Texas Peaceful Acres Farm
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Blog

The Shepherd's Studio             

A Life Well Lived For Yehoshua!

     My Joyful Journey. A place to worship, create,       live, love & LAUGH!!!              

The Joy of The Lord is My Strength!

Fall Gardening In Texas & Cancer

9/28/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our temps have finally cooled off a little here. Our high is about 93 instead of 99-110! The sun is much lower in the sky and although we've been in a drought for 3 months, it's not feeling like scorched earth.
Picture
I'm still harvesting eggplant and peppers from my container garden on the driveway pad. I think my summer squash actually do better in a late summer planting. My harvest of Butternut Squash came from volunteer plants that came out of my compost. :) 
Picture
 My first attempt at fall greens only burned up in the heat of August. I finally reseeded Arugula the last week of August before my trip to Maryland and it came on strong while I was gone! I love the peppery bite from Arugula...The Hired Hand not so much. I used it in his carrot juice this morning and he said, "Somethings a little different today." I said, "Arugula!" He sorta frowned but drank it anyway. We're upping his antioxidants and anti androgen foods after we found a large Basel Cell Carcinoma on his face. He's treating it with Rife therapy and food. It's been quite a shake up for him because of the location being so close to his ear, eye and brain. It was hiding under his sideburn, so we failed to see it growing. It started out a good inch in diameter. After Rifing for a month it's reduced in size dramatically. 

He opted out of surgery for the time being. Gave up sugar because if anything loves sugar more than my man, it's cancer! For the most part he's eating a Whole Food Plant Based/Oil & Sugar Free Diet with me but since he is also slightly anemic, he's eating some meat 2-3X week. Personally, I wouldn't but he's his own man and I'll help him whatever ways I can. We're hoping this is the only cancer he has or ever will have. We have an appointment in a few weeks to check on a few other areas of concern. We covet your prayers. 
Picture
I have a big incentive to grow lots of greens for this fall....he needs them and I love them! He'll get a big punch of nutrients in an 8oz glass than I couldn't force feed into him on any given day. 
Picture
I'm making use of everything, even sweet potato leaves! I chopped them up in the mix I made for Spring Rolls. The Hired Hand ate them but didn't request a repeat!!!
Picture
Picture
I'm hoping there's a big pot of gold under all these sweet potato vines! Actually 2 big tubs of vines! These are my first ever sweet potatoes and I started a fall pot....we'll see if they have enough time before our first big freeze in December.
Picture
My gardening in Texas has been nothing short of a miracle! We live in a forest, we only have sun in a few choice areas...one being on the driveway pad. SO, since we only have 1 car and use 1 bay, the other side houses my container garden. I think I had a good dozen pepper plants, 6-8 eggplants, and 6 summer squash. I've got a couple pineapple plants, gogi berry, hibiscus, fig, artichoke, a tub of turmeric....and multiple citrus; lemon, grapefruit, satsuma, sweet orange and my favorite, kumquats!  It's been fun trying new plants in our zone 8b-9a. Watering is a daily essential though...but I have a routine now and everybody gets a good drink every morning. 
Picture
I attempted to add perennial plants to my mostly sun/part shade side yard. We have nothing but sugar sand here for "soil". I'd hardly call it soil....it's just sand! But we found a source of mushroom compost and it does miracles for growing after I huff it and haul it 1 load at a time in the wheelbarrow!
Picture
My garden garden is really a collection of "islands" where I've built up the compost. I leave wide open spaces for walking so I can spot snakes...thank goodness...none so far to scream about!!! I use the livestock tubs for carrots, greens and extra space since I'm chasing the sun here too. 
For the most part my 2nd growing season in Texas was a big success!!! I'm trying to embrace the change of pace and rejoice in the different variety. 

​God is the giver of all things. By His hands we are fed. 

