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A Week of Laughter and Excitement!

February 16, 2017 by Morgan Stevens 1 Comment

This week has been busy, fun, and exciting!

To start off, my aunt has been teaching me how to build a deck the past three weeks. This is her first time doing it too, but we have friends that give us good advice. Last week, we worked on the deck some more and fixed some things that weren’t quite right. We also built a wall, once we thought the deck was fine, to keep the geese from eating my aunt’s irises. Last year it was a wild hog eating her irises. This wall was free and not very time consuming.

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While putting the wall in we had to remove a 15 foot telephone pole from the ground. My aunt was surprised that I could get it out of the ground and lift it up over my head. Next, I had to get it out of our way by dragging it several feet.

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I am a 17-year-old girl and I did something a grown man could do with the same amount of effort. I am so proud of myself for that! This kind of goes back to the Farm Life is a Great Teacher subject.

That afternoon, my aunt told my cousins that they had to move the telephone pole out of the driveway. Aunt Allie and I laughed as her boys had trouble moving the telephone pole to where the rest of the poles go. That was what I call comedy!

Later, we started putting black, metal poles behind the wall to keep the cats and geese from knocking it over. While I was hammering a pole in, I barely missed the pole and hit the small outer layer of skin on my first finger. It formed a huge blood blister that was ugly, painful, and annoying.

Later that week, I had to scrape paint off the house and garage trimming. I had to hang over the edge of the roof to scrape paint and take down the gutters! Honesty, it was very fun.

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Also, I am happy I didn’t die, because it was sometimes scary.

I kind of wanted to jump off the garage roof and into the compost pile that was six feet away from the corner of the garage. Aunt Allie told me not to–she must think I am crazy.

Honestly, I know she is really just proud of me. That makes me proud of myself.

Filed Under: Stories Tagged With: country, country living, deck, diy, farm, farm fun, farm life, fun, girl, girl power, hard work, home improvement, homestead, kids, ldsyouth, parenting, power tools, pride, teaching kids how to work, texas

Fun Times On The Farm

February 9, 2017 by Morgan Stevens Leave a Comment

Depending on where you live the country, everything and everyone can be far from everything and everyone else. You can be loud and do almost whatever you want. Being a kid this comes in handy. I love to go outside and goof around with my cousins! There are so many ways to have fun times on the farm! I am starting to feel as though I’m getting too old for horseplay, as soon I will be a young adult going to college.

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One of the many fun things we kids like to do is play hide-and-seek in our back pasture. We enjoy building tree forts and what we call hobo huts. A couple summers ago, we pulled old, trashed plywood and carpet, wooden spools, and broken furniture to the back of our ten acres where it is wooded and built a hideout. We still hang out in it.

Trees are our best friends! We love to use trees to help us build our forts.

We also climb a lot of trees. Climbing trees is always fun. The trick is to be the first one up the tree. If not, you may get dirt, bark, small twigs, and leaves in your eyes from the person climbing above you. My aunt would rather not see or know how high we can climb.

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Our neighbors would rather not see the old chair my cousin, Ryan, strapped to the tree.

It’s been there for two years now.

When climbing a tree, the first thing you should do is make sure the tree is healthy and not rotting. Then check the tree for ants. My aunt says we should also make sure the tree doesn’t have any hornet, bee or wasp nests, however we kids never really do watch out for hornets, bees or wasps. We do, however, ALWAYS look for ants and rotted out limbs.

fun times farm life

Hide-and-seek was fun when it was summertime, because the brush would hide us from each other. We just had to make sure that we didn’t run into any ant piles. Ever been attacked by fire ants? They HURT!

I also try to remember to wear pants and a jacket, because when I forget I come back with lots of briar scratches. I use my pants as “armor.”

fun times farm life

One day while playing hide-and-seek, my fourteen-year-old cousin, Austin, and I decided to hide together in the car. Like a genius, he locked the doors with the lock button in the front seat. Then I remembered that if we tried to unlock by pulling the lock up the alarm would go off. So, after hiding for 10 minutes in the stuffy car we  made the decision to quickly open the door and run! So, Austin and I looked at each other and began the countdown…1…2…

“Austin… run for the side gate! No one will see us and we can say we were in the pasture the entire time!” I whispered with panic.

