Down On The Farm: Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

Today, I am grateful for good friends. Right before we moved back to Ohio, we met a family in Florida. We really did not get to know them very well, because we moved. They had lots of questions about getting animals, so they asked for our email address, which we gave them. It took us a long time to find a place to live once we moved here. After we were settled in our new home, I got an email from that family telling me to check out a web page. I went and looked and for the life of me could not figure out why they wanted me to see it. Then I noticed on one page it said they were a Christian homeschooling family in Ohio's Amish country. That is where we were. I sent an email and did not hear back. Several months later, I was cleaning out my in box and out box in email. I came across the email I had sent to them. I sent it again. I asked where they went to church as we were looking for a church. The mother, Rachel, wrote back to me and told us about their church and invited us to come and then go to their house for dinner. So, we did. That was the humble beginning of our friendship. They came to visit us at our house and decided they liked our area, a bit more than where they were. Through a series of events they moved about 2 miles from us (as the crow flies). They joined our 4H group and we got to see more of each other. They raised Shetland sheep. They had a nice batch of babies one spring and told me that they wanted to give me 2 of the babies. Michael was not sure that we needed sheep. We already had a milk cow, her calf and goats. He agreed to think about it. After a while, he agreed we could get the little lambies. I was in love. They gave me Sunshine and Grace. Sunshine was white and Grace was black. That started my journey with sheep.

I already had a spinning wheel, so I was excited about getting some wool. Their oldest daughter is the same age as Joshua. She is absolutely precious and I count her among my good friends as well as her Momma. Marion is VERY creative and as sweet as they come. She got a triangle loom and began to make shawls. Then she made this shawl and posted this picture. That sheep's wool is what this shawl was made from.

Well, anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am NUTS about gingham. Blue gingham is my very favorite, but I love gingham. I started to dream of one day having a blue gingham shawl. I was able to send away some wool to be made into yarn. My spinning wheel is broken (it is being fixed right now), and I wanted to make something very special and I thought I was going to need it sooner rather than later. So, I found a local mill that is run by Christian homeschoolers (how cool is that!) and they made yarn for me from Sunshine's wool. I was hoping to have enough to make a shawl, but I was going to be short. Thanks to all of you who use my links and help me earn money through my blog, I was able to send off another fleece to be made into yarn. It was another Sunshine fleece. It seemed that at every turn I would hit a road block on making this shawl. I kept persevering with help and finally had enough yarn to make the shawl.

Marion, who was big and pregnant with #4 agreed to help me dye the wool. Did I mention how precious she is? She just had #4 and it was her first boy and he is ADORABLE just like his sisters. I got to hold him on Saturday. :)

I know had my blue yarn and my white yarn. Marion is allowing me to borrow her loom. We brought it home on Saturday.

It is set up in my house and awaiting me to get started. I am a bit nervous, but oh so excited. This has been a dream of mine for many years. I want Michael to pray over the project with me and I want to pray as I make it. I can't wait to get started.