Part 2: That moment when...

My last post talked about that moment when you know you should do something, but you really aren't feeling it and would rather do anything and everything else, which usually means you should do it all that much more? That's where I was on Saturday.

This weekend was different in that Ben was out of town. He went camping with two of his college friends, so I decided to not make a lot of plans, but instead to have a weekend retreat with the Lord by myself. It was wonderful.

Saturday was a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l day. I kept feeling like I wanted to go run, but the longer I waited the more I kept procrastinating to not have to. It's crazy because I LOVE running! I feel like it is such a breath of fresh air to my soul when I get to go, because lately it hasn't been often. Then I felt like the Lord was poking at me to go. I waited until I could either leave then and go, or miss my chance because of something I had going on that night. Part of it was that it had been so long (a week, but it feels long when you're used to going almost every day!), I was wondering if it was even worth going.

But, I felt the Lord's gentle poking at my heart. And I decided to give it a go. I decided to trust Him, that maybe because my flesh so didn't want to go, it meant my spirit needed it all the more. And it was joyous. The Lord knew that would be just what I needed and some sweet time shared with Him. I know there's a lot of times I would have busied myself with other things, but I was .so.thankful. for the time. Crazy how something so little, something so everyday grew my faith. He ALWAYS knows what is best; He has NEVER let me down.

That moment when...

you really don't feel like doing something, which means you should do it all the more? Like maybe the Holy Spirit is poking at you, ever so nicely of course. That's where I'm at right now. I have been doing everything to avoid doing that one thing, oh for the past hour or so. And the crazy thing is, I thoroughly enjoy the thing! So I'm going to go do it by faith, trusting that it will be GOOD. More to come later ...

Pinterest Muffins

I am a BIG fan of Pinterest. For pretty much everything, but especially for recipes. I like that I don't have to bookmark or print out all of the new and delicious-looking recipes that I want to try and may never end up making.

Anywho, when we have people coming to stay with us, I like to have as much done ahead of time meal-wise as possible. I like easy, healthy, and fast. SO! When I stumbled upon this recipe, I knew I had to give it a whirl. It's SUPER simple and you even mix it all in a blender, which makes it way easy to pour into the muffin pan!

So here it is, originally from http://travisjessjones.blogspot.com/2012/03/banana-oatmeal-muffins.html.[Check out her site, she's cute!]

Ingredients:

-1 Cup of plain, low fat, Greek yogurt
-2 Eggs
-3/4 Cup Sugar or sweetener of choice
-2 Bananas
-1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
-1/2 tsp Baking soda
-2 1/2 Cups of Oats (the old-fashioned kind)

*After I made these the first time, I decided to switch it up a bit!
Yogurt: I have used both Greek yogurt and regular at different times, and there hasn't seemed to be a difference!
Sweetener: I also have used honey instead of sugar and they were still great!
Bananas: Instead of two bananas, I put in one banana and some blueberries! The blueberries were a bit overwhelming, but they were still good. I think they're prettier than the plain ones :)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Put all of the ingredients in the blender and blend until oats are smooth. Put the oats in very last!

3. Pour the batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
4. Enjoy! [Yields 12-14 muffins]

*Side note: The second time I made these, I made two batches in a row. The second batch came out a little darker on the sides, not sure why, but thought maybe it was because of the temperature of the pan, since I didn't let it cool between batches... Not sure!

city girl . turned . country

A lot has changed since I've stopped posting on our blog. One major change: I am now a farmer. Yup, f-a-r-m-e-r. Not so much with crops, and definitely on the small side, but yeah, like Old MacDonald.

Ben's always been a farmer at heart, and had a lot of experience growing up with one of his friends who had cows and pigs. He even showed some of the animals at fairs. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, the only time I ever experienced farm animals was when we visited my family in Kentucky or when we worked on a farm as part of a missions trip, but even then we didn't do much as far as the animals went. So this has been quite the adventure for me! Ben, on the other hand, has just come alive with it all. BUT, we have both learned a lot!

At first, it was just quite a few chickens.

Chicks, actually. (They are full grown in the picture). They were cute and fluffy and oh so tiny! Black, white, and yellow/red. We had some that are bread for meat, and some that are good egg layers. At this point, I didn't necessarily feel like a farmer. Most anyone can have chickens.

