Progress!…well, not so much!

I wish that I could say I’ve made huge strides in getting organized at the house since the move back to our “old, new house” and I wish that I could say that all the boxes are unpacked at the office and that all my files and notebooks are all in order.

But….not so much!
Sometimes it’s frustrating trying to do “life” while “doing life”.  Do you know what I mean?  Sometimes you wish that everything around you would just stop long enough for you to complete the task of “getting it together”.

But that’s not *real* life is it?

And so, I find a few minutes here, an hour there….to unpack a box, organize a drawer, plan a closet.  But it’s going to take some time…longer than I want it to.  So, I guess I have a choice to make.  I can get irritated, out-of-sorts, and frustrated with the whole scenario.  OR, I can take it as it comes…do what I can….and flex with the moment.

Sometimes I do really well with the whole flex thing!  But then there are times when I can’t find something, or I’ve walked around a box one too many times, or someone is asking me, yet again, where something is, that I fret and fluster.

Argh!  Deep breath!  One foot in front of the other….one box at a time…one project at a time…and a focus on what’s important…the people in my life.

For me, that’s easier said than done.  How about you?

Dear Tin Roof,

Dear Tin Roof,

I didn’t realize how much I’d missed you until I woke up this morning and heard the rain steadily falling on you in a soft, rhythmic, drum-like roll.  No one else is awake to enjoy this sound.  And so..I sit quietly with my Chai, listening to you softly talk to me in reassuring rhythms…telling me that All Is Well, reminding me of all the things for which I can be thankful, reassuring me that the God of the Universe is the same yesterday, today and forever, and focusing my sights on the little things…the little things that make life so meaningful.

I’m glad to be back under your protection Tin Roof!  You remind me of the constant protection that I enjoy under the “roof” of my heavenly Father’s care.  Under His “roof” I can hear the rain, the winds, the storms of life and yes, I can even be affected by them.  Yet, I am under His care and under His protection.  There is not a hair from my head that He doesn’t know about or that isn’t part of His plan.  There is not a sparrow that falls from the sky of whom He is not aware.

And so, as I sit quietly LISTENING and RESTING under your protection Tin Roof…I must also sit quietly listening and resting in the knowledge that I am always being protected, loved and cared for by the One who gave Himself for me!

Faith and Courage,

Lori

 

Simplifying

We’ve gone from 40 acres to 7.5…and if you don’t know the background to that…well, we probably just don’t know each other well enough *yet*!  But suffice it to say, that our adventure in managing someone else’s ranch is over and we are back on our original property here in Colorado.  Our dream to make that ranch ours just wasn’t meant to be.  We thought God led us there for one reason…but He had something else in mind.  Yes, we are disappointed…maybe even at first you could say we were a mixture of heartbroken, disillusioned and frustrated! Yet, now that we are back “home”, we feel like we are home from a very, VERY long excursion.

So, I’m working to snuggle my family into a much smaller space and we are working to tuck all the animals into a new property.  The move was not smooth…but it’s behind us now and I’m slowly…and I mean VERY slowly…getting things organized and put away.  We’ve been back a week…so you can probably picture where we are at in the process.

But since everyone these days is talking about the new buzzword of “simplifying”, I thought maybe you would be interested in the process our family is going to have to walk through to fit back into this sweet home.  Don’t feel sorry for us!  HA!  We look out on a beautiful mountain view, and the interior of the house is gorgeous with all the milled wordwork, beetlekill pine, pine ceilings etc.  But, alas, it is quite small….and quite open.  So, I’m having to think outside of the box and I know its going to take some simplifying in the areas of eliminating unneeded items, consolidating, dual purpose rooms and closets and much more.

Interested in following the progress? Maybe you can even share some of your space saving and organizational ideas with me to help me along this journey.  I’d love that!

In the meantime, just let me tell you that we are down to four horses on the property (two others are for sale and being kept in the common pasture), 9 goats (hallelujah)….Mr. Tumnus, Clover and Clover’s doeling were taken by someone the *day* that we moved…24 chickens….and Oscar…our faithful dog who tries to herd everything…including chickens.  They are settling in well!  We’ve gotten son #3 settled in college, our new Artios intern settled in her apartment down in Denver, son #4 semi-settled up in the loft and the rest….well, the rest is a work in progress.

