Nearing September's End...

Is it just me? Or is life sailing at immeasurable speed?

Yesterday, I had a three year old and a baby... Now, my daughters are ten and seven. How does this happen? Time passing like water through my fingers, and I am powerless to stop it...

We have had a busy summer. Our remodel is complete. I have enjoyed going from 13 1/2 square feet of counter space to 43 1/2 square feet! It has provided me an amazing amount of space to stack more things upon! And a dishwasher! Oh, what a help that is in keeping a tidy kitchen!

Anna has become a regular book worm! Last fall, she still struggled terribly with reading. For Christmas last year, we gave her some young fiction, from the Cul De Sac Kids. She devoured them, and in her a switch was flipped! This summer, she completed her goal of reading more than 2,500 pages. You can imagine how pleased she is to have this new past time. Now, I hear "I don't have anything good to read!" Right now, she sits beside me begrudgingly reading a book, "even though I've read it before!" She was reading and re-reading books, of varying degrees of difficulty. I started to feel a bit insecure about it all, as it was all she seemed to want to do for a while. And then she started to write her book. I was shocked at the maturity in her writing style! As my friend, Tracy, said, "I guess you know what she was doing now! She was taking writing lessons!" Indeed! Be on the look out for The Chicken Pox Mystery, which is expected to be completed by the year's end.

Last night, she tickled us all with many jokes at a bon fire with friends. Some, we had never heard her tell. She is growing into a beautiful young woman.

Sarah is... How do I describe Sarah?

She is a burst of bright energy, going full speed ahead nearly the day long. She is often up and going strong long before she is required to rise in the morning and thrashing in her bed, trying to wind down at the day's end. Once she is still, it's usually just a few moments before she is fast asleep.

Her current favorite song is "I'll Fly Away", which she loves to sing at very top volume for anyone who will listen. She is adamant that she knows how to sing "opera" and does so at glass shattering pitches and sound!

She loves to dress up with all the prissy, girly things she can find. It is not unusual to find a trail of clothes in the house, where she has changed and changed and changed, in the course of, oh, say, a half hour time span!

Watch her with her skirt and glitter shoes, as she chases a toad in the back yard, which she calls her "Boy". She squeezes him with great affection until I expect to see his "innerds", as my mother calls them, become "out-erds"!

We have seen significant growth in her sense of responsibility. Now, if Steve is running late, we can ask Sarah to tend to the animals, with full confidence she will do it well. We have seen good growth in our animals this year, too!

In July, we welcomed goat twins to Mama Goat, Annie. Spots and Socks are strong and healthy. The "he-goat", Spots is the black one and he seems to be interested in all the things one would expect a "he-goat" to be interested in. Enough said!

Socks, our "she-goat", is gentle and very tame. She is dear and follows Steve all around. They have grown considerably this summer and we rarely see them nurse any more. We had discovered that their mama is not interested in being milked! Also, she has gained significant skills in jumping away! Suffice it to say our hopes of milking her this fall are dwindling!

Steve is enjoying his animals greatly. We currently have a dog, 2 cats, 2 baby goats, 2 adult female goats, 1 adult male goat, four ducks, 3 laying hens, 2 roosters, a slew of maturing hens, and an undisclosed number of baby chicks waiting to hatch in the next week!

This week, Steve is on vacation and we are so excited to have some extra "Daddy-time"! Our current theme at church has been...

Psalm 84

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you. Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;

listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah

We are praying for revival in our hearts, home, our church and our nation. On October 5, our church will begin revival services and we pray the Lord will meet us there.