The Journal of Plymouth Rock Ranch

Perspective - A glass through which objects are viewed.  ~ Websters 1828 Dictionary ~

We all have a glass through which we view life.  The glass through which we view life will determine our judgments, beliefs, decisions, reactions, words, deeds, likes, dislikes and more.

Another term for perspective is worldview.  In other words, through what glass, or from what view, do you look at or perceive the world around you?

There are 2 basic options.

1. One can view life through the eyes and Word of the One Who created the world.  Or
2. One can view life through one’s own reason, which would be from the view of the one created.

Only the Creator can give the world and life He created meaning.  The creature or creation was made and formed for a purpose by the Creator.

Being a Christian, one who believes and trusts in Christ as my Lord for my salvation and a restored relationship with God, believing that God’s Word is His revelation and input into my life for my thoughts, words, deeds and decisions, the glass through which I seek to look at my life and the world He has created is that of my Creator.  He reveals Himself through His Word, the Bible.  That means that the glass or view through which I perceive and interpret the world around me is from a Biblical Worldview, one which is built upon the Scriptures, God’s Revelation, God’s own Word.  No one can better explain to me or lead and guide me through this life than the very one Who created my life.

In the past few days I’ve been posting about Predicaments that we’ve been faced with at Plymouth Rock Ranch since our 3 older guys have been in Washington together.  I don’t write about these Predicaments to complain or say “Woe is me!”  Woe is me is my state if I am without the Lord, my Redeemer!

I write about these Predicaments to document what the Lord is doing in our lives.  How He is molding and shaping us into His Image.  He is reminding me that my trust should be in Him, not my circumstances, not my husband, not my sons, but in Him!

I am but a mere, weak human, with a tendency to allow my heart to stray from what my head knows.  Our character is not revealed in the easy times of life, but instead it is revealed in the midst of trials and temptations, which James says is for my good, my perfection in Him.

James 1:2-4

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

There are two perspectives people generally have on our lives here at Plymouth Rock Ranch.

The first one is a negative, critical perspective.  “Oh, that poor family, poor children ~ they live in a 5th wheel and used to live in a tent?!?!?!?  How awful!”   We may have some difficulties that many of y’all are not familiar with, but we also have many joys that the average family in our society today does not have either.  And we have learned sooooo very much in our time here on Plymouth Rock Ranch.  We are making memories that are precious, ones that might make us cry now but later we will look back on and laugh at in hindsight.  Memories that are full of joy, like our livestock births, the way God gave us a beautiful tent to enlarge our living area just when He knew we would need it, working together and growing together as a family, seeing God provide for our little and big needs over and over again in ways that only HE could provide.  And so much more!

Then there are those whose perspective on our life is one of awe and “Y’all are so perfect and have it all together!  How we would love to be doing what you are doing!”  Let me tell you in one word - NOT!  We do NOT have it all together….not at all……  We are but mere sinners trusting in the sacrifice of Christ to save and redeem and sanctify and someday glorify us!

Now let me bring a two different views or glasses into this picture.

The vertical view first:

We are so tremendously blessed and have been given so many gifts from the Lord that we are truly humbled by His goodness to us.  God has grown our entire family’s faith in how He cares for us and gives us special gifts that we know are from His loving hands during our time at Plymouth Rock Ranch.  Our joy cannot be dependent upon our circumstances and how we define them.  Our joy is dependent upon our relationship with our Creator God.  Can we get discouraged?  You bet!  But that’s when our eyes turn away from God to ourselves and our circumstances when they seem tough.

How many people live in a mansion with money abounding and yet are still miserable in their souls?

How many people live in cardboard boxes and have joy?

The answer to both questions are the same.  Many, many, many.

We are so thankful to the Lord for this journey that HE put us on.  We chose to buy this property, but the events surrounding our moving here in a 5th wheel were not our choice.  This happened through a variety of circumstances beyond our control……but very obviously within God’s control.  He was and is molding and shaping our family into His creation, purging our hearts of dross and refining us as His workmen.

No matter our fleeting outward circumstances, which could be much, much, much more difficult, we trust the Lord and find joy in Him.

Now for the horizontal view:

We are so tremendously blessed to have a 5th wheel in which to live, to have had a canvas deck tent - now common house in which to live, to have a utility shed/closet, to have 20 acres on which the children can grow up and run and climb trees and raise animals and look at the massive beauty of the stars at night, and learn about the wild creatures we live amongst, and eat fresh eggs and meat and milk, to learn how to design and build and run plumbing pipes and electricity and build fires and cook over fires and just plain appreciate hard work and the many blessings that come with that and soooooooo much more!

There are many societies in this world where our living situation would be sought after.  There are many who live in cardboard boxes……or worse……..  I look at the people of Haiti today and how they were living before the earthquake and how they are living now after the earthquake.  I would be willing to hazard a guess that any Haitian family today would take our 5th wheel and now common house in a heartbeat and be living high on the hog! The same goes for many families in Mexico and Africa and ……………..

The first year we were living on Plymouth Rock Ranch we had just the 5th wheel for shelter.  The fall prior to moving here we were reading “Of Plymouth Plantation.”  We named our 5th wheel the Speedwell when we first bought it.  It needed much work and was not seaworthy : )  When it was livable, we renamed it the Mayflower, seaworthy but still with many needs.  This started our Pilgrim theme and thus the name Plymouth Rock Ranch was born, both in honor of the Pilgrims and their move to a new country and in honor of the many rocks we have here on our property.

When difficulties would come and discouragement threatened, we would just think of the Pilgrims and how they came to a strange land, camped on snowy coastlines with dangers all around them and fresh cut reeds and plants for their shelter.  We came to understand the blessing our 5th wheel was and how the Pilgrims would have loved to have had a trailer for shelter!

For the majority of the people in our American society today, they can’t fathom living as the Pilgrims lived, or the pioneers or the homesteaders or those just 3 generations ago! They think they deserve a new house in a gated subdivision.  That they deserve comfort and ease.  That they deserve that ipod or souped up truck or name that toy.  When in Little House days the children’s favorite day of the year was pig butchering day so they could have that pig bladder for a balloon/ball for a few days to play with.  What makes us “happy” is all in our perspective.

We’ve grown into a society of give-me people instead of a society of thankful people.  We do our share of complaining and not being thankful.  But if we’ve improved in any character trait since being at Plymouth Rock Ranch, I think we’ve improved in our thankfulness to God for the little things in life.

