New Address...

My new blog address is...

http://www.shadygrovebiz.blogspot.com/

Come on over and join us!

Changes????

I may be moving the blog...

What would this mean for you?

It would mean a new blog address (url)...

That's all.

I will update more on this later.

Momma's Day!!!

Mom...



You Done Good :)

You give out more love then anyone I can ever think of!!!

You have taught me everything I know!

You have taught me to be silly...

To give...

To Love God...

To Be Loved...

And Most Important...

To Love Back...

People always say you are crazy for having so many kids...

And that might be true :)

But you give all these many kids something that lots of kids dont get...

A Mom who CARES about us...

A Mom who KNOWS us...

A Mom who is a GREAT example to us...

And a Mom who is a REAL Mom...

Even when we mess up you still give us a hug and Love us :)

Im not too good with words...

so I found this poem for ya :)

There is no love like a mothers love,

No stronger bond on earth...

Like the precious bond that comes from God,

To a mother when she gives birth.

A mothers love is forever strong,

Never changing for all time...

And when her children need her most,

A mothers love will shine.

God bless those special mothers,

God bless them every one...

For all the tears and heartache,

And for the special work they've done.

When her days on earth are over

A mothers love lives on...

Through many generations

With Gods blessings on each one.

Be thankful for our mothers,

For they love with a higher love...

From the power that God has given,

And strength from up above.

We LOVE you Mom!!!!!

Thank you!!!

I Know You're All Wondering...

What is happinging in this photo.

A little brother/sister bonding time...

Can you tell this is a house filled with girls?

The one boy is in desperate need of his big brother-n-law to come and get rough and tough with him.

Daddy and Grandpa can only do so much!

January can't come soon enough...



Let Me Just Say...

The last 3 months have been something out of the ordinary for me.

Deep, Deep, REALLY DEEP DEPRESSION.

Why?  You ask...

So many reasons that I can think of and even more that I haven't begun to discover yet.

What I have come to realize is how we, as humans, don't like being confronted with others dark sides.

The fear, anger, sadness, anger, quiet, anger...

Did I forget to mention the anger?

And then, if you are the person going through this dark valley,

you start to feel guilty that you are feeling what you are feeling...

Which makes you feel even worse!

Does that make any sense at all?

This is the place I have been in.

Dark, dark, d.a.r.k.

My family didn't know what to do with me...

so, I think the tried to ignore that it was happening.

For me, this just added to my feelings of loneliness and self hatred.

It really wasn't until 2 members of my family,

who live far away (from me and each other),

acknowledged what was going on with me

and gave me advice and a

chance to "talk it out" that I started to feel better.

Sometimes when we know someone is feeling down, we avoid them. 

 Or we avoid talking to them about what they are going through.

I am soooo guilty of this.

We don't want them to bring us down.

Or...

We don't really want know what lives beneath the surface.

For the person facing those dark days,

 it feels like you just jumped off a cliff

 and you know the landing is going to be rough...

really rough

and yet you are falling, falling, falling...

Knowing the landing is coming...

But it hasn't hit yet...

And it's coming...

You're anticipating it...

Where is it...

When will this end...

Why won't this just END!

And Yet, the falling continues.

All I can say is thank God that I seem to be on the upside of things... for the most part.

I am having more up days than down.

I seem to have a bit of my smile back.

I have a bit of my sense of humor back...

(although my husband may not see that as a good thing... lol... He does tend to be at the butt of the joke more times than not.)

Sitting here this morning, writing about this dark place, it would be easy to sweep it under the rug and act like it never happened.

Infact, that is what I would normally do.

I don't like to share those kinds of things with people.

I don't like to show my vulnerable side.

It did happen, though.

It did.

Thankfully, when I felt at my lowest, I knew that God was with me.

I didn't have anyone else I could scream and yell at...

But he allowed me that liberty.

Just as David cried out to God asking WHY?

I did the same.

Yes, I felt guilty for what I saw as my lapse in faith...

but now I can see that my loving Heavenly Father was with me the whole time.

He never let me out of his sight.

He stood beside my while I cried and held me in his arms to comfort me.

 I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.  Psalm 77:1

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 

Psalm 107:6

How blessed we are when we have that friend that never leaves us.

No matter how dark the place is where we are.

No matter how low we think we are...

He is with us...

waiting for us to call out to Him.

Maybe...

With a new deck being built on to the front of the house, my little guy has been spending a lot of time hanging out with Daddy and his tools.

Hammering is the big thing.

I am surprised that we haven't had a major smashed finger catashtrophe yet.

Yet....

This little guy is so intent on learning to use these tools...

whether real or play.

I am proud of his initiative.

Maybe we'll get lucky and not have any big disasters...

Maybe...

In the photo above you can see what has become our path out of the house.  A series of plywood slabs that keep us from hitting the ground.

But...

Below is the beginning of a beautiful deck.

Beautiful.

We are using the old barn wood.

Planed.

Planed.

Planed

and then trimmed to size.

This is gorgeous stuff!

The photo was from a few days ago...

so the deck is about half finished now.

Hooray!!!!!

My man is working hard at it...

and he loves every minute of it.

What was I doing while this work was being done?

Only making the most gorgeous french bread!

It really did turn out beautifully.

No.

You don't understand.

I have been making the transition from an electric stove to a gas stove.

It has been years since I used gas...

It is a much bigger change than you would expect!

Some things haven't gone so well.

There may or may not have been some burning of certain items...

maybe...

This bread...

This very bread turned out amazing!

I think I am finally getting the hang of this stove!

Maybe...

Barns and Firepits...

I've been noticing a trend.

The men...

Out in one of the back fields...

While we girls sit at the firepit.

Sometimes, it is really good to just sit at the firepit...

and enjoy watching two men try to take down a barn...

with ropes, chains and a truck.

My excuse for not being out there

(ummm I don't think they invited me, thank you Lord)

is that I have to document the process.

Taz is smart.

He doesn't get too close.

He stays  in the yard with us.

Good boy, Taz Miraz!

Okay...

I'll admit it.

These photos are from last week, when the weather was still warm.

Today...

FREEZING.

But, trust me, I'm not complaining.

This has been the easiest Fall I've spent in years.

There is no snow.

Mild days.

I can handle this!

Have a great day.

I know I will!

What Kind of Day Am I Having...

Great!

Wonderful!

Full of hugs and kisses.

Thanks for asking....