Taylor's Rolls

I love being in the kitchen when she tries something new.

Tonight she was making Julia Childs beef bourguignon.

She laughed and we giggled as she cut, sauteed and

cooked this incredible dinner for our family.

She is a friend to me.

She is a fantastic cook.
She loves the Lord.

She is funny and she can make a kitchen

smell down right fabulous. 

  ........
This is just wrong

Julia says you can't cook without the pearls and so she wears them..

and we laugh some more as the lightning bugs light up the yard

and I watch her make her homemade yeast rolls. 

Butter dripping and the kids are begging for just one bite.

Heck, I'm begging for just one bite.

So today we will share her famous recipe and let you smell up your kitchen.

Be prepared it's not for the faint of heart<3

Blessings from the farm,

Robin

  Homemade Yeast Rolls:
  Preheat oven to 350*.

 In a small bowl combine 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast with 1/2 cup warm water. Mix and set aside.
 In large mixing bowl add 1 stick softened butter (or heaping tablespoon of coconut oil), 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 cups of warm water; stir and 1 1/2 cups of white flour mix and then add your choice of a remaining 2 to 3 cups of either white or wheat flour until a soft dough forms. It should be slightly sticky but not "wet". Cover and allow to rise for 30 mins. Grease cookie sheet and form rolls. Bake for 20-25 mins, brushing tops with butter before you pull them out of the oven. Enjoy!

 {posted from the archives}

Beautiful Reminders

Today is a beautiful cloudy overcast day. The temperature is warm and I'm sitting here looking out across this farm remembering. Remembering the little boy buried on the edge of this 40 acres. This time of year is always a time of remembering for me. The dogwood trees are in bloom and there is a huge dogwood tree gently stretching her arms over my little boys grave. So when I turn my eyes toward the east and look through the tree line I can find the place...It's beautiful and I can say that now. It has taken three years for the Lord to show me that William's death was not in vain and His plan is beautiful.  I get to share my earthly inheritance with some pretty wonderful people.

He has not left me nor has He forsaken me, He has been like a beautiful vase filled with beautiful flowers and I find myself always going back and breathing them in and remembering God set them there.

For Me.

I get to spend hours training, watching and laughing at these little girls who God used to heal my heart and to bless our family. He uses a lot of things to heal us or remind us that He wants us to be happy even during the hard times. A vase of flowers picked by one of my little guys and he sat them in the middle of the yard?! I started to say, "Cullen move those to the front porch" but before I could everyone started coming over and looking at the flowers and smelling them. Even the dog.

 When things are out of place people notice. 

When things happen that shake up your life people take notice of how you handle such times.

When you adopt children people notice. When you have a van full of kids people stare. When you choose to stay home and be a wife and mother people wonder.

When you homeschool people doubt.

When you live your life totally sold out to Christ you will be a vase sitting out of place.

 Some may see the beauty, others may not see the beauty. Oh, but I tell you that since our vase 

has pretty much been sitting in the middle for a while...I love letting people know why we do what we do and who we do it for.

   Oh, He has so blessed me and the tears I cry still to this day, are tears of appreciation to a sweet compassionate Father who does not leave me with ashes....

 But with a vase filled to the rim with beautiful days and beautiful reminders to enjoy the simple things.

Blessings,
Robin

To be like Him

He lived a plain life.

He came from a plain, poor family.

Messed up relationships in those families.

He had people that didn't understand him.

He watched as his mom had to suffer the death of a child.

He taught like I teach, I wonder if like me, He wondered if

His disciples ever "got it". He seemed to repeat himself a lot..:)

He welcomed little children in His lap.

He forgave.

He had friends who betrayed Him and He still kept loving.

He didn't go boil some drug to calm His nerves, He kept on

because He knew that what He was doing was hard work, but

it was a work He alone could do.

He couldn't pay someone else to do it.

I wonder if He ever looked heavenward and said

"Could you make all of this better?"

Do I believe He wants me to be happy?

Yes, but do I believe my happiness is His top priority? Uh, no.

I want Him to make my life painless but it hasn't been without pain.

His letters to me tell me to have joy and contentment in all things.

