Wow! It has been a minute since I made a post. My husband has had a couple surgeries, I have had another kiddo and we have added a few more friends to the farm!

I’m not gonna lie, life has been crazy, overwhelming but so fruitful and a lot growth has happened over the last while.

My oldest daughter Nicole (6) wanted to have meat rabbits again so we bought a few does and a couple bucks. So far so good. With rabbits it’s not too difficult to raise them just as long as they don’t go running around the open field and get mistaken for a bouncy toy (one didn’t make it). But, you know what?! That’s life on a farm. Things are born, things die. There is growth and wilting. There is joy and sadness. It’s the world we live in and the challenges we face.

My middle daughter Madison (2.5) is a hoot! She is my little farm girl but the one that likes to stay clean while being outside. If she gets anything on her hands or clothes it’s “ewwwyy!” She cracks me up and life wouldn’t be the same without her humor. She likes to help with a little of everything.

Josiah (4) is my one and only boy! He is a cowboy/rancher In training and loves to do anything that involves the side by side or tractor. His animal chore is the chickens. He goes out every day to collect eggs for me and brings them in for breakfast.

Last but not least is the newest addition, Riley (7mo). She has been a sweet addition to the family and it’s starting to get around now which has calmed her down because man, does she not like to be left out! We love that little girl. Her favorite is to be outside in her bouncer watching all the craziness of the farm.

Gabe and I have both been working hard to get things cleaned up and organized since he has been cleared from physical therapy from his ankle surgeries. That was a rough time with not being able to walk for so long, but we got through it and are happy it’s in the past.

We are moving towards regenerative agriculture and being self sufficient on our Southern Plains Farm. We feel called to use what God has provided us with to give back ti the land and use it wisely and efficiently. It is amazing what all can be done with this “old fashioned” way of farming, I guess you could say. It’s not really the norm these days.

Well, enough about us… we BOUGHT A DAIRY COW! I am so excited. She has been a wonderful challenge. Her name is Barbara. She is pretty chill but has gone from a milking machine to us hand milking her so it’s been a learning curve for all parties.

I’ve been waiting for a dairy cow for while now and we finally found a good fit. I have made yogurt and plan to try out ice cream, some cheeses and butter soon. I will make a short blog post about the process of yogurt later.

We are milking twice a day right now and getting between 3-4 gallons of milk a day. Milking takes about 45-60 minutes from start to finish twice a day. This includes setup, cleaning her, milking, clean up and filtering the milk. She usually gets milked around 6am and between 4-6pm depending on what the day looks like. 12 hours between milking a is best but 10-12 is still okay!

As far as other animals goes, we have been hatching birds out and there is a new calf on the farm. I will post pictures below! As the title states, a lot has happened. Life is full but beautiful by the grace of God. Until next time…

It’s been awhile since I have posted but we have been so incredibly busy. I am now 20 Weeks pregnant. We are on Summer break, although the learning never stops. Our summer break looks different than others in that, the work doesn’t stop, it’s just not as scheduled out with school and such.

We have almost finished growing out some hogs for butcher next month and have been raising the quail, chickens and cows still.

Unfortunately, we had to give our rabbits away due to an allergy that we detected after we got them. It was a fun animal to have for sure but not for us right now. We were all sad to see them go as it was one of our favorites for sure.

Our newest animals are geese and ducks. They are fun to watch play in the water.

This week we are processing some birds. Today we are doing chickens. We started early so we could try to beat the heat but it creeps up fast. So far so good though. We definitely have better equipment than the last time we did this, so it’s been a lot smoother.

It is a process for sure and we will be separating parts later after they are all processed and chilled.

More to come… Happy summer!

It has been a crazy past few weeks. We have accumulated some more farm animals and we are loving every bit of it. I will post more in depth about our projects as we go but wanted to share some photos of our new little ones.

A few weeks ago we bought a breeding pair of pigs and then last week we found some piglets to raise as well!

Lots has been happening here and the kids are learning how to do all the chores alongside Gabe and I.

There are days that don’t look pretty or attitudes aren’t obedient and kiddos don’t get along but the truth is that’s just part of us learning and growing. We learn what it means to serve God and to love and serve one another through all of this. What grace looks like and how we can demonstrate it to each other as Christ has given us grace.

So much to learn from just raising your own food and having these responsibilities. It’s hard and it’s not always pretty, but worth every minute. We teach the kids to get back up when they fall, take care of others, honor God in their actions, thoughts and words, and never give up.

I decided to write this post for a few reasons. One, because it’s real life and I want to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and try something new even when it seems too hard. Two, as a young mom of 3, (five and under) with #4 on the way I want to encourage other young mommas to take a deep breathe and keep working at this mom thing. We have a wonderful and beautiful gift and calling to be moms but life can get so busy and crazy that we can forget what a gift we have. And three, I wanted to do a photo dump of all the baby animals and things we have been working on. Enjoy the photos below and I hope I can be an encouragement.

