A slave for Christ treated with Mercy is better than anything in this world!!!! May we give what we have received!

Love this from 5 years ago... Nancy home for harvest riding along with her dad and 1 year old Berna and 2 1/2 year old Gus. 

Nancy was on the 18 month between kids plan until her losses, 2 of which were in the last year.  She is now expecting her 8th including her 3 losses, and just heard the heart beat a couple days ago loud and strong!  LIFE is to be protected and cherished no matter how small!!!

The beans are out and we are working against the weather trying to get the corn out.  A half an inch overnight has brought it to a halt for now.  Prayers for the rain to back off and for the sun to come out is what we long for.   Lots of dark clouds and more rain coming is what we hear...

My little companion, Joy, while mom, Uncle John, and her 5 older brothers and sisters were at the school packing relief packages... 

Grandpa showed up at the same time and Joy and grandpa growled at each other with huge smiles on their faces while they ate lunch together.  Pat "wasting time with family", which he has learned is a good thing and needs to be part of his busy life! 

They made me laugh loud and hard ... it seems that Joy has witnessed her dog growl at the cats when they try to get some of the table scraps, and mimics her growl quite well when she bites her food.  She knows she is adorable shown by her huge smile and light in her eyes, and the smiles we give her in return!  Photo not taken just word picture for today!

Time spent with Joy is time wearing your shoes!  If you take them off she will bring them to you to put back on!  I had heard that she climbs up on the bench to have her shoes put on her, and she did this before her nap here on the DIY bench her mom made and left here...

She thought she would be going on the 4 wheeler with grandpa, but instead she went for her nap!

How do you say "no" to that pleading look?  It wasn't easy...

The two readings from mass today were full to the brim with much to take in and digest!  It was exciting to see that we were going to start reading Galatians for our first reading when I looked at them after evening prayer last night.  St Paul does not disappoint either, and comes down hard on us about getting distracted by false doctrines and gospels which infiltrate our lives.  We start to soften and become more and more inclusive rather than towing the line! 

Something has happened in the last few months that relates to how we hear that deaths happen in threes.... we have lost 3 of our pets, whom have been a huge part of our lives for probably 10 years!  They all died within a months time!  This picture taken over 5 years ago shows the 2 dogs, Lilly and Roger... yes, they were both getting old and had spent a lot of time together over those years, but who would have thought that they would go within weeks of each other? 

Roger depended upon Lilly to be her warmth in the winters!  He suffered a lot this last long cold winter when Lilly had been sent over to the farm for the warmth of the shop at night.  I miss him around here, yet it is nice to not have a dog at the same time.

The two cats that came over to our new place with us... Herbert in the front came as a kitten probably 8 years ago... he disappeared while was at my parents this last time, and adds to the losses of long time pets.  Just kind of big to lose them all at the same time.

I digress!  St Paul writes about being a slave for Christ since he...

"For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it,
but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ."  Galatians 1:12

We can visualize the revelation of Jesus appearing to him on the road, and being blinded through prayer they fell from his eyes as scales.  I pondered my own revelation of Jesus Christ in my own life... I would have to say when Christ protected me and led me to a Christian Commune in Colorado when I was on a path to free love in California!  I had told my boyfriend that I would live with him and that ended then.  I was smoking and had hands laid on me the first night there and i was healed!  I heard the Lord call me to consider religious life...In the Commune we were separated from the men, we had chores, shared the word and prayer, and I thought this is what it is like to be a nun...I want to be a nun!

http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

Yes, Herbert was snuggly... almost too much so!

When I returned from Colorado and my parents told me that they were joining the Catholic Church with the 8 youngest kids... I told them; "I want to be a nun so I want to be Catholic!"  Every day in The Church has been a gift of more than I can consume in each new day!  Overflowing with his Mercy and LOVE and Jesus in Sacrament and Word!  Then for him to give me His Mother, Mary Most Holy, at the foot of the Cross, and all the glorious Saints of heaven and angels, too!!!  I am so blessed and filled to overflowing!!!

The new Catholics - all 13 of us at "the farm" in 1971!

There is nothing in this world that I want more than to be forever with my Jesus and I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that The Church is helping me get there!  I am not a shopping cart Catholic!  I take it all as solid Truth!  Bless-bless, Barb