God is bigger...

There is a Veggie Tales song that says, "God is bigger than the boogieman, he's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV." I have to continually remind myself that God is bigger than my own self and the thoughts that run through my mind. I remind myself I am here to worship God with my thoughts, words and deeds and that by filling my mind with worry and anxiousness I am not allowing Him to work in my life. It is a constant challenge. Constant! I worked hard to "take captive every thought" and "whatever is lovely, whatever is pure, whatever is right...think on these things" and "who by worrying can add a day to their life" and "be anxious for nothing" When you go through hard times it is easy to say, "But, this is different, but, you don't know what I'm going through, but, I'm hurting and need to sort this out in my mind" For peace of mind though I need to try to replace anxious thoughts with thankful ones or just plain something else. I don't ever remember being an anxious person before this year so it is kind of new to me. Today was a challenge but also a blessing as I had much success replacing those thoughts and smiling more when I felt like groaning or clutching my stomach with the pain these anxious thoughts give me. I started a Bible Study on Wednesday and it is amazing but it is all on our thoughts and taking control of them. It is called "Me, Myself, and Lies". God gave me the answer I was seeking as I have been searching to replace the anxious thoughts with pure ones.

We ended up taking Isaac to the emergency room one night to check if the foot was broken. It wasn't. We took him to the chiropractor and within one day he was free of pain and walking on it without crutches. Today he is walking normal and has no pain still. He still has some swelling. Thanks for praying for healing for him. Please continue praying as we are seeing the doctor again on Monday and on Wednesday. Just when we were down to going every two weeks! Pray for God's provision of healing on Isaac's body, foot and everything, provision for these doctor visits and provision for sleep for all of us and provision for the ability to overcome the stresses of dealing with an illness and raising the rest of the family.

Don't forget to go to www.parentalrights.org and check out what's happening there. Currently 105 co-sponsors in the House and we are working on our Senators.

Goat Update...

Had the vet out today for our goat with the abscess. I had already talked to their office twice and they all there thought it sounded like a piece of straw or hay since the goat only had one abscess. If it was a bacteria that caused it more than likely there would be lumps all over the body. I talked to my brother and he says they are common in their cows too. Well, now I know not to panic so much next time. He was able to do a variety of things. Dapples needed a tooth cut, Midnight needed her West Nile and Rabies, and also the dog and cat needed rabies and distemper so we got it taken care of in one visit and I didn't have to drive anywhere!

Isaac is doing OK!?!?! Always something going on with him. Yesterday, at the park, he jumped down off the monkey bars and sprained his foot. It didn't bother him until about three this morning when he couldn't move it without pain. We have soaked it in Epsom salts, iced it and kept it elevated today. Please pray for healing of it as he isn't doing well with the pain of it when he walks on it. All my kids are so different on how they tolerate pain. His last week's lymph went well. He spent some more money which someday he won't be so happy to part with, I hope. We took them to buy fireworks but they were on their own. Again, all my kids are so different in how they spend money. Some are cautious and others just spend it all. I am not interested in fireworks but Kevin remembers how fun it was to do some so we let them now.

OK, not much to share right now. I've been working in the garden; weeding, planting carrots, beans, cabbage and spinach. I cut some lettuce and spinach and we had a big salad for lunch. I'm anxiously waiting for cucumbers and zucchini to be ready.

Please keep praying for healing in Isaac. He is doing so well but does have a ways to go. Please pray for his bowel movements to firm up more. We are so happy with his progress. Praise God for the healing that has gone on so far.

Prayer request...

OK, not your typical prayer request but please pray for our goats, in particular Georgiana. She has a lump on her face and someone saw her today and says, "Oh, it's a cyst. I can lance it for you." So the internet freak that I am looks up goat cysts and finds all these horrid, horrid things about cysts and isolating and wearing all latex (not really but burn everything, change and wash in some special soap) while you lance it and washing your shoes in bleach water after being in the pen and putting down some other thing to kill it in the barnyard and that it can take years to get rid of, etc. etc. etc. It doesn't affect the milk. We called the lady we got the goats from. She has never had an abscess and doesn't feel it is one. Once a year she has a goat get a hay sliver and it fills with pus, bursts and it's done.

