James 1:5 || weekly encouragement

Howdy!

Well folks, I guess it's probably about time that I do a blog post again...I just remembered the other day that I had been trying to do a encouraging post once a week. I had totally forgotten about it, things were so crazy for awhile. They are finally slowing down now and we are soon headed to the sunny south. Anyway, today I am just kind of going to do a fun post. A few pictures and a couple Bible verses to inspire you today!

 Just last week we got around a foot, so that was a lot of fun. Different times cousins and friends came over to sled and ride snowmobile. (The above picture was actually the week before when we just got a couple inches)

 Cambrie came and slept at our house one night, and they had a great time playing and doing skits for me and Mom 😊

And we are getting a new barn!

...we are headed south next week, so you probably won't hear from me for awhile. But when I get back, I hope to tell you about our trip!

I hope each one of you have a grand day!!

 

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28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

References for Isaiah 40:28

• Cross References

• 85 40:28 - S ver 21
• 86 40:28 - S Deuteronomy 33:27 ; S Psalms 90:2
• 87 40:28 - S ver 26
• 88 40:28 - S Isaiah 37:16
• 89 40:28 - Isaiah 44:12
• 90 40:28 - S Psalms 147:5 ; Romans 11:33

29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

References for Isaiah 40:29

• Cross References

• 91 40:29 - S Genesis 18:14 ; S Psalms 68:35 ; S Psalms 119:28
• 92 40:29 - Isaiah 50:4 ; Isaiah 57:19 ; Jeremiah 31:25

30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

References for Isaiah 40:30

• Cross References

• 93 40:30 - Isaiah 9:17 ; Jeremiah 6:11 ; Jeremiah 9:21
• 94 40:30 - S Psalms 20:8 ; Isaiah 5:27

31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

 

Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV

Clean-up {part 2}

Hundreds of people came to our neighborhood to help with clean up, and we were just so grateful!! God's people are amazing. I'm not captioning many of the pictures, as they are pretty self explanatory.

 

 Uncle Donny & Grandpa did an amazing job of edging and rototilling our garden!

 The one day we fed about 35-40 men in our garage....a few of Mom's wonderful  friends prepared the food!

 On Monday a truck full of ladies came and raked our yard!

 Another view from the top of our hill...see all the cars? That was only a few of them.

 I had a stick a cute picture in here somewhere :)

 

 

Thankfully, the cleanup is pretty much done, and our farm has been quiet again. It is SO nice! There is still some rebuilding needing to be done, and we are getting new siding, but that will happen sometime in the future. Thanks to all those reading who have helped and/or prayed for us during this time. We can't thank you enough!!

Storm February 2017 {part 1}

On February 25, around 3:45pm we were hit with straight line winds (We call it a tornado, although it technically wasn't called a tornado). The actual storm didn't last for more than a couple minutes, but the destruction was terrible. We were down in our basement, and I wasn't that scared, but when Dad & Brent started saying that barns are coming down, things got a little scary.  When we came up from the basement and looked outside, it was overwhelming. There was debris everywhere and 3 of our barns were either totally destroyed or somewhat messed up.

Our porch furniture was blown right off the porch.

 

Sadly, we lost two of our pretty willow trees and a cute little chicken shed that Leah had just fixed up to play in....

Part of the white barn roof was laying out in the field....rafters and all.

Our house was fine except for cosmetic things here and there. We got a new roof, and sometime in the near future we will be getting new siding and some new windows.

This barn was shifted, and part of the roof destroyed. They were able to straighten it back up, and put a new roof on- thanks to all the volunteers!

We live back a long lane, that borders my Grandpa's property. We went out the lane about half an hour after the storm, and when we crested the hill things looked terrible. Grandpa's shop was totally down, and multiple roofs were off.

This is from the top of our hill looking over to my Uncle Josh's farm. 897 was shut down for a long time....

Dad owns this house and rented it to Mattie. Her house was the only house that had the roof ripped off, and was not livable. She was devastated!

Things just looked terrible in our valley....


This is part one...stay tuned for part two and the start of cleanup!

R A N D O M + U P D A T E

• Wow, where do I even start? Things have just been so crazy...a week ago today, we were in much different state. On Saturday, February 25, 2017 we got hit with tornado like winds and things have been a whirl wind ever since. I am planning to do a blog post with LOADS of pictures and more information, {sometime} when I get enough umption in my gumption.
  

• We are just so overwhelmed and thankful with all the help and kindness people have shown. God's people are so truly amazing.
  

• We were planning to go on tour to VA with our choir this weekend (Me & Brent) but with all that happened this week with the storm, and also me being sick a lot of the week, we just decided to stay home and try to recoup. We are really disappointed to be missing it all though.....

• I've been struggling with my health this winter, and we are beginning to wonder if something in my gut isn't quite right. I got blood work done last week, and they called us with some of the results and everything is fine, but the celiac one didn't come back yet, so I am anxious to see what that says and hopefully have some answers!

• My cousins came back from Cambodia this week, and that is really exciting!! With all that is happening, we haven't been able to spend much time with them, but we can't wait to catch up again!! (they lived in Cambodia for about 4 years and started a Café over there!)
  

• So, I will be back {hopefully} early this coming week with a blog post about the storm. Stay tuned!!

• Till then - adiόs! 😉