We don’t document the difficulties of our life alone.  We also document the many gifts the Lord has given us too!  Every single family has their difficulties, trials, predicaments and their joys, successes and triumphs.  Ours may look a little different than most of today’s families in OUR society, as we don’t live like the majority of today’s families in our society do!

And, you know what?  That’s ok!

You see, it’s all a matter of the glass or view through which we look at our life here at Plymouth Rock Ranch.  It’s all in one’s perspective.

Through what glass or view or perspective do you view the life that God has given you?

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I am so thankful to report that we had no Predicaments yesterday! Yeah! It was just a plain, hum drum, wonderful day at home with no mechanical problems : )

Our current inconvenience is nothing that the boys can help with. It’s rain……and more mud. I just read this morning that January was the 4th wettest January on record for our area.

February seems to be following in January’s footsteps. Rain today and tomorrow. Clear on Friday and Saturday. More rain forecast for Sunday and Monday.

And so it seems to be going. We get rain and then turn to mud. Then we dry up just in time to face more rain and mud.

Have I mentioned that a certain unnamed someone got a ticket for having an “obscured” license plate on our truck?  Obscured by MUD!  Even explaining to the officer that we drive out 10 miles of County maintained dirt road (or mud road as has been the recent case) didn’t dissuade him from writing the ticket.  We were in the city so this officer obviously doesn’t understand living on dirt roads.  Not to mention that government revenues are down so one way to make up for it is to write more tickets - another driving tax.  We fought the ticket and won, for which we are thankful.  They wanted to charge $175 for having mud on our license plate!

The wet weather streams that only run when it rains really hard upstream from us or if the springs are flowing, are now flowing. We have to ford 2 of them to get out to the North. Thankfully, they’re passable and do a good job of cleaning our tires (but not license plates). There’s been times that they’re not safe to drive through. We’re not there……yet.

We’re working on fixing some of the past predicaments today. A friend is coming over to take a look at our washer and see if he can diagnose it so I can get parts in before the guys get home.

I’m now off in the rain, mud and 4×4 (Predicament #1), to take Predicament #2 to the vet to get her drain tube removed.

And, then, Lord willing, we’ll be well on our way to having our current set of Predicaments taken care of.

Lord willing, there will be no more Predicaments to report on in the near future : )

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Well, the Predicaments are coming in fast and furious! I don’t think that the timing is any different than normal. I think it’s probably that we just don’t have any men here to depend upon to diagnose and then fix our mechanical problems.

I had to go to town today to pick up Predicament #2 from the vet. I also had to go to the laundrymat because of Predicament #3. So, we killed 2 Predicaments with one trip of gas.

Getting out of here and getting to town took more doing and time than I’d planned on so we were much later than I’d thought we’d be. When I got out to Predicament #1 (the F-350 Truck) I discovered that I couldn’t open the driver’s side door.

“Why?” you ask? Don’t feel bad. I asked the same question!

Well, it went something like this: Child #1 decides its his/her job to start Predicament #1 (the F-350 truck) in preparation for said trip to town. Child #2 disagrees and decides it’s his/her job to stop Child #1. And, of course, Child #3 thinks that he/she just MUST get involved in this excitement.

The result is that automatic door lock buttons start getting pushed up and down and all around trying to keep children in or out of the truck….until the driver’s side door lock gets jammed.

Enter Mom into the picture at the outside of the door unable to get into Predicament #1 (F-350 truck) asking “Why?” Child #1 is on the inside of the door knowing that he/she is busted. Child #1 decides to try pushing REALLY hard on the inside door handle to get out of his/her busted state…..and whalla! Said inside door handle busts off in his/her hand………now he/she is REALLY busted!!!!!!!!!!  sigh………………

Mom’s head is starting to pound……life is starting to look just a tad bit bleak wondering how many more Predicaments she will have to post about in the next week and how much more money must be spent to fix dogs or trucks or washing machines or ?????

Mom skootches into the driver’s seat from the passenger’s side. She tries the automatic locks several times and finally gets it to unjam and unlock, rolls down the window, and is able to open the driver’s side door from the inside using the outside handle.

Well, that solution is a little inconvenient, but it works and alleviates Mom from any more skootching across the front seat of the truck and the fix can wait until the boys get home without being a showstopper.

There were a few tears as we headed down the driveway and a few lessons to teach. When what to my wondering ears did I hear? Something I don’t recall ever hearing from any of my children in 28 years of parenting. It was music to my ears (and pounding head too).

“Mom, it was really MY fault that the door lock got stuck!” he/she said.

Wow! This one is one for recording! I told said child how proud I was of him/her for admitting and confessing to his/her part of the problem. This particular child’s conscious and confession pump had been primed by a sin that had to be dealt with earlier in the morning. It took much time and was one reason why our trip to town was delayed. Earlier we had talked about I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Many times I wonder if my children are really, truly, hearing/understanding what I am trying to teach them. This time, this child was really truly listening and acted upon it. The fruit of that teaching and listening was beautiful music to my ears and my leaning-towards-discouragement heart.

It was beautiful to hear his/her conscience being soft enough to respond to the prick of the lesson and the Holy Spirit and thus confess his/her part in our most recent Predicament.

We finally got to town to pick up Predicament #3 from the vet’s office. Darby was happy to see us. She met us with wiggles and sniffs, a huge shaved spot on her side and 4-5″ of stitches and a drain tube. She’s now home resting comfortably (and for some reason wanting to chase the cats (need I ask “Why?” again?) and took her pain pill and antibiotic in a chunk of cheese like a champ. Maybe we’ll forego the pain pill if she thinks she’s well enough to chase cats with 4-5″ of sewing in her side!

While the Predicaments have been coming fast and furious since our men left for Washington, those small glimmers of mercy and hope that God sends with the Predicaments help to pick up my easily discouraged heart. They remind me that God is here caring for us whether the men are here or away.  I need to remember that fact early enough so that my heart doesn’t lean towards discouragement at all!

His mercies are new every morning.

