For the past few months, our Wednesday nights have been spent in foster care training. Usually good friends watch the kiddos, graciously saving us a bit of moola as we sit in a hot room in hard chairs and listen to sad stories. My heart cries out every week for grace and mercy on the families and children affected.

A few of you have e-mailed me and asked me to tell more about our plans and kindly asking how things are going.

We have three classes left, which we are eagerly and joyfully counting down. We've been given an extra car seat and beautiful second crib and Sean has been busily working away at another bedroom, insulating and wiring while I plan and look forward to the decorating stage of things.

I would be lying if I didn't confess that these foster waters into which we prayerfully tread are slightly overwhelming. There is so much brokenness involved. Broken lives and broken system. As much as we can, we're preparing the kids to welcome another child into our home, knowing that we will be caring for them and welcoming them into our family for what will most likely be a short time, cushioning them as we can against the heartache that will involve.

And really, that is all that is going on with the foster/adoption pursuits. Around home, we are celebrating the end of lessons for the year, still doing lots of reading and learning but embracing that blissful relaxed summer mode. Summer is a short few months up here so we savor them while we can.

Laying tracks this week, hearts full of children growing, friends for dinner, flourishing garden, happy little lamb, waddling ducks and more hens in the henhouse. Rainy weather has led to sewing and reading and daydreaming about books for lessons this fall. The library shelf in the pantry is piled full of new favorites we're borrowing, some earmarked to be bought for a permanent place here in our home.

I've been enjoying a few online resources that I'd like to share. The Bible Podcast is brilliantly done. Our kids request it any time we're on a road trip and were thrilled when I downloaded a book onto my laptop to listen to during the day. Done by a composer, it includes beautiful music and song.

Via another blog that I can't pinpoint are these parenting seminars to listen to online. I've been wiping my counters and sweeping the floors and filling the dishwasher tonight with them, especially enjoying the ones for ages 6-10, challenged again as a Mama to target my children's hearts.

I hope your week is going well. Do you have any favorite online podcasts to listen to? Please share...

A lazy Memorial Day was just what we needed as a family.


Time to relax

soak in some sun


enjoy creation

listen to laughter. Bubbling, rippling, overflowing laughter.



Feel the warmth of the rocks,

explore covered bridge,

be thankful.

A Lamb in our Garage

So when your husband buys a few trailer loads of dismantled barn wood from a couple that's moving out of the area and they offer you something *free* in the deal - say yes. Yes! Yes! Yes!


That is how Barley came to live in our gargage. He is about a month old and I have no idea what kind of lamb he is other than the "sweet cute kind that will end up in my freezer come fall and hopefully donate some wool before then" kind.


He is still bottle fed and follows people around the yard baaaa-ing and baaaa-ing. We borrowed a calf bottle from our farmer friend and need to dock his tail next. So far though, he is amazingly easy to keep so perhaps there will be a few more lambs around here next year if this goes well.

Best way to worship

Home this morning with two little ones with colds who need extra sleep, groggy eyed myself at the breakfast table, wishing to be in church, I heard myself praying, "Lord, help each of us know how to best worship You today...." and immediately wondered where that came from.

After thinking on it for awhile, I believe the best way I can worship God this morning is caring for my worn out children, resting, and having a thankful, worshipful heart; content in the circumstances of the day.

How about you?

Guess what's in our garage.

Has your week been as busy and full as ours has? I went out early in the morning to walk just once, the dew soaking my feet, Bear trodding alongside me, her coat wet from the tall grasses.

The view - beautiful.

Watching the first of the days rays fall across the hills, lifting the haze from the valley floors is one of my favorite things.

The week filled itself up quickly. Foster class one night, insulating the boys new bedroom with fancy spray in insulation (necessary because of the thin walls and the wind whipping against that side of the house in winter, and wonderful because it has no odor),cutting out a 1950's gown to wear to my sister's wedding in a few weeks, a friends for lunch, errands, painting a hall floor, and much, much other fun with my children that I am so thankful for.

This morning we finished chores and left the house early, taking in some country garage sales, visiting an Amish grocery shop, and walking around this beautiful campus before heading to lunch with a very sweet friend and her two kids. Tonight we gardened, putting in another raised bed, unloading another truckload of composted manure, setting in tomato plants and covering them with an A-frame of windows. We also welcomed a new farm animal here. It is living in our garage. Yes, I'm serious. Some people have garages full of junk. Ours, a..... Any guesses?

Tomorrow Sean and a friend will be picking up four trailer loads of dismantled barn wood and tin roofing. That will turn into a shed for firewood, maybe an expanded poultry house and with lots left for other ventures.

Enjoy your weekend, may it be full and lively and happy like ours!

Blessings,
Hannah

Moving of the Honey Bees

Last week Sean moved the bees from their temporary box that they came in, into their new hive. We still have a great record of no stings as of yet! Woohoo!First he removes the lid from the temporary box...
This is the entrance the bees use to come in and out of that box. There are guard bees that stand watch, checking to see who is coming and going and protecting the hive.


A smoker is used to calm and disorient the bees.



Sean has this nifty, handy-dandy tool for removing the frames. I'm sure it has a professional bee-keeping name of which I have yet to learn.





Then he gently carries one frame over to the new hive, saying prayers under his breath, I'm sure and asking me again if his head net is covering the back of his neck.



Into the new hive they go. We also put in some homemade bee food, a simple syrup to help get them started. Hopefully this fall we'll have fresh raw honey!

Soil

New earth, turned over, rocks raked, weeds pulled, planted, waiting, growing, thriving.

