Happy Birthday to my Firstborn Daughter !

My daughter.  My friend.  My sister-in-Christ.  I never knew life would change so much.  I never knew one could love so deeply.  I felt your movements, I anticipated your arrival.  But I didn't know.  I couldn't know.  How very life changing motherhood would be.  How mothering would be like learning to "live with your heart outside your body".

Nine months of being changed.  Nine months to ponder.  To dream.  To imagine. To pray. Before I ever laid eyes on your tiny face or watched you breathe deeply your first breath, I was being changed.  Forever. Awareness of being given a great trust and the privilege of influencing a tiny eternal little soul can do that to a girl. There was a revival of my faith.  How, I wondered, can a mother pass on eternal truths, wisdom, compassion, mercy and hope if she doesn't sit at the feet of the Author of those truths?  Often.  What else does she have to *stand* on. Where else can she go for answers? Man's ideas change with the wind, but God is Truth and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He used your coming to remind me of those things. I desperately wanted to know my God and Savior better.  I wanted that for me.  I wanted that for this little person I was yet to meet.

I remember the first hours after your birth and how I tried to soak it all in.  Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Now out of my womb and placed in my arms. Heartstrings tied tight. Overwhelming love.  Your father and I marveled at tiny toes, wisps of black hair and beautiful little eyes staring back at us.  The hour grew late but sleep wouldn't come.  We wanted to savor every moment. And we did.

Years have passed and you've grown and become a lovely woman. A very forgiving and gracious woman.  You know me.  You know my weaknesses. Yet you love me. Deeply. And the Lord continues to use you in my life.  Such a blessing to our family and others.  And as your brother said of you last evening, the most loyal person he's ever met. 

I can't adequately express to you how very grateful I am for your birth and your life.  And I've never seen a man any more affected by the birth of a child and children than was your father.  A man who married later in life than some and who'd begun to think he might never have the privilege of becoming a dad. I know you know how very much he loved you and how very thankful he was to the Lord for all He'd done in his life. And that definitely included the gift of children.

I thank you for the delightful day we spent together this week as we celebrated your birth.  The time savoring every sip of coffee, the beauty of the little shop, and the fun we had in carefully choosing marked down and edible surprises to take back to those at home. :)  The time we spent together in the Goodwill Stores and enjoying the beauty of the drive and of just being together.

I thank you for taking great pleasure in the simple things in life.  For showing gratefulness to a little sister who gifted you with a stray cat for your birthday.  A gift she knew you'd be thrilled to receive.  Thank you for the time you take to pour into her and into the lives of your other brothers and sisters.

Happy birthday sweet Tiffiny!

  My birthday prayer for you is that Jesus, the Bread of Life, will continue to bless you and nourish you spiritually as you look to Him in everything, pray, and read His word. You are a blessing, and you are loved much...........

Mother

Frugal Decor...Burlap and a Bucket

I've been reminded today that bringing beauty, creativity, and order into our lives doesn't always have to be expensive. The above bucket and coffee pot were found here on the farm.  One person's trash became this persons treasure.:)

Of course, I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not everyone would find an old tin bucket beautiful.  But that's part of what makes homemaking so interesting...no two homemakers is exactly alike.  We're free to personalize our homes and surround ourselves and our loved ones with the things which are special to us and which make us feel *at home*.

And have you noticed how doing just one creative thing to bring freshness and beauty and order to your home inspires you to want to do more?  We decided to organize the toys, we prepared a prettier table for dinner, and found we we're reminded that home life is important, and that we desire our home to be a most warm and welcoming place.  The place where children are nurtured and relationships formed.  Where prayers are said, where values and principles are passed to the next generation, where family members want to curl up with a good book, linger long at the table and the place where guests can be refreshed.  Whether a mud hut or a castle or something in between, we have the privilege of imitating, in some small way, the Master Artist who created all things bright and beautiful. And we can do that in our homes. I don't remember her exact words, but I'm reminded that Edith Schaeffer said, in their home, Dr. Schaeffer provided the sermons but she provided the cinnamon rolls.  Both were apparently valued and important and one seems to set the *atmosphere* for the other.:)

My littles and I were looking in outbuildings and discovered several of the old and bent buckets.  Just relics of a former homesteaders life here on this old farm.  But we were smitten.  And we brought them to the house. And we felt a creative streak coming on....