My first response was, "Let's get rid of the creatures, we don't need this." I panicked a bit and now after talking to Linda we all feel a bit more relief. We are going to call the vet and see if he'll come check it out. Please pray for it to be simple! I pray it is not contagious and doesn't cost us a ton to check it out. We like our goats and having some good wholesome milk to use is so very nice.

Isaac has a lymph tomorrow and has his supplement checked again. Pray for change! Change is always good. Pray for Gid and Riah who are being tested too. They're done with their 4 months and we'll see what changed. Danke!

PRA

Had a good Father's Day visiting with family at a little reunion at the park. Today, my oldest started her new babysitting job and traveled to work with her dad so I am missing her, in a lot of ways. We talk a lot, she milks the goats, she lightens the load pretty joyfully. Milking the goats today was a challenge. I will get the hang of it but I came into a mess in the kitchen. Jordan and I work well together, when one is outside doing stuff, the other is inside. Emily does not want the job!

I was able to get a few more signatures for the Parental Rights Amendment. I got a call today from a coordinator for it and I am now going to work on getting our North Dakota Congressmen to the area for a meeting discussing this Amendment and showing them North Dakotans sponsor this amendment. I want to encourage anyone who signed the petition to contact them and let them know personally that you support the amendment. Representative Pomeroy has protected gun rights so far as outlined in our own second amendment. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child clearly opposes guns in homes and it outlines procedures on how to get people to give up their guns or face consequences. Join with me and let your Senators and Representative know you support this. http://www.congress.org/ enter your zip code, click on person you are contacting, click on contact, click on blue words Web form. It will let you create your own message. It is very easy, just takes a little time. No one from North Dakota has shown support for this amendment yet. I am going to work on getting a meeting with our Senators this August and anyone willing to come can show their support. Please be thinking of becoming a 10-2 partner who will go out and get 10 signatures and 2 more to do the same.

Side note: click on here to see some really great looking kids, mine of course! :) Laura is a great photographer! LauraLuPhotography

Again...

Again I urge you to sign the petition on www.parentalrights.org. They are in need of over 4 million signatures to make this thing happen. We can make history. I started going around getting signatures on the paper petition form. Every single person I spoke to is interested in preserving parental rights here in the United States according to our Constitution. Every person I spoke to signed the petition. Go to www.parentalrights.org and become a volunteer. It is so easy. Contact your senators and representatives and tell them you support the parental rights amendment. It was presented to the House of Representatives March 31st. They are also in need of volunteers to receive the email updates. You can sign up for these at www.parentalrights.org. Thank you!!!

Parental Rights...

I am calling all people who read this blog to go to www.parentalrights.org and sign the petition today or tomorrow or sometime. Please encourage your friends and family to go to this website and sign the petition. Please also become a 10-2 volunteer if you can. Donate money. Whatever it takes. Our free sovereign country called the United States where we have certain unalienable rights needs this amendment to be passed. It will protect us from international law. Right now the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child is being considered for ratification and it is bad news for us. On the surface if sounds like they are for children but it will tear families apart letting the government be a sounding board for children, not abused children but any child who is upset with being grounded because of misbehavior, any child who doesn't like their parents choices can be represented under this treaty. It is dangerous. Please read on www.parentalrights.org more about what we can expect if we don't pass a parental rights amendment soon. It is not good! The Amendment is straightforward and to the point giving parents the right to parent their own children unless the government has reasonable proof they are not doing it correctly. It makes it impossible for international law to supersede the law of the United States. The amendment needs momentum. Spread the news! God was able to defeat an army of thousands with only 300 men in Gideon's army. He can defeat this but He needs us to put actions to our words. God Bless!