Where are you in those steps? Lately, because of a lot of selfishness on my part, I see myself in the middle of the raking and pulling. It is an uncomfortable place to be, humbling, often crying out to God to make this season pass, do His work more quickly in me, please.

One summer the farmer nearby tilled a field and then left it alone, rough, barren, unfruitful. By the end of the growing season it was covered with weeds, choking, lumpy and uneven. There is one scripture running through my head during this time, sinking down into the soil of my heart:

"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..."

I am so glad God is not finished with me yet.

He stood silhouetted in the kitchen doorway this evening, holding a slightly flattened squirrel by one paw with two fingers. "Hey, look, Papa. See what I found out by the woodpile? Think there's any good meat on it? It is a bit stinky."
Papa smiled, told him to go throw it in the burn pile and come wash for dinner. Off Aiden ran, tossing the squirrel, back to wash and scrub.
I love my boys to death. I can't believe how much I love being their Mama. They fascinate me.

Tonight, a supper of homemade pizzas in the oven, Sean busily packing up the truck for a trip to the cabin with a few of the kids, kids laughing, chasing, putting out plates and cups at one of the picnic tables for dinner - the happy buzz and hum of home.

Here I am with two of my little men and the pooch, on the porch, enjoying the last rays of a perfectly beautiful day. We began working on order and routine again today and it was almost as if everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing what is expected, what comes next, a rhythm of relief to our days.

Tomorrow is half price day at a favorite thrift store in a big (er) city an hour away, followed by the baby shower of a childhood best friend of mine. It is wonderful knowing someone for your whole life who isn't family. I am so happy for her, seeing this new blessing in her life.

I took time yesterday to sort through bins in the attic, seeing what kiddo needs what for next fall and winter and have a mental list to put to paper for tomorrow's sale. We'll rise early, eat a treat of a sugary sweet breakfast and fruit in the van and hopefully get there as it opens, beating the crowds I hear will be prevalent.

Have a beautiful weekend.
Hannah

Truth and Grace in Mothering

I am being challenged, in a lot of ways, to be more purposeful in my mothering. I've written before on doing things on purpose, being intentional in building our family and all these good intentions I had are staring me down after a few rough days as a Mama.

As we've become more relaxed around here as formal lessons are finished for the school year, I think I've made the error of relaxing my mothering too. I've found myself asking a child to do something several times before it is done, calling another to come and being ignored, and dealing with tantrums that we haven't seen in a while. It is wearing this Mama down and I'm sure it is mostly my fault.

I can see that my children do better and are happier with a routine in general and for one child in particular, it is pretty much a necessity as it fills a deep need for control and order. And so I am challenged to order our days better, not fly so much by the seat of our pants, give the wee ones some patterns to rely on.

So tonight, while washing a sink of glasses and listening to an online broadcast, I heard the speaker talk about standing in God's grace as a mama and how we can, even if it doesn't FEEL like a grace filled moment. It was good to hear the perspective of balancing these truths about my mothering lately with the truth of God's grace. In that, I am going to rest in tonight. There's much to be done tomorrow.

Tonight

Home tonight from our third foster parenting class, these babies and not-so-much-babies-anymore of ours are tucked snug in their beds, courtesy of a kind beautiful sitter.

As much as the weather has been warm and we've planted most of the garden and are enjoying watching peas and lettuce and potatoes and other delicious things popping up, inside we've been fighting a winter cold and a first ear infection for Aiden. Poor boy.
Today we puttered some more in the garden, building a small bed for Aiden to plant in. We laid weed cloth down, made walls of brick and leftover countertop bluestone and filled it in with composted horsey-poo. He rattled off to me the things he wishes to grow and I think all but the watermelon wishes will grow fine.

In other news, Eleanora Catherine, little Miss Ella Bella, or Ellie is three now. She is proud of this and looks forward to starting school in the fall, thinking she is big enough now. I suppose I'll just go with that since she's smart as a whip and teach her and Aiden together and see how she does.


Here she sat, face resting in her hands as she was sung to, taking it all in stride, busy being "the sweetheart of our home" as her older sister Annaliese puts it. She really does have herself twisted around each and everyone's heart. There is nothing her brother's won't do for her if she asks sweetly and even when they are rough and make her cry and need to say sorry, they love her hugs and she readily forgives and forgets. I am so happy to see what great playmates she and Annaliese are, inspite of their large age difference. I hope we can continue to foster and nurture that as they grow.

Well, have a good night. Kiss your little ones on the head or if they are grown, write them a note on real paper to send them with a real stamp. Trust me, they'll appreciate it.

Blessings,
Hannah

Our little homestead grows...

In case we weren't busy enough already, what with a very old house, a boys bedroom to finish, a roof to put on, foster classes, five kiddos, and a passel of poultry - we've branched out into little cute buzzing things.






This is just a temporary box. The honeybees get moved into their new hive next.

A very, very long time ago, I stood *very* still holding the smoker for my Dad as he moved and checked hives. I never got stung once, even though I was just wearing shorts and a t-shirt so this brings back happy memories. We think we'll try the one hive for a year and maybe add another next year.

Just think of it...

A sobering statistic: In 2006 there were 127,489 children in the United States of America in the foster care system available for adoption. The same year there were 302,461 churches in this land of ours. If one person from only half of these churches would welcome a child into their home, think of the impact made for the fatherless in our country.
Read more here.

365 Newsletter

Many, many thanks to our children's pastor, Sam Luce, for letting me help with this.

It's birthday week!

This wee man turned one! Can you believe it? I can't. Time sure flies when you're having fun!




Andrew turned seven and requested a blueberry tart...I am much more proficient in the pastry making arena than the cake decorating arena so this was fun.

Ella will join the May birthdays on Monday, turning three. How good God has been to us.