Update time!

So we are in our new house!!! We have been here since August! I am loving it. I love that I have awesome neighbors, I can check the mail, we can take walks, and wait for it......... I GET THE BARGAIN HUNTER AGAIN!!! Whooohoo!! Ah, the little things in life are the best. :)

Alexis started school in August. It was really hard to work in this year, because of the move. But we are back in the swing of things.

I have decided the Brook will go to Nashville next year. I know I have been back and forth with this over and over but, I think the best thing will be for her to get the schooling feel. :) She will never fully appreciate home schooling if she never goes to public school right? Yeah, that is what I thought. ;)

Bella is over 50lbs now. She is huge!!! We got her fixed back in July, she had some minor complications (her incision came back open and her lining was falling out!) But Mary got her all better again. Her ears never did stand up. When she gets really excited about something they one will but that is it. Oh well, I love her just the way she is.

I sold 119 chickens at the beginning of September. :( I had too, I just had too many and could not sell the eggs. If I can't sell the eggs, then I have no money to get chicken food, no money to get food, my chickens go hungry, and well that is just sad! So to the auction they went. I am much happier now that I only have 32 birds. Makes feeding and watering much faster. :)

Fall is here, and I hate it. :( I do not like the cold weather, falling leaves, dying flowers, it is all so sad to me. I want the HOT weather again. Sigh....I wish it was May 5th not October 5th. Oh well, I guess I will get to have a fire the fire place. That is one thing that I can't have in the summer.

This year for Halloween, Alexis will be a geisha girl. Brook a carebear. We get to dress up for Micheal's birthday party this year. Not sure what I will be. Any suggestions? Let me know if you do. ;)

Blessings,
Chareia :)

It's all about Love!

I am writing this for myself as a reference to go back to. Of course you are all welcome to use it as well. ;) We are starting a series at Church called 40 days of Love. I am for the first time joining a small group. I am excited for this to start next Monday night. :) This sermon today was a preview for next week I took notes (I usually do not) and really want to keep these around. What better place than my blog? Enjoy!

It's All About Love

"Let love be your greatest aim" 1 Cor 14:1 (LB)

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all you mind, and all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. There are no commands more important than these." Mark 12:30-31 (NCV)

"Everything you do must be done with love" 1 Cor 16:14 (NLT)

The Basics of Love


We love because God loves us.
"Love comes from God.......for God is love" 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)
"We love because God first loved us" 1 John 4:19 (NIV)
"We know and rely on the love Gad has for us" 1 John 4:16 (NIV)

Love is a choice and a commitment.
"Choose to love the Lord your God.....and commit yourself to him" Deu 30:20 (NLT)

Love is an action not an emotion!
"Let us not love with words or tongue but with the actions and truth" 1 John 3:18 (NIV)
We know this because God commands us to love. You can not command an emotion. But you can command an action!

Love it a skill I can learn.
"Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and they are getting to know him better" 1 John 4:7 (LB)

"Practice these things and devote yourself to them, in order that your progress may be seen by all" 1 Tim 4:15 (TEV)

Love is a habit.
"Continue to love each other with true Christian love" Heb 13:1 (NLT)

"If you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" Luke 6:32 (NIV)

"Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular check-ups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. 2 Cor 13:5 (Mes)

We say we "love" lots of things. Love it thrown around too much.
Lust can not wait to get
Love can not wait to give

Hurt people hurt people. Just a fact if we hurt then we want others to hurt too.

Love can not be forced.

Jesus: "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love to one another" John 13:35 (KJV)

How to become Great at your Relationship

1. Commit to Grow
2. Learn how Jesus did it
3. Practice the Skills
4. Develop Habits
5. Trust God to Help

"This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more, and that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love" Phil 1:9 (NCV)

OMGoodness........we bought a house!

Friday May 29th, 2009 we accepted the offer on the house in Big Prairie! I am very excited about this, and now very stressed. I started packing this week. I am not sure where all of this crap came from (I am sure Lucas would say me!) or what I am going to do with it all! The new house is way smaller than our house now. I am sure I will be calling in all of my friends for some major moving help!! We signed the 25 page contract on Tuesday. We were suppose to sign the loan papers last night but, well that is a different story! So the date is set to close on July 15th! I am praying like crazy that we are in there by the 15th or sooner!

Bella is growing like a weed. She has tripled her size since we have gotten her. As for now she is still inside, Lucas is still fighting me over this. I want her to stay close to us. If she goes out I am afraid that she will not be as close to me. :( I want her to be a good dog like Shadow. If she is outside why would she have any reason to listen to me? So I am still fighting for her to stay in the house! When we get to the new house she can stay in the basement. :) (Yeah right! Like she will stay down!)

