A Little Monday Update

Hello Monday!

These little ones make my heart sing!

Yes - I'm still pregnant. No - I won't be forever. 

The kids were able to spend Saturday night and part of Sunday with grandma Lu and papa Joe. They had a blast...got to go out for supper, out for breakfast and got to spend the night at uncle Gene's cabin.

I was able to get carpet shampooed and a couple of closets cleaned out...and was able to sleep in a little Sunday morning.

Between the middle of last week and over the weekend, we were able to get the rest of the greenhouse planted. Hopefully soon I will be seeing little seedlings popping up - potatoes, green beans, peas, sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, celery, dill, cucumbers, melons, and more.

My hens are loving that the snow is gone and the weather has been warmer. They are making their way all over the lawn and loving that they can get close to the deck and to my compost bucket.

The cats may drive me crazy - I'm always kicking them out of the garage...but this morning they redeemed themselves. One caught and killed a rat overnight. They of course didn't eat it, but brought it to the front door to show off their handy work.

The pup, Hershey, may just be part cat. He seems to have 9 lives. After Joe dropped a post on him earlier this winter, he managed to feel better and be back to himself in less then a week. And over the weekend, he got into something and was looking very sickly - wouldn't eat or drink and just laying around. Two doses of penicillin and extra rest and he seems back to normal this morning.

We also butchered a 2 year old steer last week. This time we had a local man come out and slaughter him here on the farm, then he hauled him into the butcher for us. It was a great deal and we didn't have to spend a morning getting him loaded ourselves and hauling him in. I can't wait to refill the freezer.

Nothing is really scheduled for this week...maybe a baby??

Stay tuned.

God bless!

Multitude Monday - January 21st, 2013

There has been a wide variety of excitement around the Neaton ranch this past week.


There was a rooster attack. He managed to scratch my leg pretty good, even through my jeans. His days here are numbered.

Joseph has finally come to grips with being weaned. It's been about 3 weeks and just this past week he finally stopped asking for 'milk time' and stopped throwing a fit at bed and nap time. It's such a blessing to have one less battle around here. Tonight I brought him to his room and laid him down and the sweet little one says...'cover me up, night mom.'

We also brought home a cute little puppy on Saturday. Joe and the kids had went and picked him out about a month ago and Joe went and picked him up this weekend. We have been talking about him off and on for the last month and the kids kept going back and forth on wanting him and not wanting him.

I'm pretty sure everyone is thrilled that he is here now. He has seemed to have had numerous names over the last couple of days, but think everyone has settled on - Buddy.

Dirty faces make me smile!

Other blessings...meals stocked away in the freezer, the start of greenhouse prepping underway, Friday night dinners with friends, Netflixing movies and no commercials, ordering groceries through Amazon, phone calls and chats with friends.

The week ahead includes a midwives appointment (30 weeks already), a meeting with an insurance salesman and a final Christmas party.

Joining Ann...

God bless!

Multitude Monday - January 14th, 2013

So many gifts for our family over the last month or so...large and small...seen, heard, felt and experienced. Here's a few...

Children heard playing so well with each other...
...Joseph having a couple of extra 'mama's' to help him out

Chickens in the front yard

Leftover Christmas treats unearthed in the freezer

New niece, Reagan...
...held, snuggled and cuddled

Sitting and reading with my 3 favorite little ones...
...book after book after book

Fresh baked, homemade warm bread...
...and loads of butter
...and Joseph says honey too!

My partner-in-life, Joe beside me...
...working, parenting, living, loving

Winter sunshine, even with it is bitter cold out...
...stocking hats and mittens

Joseph's ever growing vocabulary...
...and the things he says

   

 He has been telling me 'hold on, hold on' when I ask for him. 

Apparently I tell everyone to 'hold on' quite often.

He is fascinated with the word 'tuna' and will randomly 

throw it into whatever he is talking about.

Children quickly getting over a stomach bug...

...all 3 were hit, but none had it for more than 24 hours

Growing baby belly...
...and just now having to break out the maternity pants

Counting with Ann today and looking forward to a week working back into a routine.
God bless!

Multitude Monday - October 29, 2012

Joining Ann today for the first time in a long time...


...wonderful appointment with my midwives...

...hearing the little one's little heartbeat...

...finally over the tiredness and nausea...

...coffee, tea, chili, soup - warmth on a fall day...

...surprise visits from Kelly and little Silas...

...a day spent with my mother-in-law, aunties, uncles and sister-in-laws - baking away...

...hearing of an upcoming wedding and the blessing of a new sister-in-law...
                    Congrats to Travis and Kelsey!

...still picking tomatoes at the end of October...

...weekend canning done - 9 qts of peach applesauce, 11 qts of tomato soup, 13 qts of chili...


Have a wonderful week!

God bless!

Monday at the Neaton Ranch - 06/11/12

Around the Neaton Ranch...We managed the field trip to the Children's Musuem last week, but not to the Oliver Kelley Farm. The kids had a blast at the musuem. We were there for 4+ hours. They seemed to enjoy it all, but I think their favorite part was the water and bubbles.

