Wrex bought an old, bred milk cow that Wryder really took a liking to. He named her RaRa Robin (after his grandma). She’s the sweetest ole thing…and she really loved him, too.
Wryder and RaRa
We all waited so patiently for her to have her baby and prayed and prayed that the kids would be able to watch see that baby born.
In the days before she calved, Wryder took such great care of her. He’d walk to the corn stalks south of our house and grab a couple of partial ears of corn, bring them home and shell them for her.
Shellin’ corn
We’d been watching her and checking on her every few hours every day. Wrex was even getting up in the night to check her. One Monday morning, they went out to check her and then Sawyer came runnin’ back to the house telling me that RaRa’s water bag was hanging out!
I threw some shoes out and sure enough, a baby was about to be born! Wryder brought a lick tub over outside the fence and within 10 minutes, the kids got to see LIFE!
Good momma!
RaRa had a sweet little heifer calf that Wryder has named – are you ready for this? Betty Harbor Baby Whanny Kroeker Phipps. Ahem.
Wryder and Betty
Despite that big ole bag RaRa has, there’s not much milk to be had so we all made the decision to sell her so that Wryder could buy a cow to really get his herd started, just like Sawyer did at four.
My big boy was so brave! He loved sweet RaRa but understood that it was the responsible thing to do. He didn’t cry at all…and I bawled all day!
One last goodbyeLove this sweet boy
He took her to the sale barn with dad on Monday and got her sold.
Watchin’ her sell
This boy is just one of the sweetest, funnest, brightest balls of energy I’ve ever met! Saying goodbye to a good friend – even when that friend is an animal – is never easy and he did it with such grace. So proud of my brave boy. Here’s to finding the next great one!
The kids got Wendy’s coupons for free Junior Frosties a while back and we decided to use those puppies for Fun Friday!
This girl loves her sweets!She ate the whole thing by herself! (Don’t even think of helping her with that spoon!)These 2 enjoyed theirs as well!
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Earlier this week, as we were rushing around getting ready for Awana/Cubbies, I looked at the calendar and with about 12 minutes to spare, saw it was a “crazy hair day.” Normally, we would fall under that category anyways but we wanted to go with something a little more purposeful.
We decided upon a donut..on a donut plate. I made a quick bun and an even quicker donut frosting with sprinkles out of foam. (Have I told you how much I love foam?? LOVE that stuff.) Thankfully, this had a sticky back and we stuck it right to her hair!
Cute as a button and sweet as…a donut!
Of course, with all the picture taking, Wryder wanted in on the action.
Ready for Cubbies!
One handsome rascal! He picked out his entire outfit all by himself. Swoon.
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We got a new game for Christmas called “Life on the Farm.” The kids couldn’t wait to bust it out and it really is fun to play, for a couple of country kids especially. You get to buy and sell cows for the most part – right up dad’s alley, too.
Dad had spread himself kind of thin and had to pass up an opportunity to buy cows for a really cheap price.
Sawyer: “Wait, why in the world would you pass on a cattle auction?”
Oh, yes, a girl after her daddy’s heart…
Life on the Farm
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We’ve started school again (after a lengthy and well-deserved Christmas break). This time around, Sayble is only napping once a day instead of two, so we’re all trying to figure out what that looks like as far as school (and mom’s sanity) goes.
Lately, there’s been a lot of this:
Pen thief!
This sweet little thing LOVES to write! As long as we can keep it on paper, I’m A-ok with that!
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Over New Year’s, we all traveled to North Platte to do some post-Christmas shopping/errand running and Wrexy insisted on pedicures for the girls! (We didn’t object much!)
Time for our toes!I sure love this girl…
Sawyer had her first one before her 5th birthday and has loved them ever since!
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We also took a tour of the Perkins County Museum! It’s in a beautiful, historic home right off Main street and she’s been wanting to go in for a while. That morning, I just happened to see that they were open so I surprised her with a visit!
