The storms all tended to roll in late, making for some late nights as are phones and weather radios kept alerting us to severe storms in the area. The late nights led to later, sleepy mornings. Coupled with the seasonal allergies that hit this week, none of us felt like our best selves physically most days. Bonnie-Jean and I both dealt with rounds of migraines.

Along with springtime comes turkey season. Our brother Jeremiah got his blind set up in his favorite hunting spot on our property. The guys in our family got a couple turkeys last year, and they are hoping this year is even better.

Even though we weren’t our best selves, we made progress every day. It was too wet to work in the garden as much as last week, but we made a little headway. I continued to work on repairing trellises. My sisters and nieces continued weeding rows and last year’s herb bed. We were tickled to see that both the oregano and mint are growing back. I reseeded our start trays, filling in any squares that hadn’t grown. We bought seed potatoes and intended to plant them Friday, but the ground was so wet we decided to wait until next week.

Grace and our brother Levi have both spent hours every day running the weed trimmer and brush cutter, trying to keep the grass down around the bunkhouse and clear brush around the garden. They’ve also been trimming around wild edibles we have on our homestead, including wild plum, elderberry, and blackberry. To the same end, Levi and our dad worked on the tractor yesterday. They are still working on replacing the seals on our ‘52 Ferguson TO-30.

On Thursday, we remembered our Memaw with a sugarplum cake. Our grandma always asked for a prune cake on her birthday, and we always made her one if she was visiting around this time of year.

Yesterday, Grace and I helped our brother Jeremiah work on siding, almost finishing the remainder of our bunkhouse. The weather was cool and sunny — you couldn’t ask for better.

The rest of our time this week was spent on spring cleaning and bookwork. It felt less productive than some weeks, but we still worked hard daily and made our homestead better. When I wasn’t feeling well one day, I got caught up on some computer work I’ve been putting off. The Baboni dog door we installed last summer is falling apart — the flaps are falling off, and it’s rusting inside and out. It was an expensive metal door (costing nearly 300 dollars), so I contacted the company and told them what was going on. We don’t even let the dogs use the door all the time, as it lets in heat, cold, and flies. Often, we just keep it closed. To my surprise, the company apologized and offered to send a new door. So, that was a win.

Despite it not being the best week health-wise, I’m thankful for what we accomplished. We have lots of mild weather to look forward to next week, and I’m hoping we can take advantage of it. I hope we can plant our root vegetables and maybe our green beans. I’d like to finish siding the bunkhouse. We have all the parts for our outdoor shower now, so we can install the plumbing for that this week. And of course, if weather allows, I’d love to start spraying the urethane on our kitchen shelving. There is so much to do — which is always oddly exhilarating.

“Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil.”

St. John Vianney

We had a belated birthday celebration for Bonnie-Jean on Easter Monday. We sisters had an actual day off, which rarely happens. We started the day by making our first ever batch of European-style fermented butter. Bonnie had seen several Instagram Reels on how the butter is made, and it looked so simple, we decided to try it. We mixed a quart of heavy cream with a half cup of yogurt in a mason jar last Saturday morning, leaving it out at room temperature until Sunday night. We chilled it at that point, then whipped it until it became butter on Monday morning. The recipe called for salt, but we skipped this as Bonnie sometimes prefers unsalted butter. The result was delicious — sweet, creamy butter with the slightest tang. We served the butter on homemade sourdough bread with some cherry jam we whipped up last week. It was quite the treat.

We spent the rest of the day watching TV and snacking on a somewhat redneck Easter charcuterie spread.

On Tuesday, we started in on some spring cleaning. Our new curtains and curtain rods arrived in the mail, but we don’t want to put them up on dirty windows. We also did some reorganizing: we cleaned off our lighted plant shelf so we could start our seeds. We had been storing appliances on the shelf over the winter, and we had to do some shuffling around to find them a new home. We managed the task, however, and dispersed things so efficiently, the house doesn’t look any more cluttered than it did before. While most of us cleaned, our dad helped Bonnie-Jean and then Grace install trim in our loft windows. Our new curtain rods install on the trim, so we needed the windows finished.

Tuesday evening, we planted six flats of seeds — each containing 72 seedlings. There is one flat of tomatoes (four varieties), one of peppers (three varieties), and another of okra (all one variety — some Clemson Spineless we had leftover from last year). We planted one flat of herbs — two varieties of basil and some cilantro. Lastly, we have two flats of flowers — two types of zinnias along with cosmos and marigolds. We kept the flats damp, and by the weekend, we had little zinnias and cosmos popping up.

