July 21, 2010 by Debbie.

If you haven’t seen Betsy’s new babies, look at the post below this one also but do NOT skip this one!

This is copied from Prayer Connect enewsletter/prayer list. It is EXCELLENT. Nothing is changed, not even formatting.

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A Season, a Time and a Word

Season
- an indefinite period of time

Time - a
measured or measurable period

Word - a
brief remark or conversation

Would it
ever end? I was certain I felt myself aging. There I was, waiting for it
to be over and waiting for the Lord to return - wondering which would
happen first.  The place? Prayer meeting!

I was
seven. At that time, prayer was probably around number 208 on my list of
priorities. I mean, after all God already knew our needs. He also
already knew the future. So in my highly educated and intelligent
seven-year-old mind, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t
understand. If God knew what we needed and knew what we were going to
ask for when we prayed, then locking ourselves in the church for what
seemed to be an endless period of time to tell God what He already knew,
seemed to me like a great big waste of time.

You see,
during those days over thirty years ago, the saints met frequently for
what they called a “season” of prayer. In the little church where I
grew up in Green Pond, Alabama, they were serious about it. They met
with the intent and purpose to pray until something happened. If it took
30 minutes, fine. If it took five hours, that was fine too.

Jump forward
a few years and more and more you began to hear the phrase “a time of
prayer.” Oh yes, make no mistake, there was still prayer meeting - it
just didn’t last quite as long. No more meeting to pray until you hear
from heaven, now we were more on a time schedule. Okay God, you have
from 7:00 - 8:00 PM on Monday night to show up, or we’ll have to catch
you next week. A “season” had somehow evolved to “a time.”

Jump forward
a few more years to our fast paced, push-button society where we’ve
become accustomed to getting everything in a hurry. No more taking days
or weeks to travel across country by horse or train admiring the beauty
of the landscape that God created. Now we get on a plane and in two
hours or less we can get 1,000 miles in any direction. No more taking
hours to thaw something. Just pop it in the microwave and the same
result is accomplished in mere minutes.

Wouldn’t you
know it? The church has also progressed. How many times in your local
service or at larger events do we pause now to have a “word” of prayer?

How
interesting. We have gone from a season, to a time, to a word. To borrow
wisdom from Webster’s dictionary, it would seem we have gone from “an
indefinite period of prayer, to a measured or measurable period of
prayer, to a brief remark or conversation with God.”

It would
almost seem that with all of our computers, gadgets and modern-day
conveniences to help us save time, we have gotten so busy that we have
almost phased prayer out completely. Makes me wonder about scriptures
like:

1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul tells believers to “pray without
ceasing.”

Luke 21:36 -
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the son of man.

While I know
that we can’t pray non-stop due to work schedules and the need for
sleep, but speaking for myself, I could definitely dedicate more time to
prayer. There are times when all we have time to do is utter a “word”
of prayer. Other times our schedule may be a little more flexible,
allowing us to devote a little “time” to prayer. But let us not forget
that periodically, we must not neglect having a “season” of prayer. No
matter how busy, periodically we must give ourselves to an extended
period of seeking God. We need that - He does too!

I was at a
church last week and someone told the congregation to just “breathe a
prayer.”

I wonder
what will be next. God help us!

Lisa Marshall
Strategic Prayer Coordinator
World Network of Prayer

Posted in Homestead living | 2 Comments »

July 19, 2010 by Debbie.

Betsy decided to kid on Sat. night and she did an excellent job of it. Within an hour, she presented us with a beautiful black buckling and a brown doeling. That was an hour after serious kidding started. She’d been in light labor most of the day; restless, up and down, starry-eyed glares off into the distance when a contraction would come on her, refusing her feed - the most tell-tale sign of a goat in some type of stress.

Betsy is one of the best momma goats, just like her momma before her. She gets the babies cleaned off in record time and up to nurse in an amazingly short time with no thought to her own body. These pictures are within an hour of kidding.

