Thankful Thursdays

 This week I am thankful for my daughter. 

As you can see she is beautiful on the outside but what you cannot see from this picture is how beautiful she is on the inside. She cares so much about people but she is also not afraid to speak her mind. You always know that what she is saying is honest. Not only is she my daughter but she is my best friend. She loves her family and she loves God. I also need to mention she loves her pig and her dog. :)
I cannot imagine life without her and I thank God everyday that I was blessed with her 19 years ago. She is growing into a great young woman who will do wonderful in life. I love you Caitlyn!!

Have a blessed day!!

~April

Please share in the comments what you are thankful for this week.

Today's Thankful Thursday

     I have decided to change the name on Thursdays to Thankful Thursday instead of Thursday blessings, I think it has a better ring to it but it is still the same thing. Each Thursday I will share something I am thankful for.
      This Thursday I am thankful for the family God has blessed me with. I have been very blessed in that area. Growing up I never gave a second thought to how loving and caring my family was. I just took it for granted but the older I get the more I realize just how special it is. I hear so many stories of families hurting each other and not caring what happens to each other. It breaks my heart to see so many hurting families. I cannot even imagine what that must be like. I grew up in a home where I knew I was loved and one of my biggest goals is that my children know just how much I love them. I was raised in a home with my mom, grandfather, grandmother and sister. We did not have everything we wanted but we had all that we needed. Now, that I am grown and have children and grandchildren of my own I realize that what material possessions you give a child is not as important as the love you give that child.  We celebrated the 1 week birthday of my newest grandson and the 20th birthday of my son's fiance' yesterday and I realized that another special thing about my family is that we are willing to accept others into our family with all of the love we have to offer. Below are some pictures from the party.

Have a blessed day and please share your Thankful Thursday in the comments below.

~April

Thursday blessings

Sometimes bad things happen to us in life and sometimes it is hard to get past those things. God does not promise that we will not have bad times but he does promise to be with us and get us through those bad times. The world seems to want to have us see so much of the bad, if you watch the news or watch tv in general there is so much sadness and violence. I want us to start seeing more of the good so I have decided to start having Thursday blessings on my blog. Every Thursday we will come here and share the blessings God has given us and be thankful for those blessings.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.


Yesterday God blessed my husband, Doug and I with our second grandchild. I always thought that I could never love anyone as much as I love my children and then 2 years ago God gave us our first grandson and I realized that there is something so special about the love I feel for the child of one of my children. Being a wife, a mother and a grandmother is the greatest feeling in the world and comes in second for the greatest love I feel. The love of God is the first. Yesterday was tax day so I hope everyone got their taxes done and it was also the birthday of my second grandson. Just like my first grandson, this one is perfect. He is healthy, weighing in at 8 pounds 5 ounces and is beautiful! Below is a picture of both of my grandsons. I feel so blessed to have grandchildren at a young age. I am not young, just young to be a grandma, or mimi as they call me. 

My beautiful daughter holding her nephew

my amazing husband holding his second grandson for the first time

my angels

me holding my second grandson for the first time

my daughter in law holding both of her precious children

my grandma holding her second great great grandson

my handsome son holding his second son

my children acting silly

I hope you have enjoyed sharing in my joy today and please post a comment with a way you have been blessed. Have a wonderful and blessed day!!

~April

Spring

Winter is over and spring is upon us now. The good news is that the snow and cold are gone and we are enjoying warmer temperatures. The only problem now is the mud. There is so much of it!! I have not let the new baby goats out of the barn yet because I am seriously worried they might drown. I do not know if you can tell from the picture above but my boots are covered halfway up with yucky, gross mud and it is starting to smell bad also. The ducks and cows do not seem to mind it much but I cannot get the goats to come out of the barn unless they have to and I cannot even get the pig to come out! That just shows how spoiled she is though. I am thankful to the Lord that we got through the cold, frozen season and I know he is also going to get us through this wet and muddy season and I am really looking forward to when things dry up and I can plant my garden.

Below are some pictures of the goats to enjoy. I love baby goats. They were born on Good Friday so their names of course are Good and Friday. They are 2 little bucklings born to our BabyLynn, she is a cross between nubian and boer. So of course people like to call them Bubians. Geesh! lol

The little boy in front is Friday

The little boy facing us is Good

Have a blessed Thurday!

~April

The trouble with ducks

I have been so busy lately. Right now I am keeping watch over a mother goat that has lost her ligaments, her bag has filled up and she is starting to have discharge. Everyone here who owns goats knows what that means. We will be having some amazing photos full of cuteness coming up soon! I just love baby goats. I hope you do to because you will be seeing alot of them.

Yesterday was April Fool's day, thankfully noone played any jokes on me. I am that person that falls for them all of the time.

Well, so far none of this has been about ducks or about trouble so let's get on topic. If you ask my husband what the trouble with ducks is he would say a resounding EVERYTHING! As you can see ducks are not my husband's favorite animal on the farm but we have agreed if I can put up with his cows then he can put up with my ducks. I personally do not see how that is a fair trade off. I have yet to have an 800 pound duck come up behind him and bump him with it's head because it wants some scratching under the chin but I guess it could happen, right? I do know that the thing my dear husband dislikes most about my ducks is the fact that they absolutely love swimming in the water troughs, and that gets the water really nasty really fast and I have to admit that I do not necessarily like that about them either. So....what do us farmers do when we have a problem we go to a friend for help. I got on facebook and asked my friend Susie over at Our Simple Farm and like most things the solution was pretty simple and I cannot believe I did not think of it myself. She told me that she has a kiddie pool set up for her ducks and they don't get into her water troughs. Really!?? That simple? I was skeptical. It isn't like I would be making it like fort knox around the water troughs, I would just be putting up a little pool of water. Why would they give up their larger area to swim in? I am very happy to report though that she was correct. I did not have a kiddie pool so I made a small pool from the bottom of an old igloo dog box. The ducks love it and even better is that they stay out of the water troughs. I am very happy about that and maybe it will help my husband like my ducks a little bit more but probably not. Have a wonderful and blessed day!! Please enjoy the pictures of 2 of my beautiful ducks posted below.