For the next couple days, we started our mornings in the garden. I worked on repairing trellises that winter left a bit worse for wear. My sisters and nieces worked on breaking up the soil and prepping rows for new plants.

Grace and I worked a bit on our shelves, though we are still dealing with finish issues. After we tried adding additional stain to a couple boards, we made the decision to sand several down and start over, which was rather discouraging. Still, the weather was lovely — and our dogs kept us company.

On the bright side, we think we found a wild plum patch growing just beyond our garden. We could be wrong, but the fluffy white trees certainly look like wild plum trees. Grace did some brush cutting and weed eating in the area so that we can keep an eye on the trees and see if they fruit this summer.

Speaking of fruit trees, we also started spraying our apples with a fungus prevention routine. Our niece Chloe took initiative, asking when we needed to start spraying the new leaves. We had issues with cedar apple rust last year, and we are hoping this year will be better. We started the trees on a baking soda routine that we hope will make a difference. Bonnie-Jean also pruned the persimmon tree we found last year.

It was the most outdoorsy week we’ve had in awhile, and it was good for our souls. It was such a delight to get started in our garden again, to feel the dirt between our fingers and beneath our toes. It felt good to be so immersed in life itself, to put on hats and overalls and still get a bit sunburned. Missouri’s last frost date is less than two weeks away, and I’m already counting how many things can be started in the ground by the end of the month. This week felt like a new beginning, as if the year is finally starting for real. We are all here for it.

“Earth her joy confesses, clothing her for spring;
All fresh gifts returned with her returning King.
Blooms in every meadow, leaves on every bow,
Speak His sorrow ended, hail His triumph now:
‘Welcome, happy morning!’ age to age shall say.”

St. Venantius Fortunatus

We ate green food for Maundy Thursday, and we attended a service at our Parish. Our brother Levi’s kids had their feet washed, which was very special.

On Good Friday, I made hot cross buns. It’s been a family tradition for years, but this year the whole process took on special significance.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day cooking. In the evening, our family attended our first Easter Vigil service. We were all welcomed into the Catholic Church. Levi’s kids were baptized. Then they, along with those of us already baptized, received the sacrament of confirmation. Finally, we all celebrated the Eucharist. It was a precious service that we will all remember forever.

After the service, we attended a reception. We were humbled to be showered with gifts from our sponsors and parish family.

Today truly felt like a celebration. It was one of the most special Easters we’ve ever had. This afternoon, we had our family egg hunt. Jeremiah hid eggs all over the property, for kids and grownups alike. We all hiked around finding them geo-cache style using an app he built.

We finished the day with ham, potato salad, and carrot cake. We were exhausted and satisfied. God has been so good to our family.

“‘Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ hath burst His prison,
and from three days' sleep in death
as a sun hath risen;
all the winter of our sins,
long and dark, is flying
from His light, to whom we give
laud and praise undying.”

St. John of Damascus (8th Century), English version by John Mason Neale

Despite the festivity, we had a rather difficult week. We suffered a solid set-back on our kitchen shelving project, as the unseasonably hot weather caused the boards (which were tarped on the deck) to ooze sap all over themselves. Many of the boards now have to be cleaned with alcohol, sanded, and stained again. It’s disappointing, but we definitely learned a lesson.

Our family dealt with several rounds of car issues. Our brother Levi’s family got a flat tire on the way home from mass last week. Then, on Thursday, his car broke down at the school he was working at. It’s still there, waiting for a tow. At the same time, our folks’ Explorer was having issues with the heater not turning off. With temps in the 90s some days this week, the issue had to be solved. Grace spent a long morning helping our dad work on the issue. They couldn’t figure out what was actually wrong with the heater, so they opted to remove the actuator (the part making the heater work) — just in time for a trip to Bolivar. It’s a temporary fix, but we were all thankful for it.

It’s very much a first-world problem, but our beloved KitchenAid mixer started making a terrible sound last week while we were cooking St. Patrick’s Day treats. I took it apart this week and sure enough — a gear inside has been damaged. I’m hoping I can find a replacement part online. It looks like it should be a simple enough fix. For now, we picked up a handheld mixer. We had been meaning to get one at some point anyway.

With the various setbacks, we have less to “show” for this week than usual. We did accomplish some seasonal tasks. Jeremiah put a new window air conditioner in his home office, and we sisters ordered a portable unit for our loft. My mom and I ordered curtains and rods for the bunkhouse.