I don’t post as much as I would like but I would love to hear your thoughts and comments or other topics you’d like to hear about. Please let me know what you think and sign up with your to get notified when we make a new posts. Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on the next adventure!

I have wanted pigs for quite some time now and a couple weeks ago we finally were able to find some!

These are Berkshire Hogs. Linus and Lucy. Lucy is due to have piglets in May so we will be having lots of fun adventures with that.

We set up their pen in the back of our property with hog panels. After several days they decided they wanted to get out so we set up some hot fence to keep them in. So far so good. That will help with moving them around as they learn how to stay inside the hot fence.

More to come…

Well it has been a whirlwind of a holiday season. Between quail, goats, horses and cows we have had our hands full.

The quail are doing fantastic and are laying a ton of eggs everyday. We have some in the incubator that should turn out to be Christmas chicks and be hatching this weekend! The kids are so excited about the chicks.

We went to auction with our goat herd two weeks ago and sold them all! We needed them for some land clearing and they did an excellent job at that so before it go too cold and the mommas had babies we sold them so they have a better set up for the winter.

We are trying to plan stuff out and think long term with all the animals we have. There is a purpose with every single one and we are doing a lot of research as we go on this adventure of homesteading.

My current research is about compost and prepping for our garden next year as well as learning what we can grow even during the winter. Long term we want to be self sufficient year round. It’s going to take a lot of work but we love it and the kids are involved in pretty much every part including the research. It’s often that they ask Daddy to read to them from whatever book he is currently in (right now we are reading about quail, and composting).

It’s such an amazing feeling to find something that you have a passion about that can help your family and community. I pray that our kiddos go through life with a drive to help and use what God has given us to live and share with others.

Merry Christmas from all of us and may you find peace and joy during this season!

It’s been awhile. We have been doing so much and been very busy. Between homeschool, managing property and farming it’s a full day.

Gabe and I started a 90-Day challenge where we read the Bible in 90 days from cover to cover. In order to make time for that first we get up at 4am. So we are up before the sun and then bedtime is 830-930pm. Long day but full so it’s good. I will post more about the reading plan over on my literature page where people can ask questions or make comments.

In all the craziness we added a new animal to our farm. We have started to raise quail. The kids have loved this, especially since the quail are so little and cute. The big kids got to help clean out the temporary quail cage the other day and Gabe and I have been building there more permanent cage that we will do egg collecting and such with. We are excited and hope this goes well and we can continue with this new addition.

We have also be working on the quail cage as well and recently finished putting it together. Below are some progress pictures!

Quail grow so fast and eat and drink so much but they are thriving and almost ready to start laying! We are excited to do some incubating with some of the eggs.

One another note we have added a couple Longhorns to our animal inventory in addition to the quail! They are young but we are starting to raise them so we can have our own beef as well!

Lots going on, as always!

We have been working hard to get stuff set up for winter and prepping for next season and all that it will entail!

I wasn’t sure what to call this post but I finally decided on family time. Our little family of 5 loves to be outside. As fall continues and winter approaches, it’s time to get the property ready for the cold.

This week we have really started getting some things out away and ready for bad weather and yesterday the kids got to help with some backyard projects.

Our kiddos LOVE to help with any job we are working on. Yesterday we were cutting up logs from some trees my husband cut down and the kids piled up branches to be burned.

Even the dogs “helped”!

My husband and I worked from sun up to sundown. I made some progress in our garage and got my garden cleaned up. Gabe smoked meat while we were outside, as well, which turned out very well!

I cleaned off the kids trampoline so they could play (because it was covered in acorns and no one likes stepping on those). Madison enjoyed playing on it and watching while the big kids helped move limbs.

There isn’t really a story in this post but more a little update as to what some of our family time looks like. It doesn’t have to cost money or be out and about (although it is fun to do family outings). We honestly enjoy just being together and having a project to work on.

The kids get to learn how to work hard and appreciate things from a different perspective when they have to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They teach each other and get exercise while at the same time learn safety, responsibility, and the importance of taking care of what God provides us.

It is so exciting to me to get to watch my kids learn, grow and teach them to work hard and play hard.

Until next time…

Most anyone that will see the title will think this took place on Wednesday, while in fact, it took place just a couple hours ago…let me explain.

