Sweet Sunday: 1 John 3:18

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

This morning in church our pastor made a brief comment about how faith must be put into practice to be useful. So I got to thinking and I believe I have come up with a pretty nifty comparison: faith is like football. I like football, so bare with me here!

As I've grown in my faith, I've realized that "faith" isn't just going to church on Sunday. "Faith" isn't just donating time for community service or tossing a couple bucks into the offering plate. "Faith" isn't proclaiming that you are a Christian in the religion category on facebook. 

No, faith is a relationship. It requires attention, practice, repetition, and time. Kind of like football. If you jump on the field and haven't read the rule book, you'll be in trouble. Faith must be practiced to work. Football must be practiced to work.

 

If you don't communicate with the coach, you don't know the game plan. To know your life direction, you have to know the voice to be followed.

On a side note, I'm already excited for football season to begin. And, in case you wanted to see a cute video, here's a video of my piglet Tilly eating an apple. She's not so little anymore!

Welcome Home

So, first I must apologize for the lengthy amount of time since the prior blogpost! This month I graduated college, turned about her year older, moved houses, and soon will start my first job - yikes! I thought I would spend some time compiling my tips and advice to successfully surviving college. I've tried many times - not sure I've got the golden key, maybe there will be a blog over this in the future....maybe, if I'm feeling confident enough that I actually did survive it successfully!

But in the meantime, I did manage to snap a few pictures of an excitement on our farm - new babies! I know I've mentioned before that we raise all of our own heifer/cow prospects. But this week, a friend of my father's had a dairy herd dispersal, so my dad jumped on the band wagon to purchase some outside genetics.

About 8 pm Wednesday night, my dad called me and said "Emily, you and Connor [my brother] go up to the barn and start preparing pens, I'm bringing 21 new heifers in!"

When Dad calls, we better go! Time is of the essence to make sure the new babies get off the trailer quickly thus minimizing hauling stress!

Here's our newly arrived heifers calves in the trailer about to be unloaded.

We separated them into different pens based on different sizes. This way, when we feed them, competition will be reduced and each calf can grow at an appropriate, healthy growth rate.

The next step was making sure the babies got fed properly for the evening. These calves will grow up to be the cows that produce milk for America, so giving them great nutrition from the start is pertinent! 

On normal days, the calves will get fresh milk from our milk tank. But since these arrived after feeding hours, we had to mix some powdered milk. This milk has the same needed nutrients as fresh milk, it's much like formula for human babies.

Here's Dad mixing milk in one of our sanitized mixing buckets.

Next step, grab some clean, sanitized bottles and fill with milk. this bucket held 9 bottles of milk.

Fill with milk and put on the nipple.

They seemed to be pretty happy!

In the end, as my Dad says, it's not only ensuring a healthy start, it's about caring for the well-being of animals.

Just Call Me Wonder Woman

I'm sure growing up, everyone learned about the 5 main food groups: vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, and dairy. 

Well tonight I've accomplished a feat that basically should escalate me straight to the top of the "wonder woman" search list. I managed to get all 5 food groups in ONE meal!

Now, for the main meal, unlike every other food blog, I can not give you the recipe to this marvelous dish.

You see, it's a secret family recipe. I begged and begged my mother and Grammy to give me the recipe to Slum Gullen but no one would ever give it to me - the only way to know is to watch it being made. So, essentially, I'm extended the same generosity to you all :)

Over the years however I've come to believe that story to be a big fib! I'm now 90% certain they made it different every time. But you better believe I still make it exactly like the last time my mom made it and I figured out what she put in it!

Anyway, I've come to believe Slum Gullen as just a recipe you make when you want to get rid of random things in your pantry. Throw in ground beef, pasta and whatever veggies you want, then top with cheese. Maybe it's the fantasy that the recipe is forbidden to the broader public, or maybe it really is as tastey as I think it is - but personally it's one of my favorite meals!

I topped with cheese so all my ingredients are hidden!

So that plows out 4 of the 5 food groups, plus I served with cheesy broccoli - which is totally healthy....I think....

Then for the final food group - fruits, we had strawberry shortcake. The boy loved it! 

Originally I was going to give the sweet boy an award for bringing me my favorite drink ever - peach tea....

But then he attacked me with the whipped cream....and took pictures while doing so! So I took the award away!

Ok that's all from your new Wonder Woman! Have a great day!