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We’re on Day 4 of 10 of all of our men being in Washington. So far on day 4 we’re now experiencing Predicament #3……..The new/used CraigsList washing machine won’t do anything after filling up with water. : ( It’s been acting weird intermittently, but it seemed to be more of a power interruption.  Being as we have many things running off of electrical cords, and all it takes is for a cow or goat or person to step on one the wrong way, we do experience electrical interruptions to various and sundry appliances from time to time.  We thought that might be the problem.  But not now………

Our older big front loader died last month. It seems that a mouse chewed through a wire harness which is expensive to replace. That day I found a nicer used washing machine in working order on CraigsList. We opted to buy that one as it would work immediately and we’d spend half of what we would spend on the washing machine at the laundry mat in one trip.

Plan was/is to fix the big front loader and have two working washing machines. But, the new/used washing machine hasn’t lasted long enough to get the old washing machine fixed.

I, the totally non-mechanic, am wondering if, in spite of our best efforts to keep the washing machine warm with a light bulb in the washer’s tub, something that shouldn’t have frozen froze anyway. We’ve been having extra cold weather for Texas, so that’s a distinct possibility……… We’ll have to see what our mechanics say when they get home and take a look at it.

So, here we are with 2 nonworking washing machines, all of our mechanics in Washington, and mounds of dirty clothes because wash loads kept getting interrupted by what we thought were power interruptions last week.  That resulted in getting behind in laundry……….again………..there’s always soooooome reason to get behind in laundry around here.   There were no towels for showers this morning. It’s too cold for a 2 minute warm shower anyway.

The older girls are cleaning a friend’s house today. She generously and kindly said the girls could bring a couple of necessary loads of laundry to her house to wash in her working machine while they’re at her house. Towels were definitely at the top of the list : )  Thank you sweet friend!

Now, off to pick up Predicament #2 from the vet’s office in the truck that started us with Predicament #1.

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Predicament #1 on the first day our men were all in Washington was a dead battery in the truck.  I was praying and hoping that our Predicament Posts would end there.  But,  Predicament #2 came near the end of our second day that our men (mostly Ryker) were all in Washington.

Saturday night we came home from an outing. It was late. We were tired and all looking forward to bed. It was also very cold in the common house as the fire had not been kept burning all day.

We all had our focus on getting into bed because it was so cold. But then Larissa discovered that Darby had a laceration on her left flank. She’d apparently caught her flank on something and ripped a hole in her side the size of a clementine mandarin orange.  It wasn’t actively bleeding but sure looked like it hurt real bad.

Darby is our family dog, but she chose Ryker as her master. And he chose her as his dog. So, while she loves us all, Ryker is her guy.  I know she was missing her guy in her time of need.

Callan is our resident animal doctor, so I called her back to the common house to look at the wound and decide what course of action to take.

I called Rick and Ryker and conferred with them. I googled emergency vet clinics and asked if this was something that could wait until morning or if waiting would make it so that successful suturing would be in jeopardy. And……..to see what the approximate cost might possibly be. Yikes!!!! I certainly wasn’t prepared for the $$$ answer!

We decided to spray it with hydrogen peroxide, thought about betadine but found out that we were out of it (note to self……stop and pick some up before Festival kids in 3 weeks or so), and then filled the hole with Neosporin, covered it with a gauze pad and then wrapped her body and the gauze with bright yellow animal wrap. We had some on hand because it is much cheaper than the human bandage wrap found at the local drugstore. And it comes in much prettier colors : )  Yes, we humans use animal wrap when needed : )

Darby is the absolute best dog we’ve ever had. She totally trusted us to care for this obviously painful wound. Never a whimper, never a question. Her eyes darted back and forth to each of us as we cared for her. She knew that we loved her and were helping her. Such sweet eyes of trust.

We wrapped Darby up for the night and headed for our beds hoping to eventually find some warmth. It took awhile for my feet to defrost once in bed. Thus it took awhile to get to sleep as well.

The next morning we got up to get ready for Church, reluctantly, as it was v.e.r.y. cold outside our beds. I called the local vet who has a vet on call for the weekends and waited for a call back.

Just as we were heading out for church the call came in. It would be $70 more for taking her in on Sunday than if we waited until Monday. But, the potential for infection and for the skin not healing well was greater if we waited.

We didn’t want Darby suffering, so we decided to fork over the extra $70. We broke into two teams. One headed for Church, the other for the vet’s office.

Once at the vet’s office, it was decided that the wound was large enough and in need of exploration that it warranted Darby being put out. That meant she had to stay the day for surgery and the night for observation. The good news is that Callan and I then headed for Church and only missed a little of the service.

We waited for a call giving us an update on Darby’s condition. Turns out she couldn’t just lacerate her side, but in addition, she pulled away from whatever punctured her and tore the skin away from her flesh to approximately the size of a basketball! Yikes!!!!! No wonder she didn’t want to walk to the truck this morning. We had to carry her. Poor girl…….. On the drive to the vet, she lay on blankets on the back seat of the truck. I periodically talked to her, reached back and scratched her nose. She would nuzzle my hand and bury her head in my hand. Such trust she had in us.

Her trust made me think of my trust in my Heavenly Father. In times of trial and pain, do I trustingly welcome His loving care for me? Do I hunker down and feel his comforting arms around me as Darby did with us? Or do I bite and snarl as other dogs might have done with me today? Knowing that God is sovereign and that everything He brings into my life is for my good and His glory, my response should be like Darby’s.  Total and complete trust in God to care for me as He deems best.

So, we are Darbyless tonight and she is all alone at the vet’s office. I’m sure she misses us as much as we miss her. She’s due to come home tomorrow with drain tube intact, which is due to come out in 3 days.

I didn’t ask about the bill total today. I really don’t want to know. Each day has enough trouble of it’s own……so I will save that trouble for tomorrow and pray for the Lord’s provision to care for our sweet Darby.

We took a walk around this afternoon to see if we could find blood on anything that might give us a clue as to what cut her so badly. It was a clean cut so that indicates something sharp. And the fact that she had so much skin pulled loose from flesh means that she had to pull away from it to get loose. Ouch!!!!! But, so far, we’ve found no blood on anything.

Our speculation is that she was chasing a cat and caught her side on something sharp. Chasing cats is a close favorite to chasing rocks for Darby. And we weren’t here to tell her no so that’s a distinct possibility.

We’ll see if the Lord reveals to us the cause. Whatever the cause, we’re thankful that her injuries should heal up just fine. And, I’m thankful for the reminder from Darby of what total and complete loving trust looks like.

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The guys are all officially in Washington for 10 days. That means its up to us ladies to keep Plymouth Rock Ranch going. We are praying that the Lord keeps anything major from breaking while they are away!