Just like any other night, I was on one end of the house cleaning up some things when my oldest, Nicole, comes running in…Hang on, let me pause and give you a little preface. We homeschool so we have a magnetic calendar that you can change the days, months, days of the week, etc, on. It’s fun for the kiddos and everything sticks to the calendar board. Josiah enjoys it because he is learning the days of the week. He can’t read yet but is learning the names of things…

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes… So Nicole comes running in and exclaims “Mom! I saw it, Josiah is pooping on the floor, you should come see this.” I of course am like “ahhh” because Josiah is my mess maker. He doesn’t really try to make messes all the time, but he likes to do stuff himself, so messes happen frequently. Also he is two. No further explanation necessary.

I run across the house to the bedrooms and see Madison bouncing up and down, holding onto the side of her crib like she is having the time of her life. Then I see Josiah squatting. I hear poop and come running up to a kid squatting in the hallway and think “seriously, kid?” But, he still has his pjs on and a diaper. So I turn him around and ask him what’s going on and where he pooped. As he moves aside he points to a small pile on the carpet (to which later I found a few more spots around that area). IT STINKS at this point, Madison is still giggling and bouncing in her crib, oblivious to the smell or sight and Josiah is now stressed out because there is poop on his leg (which after investigation I realize that he pulled poop out of his diaper and set it in places). So I send Nicole off for a trash bag and some cleaner while I begin to carefully clean Josiah up.

At this point, Im sure you’re thinking, why are we still talking about a dirty diapers? Wait for it…

If anyone has ever heard my little man talk he mushes sounds together sometimes. So he ‘s’ sound is more like ‘sh’. Super cute! Anyways, I get him cleaned up and then I ask him “Josiah, did you poop on anything else?” He says yes, so I ask “what did you poop on?” His reply “Wenshday” (aka Wednesday). Yes, there are magnetic calendar pieces near. Yes, he is two and is a boy and likes to make messes. So now I’m like “awesome (not)!” I gather them all and clarify “so you pooped on Wednesday?” He confirms.

Again he doesn’t know how to read but the second he said that I knew I needed to gather all the magnets because one lucky day of the week needed to be washed urgently. Nope, Wednesday was clean (but I washed them all just in case)so I checked the whole calendar board just in case. No, as if it were planned, his poop was not on Wednesday but rather on October. I mean, it is the 1st, so why the heck not smear some poop on the month already. Long story short, I handled it. I was trying not to laugh for obvious reasons but life happens, right?!

These are the things that happen that are so gross but if you can get past that and have a good laugh it makes life a little more enjoyable. Im sure no one wants to hear about poop on a Friday night but it was too funny not to share and someday, he will laugh at it too. I love that little guy, he cracks me up.

Happy October, Fall, and Friday. Enjoy the messy moments too!

It has been awhile since my last post but we have been jam packed with projects. Some tiring and some fun and enjoyable. A typical day for us goes something like this…

Between 5:30AM and 6:30AM (sometimes 7 or so depending on how the night went) I will get up, grab a small snack; often toast or something similar and my coffee. I’ll go back to my room and open up my bible for some quiet reading time…next thing I hear is…”Im awake!” Josiah’s head pops in the door with a big grin. The next words out of his mouth are as follows (like clockwork), “is the ‘thhhoesht (aka toast)?” He then proceeds to sneak over and climb up in my lap and grab a bite of toast, a sip of coffee and then he is ready to “read” with me. In reality, he picks out the ‘W’s’ while I try to stay focused and read my devotions.

Pretty soon, Madison starts playing in her bed and bouncing up and down and giggling. She is very content with playing quietly which is nice because it gives me a minute to get up and ready before all the noise and demands of the day occur.

Nicole is the one that sleeps in and will sleep through all the noises from the other two. Once everyone is up and moving we move on to breakfast and morning chores. Breakfast can be noisy and rushed so I try to give the kids an activity like coloring or something to entertain them while I make a quick breakfast. By around 8:00AM I try to get breakfast finished and cleaned up so we can start school around 8:30AM. This is flexible, especially now that we have goats. Most of the time Gabe will go over and check them, feed and water them and make sure everything looks good. However, it is fun for the kids to do that during the week sometimes as well.

Homeschooling is new for us. I was homeschooled and have tutored others before but when it is your own child and you are the teacher it’s different. I chose a curriculum that has helped a lot in planning out lessons. Each morning, when we get to school time I will grab that days lesson plan and worksheet or book that goes with it. Its realistically 9AM now and Madison will go down for a short morning nap while Josiah works on his “projects”. I have a PJ Mask rug and a couple wiggly seats that he uses. I try to get him building, coloring or looking at books during school time, although his favorite is cutting paper with his beginner scissors.

Nicole is Preschool age but we started her in Kindergarten and she is doing great. We do Bible first every day, then reading, and math after lunch. Her other subjects that she will do periodically throughout the week are drawing/art of some sort, charts which cover an assortment of information as well as some history or science. Science often involves reptiles, which, realistically, we do everyday, to some degree, since we have several reptiles.