She loved the phonograph!!The icebox was pretty cool, too!
It was really neat and our tour guide was just as sweet as pie! So many cool things to see but I loved the old school house, but didn’t get a picture. What the what?!
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We have the privilege of throwing a sweet one year old’s birthday party this next week! I’ve been working on cutting and stringing and all kinds of little paper crafts. I can only give you a sneak peek for now but I’ll make sure and post lots of pictures after the fact!
Someone’s growing up…
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It feels like we’re getting back into our routine again after the holiday season. We’re currently bracing for a snow/ice storm that we’re all hoping isn’t as bad as the meteorologists are predicting. I’m hoping to get get my fair share of football games in if the electricity will stay on!
We have had more fun checking on the eagles (via live cam) in Florida who were incubating two eggs. We checked in on Harriet (the mom) and M15 (the dad) several times a day and finally got to see their sweet baby Saturday morning!
Checking on her eggsA pip! We could see the eaglet moving around inside the egg!Look who finally arrived!
You have to love modern technology when it comes to stuff like this. Very cool to watch the eaglet pip out, break all the way out of his shell and then be fed and cared for by mom and dad.
Eating dinnerThe parents have brought a LOT of fish to the nest!We got to see both of them on the nest a few times!
New life is always miraculous, whether through birth or hatching. I can’t help but awe over the majesty of the Creator…
He’s sure a cute little thing!
We’re still waiting on the other egg but are starting to wonder if that one has a sweet little eaglet or not… Either way, this has been SO very fun!
Oh, sweet friends! Were you wondering if I’d ever return?! Life has been crazy and GOOD – crazy good!
To catch you up in one, simple run-on sentence, we had the opportunity to sell our house, rent an upgraded (read: bigger, newer, central air having, more-than-one-bathroom-and-an-actual-dining-room) home that answered all of our prayers…so we packed our things and cleaned out barns and buildings and took way longer than we ever imagined to move in because apparently we have a lot of stuff and like things just so…BUT we are in and feeling settled and LOVING. IT. HERE. The Lord blessed our socks off and we feel this is exactly where we are supposed to be for the here and now – not much better than that!
And? Apparently, I have some of the sweetest, most encouraging friends on the planet who want to see pictures of the place so what better day than today to get me back in the saddle of blogging. I’ve missed it so!
Moving had been on our minds for a while for lots of reasons, one being that we had bought our home on what we had called a five-year plan. It suited us well and we loved that sweet, little 100 year old farm house but with the addition of two other children, things started to feel a little tight. (And, I know, that is definitely a first world problem. We have never felt anything but blessed to live there – remember that awesome story!? – but we felt the Lord prompting us towards something different and we were ready to go!)
We had heard about the house from friends from church. They told us where it was so we drove by just to see if it was even something was an option for us. Whoa. Nelly. It was like dream-home material!
Yes. Just YES.
A month or so later, we took a tour, prayed our faces off, sold our home and moved in here! We LOVE IT. I’m afraid, no other home will ever compare – truly! Obviously, there are things we might change if we owned the place but for now? It’s perfect for us! The Lord answered all of our requests and desires and then some!
From the moment I walked in, I could SEE us making memories here. I could see myself in the kitchen, cooking with Sayble while looking out the window at the other 2 playing outside. I could see Bible studies and card parties in the big ole family room and loud family dinners in the dining room. I could see kids playing for hours in their big kid rooms and looking out over the pastures from their windows – I could just see us here!
Some people probably think we’re crazy for renting but for us, this was the best option for now, for several reasons. (And just so you know, I don’t feel the NEED to explain myself, but if you don’t know that I’m an open book by now…)
1) We had reached a point with our old home that we felt we had maxed out or profit potential without doing something drastic…and we weren’t up for drastic. 2) Moving is always on the table when you work for a company 3 states away. While we love this area and home we never have to, it’s always an option. 3) Building costs mega $$ these days! I don’t know if we built what we’d like and then had to move, if we’d ever get our money out of the place. 4) There aren’t very many farmsteads in the area that AREN’T either a modular or a 100 year old farmhouse and we’ve been there done that. 5) It was the Lord. All Him. I won’t argue.
