Valentine Date Night

This.

*This*

This is what happens when you spend the majority of your waking and sleeping hours in a house full of males.

You forget all about dressing up for date night.  Hours and hours of fussing over your hair replaced by an Alpine ski hat.  Accessorizing with a mustache. Letting him wear the pink heart glasses. 
Selfless, sacrificial and fashionable love, that's how we do things in our marriage.

 

Bob & Hollie

Valentine Sweethearts circa 2014

First B Valentine Fellowship Party

A date which will go down in infamy.

 

{Thanks for the fun night, love! xo xo xo - Can I have the glasses back now please?}

Season Opener and Numbers From Last Season

Gardening Season begins in January on our little farm.

 

I always think this is the most exciting point of the season - where the garden is full of hopes and dreams and void of insects, hail, drought and the other realities that make gardening such a hard task.

 

Johnny Jump-Ups from Seed Savers

 Normally, at this point in the season I am so desperate for anything to be growing somewhere that I tend to start too early and plant too much.  Thankfully, I am slowly maturing {it takes a while} and am learning the lessons of patience.  I'm still trying to figure out how to not over-plant!  The little seedlings are just *so cute* when they first poke through the dirt!

  I've only planted our 'cool season' seeds thus far, but this weekend it will be time to put the pepper seeds in and we are just a few weeks out for tomatoes and flowers.

{HOORAY!}

Ailsa Craig and Red Wethersfield will be our onions this season

 My husband is eternally patient with my zealousness.  He always has a little twinkle in his eye when asking how many 'babies' I planted this time.  And he's always so kind to not laugh too hard when I tell him maybe we DO have room for 341 tomato plants this year ... maybe?  They just start out so small and cute to begin with- they hardly seems like anything cumbersome until May and then I am usually forcing plants on my friends who have anything resembling dirt in their yard.

Gruner Krauser Kale

 

We saved a lot of our own seed from our garden last year - which is a wonderful project {and necessary, if I might say so myself!} to do with the boys.  Because we did this I was able to try out a few new crops for this coming year and still we have only spent $60 on new seed/supplies for our anticipated gardening needs. I'm anxious to see how celery and fennel do in our garden.  Of course, we'll need to till up a bit more of our back yard which means I need to get busy baking some chocolate chip cookies for my most excellent and wonderful tiller operator.  {Thank you, Love!}

 

I have finally put all the numbers together from our 2013 garden and orchard - how blessed we feel to have harvested 745.46 pounds!!  I'm quietly hoping to break the 1000# mark in 2014 but we never know what the weather will bring or how helpful the work force will be.  It seems like we have a ton of help in the garden during raspberry harvest (somehow those raspberries never quite make it to the scale ... :-) )

Have you started thinking about your garden?  I'd love to send you some seed from our 2013 harvest.  Leave a comment and a way for me to get in touch with you.  The boys and I will go through the comments and send some seed to a lucky commenter {or two!}

 

P.S. Georgia, I already have some Yellow Pear Tomato seeds with your name on them.

'He who works his land will have plenty of bread

but he who follows worthless pursuits will come to poverty.'

Proverbs 12:11

 

Fair Weather {Nebraska Football} Fans

Yay Seahawks!

We have a new family tradition of watching football games only when the Seahawks are in the Superbowl.  Last night was the second football game we've watched in eight years - since the Hawks played Pittsburgh in '06.  It has more to do with the fact that we can't stand to sit still for four hours in front of the t.v. than a reflection of how well {or not} the team is doing.  I guess you can still classify us as fair weather fans.  It's pretty exciting that the Seahawks have finally WON a Superbowl!

Yay Hawks!

Knowing the difference...{looking for answers}

A question has been consuming me for the last several weeks.
I'm hoping my theologically-minded friends {those grounded in the Word of God} can help give me new food to chew on and pray over.

How does one know the difference between

 stepping out in faith
and
waiting on the Lord?

Farm down the road from a possible acreage at sunset

Something we have been praying about for years has availed itself of becoming a reality.

This something we have been praying about is a vision for our family which we believe the

 Lord has pressed into our hearts.

 

We've been watching and waiting.  For years.

 

It gets a little muddled in the fact that to jump on this opportunity we would be taking a financial risk in the form of debt.  We are crystal clear what the Word says about debt.  We have worked very hard, with the help of the Lord, to be free from the entanglement of debt.  So, does one continue to wait until the numbers say 'go for it' and we feel as though we wouldn't be infringing on the Lord's provision by not accumulating debt...or does one say 'we've been praying about this for years, the Lord will provide'?

 

I will tell you there is no peace in moving forward without closing the doors of this home behind us.  Who knows if this is our lack of faith or the answer to our prayer?

 

If you have wisdom to share we'd sure be grateful to hear it. 

For now I'm back to painting in the hopes of hanging a

 'For Sale' sign in front of our beloved little farm-in-the-city.

Surprise

I got a free lizard with the new table I ordered! 

Christmas Tree Campout

Earlier this week we held the annual 'Christmas Tree Campout'

whereas the boys all camped overnight in the living under the tree and stayed up late playing board games and such.

{And by 'such' I mean things like wrestling, telling scary stories and piling blankets and pillows on top of each other to prove that we really don't need that much oxygen to survive.  It was a peaceful night, of sorts.}

 

 

In the morning we served a brunch of yummy Gingerbread Waffles topped with fresh cream and Christmas sprinkles, expertly arranged by our resident 5-year old.

Surgery

Thankfully all is well.

It only took two nurses, one Mom and a very strong doctor to remove the lump on the side of his neck.

And a few threats about needing to call Dad and maybe some minor bribing with DVDs from the library and his choice of *anything* for supper. {Dr. recommended chocolate cake, good grief!}

 

Now that it is all said and done he is happily enjoying the victory of 'having my bump amputated!' and bragging rights about getting stitches.

 

{I'm bragging about wrestling with a bull this morning as that is what it felt like!}

 

Enjoying a Star Wars DVD marathon today and Valentino's pizza - no peppers.

 

And thankful.  The doctor didn't seemed concerned at all with what was taken out.  So thankful.