Days and Days

My Loving Cousin brought it to my attention that I have been neglecting my Blog, thereby neglecting you! The email that I got this morning started with, "Are you dead?" LOL

Well I'm not dead! Maybe one day closer, but not gone yet =) I have been very busy here on the farm, cleaning, tearing down old, saggy fences, brushing the shedding horse, cleaning up the piles and piles of manure that accumulated all winter. Now I need to clean out my chicken house, clean up more manure, plant a little garden (since we aren't sure how long we'll be here on the farm, we might as well settle in for the summer and that includes some planting!) I need to do some major spring cleaning. Then the farm will be ready for people to come look! Hopefully they show up in HOARDS!! Maybe so many people will want it, there will be a bidding war and we'll get twice the asking price!

Okay, so I live in my own little "Mindy" world. It's really nice here, always sunny and warm, I have lots of chocolate, frappes and cookies, and I NEVER gain a pound! Yep, it's pretty nice here in Mindy World. Stop by anytime! I always enjoy company =)

Thank You!

The people that came to look at our place liked it. They are just starting their search for their new home however. With this being a buyers market I doubt that they will buy our place, but at least someone came and looked! Thanks so much for your prayers and good thoughts. We really appreciate it!

Through all this, I knew that I was going to have to sell all my horses and livestock. Everything has sold or been re-homed except for my chickies and my Andalusian horse, Destino. We haven't had much interest in him, and everyone wants him for next to nothing. So with Hubby's blessing we have decided to go ahead and keep him. We will have him gelded in the coming weeks and then if we end up having to board him out, if our place sells, God willing, it will be more affordable to do so. I am very happy and very excited about this. He is my absolute DREAM horse and I've had a hard time letting him go. The fact that I don't have to now is a blessing in itself!

I thought I would share a picture of him with his bridle on. He will be a two year old in June and his 'official' training starts now!


Here he is with my youngest. It was drizzling out and Logan 'needed' his umbrella. I think Destino would have liked to have it as well as he HATES the rain =)

Prayer Request

We are in need of some prayer today and tomorrow. FINALLY someone wants to see our house! I'm so excited and nervous. I know it's the first showing, and it's not likely that the first people to look will actually buy, but I also know that prayers NEVER hurt.

Please pray that the people like our place and please pray that this is just the first of many showings, to these same people, or new ones!!

Thank you so much =)

Writing, writing, writing...

Today has been a quiet day, just me and the computer. I have been in a writing fog for most of afternoon. It seems like I just sat down to work on my book and already 3 hours have gone by! I guess the old saying, "Time flies when you're having fun" is really true! I have really enjoyed getting back into my novel and re-learning about Jo. She is such a fun-loving character with a dry sense of humor and a definite dream.

Even Angus has dreams and goals...

He is just certain that he can open this and get Ben's bug out...

If only he could get the lid off!

It reminds me that we all need to dream. If we stop dreaming we stop living. Having dreams and goals is very important in our day to day life. Sometimes dreaming is the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. I feel driven to get up and get on with it! There is work to be done, if the dreams and goals that I have are going to be met!

What is one of your big dreams?

Quiet

My youngest had a temperature at school yesterday, so I kept him home today. He is such a sweet little guy. All morning it has been so quiet, you could hear a pin drop, or the whisper of an angels wings.

I'm sure we had some angels hanging around, it was just so peaceful. Logan was busy drawing and writing his "book" and I was reading. I love mornings like these. They fill me up and help me through the rest of the day.

Thursday

I took this picture this morning while the boys were eating breakfast. It's a jar of raw and natural honey. Isn't it beautiful?? And taste!! WOW it's soooo good.

Eating healthy is something that we take seriously here at Ladybug Farm. We eat natural and organic whenever we can. We NEVER eat fast food, we don't drink pop, or allow our kids to, I make our bread, we eat eggs from our own chickies, we don't eat meat. The list could go on and on. We feel it's very important to eat as healthy as we can afford to. And eating healthy tops our list of things to do, budget wise. Also there is just something wonderful about eating food grown locally, that you KNOW isn't covered with pesticides. There isn't anything better than a freshly picked tomato.

