Celebrating Motherhood: Beauty

It's been a while, I know..but life has overtaken me and I can't seem to stop long enough to blog about our world. The beauty of our world.

The beautiful children I share my hours with keep me busy and then there's?

the cows.. ??

I truly love the cow world. Who would have known that cows could be so dog like. They come when you call them and seem to enjoy the walks and baths I give them. I spend lots of time with them and so I stay really busy on the farm.?I don't know any other place I'd rather be. From the time the sun peaks her lovely head out from the tree line, I'm up and out. Tending to the chickens or taking the cows for a walk. Always having extra hands to help me.

I love going to the pigs and calling,?"come on girlys" and watching them as they come running to me. Even though two of them are boys...They seem to understand that we live together here on this small piece of earth and their job is easy tilling the ground with their noses and making me laugh as they nudge and fight each other.

?I also spend lots of time catching the moments of my life that I don't want to ever forget. Living them and cherishing them, like play between sisters. I don't know, maybe it's my age, maybe it's the ever changing state of our world or my life but I can't tell you how precious this is to me.?

Sisters. ?

I never had a sister but seeing them share?everything makes me wish I had.

I sit on my front porch swing and throw a blanket in the yard and watch as they play.

I try and read a magazine I haven't got to yet, but I keep being drawn back to the sound

of their voices. So small and sweet.

?Things will be different next summer and the little red blanket will seem smaller.

I will be older and they will be a few inches taller.

Sigh. I love where we're at but I know enough to know we don't stay

where we're at very long. We can't stay frozen in time and not move forward.

So I embrace this moment in motherhood.

?I look deep into the wells of their eyes?and drink hard with love.

I invite you to do the same with your children. Choose to spend the?

hours you have left with their childhood and truly enjoy them. I have found that having an

interest as a family and getting everyone involved helps a lot in the spending time together.

Like: cooking, gardening, animals, clotheslines, read alouds....

they keep us all on the same page.

Taylor has been baking and cooking so much lately that

I can't keep up with her. The kids love her in the kitchen though and she shows

her love the most by bringing to the table things you love to eat.

These doughnuts were a hit around The White House..I loved the smile on their faces

as they each savored their doughnuts.??

With 13 children these babies didn't last long.

I've been trying my hand with some herbal recipes?for the winter time.

?A friend spent a better part of 3 hours?showing me how to cook stuff down for things like coughs and flu.?I love the idea of being able to use natural things for sickness.

It doesn't always work out but there is something about?making your own recipe:)?

Something about using plants and honey..

Something about doing things the old fashioned way gets me every time.

? ??

Just like there's something about boys...I love my gun carrying, knife throwing,

hat wearing boys. I have 8 guys right now sharing my roof, my table, my attention..

and I have never been more exhausted in my whole life but

I also have never felt more loved.

?Waking up to who can pick me the most flowers in a day.

Who can be the first to pull my chair out or bring me water at night. I would say I'm getting a little

spoiled by all the attention..Their squabbles I've almost learned to stay out of..almost.

I get 13 hugs at night

13 good morning kisses

and 100's of I love yous through out the day

that all equals out to a lot of love

? ? on ... my mission field.

When I go to the fields to walk and to see all the beautiful things

the Lord has made, this is what follows me.

and that's only half...of them

I walk slowly.

Beauty

I recently read that all things point to their creator

I pray that I'm pointing Heavenward like the flowers, trees and

the tall grass in our fields. ?

You can't go fast when you have lots of people following you.

You have to slow down and go at their pace

or you miss the beauty all around you.

The things they see?through their eyes.?

I love how she still sleeps with Rosie?

safely tucked in and with the blanket I made her

6 months before she was born.

Beauty

I can't imagine Them grown and leaving

and walking in to see fluffy?pillows that no one sleeps on,?

dolls on shelves, beds made, house clean. I can't imagine

not cooking for a crowd.

One day I will think this house is big and lonely

and that seems odd to me when right now every bed

and square inch is so very full. To think one day I will sit and read a book

without interruptions, I shall surely miss the interruptions.?

I hope that day is far, far away. No book is worth the trade.. ?

??

but for now I walk a gravel driveway with my daughters close and I do not regret

one single moment of the time that it takes to walk a little slower so she can tell me

every little detail of her thoughts and dreams. I dream with her and on this road we

?make memories that will be cherished forever.

Beauty

??

My life lived out here on this farm. Their memories made here

and all of it a gift from start to finish.

Source: http://www.celebratingmotherhoodeveryday.com/2012/08/beauty.html

justin timberlake engaged bluefin tuna jonestown john dillinger carlos zambrano clemson pellet gun