Life is an adventure isn’t it!  I have a feeling that settling in here is going to be an adventure all its own.  I hope you will join me…and I hope you will share all your ideas and suggestions with me.

Faith and Courage,

Lori

For a time…

Dreams are hard to watch slip through our fingers!

Especially when you thought THIS was the right time and the right place for that vision to become a reality.

Hard work goes into making dreams come true but sometimes all the hard work in the world still doesn’t make that dream a reality.

Why is that?

I’ve been up since 2 a.m. just thinking and asking God questions.  Asking Him why we felt so sure it was His will for us to move through this wide open door, only to have that dream seemingly vanish into thin air.  Did we make a mistake?  Were we confused by circumstances?  Did we get ahead of Him?

Somehow, I keep hearing God say…”No…this is what I wanted for you for a time.”   My father-in-law sent an email to us late last night and in it he said some things that made things make at least a little more sense.  He said…

“Maybe it was the Lord’s will and through it He has brought you to this point in your life where He may further refine you and prepare you for other things.  Whether we realize it or not, often what we perceive to be the Lord’s will is His means to get us into His will that He has not yet revealed.  What we might say was a mistake, God says “no, it was necessary to bring you to where I want you to be down the road.”  I certainly cannot unravel all the varied aspects of how the Lord brings us to where He wants us, even using our mistakes and wrong decisions, if indeed this is what they are.  But if we truly believe that He is sovereign, that He has all wisdom and all power and that He loves us in Christ and will not lead us astray nor forsake us, then we must trust Him in all things, even though we do not understand how it can be and how it can be for our good and for His glory.  We cannot dwell on our subjective analysis of these things.  This will serve to do nothing but put us in a self-pitying frame of mind and we find fault with God for the way things have turned out.”

And so….even though this part of our dream has not turned out like we thought it would, I will still go on being “the beginning rancher’s wife” and I will revel in my role as a wife and a mother and in the ministry God has given our family through Artios Academies.  We will make some adjustments and we will move forward and we will find new ways to continue to use this beautiful setting of Colorado to minister to the hearts and souls of young people.

Things My Grandmother Knew: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

If you live in a rural setting, you know how inconvenient it is to run out of anything….especially coffee….and especially when you realize that you are out of coffee at 5 a.m. before ANYTHING is even open.  We live 40 minutes from the closest grocery store and there was no way I was making that drive this morning…sans coffee.  So, I began to scrounge around in my cupboards and found one of those specials that Starbucks runs.  You know…you buys something and you get some instant iced coffee for a discount price.  (HA!)

Well, I took the packet of instant iced coffee poured it into 16 ounces of water as instructed and stirred while I watched it dissolve.  I then poured some into my coffee cup until it was about 2/3 full and put it in the microwave for about a minute and then finished filling the cup with milk.  Oh my goodness!  It was delicious.

Necessity will certainly make you think out of the box…especially when it comes to my morning coffee.  I’ve reheated some still left in the coffee maker from the morning before (gross but true), I’ve made it using paper towels as a coffee filter when I had no filters in the house and the list goes on.  I’m sure you have a list of your own and I know that my grandmother did.

I’m sure that some of the things that I shared in my Waste Not, Want Not post were results of her thinking outside of the box for solutions.  She ran out of twistie ties to tie up drooping tomato plants so she tore up bits of old panty hose and used those instead.  She didn’t want to buy ice so she froze ice in empty milk containers.  She wanted extra room for plants so she used empty milk containers.  She didn’t want to spend money on buying plants so she traded cuttings with neighbors and relatives.

I thought of her this morning as I tried to find a solution for my serious dilemma of being coffeeless…I think she would have been proud! : )

Happy Father’s Day, Mr. Janke

It used to be that I dreaded Father’s Day!  I hated going to church on that day and being surrounded by all the picture perfect families, their picture perfect clothes, picture perfect smiles and what appeared to be their picture perfect lives.  Picture perfect was not something I had experienced in the area of a father-daughter relationship.  I was in the minority there…a child from a broken home. My mom was wonderful and made so many sacrifices for me.  However, I’m sure you’ll agree…fathers are important.

