I Definitely Need Reminders Sometimes

I feel like I have to be reminded about things a lot.  For instance, I'm terrible at remembering names.  I may meet someone, and two sentences into a conversation later, I have already forgotten it.  I've seriously considered carrying around a little notebook, so when I meet someone, I can write their name down.  Hopefully writing their name would make me think about it enough to recall it later. 

Sometimes God has to give me little reminders, too. 
Last Saturday Taylor brought me home two new little bucket calves from the feedyard.  Now I have to preface this - since we built our calf pens earlier this spring, I have had 11 bucket calves.  Even though a few of those calves hadn't had the odds in their favor, they had survived and grown, and I had been able to take each of them to market.  And during that time I think my head had gotten a little inflated along with my pride.  Well... pride goeth before a fall.

Anyway, Taylor brought me home two new bucket calves... One was a little, bitty bull calf.  He had been born a little premature.  I'm guessing he maybe weighed 30 lbs.  My cat could reach his back when it stood on its hind legs.  The other calf was a regular-sized grey and white heifer. 
I knew the bull would have a long row to hoe, so I wanted to give him a fitting, strong name.  I decided to name him Fawkes. 
I'm a little bit of a nerd, and I love the Harry Potter books.  One of the main characters in the book has a Phoenix (a bird that dies and is then reborn from its ashes) named Fawkes.  I told Taylor that I was going to help this calf be "reborn" from the ashes of a weak, premie into a strong, healthy baby calf.  I also figured that with a little work, I could get the heifer (I named her Hedwig, also out of Harry Potter to keep the theme going) drinking and going well, too.

Hedwig

The first time I fed Fawkes, he was so little and weak that he could only suck an 1/8th of a bottle.  By the second day we had to drench (tube feed) him that way he could get a little nutrition and strength built up, and it seemed to work.  The next time he was able to drink nearly 1/2 a bottle on his own and he seemed to be doing very well for his size and condition.
The first two times I fed Hedwig, she sucked her bottle down like she was afraid she would never get to eat again, and I was thinking "Alright, this is going to be simple with her."

At this point, God reminded me that it is not all about me; it is not all about what I can do for these calves.  It is about what He can do through me to care for these babies. 
Day - two Hedwig, my "easy" calf, decided to quit drinking.  She refused to suck. Period.  She also started getting sick.  So we gave her a shot, and I expected that the next day she would be feeling a little better and want to at least drink some  of her bottle.  I was wrong.  Not only was she unwilling to drink her milk, but while I was standing there, holding her bottle, taking a break from trying to get her to nurse, she walks over to her water bucket and sucks down a bunch of water.  I've never had a calf that wanted water but didn't want milk.  I was perplexed and very frustrated.  She acted the same way the following day.

At least Fawkes seemed to be doing pretty well.  He was regularly drinking about half a bottle at a time, and I was thinking that we were out of the woods and into more of a lightly timbered area :)  But I still didn't know what to do about Hedwig.

Finally one night it hit me.  I am not all powerful.  Go figure.  I do not have the power to make a calf drink its milk when it doesn't want to.  And there are certain precautions I can take and medicines I can give, but I don't have the power to save a calf's life.  That power resides in God's hands.  I can allow God to work through me; I can be a steward of His creatures, but it is not about me. It is about Him.
The next morning I prayed, Lord, Hedwig is Your calf.  I release her to Your care, Lord.  Then I walked outside and she sucked down every drop in her bottle.   Since then she has done a lot better.  There are still a couple of times when she is not enthused about her bottle, but I leave it in God's hands and usually by the next feeding she is hungry and ready to eat.

As it turns out Fawkes wasn't out of the woods.  He got the scours one night and unfortunately he was just too little to handle any kind of sickness because by the next morning he was gone.  I hated losing him, but I had to remind myself to leave things in God's hands.

I did get another new little calf.  Her name is Luna.  She is a little bigger than Fawkes was.  Tonight I had to give her a shot, so hopefully she'll get to feeling better soon.

A scripture that really talked to me lately was Faith that does nothing is dead! James 2:26  God wants more than for us to just believe in Him.  It's not a game of hide-and-seek where if we "find" God, we win and we can go on living the way we were.  No, having faith means we give our lives to God.  We live for Him and allow Him to work through us and we share His love with others.  We just have to give God the chance to tell us what He wants us to do and then go do it.

Hope you all have a great week and don't be afraid to leave things in His hands.
Lyndee

P.S. It snowed out here a tiny bit one night, and now I'm all excited for Christmas!! :)

A Yard - The Best Playground Ever!

Personally, I would never want to raise kids in a city, especially an apartment complex, because I couldn't imagine a kid growing up without a yard where they can play.  A yard is so much more than some grass around a house.  For me it was a football field where my brother and I would play touch football (I always thought I could run so much faster in the grass without shoes, but I'm pretty sure I was just imagining that) :); it was a clean place where I could tie my bucket calves up to dry after I washed them; it was the "open plains" for my toy horses; it was a jungle for our little kittens; it was a place to practice cartwheels; and one of my most favorite things about our yard was that it was a place where I could spread out a blanket and lay down to read a book.