Some of the most incredible people I have met are not the richest or prettiest,

but the ones that have lost much and are still able to serve others on the other side.

Still able to be happy inspite of

death

loss

fatigue

failures

There's a lot of people who spout knowledge and I appreciate that, but the ones that inspire me are the ones that have lived through it and are on the other side still praising the Lord. They seem to have a brokenness to them.

 They seem to know their place.

To know that their desires didn't win out 

they suffered and lived to tell about it.

To know our place.

That our happiness and our desires may not be His desires.

He's not going to fix it all for us just because we're His children.

Sometimes walking through it will make us better.

More loving, more caring, more empathic....

Things you can't buy.

I often laugh because I tell people I love finding ways to make my children work more. It's the truth, when they have to work hard, when they have to work

long, it builds their character.

As parents we need to make sure our children know their happiness is not what should drive them.

"When I get a new car, I'll be happy" yeah, until it breaks down...

"When I get married, then I'll be happy" yeah, until you realize he's a sinner, just like you...

"If I was 50lbs lighter, then I would be happy " nope. not going to happen..

"When God gives me more children, then I'll be happy"

you and I will not be happy

until our happiness comes from Him

and our desires are not our own

but His desires

How can we help our kids learn this?

make them work

from the youngest to the oldest

let them cook

clean up

take care of little ones

burp babies

change diapers

clean bathrooms

windows

cars

feed animals

cut grass

dust

change sheets

teach them that work is a way of life, if they try and get out of it give them more..

Help them to die to self early.

We have to teach our children that they will find much happiness in 

work if they do it to please God.

If they are constantly trying to get out of work they will never, ever be happy because their selfishness will win out and they will become lazy bums who expect the world to do it for them.

There I said it.

So my pursuit of happiness has not always been happy but it makes me realize my place and who I am.

A daughter to a humble King who came to serve, not be served.

Who came from a dysfunctional family and turned out ok...
 I'm glad about this one!

A daughter to a King who didn't complain about His job or His circumstances, 

He just did it and did it well, I might add.

My life's a mess

 The one thing I have come to realize in having a large family is that it's messy. My home seems to be the breeding ground of sins revealed. Those sins that are only found in groups of people who love each other but rub each other the wrong way just about every day.The sin of choosing to not cherish every single moment with the precious family that the Lord has put us in. The sins of laziness and stubbornness as we raise the next generation to love the Lord. It's hard. It's not for the faint of heart and it's not for those who think a large family is glamorous  or fun. No, it's just plain messy..The walls of our home bending as we learn to love and die to ourselves every single day.

Living along side all of these little people keep bringing out the mud packed nastiness of me and my sin. You know, the part of me that would rather not be seen. The part of me that wonders if what I'm doing is really worth all the mess. Then I read Proverbs 14:4, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox".

I'm often amazed at how my life impacts everyone around me. You have 8 children..You have a little boy who lives with you for months at a time while his mother is sick. messy...who does that? Well we do that.. We live messy and open lives that only God can clean up and He continues to bless us with every new mess that we live for Him.

Life properly lived is going to be dirty. I'm thankful for a Savior who walks besides me as I push through the mud and the muck and realize that it's all worth it. At the end of a day when I have nothing else to give I sleep because my hope is in the Lord and I keep walking deeper and deeper into the messes of this world to help people and the more I say yes the more He shows up in my life and in the life of my children.

My life will not be defined by how clean I kept my house but when I stand before the Lord may I be so honored to be filthy and my clothes in rags and have done it all for Him and to see my mud on His feet because He doesn't leave messes He walks us through them to green pastures of waters of living hope.

Honored today to be walking out my mission field and my He be Glorified.

Where do the little boys go?

Boys on lakes and guys on bikes.... The house was nestled in the tall pines and I was taken aback at how very at home I felt there. The breeze brisk but the children's smiles were enough to warm the coldest of days.

The water held them for most of the afternoon. The boat slowly going from edge to edge and me watching from the porch. I wonder where the times goes.

 I wonder where the little boys go when they're turning into these incredible little guys that I love to watch. Toothless and loving...This age is magical and overwhelming as I spend everyday with them.     