Kids had fun at grandpa and grandma's on Friday night. She must have really wore them out. They all (even Charlie) took 3+ hour naps on Saturday afternoon.

To add to the guinea that showed up recently, Joe came home with a rooster Wednesday night. He seems to be getting along just fine with the other fowl around here.

Listening to...rain and the dishwasher running (Sunday night) and the washer and dryer running now (Monday morning).

Moments of Gratitude...adult time with my dear hubby, Saturday afternoon naps, a break in the heat, a little needed rain (but not too much), producing garden and my ability to prepare a yummy meal for my family from it, little garden helpers, garden friends that can help me out (I forgot to plant my dill, so it is way behind the cukes that are coming), evidence of sweetness on the vine

06/09/12 - watermelon

Reading...Just read through The Vegetable Gardener's Bible and got some great ideas on how I want to change some garden beds and rows around.

On Our Plates...the photo below was pretty much Sunday supper. We had a tossed salad with lettuce, spinach, carrots and cukes from the garden. I also added hard boiled eggs (from our own chickens). I sauted up the potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, green beans in some bacon grease. We also grilled steaks (from the steer we raised and butchered last year). It's quite rewarding to be able to prepare a meal that is 90% food you raised and/or grew yourself.

I have no idea what we are eating tonight yet, so the rest of the week is up in the air as well.

  Ahead This Week...I'm thinking I will be making a small batch of dill pickles tomorrow and I need to get some jam made too - strawberry rhubarb and peach jelly. I have all the fruit in the freezer just waiting for me to make the time to do it. We are down to 1 jar of jam, so it needs to happen this week. We actually have really nothing on the schedule for this week. We will get together with Joe's family over next weekend for Father's Day and there is also a tractor pull to attend next Sunday.


Linking with Ann-A Holy Experience.


Have a blessed week!

Monday at the Neaton Ranch - 06/04/12

Around the Neaton Ranch...We have been busy around here...same as everyone else.

On the garden front, the back garden is finally drying up some. I may have Joe till up a little more of it. I have squash plants started in some pots and realy have nowhere else to stick them. I need to do some massive weeding back there around my onions too and am planning on mulching them so I won't have to weed again. I also still have grape vines to plant, strawberry bushes to mulch and raspberry bushes to prune and thin.

We had a guinea fowl show up in our yard last week. Turns out that he (I think it's a 'he') did belong to our neighbors and they were unable to catch him when they recentyl moved out. Pretty sure he has adopted us. They are so loud, but are suppose to be really good at keeping ticks and bugs cleaned up...maybe even snakes, mice and rats.

We enjoyed a couple of graduation parties over the weekend...very fun to get together with everyone.

I even managed to get most of the lawn mowed over the weekend.

Listening to...washer and dryer running and smelling coffee brewing.


Moments of Gratitude...Wonderful blessings of greenhouse gardening, a dryer week, family gatherings, getting to see grandma so soon again and her doing remarkably well, little ones helping, busy fun weekends, getting to meet a 'blogging friend', the first Friday on the Farm, compliments from my dear auntie on my homemaking/mothering, smell of freshly mowed grass, unexpected rainbows

Reading...Still slowly reading through Don't Make Me Count To Three and Heaven in Her Arms. I also just picked up Be Your Own Doctor and want to get back to reading some of Educating the Whole-Hearted Child and Four Season Harvest.


Praying...Other's new beginnings - new marriages, new babies, graduates and new schooling. Parenting on the same page - children minding much better. Homeschooling plans for fall.


Home Learning...I spent a bunch of time last week looking at curriculum options for fall and still haven't decided, but the plan is to decide by the end of this week what we are going to do. In the last week or so, Joe taught Charlie how to drive the gator. Yesterday morning, all the children helped me dig up some potatoes...so much fun. It's like finding buried treasures. All the children are also learning to obey dad and mom better. The new rule of 'yes dad' and 'yes mom' is working wonderfully and the bickering and backtalking has been a lot less in the last few weeks.


On Our Plates...There will be homegrown salads at most of our lunches and suppers this week. I'm thinking grilled burgers and french fries for supper tonight. The rest of this week is up in the air...probably chicken on the grill, chicken stirfry, maybe tator tot hotdish.

Ahead This Week...We are planning 2 field trips this week - Minnesota Children's Museum and Oliver H. Kelley Farm. I'm sure there will be plenty of gardening happening - weed pulling for sure. The children are all staying over night at grandma and grandpa's on Friday night and Joe and I will have some free time with no little ones.

Linking with Ann.

God bless!

Monday at the Neaton Ranch

Busy days are best organized by God. ~ Pamela McQuade

Around the Neaton Ranch...Beautiful weather today. I got some weeds pulled and cucumber plants transplanted and even time for a little gator ride with the family tonight.

Listening to...

Hubby snoring on the couch.

Moments of Gratitude...

