Miss Serenity.....

 Today, Miss Serenity turns 22.  Her life has been a blessing and an adventure.  She is all go, no stop.  She expects everything out of herself, yet loves and accepts her people with an unmatched fierceness.  She is strength and she is vulnerability all wrapped up together.  

Serenity has a remarkable, seemingly incongruent, combination of personality traits.  She is strong and tough - doing jobs that many men would struggle with, yet melts with one glance at a newborn baby.  Children flock to her like she's the Pied Piper while grown men are intimidated by her very nature.  She can (and does) do anything that God puts in front of her to do, but willingly and respectfully relinquishes those jobs should a more capable or experienced person step in to relieve her.  She is careful to listen and slow to take command, but always is the first to volunteer for the jobs that nobody else wants to do.  She works hard and plays hard and is loyal to a fault.

Serenity is a great favorite among her siblings.  What's her's is theirs, including not only her things but also her time.  She's the fun and adventurous one, always up for a road trip or a hike or a swim in the creek.  She brings life to whatever room she walks into.

For all her outward frivolity, Serenity wades into the deep end of the waters of life.  She searches for truth and thinks deeply about her purpose and about how God can and will use her.  She thinks about how her actions will affect those around her and how they will affect her future.  She poses intelligent questions and then spends time engaged in rousing discussions, first forming conclusions and then acting according to the dictate of these conclusions.  Serenity is true, both in thought and in action.

Sir Knight and I have been blessed and honored to be Serenity's parents.  We praise God for the great gift He gave us in her......

Update: Family

There have been so many changes over the last number of years in our family that I'll do by best to bring you up to date.  Here goes......

Sir Knight.....Sir Knight is now a full-fledged butcher, processing more animals in a day than he used to be able to process in a week.  He and Master Hand Grenade work together every day, side by side, processing hogs and beef and the occasional goat or lamb.  Business has grown steadily in the 3+ years we've been in business.  We have struggled and learned and improved....and we march steadily forward.  Last June, Sir Knight had an accident (potentially life changing) that left him in an eye patch.  I'm thinking he totally rocks the pirate look!!!

Rockin' the eye patch

Maid Elizabeth.....As I've mentioned, Maid Elizabeth sold her home where we used to live and bought a home directly across the creek from our butcher shop.  Our town is very small, and finding a job was a major challenge - a faith building challenge!  After a couple of false starts, Maid Elizabeth interviewed, tested and was offered a job as a 911 dispatcher for our county.  It has been the perfect position for her.  She is particularly good in emergencies and her medical training is a real bonus.  She has become an indispensable member of the emergency services team.

Dispatching....

Master Hand Grenade......Master Hand Grenade is working, working, working.  Not only does he work at the butcher shop 5 days a week, he also works at our local grocery store another 2 days a week.  He's working steadily toward a number of long-range goals and has already achieved a few.  One great joy has been watching him mature and grow - what joy it brings!

The guys

Master Hand Grenade on a walk

Miss Serenity.....Miss Serenity also moved here with us.  She worked as a Wildland Fire Fighter, moving up the ranks quickly - first becoming the crew boss and then Forman.  Last summer, one of her crew members lost his life in a local river.  The effect was profound in Miss Serenity's life and it left her wondering how she could make a real impact on young lives.  With this in mind Miss Serenity applied to work as a cadre at a residential military academy for troubled youth, and was immediately hired.  She is now working with her second round of cadets and seems to have been custom designed for this job.  She speaks into the lives of broken "children" (they range in age from 15-18) every day, with characteristic Miss Serenity wisdom.

Miss Serenity ready for work

Talking a cadet through a water challenge

Princess Dragon Snack......Is almost 16!!!!  Can you believe that??  I know I can't!  Dragon Snack is still in school, of course, and on top of that, she works at the butcher shop with me.  In addition to school and work, she has another job - she is a barista in a local coffee shop!  She is full of fun and whimsy......with Dragon Snack, there is never a dull moment!  Her short term goal is getting her drivers license and her long term goal is to have horses and live somewhere that doesn't resemble Narnia in the winter!!!