After I found a rat snake while mowing, John and I went snake hunting. There’s an area by the side of the house where vinca grows, making a nice cool area for the guinea to lay eggs and nest. We figured there would be at least one rat snake in there.  John shot two large rat snakes after clearing the ground cover with a weed-eater. I made him pose with one of his trophies before he threw it in the pasture for the varmints to eat.

It was an eventful weekend, busy and productive as well. Today I spent the whole morning cleaning up outside with a worker. John N. is young and strong so I did a lot of point and direct after my 50+ year old energy ran out. I did some mowing while John N. cleaned out the chicken coop to make ready for the new chicks and turkeys who are quickly outgrowing the pasture poultry cages. Their heads will touch the 2 foot high ceiling soon. John N. and I built a new raised bed area with the chicken coop cleanings - it won’t be used for awhile so the bedding will have time to decompose.  Then John N. attacked the pool herb bed area with a cotton hoe. I can barely lift the hoe let alone try to swing it to chop a bramble down. John N. also weed-whacked some very over grown areas; our goal was to remove any snake vacation spots.

Frankly, even a 2 hour nap hasn’t revived me. I’m tempted to down a pot of real coffee, but I know I’d be up all night as a result. I think, instead,  we’ll just have scrambled eggs and fruit for supper and I’ll start fresh (hopefully) again tomorrow!

Posted in Homestead living | 3 Comments »

July 10, 2010 by Debbie.

The pool is prime attraction in a hot Texas summer!

Avery’s really into the pool - she even went down the slide with her Momma, Tiffany.

Maggie is seldom without a book (wonder where she got that from??) . Grandpa is fascinated with her Super Sudoku book.

Of course, GrandDog Lilly came up to ‘the farm,’ too!

A trip to the barn!

Maggie (granddaughter), Debbie (daughter), and John, Jr. (son)

Scottie on the new ‘horse’ swing!

I finally finished the quilt I’d intended for Tom Himelick’s  S. Georgia Farm Workers’ Project quilt - done too late. If you look closely at all the hand quilting you’ll know why! We titled it “Celebrate America’s Farm Workers.”

I kind of got carried away with hand quilting the log cabin blocks but I enjoyed doing them so much I hated to stop.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer relaxing as much as we are!

Posted in Homestead living | 2 Comments »

July 5, 2010 by Debbie.

The last half of June and this first part of July have not adhered to the normal Texas dry weather. Yes, it was definitely hot in June, hitting 102 for one day, but the last part of the month brought unusual rains that have held on for this first part of July. With the rains in July, our temps actually dropped to the 90’s. Humidity made it feel higher than 90’s but still not bad for July in Texas! The pastures needed the rains badly. I noticed I’ll have to watch carefully when I let the does in the old garden area pasture again as that grass is lush and green - which can cause deadly bloat, which we sadly found out by experience in May.

The turkeys are growing so fast it’s amazing to me. At 3 weeks old the tom turkeys were learning how to strut their stuff, dropping their wings and drawing their neck to their chest as their tail feathers fanned out like the Pilgrim pictures in our school books. It looked so funny on a 10 inch tall turkey - miniature turkeys in my mind. It appears we have 6 hens and 2 toms out of the flock I ordered. Two of the 10 died - one scared to death when I mowed too close to the pasture poultry pen. BUT I will say, they do know enough to get out of the rain!

Our first snake of the year was curled up in the corner of the turkey/chicken pasture poultry coup. He’s dead.

The house painters were delayed with 4 afternoons of rain but the job is finally finished! It is such a relief to have such a big job finished. They even worked around my huge bush on the side of the house, although I did get some kidding about them cutting it down or they couldn’t finish the job. My reply was, “That’s OK. If you can’t finish, I can’t pay you!” The job is done nicely, isn’t it?!

I’m enjoying making some  baby quilts for a new (to me) charity, Hope Resource Center.  Hope Resource Center is an crisis pregnancy ministry that provides alternatives to abortion. It’s located in McKinney, TX.

The 9 Patch quilt is really brighter than it looks. I used 1930’s reproduction fabrics. The other one is for those babies who want to monkey around.

Well, time and laundry waits for no man (or woman), so I’d better go get busy and put the wet laundry on the line. Rain is due in again this afternoon.

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