The world we live in today is one such like as this earth has never seen before.   Information travels at the speed of light, and what happens on one side of the globe is known by those who live on the other side of the globe even as it is happening.  Never before in the history of mankind has information been so readily available with the click of a few keys.

For those of us who desire to live a simple lifestyle, and who are trying to live without some of the electronic means available, it is almost impossible to find yourself a quiet place of peace without some electronic device being part of that place.

In this world we live in, busy-ness is the word on everyone's lips.  "How are you doing today?"  "OH! I'm so busy, I'm so stressed, I've got so much to do... " and on it goes.  Everyone is so busy - busy doing things that - in the light of eternity - will they really matter?

This question I pondered myself recently.  With all the "busyness" and electronic information that we have available to us, has it served to better our lives?  With all the electronic devices that we have that makes giving, getting and understanding information much faster... has it really improved the quality of our lives?

I've stopped to rethink, and ponder the quality of our life.  Is my life pleasing to the Lord in all I do? Have I allowed the "busyness" that life offers up to take the place of the simple, quiet things in life that really bring the most joy?

My answer was found in the book of John and it has become one of my favorite scriptures.  Its message is deep and timeless.  It speaks today, even in the noise of the hustle and bustle world we live in.  Its message is one we desperately need to hear.



How could abiding be difficult you may ask?

Because in the "busyness" of today's world, finding time to "abide in me" may the hardest thing of all to do.  Finding a place where the beeps, blips, and clicks of our electronic attachments don't keep us from the place where we can abide in Him is... difficult!

How long can you spend time with the Lord before a beep, a ring, a click, or a tap knocks on your time with the Lord, and that abiding time is interrupted?

Abide in me!  It is not enough to abide in the presence of the Lord, but we must allow the WORD of the Lord to abide in us as well.  When these two things are accomplished, something very, very powerful can take place in your life.  When you abide in the Lord, and His Word abides in you... ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.



Unfortunately many people interpret the last part of this scripture  that says "ask what ye will, it shall be done" to mean "whatever I want, I shall have".   And in a sense that is true.

But think about this.  If you are abiding in the Lord, and His Words are abiding in you....
You see, when Jesus came to this earth, he came to do the will of the Father.  It was not my will, but thine be done that Jesus prayed.  Jesus did not come to allow His earthly, fleshly will to prevail, but He came to show mankind how to live and do the will of the Father, effectively denying the will of the flesh.

Essentially this means - being willing to give up your will, the things you desire, the things that your flesh naturally wants, and allowing the spirit of the Lord and the words of the Lord to so penetrate your being, that you want HIS WILL above all things in your life.  When this transformation takes place, you will not ask amiss when you pray, because you will be praying for the will of the Lord, and not for the desires of your flesh.

Beware of the teaching that says you can ask what you will, and it shall be given unto you, because the scripture is not speaking of asking for fleshly desires and wants, but it is speaking of asking that the will of the Lord be done and manifested in your life, and that is what WILL be given unto you.

Do you want the will of the Lord in your life? Do you want to abide in Him so fully that your desire for His will to be yours supersedes every fleshly need and desire in your life?

It is when you find yourself so immersed in the presence of the Lord, and submitted to the Lord so fully and so completely, and it is when you can say, I must decrease, but HE must increase, that the Lord will be able to do just as this verse says "It shall be done unto you."

Perhaps this is not what you were hoping to hear while reading this.  In fact, our flesh never wants to hear things that don't allow our will and desires to rule.  Perhaps this angers you, the fact that in order to truly abide in the Lord, you must let go of self so fully that the Lord reigns completely in your life.

You are not alone.

Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane wrestled all night long with the agony of flesh and spirit over doing the will of the Father.  For Him, He knew it meant certain death to allow the spirit and will of the Father to reign.  Yet, He was willing, and because of the price that He paid, He paved the way for you, and for me to obtain an entrance into a place where the will of the Lord becomes ours, and miraculous events can and will take place once you have surrendered yourself to the will of God, and sacrificed your fleshly desires on the altar of repentance.

Perhaps this is a message you have never heard before, but in your heart, you know that what is being spoken is truth.  Truth spoken in love, I pray.

