Winter....not my favorite time of year

So working on a bible study in obeidance. Its been very good so far. I am really focusing on listening to what God is telling me to do.

Today I woke up and if you know me personally you know I hate the cold. A couple years ago we moved to Florida so I could get away from the cold. Alas it wasn't south Florida, so it was still cold. So I know that cold is cold and I just have to deal with it sometimes. But I live on a farm now and those animals want food at 7am, its freezing. But with the cold makes me want to stay cuddled in bed. Staying cuddled in bed makes me nonproductive, which in turn makes me moody. So winter, please be brief this year. I hate being moody and non productive.

On to brighter things. We now have 8 goats, 23 chickens and one horse. I am planning on having two of the goats processed for meat later this month and selling two to three. That will leave us with a buck and two does. I think that is perfect. We do have a conflict with the "city council". WE live in a very small town that I grew up in but about 8-10 years ago they created a city council and made this small town of less than 150 people. They apparently have instilled some city ordinances and choose to act upon one of them that concerns me directly. I understand that it is a "law". That is fine, the fact of the matter is that they are picking and choosing what ordinances to uphold rather than all of them. So we are headed to the city council meeting on Jan 14th to plead our case to keep our goats. I am sure with a petition it will be fine, but its just a pain in the pants.

New Year, new plan

Its a New Year. Unfortunatelly last year and the first few days of the new year started rough. Christmas was tough our two youngest were not here. New Years was a family gathering that I was too exhausted to enjoy. Then came home on the first to get news that since we lived in the city limits we are only allowed to have horses and cows. I am not even sure we will get to keep our chickens. The biggest issue I have with this is that I have spent tons of time and money getting our goats set up and I will not even recipricate half of that once I sell 4 of the goats and butcher two. I will still have the two billy goats. Not sure if we will sell them or give one with the sell of the does. We also had just got a livestock guardian dog two days before we found out we can't have the goats. We have three weeks to get an appeal ready to keep the goats. But in all reality, I just don't want to deal with it at all.

The thing that bugs me the most about it, is I have discussed with "city council" people that we had farm animals. I really don't understand why its just coming up now. I also would not mind going down to just two does and a buck. But we will see what is said at the meeting on the 14th. Then we will go from there if I haven't already sold all the does.

We did sell a pony this past week cause he was a pain in the butt and just eating. There wasnt much we could do with him cause he was a stud. So we sold him to a gentleman who has two other welsh pony mares and he will use him to breed.

As far as starting out the New Year. We have organized our kids' chore charts. I have taken down the tree. I am working on checking into some job prospects. I am awaiting information on college approval, Im approved for college just seeing if I am approved for my funding. If not then I will take this semester off and refocus on work again.

My hubby is working on a stall for the remaining horse. The chickens are growing and should start laying anytime. Farm life continues to go, just won't be growing. If we do get rid of the goats, we will be getting two cows. One jersey for milk and one angus cross for meat.

I am also reading about obedience as my daily bible study. I have a friend who is taking a year with God. I am very proud of this step for her as she has struggled the past couple years to find peace. So I am standing beside her in prayer but also starting my own journey in the process. I have a horrible time listening to God recently. My biggest thing is going to church. We had been so involved in Coast Community Church in Pensacola that we had pulled back a bit. So once we did that we got comfortable. God had used a friend to warn me that might happen but I still didn't listen. Now God has the pastor telling me that they miss seeing us at the church we found here. It is really not that hard to get up on a Sunday morning, no harder than a Friday, so I have no clue why I would rather cuddle up in bed. I enjoy church alot. So there is no reason not to go. I would also like to fellowship alittle more. I feel that out in the country we have lost some of the fellowship with those of like beliefs.

Finally, I am finding the need to be great at a couple things rather than being good a tons of stuff. This goes for the kids too. Alexis was playing basketball and gymnastics, but she requested to just focus on Gymnastics for now. I need to focus on my friendships and really cultivate the ones that matter. I tend to give alot of myself to alot of people and I am having to pull back from that. I also am having to realize that I can not save the world, even if one of the people I am trying to help out is a child. I can pray and still have an impact on that childs life but it can be very draining to try to be what the child needs, when I know the child is loved and safe at home then it is time to step back. I had a friend tell me last week that they feel that I am a friend when it is convient for me and that hurt. But I know it also hurts her when I back out on plans. So I plan to cultivate that friendship and work on it because it is important to me.

Happy New Year, get ready for the roller coaster ride that I call life.