Something To Chew On.......

"Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict.”

Frustrated!

Well, today started as another one of those days. Nothing seems to go right. Caleb is whiney and fussy. Hannah is in a mood. She's taking forever to do chores and we've just started today's school. She is taking a math placement test to see what level we should order for math next year. She's complaining and belly-aching all the way through it. Guess I need to work harder on the character training. I'm doing laundry, feeding/watering chickens and basic clean-up while getting ready to go to the grocery store since we are out of milk and other basic necessities. I finally put Caleb back in bed and he's sleeping off the whine--hopefully. Praise the Lord! We can't leave for the grocery store until I receive the faxes promised by the guys who are working for David. These faxes are their Workers' Compensation Certificates that prove they are insured so that we can write them a paycheck on Friday. Well, it's been 2 hours now and no faxes. I'm so frustrated. Well, just decided to check the voicemail... and at the exact moment I got a phone call and answered it saying "I cannot talk because waiting on a fax"....that was the precise moment that one was trying to come through. It's been 1 hour and 15 minutes since I missed that call and now the lady is out to lunch and it will be another 45 minutes until she can try again.

It's looking like another day will go by without any milk. There will be lots more gnashing of teeth and whining about it. By the time I get these faxes--1:30 or so, this afternoon, it will be too late to make a trip into town to Wal-Mart. Guess I'll be going to Wal-Mart at about 10:00 p.m. tonight then, since we have to be at Nanny Boo Boo and Poppie's at 4:30.

Ok--I'm not going to fret about it. I will praise the Lord that David is building a house. Praise the Lord for providing a job, finally! Praise the Lord for 4 precious children. Praise the Lord even if things don't go the way I planned them. Best laid plans.....

Isaiah 40:28-31 (New International Version)

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Our Day at the Knoxville Zoo

We went to Knoxville to visit with my sister and her family. We went to the Zoo with Landon's school class. We had a great time! The weather was perfect!

Caleb & Hannah

See Caleb's new haircut! He looks like a totally different child.

Dakota

Here is Dakota....mind you he's working. Been doing the tree planting thing for a while now. So, these are not fresh from the shower pics. And, yes, I made him pull back that long hair so I could see his face. It took lots of threatening and roughing him up to make him look at the camera. But, Hallelujah, we finally got it!!!

Tractor Rides

Here's Poppie giving all the kiddos a ride on the tractor as we finished planting trees on Thursday.

The last 6 Holes to Plant in......yeah!!!

Praise the Lord, we are through with planting. When looking at these, I realized "wow, we're almost done!" It's a good feeling and the fields look beautiful on these sunny, spring days with all our trees growing and thriving.

Last Day of Tree Planting--We're Done--All 1550 Trees PLANTED!!

Poppie, Dakota and David had some help with the last of the trees from Randy Singleton. Mackenzie was playing with Hannah and I was able to plant a few trees while keeping an eye on Caleb. This is last year's field where we are replacing the Concolor Firs that died.

Colorado Blue Spruce

These are the Colorado Blue Spruce. They are supposed to be a "true blue". We'll see how they grow and mature.

Norway Spruce

These are the Norway Spruce. They are a pretty tree. We put 200 of these in the ground.

Concolor Fir

The Concolor Fir are all in the ground. We planted in this year's field plus in last year's field to replace the ones we lost supposedly due to "wet feet".

These are much prettier trees than what we started with last year.

Most of my tulips survived a visit from the cows--yeah!

Fraser Firs

We planted 250 Fraser Firs. These are little trees. Not as old and already established as the Douglas Firs and the White Pines, so they do look a little scrawny. However, they are very healthy and also have bud sets on them.

Douglas Firs

We planted 200 Douglas Firs. They took quite a hit from the packaging this time and were really crunched in the boxes. They already had bud sets on them. We're hoping and praying they'll straighten out and do well.

We took a walk down the drive to the tree field today.

After being sick and cooped up in the house, I felt a little bit better and up for a walk. So, we headed down to the tree field to check out the trees. I got a couple shots of Hannah and Caleb together.

Caleb and Poppie

Here's Caleb with his favorite person....well, after Daddy...that is! LOL! :0)

My 4 Blessings!!

Nick joined us at Nanny Boo Boo and Poppie's last Thursday night, so I took advantage of all 4 kids being together and took some pictures.

My friend, Deanna!

God has brought this special friend into my life. Thanks for being such a good friend, Deanna!