God has been good to us this week.  It's always easy to say praise when good things are happening.  It's always harder to praise God when bad things are happening in our life.

This week on our local christian radio station my 2nd oldest daughter won tickets to a reinactment for 4 of us.  For the rest of us to go it will cost $28.  That isn't bad for our family to attend an event like this.  Then last night we won a cd in another contest they are having. Our familys name is now in a drawing for a family of 4 tickets to Orlando FL for Disneyworld.  We will be making a trip to the radio station to pick up our prizes this week.  

The contest we entered is where they call out your familys name and you have 9 mins and 11 seconds to call them back.  We listen to the radio station on the internet as we live in the country and are close to being on the edge of the listening area.  So it's just easier to listen online.  I was in the kitchen hanging up a fly strip when all this came down.  While I was hanging up the strip the radio station was playing the music before they call out the name.  As that was happening our home phone started ringing and not even 1 sec later my cell phone was ringing.  I got down off the chair to answer the cell while my dd was answering our home phone.  Both of these calls came in as they were announcing our name!  These families heard our name and wanted to make sure we heard it!  Due to our internet being delayed we didn't get to hear it before they did.  I called in and I was laughing as I couldn't believe all that came into play at once.   

Just these past couple of weeks our home phone and our cell phone have been ringing almost simultaneously.  It's always a challenge to figure out which phone needs answering first and then getting someone in here to help me with the other phone.  Its just how ironic that would happen.

Our wedding cake adventure is on its way.  So far we have 7 out of 18 cakes done.  Today will be push come to shove bake day.  Monday I only want to concentrate on making frosting.  Then resting Tues & Wed.  Thurs will be pulling out the cakes to thaw.  Friday we will start decorating and Saturday will hopefully be only delivering them and attending the wedding.  We shall see how all that plays out.

This has been a year for weddings for our family.  Not only 1 but 3 weddings we will be attending or attended!  Not just my husband and I but our WHOLE family is invited!!  That in itself is just a miracle. 

Have a great weekend!

It would be a God thing if God works 2 ways in our life right now.  First both my husband and I are feeling like we are being called into ministry.  Which would really push us out of our comfort zone in so many ways.  Would be trusting God even more than we do now.  Then all I keep hearing and seeing is adoption.  I have no idea who but God knows.  From radio to tv that is all I have been hearing and seeing.  Praying God's will in our life right now.  He knows and it would be nice if we knew how thing are going to work out.  I know it's all a matter of time. 

This week my daughter and I are supposed to be baking 18 cakes.  We are putting together a wedding cake for next weekend and need 18 layers.  So far we have 2 done!  By now I was hoping to have 8.  We will be working overtime in the next few days accomplishing this task.  Not only that the weather this week is a lot warmer than it should be!!  Baking in upper 80's/90 is not fun.  At least the cakes are turning out.  Last time we baked in weather this hot the cakes were not turning out.  This will be our 2nd wedding.  We have cakes due next weekend and now the weekend after.  

I was wondering why I didn't get my 3 extra children last Friday.  God is good!  He knew that with the addition of them and the cakes & wedding it would of been difficult.  The last time the little guy was here he would sneak bites out of the cakes.  Trying to keep him away was difficult.  Plus add in other things that are going on here would be more complicated.  Yes timing is never right.  No matter how many more you add at any time it's all an adjusting period.   It will be a miracle if those children come here.  It will definitely be a God thing.

God is good in that it didn't rain last night.  We have hay down in our field and to my husband's many attempts he was unable to get it baled.  We borrowed a hay rake.  It had a broken tongue so my husband and son fixed that.  Then our tractor broke while pulling the rake.  Then my husband borrows a tractor and the pto breaks in one spot on the tractor.  My poor husband!  I love him dearly and felt bad for him.  He is working the next 48 hrs so he won't be home to deal with the field until Friday now.  He will have to come home and fix the pto and pray that is the end of the troubles.  But God is good!!  It didn't rain last night like it was supposed to and the hay is still good!  That is answer to prayer!  Thank you God!  
 

The phone call I was not expecting.......

Back in June we took on my great nephew.  His mom was in trouble and needed us to take him so he wouldn't end up in the DCFS system.  What was supposed to be 2 weeks turned into 4 weeks.  I talked with his social worker prior to returning him to his mom making sure everything was set in place.  His social worker promised me everything would be ok.  I told him that if something were to happen again to call and let me know as I would take him back.  Today was the day.......

My husband said that my niece would probably only last 3 weeks before she got caught again.  We waited out the 3 weeks and no phone calls.  We thought she finally got her act together.  Until today........