That dread of father’s day continued into adulthood.  It didn’t seem to matter that people told me that God was my father…a champion of the fatherless.  For a time, it didn’t seem to help seeing our own family and the wonderful example that John was as a father to our children.  Then, one day…through a multitude of circumstances and events, God reminded me that I had experienced a father-daughter relationship with an “adopted father”…someone who chose to care about me, to take an interest in me, to take time to listen and advise, and to do all of that even though I wasn’t his “real” daughter.

I will be forever grateful for Mr. Dan Janke.  I played the piano for the Junior Church program that he oversaw and each Sunday he would drive to my house, pick me up early and take me in so that we could be there on time when the children began to arrive.  Those rides were jam packed with conversations regarding boys, challenges, Biblical principles, God, and my plans and hopes for the future.  He listened…he cared…he took the time to invest in me…to see potential that others seemed to overlook.  He warned me and cautioned me in areas that needed to be spoken into at various points in my life. He came to my games (and his son’s games) and sat in the stands and cheered for us.  He was there…always there.

What really amazes me is that he did this because he wanted to.  He had no obligation to me.  He had no responsibility for me.  He had a family of his own…a wife and three boys…and he was a brilliant man that worked for Martin Marietta.  He was a deacon in the church.  He had a full plate and yet, he unofficially adopted me.  He showed his family and he showed me…unconditional love.  He was a picture of God’s unconditional love towards me.

I haven’t seen him for years.  But now, each year on Father’s Day, it is Dan Janke that comes to my mind…and I rejoice in the picture that he reflected to me of God’s unconditional love.  Truth be known….I married someone that exemplifies alot of those same qualities.  And over the years, as I’ve had the opportunity to work with and around hundreds of young people, it is the example of Mr. Dan Janke, that set the stage for me to look for the potential in my own children and in other students that others might miss, to spend time listening, to speak into situations where caution is needed and not ignore those opportunities, and to foster leadership in young people. These are things that I learned from my “adopted” father.

And for that, and many other things, I will be forever grateful.

Happy Father’s Day…Mr. Janke!

Things My Grandmother Knew: Life Requires Flexibility

As I’ve been pondering and marveling over all the skill my grandmother had in her kitchen, around the house, in the garden, at the farm, at the store and more, I realized there is one skill that I have overlooked.  My grandmother knew how to be flexible.

I’ve heard it said, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not break.”  My grandmother’s life certainly required some flexibility.  Life has a way of throwing you curve balls, giving you unexpected challenges and disappointments.  With each curve ball, we are faced with a decision…How will we respond?

Admittedly, I was either not born yet or very young when some of the following events occurred, however, I can remember hearing about them and I saw the results of these events.  I’m not even sure I have all the details right.  What I do know is that I know the result of how my grandmother faced these events.  One in particular has been running through my mind recently.  Probably because I am facing a similar situation and challenge.

After my grandparents were married they began farming and ranching in western Kansas.  They raised hereford cattle and lots of alfalfa and probably other things as well, but that’s what I remember.  They did well….they built a new brick house, expanded their property, hired help.  They were successful.  They had two young children.  Life was good.  I don’t know exactly how old he was when my grandfather had his first heart attack but I would imagine it was in his early to mid-thirties based on what I’ve been told.  The first was followed by others and pretty soon his health caused my grandparents to reconsider their choice of farming and ranching.  It’s hard, HARD physical labor…especially during those years.  The doctor informed my grandfather that in order to survive he would have to give up farming.

What a blow that must have been!  They had spent their lives building a life on that farm.  This is what they knew…this is what my grandfather had been raised around.  And now, now they wouldn’t be able to continue.  I wonder what my grandmother felt as she faced the idea that her life was going to be forever changed and radically turned upside down.  They were facing a move into town, the sale of their farm, purchasing all that was needed to start a small department store in the town of Quinter (approximately 1000 people then), learning a new trade, building yet another house….the changes and transitions must have provided an endless list of things to worry about.

Yet, she faced these transitions and changes and survived and I never, NEVER heard her utter a word of regret or bitterness.  In my heart, I think she was more comfortable on the farm but yet, she worked side by side with my grandfather in their store year after year after year.  She remained flexible.

Sometimes I think my grandparent’s generation understood the frequency and unpredictability of “curve balls” more than we do.  Because of that, they knew how to walk through uncertain times with a grace and a dignity that few demonstrate today.  For whatever reason, we seem to expect things to go like we want them to go, to get the results we want to get, and to encounter few challenges.  Real life isn’t like that.

