The wheat is beautiful this time of year, especially in the breeze!  It is beginning to loose its green color in it’s heads, the stalks are still very green however.  We expect to be thrashing in about a month.

The above picture is bearded wheat, its what most people think of when they think of wheat.  Below is non-bearded wheat, I think the bearded is the prettiest!

Below is a picture of a water furrow in the wheat.

I know as a farmers wife I am not supposed to like thistles.  Don and I have this talk all the time!  I just can’t help to think of how beautiful they are this time of year,  not in the field or the yard…of course!!!

The corn is really growing in all this wet weather, most of it is 1 foot tall or taller.

We are in the process of planting the beans, in between rains, that is! 

Planter tracks.

As far as the house building goes…we have the foundation and plumming completed!!!!  It has been delayed due to weather as well, but we are not complaining.  As long as it is finished before the baby gets here, I am a happy woman! 

How to Homeschool Legally

Homeschool Legall Defence Association

Where to find Curriculum

• You can fing good deals at Amazon & Ebay. 
• We use some workbooks from Abeka, and whatever we can find at Sams Club. 
• We also use My Fathers World Cirriculum.  
• Christianbook.com  is also a great resource.

Homeschool Support

We do not currently belong to any homeschool support group or co-op but they are around.  With little ones, we just don’t seem to have time for extra activities.  We do however surround our kids with like minded families as often as we can!  There are lots of great blogs from homeschooling mommas that I frequent often for encouragement…

• Large Families on Purpose
• Raising Arrows
• Generation Cedar
• Raising Olives
• The Mashburn Family
• There’s Room For More
• Home Sweet Home if Christ is There (Great poems inspired by the Bible)

Planning & Records

Homeschool Tracker  we use the basic edition (It’s FREE!)

Homeschool Free Printables & Ideas

•  Mamma’s Learning Corner
• About.com
• Homeschool.com
• hsprintables
• design your homeschool
• Custom Tracer Page  This is how all our kids have learned to write their name.  We print off one, laminate it, and they use a dry eraser pen to practice till they get the hang of it!

This is kind of an abbreviated version of our resources!  We just wanted to get some info out there to those who might be considering homeschooling!  It’s a lot easier than you think…and the rewards are eternal!

It’s that time of year again!  Time to start thinking about swimsuits!  At our home we try our best to dress modestly, so as not to defraud our brothers.  In times past this was pretty easy, except for the swimming season.  I would always wear a t-shirt and shorts over my suit.  This worked but I still felt like a sloppy wet trash bag.  I am thankful that there are so many wonderful sites out there now where you can find suits for all levels of modesty that are also stylish.  It’s nice to be able to swim comfortably with your family without pulling at your suit or worrying about how quick you can cover up after you get out of the water.

The first suit I bought was from Simply Modest and I still love it! 

This summer I wanted to buy a second suit for maternity purposes, I suppose next summer I will be needing a suit with a nursing option…then I’ll be all set!  We also bought Jo Anna her first suit this year.  We opted to go with a small family business this year called Meant to be Modest.  The turn around was 3 weeks for a custom made suit to my measurements, with a little extra fullness in the belly, but you can have your order rushed for a small fee. Jo Anna picked out  a stock suit of her style and color choice.  They had the most reasonable prices for custom suits and we were very pleased with their work!

Here are some more modest swimsuit links…

Under Cover Water Wear

HydroChic™

Princess Modest Swimwear

Aqua Modesta®

WholesomeWear™

Simply Modest

Stitchin’ Times

Lilies of the Field

Modestly Yours Swimwear

Meant To Be Modest

Tamanu Sun

Happy Swimming!!!

God said…Will you wait for the one I have planned for you?

I said yes, and on March 16th 2002, I married my soul-mate.

God said…Will you go where I send you?

We said yes, and committed to move to another State, until God said stay where you are.

God said…will you commit your life to preaching my Word?

We said yes, and Don surrendered to preach.

God said…Will you still follow me in hard times?