Bonnie-Jean and Grace planted about 30 elderberry shoots that we bought locally. We had planned to plant them along our dry creek, but they are so small, we worried the deer would have a field day. We decided to start the shoots in our garden for the first year or two.

Our dad had a birthday on the Feast of the Annunciation, so the day was doubly special. The night before, we sisters made him a couple batches of his favorite oatmeal cookies. For breakfast, we made Swedish waffles, which are traditional for the feast day. The waffle recipe was unusual, calling for copious amounts of cream in the very thick batter. I was nervous with the first batch we made, so we made a second with another recipe, though the results were very similar. I needn’t have worried — the waffles were sweet, buttery, and crisp.

After our decadent breakfast, Grace and I helped our dad use the beer kit he got for Christmas. It’s Northern Brewery’s “St. Paul Porter,” which looks promising. We planned to make the beer outside, but we opted to work inside due to the wind. We are fermenting the beer in our storm shelter like we did last year. By Friday, we could see the airlock was actively bubbling.

For dinner, our dad had steak and homemade sourdough bread. We sisters baked it the day before, after nearly 24 hours of rising, stretching, and rising. Our mom made some years ago, but we’ve been too busy to make it a part of our routine since then. I couldn’t believe how easy the process was — or how delicious it turned out. There are a few things we want to do differently next time, but we are officially inspired.

On Saturday, we had a combined birthday celebration for our niece and nephew. We threw a springtime-themed family party, made personal homemade pizzas (complete with a choose-your-toppings-bar), ate Cajun cake, and generally had a good day. I can’t believe how big these kids are getting!

It was a joyous but tiring week, and there is so much to look forward to in the next. Along with all of our regular festivity, our whole family is getting confirmed in the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil. So, this week, along with baking hot cross buns and carrot cake, we will be wrapping up our assigned OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults) materials, and we will finish reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It’s been a simple but long process of preparation, and we are all so ready to be in full communion with the oldest branch of Christianity. I’m so excited about what is sure to be a memorable Easter.

“Be faithful in all your exercises of piety and virtue; be always resigned; be satisfied, in the superior part of your soul, to taste, without relish, the contentment of doing God’s will. Thus after the winter the spring will come, with its flowers, and you will hear the voice of the turtle-dove in this land.”

St. Paul of the Cross

The week began with our parish’s annual St. Patrick’s Day potluck. The ladies in our family had fun whipping up seasonal treats ahead of time — colcannon, Irish soda bread, Irish potato candy, and an Irish cream trifle. It’s always a good time to feast with our parish family.

The cold gave us a good excuse for a slow start to our week. We stayed busy inside with holiday cooking and indoor projects. We put together a small cup rack for the room we sisters share, as we keep our personal mugs there. We seasoned the cast iron pans Grace had stripped last week. We used the method we landed on several years ago, last time we re-seasoned our pans — using the oven and grapeseed oil. We had the pans in great shape when we moved out here, but two years of camping had led to significant rusting (they had gotten wet, unbeknownst to us). We got our very-large family skillet finished just in time for our annual St. Patrick’s Day breakfast — corned beef hash.

For dinner, we whipped up our favorite Irish beef stew recipe. This year, we used our home brewed red Irish ale in the stew, which turned out wonderful. We served it with some homemade Irish soda bread and, of course, more of our Irish ale.

We had another feast day on Thursday — the Solemnity of St. Joseph, in honor of Jesus earthly father. We made a traditional pastry for the day. It is like a fried cream puff filled with pastry cream or sweetened ricotta.

When we weren’t celebrating, we finally got started on our kitchen shelves. Deciding how to put them together was quite the project, but we brainstormed together — Grace, our dad, and I. We have the first unit put together, and the rest will soon follow.

Yesterday, our brothers made significant progress on the exterior siding. They installed a whole layer on what is left of the bunkhouse.

Levi was off this week, so he made a lot of progress on all kinds of projects. He used our brush cutter to clear around our garden area. He relocated one of our exterior shower lines, as we had accidentally placed them too far apart for standard outdoor fixtures. He also worked on sanding the floor boards for his family’s suite of rooms in the bunkhouse.

One of my favorite moments this week was sitting in the creek late in the afternoon on Thursday, sipping hard Mountain Dew and reading aloud — the Catechism of the Catholic Church first, then a book on health. It felt so good to be in the sun, surrounded by the beginnings of spring. It was warm and delightful and a funny way to celebrate the last day of winter. I’m not quite ready for summer’s heat, but I didn’t mind a little taste of it this week.

“Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.”

-St. Patrick-

It worked out for the best, as I found plenty to keep me busy. My mom and I finally started planning this year’s garden. I researched tomato and pepper varieties, and I ordered seeds from Baker Creek. While family members have ordered from Baker Creek for decades, it was my first time placing the order myself. I loved the opportunity to look at the reviews for each plant variety and see what people in my area thought of it. This year, I’m thrilled to try three heirlooms that were developed right here in the Ozarks — Ozark Pink and Millionaire tomatoes, and Ozark Giant sweet peppers. I’m hoping they will be better adapted to our wet springs and hot summers. All of the tomato varieties I chose are supposed to do better with splitting, which we really struggled with last summer due to all the rain we had.

While I researched tomatoes, our mom looked into which flowers we are supposed to start indoors this month. We always buy flats of spring flowers for our porch, but we would love to grow some from seed this year as well. She ordered packets of zinnias, cosmos, and lavender to start in March. She also picked up some random flower seeds to round out her order, as well as some herbs.

Once my knee felt better, I enjoyed getting out in the springlike March weather. I checked on our bees one afternoon, refreshing their sugar syrup.

One afternoon, Grace used sanding tools to strip two very rusty cast iron skillets. It was a bigger job than we expected, but the end results are promising. We plan to season them indoors on Monday when it is cold.

Grace and I worked on the exterior siding for a couple days. Our brother Jeremiah helped on his day off, making a lot of progress. We went through so many boards, Grace had to quit siding and treat more boards with Eco Wood Treatment.

Bonnie-Jean pruned our trees, both the weeping willow saplings and our family apple tree. She also taught our niece the process so she could prune her own little apple tree. We didn’t snap any pictures of the pruning, but Grace did get some lovely macro images of the budding willows.

Watching the hills turn green is one of my favorite parts of spring. The trees are still mostly bare, but grass is coming up everywhere, testaments of life where death seemed to reign. I’ve written before about the providence of Lent falling in the spring, when nature itself draws us into a place of renewal. We search for what needs pruned — whether from apple trees or from our own lives. Self-reflection and confession help us put away what is dead within us as we make space for the new life of the Resurrection. Lent is a time of penance and sorrow, as well as hope — as we face what’s wrong in the process of preparing for what is right in our lives. Today is Laetare Sunday — the half-way mark on the way to Easter. We are over the hump, so to speak, and I can’t wait to reach our goal.

“The hermitage is a paradise of delight where the fragrant scents of the virtues are breathed forth like sweet sap or glowing spice-flowers. There the roses of charity blaze in crimson flame and the lilies of purity shine in snowy beauty, and with them the humble violets whom no winds assault because they are content with lowly places; there the myrrh of perfect penance perfumes the air and the incense of constant prayer rises unceasingly.”

St. Peter Damian

The rainy, soggy weather kept us indoors most days. Grace and I finally began the long-anticipated project of staining our upper kitchen shelving. It’s a project we have been meaning to start for literally months, but something has always happened to push it off. Once we started, I was surprised at how quickly we finished. We had almost everything done by Friday (aside from a few awkwardly long boards we will stain outside). We now get to look forward to assembly and spraying spar urethane.

When the weather allowed, we worked outside. Bonnie-Jean has helped with lots of yard cleanup and upkeep. Grace and I spent almost a whole day taking care of our bees. Sadly, only one of our hives made it through the winter — it appears that both of the others froze. One was a small, autumn swarm, so we weren’t too surprised. We were sad to see that we also lost one of the large colonies in our Layens hives, but again, we had thought it had split itself late in the year — the partial colony left behind looked very small.

Grace and I fed our surviving colony, then we fixed up both of the other hives for new inhabitants. We cleaned out dead bees and other debris. We removed awkwardly placed comb. We refitted the used comb for our swarm traps. The bees had been rather creative with some of their comb designs, so Grace and I trimmed off odd pieces and secured them better to the frames. Once everything was fixed up, Bonnie-Jean hung up one of our swarm traps.

We had our first real storms of the season this year. As we watched them roll in, we were thankful we prepared our storm shelter last week. We didn’t need it at all last year, but still — it’s nice knowing we have a plan should the storms get out of hand. With all the area tornado warnings late Friday night, we really thought we would have to take shelter, but our warnings were never upgraded past severe thunderstorms. I’ve never worried too much about storms, but living in a tent for a couple years made me realize just how powerful they are. As I fell asleep Friday night, listening to the rain pelt the roof and sides of our bunkhouse, I was especially thankful for the four walls we built here ourselves. We still have a long way to go to make our homestead dreams a reality, but we really have come a long way.

