Eager, happy, and busy. Whew....

 Good Morning ladies. Remember, these are my thoughts, not from any authority on scripture.

Proverbs 31:13-15

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

She is like a merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still night: she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.

Ok, at first glance this passage does not make me feel like this is even anything that I can even strive to be. Breaking it down helps me understand and not feel so inadequate.

I like the the reference to wool and flax. I am a spinner and love working with fiber to make yarn. That being said, it's a hobby and no one is depending on me to spin enough thread to make their garments.

That thought is daunting. I can not imagine the amount of time that would take.

I think the word "selects" is an important one in the scripture. This gives a picture of a woman lovingly choosing the best for her family needs, She knows what wool and flax she needs to make what her family needs. Choosing not grabbing. The best for what she needs, not the closest on the shelf.

God chooses us! He lovingly selects each of us.

Eager hands- busy, happy hands. Hands that are willing to do what is needed and not complain. Meet the needs of her family using her hands eagerly. This speaks to attitude, I think. Work in or out of the home is sometimes overwhelming or even boring. We will not always want to be eager to do a task. I find that very hard. I try not to complain but I hear myself doing just that.

Bringing food from afar- again, she wants the best for her family and chooses wisely whether from afar or the grocery store. This lady supplies food for those she loves and her female servants.

I am stretched in this area. I do not like to cook and honestly, not very good at it. I enjoy meals with the family but the cooking is a challenge for me.

The next part is my least favorite!

She gets up while its still night to provide for her household. I am a sleep hog. I am not a morning person. I like to ease into my day. Happy is not my name in the morning.

Of course, when my kids were young, I got up early everyday to get us all started and out the door.

I think this passage speaks to her dedication to those she loved. She put them and their needs before her own. That required early mornings for her.

God meets our needs all hours of the day! Thankfully, He does not sleep.

So, in summary, this noble, unifying, trustworthy lady, provided lovingly for her family. She did whatever it required and did not complain.

Don't beat yourself up if that does not describe you. We are a work in progress! If God can create everything, He can create these attributes in us. He is always busy helping to mold us into the women he wants us to be. I am thankful for that because I fall short on so many of these characteristics.

Be encouraged today, that the God of the universe sees perfection when He sees you! Strive to be more like Jesus and see what He will do!

Instrument of unity or discord??

 Proverb 31:11-12

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

Hi ladies! Welcome back to my thoughts and google facts of the Proverbs 31 woman.

I can say that I struggle with many of the characteristics of this woman that is so highly regarded. This week is no exception. I'm 50 something and as a young girl, bringing home the bacon, frying it in a pan, and never let you forget your a man, was in full force. Women were working for equality and a voice. I didn't understand it but the jingle of the commercial was catchy and I would sing it.

Before, I go any further, please understand this. This is not a blog on either side of the women's Lib issue. I grew up with a working mom and have been a working mom. I believe women have rights and should exercise them...but, I also believe God, in His amazing plan and creation, has gifted women with unique qualities, strengths, and beauty. I stand in judgement of no one. I want to look at the qualities in these verses and realize we are all uniquely made, gifted, and equipped differently. However, the qualities in these verses are for all women,

Confidence: security, safety, defense, assurance, devotion, faith....

Her husband has full confidence in her. I think (just my opinion with a little study) that this is very significant. Husbands need to trust their wife, (helper) with his whole heart. Heart: the very core in Jewish thought, mind, soul, spirit. Yikes, that is a lot of responsibility.

He lacks nothing. The references I looked at seem to agree that this means that the wife contributes many things to the household. Some suggest monetary but all seem to agree that a wife brings a spirit to the home like no one else can. We all know what can happen if the woman is unhappy. She can set the mood for the family, good or bad. If she brings the spirit of God, love, kindness, acceptance, and value, she is bringing something more valuable than any amount of money. We as women have way more power than we realize. Yep, that's one of those gifts I was talking about earlier.

She brings him good and not harm, all the days of her life.

Good--to be happy, to be pleased, to be loved, favored, agreeable. Get this! She make sure the enemy (satan) is fought at every turn when it comes to her home!

Harm-evil-ra-speaks of misery, injury, calamity, distress. These are all things that satan would love women to show in the home. 

My take away is this...Women are the heart of the family. We can set the mood, encourage, discourage, blame, love, and nurture. Sometimes, at the same time. hehe God gave women a special role in the family. He has equipped each of us for this role. It will look different in all homes. Some of us have more of one strength than another. Since our creator made us this way, He knows each of us.

The statement I came across that really spoke to me is this: She uses her strength for unity with her husband. Unity not discord. 

I know there are homes where this is just not possible. If you are in a home that is unsafe, please seek help. I do not believe that bringing unity means being, allowing, or inflicting abused. Our God loves his daughters and wants the best for us. period.

Have an awesome week my fellow unity building sisters! Never under estimate how much our God loves women and how unique and wonderful He has made each of us.