The things they do make me nervous and cringe but I let them do it it anyway...

they're boys after all.

 Most of their teeth are gone and they're most always hurt but I'm captivated by them. The way they run with wonder and jump at doing the exciting things. The dangerous things. The way they spend hours throwing balls to dogs and never getting tired. The way they climb trees and love fires. 

The boat continues taking out my guys and bringing them back. The water bringing the laughter. The water and sun reminding me that the time is changing. 

Our dear friends making sure that we felt right at home. Loving on our little guy Aayden and taking the time

to sit a spell and share their table with us. Why is it that when you're in a home that loves your children and takes the time to get to know them your children talk so fondly of these new friends, as if they have been our best friends for years? It's the holding my babies, tying their shoes, getting them a drink, throwing them up in the air. It's washing their hands and teaching them for just an afternoon how to chop wood. It's all the little things that add up in my children's mind and these almost strangers become like family in one afternoon.

 When our friends slowed down and invested their time in our life for just an afternoon they made a lot of new little friends.
It reminds me to invest in the lives that are put in my path, whether it be for a month or just a day. It reminds me to  take the time to get to know and love on the children that walk through my door.

It's a reminder that these guys are growing and changing and I love watching them turn into the men that one day will welcome families in their home. I had to laugh at Coop who forgot his play clothes and ended up looking 'Amish.' He didn't care his love for the rough things couldn't hold him back.

I have been in homes where I felt like we were intruding and maybe too loud. I kind of felt like we we're just "too much".  

But when at the end of the day you drag your family away from the water, food and fellowship of a home that welcomes you and all your children it's truly a perfect day to remember and a perfect reminder

to love...  

 2012 

The Golden Ticket goes to.....

So I'm a day late on my drawing. Please forgive me. I wrote out all the names and checked them twice.

My helper Cullen was so excited to see who was going to win.

Although he didn't quite understand what they were going to win. 

He pulled a name and looked at it really hard and decided he couldn't read it.

So Cooper stepped in 

and......

Jonna from Alabama was pulled.

Congrats Jonna..

Jonna, I'm so proud of you.

Many of you may not know Jonna but she is fighting

breast cancer right now. She is a remarkable lady and I'm honored

to call you friend and I stand in the gap with you and pray for your

full recovery. When you come to the conference please make sure you

meet Jonna, she will inspire you and make you want to be a better wife, mother, and grandmother.

She's just that awesome!  

The measure of love is our memories

Time is our Memories and without memories there is no time.

His smile shows me he is surprised to see me standing there with camera in hand looking at him. He was lost in his world of puppies and boy things. I was looking directly in his eyes and I caught it. His beautiful happy smile that makes him Jo. No warning or directing just him at his best. His eyes a blaze with love and me on the other end getting burned. Have I thanked the Lord enough for this little African boy? The one who continues to keep me amazed at his ability to keep me learning and striving to be a better mom to him? I love when strangers stare at us and ask the questions they always ask. I love to tell his story, the one of a beautiful passage of love and adoption. I love being along side of him and teaching him and training him. I'm glad the Lord chose me to be his mom.

There is no before and after, no sooner or later, no now and then. Time is now and just as the trees slowly give way to spring and you wake up and realize winter is almost over so it's true with the time we have with our children. The Lord only gives us a season. A season and our memories will fade like the winter cold or the summer heat. The passage of time so easily mistaken for long days or long nights with crying babes and long illnesses..  We forget we longed for winter when it was hot..We long for summer when it is cold. We must stop our perpetual longing for something different than what we have and embrace the here and now.  The today.

We forget to look through the lens of time and slow down and see it for what it is. A season to enjoy  our homes filled with little cooks, and baby dolls and boy forts. The world draws us to herself. She tries to draw us away from the walls of our home. Promising us more than motherhood could. She is a deceiver.

 She tries to draw us away from the hours we spend with our children. Telling us we need a life. We have to have our life and staying at home is not important.

Warm baths and lotions is not important. Seeing our children through their days of holey jeans and skinned up knees is not worth a pay-check. The memories fade for most children. Childhood passes without a notice of its importance. The passage of a woman becoming a true servant because she believes that motherhood is the most important calling of her simple life, passes by and very few stand to applaud her diploma of simpleness because the world does not like simple. The world despises the plain dressed, hard working woman who is going against the grain but this woman is raising up the next generation and that scares the world and it should.    