I pray that you will desire to seek after the Lord with all of your heart, being willing to surrender and give up the desires of your flesh.  Indeed, for all of us, Gethsemane must become our reality too, if we wish to really unlock and walk through the doors to spiritual maturity in Christ.  We must lay our will down willingly and learn to abide in Him, and allow His words to abide in us... and it will be at that point in your life that the miraculous will unfold, when situations in your life that you have prayed about for years will be transformed... no - it doesn't come with an easy pill to swallow, but it does come with a mountain of promises!

I pray that the Lord will encourage your heart today to accept the fact that Gethsemane is the place all who wish to follow Christ must walk through, and understand the very necessity of this event, in order to truly see the blessings that the Lord has promised us to come to pass in our lives.

Abiding in the Lord, and allowing His Word to completely abide in us comes with a promise so big the world cannot contain it!  When you see how Jesus set the example before us, surrendering His fleshly will in Gethsemane, and allowing certain death to take place in His life, it is after that time that we begin to see the most miraculous events take place from that point on.  It took death to self, in order to bring about eternal life.

When we abide in the Lord and his Words abide in us, and our fleshly will and desires have been surrendered to the Lord, it is then that we can begin to learn how to really pray, and see those prayers answered.   When we pray, it will be for the will of the Lord to be manifested in our lives, and not necessarily physical, or financial blessings - although the blessings of the Lord make us rich! - when the order of our prayer is first for HIS will to be done - it is then the equation mentioned above will ring true in your life, and the windows of heaven will be opened, and there will not be room to contain the blessings of the Lord!


Do you want to abide in Him?  Do HIS WORDS abide in you?

You must MAKE time to set the busyness of your life aside for the most important time that you will ever spend each day - abiding with Him. Shut out the electronic blips, beeps and clicks for the most important part of your day.  Your life will never be the same! That is a promise!

All six of our banty hens have been broody and moody the last week or so.  Because we don't have a rooster, none of their eggs that they want to sit on will produce baby chicks.  A friend of ours who has hens and a rooster brought over 20 fertilized eggs for our moody broody hens.


When I walk into the chicken coop, these ladies aren't really inviting.  In fact... they are quite angry that I am disturbing them.  No happy clucks to see me now!


If looks could kill! She was NOT happy with my camera and I disturbing her, not one bit!


I was being told in no uncertain terms - you are NOT welcome - GET OUT! Leave me alone!


For some reason, these two want to share the same nesting area.  I let them be.


For 21 days these ladies will be sitting here.  I guess it would make me grumpy too if I had to do that!


A picture of some of the eggs our friend BN brought over.  His hens are a mix of Rhode Island red and whites and their eggs are much bigger than the banty eggs.  But, our broody banty hens don't care.  They are content to sit on the eggs, no matter where they came from.  If you try to move one from under their body, they will push the egg back under them and squawk at you loudly!


Some of them did get off the roost when they heard me pouring feed into their bowl.


The two in the corner didn't budge, but the other four were happy to get out, stretch their legs, and get something to eat.


They ate for a few minutes, and then headed back inside.  According to the calendar, in 21 days - if all goes well - we should have 20 little chicks hatching... and that day will be on or around Mother's Day! What an exciting Mother's Day that will be!  This will be my first time to have little chicks just hatched, and we are quite excited about it all!  After seeing these poor hens, and how they are feeling right now, I'm just glad that to have my children I didn't have to sit in one place, grumpy, moody, and angry about the world for 21 days before I could have them... lol!

Have a great day!

I found this darling plate at a thrift store for $1.00.  It has a faint crack on one side of the plate, but that just added to its charm for me.  I just love the gentle rose pattern and the extended handles on the plate that make it a perfect serving platter for...


.... serving up some fruit in a bowl!


And this picture just makes me smile.  Each morning now the sun comes up at the perfect angle to stream this "springshine" into my kitchen right as I am getting up to get my morning cup of coffee.


... and the springshine just bathed my morning coffee cup in morning joy.

Simple joys, simple delights... pieces of "joy" in my life today.  What pieces of "joy" are in your life today?