So, to recap…moving with 3 small children is hard. Moving with livestock is harder. Moving 112 chickens is hardest. We love our new home and can’t imagine life anywhere else!
Here are some pics of the new digs!
We’ll start upstairs. The stairs come up out of the dining room, up to the kids’ floor. All three of their bedrooms and their bathroom is up here, which is so nice! They’re all together and it’s REALLY quiet for them…which means good sleep for them, so good sleep for mom and dad!
Don’t knock the paneling – ha! We weren’t gonna mess with that!
Upstairs – emptyUpstairs – emptyUpstairs after; top of the stairs
Now, why did I start with that picture?! The bookshelf. Sigh. I have visions of it being artfully arranged…but then I remember that I have 3 small children who I want to LOVE to read so I’ve given up the fight on the perfect bookshelf and have gone with the “we use it all the dang time so it’s always disheveled look.” You should try it, too!
Upstairs after; truly a happy place!
My brother-in-law got me that dreamy pew last year and I was so happy to have a place for it in our new home! I started out like this:
Pew before
and after a good sanding and a fun color, it’s one of my favorite things in the house!
Pew after
The kids’ bathroom isn’t huge but I think it’s perfect for them! I’ve been so impressed with how clean they have kept it!
Since then, they’ve gotten a new faucet, as this one bit the dust about 2 weeks in, but it’s just a fun, sweet little bathroom – I love it! (It was the first room that was completely finished in the whole house! Gotta love small rooms that didn’t need paint – ha!)
Wryder’s room DEFINITELY needed paint. It’s hard to see in the pictures but the walls were in pretty bad shape as far as scratches and dings.
Wryder’s room beforeWryder’s room beforeWryder’s room before
We painted it a pretty, neutral grey and I love how it turned out!
Wryder’s room after paintWryder’s room after paintWryder’s room afterWryder’s room afterWryder’s room afterWryder’s big closet!
Sayble’s room is the smallest, but it suits her needs just fine for now! I love how it turned out…so sweet and cute – like her!
Sawyer got the biggest room. It was an easy choice for us as far as layout goes…and? The girl’s got a lot of stuff. There’s a hoarder gene on the Phipps side and by golly, the girl’s got it!
Part of why she needed the big room was for this:
LOVE LOVE LOVE
There’s just something about a cute farm house with two twin beds in a room! I bought those headboards at an auction one day for $5 each. They are vintage 20’s and just cute as a button and I’ve been storing them for this room!
Headboard beforeHeadboard after paint – Sweet Caroline, to be exact!Sawyer’s roomSawyer’s room
Her room is so sweet and so totally her. She loves her double beds; she loves the little table for tea parties and such and she loves using the toybox as her desk/office. And? She has a huge closet – a must for a girl with a penchant for cute things!
Sawyer’s room and a few of her fun things!Sawyer’s roomSawyer’s closet
And, yes…that is exactly what you think it is! She has a “secret room” behind the bookshelf in her closet! We turned it into a toy room for her and all of us love spending time in there.
I wish I had taken before and after pictures of it because we did the works in there! New carpet, new lighting, boarded the walls…
Sawyer’s toy room after
It is so fun and the perfect place to store all of her Barbies and babies and doll house things. And? Wryder has one, too. How did we luck out like that?!
Wryder’s playroom beforeWryder’s toy room after
We put in new carpet, painted everything and put in new lighting. I LOVE this space and he does, too! I love having the toys out of sight, too, I won’t lie!
Wryder’s toy room afterWryder’s toy room after
And? Sayble has a little crawl space in her room that we can turn into a playroom for her one day. But we’re tired. And she’s still a baby. So we’ll wait.
