HomeKeeper November Challenge

During this busy holiday season it's so easy to lose our focus on what's important and focus on that overwhelming "Must-Do" list. Which is important... at least it seems that way when you're standing in Toys-R-Us trying to figure out how to juggle gift buying with budgeting in a way that no one is left out or offended. Now that's stressful! And, of course, necessary.

But what about the most important things? What about our walk with God? And our homes and family?

So this November, my challenge to you is to become a prayer warrior for your home. As you go through your house each day, pray for it. Pray for the person inhabiting each bedroom. Pray for a peaceful atmosphere in the living room. Pray for health and joy as you work in the kitchen. Cover your home with prayer, so that all who enter will be blessed. Pray for opportunities to use your home as a place to minister to others. Pray that God would fill your home with His Spirit, His grace, His joy, His peace.

Even though our homes are just built of wood and stone, and will someday be gone, they are still an important part of our lives. Let's use them to honor our Creator. And let's not ignore the "best" for the "good". Make sure you make time to pray, even if it is over a sudsy sink of dishes.

Introduction To Our Life....

Now that you know a little who we are as people, let me introduce you to some of the other facets of our lives! We live on a small acreage in the country in Wisconsin, in an old farmhouse we had moved on to our property when our house trailer got too small. We've spent the last 2 1/2 years remodeling it and fixing things up so we can sell it, and hopefully move on to a bigger acreage once we find one available that fits our needs.

Our house

So, what are those needs? For one, a space to put Lumberjack's shop. Right now he's renting one, but it's not real suited to the type of work he does, and he needs some more space to spread his wings. Er, logs. He's the local expert on log buildings, and has had lots of work repairing and maintaining log structures, as well as building some new ones. He sells lumber and specialty wood products out of his rented shop. He's a fine craftsman and artist with wood--as long as when you think artist you think practically, big, and full log size type stuff.

Another need is a place to put our animals. We started with one angus cross heifer, and now our herd has grown to two cows, two heifer calves, and a yearling steer, without buying a single animal. Well, at the moment we also have a borrowed bull in our pasture so we can add to the herd by two again next year. Our herd has long outstripped our pasture, and is beginning to push the limits of our rented pasture as well. Thankfully, our freezer is also full with a grassfed steer off of our own land, from our own cow. Gotta love the homestead life! Oh, and we also have about 40 chickens in the freezer that we raised over the summer. And 10 hens out in the backyard for our own fresh eggs. There's also a rooster out there, so hopefully we'll be seeing some chicks running around out there next summer!

To add to the hobby farm feel we have two big Alaskan Malamutes, a male (Kodi) and female (Tundra), which we have around as pets and as an income supplement/science teaching tool with a litter of puppies every so often. We have used Kodi to pull our little red wagon sometimes, and we do have a dogsled but need to get a harness for Tundra before we can really do much with it as it's too big and heavy for one dog to easily pull. And, last but not least, we have the skunk defying, sandwich stealing tom cat named Yeller.

Indoors, we at the present time have only one little Betta fish, Bertie, as a part of the decorations in our kitchen... His predecessor, Flash, was finished off by a little overly helpful human topping off his fish bowl with cold water, and poor Flash somehow ended up on the floor halfway across the kitchen. Bertie won't be facing the same fate, now the children have been educated!

I hope to soon give you a tour of our home as well. I love our house, and I'll be sad to eventually move out. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy living here, and work at getting some pictures of it for you to see!

Introduction To The Family...

Hello! I'm glad to see you here! Let me introduce myself and share a little about my life, family, and blog. For starters, let me introduce my family, starting with the newest addition:

Princess is all of two months old. She's everybody's pet, and is growing like a weed. (Her daddy's nickname for her is "Monster"--weighing in at 16 pounds already, it's almost appropriate!) Needless to say, at this point all she does is eat, sleep, fill diapers, and fuss, with her days generously sprinkled with smiles and coos as well in happy moments of being the center of attention.

Treasure is our angel baby, would be 15 months old, and is remembered always in our hearts.

Little Miss is 3, delighted to be a big sister! She loves to help with the baby, in the kitchen, with the laundry, and any time I need to "spway" something to clean it. In general, she's my right hand helper and loves to be initiated into the wonders of homemaking. She is doing kindergarten this year in school, and is breezing through it even though she's so young. She wants to learn to read!

 

Manly is 5, and says he wants to be an EMT and a mechanic when he grows up. He loves to tinker with things, off by himself somewhere, and is always happiest at home with all of us nearby. He's a neat and tidy little fellow naturally, which I sure don't mind! He'll often set things right about the house... even when I haven't asked him to do something. He's also doing kindergarten in school this year, and loves it.

Big Stuff is our big 8 year old. He's super friendly, super energetic, super affectionate, and has a super imagination. There are no half-ways with this young man... as long as his excitement stays up! His ambition is to do whatever it is that makes money, including big ideas to sell his well-used toy for $100. Sorry, Son! But watch out world when he gets big enough to wield that entrepreneurial spirit! He's doing some third grade and some fourth grade stuff in school, and is recovering from a fall on his head with resultant brain surgery over the summer which does affect his academics some.

Lumberjack is my husband. Handsome. Need I say more? He does some logging, some work at our sawmill, and lots of work repairing, chinking, staining, and building log and wood sided structures. He works hard for us, and his muscles show it! (www.KickapooCountryMilling.com) He's a gentle, but strong, manly man who I love with all my heart.

And me, Mom. Wife. Homemaker. Teacher. Cook. Laundress. Entrepreneur. Homesteader wanna-be. Queen of my small realm called Home. Daughter of the King. Ambassador of an unseen Kingdom. That's all the nice stuff... but walk in on me on any given day and you might just find a weepy mess living in a pig pen whose only accomplishment of the day was that no one died. Well, this is real life, with a real battle to be fought. Thanks for joining me!