You see, several days before we'd been to a Hobby Lobby store to purchase a finishing crochet needle.  We very much admired some galvanized watering cans we spotted with burlap glued to the front.  But they weren't on sale.  And I resisted a very strong urge to purchase one.  Don't you just love Hobby Lobby?!  So when the buckets were discovered on the property...for free...we got busy gluing burlap to the front of the one for toys.  And we've got a whole roll of burlap left! :)  Happy homemaking, and may God bless you as you seek to glorify Him in all that you do.

"I often advise young brides who are traveling during their first weeks or months of marriage to start "homemaking" in a hotel, even if they are there for only a night, rather than groaning about having to "wait so long to have a home."  How?...Your own cloth, your own candlestick, just one rose or daffodil is enough to make a difference...You will be surprised how much difference it makes to have done something to make a room your home, even for one night."  ~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Life on Leegacy Farm ~ Picture Review

Welcome to our home!  It's a beautiful February day here on Leegacy Farm.  I awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and caught an early morning glimpse of a fresh dusting of snow on the ground.  What a beautiful gift from our Creator. And though Life on Leegacy Farm has been a blur these past couple weeks and there's much on our to do list today, we had to pause this morning and enjoy the white beauty lightly covering our surroundings and beckoning us outdoors.  And I don't know about you, but we're wondering what happened to January.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many of you have asked about my Mom who has been recuperating in our home.  We loaded her car, her dog and our van and headed for her home last week.  We very much enjoyed having her here with us but she was understandably ready to get back home and tend to things and have her follow up appointment with the doctor.  She does have staph in an area where one of the incisions was made.  We are praying that she won't have to be hospitalized again.

 We found time to have dinner with sweet sweet friends before driving back home and while my Mom had a visitor..  Isn't the bread they served just beautiful?

And it tasted as good as it looked.:)

Their daughter baked it in a cake pan.  We usually just place our round loaves on a cookie sheet, but I think the bread holds it's shape much better in the cake pan.  Beautiful! 

We've been a bit sleep deprived as we've traveled, cared for an ailing animal and visited.  That means we've frequented the coffee bar a lot and the hot herb tea has also been popular on these cold days.  Our visits have been so productive as we've gleaned from others as to how they  plan, how they farm, and as we've just plain enjoyed the fellowship.

We've had two light snow days. There's Black Beauty, the farm truck, delivering another load of firewood the fellas have cut from our woods.

Little Man has the right idea.  He and Jay Jay have found a nice warm spot.  And speaking of Jay Jay, he is my Mom's dog.  So what's he doing here?  I took him back to Alabama and ended up bringing him back....again.  I just might be getting attached, and I think my Mom is trying to give him to me....in increments of time.  I thought she would miss him terribly but she was concerned that he would jump on her and hurt her where the incisions are.  The boys, who stayed to tend to the farm, were quite surprised when they realized he'd returned with me.  They love to kid me about having a poodle pooch as a farm dog.:)

Joshua and Johnathon are cleaning and preparing the maple syrup buckets and the laundry's drying on the line.  I hope.:)

My children aren't to accustomed to having snow.  Even though we didn't get much, they've been thrilled and they've had a great time sliding down the big hills around here.

We've been using the cabinets we painted with chalkboard paint as a reminder to practice handwriting and Bible memory.

And even though there's snow on the ground, our thoughts are turning to seeds and spring and planting...and...I guess it's because we're receiving frequent deliveries of seed catalogs in the mail.

We also had a tornado touch down this week and not to terribly far from where we now live. My oldest son woke us around 2:00 a.m. to come downstairs.  We listened to the man on the weather radio until the warning expired and then went back to bed.  It wasn't until the next evening that we realized one had actually touched down and caused quite a bit of damage.  Thankfully no one was hurt badly and people in the area have been incredibly helpful to those who were in the path of the storm and there have been many clean up days. We lost five sheep as I suppose they were scared of the high winds.  Fences were repaired and sheep were found by late afternoon.  All I could think about as I gazed at each face in the room and while waiting for the warning to expire was how very thankful we ought to be for every precious moment we have with those we love and of how the things we often stress about aren't really so important. With that in mind, I do hope to remember this coming week to savor every moment and to remember that we're here for a reason. And to thank God for His mercies which are still new every morning.   ~God bless you all ~

Sherry