Rubies among stones

 Proverbs 31:10b

She is worth far more than rubies.

Good morning friends! How's your noble character quest going? As for me, I am still a work in progress.

I really want to have the noble characteristic of receiving truth. Truth, whether it is what I want it to be, is what I want to learn to receive and pass along. 

Remember as we strive to be Godly women, perfection is not the goal! We want to be whatever it is God has called and equipped us each individually for.

Ok, now for "She is worth more than rubies". Is it a struggle to believe that the God of the universe says you are more valuable than rubies? For me, most days, that's hard to wrap my head around. More often than not, I feel like a stone, a pebble, something common and insignificant. 

Why rubies? What is so special about rubies that a woman would be compared to them? Rubies are one of the four precious stones. They include sapphire, emerald, diamond, and ruby. Rubies are rarer than diamonds and of higher worth than diamonds. They are associated with wealth, and prosperity. Rubies were used in decorating crowns. They represent good fortune and courage. The deep red color ties to love, passion, and raw emotion.

Rubies are mentioned 4 times in the Bible. They are associated with wisdom and beauty.

Untreated rubies are of higher value! I find that encouraging. If I am a ruby of any kind, it would be raw, untreated, and natural. I'm not all polished and shined up to sparkle.

My encouragement today would be this. God desires that we women have the qualities of a most precious stone. A natural, raw, unpolished stone that the master jeweler can polish and shine up to sparkle for Him. We will never be the perfect ruby, but.....we are worth MORE than rubies! 

As we venture out into our everyday lives, keep this in mind, You, daughter of the King, are even more precious than a perfect beautiful ruby. God made us all different in looks, personality, and abilities but....He made us! He is not looking for a perfect ruby, just a ruby that He can shine, shape, mold, and use for His purposes. 

Go out and shine ladies! We are more precious to our heavenly Father, than we can imagine. Heads up! We are daughters of the King!

Ordinary and noble??

 First, I am an ordinary middle aged woman. By NO stretch of the imagination am I a bible teacher. I want to be the woman God has planned for me to be. That brings me to Proverbs 31!

The woman in Proverbs 31 is an exceptional example that I, quite frankly, do not measure up to even on my best days. This got me to thinking.....maybe if I take the scripture and break it down.......

Ok, the facts that I am going to write are easily found with Google and a bible commentary. I have felt the tug of the Holy Spirit to write everything else. 

My hope is from your and my chairs we can unpack this exceptional woman and see what God says to us about her .I think we, as women, do not value ourselves as God values us. We allow the world to define our worth. Let's put the worldly part aside and dig in. Today, I got as far as verse 1. Like I said, I am ordinary.

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth more than rubies. Proverbs 31: 1. Let's look at the word noble. If we are going to have noble character, we need to understand what noble is.

Noble: moral eminence (moral distinction and reputable), freedom from anything petty (ouch!), freedom from anything mean or dubious in conduct (hesitant, suspicious), ready to receive truth, exalted, elevated, of the best choice, excellent, magnificent, family ranking.

Well, I fail...........In my life, I can not see many of these attributes. That is from a worldly perspective. I think God sees me differently. He sees my heart and my intentions. Sometimes, I think he shakes his head when looking at me. Often I can be petty, mean, resistant to truth I don't want to hear. I don't see much excellence in who I am and certainly, I'm not magnificent. 

Now, Jesus died for me. Truth! God created me. Truth. Knowing and believing that makes me realize that the worldly perspective is not God's perspective.

You see, God is always working on us. He wants our character to be noble and He alone can equip us for this. So could it be that God says to us, "Daughters, I can make you noble. I can equip you with magnificence. I can guide you in the real truth. I can smooth out those rough mean edges. I can make you see that petty things are not kingdom things. I am not finished with you! Hang on, let me make you who I want you to be!" As for family ranking, God is our father so I'd say we have some pretty excellent ranking! 

Be encouraged sisters. God is still at work in you and me. He sees us as who we are and as who wants us to be. Take courage! You are the daughter of the king and treasured more than you know! Ordinary? I think not!

So, that is the first part of verse 1. The next time, we'll look into rubies and their worth.

Part 9 The Leap from chickens to camelids

Our chickens are doing well and laying lots of pretty eggs. I currently have an egg delivery route to sell our overage of eggs. Well, we no longer have an overage. We sell all that the chickens will lay and have a waiting list to be added to the route.  We also offer other items to our delivery customers. During the summer we have fresh veggies. Early Fall we have apples and apple butter and apple sauce made from our apples. We hope to have a good grape harvest this year.  We always have handmade bath and body products to offer. Our neighboring farm also has items that we offer.