The past week has been all about my grandma Geri and the brain surgery she had. They live in Kansas, but she was able to get into Mayo in Rochester for her surgery...putting her only a couple of hours away from me. Early Friday morning, she went in for an 8 hour surgery to remove a baseball size tumor that was attached to numerous parts of her brain. Praise the Lord, the surgery was a huge success. Her surgeon was the chair of the neurosurgery department at Mayo and he was able to remove the entire tumor. 

The tumor was found after she started losing her eyesight and cataract surgery hadn't corrected the issues with her eyes. As of this morning, she was doing tremendously well and her eyesight also seems to be improving each hour.

God is so GOOD! There are a ton of little things that have happened and fallen into place along this journey of hers...there is no way that God doesn't have His Hands in it. 

 Myself, grandma and my mom...can you tell we are related??

This was last Wednesday before she met with the specialists and surgeon.

This was Saturday...day after surgery

Her husband, John, my cousin Dylan and my aunt and uncle, Jim and Shelly

Reading...

Bible

Don't Make Me Count to Three

Heaven in Her Arms

Praying...

So many things...

Grandma and great recovery

Relationship rebuilding and extending forgiveness 

Schooling plans for next year

Home Learning...

Planning on starting to teach Charlie to read...she has already managed to teach herself quite a few things. I borrowed Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons from a friend...now just to open and use it.

On Our Plates...

We grilled burgers and potatoes tonight and had fresh asparagus and lettuce from the garden. I have decided I am a 24 hour meal planner. I almost always have basics in the pantry and freezer, so I can throw something together...and our schedules and moods change from day to day. Tuesdays are Charlie picks supper nights, so I will have to talk to her in the morning and see what the plan is for tomorrow.

Ahead This Week...

Tomorrow I'm headed to the hospital to visit with grandma. I have a sitter lined up for Wednesday and will plan on working in my office and hopefully getting the onions planted like I had planned well over a week ago. Bible Study with some wonderful girlfriends on Friday. We will be finishing up a book and I'm excited to hear what they thought of the last couple of chapters.

God bless!

My Rock

My rock of a husband brought me a rock today. It made me love him even more.

See the big flat gold-speckled rock in the back...it's mine!

Joe was on a job today helping a farming neighbor pull out some stumps, clean up some rocks and install some drainage tile. He was holding the 3 smaller rocks above in his hands and noticed that he had a small, medium and large one and it reminded him of his little blessings at home. He decided his children would love to get a special rock that their daddy found for them during the day. He pocketed them and decided he should find mama a special rock too. He didn't want to leave me out.

The next rock he picked up...the gold-speckled one. 

He was showing the kids the special rock he found just for mama and said..."See, how it looks like gold, I thought it was perfect for mom because she is as precious as gold."

MELT MY HEART!

I am so blessed to have this man!

Multitude Monday

Newest Neaton ~ calf born on Friday morning

Little ones all checking on the calf 

Cori peddling away

This is what happens when you have big sisters ~ sometimes you end up in a dress

Farm fresh eggs

All our blessings come from His hands.

Counting today...

953...new life on the farm...

954...mama cow handling it all on her own...

(I checked on her at 6:30am and no calf yet, Joe went out at 7:30am and she had delivered the little one shortly before that and was already taking good care of him)

955...hens laying eggs again...

956...wide variety of spring weather to get out and play in...

957...kids having fun in sun, in clouds, in dirt, in mud, in sandals, in mittens...

958...siblings playing well together ~ even if it means brothers in dresses...

959...play-dates with friends and with cousins ~ all in the same week...

960...little one's giggles...

961...John 12:13 ~ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel."

962...hubby compliments for the everyday things ~ clean clothes and packed lunches...

963...camera photos and videos...

Have a blessed week! 

Multitude Monday - 02/20/12

Being present with my presents..

944..compliments from hubby for supper..

945..all the children cleaning their plates..

946..The Scriptures were given not to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives. ~ D.L. Moody..

947..God's Word is shallow enough to not drown the young but deep enough that the greatest theologian will never touch the bottom. ~ St. Augustine..

948..The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ~ 2 Peter 3:9..

949..afternoons on the swingset..

950..in February..in Minnesota..

951..14 month old boy loving to be outside..

(he hears mention of outside and goes and gets his shoes)

952..little ones helping to set the table for meals..

Enjoy a blessed week!

God bless!

Multitude Monday - 02/13/12

Counting with Ann.....

927..Joseph playing peek-a-boo behind the opened closet door..

928..piles and piles of clean clothes just waiting to be folded..

929..all 3 children laughing like crazy as they chase around the remote-controlled car..

930..hubby easily fixing my oven door..

931..warmness inside the greenhouse when it is winter cold outside..

932..re-growing celery in my kitchen window..

933..weekends of running..

934..long drives just Joe and I..

935..meeting my new baby brother..

936..flexibility and extra time from the babysitters..

937..Sunday morning bacon..

938..grandma taking the girls overnight..

939..girls enjoying cookies and hot cocoa with grandma and grandpa..

940..Menards dates with Joe..

941..popcorn any time and all the time..

942..little ones that sleep through the night..

943..and little ones who never do..

Have a blessed week!