Princess Dragon Snack and her love

At one of her two jobs!

Master Calvin.....I no longer have littles.....Master Calvin is a teenager!  Yes, really!  He, too, is doing school and he has become his Grandfather's right hand.  Right at the moment he is doing little but shoveling snow.  Lots and lots of snow!  He is keeping us shoveled out, as well as shoveling out the neighbors.  He's not complaining, however.  He is steadily adding to his dirt bike fund!

Master Calvin thinks it's time to move up!!

And me.....I am working, and learning - constantly.  I am learning there is no such thing as "menial labor" - that every job is worthy as long as you are working for your Father.  I am learning that my only job is obedience.  I need to obey Jesus in whatever He brings for me to do today - and that is enough. 

The girls and I

And that, my friends, is a quick family update!!

The Week in Pictures

A few of our highlights.....

An old pair of rubber boots that I used as planters outside the butcher shop door
(and rendered on a canvas by Maid Elizabeth in the top photo)

Our newly minted Wildland Fire Fighter enjoying a cuppa

After an exhausting week at school....

No longer able to hold herself together!

Freshly un-molded lotion bars...

And Soap

As Dragon Snack gets ready to launch her "Highland Naturals"

And that is our week so far.....but I'm sure there will be more to come!!!

A New Normal - Huglekulture and Soap

A still life taken in our living room - transformed to a canvas by Maid Elizabeth

It's been almost a year since we changed our life completely and are just now finding a new normal.  Our days have been drastically different from our old, off-grid life, but just as challenging....and rewarding.

Finding my new normal is still a work in progress.  I'm learning how to juggle being a wife and mother while homeschooling, working in the butcher shop and attempting to maintain a gracious, life-giving home.  There are days I'm pretty sure I'm failing at all of those things, and other days that I think I almost have everything together.  Today was a typical combination of both.

Every morning the children and I have been heading to the gardens to get them ready for a productive growing season.  We have spent days weeding the big garden and pulling out piles of raspberry plants.  I couldn't bear to throw the plants away so we took them to the butcher shop and gave them to anyone who wanted them....they were all claimed within an hour.  We still have raspberries to pull out of the strawberry patch and strawberries to tidy up, but the rest of the garden is almost ready to plant.

I started bush beans, pole beans, tomatoes and leeks weeks ago in the house and have planted most of those in the garden and will plant a second planting of seeds this weekend.  I haven't forgotten the lessons I've learned about permaculture and am in the process of creating two new Huglekulture beds in the orchard.  Master Hand Grenade built two 10 x 3 foot boxes out of old Forest Service beams and we hauled them to the garden.  After positioning the first one where I wanted it,  Miss Serenity dug the ground out beneath it (about 1 1/2 feet), and we began to fill it - first with large organic material, followed by old raspberry canes and other smaller debris.  We then dug sod and put that on the pile upside-down.  Then came a layer of manure and ash and finally the top soil.  We put strawberries in that Huglekulture bed (we're trying to contain the unruly things) - and in the next bed we'll put tomatoes, peppers and leeks.

Raised bed with topsoil taken out

Filled with bulky organic material

Piles of raspberry canes on top

And small organic material

Digging sod

Transporting the sod in the 4-wheeler trailer

Flipped upside down over the raspberry canes

A layer of manure and ash

And the topsoil returned

Miss Serenity transplanting strawberries

Piles of strawberries to give away

After our gardening adventures we also set to work on Princess Dragon Snack's new business - Highland Naturals.  She is making lip balm, lotion bars, bar soap and other hand crafted items to sell at our local Farmer's Market this summer.  Today's job was soap making.  She and Serenity each made a batch.  Snack made Cinnamon/Clove and Serenity made Lavender.  The soap takes 3 weeks to cure and we wanted to get a start on it so that it would be ready to go for the first Market day.  Dragon Snack has been busy already with lip balm and has perfected her recipe.  She's going to continue making soap, lotion and balm now so that she has a large stock going into the summer.