We said yes, and He carried us through the valleys of family troubles, death, calamity and uncertainty.

God said…Will you still refuse a child?

We said no, and he gave us Lee in 2005, Grady in 2007, and Jo Anna in 2009.

God said…will you go where I send you, and leave when I say you are done?

We said yes.  Don pastored Glass Memorial Baptist Church for 5 years, and we left when He said we were done.

God said…will you trust me to help you teach your children?

We said yes, and there began our homeschooling journey.

We planned our first 3 babies according to our plans…

God said…will you take what blessings I will give you, children included?

We said, yes Lord, we trust you to be the author of life and the planner of our family.  God gave us Eli in 2010 and Clara in 2012 and a new blessing due in the fall of 2013.

Do we always say yes to the Lord’s promptings?  No, and we have seen the fruit of it.  We have found it much easier to just say “yes, Lord” and let Him handle the rest.   We have followed God from the biggest things to the littlest and we have always tried to seek His will before our own.  Our God is not complacent, He wants to be active in every simple aspect of our life.  He takes joy in His children who walk in His steps.  We pray daily that we will walk in the paths He has ordained for us, and that we will not take a step without His guidance.

We live with the finish line in mind.  

One day we will hear God say…those wondrous words…

 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

In the 19th century, the Rev. Legh Richmond composed a letter to his daughters.  We believe this should be emmulated by our daughters and we are pleased to pass this along…

Dear Daughters,

With a heart full of affection, I sit down to express a few sentiments and intimations of my wishes, as connected with your conduct. Keep them constantly with you, and let them be read over, at least once a week. May God render them useful to you!

AMUSEMENTS. (Plays, balls, concerts, cards, dances, etc., etc.)

Serious, consistent Christians, must resist these things, because the dangerous spirit of the world and the flesh is in them all. They are the ‘pomps and vanities of this wicked world,’ so solemnly renounced by God. To be conformed to these seductive and more than frivolous scenes–is to be conformed to this world, and opposed to the character and precepts of Christ. Those who see no harm in these things–are spiritually blind; and those who will not hear admonition against them–are spiritually deaf. Shun, my dear girls, the pleasures of sin–and seek those pleasures which are at God’s right hand for evermore. You cannot love both!

BOOKS.

The characters of people, are speedily discerned by their choice of books. I trust that you will never sacrifice time, affection, or attention to novels. Do not be ashamed of having never read the fashionable books and novels of the day. A Christian has no time, and should have no inclination for any reading which has no real tendency to improve the heart. There are too many valuable books on a variety of worthy subjects, which ought to be read–to allow for time to be dedicated to unwholesome and useless ones!

MUSIC.

Shun all the wretched foolishness and corruption–of light, silly, and amorous songs; on the same principle that you would shun books of the same nature. Sacred music is the true refuge of the Christian. I wish your ears, your hearts, and your tongues were often tuned to such melodies. The play-house, the opera, and the concert-hall–have deluged our society with perversions of the heavenly art of music. Music was designed to lead the soul to heaven–but the depravity of man has greatly corrupted God’s merciful design for music.

DRESS.

Aim at great neatness and simplicity. Shun finery and show. Do not be in haste to follow new fashions. Remember, that with regard to dress–that Christians ought to be decidedly plainer, and less showy than the people of the world. I wish it to be said of my daughters, “With what evident and befitting simplicity, are the daughters of Mr. Richmond attired.

I have always enjoyed canning vegetables fresh from the garden and have even dabbled with peaches one year.  Where we live now, we knew wouldn’t be permanent, so we didn’t ever plant any fruit trees or berry patches. 

This spring we finally had our chance.  We had bought railroad ties long ago for another project, but decided that they would serve us better as edging for the raised beds of our berry planters.

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 We drug them over with the 4-wheeler, laid them out and then put landscaping plastic on the bottom to cut down on weeding.  Don then filled the boxes with dirt and we planted. 