I took the boys to the airport yesterday for their first commercial flight. I watched them walk away knowing that we had no big guys left to help us out of predicaments. I was tempted to feel all alone and unprotected, but, I reminded myself that the Lord would direct, guide and protect us while they were gone.

I also had several men at Church last Sunday tell me to call them if we needed anything while our men are gone. It sure is a blessing to know that the body of Christ is there for us at all times, ready and willing to step in when needed.

Larissa and I left the airport and ran a couple of errands. Coming out from our second stop, the truck would not start! I couldn’t believe that the guys had just taken off and were barely in the air and I have my first predicament on my hands!

We’d had some battery trouble in the truck, but I thought that it had been taken care of. I called Rick, he told me to wiggle the battery connections to see if that helped. But, first we had to get the hood up : ) That took some doing but we finally managed.

The terminals were firmly fastened and had new felt pads under them. They had been worked on.  Then I discovered that the lights were left on and thus, the dead battery.

Ryker drove into town that morning. He says he didn’t turn the lights on. I drove away from the airport, but I don’t remember turning the lights on. If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that it is just a problem with my middle aged mind not remembering anything anymore………it acts more like a sieve anymore than a steel trap. Oh wait…it never was a steel trap : (    But since I’m not a betting woman, I’m going with the story that it was all Ryker’s doing : )

We have jumper cables. Three sets of them, I think. But, for some odd reason, they’re never in the vehicle that needs them. I don’t know how we do that, but it is historically the way we do things. More than likely, they got used on a lawn mower or dump trailer or some such machine and never got returned to the truck as they figured they would need them on that machine again before the truck would need them.

It doesn’t help that the boys removed the large toolbox out of the back of the truck to gain some room. I’m guessing the jumper cables are sitting in the removed toolbox.

Rick told me to call a retired friend who lived close by to see if he was available to come help me out. I was so thankful to hear him answer his phone and say that he’d be right over!

Mr. Anderson arrived, we looked for the batteries. The truck has two. It then occurred to me that we might be missing a battery because the boys routinely steal the truck’s 2nd battery for things such as mowers and dump trailers. Wait…..haven’t I already been down this trail? Oh, yeah. That was battery cables. This  was the actual battery! I was thankful to see that both batteries were intact.

We hooked up  Mr. Anderson’s jumper cables (which were right where they’re supposed to be, in the little compartment in the back of his Durango) and turned the key. Clickety…click…click…click. So, we waited and chatted and then tried again.

The sound of a starter turning over and hearing it catch is a beautiful sound, indeed : )

We removed the cables, RETURNED THEM TO THEIR PROPER PLACE, and said thank you profusely. Then we went about finishing our errands in town for the day with no more predicaments.

So, here’s a big THANK YOU!!!! to Mr. Anderson for being our Knight in Shining Armor and for jumping us out of our 1st predicament.

Here’s to an uneventful 10 days : )

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The year 2009 was an exciting year of God’s provision for our family in so many different ways.

We…………

• Brought home our first ever dairy cow, our Jersey, Phebie.
• Trusted in the Lord for His provision during lean times when no work was coming in early in the year.  This both stretched and grew our faith and trust in our Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides.
• The boys started working in a friend’s business and have been working and learning how he runs his business.
• Rick was hired as a rehire for Boeing as a C-17 mechanic.  This was a step back in time to 19 years ago when he helped build the first C-17s and then worked them through their flight test program.
• Two months later, the Lord providentially moved Rick into a Boeing Manufacturing Operations Analyst position where his knowledge and skills could be better utilized preparing modification instructions for the 787 program coming here to San Antonio.  I thank the Lord for this provision of work that is both enjoyable and challenging to Rick and where his knowledge and skills are appreciated, welcomed and sought after.
• The 4 older children were involved in an almost head-on accident that could have been really bad.  By the Lord’s hand of mercy, Ashley was able to almost get out of the way of the oncoming driver who was passing a semi on a curve!  We are so very thankful to the Lord for his sovereign protection of the children and the minimal damage done to the van.
• We prayed about and worked toward our entire family attending the Reformation 500 Celebration of John Calvin’s 500th Birthday.  Just as it looked like we might not be able to go, the Lord miraculously provided the funds, transportation and time off of work and some gracious, generous sweet friends who cared for our animals so our family could attend.
• Three of our girls re-enacted Reformation historical figures and the rest of us fellowshipped with both old and new friends and learned so much about that time in history and the history of our faith.
• Rick accepted a 6 month temporary assignment to Boeing in Washington State where he would be able to get his eyes and hands on the actual airplanes that will be coming to San Antonio for modifications.  While difficult having him away from the Ranch, this has been a blessing to our family in more ways than one.
  • Financially…..see below…..
  • Some individual or semi-individual vacation (comparatively speaking) time alone with dad as we shuttle family members in pairs back and forth to Washington.  This also means that many of us have or will be experiencing our first flights on an airliner.
  • Meeting and making some wonderful new friends in Washington.
  • Getting to know and experience a different part of our country.
• Our Week of Thanksgiving where we said good bye to our Rechabite life in a tent ~ though I think we will always call this house a tent!  Rick was home for a week with the task of erecting a stick framed building on our tent’s pier and beam foundation.  He promptly got sick but God provided beautifully through the hands and feet of Christ’s people who came and worked long hours into the wee dark hours of the morning by floodlights to get our shelter over us before impending cold and rain hit.
• First Flight of the 787 took place in December, which means that Rick’s scheduled time to return to Washington at the end of March is still on track……..so far as we understand right now : )
• God provided a beautiful custom oak cabinet and granite counter top kitchen through CraigsList.  He provided the time and the ability for our older children to disassemble and transport this beautiful gift home.   We stand in awe of His goodness and provision for us.  After four years of camping and being kitchenless, yet still needing to feed 11 people, having kitchen cabinets and beautiful counter tops is still unfathomable to us!
• God provided some wonderful clothing for the older children in His unpredictable way of providing for us.
• Rick had 10 days at home to work on installing our CraigsList kitchen cabinets (see future post for details).
• Then he headed back to Washington for 3 more months.  His temporary assignment is half way finished, Lord willing.

How many more things I could add to the list of our lives in the year of our Lord 2009.  But, for this post, I will just focus on God’s abundant provision for us, even in times where we did not know where our provision was going to come from.  We are so very thankfulness to Him for his loving and complete care of us.