Our "baby boy" turned 17 this month on the 17th.  So... he's not a "baby" any more, but a wonderful sweet young man, but in my mind, I still remember the day 17 years ago that he was born, and many precious memories of times through the years of him growing up, and I find it hard to believe he is now 17.  Through the years, the birthday parties for my children were big events.  However, the last couple of years, my kids have chosen to have more simple events to celebrate their birthdays.  My son's birthday this year was quite simple.  He wanted a simple white cake ("no fancy stuff Mom!") and a few of his friends came over to our land for a camp out.  I provided home cooked beans, homemade hot dog buns and hot dogs for the "grub".



This is the same white cake recipe that I made for our daughter's 19th birthday earlier this year.  You can find the recipe here.


I tried a recipe that I found for making homemade hot dog buns (the recipe also works for hamburger buns as well).  These buns were a real hit with the guys.  They thought it was pretty awesome to eat hot dogs in soft, warm homemade buns.  They were actually really easy to make!  (I'll provide the recipe below should any one be interested).


Our son crafted this BBQ pit in his advanced welding class.  It is made out of discarded saw blades and welded together.  He also had a metal circular bottom to sit the pit on to keep the fire contained within the pit.  He plans on making a grill cover to match.  We just used the grill we had with our other pit to cook the hot dogs.


After we finished grilling the hot dogs, the guys had fun finding things to burn in the pit.


These two were the official bread crumb finders.  Not a crumb was left on the ground!  They performed their job very well, and left nothing behind for the birds!



A picture of the cake with Happy Birthday candles being lit.  There happened to be 17 candles in all, and dear son blew them all out.  Hope he gets what he wished for!  :)

Have you ever shaved carrots before?  It is a lot of fun to do!  I have found that "shaving" my carrots for stir fry's adds a delightful taste and texture to whatever stir fry I am making.

Years ago when I was a child, a friend's mom showed me how to do this, and I've done it ever since when making stir fry's. This is a great way to add extra veggies to a stir fry without too much effort, and since the carrots are not big and crunchy, your kids may eat more of it.  I've found that my kids would pick out the big crunchy items in a stir fry and sit them off to the side of the plate, but gobble down the carrots.  So this is a great way to add extra goodness to a stir fry.

I think I just coined a new word, and Nana Diana might have something to do with it!  (She is a dear blogging friend who posts a "new" word coined by her grandchildren every Wednesday here - just too funny!)  So today, as the sun was brilliantly shining, the skies held nary a cloud, and springtime buds and blooms were everywhere - I thought - SPRINGSHINE - it's here!  And then of course, I realized, that's not a word, I meant sunshine... but oh well... I think I like SPRINGSHINE better, lol!

I took the dogs out to our property to roam around today since it was so beautiful outside.


These lovely wild purple Woodland phlox were blooming everywhere!  I think I need to see if some of these can transplant to some flower pots!  As they are growing wild, I don't know how well they would do in a pot, but it may be worth a try, since we have so many of them growing everywhere all over our property!


Roger and Annie were thrilled to not have to be on leashes.  Usually I keep them on leashes because sometimes our neighbor's dogs are out, but today she was not home, and so I don't have to worry about them running chasing after another dog.  So they got lucky today too!  No leashes!


So many sights and smells, and so much energy to spare!


Chipmunks and squirrels beware!


A large tree that had fallen in a windstorm last summer has cured all winter.  I would like to make a table out of this stump for our outdoor seating area around the fire pit.  My husband thinks that sounds like a great idea, except that he is not real excited about getting it from the back of the property to where it needs to go.  It is a big heavy stump!


But I think since it has dried out over the past months, that it will be lighter to lift, and maneuver to where its new home needs to be!



We have a LOT of work to do in the forest once we get moved out here.  Lots of dead trees that need to be cleaned up! It's God's perfect exercise gym!


An interesting old stump just sitting barren in the sunlight.  I'm intrigued with how the hole in the tree came to be.  I am also thinking of a way of using it in a garden for some flower props.  I hear my husband and son groaning now about that project! lol!


Tiny mushrooms growing out of a dead moss-covered tree!  Not sure what variety these are, so I left them alone.  I need to find someone in this area more knowledgeable about mushrooms, as I notice we have a lot of different ones that grow on our property.


Just stopping for a moment to view the heavenlies through the cover of pine trees.  Just gorgeous today - no clouds in the sky!


Dogs are beside themselves with joy to be exploring without being tied to a leash.  I was happy too, because my arms get very tired of dealing with their excitement too!


