Sunday, March 17, 2013

Hello!

Well, I know I said I would get some pictures on here.  And I will.  Soon.  I just have to copy them over from my husband's computer onto this one, and then we will get some posted.  Sorry!  It is on my to-do list!

I am extremely busy during the day cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning... did I mention cooking? We eat often!  I was completely spoiled in Colombia by being blessed with Rosario cooking for us.  Then we get home and for 3 weeks we get dinner brought to our door.  I am way out of practice.  Can you believe I have not made a grocery list since we have been home?  (That's on my to-do list also!) I just keep pulling things out of the freezer that we froze from our garden two years ago - carrots, zucchini and such.  Plus, we have lots of rice and beans stored. 

The thought has actually crossed my mind that we could just skip a meal.  I mentioned this the other day to our Colombian kids.  The one that understood me, Jaime, just grinned and shook his head no at me.  So I fed them :)

Right now, I'm protesting.  There are a bunch of dishes calling to me from the kitchen, but I'm drowning all the yelling out (from the dishes) with the aching of my legs and arms and with how nice it is to be typing on this blog again! 

My arms and legs ache because Kevin and I were outside, with Tyler, for many hours today hauling wood and clearing an area for our buck, a Nigerian Dwarf goat who has yet to be named, and who is about 7 months old.  I am very excited to breed him to our two Mini-alpines, Velvet and DD.  We also have a full size Alpine, Alana, who is in milk, and her 1 month old buckling.  The buckling we will sell.  I REALLY like getting fresh milk from Alana.

Which reminds me, I need to get myself out of this chair to go feed Alana...  I'll go ahead and post this now because I have no idea when I will sit myself down in this chair again :)  Hopefully, soon!

Oh, we are going to start making our goat milk soap again tomorrow.  We are going to be making it and selling it as a family business.  If you have any favorite scents, be sure to let me know!  In addition to the soap, we will soon be trying our hand at goat-milk lotion.  I just need to get a couple more ingredients. 

Talk to you later! 

Karen

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

To Colombia and Back Again!

Hello!

I know it has been a REALLY long time since I last posted, but our lives have been turned upside down and we are just now finding our way right-side up again :)  As the time drew near for us to leave for Colombia, my time on the computer continued to dwindle.  I had every intention of (and REALLY wanted to!) posting while we were in Colombia and adjusting as a new family, but those first few weeks were hard and we were exhausted.  I praise God that things are now going well.  Yes, we have trials and adjustments every day still (we have been home just over 2 weeks), but compared to what it was like in the beginning, it is very good. 

One of the major changes in my own life from adding 5 more children to the family is that my time is no longer my own.  That sounds really selfish on my part.  Before we brought home the 5 we had 4 other children, but because of their ages, they were beginning to do more on their own and care for themselves. 

The three oldest (11, 13 and 15) were pretty independent as far as chores, schoolwork, picking out their clothes, cleaning their rooms, etc.  I was only really helping Lyric, our daughter from China, who is now 5, so I had that spare time to read, blog, search the internet, facebook... But now, because the youngest just turned 2, the ages of our younger children are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7! My time is no longer my own, and about 95% of the time that feels really good.  (The other 5% is my selfishness when I want to do things only for myself.  Like stay in bed all day long or watch movies at night until I can no longer keep my eyes open!) 

Maybe saying "my time is no longer my own" isn't exactly what I want to get across.  "I'm doing more for others (our 9 children) and less for myself" may be more along the lines of what I'm trying to say.  Doing for others just feels right.  I am so glad that God put adoption on our hearts.

In Christ,

Karen

P.S.  I'll try my best to post again really soon - with pictures!  For now, I need to go milk our goat, do the laundry, clean up, etc etc...