Thank you for humoring my little house tour with my awful iPhone pictures. 😉 We’ll hit downstairs tomorrow. Maybe, all of my pictures will have uploaded by then. Oh, how we miss our good internet service!
Several years ago, I did a study on covenant (and I’ve written about it here before). To say it changed my life and the way I understood the Lord and His word is a COMPLETE understatement. It. was. AMAZING and completely fascinating. (It’s honestly, one of my favorite things to talk about EVER so if you have questions, let’s chat!)
In studying Abraham, the topic of covenant comes up again. In Biblical times, people would “cut a covenant” as a way of making a binding, holy, irrevocable contract. To cut a covenant, they would perform a covenant ceremony.
I won’t go into a lot of detail here but we’ll use Wrex and Stef as an example. Not every culture did every step but as a whole, it looked like this:
Exchange of robes – which symbolized the exchange of identities
Wrex would wear Stef’s coat and Stef would now wear Wrex’s
If they were seen walking from afar, someone would think Wrex was Stef or Stef was Wrex because they were wearing the other’s coat
It creates a melding or confusion of identities
Exchange of belts – which symbolized the exchange of strengths or assets
Whatever strength Wrex brings to the relationship, Stef now has; whatever strength Stef brings to the relationship, Wrex now has
Exchange of weapons – which symbolized the exchange of enemies
Stef’s enemies would now have to come through Wrex first and Wrex’s through Stef – we will fight for each other
Sacrificial flesh
animal split down middle
Walk of death
Wrex would walk through the middle of the split animal in a figure eight pattern; Stef would do the same. When they were finished, they would be back where they started, facing each other.
Striking of hands
Each person would make an incision on their hand or wrist and intermingle their blood
Some cultures still do this and use gunpowder to create a dark scar
This scar would be a visible sign of a covenant
Circumcision was a sign that you were in covenant with the Lord
Pronouncements of blessings and curses
Wrex/Stef, as long as you obey the covenant terms, blessed you shall be as you lie down and when you wake, when you go out and when you retrun
BUT, if you ever disavow or violate the terms of the covenant, cursed shall you be! What has happened to this split animal, may it happen to thee.
Covenant meal
Wrex feeds Stef, Stef feed Wrex (think of cake at a wedding)
As you eat this, you are ingesting me…taking me into your life (and vice versa)
Exchange of names
Wrex becomes Wrex Phipps Hedrick
Stef becomes Stef Hedrick Phipps
Sealing of the covenant
Test it/prove it/see if it’s real
So those are the steps to cutting a covenant. Isn’t that fascinating?! Marriage is as close as we get to creating a blood covenant (it can still be broken through divorce) so you can see a lot of how those steps pertain to a wedding ceremony…
If that’s not fascinating enough, let’s look at it through the lens of Jesus creating a covenant with us in the New Testament. So this time, let the parties be Jesus and Stef…
Exchange of robes – exchange of identities
Stef gets a robe of righteousness; Jesus gets a robe of sinfulness
Every time the Father looks at Stef, all He sees is righteousness
Exchange of belts – exchange of strengths
Stef gets every strength and power Jesus has; we can walk in His authority
Exchange of weapons – exchange of enemies
Stef’s enemy? Death. Jesus took on death and beat it when He arose from the grave after 3 days
Jesus’ enemy? Satan – who Stef battles now (Ephesians 6)
Sacrificial flesh
Jesus was the living sacrifice; He hung on a cross and died and at his death, the veil of the temple was torn in two (Matthew 25)
Walk of death
To be in covenant with and follow Jesus, we have to lay down our life and follow His (Matthew 16)
We are dying to self and following Him
Striking of hands
Jesus’ hands/wrists upon being nailed to cross
Circumcision of the heart
I will walk in righteousness and disallow sinfulness
Blessings and curses – this one’s interesting
There are SO many blessings and promises He has for us under the New Covenant through His death (I’ll never leave you or forsake you, I’ll supply all your needs, we are a joint heir with Christ ) – but were are the curses?
