The Road Less Traveled

The very phrase "the road less traveled" means a path that is hardly ever trodden. It's a path that most people avoid for a reason; because it's uncomfortable. Hard. Restricting. And maybe, a little embarrassing? The road less traveled is the road of Christ. And I think there are quite a few people out there who are ashamed to be seen on such a path.

But why? Why on earth would we be embarrassed to follow our Lord and King? Why?

The answer to this question is found in the very roots of sin and self. It's not popular. Following Jesus is totally NOT "cool". It's not very "in", either. (And frankly, it's not supposed to be.) A cool Christian, who can find? God doesn't call us to be cool! He calls us to be humble servants.

One thing we as Christians must avoid at all costs is following Christ and yet still trying to be like everyone else at the same time. It doesn't work. You just can't sit on the fence, with one leg in the world and the other in Christianity. God doesn't want "one leg", He wants BOTH! If we are going to be devoted servants of Christ, it is absolutely imperative that get off the fence and use both legs to run hard after God. Straddling the fence gets us nowhere. Jesus doesn't want part of us; He wants all of us.

If we're going to travel the road of Christ, let's get serious about it. No, it's not popular, yes, it's hard sometimes, but so TOTALLY WORTH IT. In light of what Jesus has done for me, there is no question in my mind of what path I'll take. I for one want to get off the fence and start running after my King!

But it's a daily choice. Every. Single. Minute. Of every day. I need to make the choice to make both legs run and keep on running, even when I get tired. Who cares if I'm not "cool"? Who cares if the world think I'm not "in"? I'm not running for the approval of them; I'm running for the approval of HIM Who died for me. Who gave His very life for me.

Today, on my 18th birthday, I want to encourage you to make every day count. Don't listen to those who tell you that you're out of your mind to do this whole "Jesus-thing"; ignore them! Keep on following Christ!

So, my plans for this new year of mine? Well, I do have some. I want to make great progress on finishing school, I'd like to learn more about becoming a nurse/midwife, I want to make my home business thrive. But these are all my plans. What I want most of all is for God's will to be done in my life! I want to find out what His plans are and do them! I want to keep on following my Saviour - not just in word, but in daily conduct.

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A Birthday Gift

This Saturday is my 18th birthday......and this year Dad is giving me a very exciting gift. He and Mom have agreed to buy me my very own camera this year!! I can't WAIT for it to come in the mail!

I'm getting the same camera my sister Courtney already has, except mine is a newer version. It's a model that has now been discontinued (wonder why?); FujiFilm S1500. I love all the features her's has, so I decided to go with the same one - plus, no learning to do!
So now, once it arrives, you all can expect a lot more pictures on this blog!! Finally, I will be able to take my own photos and post all the news!

Thank you, Mom and Dad!

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The REAL Gospel

If you do one thing today, the day before Easter, PLEASE take a moment to watch this. It will change you. It will help you get a better perspective of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This piece is absolutely amazing.

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I love purple

This is my little buddy as of late. I've been doing quite a bit of baking / taking pictures of what I bake for my website, canningbasics.com, and every time, there he is right alongside me! He always wants to "test" the batter and loves to help dump things in the bowl.

This morning he was being just too cute for words. He was in his "I-think-I'm-20" mood. While I did school in my room, he was doing his version of school (coloring) right next to me. And this is how the conversation went:

Me: "Alright Isaac, you come sit down right next to Rachel and obey. Did you know you'll be in pre-school next fall?"

Isaac: "Pee-cool? Isaac pee-cool?"

Me: "Yep, that's right! You'll get to do real school pages just like Rachel."

Isaac: "Rachel pee-cool?"

Me: "Uh, no. I'm not in preschool."

Isaac: "Hmmmm. I love purple."

Me: "What?"

Isaac: "I love purple!" (holding up purple crayon at this point.)

Me: "That's great. Now get your hands out of your underwear and start coloring. By the way, I love your blue camoflauge big boy briefs."

Isaac: "I looooooove purple. I LOVE PURPLE."

A look of panic goes across his face, and then he yells.....

"RACHEL! POTTY!"

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This little guy just keeps me laughing with all his antics!!

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I Can NOT Think of a Post

So here we are, several days since my last posting. You're all wondering when I'm going to post, and I'm wondering WHAT I'm going to post. Unfortunately I'm clueless about that one. Give me a day or two and I'm sure I'll scrounge up something - I'm rarely bored here!! You'd think with our jam-packed days I'd have something to post? We do keep very busy, but I'm sure you'd rather not hear about most of our daily grind.

Like how I'm trying to motivate my 4 year old brother to be potty trained by using the word "surprise" as bribery.

Or how we got really super excited because Dad bought us a new vacuum cleaner.

And how I'm craving chocolate (again).

And how we saw our first rattlesnake of the season yesterday.

Oh, and did I mention that Mom broke her toes again?

So, basically, like I said, you wouldn't want to hear about all that monotony!!! I'll think of something interesting to post soon!

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Video of Pearl's Kidding

Now, like I said last year, if you aren't able to handle gross things, DO NOT watch this video. It is graphic - but all births are, whether animal or human. However, I consider birth to be an absolute miracle; not gross at all! Yes, there is a lot of blood involved (and I truly understand if that makes you queasy!) but that is just the way God intended it to be. But hey - how do you think YOU got here? Anyway.........:-)

So - if you want to watch the birth, click on the video above! If not, well, I think you're missing out on a good thing but I guess you can be content with the pictures! :-)

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More Baby Goat Pictures

This morning I went out to feed the goats, and mama and babies are doing well! Pearl always bounces back so quickly after giving birth. I just had to post these early morning photos!