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……….but life has much different than normal with bits and pieces of us traveling hither and yon to visit one another while Rick is away on a temporary assignment. Each time someone travels, it changes the dynamics of home life and every one must adjust accordingly. We’re just like a yo-yo family right now trying to figure out who is coming and who is going next.

Pooh and I traveled to Washington to spend my birthday with Rick. I left behind 2 blog posts written up that just needed pictures taken and then uploaded. Well……those pictures never happened in the 2 weeks that we were gone.

“Why?” we all ask? Well, because the weather was freezing here when I left. A very unusually loooooong freeze of approximately 4 days with temps down in the lower teens and even lower than that with the wind chill. This was not usual Southern Texas weather. Even though we had a light and box around our water pump and attached pipes, we still had some pipes freeze and break.

Lack of water has this way of backing up dishwashing. But with hungry children, meals still went on. That meant that dirty dishes abounded and overflowed while our water did not flow. That made a mess of many of the things/areas of which I’d asked to have photos taken. They elected to not take photos of our *real* life on the ranch.

Then the ice thawed, the broken pipes were fixed, the dishes were washed…….and then it started to rain. Rain means mud…..mud means messes……..messes mean too many messes to photograph and thus……they elected, once again, to not take pictures of *real* life on the ranch.

So, the requested photos did not get taken and subsequently uploaded on the blog with the awaiting blogposts. Those two very outdated but necessary blog posts are still patiently waiting for the pictures needed to complete and upload them for your enjoyment.

Pooh and I are now home and acclimating back into life on the ranch…….for a couple of weeks……. Lord willing, we will get those photos and blog posts taken and up before I have to leave again!

Mother’s birthday is just around the corner.  I won’t tell you how young she is going to be.  If you want to know you can ask her yourself! : )  To all of our friends in Washington and abroad…. I am sure that she would enjoy a phone call from y’all to wish her a blessed and happy day.  Happy Birthday Mom.

His journey was extraordinary:  though born a slave, by the end of his life, presidents and corporate titans valued his friendship.  Millions of Americans benefited from his innovations.  His scientific genius is legendary, but less known is his remarkable path to greatness, defined by a life-long passion for serving others.  George Washington Carver blazed trails in his personal and professional lives….Click here to read more.

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Visit tyrannyeve.com for more information.

Thank you Peter for taking this stand.  Know that we love you and will be praying that God will go before you and bless your endeavors.

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There were two important flights today in the Seargeant Family.

The two girls successfully completed their flight home today and they’ve been appropriately welcomed home and have officially greeted their new kitchen : )  Larissa said that it “Almost feels like a real kitchen!”

And…..drumroll please!   The Boeing 787 successfully completed it’s long awaited and overdue 1st flight today!  The inclement Washington weather forced their landing early, but reports are that their time in the air was a success!

Rick is the airplane connoisseur in our family, not me.  But I’ll share my thoughts with you anyway : )

When I watched the C-17 on it’s first flight many years ago, I thought that it looked like a flying whale that had no business up in the air.  Just so big, bulky and heavy looking.  I guess that’s good for a cargo plane.  It just didn’t look like it should stay up in the air to me.

The 787, however, has that sleek, light, graceful composite look to it.  I actually think it’s very pretty and feminine looking, sort of like a dolphin.

So, there you have my take on the two planes that Rick has worked on and been at their first flights.  The C-17 looks like a whale and the 787 looks like a dolphin.  Now you know why Rick is our family’s airplane connoisseur!

Thank you, Lord, for two successful flights today!

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Through this week of trying to take dominion over our 432 sq ft domain, bringing order out of chaos, we learned some object lessons about us and God.  Some much needed and will be reviewed lessons, I might add.  Order is so very difficult for us.  Entropy is easy.

We had an object lesson on God being a God of order.  He created order.  He is order.  He placed the sun, moon and stars in their courses and paths above.  He made the dry land and the waters and separated them from one another.  He made man and woman and their children and He ordered their relationship.  He made 2 + 2 to equal 4……every time.  He gave words and language meaning and man the ability to order his thoughts and words to communicate His truth.  He told man to take dominion (order) over the creation.  God is a God of order.

While I, personally, do not like puzzles, puzzles do teach us how to take disorder and create order and beauty.

Because of sin, order is not natural…….it doesn’t just happen on it’s own.  Entropy is what is natural in our fallen world.   It speaks so blatantly against the big bang theory, which is an explosion (chaos) bringing order of itself! Oh how I would have liked to have our chaos this week just order itself aright!  According to the big bang theory, all we needed was a bomb to set things aright here : )  Now, doesn’t that just sound ridiculous?

Do things around your house evolve into something better by themselves over time?  They sure don’t around here!  Things around our place devolve on a consistent basis here in a heartbeat.  It takes so much work to get and keep things orderly!

Another puzzle thought…..  If we took a box of puzzle pieces and threw them all in the air, would they set themselves aright and create an orderly and beautiful picture?  I might like puzzles if that were the case : )  But, no!  It takes time, careful study, thought and problems solving to put that puzzle picture back into the form in which the designer created it.

We learned that it takes a Designer to have order.  God designed order into the week of Creation.  He designed order into the solar system, the earth, the animals and plants that filled the earth.  And He designed order into man.  Think about man’s body and the incredible systematic design that goes into our bodies!  That didn’t happen by chance.  God designed us!

Last week was a week of trying to take dominion……or create or design order out of chaos.  You know how chaos can set your nerves on edge?  Ever wonder why?

Sin begets chaos and chaos begets sin.  The chaos of a heart and mind that is not set aright, or in order, by God’s word results in sin.  Unfortunately, we were the perfect….or imperfect…..example of these principles on Saturday.  I’m so thankful that we serve a God who forgives when we come to Him confessing our sin, Who washes our scarlet sins away and makes us white as snow.  We don’t deserve His kindness, His forgiveness, His propitiation for our sin.  Yet He lovingly gives it to those who repent in faith in Jesus, His Son.

Hmmmmm….I see order here again.  Sin from a sinner…..sorrowful repentance….. free forgiveness from a holy and righteous God through Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins……restoration of relationships and eternal relationship with God……  That’s the gospel in a nutshell.  The very Gospel itself is order.

It’s amazing how as order is regained and dominion is taking place, that it is easier to rule over sin and chaos.  When we live our lives according to God’s Word and order, we, in turn, have order and dominion over sin.  That’s because sin and chaos are the antithesis to God while order and dominion are of Him.

