I thought I’d just check in and give you a quick update on our lives, here in the midst of the craziness that is called COVID-19.

I think we can all agree that this is one of the strangest times we’ve ever lived through. I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy. I’m doing great except I really want to go places, now that I’m not allowed to. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Cory has decreed that he will be in charge of grocery shopping for the time being, as he doesn’t want me and the children going out and picking up anything. Very helpful and sweet of him but now I literally have no excuse to leave “the compound,” as we affectionately call the farm here. 😅

But seriously, despite being a little cagey, we have SO much to be thankful for. Including but not limited to:

• Our health.
• Each other.
• The fact that farming is considered an essential occupation, and Cory is still allowed to do his litter trucking.
• Ten fenced acres for our children to run off energy, and lovely weather, conducive to such running and exploring.
• The Church. Even though we’re not allowed to fellowship in large groups as we are used to, we have been blessed by gathering in small groups less than 10, and worshiping with other believers. Sunday morning meeting may be canceled, but the Church is not.
• This is a small thing, but I am so thankful that Cory was able to get a much-needed mini vacation and quality time with his aunt who lives in Outer Banks, just before all of the craziness hit us here in America. He had been planning it all winter, and he deserved a little break.

It was an interesting experience for me, being responsible for his cows while he was gone. I am not the beef farmer in this marriage, I’m the turkey farmer. 😅 Thanks to FaceTime, Cory was able to coach me through some of the logistics of rotational grazing, and no bovine lives were lost.

Story time. I don’t know why, but whenever Cory leaves for any significant amount of time, I suddenly have great ideas of all sorts of things I could do to surprise him before he comes back. It gives me so much energy, I have no idea why, but I get way more done when I’m doing things to surprise him. 

(maybe I should pretend he would be surprised if I folded all the laundry and put it away today.) Hmm… actually he probably would be. 😂 But anyway, this particular time my two projects were to build and install a bookshelf, and replace the light fixture in the kitchen.

As soon as he left for North Carolina, I left for Lowe’s. In my own little world, I buzzed down 254. There were no problems in my own little world. But then I met a problem. The problem had brake lights, and then blue lights.

Turns out a bit too much of that positive energy was going into the excelerator . Oh well. Teachable moment for my kiddos. “Even mommy gets in trouble when she doesn’t obey the rules.”

I did get my projects done though, and now I’ve discovered that woodworking is a new favorite thing of mine. I’m far from good at it, but just knowing that I can build things makes me want to build more things. As though I needed another hobby. 🙄

And now for an update on the children:

She is a girly girl, who loves tea parties and currently is very concerned with looking pretty. 🙄😅

She loves to write words, having me dictate letter by letter. Once she masters reading, I will teach her to wash her face more often 😂 (apparently ABC’s were more important than being pretty that day 🙂

Oliver is 2 as of December. He’s my farm boy. He is obsessed with machinery, and pays close attention to how it all works. I predict he will be mechanically talented like his Papa and my Dad. Who knows?

Both of our older two have inherited their Papa’s love for singing. We need to polish their skills a bit, but plenty of time for that. Anna Grace’s favorite song is “Be Thou My Vision,” and Oliver’s is “A Gate Ajar.”

I should conclude before I bore you further.

Stay well, stay positive, watch those speed limits, and most of all, trust God. Coronavirus got nothing on Him.

Til next time 👋🏻