“Meditation is made, we may say, as the bees make honey; for they make it by gathering the dew that falls from heaven upon the flowers, and drawing a little juice from these flowers, which they change into honey, and then carry to their hives. Thus we go over and over the life of our Lord in meditation, taking up one action after another, and considering them, in order to compose the honey of holy virtues, and draw from them the graces of a holy meditation.”

St. Francis de Sales

This week felt like an early changing of seasons. Last Sunday, it was very much winter. We bundled up in freezing weather and drove to Springfield to celebrate our Rite of Election at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church. It’s the final step before full initiation on Easter Vigil, next month. It was quite an exodus, getting our dogs all put up and whole family out the door and all the way to town, but we managed it! It was such a blessing to see all those joining the church in our half of the diocese. The diocese as a whole is welcoming more than 900 new members. Those who didn’t travel to Springfield last Sunday will travel to Cape Girardeau for the Rite. After Mass, a few of us went to Costco and picked up Chinese food from the Flaming Wok (a treat from our brother Jeremiah) which was the perfect celebratory end to a big day.

Jeremiah took Monday and Tuesday off for his birthday. We watched James Bond movies, made Vesper martinis, and ate so much good food. On Monday, I assisted while Jeremiah made the family lobster tails and pasta. I opted for chicken, but the seafood lovers thoroughly enjoyed the treat.

On Tuesday, I made Fry Bread, a family favorite since we first sampled it while studying Lakota history as part of homeschooling when I was a teen. We first tried it with taco toppings, which was yummy. However, our favorite way to eat fry bread is with pie filling, jam, or honey — topped with whipped cream.

For Jeremiah’s big birthday dinner, he smoked a brisket in our Kamado Joe. We had great success with our brisket last month and wanted to do it again. This time, the wind kicked up, making it extremely difficult to regulate the smoker temperature. At one point, Jeremiah went to check the brisket, and the influx of air made the flames leap several feet into the air without warning, burning his right hand. Jeremiah kept his cool, but his hand looked bad. We got ahold of our dad, who was working at the clinic that day. He gave us some advice on how to wrap the wound. Jeremiah had to keep it wrapped for days. Despite it being pretty painful, he didn’t let it dampen his birthday. We continued to play games — including Texas Hold’em — and watch movies. We finished the day with a German chocolate cake.

On Wednesday, I finished filing my taxes. It took most of the day to finish everything up, but I was very satisfied to have that project behind me.

While I worked on taxes, Bonnie-Jean and Grace started the seasonal process of cleaning out our storm shelter. In the winter, we use it to store items we don’t want outside in freezing temperatures— paint, caulking, canned goods, and more. We also had all the wood from our shelving stored down there during the last big snow. This year, we added to the normal chaos by storing several totes of kitchen goods (that had been in the tent). Now that spring is around the corner and thunderstorms are on the forecast, we thought we ought to have room in the shelter for people, should the need arise. It was quite the mess, though my sisters made good headway. On Saturday, the rest of the family helped relocate everything to various storage lofts and sheds.

Once the taxes were done, I helped Grace make a better spot for some of the pets in the shelter. It has been a tight squeeze all along, but we have two more dogs this year. Also, to make things more chaotic — some of our dogs don’t always get along. The last thing we want when we have 11 people in such a small space is cranky dogs added into the mix. So, to solve the issue, we decided to turn an old shelf/bunk space into a large dog crate. We were short on time, so we opted for a very simple build — sufficient for the two 14-pound dogs it will house in an emergency.

Along with the storm shelter, we did a few other small projects this week. Bonnie-Jean and Grace cleaned our vehicles. My dad and I hung my mom’s smart birdhouse, which she got from Santa for Christmas. Getting it to hang straight on the crooked tree took a bit of finagling, but we managed it. Bonnie-Jean cleaned the watercress out of our spring. Grace and I also worked on a little bit of siding.

It was a downright packed week, from festivity to brainwork to outdoor work. It is always satisfying to get so much done. In some ways, I don’t quite feel ready for spring. And yet — I felt positively giddy listening to the birds singing in our woods this week. The tinges of green grass here and there are feasts to eyes saturated by all the browns and grays. It makes me want to get serious about planning our garden — maybe next week, when all that rain keeps us inside.

