Pray and Prepare!

So it's been way too long, but in the past few years life has changed.  We have moved almost 400 miles, changed jobs, churches, and in many ways lifestyle!  Life is good, because God is good!  I'll do my best to start updating this more often!

It recently made me laugh to realize that I might get a little carried away at times with my preparations...  You see we now have some goats (also known as a brush clearing crew).  I had the brilliant idea, that why not let them multiply!  So we borrowed a buck from a friend, and let him come have a 6 week stay out our place and "mingle with the lady goats..."  Fast forward almost 5 months, and these girls are due to start kidding in the next week or so.  

Now, as a veterinarian, I see the worst of everything.  I have seen deformities, problems with positioning of babies, babies that are way too big, does that get too weak to deliver the babies, etc. Forget the 99% of goats in the world that have babies on their own, out in the pasture in all kinds of conditions. I have mentally and emotionally prepared myself to not only not have any live kids, but also for all the does to die before or even during the birthing process.

I have a multitude of medicines, sleeves, obstetrical lube, a head snare, colostrum, milk replacer, feeding tubes, bottles and everything else I could think of prepared and ready to go!  All of this I felt needed to be at my home ready at a moments notice, when realistically, I live less than 15 minutes away from the fully furnished clinic where I work and could easily transport these girls in case of any emergency...

I had to have a heart-to-heart talk with myself this evening about being realistic and trusting that God can help my girls deliver their babies, like goat have been doing since the days of Adam.  Is there risk, sure, but nothing I can't handle.  After considering this, I told myself to sit back, and wait for things to happen!  I am really looking forward to getting my girls involved and letting them be part of the birthing process.  Honestly, they have seen a lot of calves pulled, and newborn puppies and kitten resuscitated after a c-section, but I am looking forward to them getting the front row seats!

Time management

I often have well-meaning friends or family members that criticize my choice to do certain time-consuming things - baking my own bread, planting a garden, building and painting things, tackling home improvement projects, etc. They have even suggested that our family is too committed to church. 

While I can understand their concerns about all the demands I have in my life, I really believe that how we spend time reflects our priorities. If I want to prepare preservative-free homemade food for my family because their health is a concern to me, then that is my priority. If I have more time available to do projects myself than I have money to pay someone to do them for me, then that is my priority. If I believe the warnings of Hebrews 10:25 about being faithful to the church and brethren, then that is my priority. 

Also, by the same token, there are many things I do not consider a priority, some of which might should be. I am striving to exercise more regularly and eat better so I can lose some weight. I am really working hard to read through my Bubble this year in it's entirety. In the past I always seem to fizzle out after a few months, I am over half way there now and keeping up momentum.  I wish I had more time to sew. When we first moved to the panhandle, learning to quilt helped me keep my sanity and I miss it dearly. However right now educating my children is my priority. 

My priorities are not fashion or high style. It has been over a year since I saw a hairdresser for a trim or cut. I haven't colored my hair since I was in high school, though I keep noticing more gray hairs appearing. 

I have not made a priority of developing a lot of deep friendships. This is not to say I don't have friends. I have a few ladies I keep in touch with or go to church with who I consider great friends, though we don't go many places together or really hang out. For the most part we are busy take care of kids (or parents), without a lot of time to go get a coke or shop together. However, we have a connection in Christ that transcends spending time together. Even if I haven't talked to them in weeks, we can pick up wherever our conversation left off. Rather, I choose to make my husband and children my priority. My husband is my best friend, and after 15 years of marriage, I feel like we have a great marriage. By making each other our priorities, rather than hanging out with buddies, we don't deal with a lot of jealousy, discontentment, or problems. I also believe our marriage will remain strong even after our children are grown and gone, because we haven't let their activities consume all of our time. 

I do believe that staying busy keeping my home and even working my job makes me prioritize and spend my time wisely, so I don't spend a lot of time watching TV or looking at Facebook (I don't even hav.e an account!). 

What does your time management say about your priorities?

Summer days...