My Favorite Things Swap!

I got it! I got it! I'm jumping for joy, inside, because I'm still sick, coughing, runny nose, aching lungs... you get the picture... BUT I got it!!

I got My Favorite Things from my new friend Catrina over at Thoughts From the Fire. I am so excited! Let's see what's in the box, shall we??

Ooooh what a pretty box! I'm thrilled with it already!

Oh man!!

Holy Moly look at all those favorite things! Let's dig it...

A drawstring backpack! Just what I need! Thank you Catrina!!

Music! I LOVE music and I LOVE hearing new Christian bands. I can't wait to give it a listen...

Movies! I LOVE movies! We have over 200 movies, but we don't have this one, and it's always been a favorite of mine ;) In fact I took it out, unwrapped it and it's playing as I type! Thank you!

Candles! I love candles! I haven't had PartyLite candles in FOREVER! My cousin used to sell these and I really enjoyed burning them. I can't wait to smell them.

I haven't EVER had Milk Duds! I opened them and tried them and YUM! Chocolate and caramel what's NOT to like!?

I'll have to give this kind a try. I've never tried this brand, maybe I'll be able to wear it!

I haven't ever read these books and can't WAIT to get started. It's so EXCITING to have a new book to read!

I LOVE this book. It's so funny because I almost sent you a copy of it as well! LOL Wouldn't that have been funny!!

Ooooh I LOVE lip gloss and I've never tried this kind. Yummmy...

And you even thought of my little Angus! How sweet! He is so excited. He was nosing around helping me take stuff out. He must have smelled these ;)

This has been sooo much fun Catrina! I really enjoyed it. Having a package today was JUST the thing I needed. I wasn't having such a good day today, but it surely has brightened up!! A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to you!!

Pfshhhhht

Darn it. I missed yesterday's walk down memory lane.

I had to go to the clinic, to find out that I have pneumonia, again. I HATE pneumonia. It makes me feel so tired and weak. I also have an ear infection that is wreaking havic and making me feel very dizzy. Fun.

Sorry to be such a whiner. I am just SO sick of being SICK! It seems like every couple of months I'm coming down with something. It has GOT TO STOP!!

Phew! I feel a little better now. Sometimes ranting really does help ;)

10 Things I Like About Me

Again, I missed Monday! I was feeling pretty sick yesterday. I'm so sorry! But I'm here today and ready to play!

Here is how it works;

1) I will start us off with a list of 10 things that I like about me.
2) Then I want YOU to write 10 things that YOU like about YOU, and post them in My Comments.
3) Then, I take all the people that play, put their names in a hat and my boys draw a winner! I'll post the lucky winner on my blog, the first Monday of NEXT month. Yes! You get a PRIZE for telling me 10 things you like about you!!

10 Things I Like About Me:

1) I like my curvaceous body =) (No really I DO!)
2) I like my sense of humor.
3) I love my family!
4) I like my eyes, they are brown with gold flecks in them.
5) I like my taste in clothing.
6) I like my love for books and learning.
7) I like my ability to type REALLY fast!
8) I like my imagination.
9) I like my legs.
10) I like that I'm a fun person to be around.

Whew! I made it through!

Now it's your turn =)

*********************

Announcing the winner from last month! I only had two players, Annie and Lori. Thank you girls for playing! I put your names in the hat and the winner is.......


Lori!!

Congratulations to you!!

And here is what you've won...

A journal! Hand covered by ME =) I hope you like it! Please email me your address, AGAIN, I wrote it down, but I don't remember where... sigh. Thanks so much for playing!!

Lookie what I made!!

I am so proud of myself. It is well known in my family that I CAN NOT sew. I have tried and tried in the past. Both my Mom and my Step Mom have tried to teach me... numerous times, but usually I just make a mess!

The sewing machine somehow manages to get away from me and stitch things that aren't supposed to be stitched. I stick and poke myself with the pins, pin things together that don't go together and on and on and on...