So, while I don’t like puzzles, I thank God for the puzzles He gave to us this week to work through.   It showed us our need for order because God is a God of order.  It showed us that chaos negatively affects us.  It showed us our fallen nature and our need for Him.  And it showed us His redemption to those who humbly repent and come to Him in their weakness seeking His forgiveness and reconciliation……because in our weakness, He is strong.

Only He can bring true order out of chaos in our lives, repentance and forgiveness for sins and restore us to a properly ordered relationship with Him.

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There are many people in our family who enjoy puzzles.  My Mom is one of them.  Try as I might when I was a child, I tried to like puzzles……kind of like trying to like coffee……it just never happened.  Rick’s family likes puzzles too.   I am just puzzled by it!  : )

Think about puzzles for a moment.  Take a perfectly good photo, glue it to cardboard and then cut it into random pieces and mix them all up so you don’t have a picture, but instead have chaos.  Why???????

Then, look at all of those geometric designs and picture clues and spend time and brain power figuring out how these pieces can be put back together again so you can see the picture in it’s original order.  Ok….I still don’t get it : )  Why???????  I guess I need to preserve my brain power : )

This week God handed us a puzzle, well, several puzzles, I suppose.  Every day a new puzzle.  Real life puzzles are easier for me to deal with than picture puzzles because real life puzzles have purpose and are practical in every day life. But this week of puzzles was an exhausting one physically, emotionally and spiritually.  To be honest, it was overwhelming at best.

Our puzzle this week?  Fitting our new kitchen into our 432 square feet common house.   The children had already cleaned and rearranged the furnishings once after our Week of Thanksgiving.  We thought we were set.  We were back in order after a week of constructing a building over our tent and removing the tent.  Nails, screws, sawdust, things out of place.  We had to take all of that chaos and put it back in order.  We thought we were done.

And then God gave us the new kitchen, for which we are extremely grateful.

The weather dictated that we MUST find a place in the common house for the cabinets.  So, we came home from Church on Sunday and we started making room for the cabinets.  Keep in mind, our 432 square feet were already brimming with bookcases (think homeschoolers and the necessity of books), gorilla racks for kitchen and pantry storage (think large family of 11 and the size of the pots and pans it takes to cook for us), woodburning stove, computer desk and paperwork, 2 tables, buckets of bulk grains (again….think large family that buys in bulk and cooks from scratch), Skylar’s couch/bed, etc., in our small space.  Oh, and let’s not forget the two refrigerators.

Now think about introducing a whole set of kitchen cabinets to this already filled space.  Now think about the fact that when one starts moving anything in a small space, everything else has to give as well and chaos quickly reigns.  By now, you might want to stop thinking about it : )

Sunday night, we just moved things aside into bunches to fit the cabinets inside.  Time was limited and the need imminent.  Yikes!  Chaos reigned.

The next step to this puzzle on Monday was to remove the U shaped “kitchen” we’d been using as we wouldn’t be using this anymore and it was bulky.  It’s removal provided much needed space.  This, now obsolete kitchen, consisted of 3 half-tall gorilla racks in a u-shape with plywood for a countertop.

To remove this bulk, we had to empty all of the shelves of their belongings.  Plates, cups, bowls, spices (think large bulk spices), pantry items, cleaning supplies and more.  Where to?  Wherever we could find a place that was not yet inhabited.  Chaos continued to grow and reign.  But now we had some room to maneuver things, bit by bit.

We were unable to temporarily move anything else out of our small space because of the weather……and mud…..  So we played furniture shuffle here for a week.  Let’s just say that it was a very difficult week because of the chaos and disorder.  We still needed to feed people and do laundry, though we didn’t manage to do that very well.  Nothing had found a home.  Everything was moved 25 times…..or so it seems….  Thus whenever we tried to do anything, we couldn’t find what we needed and what would normally be an everyday task now became a hurdle to overcome.

The puzzle that it reminded me of was a rubik’s cube or that children’s little flat plastic puzzle with 15 little black and white squares and one open space in which to move the squares into the correct pattern. You move one square right into the one empty space  so that another little square can move up and then another little square can move over and eventually all of those little squares are in the right place……..if you stick with it that long!  And the reason we spend time moving little squares up, down, left and right is???????????

On top of that, Callan and I were unable to move a lot of the furnishings ourselves.  That meant that we were doing what we could in the daytime….until we hit a bottleneck…..and then we would have to wait for the boys to get home from work……which was late because it is the warehouse busy season.  They were tired and the last thing they wanted to do was come home and move heavy furniture in tight quarters.  They’d already walked literally miles that day…..and the day before…… They managed to press forward for us, for which we, at home are very thankful.  Living in the chaos all day long was wearying and overwhelming.

We took Friday off and went to town for a birthday luncheon and a 30th anniversary party.  We needed a break and God was so gracious to provide us with this day off.

We were making progress but we really needed the boys help.  So Saturday I had lots of plans on what we needed to get done with the boys home.  But, everyone was tired……from working at the warehouse…..from living in chaos……from moving and shuffling things here and there to get out of something else’s way and then out of something else’s way as something else made it’s way to it’s intended destination.

Life and attitudes quickly spiraled downward and Saturday did not go as I had hoped or planned.  Remember my post on That Little Member?  Well, we needed to re-read it on Saturday : (  I finally decided, with Rick’s encouragement, that we needed to stay home from Church on Sunday, regroup and refocus our hearts and minds on:

Eph 4:29

And be ye kind (courteous) one to another, tenderhearted,

forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

and

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart,

be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

So, that’s what we did.  We slept in Sunday morning, which we all needed, and then we visited the above verses and more together.  Ryker prayed for our day and we set to work on finding some order in our chaos.  By the end of the day, we could see light at the end of the tunnel.  We didn’t get it all done, but the puzzle pieces were coming together.  We could almost see the entire picture.

Monday night, the boys finished moving the heavy bookcases and pantry shelving to their final destinations.  The game of musical furnishings was over.  Relief.  We were finding some order and finishing the puzzle.

We are still organizing the little things and trying to find homes for them all.  It is slowly coming together.  I, for one, am thankful that this past week and the many puzzles we worked are behind us.

We learned many lessons this week about both us and God, order and chaos.  Stay tuned for those lessons.

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Today is a big day.