So on THREE we opened the door causing the car alarm to trigger. So we jumped out, slammed the door, and hauled our butts to the gate.

We weren’t scared at all, in fact, we were laughing so hard I was crying. To make matters worse Austin tripped and did a face plant right into the weeds which only made me laugh even harder. We were laughing so hard our bellies ached which only made us laugh even more. I have never had such a better time with my cousin. Just thinking about Austin crashing and burning is making me laugh again!

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In the end, the cops didn’t get called and none of our neighbors noticed…which is one of the many benefits of living in the country. To this day, this funny moment playing hide-and-seek with my cousin is my best memory with him. My favorite memories so far in life have been while living with my aunt on her farm in Texas. When I move back to the city for college it’s definitely going to be a change.

Filed Under: Stories Tagged With: country, country living, cousins, family fun, farm, farm life, fun, fun times, funny, games, hide and seek, hobo hut, homestead, kids, life, lol, parenting, play, stories, teenager, texas, tree fort, woods

Farm Life is a Great Teacher

January 28, 2017 by Morgan Stevens 2 Comments

Farm life has taught me a lot of things I would have never been able to learn in the city or without my aunt. Living on this farm has taught me how to be responsible and how to take care of animals and children. Farm life is a great and new adventure I get to experience, because each day there is something new.

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The work on a farm can be dirty and hard, but it must be done. I have been able to find ways to do the work until it is complete. It is a great blessing to be able to to the things I do every day and wake up in the morning excited for another day.

I lived in the city from birth to the age 14,, then I moved to the country with my aunt and cousins. Growing up I was raised as an only child. I was always wishing for a sibling, and now I live with my cousins, who act like siblings. Between them and the farm animals I pretty much live on my own private petting zoo. This was not what I had in mind when I prayed for siblings.

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Having to help take care of so many animals…and kids…I got to learn so many great skills. Some of the great skills I have had the opportunity to learn include: how to give subcutaneous and intramuscular injections, what to look for when a goat is close to going into labor, how to garden, and most of all how to have fun while taking care of these responsibilities and looking on the bright side of farm life. I would say I have a quite unique skill set.

The best part about living on a farm is that I get the opportunity to be able to help in ways that are valued. I am now able to be a part of something bigger and better than I would have been otherwise. I get to learn skills that will last me a lifetime and no matter what happens these skills will always be needed in some way, shape or form.

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This past week has been cloudy and rainy, however during the sunniest and driest part of the day I try to get something done. This week I have tilled the compost pile and piled it into a mound of dirt. I also got the burn barrel emptied. Later this week, I am looking forward to cleaning out the barn, cleaning the chicken coop and chicken yard, cleaning out the car, and organizing the milking room.

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Pretty soon I will be going to college and I am now getting to “train” my oldest cousin to do the chores I do in the mornings. Soon, he will be the one who gets to experience these great opportunities. Being homeschooled and nearly a homeschool high school graduate makes it easier to do these things than it would if I had to go to a public school.

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It has been a fantastic blessing to live on a farm. I am so glad I was able to gain this precious life experience. Most people think living in the country with animals is all fun and games. When you aren’t busy taking care of the animals and property, then it kind of is all fun and games. All in all, farm life has been a great eye-opener for me. It has me ready for my next life adventure…college.

Be sure to check out the Mothering with a Purpose Facebook Page for more country living inspiration.

Filed Under: Stories Tagged With: city life, college, country lifestyle, country living, farm life, great teacher, home school, homeschool, homestead, life, life skills, lifestyle, parenting, public school, teacher

My Kids Halloween Costume: I Turn Your Poop Into Drinking Water

October 20, 2016 by Allie

This post is a fun Halloween story from 2011. I love looking back and seeing my kids’ creative Halloween costumes. I still can’t believe how young they look!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! I love making my kids Halloween costume.

