Hey all!

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So sorry about the lack of updates.

In all honesty, I've been too busy scrambling to find ways to make ends meet. My husband has completely stopped supporting us and there is simply not enough money to survive.

I'm saying that with a smile, because we've been watching the Lord provide for us on a day by day basis. Things are really hard, but we have been blessed beyond all ability to even count the ways!

Nuts and bolts of it is that Michael is having to work for his own food and clothing, right alongside me, and he has no anger or bitterness. We talk about our love for for my husband and pray for him daily. It's not a mushy kind of love, but we care about his future. We may not be able to depend upon him, but we can surely depend upon our Lord!

I have no idea what will happen to us here, but I know that it is good.

Not much has been going on here on the farm, as it takes money to do things - most of you are quite aware of that fact. But we are going to do our best to try to find a way to do another garden for canning. As the world's economy crumbles and hyperinflation is being discussed in more and more sure terms, it would be irresponsible of me not to put all we have into trying to provide food for ourselves.

As it is, we walk out of the grocery store with bare essentials in two bags and it's still 40 dollars. Ouch! I keep looking at all the yards filled with decorative plants, and thinking that every home owner ought to be pulling them out and planting food-bearing trees, bushes, and gardens.

We'll do our best. We've been getting as many cuttings from as many places as possible. I recommend we all do the same. Raise your own food plants, and raise enough to give away to all your friends. Buying plants is too expensive. In this way we can all help provide for one another.

Our power bill alone last month was half of all our income. 'Nother ouch! I bet lots of you experienced that one.

We are continually amazed by the hand of our Father, and our lives are filled with the things money can't buy. I hope you are all doing as well. :o)

This post is not thought through really well, just hurried, as we get ready to head out and work, so if it's disjointed, now you know why. :o)

I'm sorry I have not been around to your blogs in a long time. I miss you and the wisdom, knowledge, fun and friendship that provided. I've not given up on blogging, but it's going to have to wait for now.

I may have some fig tree seedlings to give away soon. If you are interested in getting one, let me know. I've put in hundreds for trial purposes. If they've taken, I don't want them to go to waste.

May the Lord bless you!

~Faith

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Ballet Rehearsals

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The crunch is on. We've got rehearsals all week.

Here are a few photos I took from Saturday's run through.



This is Cinderella.





And here is Prince Charming!





Michael has three parts; the tailor for the bratty step-sisters, a dancer at the Palace Ball, and here he is as a "boy who throws rocks at the bluebird".




And a scene of grand ballet, featuring the fairies.



He's having a great time. It's quite a thing to be involved in a production like this, but great memories of friends, a shared project, learning and being pushed to do things you have never done before. He is quite tired, though.

So is this mom!

~Faith

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God's Watchcare Over Us.

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Things have been tough financially for a while. My DH has been in contempt of court for nearly three months, and we have received very little to live on. If it were not for our office cleaning jobs and the help of others we'd have been unable to make it at all.

Our faithful little minivan, which is always a mess because it sees constant use as transportation to home school activities, work, window washings, as well as being our farm vehicle until we can find a way to repair the truck, has needed repair for months.

I've put it off, not having any money to do so, and hoping it would come in. It hasn't. But every day the car has become worse and worse, until last night I decided I was simply afraid to drive it. You see, the front wheels wobble while we roll, and riding in there is rather like sitting on a drunken, trotting pony. Not to mention that now a clunking noise accompanies every single wobble. I had Michael check it yesterday to be sure, and you should have seen his face when he got back in the car.

We are down to our last 20 dollars after I buy gas today and pay the phone bill. And the power bill is coming due. It's going to be almost 300 dollars. Yikes! There is no money for repairs. None.

But the Lord has always provided for us when things were tight. And this has been no exception. The Lord moved someone to pay to have our car repaired. I get to take it in today, if any place is open on this holiday.

Ever since my husband left us it has been this way. When we can't make it, the Lord provides. He gives my husband the opportunity to do so, but when he does not, the Lord does it Himself, through our brothers and sisters in Christ who know our need and respond because of their love for Him. Every year I have to find a way to come up with property taxes, every year there has been, somehow, a miraculous way that they've been paid. Miracle may be too strong a word, but it was certainly obvious that the Lord moved someone to act on our behalf. How many times has someone quietly handed us gas money, or a gift card to the grocery store, and Christmas presents? Too many to count.

I cannot say Michael and I deserve to be cared for this way. We don't. But He cares for us anyway. There are others areas of our life that we have lost a lot in, and the Lord did not prevent it. All I can say is that I know He loves all those who love His Son. And He cares for us in the very best way. It's just we often don't agree that it's best at the time.

Our prayer is to somehow be a blessing to our Father and Yeshua, and be a blessing to all those around us.

The greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37

Love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind.

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

These two verses alone are enough to keep me busy reining in my sin nature 24 hours a day and, I hope, blessing my Creator and Father, who loves me.

Please take the time to watch the video below.

May you be richly blessed today, in exactly the way the Lord knows is best for you.

~Faith



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Sunny Morning Chores with Beet Pulp.

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My citrus grove, happily enjoying a new flush of growth, due to some fertilizer.





I am just enjoying the light. Forward lighting can take a back seat today.