We take on His name – christian – one who is of Christ
Son of Man – Jesus is identified many times in this way in the New Testament; He took on our name (man)
Sealing of covenant
This is the one that got me….number ten. Like, really got me.
To test the covenant, covenant partners would exchange their oldest sons. That’s pretty serious business, yes? Bearing we weren’t married and just using my first example from above, Wrex would handover his oldest son to me and I would hand over my oldest son to him.
So, look at it through the lens of the New Testament covenant. Our Father sacrificed His oldest Son, Jesus, to prove to us the covenant is real…it’s true…it can be trusted. The things He promises us through it WILL be brought to fruition! Because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, we don’t have to sacrifice anything in a living sense. Our sacrifice is spiritual; we must die to ourselves and allow Him to be in charge of our lives.
Now, look at that through the lens of Abraham. Remember what the Lord had him do? He asked him to sacrifice Isaac.Can you even imagine?!
Isaac wasn’t a young man at this time; he was able to carry a bundle of wood up a mountain (for his own sacrifice, mind you). Abraham loved and trusted the Lord enough that he was going to be obedient no matter the cost. If he lost Isaac, he would lose everything; Isaac was the one and only heir to all he had been promised by the Lord…
And so he did. They climbed the mountain and just as Abraham was about to kill Isaac, an angel of the Lord stopped him. The Lord had seen that Abraham was serious about this test and the covenant they had made together so the Lord spared Isaac.
As I was studying this last step, I was overcome with emotion. The sealing of the covenant. I don’t know that I could do what Abraham did… I’d like to think I could, but would I? I began to wonder what in my life IS the sign of the covenant I have with the Lord? What has He asked me to sacrifice, and what have I sacrificed, as a sign of His covenant with me? What have I given over that says to Him, I am keeping my end of the deal…that I’m upholding our covenant together?
That really struck me and caused a lot of serious introspection. Does my life look like I’m in a covenant with the one true God?
The beautiful thing about this covenant is it’s a Suzerain Covenant, which is a covenant not between equals, but a covenant when one person has everything and the other has nothing. Kinda like me and Jesus.
All He desires is my loyalty and commitment, which does involve sacrifice, doesn’t it?
We can’t be in covenant with Him and be serious about it and continue on living a life of repetitive sin.
We can’t be in covenant with Him and be serious about it and make decisions based upon our fears or wants or desires without ever asking Him what He has for us.
We can’t be in covenant with Him and be serious about it if we don’t make room for Him as a priority in our lives.
We can’t be in covenant with Him and be serious about it if we continue to water down the truth of the Word and make our own interpretations of right and wrong.
It’s been something that’s been rolling around my head and heart the past couple of weeks and I’m aiming to keep my end of the deal.
I know that I will sin.
I know that my record won’t be perfect.
I know I will fall short.
And I know that the work He did on the cross and His grace alone will cover these things, but I still wanna do my best to live a life that’s signed over to Him…a life sealed with a covenant…a life of witness to the deliverance He’s set forth in me.
So, the bestie and her family are some of the best birthday do-ers I’ve ever met! Their family has taught us so much about honor and they always do unique and meaningful things for each others’ birthdays.
Here lately, they’ve been putting the birthday person in the center of the room and letting each person ask them a thought provoking (usually) question. On my birthday, I got an e-mail doing just that so I’m going to take the time to attempt to answer them here!
1.) If you could give yourself a birthday gift, something you could have forever that would enable you to fulfill your greatest potential, what would it be?
Oh, geez. This one is hard for me…maybe because I have to be a bit vulnerable to answer it. I guess I would have to say a spirit of confidence. I’ve alluded to the fact that I’m a bit fearful and that rears it’s head into lots of areas of my life. I fear failure. I fear coming off as a know-it-all (because those people drive me bananas). I fear looking silly or missing the mark…so a spirit of confidence – an honest assessment and belief in what I was putting my mind to, would be a good start for me.