First off, the first flight of the day:   Rick will deliver Ashley and Larissa to the Seattle airport so they can fly home after spending 10 days in Washington with their Dad.

And then there’s the second first flight of the day:  At 10 a.m. Pacific time, on Tuesday, December 15, 2009  — assuming good visibility and decent weather — Boeing will send the first 787 into the air for a four-hour flight from its factory 30 miles north of Seattle for a foray around the Puget Sounds and inland Washington state.

Rick worked production for McDonnell Douglas on the C-17 and was there to see the first flight of the C-17.  He then worked C-17 Flight Test and saw many, many C-17s off to fly while on that program.

The Boeing 787 is the very reason that Rick is in Washington.  Now he’s working on the 787 program, making plans for these planes to funnel into San Antonio for modifications prior to being delivered to the customers.  Lord willing, he will see many a 787 fly into San Antonio after this first flight.

Boeing purchased Douglas so they are now one and the same.  It is a privilege for him to be able to be at both of these historic first flights.   I know all of Boeing and the aviation community at large, is abuzz with anticipation of the 787’s historic first flight.

Our prayers are with the test pilots and Boeing as a whole, for a safe, successful and beautiful first flight.

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Remember the houseplans that Roo drew?  And remember how his houseplan featured beds, which were evidently important to him?  And remember how I noted that when the girls and I draw houseplans, we always, always, always focus on the kitchen as that is what is important to us as we spend so much time cooking for 11 people?

Well, the Lord, in His abundance mercy and provision, has provided a wonderful kitchen for us!  Our hope was to get a kitchen sink in a cabinet with running hot and cold water in by the end of the year.  But God has provided above and beyond what we thought or imagined with an entire set of kitchen cabinets and counter tops!

It all started a week ago Friday when I looked at my CraigsList Materials Ads on my RSS Feed.  Rick had told me to start watching for a stove hood vent as we had brought our outdoor 2 burner propane stove into the building and we were going to need a vent because of the sheer amount of cooking that we do.

I didn’t find a vent on Friday, but I did find an ad for custom oak kitchen cabinets with granite counter tops.  It was already a ways down on my RSS Feed so I predicted that it would already be taken.  But, just in case it was meant for us, I emailed the ad to Rick and then emailed the owner.  Callan was beside herself with expectant hope.

Rick immediately emailed back and said that judging by the picture that was in the ad, it was a nice kitchen and he could make it work.  He told me to get it.  Rick was a custom cabinet builder before we were married and thus appreciates all hard wood custom cabinets.  And then the owner emailed back and said that the kitchen was still available and answered some questions for me.

I told the owner that we wanted the kitchen and we arranged for the boys to go over the next day to remove their cabinets and counter tops.  God’s timing is so perfect.  The next day was Saturday and the boys had no work scheduled : )

The kitchen was not free but was an incredible deal.  In God’s mercy, we had the money available to purchase the kitchen as well as the manpower and knowledge in the boys to be able to deconstruct the kitchen and transport it home.

Since I had to finalize the deal and Callan so wanted to see her new kitchen : ) we all went to dismantle the kitchen.

This, minus the ovens, stove and sink, plus 2 cabinets next to and above the fridge, which are not pictured, is what the guys, with some help from Callan, deconstructed and brought home.

We had a blessed time getting to know the couple who were selling the kitchen.  We are thankful for the Lord bringing our two families together in such an Ebenezer way.  This couple will be in our prayers daily as this kitchen reminds us of this Ebenezer, rock of remembrance of God’s provision, in our lives.  And, the granite counter top is literally a rock : )  A Texas granite rock, no less, that has stories to tell.

Lord willing, the story of our kitchen will be able to be used as a teaching tool and faith builder both to those of here and now and to those in generations to come.  We are so very grateful to the Lord for His merciful provision for us after cooking for our large family in such unconventional ways for so long.

We started out cooking over an open campfire and white gas camping stove for a year.  We did a little baking in our roaster oven too.  When God provided the tent, we were able to cook on the wood burning stove, which was a nice upgrade from the campfire.  We also added an outdoor 2 burner propane “stove” as our little campstove had given its all for us and needed replacing.  For awhile, we had a kitchen oven that was given to us set up by the power pole (as that’s where the power supply was that would run the oven).  Since that gave out a couple of months ago, we’ve been back to baking in the roaster oven, which is really a small oven for a family our size.

Now that we have our common house shell up and the tent removed, we were going to start slowly install our kitchen.  But, with this kitchen provision, when Rick comes home at the end of this month, he will have much more to work with than he’d thought!

The kitchen didn’t come with appliances.  While I didn’t find a stove vent on Friday, God brought one to me on Saturday when the kitchen owners decided to offer their stove hood vent to us for just a little more money.  It is a beautiful vent.  All stainless steel, with lots of bells and whistles.  We smiled and said, “Yes, please!”  as this was really what Rick had asked me to be looking for in the first place : )

God so generously provided above and beyond our expectations and once again proved Himself to be our Jehovah Jireh, our God Who Provides!  Isn’t His timing so perfect?  This beautiful kitchen right when we need it!  I stand in awe of His work in our life.  Thank you, Lord!

Now we are praying for a double oven and a 36″ wide stove top as that is the cabinet configuration that we now have.   Callan is specifically praying for a 6 burner stove : )  God provided these cabinets, we confidently trust in Him to bring us the appliances that we need to fill them.

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……But knowing that it was just not what God had for our family this week.

• Where, you might ask?
  • At the SOS Conference, of course!
• What’s an SOS Conference, you continue asking?
  • An NCFIC Conference with several days of hearing some tremendous men expound on the Sufficiency of Scripture in our orthodoxy, orthopraxy, i.e. our doctrine and our practice.

Knowing that God is sovereign and had He wanted us in attendance with so many of our dear friends, we are content in not being there giving out hugs of fellowship and receiving powerful, truthful teaching on how Scripture is sufficient for all of life and practice.

• So, what does one do that was unable to attend such a power-packed conference with speakers such as Voddie Baucham, Joe Morecraft, Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, Scott Brown, Ken Ham and more?
  • One enters the contest at In a Shoe for 3 sets of the full conference audio!

• One purchases the audio messages from the NCFIC SOS conference @ a presale discount until the conference ends (in a few hours) so the “supplies” of discounted audio sets are very limited. Hurry up and you can still get yours for a 22% discount — FOR A LIMITED TIME!!!

