I discovered something marvelous today

One of the things i have missed, since getting away from the house for so many hours of the day, is keeping in touch with my on-line, blogging friends.  With precious little time at home, i don't want to spend too much of it staring at a computer screen, instead of enjoying my lovely husband and my home, but i have missed my online friendships.

Recently, i decided to invest my personal spending money in a better-than-what-i-used-to-have cell phone.   And after a great deal of reading and price comparisons, i bought one of these on E-bay, at a considerable discount to whatever price you might find elsewhere.

It's a Pantech Ease.  It's not an i-phone, but it does lots of cool stuff, including this:

which i really appreciate.  

I got it less than a week ago, and i have been playing with it during my lunches and whatnot, to find out what all sort of fun things it will do for me, without charging me extra money.  Well, today, i discovered that i can read my friends' blogs on my phone, by use of the google reader app for mobile/smart phones.  I am DElighted.  While i was sitting on a bench in front of the courthouse, munching on my tortilla sandwich, i also got to read a friend's blog and feel a little more connected.  There's a lot to be said for a tiny little piece of technology that can connect you to people all over the world.  I dig it.

Also, as a warning, i can write blog posts from my phone.  Since i don't know exactly how that will work yet, i'm letting you know . . . if you see something here on my blog that doesn't make much sense, that might be why.

Oh, and for those of you who have been mobile and internet ready for years and years, please keep in mind that this wannabefarm-girl hasn't used a cell phone in years, and when she did, well, the fanciest thing that phone did was send text messages.

The photos contained in this blog were acquired from pantechusa.com and also link back to that site.

My Tiny Flock

I was looking over my recent posts this morning and realized how remiss i have been in the wanna-be farming department.  We do have things going on around here.  I told you about my chicks a while back.  Well, here they are about a week ago:

When i realized my mistake, i grabbed my camera and went out to the chicken coop at 5:26 a.m., in the pitch black darkness and took pictures.  Here are the chicks - or as many of them as i could get in the camera at one time.  The blond ones (the buff orpingtons) are for us to keep.  The others are for a friend.

This is Arne (Arne means eagle in one of the Scandinavian languages, and it's just funny to name a chicken, "Eagle.")  Pronounced Arnee.   This picture is a little blurry, but even with the blur, i think you can see that he is a truly gorgeous boy.

This is my broody hen.  She's broody every time she sees an egg.  In this picture, she's studiously brooding a golf ball, but it is very likely that when she notices that i stole her egg, she won't be broody anymore.  She's a little broody-moody like that.

This is my non-broody hen, looking suspiciously at the bright flashing light interrupting her beauty sleep.

I told you that i pared the flock down a bit in February, a bit too much.  But over the weekend, something pared it down for us a little more.  These are now our only three grown chickens.  I'm thinking i'm going to start taking their eggs and incubating them (even though they are very few) as i get them, just to propogate the flock.  I'm hoping i can produce them faster than the wilds can take them away.  These are some of the challenges of farming while working away from home, but we will conquer anyway.  You just watch, in a year, we'll have 95 buff orpingtons running around like chickens with their......wait, that's not a good simile for this context.  They'll be running around like happy chickens on the farm.  

Good day friends!

Peace and Gratefulness

You know, after all this time (four months or so), after switching from being a full time homemaker/chicken wrangler, to being a full time go-some-place-else-to-make-money-er/chicken hobbyist, i'm still not wrapping my head around it very well.  Once i had what many people consider an "alternate" way of life, it stuck to me -- deep inside me.  Nothing else makes that much sense to me anymore.

There have been times when i have been SO frustrated - the same frustrations i had in the old days, before chicken wrangling and whatnot -- the difficulty of keeping a home you're not in most of the time, the difficulty of balancing . . . juggling.  How do i keep my passion about my home and our dreams and still be a great employee -- but not become a workaholic?

One morning, on my way to work, i was crying in frustration over all the confusion in my head.  Having left a hopelessly messy house to go and keep someone else's business in order, instead of my own . . .  and i was praying and sobbing it out to the Lord, when He started to encourage my heart.  He's awesome like that.  Here are a few of the things i think i'm starting to learn:

This is a season.  And it's here for a reason.

