Happy Valentines Day! It’s been a great and eventful week here on the farm. Even though the weather was crummy, cold and rainy nearly all week, we still managed to stay busy.  The seedlings are growing well and has provided Wyatt with lots of entertainment in the form of constantly checking them every day to see if they have grown. He’s really enjoyed watching the plants come up out of the soil. I had no idea that plants would make him this happy!

Wyatt also proved to be a very skilled fly catcher this week, so much so that he caught two in his critter catcher and was calling them his pets. It was kind of sad to see a kid call two gross flies his pets so we knew that very soon we would have to make good on our promise to get him a real pet. Wyatt really wants a mini pig, but we are not ready for that quite yet. So, after I saw my cousin post about getting her adorable little boy a Beta fish, we thought, yes! Fish! Good idea! We took him on a surprise trip to the Boerne Wal-Mart to pick out a fish. Yes, this Walmart still sells fish. Oh, the novelty of it all. To say he was excited would be the understatement of the year. He squealed. He jumped. He opted for two goldfish that he promptly named Happy and Carl. He spent every minute up to bedtime watching them. In fact, he actually reached in and grabbed one already. Despite all out efforts in explaining proper fish care and fish safety. So we will see how long these poor fish last.

I took a big leap forward this week and I can thank the book I mentioned last week. In Church of the Small Things, Melanie Shankle talked about listening to that voice inside your heart. You know how maybe you work a job, and you like it, and you are good at it, but in your heart you keep thinking, “I really think I could….” ? That voice is God. We each have a purpose. It may be scary to pursue those dreams at times. This one reason why my husband is such an inspiration to me as well, he is always listening to that still, small voice inside. For me, it is writing and cooking. All I want to do is cook and write. Starting the blog has been a great step forward for me in exercising this writing muscle. I come by the love of cooking honestly. My family all loves to cook. My mom and dad have a small BBQ business in Westcliffe, CO, called B&B BBQ. My brothers both love to cook.  The majority of the time I am a really good cook. I love to bake as well. So this is a talent that I really felt I was supposed to share somehow. When our little farm fell in our laps last month, it became evident that sharing my cooking might be something that I could actually do. Then I heard a success story about a friend of my sister in law, who bakes and does various things and that was another inspiration for me. Then, after reading Melanie’s book, it was like, what are you waiting for? Everything is literally laid out before you. When I gathered up enough courage, I did it. I had a great response to the cinnamon rolls! I am still shocked! I will be making around 20 dozen for Friday and am super excited. Soon I will update the website to include a page about my cooking and a menu of sorts. Rodney tried to take a picture of me in the kitchen that I could post, but I seriously felt like such a goober. I’m really not that serious of a person.

Here are some of those cinnamon rolls…my kitchen has smelled really good…

Here I am trying to look like I am cooking….there’s nothing in that bowl….

Here I am with my favorite spatula…. what? You don’t have a favorite spatula?

But, in reality, this is what I really look like… Jennifer fixed this one up for me!

You are welcome to laugh at those… because you should.

I also finished Melanie Shankle’s book, The Antelope in the Living Room, which is about marriage. I would also recommend this one as well. She uses stories from her marriage to illustrate the pillars that help us to have healthy marriages, one of which is grace. But you don’t have to take my word for it! Click through here…. and order you one now!

I have already started her first book, Sparkly Green Earrings…. so stay tuned.

In farm news we have been having some fun with the chickens… we have been cleaning the coup and feeding laying pellets but I really think they are on strike because the roosters are bullies. So not many eggs coming out of the coup. Either way, the chickens are adorable and we love them!

Here we are having conversations with the chickens. 

Well, I think that might be it for this week. I’ll be here making cinnamon rolls, if you need me….