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I love Halloween because not only do my kids dress up, but the little kid inside me gets to as well. But seriously, if you’re between the ages of 20 and 60 it is NOT okay to go trick-or-treating with your own candy bag for spoils. Not even if there’s a big group of y’all with one 18-month-old with you. We all know that kid ain’t gonna eat all that candy. True story.

My kids this year got creative with their Halloween costumes. I told our boys that they had to come up with their own outfits this year using items already around our home. I hate spending $20 or more on one costume that my kid is going to wear one or two times. So I bought costume makeup and told them to get their creative juices flowing.

1st kids Halloween costume…My oldest decided to be a public works technician.

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Scary thought when you think about it.

2nd kids Halloween costume…My middle child dressed up like a redneck Rangers fan…except most people didn’t recognize the mullet he was wearing and kept mistaking him as a girl. But with the way the Rangers played at the World Series that made sense.

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3rd kids Halloween costume…My youngest wanted to be the devil that he really is.

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What surprised me this year was how early the trick-or-treating started. At 6:30 a group of kids were already knocking on my door. That was my cue to get my boys outside and start canvassing our neighborhood. We’ve tried wealthier neighborhoods in our area, but we’ve found we get more candy just staying in our own. This is important to me as a parent considering their Christmas stockings will probably get stuffed with half the candy they get Halloween night.

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We must have knocked on 30 doors and every.single.time my boys said:

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My youngest thought it was extremely important to say, “I’m a devil and I’m gonna eat your soul!” because every time he did the person handing out candy would exclaim, “Oh no! Then I better give you more candy!” And they would. Needless to say, my six year old came home with more candy than anyone else.

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My second favorite part of Halloween comes after my kids finish trick-or-treating: Candy Inspection. AKA Where I Remove All Their Favorite Candies and Hide Them for Later Consumption.

I now officially have enough Crunch bars and Butterfingers to last me a year.

I love being a parent.

Filed Under: Stories Tagged With: candy, easy kids costumes, flower mound, flower mound public works, flower mound tx, flowermound public works, flowermound tx, halloween, halloween candy, halloween costumes, kids costumes, kids halloween costume, parenting, trick or treat

4:30 AM | An Excerpt from Mile Markers

October 16, 2016 by Allie Leave a Comment

This post is about being present to God through prayer. It is an excerpt from an upcoming book titled Mile Markers by Jeremy Mark Lane. If you enjoyed this devotional, please consider supporting this author by purchasing these other books from him — Everything Beautiful: And Other Stories and While I’m Still Myself (a personal favorite).

430 mile markers prayer to god

 

It’s 4:30 AM.

Somewhere a baby is sleeping. Somewhere a single mother is lying awake, asking God how she’s going to pay the rent. Somewhere a man is leaving for work. Somewhere a woman is coming home from work. Somewhere people are driving. Somewhere a woman sits on her porch and sips coffee. Somewhere a man is praying. Somewhere a student is studying under the light of a lamp. Somewhere people are stretching, running, lifting, pushing their bodies. Somewhere kids are singing. Somewhere kids are crying.

And as for you…

God is asking for your presence. Asking you to meet Him, to talk with Him.

Don’t waste the opportunity.

Get up and go.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on Him while he is near. – Isaiah 55:6

My prayer is to never get numb to the reach of God, to never go deaf to His call. I want to hear Him, and I want to meet with Him every day. I want to seek His face and seek His hand. I want to walk with Him at all times, to not waste a single step.

I ask it in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The post 4:30 AM appeared first on Jeremy Mark Lane and is being republished here with permission.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Be sure to like the Mothering with a Purpose Facebook page for more daily inspiration.

Filed Under: Devotionals Tagged With: author, devotional, fatherhood, jeremy mark lane, mile markers, motherhood, parenting, prayer, praying, seek god, seeking god, single, single mom

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