Sometimes God moves us into something that is hard for us, to show us that He can help us to conquer in that situation too.  And to grow us and mold us in ways that He couldn't do when everything was ideal for us.

Sometimes, He puts us in situations we can't handle, so that we will learn to let Him handle our situations.  If everything we have to handle is easy, we never learn how to let Him take care of us.

His grace is always sufficient.  His patience is unending.  His plan is  -- it's so infinitely involved in His very best for us that we just can't begin to understand how deep His love is.

I can feel my inner self (hopefully not so much my outer self) growing and stretching and becoming more than i could have been without the experiences He has brought me through.  And then i become overwhelmingly grateful.

Even though my house is a mess.
Even though there's no milk in the fridge.
Even though i lie in bed at night thinking about my job.

He's just so faithful.  He causes me to be grateful, and i can only see a tiny glimpse of His plan, a tiny glimpse of His infinity, but i see enough to know that His plans for me are because He loves me.  And then my heart is at peace.

Bunny Update and Rain

You might recall that when i went back to work, we decided to give up our bunnies - and admit defeat.  Well, i sold them to a good friend who wanted to get started with bunnies, and she has found success!  Molly and Oliver, on their second try, have made this beautiful little herd of white bunnies.

O.k., well, i've been trying for two days to upload a really cute picture of lots of white bunnies, but i have been unsuccessful.  I'm sorry.  Just try to imagine lots of cuteness.

Also, here in the heart of drought-land, we got lots of rain yesterday, and we are very pleased.  Sadly, we don't know when we'll get rain again, but we're all thinking positive rainy thoughts, and i think that the deluge we had yesterday must have helped to contain the wildfires that have been multiplying in these parts.

So, this is my hurried mid-week update, while i swallow my eggs and gulp my coffee.  I hope you enjoy a little.

Happy Thursday!

Any Other Friday

Last week, i spent a lot of time lamenting and worrying unnecessarily.

I worried about not having money for lunches (spending error), only to look back from the end of my week and see that God provided lunch - and good company for lunch - every day of the week.

On Friday, my usual day of rejoicing and irresponsible spending, a (ginormous) bank error meant that my (and some 2000 other county employees') paycheck wasn't in my bank account when it was supposed to be - and wouldn't be all weekend.  Looking back, several things just so happened to make so that not getting my paycheck wasn't a big deal.  My husband just so happened to get a bonus check this very same Friday....and a few other things.

Hind-sight is 20/20, they say.  I look back at a week of worrying and complaining to see that God provided for every detail, and i needn't have worried.  Then i got thankful.

This afternoon, a hose on my radiator split in this huge heat, and i never worried a bit.  Funny.  I just assume it will all be taken care of.

Then this evening, after reading some news about how the Texas wild fires are growing uncomfortably close to our literal neck of the woods, i packed a little "go bag," so that if we have to get out of the woods quickly, we'll have something to wear.  But i still didn't worry.

It's funny what a little thankfulness can do.

It's funny how we forget how big and simultaneously micro-involved in our lives God is.  He doesn't miss a thing.  And He knows just what we need to prepare us for the next thing.  The next challenge, the next obstacle, the next hill that will make us grow a little more - and a little more like Him - and little closer to Him.

On Friday, while i was not being thankful, i kept saying how if this had been "any other Friday," i wouldn't have had gas to get to work.  If it had been "any other Friday," our bills would not be paid.  If it had been "any other Friday" . . . but it wasn't any other Friday.  It was this Friday.  It was a Friday that God knew about and provided for.  And used to teach me.

On Father's Day - What bears repetition.

This is a copy of a Father's Day post i wrote for my dad a couple of years ago.  If i say so myself, it says what my heart feels so well, that it bears repetition.  I love my daddy, and i always have, and he has always loved me.  Happy Father's Day to the bestest daddy in the whole wide world.

Here's the post:

To My Daddy



This is me.

I'm pretty sure i was two.

I'm wearing my Daddy's sun glasses, my Daddy's cowboy hat, and my Daddy's Cowboy boots (with my pink flower shorts and matching red and blue tank of course).