Waking up everyday and knowing you're not backing down from the everyday task of motherhood. Knowing there will be people, even family, who will not respect you for choosing to work and play along side your children from dawn till dusk. The world will tell you that you are wasting your life. The Lord will tell you to die to your life if you want to follow Him.     

The world will try to convince you to give your little chair days and fist full of flower days away. It will lure you away by telling you that motherhood is not glamours or beautiful.

and......someday's it's not. The crying, diapers, and runny noses are not so beautiful but I wouldn't miss all of that because that's part of it. The process in which the Lord leads me closer to trust Him. Those hard days when it seems I can't do anything. My brain being interrupted by so many I can't think. I wonder myself who I am and who I've become. When I go to the store and people stare and avoid our "wolf pack".....like we all just stepped right out of the wild. The days when we go to a restaurant and you see the waiters flipping a coin to see who loses and has to wait on us....
When, at the end of a day, I look and feel older not wiser.. all those days are not beautiful but they teach me to survive and rely totally on my Father who made me to do hard days and hard seasons. I will not quit. I will stand in the gap and make it easier for my daughters to be the beautiful keepers of home as God calls them and I will train them to do their job.

We have only a few seasons of our life and then it's over and at the end there is no going back. I doubt I will regret all of these days with these precious children of mine. 

How do we detect what we call the passage of time except by perceiving change? Without our memories, all change would be imperceptible. So today I will continue to make memories and continue to learn and grow and with the Lord's help become a better mother than I was yesterday and to build more memories so I can see.........this beautiful season of the here and now.

Blessings always,
Robin

A Highchair...

The sun is going in for the day and the night time seems to unravel my house, the one I'm supposed to be in charge of. The babies crying, and wanting me to hold them for their latest melt down over something small but big to them. Supper needing to be finished and school needing to be checked and attitudes straightened out...Yep, this all happens when the sun is going down and my body is tired. I keep telling myself, I can do this. One, two, three diapers changed. One more boo-boo and four little people needing their hair combed out before bed. It all must be done. I can give a lot of these jobs over to others but everyone seems to want mamma.  


I really just want to "sit a spell" like they used to say on Andy Griffith and watch the moon slowly make her way as she spreads her light across this farm...but I can't. So much noise tonight. I would have to scream loud to penetrate the level, so I don't. Noise coming from every direction, dishes banging on table, babies crying or laughing, dogs, fights between brothers. My own name 'mamma' being cried out seems unfamiliar in the noise I have to search out the caller and I find him tears streaming....a bike wreck. Dust him off and patch him up and send him on his way again.    


I'm not in some foreign country, but my feet tell me I could be. At the end of the day I've poured out what I have and fed as many as I can. I have clothed, and cried with people I barely know. I have sat with a woman who's family is a mess and another who found out she's having twins in an already stressful situation and manged to get supper on the table. I'm no super woman but our family has open doors and with that comes open eyes and with open eyes comes responsibility before the Lord. I cannot look away and even though night time brings the melt down hour and some say, "you already have so much to do" I will say, "I can never do enough for my Heavenly Father who has done so much for me". 
I will, for as long as He wills, live freely giving what He alone has given me...grace. Grace to others. Not knowing how it feels to live their life.  


My table is set for one extra tonight, like it has been for the past few months. A little guy needing a place, a warm meal, and a yes from someone who will say yes with everything in them. I have so much and this little man needs only a small amount of what I have, crumbs really...and I give..I give him everything I have..he takes.


I pull his highchair close up to my table and feed him like he belongs, after all isn't that what everyone wants, to belong? I will bathe him and sing to him and rub medicine on his skin. I will dress him and wrap him in my arms and rock and kiss the top of his head and breathe him in.