Early this summer, after trees were planted and before the grass was grown

I've learned that getting a yard out here requires a little more than buying some grass seed and sprinkling it around until enough comes up to make a lawn.  We just don't get enough rain out here to make a good stand of grass.  Granted there are native grass pastures, but all summer they have been brown and dry because of the lack of moisture. To get a yard around our house, we had to have a sprinkler system put in before any grass was planted.  Last week the yard company came back an finished putting the last of the landscaping around the house, so we finally have our yard work and landscaping done!  It looks so much nicer!  Now that we have the yard, when the wind blows really hard, we shouldn't get sandblasted. I'm all for taking good care of your skin and using skin-care products, but I really didn't appreciate the few times when I would walk out the door and get my face exfoliated by blowing sand.

Last weekend Taylor and I went back to my parents because my newest niece, Dawson, was getting baptized.  While we were there, we also wanted to have our traditional family bonfire/weenie roast.  It was definitely cold enough last Saturday for a fire to feel good, but we decided that with all the little babies it might be a little too cold to be outside for long.  Instead we cooked the hot dogs out there and then came in to eat them.  Later we went back out and roasted some marshmallows and drank hot chocolate.  There's something so simple and fun about cooking things over an open fire and standing around talking as you warm yourself next to those bright flames.  It definitely makes for some great memories!  Also my niece Kallan started walking last weekend!  She is getting so big, so fast!  Now that she'll be able to traipse around after Kolden (her 4 yr. old brother), it will be interesting to see what kind of situations/trouble they get themselves into! :)

I don't like burnt foods, but for some reason a  marshmallow that is caught on fire and quickly blown out is awesome!

Western Kansas Fact:  Bunko is a popular game here.  Maybe this is true other places, and I have just been sheltered growing up, but I had never heard of Bunko until I moved out to western Kansas.  It is a dice game, and there are a lot of groups around that get together once a month to have supper and play Bunko.  I've got to play a few times with some groups, and it's been a lot of fun.

Being made right with God by His grace, we could have the hope of receiving the life that never ends. Titus 3:7
This was yesterday's "Scripture of the Day," and it really spoke to me.  This was the prayer that I wrote to go along with this scripture:
"O God, without You my life would be meaningless.  I would just be alive on this earth for a short period of time with no purpose, no hope, knowing I would never be good enough, clean enough, to make it into Your kingdom.  My life would just be made up of simple actions that were the same as the actions of the people around me.  But God, You lifted me out of the despair and filth of a worthless life.  With the sacrifice of Christ, You paid for my sins.  Christ's death on the cross didn't make it so that You could overlook my sins and uncleanliness.  It took away my sins and put them on Him.  I am clean only through Christ.  O God, thank You for paying in full the debt that would have broke me.  Thank You for giving me new life, for giving me hope, for giving me the love that I could never have earned no matter how hard I tried.  I choose to devote my life to You, Lord, because You gave everything for me.  You have saved me.  Amen."

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Lyndee

Mom's Girl

Believe it or not, there was a time when my older sister, Katie, and I did not get along.  It was when I was a baby/toddler and she was probably between 5 and 7 years old.  Katie didn't like me because she wanted to "play house" with me and use me as her baby to cart around.  Apparently I didn't think much of that idea, and I would cry anytime she held me.  Personally, I think I was a smart baby concerned with self preservation.  As a defenseless toddler why would I want a 7 year old traipsing around with me?  :)  However I will admit that I have always been a "momma's girl."
When I was in Kindergarten, Mom worked 12 hour shifts 2-3 days a week as a NICU nurse at Stormont Vail in Topeka.  That meant she had to leave before I got up, and since I fell asleep early in the evening, on the days she worked I was already asleep by the time she got home.  Even though I got to be with her the remaining days of the week, I missed her on the days she worked.  So I had her get me up at 5 a.m. on those days so I could eat breakfast with her and she could do my hair.  Then I would go back to sleep, until we had to get on the bus to go to school.

This past weekend was fantastic because I got to have some special Mom time.  She drove out on Thursday and on Friday we traveled with my mother-in-law and a group of women from the local churches to Denver for a Women of Faith conference.  It was a great experience!  At the end of the conference my soul felt refreshed and my relationship with God felt rejuvenated and recharged.  I really loved listening to the speakers and my two favorites were Lisa Harper and Angie Smith.  They both have written books and, based on their talks, I would guess their books are really good.  I'm currently reading Lisa Harper's book Stumbling into Grace, and I'm enjoying it immensely.
Mom left on Monday, but I was so glad to get some special time with her.

On the bus to the second day at the Conference.

While Mom was visiting a stray dog showed up at our house.  She's really sweet, and her and Bently have a great time playing and chasing each other around the house.  I'm just glad he has a friend to play with because I was getting really tired of catching him dragging my cats around the yard because he was bored.  I bet out of anybody the cats are the happiest that this other dog showed up. :)

Left - new dog, Right Bently

Western Kansas Fact:  Although the terrain is relatively flat, running out here makes it easier to run a lot of other places.  There may not be a lot of steep hills out here, but the elevation is quite a bit higher than the rest of Kansas or many other eastern states.  When I ran in Nashville, many people said the hills were terrible, but after training at a higher elevation, they didn't really bother me.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Romans 12:2
I loved this scripture because it reminded me not to allow myself to just float along with life.  I cannot let my life be dictated by the expectations of society.  I need to turn my life over to God, and let Him renew me so that I can live for Him, even if that means stepping outside of the box of what is "acceptable" by society.

Have a fantastic weekend everybody!
Lyndee