Dragon Snack making soap

Two batches of soap hardening in the dining room

And so, we are finding our new normal.....one day at a time.

Holy Ground

Eight months ago, when we began this new adventure, we believed that we were building a business. We thought that this chapter of our life would center around building a future, not only for ourselves, but also for our children.  We knew that we would work hard, pull together, and create something out of nothing.  And that, we have done.  However, God has done so much more.....

Our lives have been turned upside-down, and every step of the way we have seen the fingerprints of God.  Little Shouse on the Prairie sold, when, in fact, that was impossible.  The ONLY commercial real estate in the small town where I grew up was owned by a man that I graduated from High School with, and he just happened to be willing to sell.  We had a home to move in to, that just a year ago wasn't even here.  And we had son whom doctors said would never see or walk or hear, not only willing but able to take the lead and run a butcher shop.  God provided us with a Brother (our pastor) who worked with us EVERY day, for 4 months, rebuilding our dilapidated service station, and He provided my father who engineered our entire rail system.  Every step of the way God made the impossible possible.  And every step of the way, we would worry and stress and worry some more.

Master Hand Grenade bossing the job

As we walked through the terrifying unknown, we began to call upon the name of the Lord, not just day by day, but minute by minute.  We began to know that we, indeed, were the same, scared, unfaithful children that the Children of Israel had been during their exodus from Egypt.  Every step of the way God had shown Himself faithful, leading us with His mighty right hand.  And every step of the way, we had continued to worry and fuss, showing ourselves to be faithless children.

Cutting the wall to put in a door

Putting our in our 4 foot by 11 foot cooler door!!

And then, finally, I looked at Sir Knight and said "I don't believe that God is building a business, I believe that He is building men".  All of the construction and the planning and the stress and the worry was nothing but God's way of building our family into children that seek after Him, that know His goodness and His faithfulness.  During the course of the last 8 months, we have traded stress and worry for peace and faith.  Numerous times over the summer and fall Sir Knight and I would look at each other and say in awe and amazement "We are standing on dry ground".  Every problem, every impossibility, every struggle - we walked through on dry ground.  As we put the last rail into place, the last FRP panel on the wall, I turned to Sir Knight and said...."We are not just standing on dry ground, we truly are standing on Holy ground".

We have crossed the Red Sea, but there is a great expanse of Wilderness in front of us.  We are a brand new business, and there is a famine - but we are putting our trust in the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  God isn't in the business of building businesses, He is in the business of building men.  And as He builds this family, we truly are standing on Holy Ground.

A New Chapter - the Grand Opening!!

Finally, after a summer and fall of hard work, numerous challenges and cooler and freezer mishaps, we opened our doors for business.  Our Grand Opening was held on November 20th, however, we had already slaughtered 2 steers and had a number of deer in the cooler by "opening" day.

It has been an amazing adventure.  Sir Knight has been learning the art of butchering (from Master Hand Grenade) while I have been setting up the office and bookkeeping procedures.  Miss Serenity has been slaughtering animals while Princess Dragon Snack has learned to wrap.  Master Calvin scrapes steaks and labels packages.  Although we thought we were building a business, it turns out that God has been building men and women.  He has built our faith and our perseverance.  He has brought us to the edge of ourselves and called us near to Him.  It has been the most rewarding and the most terrifying time of our lives.

Every day is a new adventure.  We are still learning to juggle a business and a family and a whole new life.  And we continue to grow and learn and do the next thing.....

Sir Knight, Miss Serenity and Master Hand Grenade

Where we bring animals into our building

Princess Dragon Snack and Master Calvin wrapping and labeling

Cooler full of meat

Our Grinder

And saw

And cuber

Sir Knight bringing in a half of beef on our rail system

Grinding burger

The second grind