BUT suddenly I CAN SEW! I took on this little handbag first, just for fun. I have been knitting for a few years and enjoy designing my own things, like sweaters for my little dog, scarves, washclothes, pretty easy stuff... so I thought "I can design a little hand bag and I'll just sew it by hand!" And I DID it! I am so proud of myself right now, I just had to share =)

This is the front of the little hand bag. I used brown felt for the outside with raspberry embroidery floss to sew it all together. I lined it with a pretty bright blue felt.

Here is a picture of the inside. There is a pocket on each side...

I made this little applique out of other felt and the center of the flower is a button. The handles are just foot long dowels! I think it's so cute and it works well too! I plan on painting the dowels brown to match and then it will be finished!

So after that, I thought I was pretty impressive. I moved onto a drawstring back pack. I've been needing one for when I go on walks and bike rides with the boys, but they are so expensive! I looked one over at the store the other day and thought it couldn't be too hard. Well it wasn't exactly easy, but I did manage it!! Again, no pattern, I just looked at the draw string back pack that my boys have and figured it out as best I could. I had to make up a few things, but it WORKS! I am so excited!!

It's a linen fabric, double up to make it a little stronger. I embroidered the flowers onto the front by hand, then sewed it all up, by hand =)


It's not white, but a nice off white. The cording is natural cotton clothesline cord that I had in the closet! (This is all stuff I had around the house, I didn't have to go buy anything except an embroidery hoop.)


So there you go! I DID it! I have all kinds of ideas in my head now. I can barely cut up t-shirts fast enough to provide myself with fabric! I found an idea in a magazine on how to make grocery bags out of used t-shirts. I've sewed up a few, it would go faster with a sewing machine, but I enjoy doing it by hand.

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

"The North Wind and the Sun"

The North Wind and the Sun had an argument one day. They disputed which of them was the stronger. A traveler came along the road at that time, and the Sun suggested a way to resolve the argument. Whoever was able to cause the traveler to remove his coat would be the stronger. The Wind accepted the challenge and the Sun hid himself behind a cloud. The Wind began to blow. Yet the harder he blew, the more the traveler clutched his coat about himself. The Wind sent rain, even hail. The traveler clung even more desperately to his coat. Finally, in despair, the Wind gave up. The Sun came out and began to shine in all his glory upon the traveler. Quite soon the man had removed his coat. "How did you do that?" asked the Wind. "It was easy," said the Sun, "I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way."

Aesops Fables

When I was a young gal I used to go up to a ranch outside of Livingston, on the Bridger Mountain side, and participate in a Natural Horsemanship Clinic. I was the youngest to participate, at the age of 11.

I continued to participate through High School, they had it annually, I learned a lot from the clinician, Bill Smith, and had a great time with all the people. The clinic was 4 days long and every day was FUN!

When I turned 22 or 23 I bought my little Arabian mare. Her name was Abby. I trained her from the ground up, myself and thought it would be fun to take her to the clinic up at the ranch.

I had chosen to ride Abby English, instead of Western, she was a small mare and the English saddle look nice on her and she was such a wonderful mover, I wanted to use her for Dressage (this is a French word that means "to train"). Dressage is actually a precise way of training that teaches the horse to be supple and harmonize with it's rider. I LOVE it =)



Anyway, the people that come to this clinic are Cowboys and Cowgirls mostly. Or people that like to trail ride and desire to have a better relationship with their horses. They all had big western saddles on their horses. Most of them, including the clinician gave me a hard time about my little saddle. They ribbed me for all of the 4 days. On the last day we were taken into the big outdoor arena with a big bunch of cattle. They were steer ropin cattle and didn't much like us being in there. Our assignment was to go, cut a steer out of the bunch and take it all the way to the other end of the arena, away from the group. Everyone took their turn, they rode up, cut a steer from the group and tried to chase it up the arena. Working as a team with their horse, of course. No one managed to do it.

Then it was my turn. They all ribbed me, teasing and asking if I needed to put a different saddle on, one with a horn to hang onto. They teased and told me not to fall off, and hooted and hollered at me. I took it well I must say.