Life requires flexibility.

I bet all of us are facing some “curve balls” right now.  I want to remember what my grandmother demonstrated:  “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not break.”

Slowly but Surely

I get up early.  Not because I want to, but because that’s when I wake up.  It’s still dark but somehow you can sense that the darkness is about to lift and a new day is about to begin.  I go to the coffee maker and start a pot of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, get my mug and put my sugar and creamer in it and then walk to the sunroom/office.  3 walls of windows surround me and I have to turn on the porch light to see if John remembered to cover the plants in the garden last night since it was supposed to get down to around 39 degrees.  Yep, they are safe.

With coffee done and in hand, I sit down in “my chair”…you know, the one that faces the mountains and I wait.  Darkness still seems to be surrounding the new day and yet I can begin to see the outlined shapes of Snert, Bliss, Farrah and Tokie in the pasture…all serenely munching on what is for now, green grass.

There is a peace that comes with watching the dawn.  There is a feeling of certainty knowing that the sun will rise today just like it did yesterday.  I may not yet see the sun but yet, the darkness seems to be getting less heavy, less all-encompassing, and I begin to see the ranch a bit more clearly although there has been no burst of sunlight yet.  I can quietly trust and rest in the fact that the sun is coming.

I wonder if that is how people in the Old Testament felt.  They could see God’s hand throughout history and yet there had been no burst of the “Son” yet.  Yet,  they quietly trusted and rested in the fact that the “Son” was coming.

Sunrise comes slowly!  It begins to touch the tops of the mountains that are so tall they are above timberline and look bare and rugged.  Then, it slowly spreads its way down to the trees and eventually it’s rays hit the valley where I live.  I am talking about where I live physically and yet, sometimes “living in the valley” could describe where I live emotionally and physically as well.

It’s been that way lately.  I’ve been in a bit of a valley…a valley where I KNEW the sun was going to show its rays again, and yet, the darkness seemed all encompassing.  Years ago I would have panicked…I would have been depressed.  To be honest, I have still had some days during this valley period when I have felt the life being choked out of me.  But yet, this valley experience has been different.  I guess you could say I am learning to wait, to rest, to be comforted by the fact that the God who controls the sun, moon and stars…who knows the beginning from the end….who separated the darkness from the light….has not forgotten me, has not forsaken me.  The “Son” did come!  Because of that fact, God’s grace surrounds me even in the darkness and I can sense, I can rest, I can feel peace knowing that the sun will shine in my valley once more.

I may not yet see the sun.  But the darkness seems to be getting less heavy, less all-encompassing, and I begin to see my life and my challenges a bit more clearly. Although there has been no burst of sunlight yet, I can quietly trust and rest in the fact that the sun is coming.

Waste Not, Want Not – Office Makeover

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Waste Not, Want Not – Office Makeover

(a follow up to Things My Grandmother Knew:  Waste Not, Want Not)

My office is my nemesis!

I love it….I hate it!

I think that for the rest of my life I will be trying to find a way to put together an office that works for me.  I’ve read every blog, every book, every article that I can find on office makeovers and none of them have all the answers for me.  My office is multi-functional.  It’s the location where I “plant” myself while we homeschool, it’s where I write my blogs, its where I plan for Ranch events and duties, it’s where I hold online meetings, its where I have my quiet time, its where I am DESPERATELY trying to put finishing touches and more on our new Artios curriculum.  You get it right!  It’s like a very busy part of the house.

My office has been located in various places.  I tried putting it over in the cabin but then I was too removed from everyone and all the needs in the family.  Currently, its in the sunroom but now I’m SO available, I can’t do anything without being interrupted every 10, no make that every 5 minutes.  John and I both work from home so, let’s just say, it gets complicated.

I want my office to feel like part of the home and yet be a reflection of me, have an organizational system that works for multi-tasking and yet, feels welcoming and inviting.  Now, how to do that without any money.

The makeover below wasn’t just something that I decided to do one day and went out and bought a bunch of stuff.  Nope, it has been a work in progress.  Shoot…it will probably continue to be a work in progress.  It has come from odds and ends that were bought for other purposes other than an office and repurposed for me including fabric that was originally meant to reupholster some furniture and/or make curtains, a desk salvaged from a office warehouse, and a bookcase that was meant to go with another desk in another room.