Squirrels and chipmunks, chickadees and woodpeckers all greeted us today as we walked, and the dogs weren't sure how to respond...



I found lots of mullein growing around our property today too!  This was one of the biggest ones I've found.  Don't you love their pretty rose petal shaped design?  Since we have been busy cutting back trees, I am finding the mullein growing where trees have been cut down, and abundant sunshine is available for them to grow.

Did you know that this common "weed" actually has tremendous health benefits?  Mother Earth News has a great article here on what this amazing plant can do for you.  One of its main benefits is help for respiratory issues, and also its leaves can be applied to bruises, stings, and sprains.


After we left the woods, I took the dogs down to the river just below our place for a drink.  It was a warm day today, getting close to 70 degrees outside!  The dogs were thrilled to have the whole beach to themselves (and I was too!) .


At first I didn't think Annie was going to get in the water, because it was really cold, but after a bit of running up and down the beach, she decided the cold water was worth it!


Roger was a bit more unsure of the water, stepping carefully close to the edge, being careful not to get his feet wet as he drank a bit.  I don't know if he had ever been to the river before, since he just came to live with us in February, and we hadn't taken him down to the river before.


It was such a beautiful springshine day, and Annie was enjoying every minute of the romp on the beach!


Hmmm, what game should we play next?


You can see how Annie and Roger had been in the water up to their bellies already!


Then the geese showed up...


And of course - I didn't have my telephoto lens with me.  Bummer!


The geese were cackling loudly, making a lot of different noises as they called out to each other.  The dogs didn't know what to make of it all.



The geese continued their noise and the dogs were quite intent.  I wonder if they understood geese language?


Soon,  it became very, very loud as the geese got closer in the water to us.


Roger just kept pacing back and forth on the beach, trying to find a way to get to the geese without getting wet, but ... it just wasn't working!


Annie thought she would try to swim out there, but after a few seconds in the cold water, she changed her mind!


The dogs decided the geese weren't so fun anymore, and came up with their own game of romping and running up and down the beach... and when they had exhausted themselves, they plopped down beside me.  As we sat there just enjoying the beautiful moments of the springshine, I could feel the warm rays of the sun heating my face, and then I knew it was time to go.  A sunburn wasn't exactly the plan I had in mind!  The dogs were reluctant to go, as they had enjoyed this playtime immensely, as had I.  It was a simply gorgeous day, and in my mind - the "springshine" was letting me know that spring really had arrived!

So, now that you have a new word for spring, I hope that some "springshine" will brighten up your day, wherever you are today!  :)

As if we didn't have enough going on here these past few weeks with the excitement of our well getting put in, our landlord decided it was time to put the house we are renting up for sale.  We had mentioned to him last fall that we were planning to get moved out to our property the following late summer, so he was aware of our plans.  Being as springtime is upon us, it made sense for him to list the house on the market.

My husband's idea is that we could live in one of these.  Hmm.... I do have quite the adventurous heart. It would be kind of fun - for a few days! lol! At least we would have water, which would be huge.  Our neighbors have offered us the use of a military style tent that they have, should we need it.  It is certainly on the back burner, being considered... however.... we live in an area with lots of these animals roaming around, ALL of which we have seen on our property at one time! ....


My husband came face to face with one of these cats while cutting down some trees.  They had a staring contest, and.... my husband won!  The cat turned and left. Whew!  All he had was a chainsaw, guess that would have been better than a rock!


We enjoy the deer coming through - except when they found my garden last year!  Then, I wasn't so happy about them!


We saw a big guy just like this just a mile or so away from our property, and have seen many elk tracks through our property.  Amazingly, they all disappear right around hunting season!


And we have seen a moose with her newly born calf that was born close by our property.  They came to our property, and settled down, eating quite a few of our trees, making themselves at home for about a week or so in our woods.   Of all the animals and wildlife we have that visit, a moose is perhaps the one to think twice about.  They are very curious animals, and because of their size, can go and do just about whatever they choose.


And we can't forget about the gaggle of turkeys that visit several times a day.

So what do you think?  A tent?  It's very possible, but probably not likely.

More likely it will be something like this:


After living in a large 5 bedroom home for several years now.... downsizing is going to be fun, don't you think?

Our family has decided that we are going to make the best of things, and turn this into an adventure! I'll keep you posted on how that works.  :)