Do you know why?

Because my Daddy is the coolest, biggest, strongest, most caring, smartest, wonderful daddy in the whole wide world.

And when i was wearing my Daddy's clothes, i'm pretty sure i thought that i was as cool as you.

If i look closely at that picture, i can also see that those two-year old hands look an awful lot like my Daddy's hands. And hands aren't the only thing i have in common with my father.

Party because we have so much in common, i eventually came to the painful conclusion that you aren't really the smartest or the biggest or the strongest of all the daddies.

But you proved to me that you are the coolest and the most caring and the most wonderful Daddy in the world...



...because you have always been proud of me, whether or not i ever did anything to be proud of....







...because you always loved me, even after i wasn't a lovable toddler in love with her daddy.....






...because you guided me to the One Who is the strongest and the smartest and the biggest ...

(This is when i got baptized.)

...because you have always been there for me for all the important stuff...





Daddy, i'm really really thankful for you.

Your love and your constancy in my life have demonstrated the love of our Father God to me.

Your passion has taught me to do what i believe with all of my heart.

Your courage has taught me not to count myself out.

And your oddity has taught me to let me be myself. (HEE HEE HEE!)

I love you, Dad!

Happy Father's Day!

I pray that God will bless you today and every day with great knowledge of Him, a deeper relationship with His Holy Spirit, a deeper understanding of His love for you, and peace so overwhelming you don't remember how to worry. Amen.

A Lesson In Reasoning

Do you remember learning about inductive and deductive reasoning?

I remember learning these little examples in junior high school or some such.  And it has occurred to me lately, that much of this country's troubles might be solved if folks could remember the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning.

Here's deductive reasoning.

All dogs have ears.
Spot is a dog.
Spot has ears.

Inductive reasoning:

All dogs have ears.
George has ears.
George must be a dog.

Clearly, George might be any number of things, but not necessarily a dog.  This is such a basic lesson that we are taught at a pretty young age; yet it seems that the folks making decisions and giving advice in this country, don't know the difference.

Large scale example:

People who own homes have job stability.
Therefore, if we give people homes, they'll have job stability.
??

Perhaps we should consider that the job stability enabled the acquisition of the home and not the other way around.

The same thing happens with medical studies.  The drawing of conclusions without nearly enough information.

These happen all the time.

For example:  (i'm making this one up for the sake of exaggerated example)

Studies show that women who frequently sniff wild daisies at least 3 times per week are less likely to be overweight.  Therefore, we conclude that keeping wild daisies in your home reduces the risk of obesity.

When perhaps we should consider that these daisy-sniffing beauties were probably taking a walk to get to the daisies.

I'm just sayin'.

Listen to the news today and see if you don't see an example of misplaced conclusions based on inductive reasoning.  You probably will.

Proof

1.  Take some of these:

2.  Slow bake in one of these:

2 again.  Or better yet, give them to one of these:

3.  Bake 3 weeks.

Yield:  Living breathing life.

From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.  Romans 1:20

I have believed in God for most of my life.  But if ever i should doubt, if ever i should waiver, when i see life form from what appears to be nothing.  When i watch the average egg develop lungs and kidneys and learn to breathe and eat, i cannot fail to believe in God.  Life was not an accident.  Life is by design.  Beautiful design.  I am in awe.

Romalea microptera, the eastern lubber grasshopper

 Today, i was looking at some plants at my in-laws' house, and i saw this.

 

 

 Isn't it beautiful!?

Cold Sloggy, just when you least expect it.

I've told you about our Friday mornings.

About the comfort of going to the same local gas station for gas and coffee and gas station breakfast, early on Friday mornings.

Well, this morning, after four consecutive days of fun family festivities, some lasting too long into the night for me and my early morning work schedule, i decided to visit Stubby's for my favorite coffee.  It's not really called Stubby's anymore.  It was Stubby's when i was a kid.  Stubby sold it to "in and out," which doesn't roll of the tongue as well, so it's still Stubby's to me.

Oh yeah, my favorite coffee.