Now to the camelids (llama and alpacas)......By January 2016 we had purchased the remaining acres of the original farm. That meant we had room for more critters. I was thinking maybe cattle or pigs. As we were thinking about this, hubby saw an ad on Craig's list with a baby llama (cria) for sale. I had never been up close to a llama or alpaca. I really had not given them much thought. They were not on my radar until......the Craig's list ad. Hubby casually "Look, here is a baby llama for sale". I thought about that for a minute and replied. I said "I think I would like a llama".  That was the beginning of our journey into these beautiful animals.
Llamas and alpacas need other camelids to be healthy and happy. They are herd animals and need to not be alone. Well.....Lulu (I named the baby llama that we would not get until June) would need a companion. Uh oh......that was the second step into these beauties. The search for an alpaca was my priority now.
I eventually found a breeder about 2 and 1/2 hours away. Not only did she breed alpacas, she was willing to be a contact for me if I needed advise. That was priceless! Long story but we now have 10 alpacas. They all came from this breeder that has become a great friend. I was such a newbie in these animals and she was a huge help. Actually, she still is. She is now out of the business but is only a message away.
We consider these animals a blessing. We have fallen in love with them and can't imagine not having these graceful critters.
Here are their names...Lulu (llama), Cocoa, Darlin, Pansy, Nadia, AnnaBelle, Glitzy, Angel, Marvelous (Marge), Skipper, Smoochie......

Part 8 Becoming a chicken momma

Hubby wanted chickens on the farm. We had talked about this for the couple of years before moving to the farm full time. I listened but really had no opinion. I like eggs but not crazy about them.
There was a concrete pad that was covered and had electric and water not too farm from the house. Hubby turned this into a chicken house and a fortress of a chicken run. I had no idea what a chicken house needed. The only chicken experience I had was an unfortunate Easter chick that I loved (squeezed) too hard. It had a short but loved life.
With the chicken house complete, it was time to order chicks. Again, I knew absolutely nothing about baby chicks (except not to squeeze them too hard). So......my google searches began. We needed a brooder. What was a brooder?? They had to stay warm and protected for 6 weeks. Really? Then what?? I was feeling pretty lacking in the chicken department.
Seventeen baby chicks arrived in a few days. The journey was beginning...LOL
We made brooders out of cardboard boxes and heat lamps. The garage became the temporary home so we could watch them closely. These were the cutest things ever!! Then I began to realize that they produced a LOT of poo. Everyday! Every night! All day long, eat, sleep, poo! This required daily cleaning the brooders and constantly filling food and water containers.
As time has passed, we have made a full half of our big barn into chicken rooms and runs. We are up to at least 150 chickens. They look alike and are impossible to count. We order more, hatch some, some die, give some away. The count is always changing.
It did not take me long to learn to love these silly birds. I enjoy watching them do chicken things. I love hearing them as I work in the barn, They are a source of fun and provide eggs for my egg business.
So, do the math....Seventeen chicks made a lot of poo.....150 make a ridiculous amount of poo! I spend a significant amount of time most days cleaning the chicken rooms and boxes. I don't like my feathered friends to live in dirty conditions.
We currently have an incubator full of eggs, thirteen baby silkie chicks, forty adolescent chickens plus all our grown layers. Lots of birds and lots of poo!

Current farm news: Shearing day was last Tuesday for our alpacas and llama. It went well and our girls are so much cooler. I never imagined I would live on a farm and certainly never imagined having these furry girls. We are crazy about them. I am learning to process and spin their fiber into yarn. It may take all year to accomplish this years fiber but I am determined.

Part 7....Sadie

After spending two years coming to Stella on the weekends, we decided to sell our condo and make this our full time home! Our condo sold quickly and we became full time Stella residents. Woo Hoo!
That was in July 2013. That June we had started staying at the farm full time while getting the condo ready for sale.
One day, as we were sitting on the front porch in the swing, a pretty golden dog came up the road. She was very happy to join us on the porch. She was lab mix with long legs and lab face. What a sweet girl she was! She would become our dog and we named her Sally. We bought her a bed for the porch, food bowls, toys, etc...All was well.
The next day we were again relaxing in the swing again. Sally was with us. Coming up the road was another golden dog. This new dog had short bassett type legs and a familiar lab face. She and Sally looked like twins if you just looked at their faces.
Now we were new dog owners. One stray was enough for us. For a couple of days we tried to make the new one leave. She would just look at us with her sweet brown eyes and refuse to leave. None of our efforts would make this silly looking dog go away. Finally, hubby says," We are going to have to feed her, aren't we?" We knew once we fed her she would stay around but allowing her to go hungry was not an option. We called her Sadie and she was now our dog too.
The next day we drove into the city to work. We talked about the dogs and how we were worried they would get ran over or just decide to leave. As we pulled up to the house we saw a very sad sight. Sally had been hit and had passed. Sadie was OK and happy to see us. So.....that is how our sweet Sadie came into our lives. She is still with us but growing old and not as spry as she once was.

Currently on the farm.....Beau is on day #2 of his job as full time camelid guard. He loves them and they tolerate him. I think he will be a great livestock guard dog!

Sallie

Sadie and hubby

Early days of Sadie

Beau the guard dog