I have enrolled Alexis in the 2nd grade through the OHVA! I think I will send Brook to Nashville for Kindergarten! I am so up and down about it. Since we are moving I will not have the fear of the neighbors like I do here. I think she will do much better for me if she gets to go to public school for at least one year. :)

I am so thankful for answered prayers. I have prayed for six....yes six years about the situation with the neighbors. Now God has provided a solution......a new house! I can not wait to be able to check the mail with out having fear of something happening to my children. Or the pure enjoyment of having the bargain hunter being delivered to my box and not getting stolen. :) Or being able to walk in the driveway and not have a psycho scream at you. :D Ah the joys of not having to share a driveway!!!! :D

Rachel moved to Washington, D C she now only 9-10 hours from us!! The Florida house is up for sale. I pray that is gets sold fast. I am hoping Rach gets to come home for Lucas' birthday! The girls would be so happy to see her! And me too!!! :D

Well, that is the update for now. Moving, Bella getting bigger, and Rachel moving to DC!
Have a blessed day!
~Chareia~ :)

We got a puppy!!!!

OK So I am super excited here!!!! First things first.....

ALEXIS FINISHED SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!
She finished on Thursday April 23rd, 2009! I am so proud of her! She worked so hard. :D
We are really enjoying our summer vacation. Since Friday the temps have been in the 80's!!!! Since we finished school on Thursday we were off on Friday. Well there was a chicken swap in Farmerstown. We went to enjoy our first day of summer break! And that is when we found her.........


Beautiful Isabella Joy!!!
She is 6 weeks old. Friday was her first day away from her mama. She is a wonderful puppy. She is so sweet and of course very cute. She is a mixed breed. :) Her mother is a German Shepard and her dad is a Wolf! So she is a wolfdog. ;) Right now she is inside but Lucas does not want her to stay in the house. He wants her out by next week. :( I want her to stay inside with us! But that is in God's hands. I know I wont convince him.

Also, on Saturday we went mushroom hunting for the first time this year. I did very good!!!!
i found 18 mushrooms!!!!!!!!! And they were all gray sponge!!! We ate them for breakfast Sunday morning! Then Sunday afternoon I went back out and found 11 more!!!! These were the other kind. I like to call them the brown ones. ;) So anyways. We are doing great and having a wonderful summer break so far!!!!!

I will post more later. Have a blessed day!!!
~Chareia~

Almost done :)

Great news!!!! We are almost done with school!!! WHOOOHOO!!!!! Alexis has finished all subjects but Phonics. She has 21 lessons left to do. We will be done with school this week! I am so excited!!! It really has been an experience. I am still not sure what to do about Brook. I just don't know. I guess if we still live here then I will home school. If we live else where then maybe I will send her to Kindergarten. Only time will tell.

We had looked at a house in Big Prairie. I liked it a lot. Lucas thought it was ok. We offered 3 different prices and they denied all 3. :( Lucas really wants to get land. I would not mind that. I would want enough to have the farm credit. Again..........time will tell. ;)

I have been doing great in selling eggs. :D I hatched out 72 sex linked and 58 buff orps for Moore's Lawn and Garden on the 12th of April. 130 chicks......not too shabby!!! That was my biggest hatch so far. I have not been in at Moore's since the 16th. I am not sure how the selling is going. I have prayed and prayed that they would sell out! I now have me some eggs in the bator. :D My first set of Spitz eggs and brabanter eggs!!!! I also have faverolles, BLRW, penedesencas, B/B/S Orps, and marans!!! What a great set of eggs. I can't wait till the swaps!!! I am so ready to visit my swapping buddies! And to have some nice warm weather. ;)

Well, I need to get back to work. I will try and update more often.
God Bless,
Chareia :)

-10 degrees, Stinking Cold!!!!

Goodness, today is so cold (by cold I mean -10 degrees!) that all the local school are canceled! I heard on the news that the wind chill is -30! That is nuts. You can get frost bite within minutes. I have put petroleum jelly on my roosters combs and wattles to help with them not getting nipped. (Some already had it) They all seemed fine with it except for Mr. Kellogg. He was rather upset with me for slathering a huge junk of jelly on his comb and wattles. He screamed and kicked and tried to peck me. (He did not win. ;) I did!) He will thank me for it later, probably around summer or so. LOL XD

We are ending the first semester in school today. Lex has already taken her semester test in math, I would say about a month ago. We are very close to doing the phonics test. Yesterday we had an easy day. WH did not have school so I decided to let her have an easy day. She really enjoyed it! We would work for about a half an hour then I would let her play for a half an hour.

Things seem to be going good. The economy may be down but Lucas is staying really busy with his work! We are going out to eat tomorrow with one of the guys from his work. I would like to go to Red Lobster, but we will probably get Mexican! LOL

I have been reading, or listening rather to books on CD. I started the Outlander series! It is such a wonderful series. The 1st book was 10 discs long, the 2nd was 9 discs long, the 3rd was 36 discs long!!!!! Each disc is just about an hour long!!!! Now the next book is only 5 discs! Crazy to go from a 36 disc to a 5 disc! Anyways there are still 3 more and the author (Diana Gabaldon) is in the process of writing another one!! She said that she has planned to release it in 2010. So I have to wait for an entire year to read it. I was on Diana's website and found that she has a jeweler that makes the ring that is in the very first book. I thought that the ring was beautiful. I told mom about it and she ordered it for me!! I about passed out. I can not wait to get it!!!! :D She said Happy Mother's Day....a little early! LOL :) I am really thankful for her getting it for me.

Well, I need to feed the chickens and get school started. I need to get into town here sometime. Maybe I should wait till it warms up. ;) You know till it is up to zero! XD Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Chareia :)