While out doing my monthly shopping I get a phone call.  I looked at the number and thought it was my social worker who we had for our adoption.  The person asked for me.  He then proceeded to say the social worker for my niece and he remembered to call me if something was going to happen again.  Sure enough he was heading to court with my niece and was thinking the judge will be removing her children.  He wanted to know if I would take him.  I said yes of course and did he want me to take the girls also.  He said it would be better if I had the girls and not have to split them up again like last time.  I told him I was in the city by him and would like to know if I needed to stick around to pick up the children after court.  He said he would call me and let me know as soon as his foot hit the steps of the court.

After shopping and waiting for the phone call the call comes through.  The judge was nice enough to give her 30 more days to get drug free or her children will be in DCFS's care.  My niece doesn't believe they will take her children away even if she isn't drug free.  She believes she is right.

We don't qualify for foster parenting as we have too many children.  Even for extended care.  We are praying somehow the social worker will oversee the amount of children and still let us take in these 3 who need a stable home life.

It's kinda funny how God works.  This past Monday we attended a workshop on Disspelling the Myth of Corporal punishment.  Adopted families were allowed to attend but this meeting ended up being a mandatory meeting for foster parents.  Half way through the meeting I asked my husband I don't know why we are here but I'm sure God has a plan for us.  Sure enough.... now I see His plan. 

With a crew of children, people are amazed at how we do it.  I think I'm no different than any of you with less children.  We go through some of the same trials.  We just might go more or even less than you :)

One question that always seems to come up is how do you feed your family?  I'm usually confused and say just like you?  Yes you cook 1lb of meat and I might cook with 3-5lbs.  You might make mash potatoes with 5-10 potatoes and I might use 5lbs.  Not any different just different quanities.  I've tried to schedule our suppers as it makes it easier when shopping but during the summer I usually fall off the wagon on that.  During the winter it's easier to cook as I do a lot of crockpot meals or oven meals.  During the summer I usually don't cook in the oven.  Meals for me are easier during the winter.  Soon we will start back up with soups and stews.  Today our high is only to be 70 and I have 5lbs of meat thawed.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it.  Some meals to be made could be chili, tacos, meatloaf, meatballs, meat & gravy over bread, or hamburgers.  But tonights supper needs to be easy and quick as we need to head out the door for a LSSI meeting.  Might end up having a big lunch and a sandwich type style supper.

Today Dave and crew is finishing up butchering our broilers.  It will be nice to have chicken in the freezer and we have a pig going to butcher today also.  This pig has been grown organically and we waiting to see how it tastes.  With all this meat going into the freezer I will need to go down and see what needs to be eaten soon or if anything has freezer burn.  Plus we have 7 turkeys roaming the property which will go into the freezer come November.  Our laying hens should start producing eggs come November.  That will be nice to have fresh eggs for the holiday baking.  I realized today, while I was making pancakes, just how much different the egg yolk colors are.  This is comparing farm fresh vs store bought.  If you have never had farm fresh eggs I would strongly recommend getting some and see.

Have a great day!

Sickness is getting better here.  When one child goes down then the rest usually follow.  Our oldest 3 children didn't seem to get sick yet.  I'm waiting though.


We have started schooling again this week.  Will be adding more subjects as we go along.  


This next week we will celebrate our 9th child's birthday.  She will be turning 7!  That also means in 3 weeks from then will be the 7th anniversary of when Dave's Mom died.  When I was preg. with my 9th we found out that my mil had cancer.  We moved in with them while we sold our house.  Little did we know that we would be there to help take care of her.  Nearing the end of my preg. the hospice nurse told me my mil was waiting for me to give birth before she passes on.  Well I didn't want to give birth anytime soon knowing that.  I gave birth and 3 weeks later my mil passed on.  


Not only is time of year hard with that but Sept 30th this year will be the 1yr anniversary of a fireman's death.  This fireman Jeff worked the same shift as my husband.  He got off that day to go home to pick up his wife and head out here for a day on the farm with the other fireman.  He didn't make it home that day.  Instead they think he blacked out, hit a tree and died. Say a prayer for his wife as she gets through this month. 

4 oldest men leave... and what do you find?

A flooded basement! Sigh.......

We had about 2+inches of water in half of our basement. I sent down a child to put something in the fridge. He comes back to let me know we have water in the basement. Ok, nothing too new as at times our water softner doesn't drain well. Well not only was it flooded but it was deeper than normal. I haul down the oldest girls and my 8yr old son (who is the oldest boy at home currently) to help me get the stuff out that is wet. I start pushing the water towards the sump pump. Our basement is sloped so it's 2+inches on one end and a few cm's on the other end by the pump with water. We take a push broom and a barn scrapper and push the water. I noticed then at one point water is pouring in our basement where our well pipe comes in. Yep, lets add more water to what we don't need down there. I call my husband, who of course is out on a call, and can't answer my question of what exactly do I need to do for our water heater which is now pushed off it's cement slab. I did what I thought I needed to do and waited for his call back.

