fortunate to be involved in two last week.  My sister invited us to participate as guest musicians in a recital for Mollie's Music Studio.  A couple days later our violinists enjoyed an afternoon of chamber music as they got to play with all their teacher's students.  To round things out the kids played and sang Sunday morning during church.

It was Max's first recital.  He awoke that morning very excited.  When his brother proclaimed to him it was his big day I think what was about to happen sunk in.  He became a bit reticent.  He is the sort to worry that people will laugh at him.  It was a teachable moment to focus on the reason he is learning to play violin.  He is honing his skills to bring glory to God.  If he is doing his best for the Lord it doesn't matter what others think.  He did a fantastic job!  When he was done he came up to me and said, "I kind of like everyone watching me!"  We've got another humble one on our hands...

After their guest appearance for Mollie's Music Studio recital

Max and his buddy Cole

Maliah and her piano teacher-Nana

Madigan and Big D.  Born to sisters 3 weeks apart. For a long time these two thought they were twins.

Mollie of Mollie's Music Studio and her biggest fan.

Chamber music violinists.  Holly (right back corner) is their awesome teacher.

They looked a bit uptight so I told them all to jump for this picture. 

Have you seen The Alamo with Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett?  We caught it on youtube...Davy Crockett violinist

Runners of the Unathletic Kind...

Most of the things I make are for gifts.  To say I truly enjoy the creative process would probably not be a strong enough statement.  I need to create.  It keeps me sane.  But the act of making something for someone else to enjoy ramps up the activity to another level for me.  While I am making things I like to think about the person who will receive the gift and pray for them as I work.  There are a lot of days that, due to my occupation,  I spend my time correcting and discipling tomorrows adults.  Conversing with the Lord and thinking about "recipients" makes me feel like I am involved in adult type relationships.  So anyway, creating keeps me sane.

Here are a couple things I can finally show you as they have found their final and heartfelt homes.  This first is a runner for my mom.  We bought the "fruit ladies" on a trip to the fabric store together a few years ago.  After I brought "the ladies" home I couldn't think of one appropriate thing to do with a textile covered with broad bottomed ladies at the beach.  It finally occurred to me that it would be just the thing to make my mom smile.  One of the most heart wrenching things Mom said after Dad died is that she couldn't smile.  Mom is from Fun Country, so the fact that she couldn't smile was ground moving stuff.  Here we are a few months down the road and being from Control Country I decided maybe I could help her out a bit.

Yes, those are my feet standing on my island.  I was having a hard time getting the whole thing in the frame.

Right under Miss Cherry Bottom I quilted "to make you smile".  It worked!!

I had to add this shot of the back.  I pieced together some pink "scraps".  I think they look like cotton candy.  I didn't bind the runner.  I serged the edges, made a ruffle- of course!- and placed raw edges even right sides together and sewed on the ruffle.  I top stitched using a wavy stitch.  

Last week we went to visit my Aunt Diane and Uncle Chuck.  It was Aunt Diane's birthday at the end of April so here is what I took to her.

This technique is a modified log cabin.  Start with a wonky square in the middle and keep adding rhombuses -I think that would be the correct geometric term- of varying lengths and widths.  I wanted my finished blocks to be 9'' square.  When I was done sewing I made a template and trued them all up.  This is a great use for leftover pieces you love and can't bare to throw out.  Also a great project for new sewers.  My girls both have a runner in progress.  It is nice not to have to measure!

I used my new circular sewing attachment to quilt the runner, that is why the circles are sew concentric!  I am looking forward to using it again soon.  Breadwinner gave it to me for Christmas and I wasn't sure if he hadn't wasted his money on the suggestion of the sewing saleslady.  Turns out I LOVE circles.  Fun way to play with all the different stitches on my sewing machine as well.  

You can see the circular stitching very well from the back.  Finished once again with a ruffle!  Long live the ruffle!!