2.) What’s your favorite family tradition?
Growing up, I always loved everything about Christmas. My parents and grandparents always made it fun and exciting. We would make homemade decorations and put the tree up together…my mom always recruited me to wrap gifts and there was always a viewing of Christmas Vacation. 🙂 While I still LOVE Christmas and love the things we’re doing with our kids (Jesse Tree, Christmas pajamas, The First Noel movie, etc.) I love our little tradition of camping out in the living room on Halloween night. That started by accident when we first moved to Holyoke. We had no furniture, as we hadn’t gotten it from Denver yet and so that first Halloween here, we all slept in the living room…which was where we were sleeping while we worked on the bedrooms. The next year, we did the same thing – but for fun – and have yet to stop!
3.) What book has influenced you most (besides the Bible)?
Hands down, “Walking With God” by John Eldredge. I’m sure it was a combination of where I was in life and who was leading the study and what the Lord had for me at that specific time in my life, but I learned so much from this book that I still recall and recant to this day! The title seems to leave a lot to be desired but TRUST ME when I say IT. WILL. CHANGE. YOUR. LIFE!
4.) If you could pick up and move your family somewhere for a year, and then come back (and not have to worry about work the entire time) where would it be?
The selfish side of me would say Alaska. I have dreams of visiting there one day… Seeing it on television or in photos it is just breathtakingly gorgeous and I’d love to just camp around and explore all it has to offer! The missions-minded side of me would say our church’s care point for orphans in Kayango, Uganda. The trip I took to Venezuela shaped me and molded me and changed me in a way few other things ever have and I’d love to have the opportunity to dote on and serve the least of these again…
5.) What is one thing you will never do again?
Drink until I get drunk. Not worth it. Not appealing. Not wise. Not an option.
6.) If you could eat only one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A really good cheeseburger with lots of extras (read – jalapenos!) and some good, salty fries!
7.) How would your best friends describe you?
Probably like this:
What I’ve come to understand about you in the 7-8 years that we’ve been friends is that you are a wise woman beyond your years, loyal to the end, passionate about those you love. You are creative, resourceful, an excellent gift-giver and a skilled event planner. Generous to the bone and loving beyond measure. You’re an incredible mother and a deeply devoted and encouraging wife. You have always been the very definition of a hospitable and wonderful/competent homemaker. You are a chef and an artist. You are beautiful and always fashionable. You are organized and thoughtful. When you set your mind to something, you carry it through all the way, in excellence. We, your friends and family, are so very lucky to have you!
(That was written by the bestie and posted on my Facebook wall for my birthday). That may or may not be cheating to answer that question. 😉
8.) What’s the most interesting thing you see out your kitchen window?
Currently, a little red wagon that Sawyer planted wheat and marigolds in all by herself. How cute is that?!
9.) If you had the ability to time travel, would you travel to the past or to the future and why?
Definitely the past. Mainly, I would talk to the old me and tell me that I’m not fat or as fat as I thought I was…I would tell myself that I was worthy of love…I would tell myself that I didn’t have to vie for the attention of certain people…I would tell myself to prepare for the attacks of satan that I knew would be coming and I would bolster myself with the truth to combat those…I would redo my wedding and make it as magical as I always hoped it would be – I got my prince so that’s really all that matters…
10.) Three sentences looking ahead to when you’re twice the age you’re turning now, describing who you are as a woman and what you’ve accomplished by then so far…
I would be 66… I see myself still as bat-crazy in love with my handsome husband as I am today if not more so. I’m assuming I’ll be a grandma – hopefully to lots of little grandcuties that I can spoil rotten! I’m hoping that all of my mothering and parenting and falling on my knees begging for wisdom will result in children who are all walking closely with the Lord and teaching their families to follow Him, all while living within 15 miles of me. That’d be a pretty great life…
