Today is his birthday!!

Today is my honey's birthday. Happy birthday, Darrell! Thank you for giving us an excuse to eat cake.

We are in a house!

Well, we are in the house. We have been in for several weeks and are still getting settled. They issued our Certificate of Occupancy on September 25. Considering that we closed on the building loan on July 14, that was not a long process. We are still moving things in and unpacking but we are in the house, enjoying the luxuries of indoor plumbing and a full kitchen and SPACE!

Life has been busy lately as it becomes for many during the fall. The girls have started back to dance classes, and the dance studio is now further away. For a couple of years we were travelling quite a distance for their classes and had finally moved closer. Then they moved further away. Funny, huh?

The animals have been keeping us quite busy. As the cooler weather sets in and the orchard grass slows in growth, the horses have been eating their pasture down, so we had more fencing to put up. We have had quite a few baby goats born this summer, but one came early and didn't make it. In just the last couple of weeks, two older baby goats mysteriously died.

The time has come when we have tilled up the summer garden and planted the winter one. We have learned and lost quite a bit this year about gardening...and opposums, and racoons, and whatever else has been eating the fruits of our garden. Soon, hopefully, our garden will be safe and sound within an electric fence. But that is a project for another day. Although it has been an incredible amount of work, we have benefited from it as well. We have enjoyed many fresh fruits and vegetables. And we have learned, so next year should prove to be even more productive.

Then there is the unpacking, sorting, washing, organizing, and picking items to give away. We have given quite a bit away over the last year and a half, but there are still boxes that we missed of items we can no longer use, or that the girls have outgrown. We have learned quite a lesson this year and a half about what is necessary and what is not. We are looking at things we have multiples of as well. How many sauce pans do I really need? Or casserole dishes? How many pairs of shoes do I need? How many coats? What do I have that someone else may be in need of?

But we have been trying to take our time settling in so we can enjoy everything around us as well. I have been making bread and canning apple butter. We have had many friends over for fellowship. We have huddled around the wood stove. We are trying to live more simply. It is amazing how much richer our lives have seemed since we have been learning to live with less. It is amazing how much closer we feel to God when we learn to rely on him for our provision. It is amazing how much closer we are becoming to each other when we work along side each other to accomplish so much, and when we take the time to sit and talk together.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of scenes from around our home. I know we are.

The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn't simple.- Doris Janzen Longacre

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.- Robert Brault

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. - Vernon Howard

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.- Edwin Teale

Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking brings us close to the actual existing world and its wholeness. - Gary Snyder

Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing lessso I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.- John Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are, p. 69