Then, we got Sunny and Payday. The pigs.

They are brothers. They were little and slept a lot, and to my surprise, they really didn't smell! Pigs are actually some of the cleanest animals. They are very careful of where they go to the bathroom, and only roll around in mud because they cannot sweat so it cools them off! Their pen was behind our garage, so beyond going to visit them, you couldn't even tell they were there. After the pigs, I felt a little more legitimate, not just anyone can have pigs on their property!

But what truly sealed the deal, what made it very clear that I was a farmer, was when I found myself waking up at 5am, in the dark, before work, putting on my boots, bundling up, grabbing a pail, and for the first time milking one of our animals. The moment I walked outside was when it hit me. There was no doubt in my mind: we are farmers with a capital F.

Our property isn't big enough to sustain a cow because of how much grass they eat, so the answer to getting our own milk and making our own cheese was goats! Nigerian dwarf goats actually. They need a lot less grass but give out a lot of milk for how little they are. We started out with Dolly,

but have since added Africa, Gus, and Miss Boss.

Thankfully, though, we have gotten better and learned a lot, and there are no more 5am morning milkings at our house :)

So, this farming thing, it's our new adventure. And, it's definitely growing on me.

never early, never late. just perfect.

His timing is perfect. It is never early, never late. Always just right on time.

Indiana's winter had slim-to-no snow, and this summer we have been declared a disaster area because of the intense drought we're facing. It has been a crazy year for us, owning a company that relies on income from plowing (needing snow) and mowing (needing rain) to supply our income to pay bills, buy groceries, etc.
As August rolled around we had a pretty big bill we were facing. We had an extension for it from April, hoping that since there wasn't much snow, maybe summer would leave us in a better place financially. It hadn't. We had some money in savings, but it wasn't close to what we needed.
We chose (sometimes over and over) faith; to believe that our Father would take care of us. He promises to take care of His children, that we should not be concerned or worried with circumstances or people or ANYTHING.
He's got it. He's never in heaven pacing the clouds, biting His nails, wondering what to do next or unsure of what is coming. He's got this, with his feet kicked up. And He loves us. The One who created this world, created each of us, and He loves us!
As August wore on, we couldn't see how this would all come together. There weren't pieces that we could pull together ourselves. The only option seemed to be that we would have to put it on a credit card. But we have been working SO hard at getting out of debt?! Could this really be what the Lord had planned?! But as the due date drew nearer, things started coming together in a way that only He could make it happen...

A $100 bill in the mail. No name, no signature, nothing hand-written that we could recognize from someone we knew. Could have been sent right from Heaven :) This was just the kick-off.

Ben got a part-time job. Randomly stumbled upon it on Craigslist. 3 days a week, GREAT pay. Super cool boss. Well guess what? He ended up working there 5 days a week for the first month.

I was scheduled to get paid 5 times in August.

It STORMED! It rained and rained and the wind was crazy and trees were blown over in yards of Ben's customers. Tree removal jobs are some of the highest paying jobs in landscaping! AND because of the rain, mowing was back on a mostly normal scheduled. It's been like spring around here again!

Premier - I sell Premier Designs jewelry. For whatever reason, Ben decided to look at my account. There was $200 randomly in my account!

We got a "reminder" of our bill, the due date had changed to two days later (a Friday that I got paid!), and was $50 less than the original bill. What?!

On and on, bits and pieces came together, and we overnighted the check and had enough money to pay what we needed to. Our Amazing Father brought it together right.on.time. I felt so blessed, so taken care of. This was a HUGE deal for us.
Sometimes faith is moving ahead where God wants us to go, sometimes faith is waiting on Him. We chose faith and were able to live at peace with whatever happened come August. And we waited. We were able to let it be at the feet of Jesus and watch Him faithfully take care of our needs without scrambling and worrying. He VERY practially met us where we were and grew our faith so amazingly. What a gift!

It's been a while..

So to say it's been a while, would probably be an understatement. A lot has happened since I last posted in April 2011... I've been debating on returning to the blogging world. So we'll see. Hopefully I'll be back with more pictures and things to share.