I lay everyone down and slowly make my way to my closet and close my eyes....did I really just make it through this day? So much packed into it I can't even begin to explain. I slip out of my clothes and take a shower and crawl beneath my sheets and whisper, "Lord am I doing Your will?  This is hard. This road is bumpy and there is a lot of hurting people out there and I can't fix them all or fix all of their problems."
He gently reminds me I fix no one, I'm simply walking the road with people that He chooses to put in my path. He says feed those people. Clothe those people. Love on those people that I put on the road before you...that's all I ask...
       
Are you truly loving those God puts directly in your path? Don't miss the joy that comes from living on the mission field of your life. 
     


Blessings,
Robin


Who and what we truly are is really reflected by whether we love and accept others just as they are, right where they are.

We need not grow weeds

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,

therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:11

Contentment is not a natural thing we do. Weeds grow, we don't have to plant them. Covetousness, discontentment, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to the earth and so, we need not teach our children to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. I believe I have helped the weeds grow at times. Instead of picking the weeds, I've watered them and scattered them by not training my children with great intentions and by just "letting whatever happens happen".
Gardens have to be tended and the Lord has made me the earthly gardener to Taylor, Tucker, Cooper, Cullen,  Chandler, Jo,  Josie and Ellie.

The precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we want wheat, we must plow and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener's care. If we want thankful, grateful, contented children we must first be willing to work in the heat of their hearts garden.

Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; we must teach our children the heavenly art of contentment in all things. Paul says, "I have learned..to be content" Paul was old when he learned this, we have to start early.. I can almost see him in prison saying, "this.. all of this, has nothing to do with me but much to do about Him." We have to teach our children it's not about them.. We are training up a generation that reeks of selfishness and men and women who won't "stick it out" during hard times.....We have to train our children to stick it out. To know hard times comes to all of us..We don't do this. We treat our children as if they're the center of the universe instead of Christ. Oh, may we repent of indulging our children...and put Christ back on the throne instead of  our children's selfish desires.

The older I get the more I realize that I'm learning slowly, not much different then Paul I guess. The day belongs to the Lord and whatever He chooses for me to do then I do without too much complaining. I see the clock, I've lost a precious child, I've been given second chances. Over the years I've complained a lot but now, years later, I see the Lord slowly teaching me my place. My contentment. I see Him in the garden of my life slowly weeding out the brier patch over the years. He still is walking my rows and, as painful as it is, tills up things that's been in my garden for a while.

I weed my children's attitude when I see a spirit of discontentment. We have to be willing to work. To train and teach. In our house if our children complain about the food, they are asked to leave the table. I don't buy all of them treats at the same time. Oh, I know, so unfair. but try it..Only buy two or three treats and tell the rest their turn will be the next time. I'm weeding.

Be happy regardless if you got a treat or not.

 Teach them...hard lessons.

Weeding is a lot of work and some days I don't want to work in the garden of my children's life. I want to sit in the swing and hope the weeds of discontentment don't smother them out... but really? I can't and you can't either. I have dirty feet and dirty clothes from time spent in the eight gardens the Lord has given to me and when the sun is hot and the weeds are tall I want to walk......but He says, "stay a little while longer and I will help you" and as the sun goes down on the day I realize that training is  not easy work but I'm not alone in the garden... I have the master gardener right beside me.

Blessings,
Robin

Thanks, C.H. Spurgeon for the inspiration. 

Encouragement for your daughters..

I have a blog that I would like for you all to take a look at. Silk and Purple is a new blog that a small group of some young ladies in our community have started. The blog is truly amazing, just in all of the work that they have put into getting it started and it looks great. If you have an older daughter, or even if you don't, this blog is sure to be added to your favorites list. More than just fashion advice, the young ladies over at Silk & Purple strive to make a statement that beauty is more than just skin deep. They truly try to honor Christ in their posts and bring Him into the middle of every issue. Raising daughters in this culture is hard, so when encouragement from like-minded sisters in Christ comes along, I for one know that my oldest daughter is very grateful for the Godly advice that is offered. Every thing from fashion advice and recipes to much needed posts on speech and using words carefully. The wit and humor mixed with truth and good advice is sure to make this blog a favorite of ours for quite a while.  I also appreciate the honoring attitude that the girls display towards their parents, consistently speaking highly of them.
So go on over, give it a look.

Silk and Purple

Blessings,
Robin