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“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Lent — the Christian season of fasting and penance — began this week. On Tuesday, we had a little Mardi Gras dinner — jambalaya, southern-style corn, and greens.

For dessert, we had a King Cake, complete with a Baby Jesus inside.

After such a rich dinner, we were all ready for the fast day on Wednesday. We attended the Ash Wednesday service at our church in the evening. It was especially meaningful, as I hadn’t attended the imposition of ashes for seven or eight years.

Late in the week, we celebrated my sister Grace’s birthday. We didn’t do anything too exciting. We spoiled her with her favorite foods, showered her with gifts, watched some TV, and generally had a good time. The Outrageous Lemon Lovers Trifle we made for her was to die for. Our brother Jeremiah spoiled her with a new camera to use right away for this week’s photo Friday.

Yesterday, my very belated Christmas amaryllis bloomed. I knew I had forced both of our amaryllis plants dormant too late in the year. So far, only this red one is blooming. It’s lovely, and very much worth the wait. It makes me ready for spring and the flowers that will unfurl beauty across the landscape. Seasons change — tax season with all the rest. I’ll be glad when this one is finished. There are so many new seasons to look forward to.

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“While we are actually subjected to them, the ‘moods’ and ‘spirits’ of nature point no morals. Overwhelming gaiety, insupportable grandeur, sombre desolation are flung at you. Make what you can of them, if you must make at all. The only imperative that nature utters is, ‘Look. Listen. Attend.’”

C. S. Lewis

As soon as the snow receded, we returned to our outdoor lives. Even on chilly mornings, I’ve been enjoying almost hourly walks down to our spring with my mom. It’s a lovely break from life to stretch our legs, talk, and get a short blast of nature. It also boosts those pedometer numbers, which is much needed after the last snowy weeks. It’s our only cleared trail at this time, but we are looking forward to clearing more paths throughout our property.

Bonnie-Jean started prepping our garden for the new season. We want to rotate the location of our various little crops in hopes it reduces pest issues. This week, Bonnie-Jean started dumping out and moving the squash boxes — the mini-raised beds we use for each summer squash plant. She is putting the dirt back into rows so that it’s ready for another season of vegetables.

Bonnie-Jean and I also spent time working on our exterior siding, along with our dad and brother Jeremiah whenever they were off work. We are so close to being finished with the siding — we all can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We had to dip a few more boards in Eco Wood Treatment this week — we are dipping just small batches as we don’t know exactly how much more we will need. The more we have worked with Eco Wood Treatment, the more we love it. Even after we are finished with our siding, I have a feeling we will be keeping a package of it on hand for smaller homestead projects.

Grace had a cold early in the week, so she took it slow for a few days. By midweek she was well enough to help us prep for some realtors to tour our bunkhouse on Friday. We have some tax paperwork that requires a Fair Market Value estimation of our property. We did some research and tried to crunch the numbers, but it was complicated. Finally, I took to Facebook to ask locals for suggestions. A realtor from our area, Icy Baily, volunteered to give us a FMV estimate free of charge. So, on Wednesday and Thursday, we gave the homestead a little extra love — making sure everything was tidy outside and dust-free inside. For the evaluation, Icy brought along the rest of her team — Dennis Cooksey (her father) and Kristen Stokes. The Cooksey Team couldn’t have been kinder or more professional. It was a real encouragement to meet them — and it will be a huge blessing to be able to properly fill out our tax paperwork.

Every time I meet someone new and share our story, I am thankful. Meeting the Cooksey team was no exception. In the midst of life, we can so easily forget the abundant blessings we have. The extraordinary becomes ordinary with daily use. God has been so good to my family. I remember how many years we looked for the right piece of property. I can hold in my mind the miles we drove and the hours my mom and I poured over property listings. I can count how many years it took to actually move out here once we found our place. And then there were our tent years while building our bunkhouse. Each step was difficult, but each had its bright moments. In the end, they all led us to right where we are. There is still so much to do — but on a homestead, one never “arrives” anyway. I’m thankful that this is the path God has led us to — especially when I look back at where we’ve been.

It was Valentine’s Day yesterday. We sisters made some of our great-great-grandma’s tea cakes first thing in the morning. Our brother Jeremiah threw his annual Festival of Hearts party. Once again, we sampled more than a dozen international candies. We all competed in a no-recipe cupcake bake-off. And today, we will finish with the always humorous Valentine’s TMI trivia game. It has been a very festive ending to the busy week.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Matthew 10:29-31 NRSVCE