I started by using fabric meant for reupholstering and constructed/sewed a covering for the desk to mask it’s “officey” feel….and the result, was a reflection of me….reds, neutrals, checks and a tiny bit, a TINY bit of ruffles.

Since I don’t have to use the drawers that much, I even covered the drawers with flaps that can be raised when I need to get into the drawers.

Since I despise tile floors, especially in a log home, (can you believe it), I did splurge and bought a small rug that sets off the red in the desk fabric and I pulled in a bookcase from another room, one that matches another desk, but that fit the “mood” of this room better.  I then filled it with my precious notebooks, my homesteading resource books, current research materials I am using in my writing and homeschool books Ioks need to keep at my fingertips for use with Jared.

I found a picture on pinterest of a multi-picture frame filled with coordinating scrapbooking paper that someone used to write on repeating weekly tasks in each of the sections of the frame.  Now THAT was a project I could do with my limited crafting skills and one that I could do inexpensively.  So, now those weekly office tasks that show up on the same day every week are written on this board in dry-erase marker and it looks pretty too.  I went through some old boxes and found some squares of cork and covered them with coordinating scrapbooking paper.  Hung all of this on the wall and made it my information central desk.

I made sure that we moved the desk so that I could look out the window towards the gate at the front of the ranch and so that I could always “lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help.”  Cleared the top of my desk as much as I could and tried to get rid of as much clutter as possible by putting those things I need access to, but don’t need every day, into plastic storaage containers, covering them and using them as “end tables” until I can think of something better to do with that type of stuff.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result.  The room has windows on three sides and a door leading to the deck and out into what hopefully, will soon be a garden.  I wanted a room that welcomed me, that I looked forward to going into…and that’s what I got.  Just so you don’t continue to think I was one of these chicks that went out and bought it all, let me tell where some of the basic pieces came from and how long they had been hanging around.  (Don’t Judge)

Desk – 12 years ago from an office warehouse that was getting rid of furniture

Material for desk – 15 years ago…and it has been used for a plethora of things

Bookcase – 10 years ago

Plastic Storage Containers – most were purchased about six years ago for a different purpose.

There is still more that I’d like to do in here.  I’d like a bigger rug for the floor that is so cold during winter.  I’d like to add some window toppers to the bamboo blinds.  But, overall….I’m thrilled.

Things My Grandmother Knew: How to Use a Pressure Cooker

My grandmother knew how to cook.  During college, I drove back and forth from South Carolina to Colorado at least twice a year and usually with a carload of hungry kids.  Being right off I-70, my grandparents house was the stop of choice and we always found a HUGE meal ready.  It didn’t matter if we came through early in the morning, during lunch, or at dinner time.  She always had food waiting for us.  Normally, we were driving straight through and we hit Quinter about breakfast time and we would find ourselves seated around a table of eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns, fresh fruit and well….anything else our heart happened to desire.

As I spent time at my grandparents home, I can remember my grandmother often using a pressure cooker.  I specifically remember her using it for green beans with ham.  Oh my goodness was that good!  However, I sadly admit to you…that I don’t know how to use a pressure cooker and I have sorted through some of my grandmothers recipes, I have seen her mention it on several occasions.  Thus, I’m looking for suggestions on some sort of tutorial on how to use one.  I’m scared to death of them.  If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, pressure cookers can be dangerous.  I’m sure that referred to much older models.  BUT, the fear has been permanently implanted into my memory.

I even have my grandmother’s old pressure cooker.  Yet, again I’m afraid to use it because I don’t know how safe it is.  SO, I need to buy one if I’m going to learn this skill and I need to find a tutorial on how to use it.  NO….I do NOT want to read the instructions…I want someone to SHOW me how to do it.  I happened to find a video how-to that showed me what I wanted to know…and you know what?  The demonstrator lives at a high altitude, just like me!  Very encouraging!

How to Use and Care for a Pressure Cooker

So…what’s my next step?  I’m going to go buy a pressure cooker.  Then, I’m going to try this recipe for Country Green Beans and Ham.  If I don’t blow myself up, I hope to show you a video of my learning this skill.  Now, that could be quite entertaining!  HA!