My favorite coffee is one part Stubby's coffee, one part mocha cappuccino, from the handy-dandy gas station cappuccino machine.

Don't glaze over, people; this is important information.

Now, this combination can be made at many a gas station, but something about Stubby's - it tastes sooo good.  No one else does it as well.

That was the prelude to my story.

Here i am, early in the morning, with not nearly enough sleep, driving to Stubby's, musing about the comfort of a familiar place.  My gas station (yes i'm easy to please).  It's a little out of the way, but it's worth a couple of miles.  The gas is usually the lowest available price.  I'm fairly sure that the owners aren't sending money to the heirs of bin Laden.  The manager knows me by name.  I think he's the only person i know who calls me, "Mrs. Rogers."  They have the best coffee.  They have friendly staff and manager.  I even do my laundry there (they have a washateria).  It's nice.  I was having a big warm fuzzy all the three miles to the store (which probably isn't safe with as little sleep as i've had), and i had just inwardly given my gas station loyalty to Stubby's.

Then you won't believe what happened.

I walked in, all ready to have the best coffee ever - and buy the big cup so i could drink it all the way to work - when something looked different.  What is it?  I got my cup.  Poured my coffee . . .

Then i found it.

The new cappuccino machine.

Unbelievable.

The NEW Cappuccino Machine!

I don't know why they don't love me anymore.

The NEW cappuccino machine dispenses only one flavor of cappuccino.

And it isn't mocha.

And even if it were mocha.

The NEW machine is out of order.

"Oh DREAD!"  my heart shrieked, as my warm fuzzy turned to a big fat cold sloggy.

This isn't what i wanted at all!

Just the memory of the sight of that poor, pathetic, broken, without-potential, excuse for a cappuccino machine makes me feel a little sad and empty.  And i don't even want coffee right now.

I told Matt, the manager, who knows what my coffee is made of, that i was not happy about this development.  He comforted patronized me with news of forthcoming cappuccino powder packets.  Stinkin' Matt!

Isn't new supposed to be BETTER?

Isn't it funny how the smallest imperfection in our imagined view of perfection can ruin the whole picture?  Isn't it funny how it was only such a disappointment because i had built them up to so much more than a gas station ever meant to be?

Sloggy.

This has been a completely unspiritual, unfarmy post, just for the sake of writing down the word, sloggy, which is incidentally completely unrelated to the weird word, sloggy, which unexpectedly does have a legitimate definitely.

If you can trust thefreedictionary.com.

FULL

Now that.

That is full.

I took this picture while visiting my family in Michigan a couple of months ago.  We were having dinner at a local restaurant, and after i added my cream and sugar to this cup of coffee . . . well, it was too full to drink.  I couldn't pick it up without spilling its contents.  It was the epitome of full.

My pastor, Pastor Brian, from time to time, uses the word picture of a glass representing self.  He talks about how if the only time you're spending time with God is when you come to church, then you're not going to have enough . . . stuff . . . peace, love, joy, good God stuff, in your "cup" to get you through the week.  This is because, inevitably, by the time you make your way home from church on Sunday, someone will cut you off and make you slam on your brakes -- or the grocery store will be out of your favorite fried chicken that you were counting on for Sunday dinner -- or the grocery store will have your chicken, but the mid-adolescent expert on fried chicken behind the counter will use his gloved hand to wipe his nose right before he takes another customer's money and then comes over to grab your chicken with his gloved hands . . . or whatever.  And then even though you will probably be all full of the love of God, since you just got out of church, and you probably won't cuss the guy who made you slam on your brakes -- or lose all your joy because dinner's going to have to be a pizza -- or forget to be gentle when you very kindly and lovingly ask that boy behind the counter to wash his hands and get some new gloves . . . or whatever . . . after happily and self-satisfactorily pay for your very sanitary fried chicken, who's to say that someone's shopping cart hasn't put a dent in the door of your freshly-washed-for-Sunday minivan?  Who's to say?  And then, getting back to Pastor Brian's metaphor now, is there any love left in your cup?  Or is your cup now empty, having spent all its love on the fried chicken boy?  What do you have now?  You have a grumpy sanitary chicken Sunday dinner, with complaining potato salad on the side.  That's what you have.  Why?  Because your cup was empty.  (I love this metaphor, by the way.  Sometimes, i can see my cup sloshing while i'm trying to pull out of the church parking lot.)