Today was such a nice day! We finished all the school we needed for today and I got work done around the house. It got a little toasty this afternoon, but this evening was cool and breezy. We all went and splashed around in my mom-in-law's pool for a little while, then ate a late and light supper, after which I walked for a while longer. Finally I hit my 10,000 steps a day goal, so I came home for a shower and bed!  Hope tomorrow is as nice

Neat and orderly

Can anyone else identify with a silverware drawer that looks like this?  Kid's silverware taking over everything... Sorted silverware overflowing the compartments...

So I came across a pin the other day, and said, "I can do that!"  To see the original post, check it out on http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/house-and-home/diy-kitchen-utensil-drawer-organizer-easy-and-cheap.html.  I happened to be somewhere I had a homecenter nearby, so I headed over and picked up some wood and Loctite PowerGrabber. All it took was a few measurements to figure out how to. Best use the space, a few cuts with a miter saw, and voila!

A couple of the blocks are in the lowest compartment just as spacers and to hold pressure to bond the wood and glue. I'll take at least the one out in a few days. I also didn't bond all of the pieces. Here is what I made. 

If I decide to, later, I can reconfigure it somewhat to meet changing needs (someday we may not need all this kiddie silverware-what a sad day). 

I wish I could have built a whole new drawer (this one is no longer square, and the bottom has a big sag to it) with better slides (These don't work so smoothly), but this project was so easy and cheap, I'll gladly do it again if I ever do get around to taking care of those other issues. 

No egg noodles, no problem!

The cold weather made my family crave some good old fashioned chicken and noodle soup... But I didn't realize until we were already home from church that we didn't have any egg noodles. What's a mom to do, but throw together some eggs, flour, and salt and make her own!

I can say wih all certainty that these have no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Hope you are staying warm, wherever you are. 

Arctic front moving in....

Here are some fun pictures I took this afternoon as I was helping the hubby look for his lost phone. When I left, the temperature was 80 F (about 4:30), and when I got home at 5:30 it had dropped to 48F. By 7:00 PM, I believe it was down to 42F.

View looking to West. 

View looking to the East. 

Just before I drove into the front. Suddenly, visibility dropped significantly. 

Can you see the windmills?  At least part of them. 

This was a couple of hours later, but it made for a beautiful sky. 

Lost and damaged phones

How many ways can you destroy a phone?  Too many. My husband has run over phones with a vehicle. Dropped them in toilets, water tanks, etc. He has had horses step on them. He once out one in his pocket with a can of WD-40. It is not good for your phone. Once it was in his pocket and after some manure was "deposited" in his pocket as well (while combing out the horses tail - it was pretty loose), he forgot it was in there and ran a garden hose in the pocket to rinse everything. You know how that ended. We tried buying the toughest, most durable military grade phones - hoping they might survive him. He even destroyed a couple of those. 

We've always carried insurance on his phone, for obvious reasons.  It did lapse once, because they actually cancel you after your second claim in less than 12 months. We know that from experience.       

I'm sure you can understand my reluctance when he decided he wanted an iPhone. He managed to take great care of it for 8-9 months. I had tried to get him to let me install one of the apps to find his phone, but he didn't like the idea of me being able to see where he is every moment of the day (like I have time to worry about him that often). 

So in the spring of 2013, he was dragging calves in the "middle of nowhere" in the OK panhandle, when his phone went missing. We paced the ground, raked, and called the phone for hours looking for it in 3 different sets of pens, hoping he didn't lose it when they were gathering the cattle. When we didn't find it, I insisted he let me install and set up the find my iPhone and find friends apps. 

We found it in a pasture of cornstalks where he was tagging calves last spring. I found it for him from OK this summer when he lost it in a pen of calves. So you can imagine how excited I was when I got the message this afternoon, that my husband has lost his phone and I need to drop everything and run 

20 miles north of town to help him find it.  Luckily, I only had one appointment left and got another veterinarian to take care of it for me. Unfortunately, he was in an area with poor cell phone service, and it seemed that it wouldn't find it. It told me it was offline, location unavailable!  I suppose it somehow did finally post its whereabouts, because like 30 minutes later, it showed up and we were able to find it, but there were some tense moments in there. How often do you have to use irrigation circles and power poles as your landmarks.