Abby hadn't ever seen a steer before. I took her slowly up to the group so she could get a good look. A white steer with black spots caught her eye. She headed directly for him. He stood his ground watching us. Abby walked right up to him, nuzzled him with her nose, then started to lick him! He stood there enjoying the attention. Then I turned Abby and started walking up the arena... and that steer followed us! He followed us all the way to the other end of the arena. And all because Abby made friends =) We didn't use force or try to scare the steer. She just gently went in and made friends.

I will always remember that. Oh! We shut them right up too. No one else teased me about not having a horn to hang onto the rest of the day =) Abby made quite an impression on that group of Cowboys and Cowgirls and on the steer!

All Things Bright and Beautiful,

All Thing Wise and Wonderful,

All Creatures Great and Small,


The Lord God Made Them All.

Bling

Angus has grown! He weighed 5.6 pounds just a few months ago. Yesterday I took him in again and he weighs 7.2 pounds! I had just told Hubby that his collar was too small and we needed to get another one. Then he was weighed and in fact he has grown!

So... he got a new collar. It's so cute. It's turquoise with BLING =) It's his first BLING.

And BLING gives me an excuse to do a photo op! So here ya go... I couldn't pick, so am posting a few of him. He is so photogenic =)

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

When I was 12 my Grandparents took me to China. It was at once, exciting and terrifying. We went to Hong Kong, and all over China. We flew in big jets and tiny little out board motor planes, the kind with the propellers on the wings. That one was thrilling to me! So loud that if the person next to you turned to say something, you could only see their mouth moving, but couldn't hear the words. We went to Thailand and Nepal. In Nepal there were TONS of red monkeys everywhere. They climbed around on the temples and followed you, hoping for a hand out. In Thailand we were in the city and there were men that drove these little three wheeled vehicles, whiping in and out of traffic at terrifying speeds. But to a 12 year old it was invigorating!

We climbed the Great Wall. I was 12 and could barely manage the "Women's Side" of the wall. At times you would be standing up straight and could darn near reach out in front of you and TOUCH the wall. The going was tough. We had a women with us, she was in her late 70's and her name was Myrtle. She climbed that wall like she was going on a Sunday stroll. Amazing. It was funny because to look at her you never would have guessed at her tenacity!

The "Woman's Side of the Great Wall." The "Man's Side" was amazingly steeper.

That is Myrtle there all the way to the right with her hand on the wall.

We were in the Tiananmen just before the great massacre. We signed autographs for the students. I remember they were so excited to be talking to "Free" Americans. They smiled HUGE smiles and were so talkative. Then the next day, they were dead. They showed it on the TV there. They showed some of the bodies still smoking. I remember my stomache rolled and I thought I would be sick. Coming from America, they don't show that kind of footage on our TV's, well they didn't used to anyway.

The Forbidden City. It's made all of wood, so was closed when we were there because of the demonstrations. This photo is looking out across Tiananmen Square.

The students were camped out in the Square. They had been living there for awhile. It didn't smell very good...

These were 'tents' they had made for shelters.

We rode Elephants. The man that handled our elephant was very attracted to my blonde hair. He allowed me to ride on the elephants neck, with my legs tucked in behind it's ears. If I squeezed too hard with one or the other leg, the elephant would do things, bow, nod it's head, turn. My Grandmother thought that he allowed me to sit up there so he could better see my hair. I had on short overalls and one of my straps kept slipping down my arm. He would gently reach forward and move the strap back up to my shoulder and then touch my hair. I got to feed the elephant bananas. You put the whole thing directly into their mouth!

We rode camels. At the Great Wall there was a double hump camel that we got to ride around. My Grandmother got stuck up there! She was wedged in between the humps (Mind you she is a little woman.) She was yelling "Jim! Jim!" to my Grandpa and he had to climb up there to get her down. I was standing on the ground laughing and laughing. As my Grandpa pulled her off, the camel opened it's mouth and let out a HUGE yawning groan. It was so funny!!

After the massacre, we had to be shuttled around under the cover of darkness because the Chinese people blamed Americans for the students death. Saying that if it wasn't for American's putting the idea of Freedom into their heads, the massacre would never have happened. If they saw us, riots would start. We were shot at, with real guns. We had to run from our vehicles to the hotels and they would take us to undisclosed airports at night, to fly us around.