Thaw is in full force. Not real warm yet, but the sunlight is hard at work.





Is there any breakfast today?





Why yes, as a matter of fact. There is!





Beet pulp!





Stirring up in some warm water. Don't want to take any chances, even though the information of dry versus wet is still a bit conflicting.





Oh, yes. Warm, sweet, tasty, healthy, fibrous, metabolism-boosting, lovingly prepared beet pulp. Just for you!





Breakfast is served!





Is this for me? You are too kind!





This is new. What is it? Mom, come on over and try this.





What is this slop?





Maybe this one is better.





Nope, same stuff. I don't like it, do you like it?





Maybe the 20 dollar a bale stuff will come on the next delivery. We're not eating this!





Tune in next time for "As the Stomach Takes Turns" when the ruminants arrive and happily enjoy this same meal four times as much.

I'll trade two horses for a Dexter cow! Any takers?

~Faith

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Old Stuff

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Some things that were my grandmother's.

Circa 1970s





Circa..... ?





The containers are metal.

Now you get to see the tops. I'm not going to clean the dust off of them. That could very well be the dust my grandmother swept off her porch while drinking her tree-ripened lemonade on a beautiful sunny June morning! That, and the fact that I tried cleaning the dust off once before and it didn't work. I was afraid to scrub to the point of damaging them.





And her old bread box.





Air vents in the back as I lift the hinged lid.





I keep my cookie cutters in there.





Wishing I had better photos up there. Those are about 10 years old.





Someone is watching Mythbusters, who are testing to see if you can escape the state pen with antacids.





You never know when that is going to be a necessary bit of knowledge.

~Faith

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I Miss Two Things At This Moment.

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Time to do this, and mild enough weather to do this.





This was taken in January of 2007. Michael and I were focusing on sports that home school year. We played tennis, every sort of _______ball you could think of, swimming, skating, and pretty much everything.

I'm so grateful for that last year before my DH left us. It was a fantastic year for Michael, to be able to experience those things before we no longer were able to do so.

My folks even came a long a couple of times, and that made it extra special.





But four years later...

We are hibernating as much as our garden beds!





Not a lot to blog about beyond that. I've been working really hard on learning computer things. I am reminded at just how near to being brain dead I am. Michael has been working on school and is the brains of the family.

I'm getting really good at driving on ice. That will be helpful in the coming ice age, um brought on by global warming?

Life is good
and cold.

From the woolly mammoth den,

~Faith

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A Photo Montage

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For 2011, I've decided to look at the world in a whole new way.





Maybe not. I can see the plates go flying on the way to the dining room.

On Shabbat the sunlight hit the greenery we have still not put away, intensifying the colors. The lovely golden hue that was there was lost however.





Michael, testing and finding the roads still providing the perfect skating medium for shoes. Not so good, though, for driving to rehearsals and office cleanings. We went anyhow, very carefully, but there were many wrecks all over town, including in front of us.





I had dug up our pepper plants to save for next year. They lost all their leaves, but had grown lots of new ones. We took them out on days above freezing, and brought them in before frost hit. Until one night we got home too late. I'm hoping they'll come back.





Brrrrrrr.





The horses were shivering, poor things.





A snow angel from the day before.





Photographing used children's clothing for ebay is using up a lot of my time. I can see this is a poor return on my time, but I am grateful for any income at this point. Now, if I can just figure out how to get them up and selling.





Michael is still getting used to the fact that these are indeed, man shoes.





And yesterday, after foraging food for the horses from where ever we could scavenge it from, making snow angels, and having a snowball fight. We did a little outdoor work, planting grass seed.





I'm told that during snow is the best time to broadcast seed. You can not only see where and how much you've strewn, but as the snow melts, it pulls the seeds into solid contact with earth, and next spring it should do very well. This is Kentucky 31 blend, only good for the sunny side of the house.





I hope this old seed is still viable. We've tried to thicken up this grass for years, and it doesn't like to grow. I'm thinking something tall, thick and lush would be mighty fine. Except for mowing. OK, a modification; thick, lush and green. And bad bug repellent. And....

Slap!

Realistically, the days are getting longer. And we have passed the official date where the northern hemisphere begins to gradually warm up its average temperature. Hold on, any faint of heart, we are on the upswing!





There's no place like Figi. There's no place like Fiji. There's no place like Fiji.

~Faith

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She's BACK!

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My beloved camera!





Thank you, so much, dear blog friend who provided the funds to repair my camera! Such generosity overwhelms me.

I am greatly looking forward to begin blogging more in earnest again. Things are quite busy, and only going to get busier as spring approaches. Spring is probably going to be coming on this year like a whispery little butterfly, battered about by icy chunks of air, but it will come eventually.

In the mean time, here is what a portion of our schedule looks like this month. See all those highlighted circles?



Those are merely the continued rehearsals, classes, and set work for the ballet Michael is in. As you can see, we are doing a lot of running around. But that's another wonderful thing about home schooling; all the really cool learning experiences you get to share together as a family, and with friends.

So, dear friends, thank you for hanging around and cheering me on, despite being without my precious picture box now for three months. It felt like a lifetime.

I'm photographing items to sell on eBay today, what a chore! But a nice way to spend all this indoor time.

Busily working,

~Faith

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