We planted strawberries in one and blueberries in the other.  Then we put a thick layer of cedar mulch on them.  We have plans for a blueberry, dewberry and a cranberry patch also…we just have to purchase more railroad ties!!! 

The wheat is blooming in the field!  It is either beginning to head or fully headed out.  We have sure had a wet spring!  We were praying it wouldn’t rain on the first of May!  There is an old wives tale that says if it rains on the first of a month you can expect 15 days of  rain that month.  Contrary to common belief farmers don’t just pray for rain all the time!  We have to get a crop planted and we have to get a crop out, too!

The Corn is growing fast with all the rain!  The Lord sent 3 to 4 inches last week.  Last year we did a Corn test plot for Kitchen Seed Co.  Don measured the rainfall from planting to harvest and we received 10 inches of rain.  On this years test plot we have nearly received ten inches already, and the corn is only 5 inches tall!

Freshly plowed corn

We had a fun week last week!  It had rained and we were too wet to work, so we took a little field trip to buy some tomato plants.  We drove up to Sikeston, Missouri and ate at Lamberts Cafe.  The kids always have a fun time there catching their rolls.  They love their vegetables and home cooking too, so they also clean their plates!  After lunch we headed a little farther north to Diebold Orchards

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This was the first time we had been and we were all mesmerized by their greenhouses and their country store.  After taking a tour around their site we picked out out tomato plants, pepper plants, and strawberry plants and headed home.

The next day don worked the garden a few times, with help of course, and put dirt in our berry boxes.  We planted  blackberries and strawberries in our raised beds, and 33 tomato plants on plastic in our garden.  Since we are having a giant garden this year and I am pregnant, we opted to cover about half in plastic to cut down on chopping and tilling.  The boys worked really hard hauling rocks to put on the plastic.  We still have a lot to do, but Don was able to get back in the field and this always trumps projects!

Lee was our cameraman for the day.  He really had fun posing us for pictures.  I think a camera is in his future!

Our Committie was pleased to have guest speaker Lt. Gov. Mark Darr at our meeting last Thursday.  He joined us at Dixie Pig at Blytheville and we were pleased to sit with him at dinner.  He is a fine Christian man, the likes of which we need more of in government.  He has a genuine love and compassion for the State of Arkansas and our Country, but an even greater one for his wife and children.  This makes him a good man in our book!

From his website…

Mark Darr took office in January 2011 as the state’s 15th Lieutenant Governor. He is the youngest Republican to be elected to a statewide office in Arkansas.

Darr is a strong advocate for government transparency and economic development. As a candidate, he ran on the promise of helping to put an end to wasteful spending by implementing an online checkbook. Senate Bill 221, the Arkansas Financial Transparency Act, was signed into law on March 14, 2011. Darr is a firm believer in utilizing Arkansas’ natural energy resources, through natural gas and lignite exploration. He will continue to promote and encourage the study of the 4.5 billion tons of lignite which has been identified in the southern region of the state in hopes that it will bring more jobs and economic prosperity.
Darr has started businesses in both Central and Northwest Arkansas. He was born in Fort Smith (Sebastian County), in 1973, and is the youngest of four children. His father, the late Johnnie Darr, was a Southern Baptist minister who taught his children at an early age the value of faith, family and principle.

The Lieutenant Governor grew up in Mansfield where he attended public schools. Darr attended Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia where he received his bachelor’s degree. A gifted vocalist, he has traveled the state performing for different groups.

Darr was selected to serve on the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association (NLGA) Executive Committee as well as the NLGA’s Policy Resolutions Committee. He was also chosen by NLGA to represent Arkansas at the 110th China Import and Export Fair. Darr was inducted into the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class of 2011 and Arkansas Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class of 2012 in Little Rock. He and his wife Kim, an educator, and their two children reside in Springdale. He and Kim are members of Cross Church in Springdale. Darr is a licensed insurance agent.

We look forward to announcing and endorsing him for whatever position he chooses to run for this next term.  We ask that you be in prayer for his family as they have some very important decisions to make in the next few weeks!