Just TOO cute! Can you believe all three were inside of her?

So we are having so much fun with these little fluff balls right now. I'm having a hard time imagining that Ritz (the one above) is going to grow up to be a huge hulking stinky aggressive buck with massive horns. Ugh. Don't want to think about that right now!

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Look Who Arrived!

Well, Pearl finally had her babies! I was getting so tired of going out to check on her for days on end. But now the wait is over and we are delighted to have THREE babies!

My goal this year was to not interfere with the birth unless she really needed help (baby in the wrong position, really large baby, etc.). This was one of the best births I've seen so far, so I didn't need to do anything but catch the babies and dry them off!

The first one was born quickly, and then after about 8 minutes the next one came. Another 5 minute wait, and out came another one! They came so fast that I barely had time to catch them all - in fact one had the delightful experience of falling right on the ground. FAST!

We got two girls and a boy. Perfect.

This is the first one to be born. She is a clone of Daisy - it'll be hard to tell them apart if we keep her! :-)

That's the boy. Even though he was the last one to be born, he was the first one to start standing up and nursing. Typical boy!

I can hardly believe how many babies we have now. I was really expecting just one, since that's what Pearl always has. But nope - God had a surprise for us! How fun!

We (I, actually) named them Josie, Maggie, and Ritz. The boy's name is up in the air still - is Ritz a good name? Always hard to figure out boys names! Comment and leave me your suggestions!

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Amazing Grace

Tonight as I write this I am listening to "Your Grace Still Amazes Me" by Phillips Craig and Dean. I am reminded again of how amazing His grace truly is. It's something that I don't stop being in awe about. Yes I get distracted; yes I sometimes lose focus. But when I come before the Throne and realize anew that HE has saved me....and not because of anything I've done...well, it's just incredible.

To think that God would save me, who was (and still is!) a most wretched sinner, is so remarkable. To think that He reached down and grabbed me as His own when I was without hope is truly a wonderous thought.

Overwhelming. Completely unfathomable.

And so amazing!! Can I say it again? I am IN LOVE! With my Savior! I had nothing to give God, I was a sinner in a pit of misery. And yet He still gave His life for me. He still died for me - faced the wrath of God which was intended for me.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

While I was still hatefully wicked, Christ died for me. Took the death sentence on Himself that should have been mine. And then rose again to prove His victory over sin and death!

Easter is just a few short weeks away...I'd like to encourage all of you to take this time leading up to Easter to sanctify God in your hearts. Don't just attend an Easter service.....make it meaningful. For you. Get out your Bible and read through the Easter story - remember anew the Huge sacrifice Christ made for you! Think about it. Meditate on His unfailing love. And remember how undeserving you are. Remember, if you fail to realize that it was nothing you did to receive God's amazing grace, well, the grace isn't amazing! It is a gift. That needs to be remembered.

It's not about us.

It's about Him.

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We Have Kittens!

Emma finally had her kittens! This morning David rushed inside and told us that she had had her kittens - we could hear them meowing but we couldn't find them. We looked for a while and finally found them. She had given birth in our metal trailer hitch that is all metal; and it was very cold metal too, because it was so windy out!

Unfortunately, Emma didn't really know what to do with her newborn kitties and so she sort of abandoned them. (I guess being an 8 month old mother has its drawbacks.) When we looked, 1 was already dead, then 2. They were so cold in there on the hard metal without their mama! We finally decided to step in and take some action. Jonathan transported the live kittens and their no-brain mother into the shed where they'd be out of the wind. After getting warmed up by the hair dryer for about 10 minutes, they really came to and started nursing.

Now that everyone's warm and well-fed, Emma is finally figuring out her role as mother, I think. She's been snuggling them all day, so I think they're off to a good start! We currently have three live kitties - she had five minus two casualties. But...that's farm life. I'm just glad the rest made it. :-)

Still no baby goats.....Pearl is now four days overdue. Arrrggg. She does this every year and it's hard to keep from pulling my hair out! But she can't stay pregnant forever. One of these days those babies are going to come out and say hello to the world!

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The Latest Around Here

Well, how time flies by! I can hardly believe that we're already into April. Before we know it summer will be here! Right now we are having gorgeous weather - the kind where you can have your windows open day and night, and everything is cool and fresh. Absolutely perfect.

Still doing school! I'm really enjoying studying Biology, and Consumer Math isn't bad, either. I feel woefully behind but the best way to remedy that is to plug away at it, one day at a time. Remember that old phrase - "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!"

Here's Emma, our pregnant (we think) cat. I say we think because she was totally normal, and then a few weeks ago she started getting super big, and her teats are getting larger too. Our guess? Kittens on the way! Our other cat became like that too, so hopefully we'll have a pile of kittens running around here soon.

The cutie pies of our household! Joshua is such a senstive little boy; if you say "no" firmly, it sends him into a pile of tears that takes a while to stop. He gets really upset at gentle discipline; a good thing, I guess! He responds really well to correction though - I don't think he's disobeyed or challenged us hardly at all so far. (Quite a contrast to his mischevious older brother Isaac!)

My personal agenda the last few days has been wearing a path to the goat barn. Sometimes hourly. With our two pregnant gals out there I am constantly checking to see if anything is happening. One is really close to kidding (2 days overdue, to be exact) so she is RIPE for babies. I even got up at 3:00 AM one night because I thought she was getting close. Unfortunately, she's being a stubborn little goat and I have a feeling she'll continue her pattern of being 5 days late! As always!

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