I'm taking a break from pushing water for almost 2hrs. Guess I should get some pics so I can post them for my hubby to look at at work.

More severe storms are due this evening and I'm not looking forward to pushing more water out of here. I'm hoping the weather men are wrong and the storms go around us again.

So busy, so little time

If you would of told me that summer would fly by I probably wouldn't of believed you. I have no idea where summer has gone to. It's almost the end of July and August is just around the corner. This summer has been fun. We were able to attend Dave's nieces wedding. We had been saving up since the beginning of the year for this event. Our children were all excited to be invited to the wedding and the reception. This was definitely the highlight of our summer. We were able to leave the farm in good hands. It's not always easy to find someone to take care of the farm.

We just got back this week from the wedding and we have had some challenges. Zach got a nail stuck in his foot this week. We took on another horse, Princess. I should of gotten a picture of her when she came. For some reason she was at another farm and lost some major weight. While we were picking up our horses, from a friend who took care of them while we were gone, he was telling us about her. She was a beautiful horse!! We actually have her daughter here on our farm. I barely recognized her when we walked up to her. We offered our farm with some fresh green grass and lots of attention hoping to get her back on track. Just in the 2 days she has been here, her ribs are now disappearing and she is looking much better. She also came back to his house with a hip problem. She will be having some chiropractic therapy on her on Wednesday of this next week. It's just like taking in some children from homes. They come to your home not doing well. With a little love, food, attention and people who care they start thriving again. Then there are some children that no matter what you do they stay in their rut. You can only hope you can reach them.

The next 2 weeks will be a challenge for us. My oldest dd and I are making wedding cakes for a wedding. We also have VBS the week before the wedding cakes are due. We will not only have our 11 children but we will also have at least 6 more children for the week. Dave and I are in charge of the games for VBS. We hammered them out this past week. We have been helping with the games for 3 yrs now. We enjoy doing it and the children seem to have fun. The wedding cakes will be our first wedding we are doing. It's a country themed wedding so the cakes are going to be fun to do. They are going to be a horseshoe, a guitar, a cowboy boot and hopefully 2 3-d cowboy hats. We will be decorating these cakes on Friday which is also the last day for VBS. That day will prove to be a challenge. I'm hoping it will go well so my dd and I can attend VBS that night. Usually that night is one of the fun nights. The other fun night is water night. We have learned in past years that a water balloon fight goes over very well. We shall see what we do this year.

As of July 3rd we have had our adopted son for 1 year. That is truly amazing in itself. He has changed so much in that year. Not only growing but how he is acting. From a distant little boy to one who is thriving. We still have a ways to go.

I have enjoyed reading other large adoptive family blogs. It makes our family seem small to some. I hope some day we might be able to be blessed again with another adopted child. There are so many children that need homes and parents willing to be there for them.

Life is never boring around here....

I should of been blogging this whole time. It's amazing what can happen in the life of a large family. One thing is for sure it's not boring. Something is always happening. I was hoping June would be a slow month for us as we have a family wedding to attend in MN in July. My dd and I finished up our cake classes at the end of May. Thought for sure June would be slow.... HA!

It's now the end of June and I have another child staying with us. He is my great nephew. He came to us as another baby sitting job. Was only supposed to be a 2 week job. It's now 5 weeks down the road and don't know when it will end. Today is my 3rd oldest son's birthday. He is turning a whopping 14 today. I can still remember his birth. I had the greatest nurse that had to leave at 7am as her children were in commercials and they were shooting another one that day. He came into the world just around 7:30am. I wished she could of been there.

Today will be a busy day as I have groc shopping to do along with taking my 4th oldest son to the dr for a possible broken finger. I need to learn to listen to this son a little better and I should know him by now. Couple of years ago he was playing with his sibs when he jumped over a stuffed cow and broke his arm. Yesterday he was flying a kite and tripped over his sister and now possibly broke his finger. I kept looking at the tip of his finger and not near the knuckle. Last night I looked at the knuckle and sure enough... it's swollen. This morning he was up at 5am crying as it hurt. So off to the dr's and hospital to get it x-rayed. Somehow in there getting my groc shopping done along with getting supper ready for my son's birthday. Life is not boring in this house by any means.