What's the remedy?  The remedy is being sure to spend time with the Lord every day.  Reading and studying His word and praising and worshiping Him and sharing your heart with Him and listening to Him every day.  (Those of you who just moaned at this exceedingly predictable and boring answer, please continue reading.)

Because the idea is that your heart and soul and spirit and mouth should be as full of the love of Jesus as that coffee cup is full of coffee -- so full, that when someone bumps you (or cuts you off, or snots on your chicken), the love of God just spills out all over the place.  And it just keeps spilling because your cup just keeps being filled.  Even if you use up the whole cup by Tuesday morning, it's still being filled over and over again.  And you just can't help loving everyone and everything around you.

Now, let's test this on reality.

This morning, i had a busy day ahead, and i took time to read my Bible and reflect this morning before leaving the house.  While traveling down the road, i happily prayed and sang praise songs along with the radio.  I was having a great start to my day.

There's a song on the radio that i really enjoy called "Hold Me." When this song comes on when i'm in my car, passersby may notice that the radio gets really loud, and i car dance and sing loud and groove to the music like a teenager, because i really enjoy this song.  This morning, Hold Me came on the radio, just as i went to pull on to the freeway and saw multiple construction crews, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and no outlets left to let me escape from the madness.  The happy jiving had already started, and my radio volume was already bumping my little car along, when all the happiness was interrupted by a loud and bad-attitude-filled, "Oh CRAP!"

Who said that?  Oh, it was me.  Mrs. Full Cup, just-got-done-praying-but-still-filling-the-air-with-some-ugly-"Christian cussing,"-Rogers.  That's who.  What's wrong with me?  Here, God, with the ability to see traffic ahead of time, blesses my extended trip with my favorite song just in time, and i "crap" all over it.  That's not right.  What happened to my cup?

To be honest, i'm not sure.  Maybe my cup is kept about a quarter full by my wrote good-Christian-habits, and that's only enough to help me be kind to my husband and keep me out of everyone's way when i'm grumpy.  I don't know.  Really, i don't.  I don't have any special lesson for you.  Just this - that my cup was full enough that i immediately checked my stinky attitude and remembered Who was riding with me.  I still got to sort of enjoy the second half of my song.  And the rest of my day did reflect that my cup wasn't truly empty.  Maybe His grace is sufficient even when my cup has a momentary leak (or the bottom falls out of it unexpectedly).  I'm still going to keep going to get full.  'Cause if my cup has a leak, i need to be extra full.  Especially as much i drive.

Scintillating! And up-lifting too.

Writing is so hard when you can't think of anything to say.

Well, i guess i can't speak for "you" exactly.  But for me, it's hard.

I'm not sure where the line is drawn.  When the switch gets flipped, and i just start following the day-to-day rut.  It's not that bad.  I mean, i haven't become a zombie.  I'm doing fun things, like crocheting and hatching chicks and petting kittens and so forth.

But when i can't think of anything to write about, i know that something is wrong.

So i'm writing about not writing.

Scintillating.  I know.

I think it might be the point at which i become more interested in the world in my head than in the world around me.  That might be called self-centeredness.  But don't tell me that; it might hurt my feelings.

Who am i kidding?  You better tell me.  I probably need to hear it.

There's a lie involved here.  I've heard this lie before.  It's the lie that says that i have nothing to share, so i may as well not share at all.  But the truth is -- and this is not more self-centered-ness; this is recognition of God -- the truth is that when i (or you; i can speak for you in this case) believe that particular lie, we steal a gift from the world.  God gave us our gifts so we could share them with others.  And none of our gifts is the same as anyone else's.  Someone needs our gifts.  You might be surprised how many someones would benefit from your gifts.  You have to put them out there.  And just see what God will do with them.

To be more correct:  God gave you as a gift to the world.  And to shut off who you are is theft.

Just put yourself, you and your gifts, out there.

Hide and watch.

And be amazed.