Sweet Potatoes

Last year, we grew sweet potatoes for the first time. We bought sweet potatoe slips from a company and had them shipped. We planted them mid June and dug them early October. Our harvest was a bushel. We were pleased.We didn't order slips this year due to hubby being down and not having a lot of time in the garden.

Last week, I found a sweet potatoe plant growing in our compost. Yesterday, I cut slips from it and planted them in hopes for a sweet potatoe harvest this year.

Plant growing in the compost

This is the slip I cut and planted in between
green bean plants that didn't come up.

Hoping for a bountiful harvest........

This Girl....

I am so thankful for this girl. She is my firstborn, my mini me (scary). She is a strong-willed, funny personality young lady. She keeps my on my toes or on my knees. God teaches me a lesson each day through her. Lessons in love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, gentleness......lots of lessons. I am so thankful that he chose me to be Jaelyn's mom.

 

 

She was serious about this game. She didn't even know

I took the pic.

 

Children are a gift from the Lord.....

 PEACE

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 4:7

 

Life is simply crazy around the Henson place lately. We are always on the go. We had two trips to Houston this week (2 hour drive) for Dr. visits for my hubby. Today, the girls had check-ups, so that took up several hours. Busy, busy, busy. That is why I am so thankful for my outside time. I went out this evening as the sun was going down and watered the garden, fruit trees, and berry vines. I love this time to myself. I get to focus on the beauty of nature and how God has blessed me. I am in my own little world....well, me and the chickens...lol. They tend to follow me around when I am out working. I feel so at peace and close to God when I am outside doing the things I love.

 

This is a small fig tree that the girls and I planted a couple

months ago. It is growing well. It has a couple figs on it already.

 

This is a honeybee on one of our onion blooms.

 

One of our ladies taking a dust bath. She was truly enjoying herself.

 

Thank you, God, for the moments of peace. You know just what I need when I need it.

Piano Recital

Madison played the piece "Walk Gently" at her piano recital Sunday. Guess she can't "walk too gently" on crutches....lol. She did a great job. We are so proud of her. She has take piano lessons for

1 1/2 years now. It has helped her tremedously with her self esteem. She loves playing and it shows.

 



Madison.......Take 2

Miss Madison must have thought I wasn't busy enough taking care of her daddy and decided to fracture her growth plate AGAIN......lol. Seriously, she fractured a growth plate in her left foot last August and she did it again a couple of weeks ago. She had X-rays last week and a MRI Monday.

Her podiatrist is concerned because of it happening again. She says if it doesn't fuse, then it could cause a deformity. We are praying that it heals properly and fuses together and that she will not have more problems with it. She is sure keeping this mama busy....lol.

 



 

 

Milk and Butter

We have a major addiction at our house.....fresh, raw cow milk. We have bought

raw milk for the past couple of years and are in love with it. It is hard

to drink anything else. I am so thankful to be able to supply my girls

with milk that is not filled with antibiotics and hormones.

 

 

 

And,

We enjoy the delicious homemade butter from the cream of the milk. I skim the cream from the

 milk each week and put it into my kitchenaid mixer. It takes a while, but I end up with delicious

butter. I would love to have a butter churn...on my wish list....but for now, this will do.

"Don't count your chicks before they hatch."

 

How many times have we heard this and not really thought about the meaning? LOL I think we recently learned the real meaning. Easter Sunday, we put the ten eggs that we gathered that day under a broody hen in hopes of hatching some baby chicks (hopefully hens) to add to our layers as some of our ladies are getting a little older. Things went well for the first few days, with the exception of the hens who would get on top of the broody hen and run her out of her nest. They would lay their eggs in her nest, sit for a while, and then move on. We would have to pick the new eggs out of the nest. We didn't have a problem at first since we marked the eggs we originally put under the hen. With the continuous on and off the nest by several hens, three eggs ended up broken over a period of a week or so. A couple of times we had a hard time figuring out which eggs should be in the nest and which should not. A day or two before the eggs should hatch, the girls went out to check for eggs or baby chicks and found four eggs missing. Two days later, I found two more eggs missing. So, that leaves us with one egg (which hasn't hatched, by the way). I guess we have a hungry snake eating our eggs. Also, I think that it has been eating eggs for a while and we just left extra eggs in the nest that we thought should be there....lol.  So, who knows when the eggs was layed that she is STILL sitting on??? We have no clue. We are just leaving it under her for now with an egg with a fishing hook in it in hopes of hooking the snake so I can kill it. Makes me sad for the poor hen that is just patiently waiting on her babies.  Maybe the one will hatch. Just hoping, we get the snake. Ahhhhhh........gotta love this crazy life.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Today, I am celebrating my 12th Mother's Day, as our oldest daughter just turned 12.  I am so blessed to be able to celebrate as a mom. I had a miscarriage in 1997 and struggled with infertility for 5 years. When I gave birth to our first baby girl in 2002, I fell in love. In 2003, I found out I was pregnant again. I struggled with the idea that I couldn't ever love another baby as much as our first. In 2004, I found that to be untrue when I gave birth to our second baby girl. I am so blessed to be the mom of two beautiful girls. I am so thankful to be able to celebrate Mother's Day by being a mom to Jaelyn and Madison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom's Day Out.......

 

I was invited to go with some friends today to see the movie "Mom's Night Out." It was hilarious.  My girls are older now,  so I am not in the preschool stage anymore. But, I could relate to how she felt like she wasn't a good mom or doing a good job raising her kids. It is a daily struggle for me. I seem to think because we are a Christian family and try to teach our girls to live according to the word that they should be perfect. Reality is, not one of us are perfect. Jesus Christ is the only perfect person that ever walked this earth. Also, they are kids. My expectations are crazy. I don't always handle situations the right way, but none of this makes me a bad mom. I highly recommend this movie to moms and dads alike.

 

Life as we live it.......

We have had some drastic changes in our family recently. We felt the calling to foster children with hopes to adopt and complete the Henson family in Jauary. We took classes throughout the month of February. We completed all our classes and had our health and fire inspection. We were just waiting on our family home study and liscensing. My husband, who had previous back injuries, reinjured his back on March 22. He worked one day afterwards and hasn't returned to work since. He is facing back surgery soon. He has neck damage as well and has to have his neck taken care of first. This has not been an easy transition for us, but we have faith that our God will see us through and provide all our needs during this time. We don't know the outcome, but that doesn't matter. God has our back.  So, things have changed around the Henson place. I am trying my best to do everything that I normally do plus the things hubby did. It is gardening season and mowing season, so I have been busy.......on top of the two hour drives to Dr. visits. BUT.....I have been blessed by neighbors. Two have helped me till the garden. One had done mowing and weed eating for us. I am one THANKFUL mama for the help. We are continuing to homeschool. I have my girls do as much as possible on their own and then I sit and teach what they don't understand. My hubby helps by giving spelling tests and listening to Madi girl read. We had to put our fostering on hold until hubby has surgery and his back heals.   As, I said, we don't know what the outcome will be, but I hope to enjoy this season of life as we live it. 

Meat Chickens

My brother helped me butcher our Freedom Rangers Sunday.....24 to be exact. Lots of hard work,  but it was worth every minute of it. Thankful to put healthy meat in the freezer for my family.

 

Meet the Henson family.......James, Lisa, Jaelyn and Madison