Since I…sniff….sniff…..was unable to attend…..sniff…..sniff……I am delighted at the opportunity to enter In a Shoe’s contest!

Thank you, Perry!

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This short video is a great object lesson to help us understand how, as fallen sinners, we choose to sin, but we do not have the ability to choose the consequences of each sin, which generally reach much farther than we anticipate or realize.

I might add, that by the same token or object lesson, we can’t choose the blessings and far reaching effects of our obedience to God either.  An act of obedience can have far-reaching blessed effects that we cannot predict.  God promises blessings for obedience (which we cannot foresee) as well as curses for disobedience (which we cannot choose). But He tells us the general results of each choice that we make.

Blessings or curses.

May this visual lesson help each one of us to remember that sin has consequences and obedience has blessings and then choose to live out our love for the Lord by obeying Him.

Balloon Sermon Illustration from David Whiting on Vimeo.

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Please pray for the Duggar Family as Michelle was hospitalized for gallstone issues and subsequently underwent an emergency C-Section to deliver 25 week gestation Josie Brooklyn Duggar weighing in at 1 lb. 6 oz.

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We were so blessed to have David Ringer, one of the three Grandpas in our Church (including Rick), come help us on our building project.  He was a great sounding board, thought processor, additional supervisor and worker, and all around keep-er-movin’ guy that we needed on the job.  On top of that he brought his smile and encouragement, along with his floodlights and his tape measure.  What more could we ask?

He put aside his own plans and came to help when we called.  He stayed late and came back the next day, again putting aside his own plans, to help us get our building covered and roofed.

We are blessed to be able to call Grandpa Ringer our brother-in-the-Lord and our friend.  Thank you Grandpa Ringer!

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The animals were thrown a little off kilter by our Week of Thanksgiving.  It was a little disconcerting to have so many visitors over the course of 5 days.  Darby, for one, loved it.  The cows?  They had to go sniff the new cars, watch the walls being put up and as the cabin began taking shape, they grew more and more curious.

The cats, who considered the tent “their” domain, were probably the ones who were thrown the biggest curve.  All of their hiding places were taken away.  Their walls with built in cat doors were removed.  And there were many strangers that some of them did not appreciate.  Some went into hiding.  Others decided to seize the opportunity and grab some strokes and cuddles.

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The Scene From Afar

This is Fun!

Determination

Everyone Helped : )  Even His Tongue!

Discipleship at its Best

I Spy the Photographer

Taking a Break

Roo Built this Airplane All By Himself!

You Sit on it and Then Rock Back for Takeoff and Rock Forward for Landing!

He Must be a Builder’s Son : )

Pooh Bear Worked Too

For All of the Planning and Supervising, Rick Got Some Work in Too

And Some More!

The Dynamic Duo

And Skylar Worked Too

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When one works in the dark, one must have some light.

So before it got dark, Ryker and Grandpa Ringer worked on getting the lights ready for service.

Great Pose!

The Worksite All Lit Up

We Had One Light in a Tree

One light on the Trailer Roof

and

One Light on the Ground

We Just Kept On Working!

Even the Little Guys Helped in the Dark

More Drilling

Finishing That Last Wall

Gettin’ Goofy : )

A Campfire Helps When One Works Into the Night

And It Helps Cold Hands

Reflections of the Day

Here is a HUGE Thank You to everyone who stayed late into the night to help us try to beat the storm.

A BIG Kudos goes to Perry C. who stayed  until 3 a.m.  went home for a 3-4 hour nap and came right back in the morning to help us beat that storm.  God was so gracious to evaporate those rain cells headed straight for us and to hold off the wind and rain until we were adequately sheltered.  His mercies are new every morning!

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There is a large center beam that runs down the center of the cabin roof.  It’s made of two engineered beams that we had to glue and screw together.  Here’s some pictures of that process:

Mr. Torres and Crew with the Glue

Grandpa Ringer, Ben and Pooh

What Teamwork that Spans the Generations!

I Love This Picture!

Now comes the tricky part.  Due to technical difficulties, you must now imagine all of the young men pictured on blog posts of  Saturday’s Workday.  All of these young men were working in perfect harmony as they:

• spaced themselves out over the length of the beam,
• picked it up,
• carefully carried it up onto the back deck,
• walked it through the end wall and into the center of the cabin.

Then you must visually picture them:

• Heaving and ho-ing as they L.I.F.T. this very heavy beam up into the notch at the top of the last wall standing and set it into place.
• Then they heaved and hoed to get the other end of the beam up into the notch at the top of the other end wall.
• Only this end wall needed a little trimming and finessing to allow the beam to fit into it’s notch.
• We all held our breath and prayed as these strong men worked so hard to shimmy and maneuver this beam into place while making those last second changes to the place the beam end would ultimately sit.

Now you must hear and visualize:

• All of us breathing a sigh of relief and prayer when it was declared that the beam was safely in place.

Now, that wasn’t so difficult was it?  If you think it was, then I’m glad that you weren’t one of those young men wrestling with this beam!

I sure wish I had pictures of this part of our Saturday as it was truly God’s gift that all of these strong young men were at Plymouth Rock Ranch on this particular day when we so needed their youth, strength, determination and teamwork.  Thank you, Lord, for Your provision and Thank you, men, for your willingness to help in our time of need.

Thus ends The Story of the Beam.

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Ready….

Set…..

Go!

The Last Wall Stands Up!

Contemplating the Changes in Our Lives

A Memorable Moment

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What it looked like prior to removing the tent.

Uncovering our kitchen and living area!  Now, we are totally committed!

Camera Shy?

Revealing the Sheeting

Oh Yeah!

The Canvas is All Down : )

Exposed to the Elements

He’s Determined to Finish Getting the Tent ALL the Way Down

Mission Accomplished with a Smile : )

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With the cold storm headed our way, not only did we need shelter, but we also needed some wood cut.  This crew cut some great wood!

No, he didn’t help with the firewood, but where else would I put this picture?

Thank you guys for the cut and stacked firewood!  Every time we start a fire in the cold we think of you!

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Well, it’s taken me awhile to get more photos uploaded for y’all.  Future posts will explain what’s kept us too busy to get much posted on the blog, so stay tuned!

Notice, they’re still in the tent in these two pictures.

See transparent framed walls?  The tent is gone!  Making progress : )

Gathering for prayer

Breaking for Lunch

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