Photo Sunday

 Sometimes it's just fun to study the photo and see how it makes you feel. Sunday is the day of rest and we pray you enjoy some photos of things from our weekly routine( taken from various weeks and months)  If you'd like to know more about certain photos just comment and we'll do our best to share what the photo is of and why we took it.  Many blessings for your new week.

So many blessings and changes. Hello from MT, I know.....

it's been a long time since our last post. Yes this blog has been inactive for some time now and we've most likely lost subscribers and pray they find us once again.

Where to begin, I'd say the beginning, right?  Since our last post we've had a lot of changes, ALL are blessings, even those that challenge us. Our focus has always been on our faith, we, sadly took the wide path for many years to avoid, well.... uncomfortable situations and we've been convicted for those situations and how we may have handled them. First we forgot our grounding rod, our center,  our faith that our savior is always there. The world wants to convince us that we can control the things around us, when in faith we know we can not and need prayer and supplication and a strong personal relationship with God. There is no aspect of our lives that He is not interested in, and longs for us to come to Him in prayer, seek His counsel, love and protection. While some may know some of the things that happened in our lives, the ONLY one who knows all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly is God, our savior.

Many things have made us the family we are now, there has been health issues with our daughter, my Mom. Job stressors, a new job for me( outside the home and farm), worldly family issues, accidents, death, money issues and alike. We all have them to a degree or another but it's how you deal with these circumstances that make you who you are. Sadly we admit that our reactions to some of these circumstances was not what it should have been and there has been a ripple effect. Some circumstances came to us with the ripples already in place and we floundered to make sense of this and all the while we should have been turning in prayer to God before reacting at all. When we face challenges, it's an opportunity for spiritual growth, a refining of sorts. We failed some and then we've had other areas that have been such blessings to our life and family.

We'd like to begin sharing our blessings, as well as our struggles. Our prayer is that it will be a blessing to others or at the very least a comfort. Sometimes, the world can make us feel so alone and isolated, when in fact multitudes feel the very same way, and may be facing similar challenges or have blessings to share that they feel no one else would be interested in hearing.

I will share that in re-reading some previous posts, where we were on our path, shows through and this blog will be different, one of encouragement, praise, sharing, comfort, love, interest and some challenges to you the readers as well.

Okay let's share some of our life in the last two years away in pictures( if I can remember how)

                                            God's promise to us all

Cortney's still catching beautiful shots

The passing of our first and beloved, Angel 

Montana storms, fierce and beautiful

A new addition, Cocoa

Yes, we're still gardening, although we've downsized

Still canning, dehydrating and cold storage in the cellar. 

Cortney's hair, it's darker and has more body now

Our granddaughter's plus we also have several adopted grandkids too

New hobby, spinning wool

The last two sheep we own. Snicker( brown) and Doodle

Mike's finally blacksmithing, one of his pieces created for me.

Still producing our own hay, better now with sprinkler irrigation

My love ( Mike), of almost 34 yrs.( this month)

Our new registered Nubian buck, Meeko

A doe who comes back year after year to have her fawns, twins in 2017

Blessings come in red, also yellow( pear crop was wonderful)

Another amazing Montana sky

A cold winter's flight, taken by Cortney

My Christmas gift, Mike made me a drum carder!

Mike with a nice lake trout, on an away trip.

A forged copper Rose, made by Mike

The loss of a dear friend of Cortney's, Erin, due to cancer.

The loss of a wonderful neighbor, dear friend, adopted Mom and spiritual mentor, Shoney we miss you.

There are many, more photos and stories to share, our prayer is that you'll be back to read and share them.

Blessings for your new week.

Our journey and life in MT continued

Good morning everyone!
      
Well we went to Salt Lake City and Cortney underwent a 7-1/2 hour brain surgery. Let me tell you, that was the longest day of my life thus far. She did well and Praise be to God the doctor was able to remove all of the tumor from the right side of her brain. Now the portion that has grown into the left side is another story, it's grown next to the artery and far to dangerous to try to remove it. The remaining portion is 7 mm in size and is shaped like a finger. She will need to undergo some form of treatment, we're waiting on the plan. They are testing the cells of the tumor and then will go to the national database to see which therapies nave worked on killing those cells, it's called cell mapping and the way it was explained is that 2 or more people could have the same tumor diagnosis yet when the actual cells are tested they all would be different. So it's helping them cut out the guessing game portion of treatments now.  Here are a few pictures of her after surgery.

 This was the morning after her 7-1/2 hour surgery 2-5-16

 Now in her private room after only two days in NCCU. Her Aunts sent her the balloons and she loved them. This was 2-7-16

 She was dressed in her new loungeware from Grandma Nita, ready to spring the hospital. 2-8-16. We stayed in SLC for a couple more days just to be sure she was ready for the flight home.

We went to a mall on 2-9-16 and I had this made for her, she loves it!  She is our miracle, walking and talking and has undergone two major craniotomies in less than 7 months and was walking the next morning after surgery. She is a tough Montana cowgirl! Keep her and our family in your prayers. 

Have a blessed and productive day, soon we'll have baby goat pictures to share! I'm planning on taking pictures of the prego mamas today!

Weekend with the grandkids

We were so blessed in having both of our grandkids overnight last weekend. They both had loads of fun and pooped out Grandpa and Grandma*wink*  Here are a few videos and pictures of the kids playing with the goat kids and feeding the lambs. :o)

I hesitate to share this.....

Yesterday was our only Grandaughter's 1st Birthday.  We have not been allowed contact with Jayla since last Easter. I'm not going to go into details but will add that our Ds has also disassociated himself from his entire family, his Father, sister and myself, as well as Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. I don't even begin to understand this, I've racked my brain over and over again and a still small voice keeps telling me, " It's beyond your control, let it go."  So it is with a heavy heart that we think of our Grandaughter Jayla on her 1st Birthday, wondering how beautiful she must be now, , if she talks, crawls or maybe even walks. She is in our daily prayers and maybe someday we'll get to meet her again, God willing.

                                  

My cousin's blog post and their visit here on the farm...

Hey, my cousin and her family came for a visit a few weeks ago and she's posted some cute pictures of her girls on the farm on her blog; The Finnemans   The girls had a great time with Cortney and the grown ups had a wonderful time visiting, teasing and telling stories on each other*wink*