Staycation ( 2 Timothy 1:7)

We had a staycation this past week.  It’s hard to go far when you have a baby calf that takes a bottle twice a day.  We have been able to drop off the morning bottle.  She is eating cow manna really well.  Hopefully by the time her girlfriends arrive she will be eating like a big girl with them.  We had planned to stay at the farm for 4 nights and then a hotel in Spring Hill for 3 nights.   The 4 nights in that old farmhouse (Friday thru Monday night)...with the kids....was a unique experience.  The kids did NOT want to sleep in the house, but Paul and I insisted that we would be fine and they would be in the same room as us. We got out the air mattresses and blew them all up.  We played several games of Uno and then a t t e m p t e d to go to sleep.  I never knew my child flipped and flopped so much through out the night.  The noise the air mattress made each time she moved, which was every 30 seconds, is indescribable!!  It’s a sound I hope to never hear again, especially between 3-5am.  Grant cracked me up because he has a weighted blanked he likes, but it is short.  So when he is covered up, his feet stick out.  His comment before going to sleep was, “I sure hope nothing drags me off by my feet tonight!!”  I have tears running down my face as I write this.  Every time I think about it gets me laughing.  Paul was getting ill because the kids wouldn’t settled down and because I couldn’t quite laughing. He said I was encouraging the kids by laughing at them, which made me laugh more.  Finally we all settled down and Paul and Grant slept like babies. Brantlee and myself...not so much.  Brantlee feels like when she can’t sleep that she needs to wake me up and let me know she can’t sleep.😑

Saturday we went to visit the Amish in Lawrenceburg.  If you haven’t been to the Amish community, you need to visit.  The Amish are such interesting people.  Very simple lives.  Kids outside working!!! No worries about clothing, everyone looks the same, houses are so similar too and everyone we saw was barefoot.  They are so self sufficient.  I don’t think an economic depression would have a major effect on them. We had been wanting a picnic table to go under our walnut tree.

 We had priced them around town at $325.  The Amish were selling the same table for $125.  They also had the small bed swings, which I had never seen before.  It will work perfectly on my future screened porch.  I can’t wait to lay on the bed swing and watch the fireflies nightly show, without getting eaten alive by mosquitos 🦟!!

 We had lunch at a cute little country store.  Neither Paul or I caught the name of it.  We stopped because we thought it was an antique store, but turned out to be a restaurant.  Only bottled drinks, old fashion candy, hand dipped ice cream and the best burgers.

Monday was a work day at the barn.

Tuesday was a good day.  We went to Nashville Shores and we checked into a hotel afterwards.

Nashville shores was fun and was not crowded at all, but was extremely expensive. So that has been checked marked as “been there done that!!“ 

Wednesday we had water issues at the house again, so Paul and I worked on the Spring box.  We found the problem, which was a ball of roots inside a cracked pipe.

The water is flowing into the spring box at approximately 6 gallons a minute now, however it’s still not flowing down to the house very well.  

We are thinking there must be another clog  somewhere...just not sure where.  To get to the spring box, we had to go through the field Lita is in.  As we were leaving, I had to open the gate to let Paul out, but keep Lita in.  Remember Woody’s famous quote in Toy Story?  “There’s a snake in my boot!”  During all the commotion, I did not get a snake in my boot, but I did get a wasp in my boot!  I can’t remember the last time I was stung by a bee, but I can say, rubber boots fly off extremely fast when a bee is in it. I could have possibly been a kicker for Alabama had I known I could kick like that!😂

Thursday we went to look at the final plans to our house.  We are so excited with how it turned out and just praying it all comes together as planned.  

Demo day has been delayed till later this week.  HVAC, plumber, electrician, and roofer are all suppose to come give estimates this week.  After our meeting with Keegan and Anna, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for a late celebration of Grant’s birthday.

Friday we went tubing in Duck River.  That was fun!! The kids said they liked it more than Nashville Shores.  Paul and I enjoyed it, but of course kids had to dump Paul out of his tube.  They actually stayed out of their tubes more than they stayed in them.  They would get behind and yell, “Hey, y’all stop and let us catch up!” We could never make them understand we were floating with the currant....No Breaks to apply!!😂. We will definitely be doing this again and maybe once without kids so we can actual relax as float down the river.

Saturday we went into Nashville to check out the Habitat Restore everyone has been telling us about. We found an old sink I hope I can use in my powder room.

 We then went to Plantation Station to look at their antique exterior doors.  They had some beautiful old doors, but with steep prices.  They also had a great selection of old stained glass windows, but again prices made Paul a little dizzy😂.  We had lunch at the Gulch and then a photo opt with the wings.

I am a worry wart naturally.  I have to frequently remind myself God is in control and he works all things for the good.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” He did not create me to live in fear, but it is a daily struggle to not let all the things on social media, the upcoming election, COVID-19, riots, police attacks, etc. to quickly bring on worry, anxiety and fear.  “Fear Not” is used at least 80 times in the Bible.  Probably because God knows the enemy uses fear as one of his main tactics.  Our anxious thoughts are lies from satan.  We fight this by recognizing the feelings as lies and replace them with God’s truth.  Prayer is an awesome weapon, but the Bible is our sword. It’s our choice weapon against satan.  I struggle with reading my Bible daily.  I have the very best intentions, but life swoops in like a title wave and takes me in another direction.  I do believe this is yet another tactic from satan.  God never commands us to read the Bible daily, but Brittney, owner of “Equipping Godly Women”,  gives us some very good reasons we should strive to read our Bible daily and it’s probably the same reasons satan tries to distract us from reading it.

• To learn more about God and His character
• To learn more about our spiritual ancestry and the many lessons we can glean from it
• To find out God’s will for our lives and make sure we are living in a way that is honoring and pleasing to Him
• To examine our hearts in light of God’s word so we can make corrections as needed
• To guard our hearts against attacks from the enemy and the temptations and trials he sends our way
• So that we can grow spiritually and increase in love, holiness and the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)
• To be prepared to give a defense of all we believe and why
• To keep God the central focus of our day
• And to meet with Him in a very real way