I didn't know this at the time, but China had closed it's borders after the massacre. They were not allowing anyone in or out of their country. I hear that it was a terrifying time for my Mom and Dad back here in America. They didn't know if they would see us again. The president stepped in and got us out. And here I thought we were just having so much fun sneaking around that we decided to stay longer!

The best memory that I have of that time is when we were in a small village way out in the middle of nowhere. We had been to a tomb of an emporer and were now in this village to see an art gallery. I was bored, as were a few others in the tour and we headed back out to our bus. We were just standing around chatting, when we noticed that we had drawn quite a crowd. Many of the people in that village had never seen a white person and they were facinated. We figured that we weren't much to look at just standing around talking, so we gave them something to see... We did the Hokey Pokey! They LOVED it, clapping and trying to sing along. We even grabbed some of the elderly out of the crowd to do it with us. I will never forget that. It was amazing.

I also remember in Thailand, I think it was, we were at the airport and I saw one of the people from our group, hiding in a luggage rack, being wheeled out. I turned to my Grandmother and said something about it. She shushed me, then when we got back to the hotel she told me that he had been caught with drugs. They were smuggling him out of the country because if you where caught with drugs there you were executed. He was the second youngest of our group, probably 19 or 20. I was the youngest. I was astonished, as I thought these things only happened in the movies.

Typing about this keeps bringing up more and more memories! I will stop now as I never intended this to become a book. But maybe it should some day... I hope you enjoyed my little trip down Memory Lane!

Footsteps

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I enjoy reading blogs written by teenagers for Christ. I have also been reading other blogs about women for Christ. I revel in their words. I revel in their desire to follow in Christ's footsteps. I revel in their desire to be more Christ like in their daily behavior and the choices they make. It is so easy to read this and desire it. It is another thing entirely, to LIVE it.

How do you know that the daily choices that you make are what Christ is asking you to do? How do you know that the decisions that you make, big or small, are what Christ wants? This is something that I struggle with, daily. I want to follow him, walk in his footsteps, but how do I know that I am?

It is difficult raising a family in this uncertain world. We don't have a church as we haven't found one that suits us as a family. We talk about God and Jesus all the time in our household, I read Bible stories to my boys. They ask questions and we look up the answers in the Bible. I feel that belonging to a church is not a prerequisite to following in Christ's footsteps. Although I DO understand the idea of having a group of like minded people that are YOUR people. I do crave that sometimes. Then I head out into the Blogishere and find them here.

The women that I find online are so awe-inspiring and filled with Christ's love that I feel that I have my people here. Thank you to all the women that touch my life on a daily basis, either through my blog or through your own. Thank you to all those that I know through my blog and those that don't know me, or that I "stalk" their blogs. Thank you.

I will continue to walk in Christ's footsteps, knowing that if I have a misstep, he will welcome me back with open arms, a warm loving smile, and a twinkle in his eye.

Please Help!

I sat down to read a few blogs this morning and came across this... I Need A Kidney Now. It touched my heart and so I am putting it on my blog, hoping my friends will help spread the call for help. Maybe you know someone that knows someone that could help this beautiful couple. Please post a link to their web page on your blog and help communicate their need.

Thank you!!

Lost Tooth

Logan lost his first tooth!! Oh the excitement around here!! He has been waiting and waiting for this day... He was most proud because he didn't even cry. He then listed kids at school that told him they cried when they lost their teeth, and he witnessed his brother becoming a bit hysterical when he lost his first tooth. So he puffed his little chest out and repeatedly told us that he didn't even cry!

My baby is growing up....


The tooth fairy left him $5!! The first tooth is worth the most =)

Sigh... I wish I had some teeth to lose...

Great Prizes, Great Blog!!

Tara over at kidz is hosting a HUGE party next week and everyone is invited!! Please head on over to see her, read all about it and join in the fun! You REALLY don't want to miss this =)

The really big prizes are:

2nd Runner Up: $50 gift certificate to Zappos (A great online shoe store)
1st Runner Up: $100 gift certificate to IKEA
Grand Prize: $200 gift certificate to Target!!

Go check it out to see the other daily prizes... kidz!