So much I'd like to share and so little time. On another blog I enjoy, It's Cheaper Than Therapy, she shared how she reads everyone elses blogs and they do so much and I agree. Yet it seems as if I'm spinning my wheels to have time to set and share a bit of what we've been up to this week. Cortney has been working 3-4 mornings a week helping our friend with lambing. One ewe had triplets and several others have had twins. My favorite, are the black lambs. She's been bottle feeding two of the triplets, as the mother just doesn't produce enough for all three lambs and actually she's outright rejected one of the three. Our friend has asked that Cortney work on her Dad about bringing these two lambs here. The selling point will be that it's ONLY until they are weaned, then we'll return them. Mike has made it clear that he's not particularly interested in sheep or goats. Cortney loves all animals and she is very responsible with their care, so I think it will be a good project for her( Psssst....it helps if Mom is in your corner) So not jumping the gun, so to speak, I've told Cortney she'll need to clean out the brooder coop( it's 8X12 and insulated) and we'll get out a heat lamp for evenings. Attached to the brooder coop is a fenced yard, so it will work well for the lambs. This is Mike's weekend to work, so I'm planning on finishing up cleaning up sucklers trimmed from the fruit trees. I also need to top two of our plum trees, this should be fun as I don't like ladders much, but it's getting to late to wait any longer. I'm also hanging out our last load of laundry today. We have been making our laundry into an all week issue with all this uncertain weather. Drying clothes on wooden drying rack takes time, which slows down the amount of laundry being washed. Mike has promised me this year he'll make me two new clothes line posts holding 5 lines. This way we can hang out all the laundry in one day. The clothes line that is here now has only 3 lines, so at best two loads and it's full. For years now we've been led to live, our walk, closer to God. This means in all aspects of our lives right down to being, as I refer to it, God Sufficient. Self sufficient makes self the center and we want God to be our center, make sense? We are led to lead a sufficient life, which means providing for our means as much as humanly possible with the lest amount of dependence on the WORLD. We raise 98% of our produce and meat. In continuing education of organic foods and supplies, herbals and homeopathics, we are well set in providing for our health needs. We do purchase basic pantry items, with a careful eye as to which products, organic or natural companies we do business with( many of them are compromised by big business) Many people think that eating wholesome foods costs to much, the way we look at it is; "What is your health worth to you?" We, as a nation, pay out billions of dollars to the health care industry yearly( via health insurance premiums, as well as medical treatment). By consuming preservatives, chemical laden foods, hormones, genetically modified organisms( GMO's), MSG, man made chemicals(Aspartame, dyes, flavor enhancers) we have effectively compromised our God given immune function. Thus the gradual increases over years, in new diseases and illnesses and the ability of theses diseases and illnesses to gain in their immunity to medical treatments. We've created our own monster folks! We by no means have the answer. I just know that we were awakened, to this many years ago, when Cortney was diagnosed with a genetic disease( at 2yrs old). This disease is called Neurofibromatisis 1 and it is a genetic disease that follows from generation to generation. Yet neither Mike or myself have it and nor does any family on either side of our family tree. My question was, where did this come from then? The genetic specialist said it spontaneously mutated in her and now begins the generations exposed. Why did it mutate in her? You can make yourself crazy thinking about all of this, but in short we were led by the Lord to change our lifestyle and as many would say, get back to living the way the Lord intended, eating whole foods, living a less stressed life, enjoying one another, etc..... This means eating produce we grow, therefore can be 100% sure it's had no chemical exposure. We can, dehydrate and freeze everything we don't eat fresh. We raise animals in a natural way( no antibiotics, hormones, or immunizations) and then we are sure that our dairy,as well as meat are 100% chemical free as well. Of course we can't possibly control all exposure to chemicals, it's in the air we breath and the water we drink( although we do filter our water through a Big Berkley) I pray that everyone who reads our blog is led to seek a more wholesome lifestyle. As you've read by the above ramblings it's a subject close to my heart. I'd like to ask all that read this start to think about what your put in your body before you do it. Educate yourself about the health dangers of all the chemical laden foods and drinks. Study what is happening to our food and what the reasoning is behind the GMO push( think outside the box). One simple question we ask ourselves," How close is this food, to how God made it?" Well...... this turned into a soapbox moment, I'm stepping down now. Off to get something on the list going! Again I can relate to It's Cheaper Than Therapy's blog today, where does everyone come up with the time to get it all done, they must have more arms and hands than I? Many blessing to each of you and through out this weekend.