Around 11:30AM we will either go out and do errands, put away groceries (if its grocery day), help with farm chores or projects at a rent house with dad or eat lunch. I say or eat lunch, obviously, we eat lunch every day but the time fluctuates depending on what is needing to be done. Honestly, sometimes lunch is on the go.

After lunch and clean up I get the kids down for a nap (at least the younger two). Sometimes Nicole stays up and does homework in my room. During nap time is my project time with less interruptions which includes laundry, dishes, office work (for three companies and personal), helping Nicole with homework or if it has been a super rough day, a nap. It’s a packed two hours for sure.

Between 3-4PM is when I try to get the kids up and we will either finish chores, errands or go help Gabe on his projects if it permits kids to help. The goal each day is to get stuff done around 4-5PM so we can move on to dinner and evening routine. This includes TV some days, play time (yes my kids get to play as well. It is mixed in all the cracks of our daily responsibilities), chores or playing with the dogs outside. Bedtime is usually between 7:30PM and 8PM. We usually have the kids do some reading or something after getting ready for bed. Diffusers on and lights out around 8PM and then I go finish all the little things I couldn’t do before. Usually, cleaning the kitchen, reading, office work, etc.

This may just seem like a rigid schedule that doesn’t seem complicated or anything. Some days are pretty rigid and most have this routine in the day somewhere. The above description is true, but what is not something you can always include in words or writing are the things that happen or are said during the day that make it real life. Kids fight, scream, disobey, throw food, etc. Parents are tired, impatient, snappy, overwhelmed, etc. But kids also obey, are sweet and caring, play well together, eat what they are served, and speak with kindness and respect. Parents have motivation and get rest (sometimes), display grace in teaching and accomplish all kinds of goals.

A day in our life is never perfect. It is messy, fun, energetic, grumpy, exciting, adventurous and so much more. In between all those times on the clock and subjects in school and errands is the stuff you can’t make up. I want to share life and encourage other young parents and anyone who will listen to not be fooled by what looks like perfection or feel like they can’t get it together, but rather to keep moving forward, to choose to have a good heart attitude about circumstances and to use each moment (good or bad) to grow, learn and appreciate the only day we are promised…Today!

I am tired and worn out every day but I am honored to be tired and worn out because I am doing the job God called me to do. It’s often that we say “I can’t” or “there isn’t enough time” or something along those lines. I was and somedays am still that person. But something I have learned is to just do it. Work hard, accomplish what you can in a day and don’t give up because something is hard. So if you are afraid to try something because you might not have enough time or energy or whatever the ‘roadblock’ may be, just try it anyway. I have WAY to much to do ALL the time but we enjoy the adventures it brings and we all learn so much while we do it.

Rigid can be good and necessary for you and/or your family, however, being spontaneous and fitting other fun or new things into all those cracks during your daily routine can open lots of fun and growing experiences. Try it!

Saturday we picked up our new livestock dogs and got them all settled. Yesterday, we drove out to purchase our new herd of Pygmy goats. We had a babysitter but plans changed around a bit so we all decided to go last minute.

Since it was Sunday and we are driving during naps, I packed everyone a container of food and we loaded all the car seats and kids and headed out. Big truck, livestock trailer and the five of us. We have had goats in the past but yesterday we got a bigger herd for some land clearing purposes.

Nicole has been asking and asking “do we get goats today?!” And finally, yesterday I got to say yes! The kids do well on road trips so it’s enjoyable to go places as a family. Life doesn’t always permit us all to go, however, when we are able to, we love it!

We made our way to the pickup location. It took about two hours to get everything looked over and loaded up (yes some of that was talking). We ended up taking the whole herd that was being sold which turned out to be 28 goats altogether, four of which were new babies. (Fun Fact: several of them will be due within the next 5 months with more kids!!).

Anyways, it was very hot out and goats don’t like being driven into a small place, so in this case, a trailer. You can imagine that it was a hot mess with the four adults trying to catch and load 28 goats in the heat of the afternoon. But we did it! Including a very aggressive buck.

Finally, we caught the last goat and secured everything on the trailer and made our way back home. Luckily we made it before dark and finished getting their pen set up for the night. The kids were very excited to see us let them out if the trailer and Nicole immediately wanted to name them all. She says that one baby is called Jr. and another is fuzzball or something cute like that.

I got some pictures of the goats when we went out today to check on them and the kids are loving it. While this adventure wasn’t super eventful (which is really not a bad thing sometimes), it was a fun outing and we are excited to have our new animals. There will be plenty of other stories in the coming days and weeks to share but for now, check out the pictures below!