By His Grace Alone,
​Diane

0 Comments

Covenant College

9/28/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
On top of Lookout Mountain, GA is this gorgeous college that I attended in 1977. It's the place where I began to grow in my faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
Picture
A lot has changed in 40 years and yet, a lot remains the same. I lived in this old hotel which was famous back in the day, with Hollywood actresses and actors who stayed here.
Picture
The grounds were absolutely beautiful! And just like everything that we remember when we were young....everything seemed so much smaller! I remember the walk to the new chapel as being quite a hike....haha...it's just across the lawn! They've built many many new facilities.
Picture
I think the chapel was completed in 1978 or 79. Before the chapel was built we had chapel in the dining hall which is in the "hotel". I remember like yesterday singing for the first time, Jesus What a Friend for Sinners. 

​I was SO struck that He was my friend!!! I will never forget how I felt....totally in awe that He loved me that much to call me "friend". 
 Of course after nearly 50 years of walking with my Savior, I know He calls me; beloved, cherished, divine, delightful, precious, chosen, beautiful and still friend! 

Isaiah 43:1
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name;
​You are MINE!"

0 Comments

Surprise! Pictures!!!

9/27/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
I never cease to amaze myself! I'm not sure how I did that....but I downloaded a picture...let's see if I can do it again.
Picture
We went to the opening night of AA Co Fair and Grandson #1 wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with Nana....I didn't have the nerve to tell him I was afraid of heights...so I sucked it up and we had a fun time!
Picture
This kid is fearless! He really is a lot of fun!!! He's a chatter box...like someone we all know! Being able to carry on a conversation with a toddler is an absolute blast!!! Last night I called while he was in the bathtub....he'd had 2 successful days of wearing big boy pants to school with 0 accidents!!! I called to congratulate him....my heart about leapt out of my chest when he answered...Hi Nana!!!  He was more excited about the 2 new Matchbox cars he got! Before I know it, he'll be driving. 
Picture
This trip was to meet our new baby girl. She was born in July.
Picture
I have a feeling she will be spoiled rotten! 
Picture
We went home hot, sweaty, tired and after his bath this one did something he never does....fell asleep on the sofa! Ha! The touch of a Nana!
Then I went to visit the other grands.
Picture
A week goes by so quickly. It hardly seems like I get to see either family for very long before it's time to high tail it back to Texas. 
Picture
Picture
They all own my heart. Being a Nana is the best job God ever invented!!!
Picture
We went for walks and this is our boy of few words...like his Mama, Daddy and Grandpa! He'd rather leave the oxygen for those of us who really need it! This guy doesn't need to say much for me to know how much he loves me....oh my heart nearly explodes! We're holding hands.....I know it looks like I'm dragging him, but his hands were full and he raised it to me...which meant...hold my hand Nana...so I did. On our long walk he decided he wanted Nana to carry him. Ooy! He's 28 lbs! That about killed me!!! He's quite the independent child....just like his Mama was!  His baby brother is the complete opposite. His little brother is just like Nana used to be as a baby....easy, happy, content. I guess I'm still pretty much that way. 
If flying weren't so hard on me, I'd do it more often. But we live almost 3 hours from the nearest airport....and by the time I get on the plane...I'm already exhausted. Oh well....video chat is great and phone calls work for Mr Chatty!
0 Comments

My Happy Place

9/23/2019

0 Comments

 
I'll give you 3 guesses where my happy place is and the first 2 don't count!

YAY! I'm finally in my new studio...The Shepherd's Studio! 

It's a total mess! I've got SO many projects that have been waiting patiently for my attention; chairs needing reupholstering, rugs that need hooking, paintings that need finishing and starting, sweaters that need arms, furniture that needs a fresh coat of chalk paint, curtains that need sewing, wool that needs spinning....I'm glad the list is endless, truly I am. That means I'll never run out of reasons to be in my happy place!!!

I'm so grateful for this space to work in. I keep telling The Hired Hand that "if and when" he dies before me....I talk about it because death is part of life...no one gets out alive...and the more I prepare myself for what will eventually be part of our lives...well, hopefully it will make the transition easier...although in reality, I'm living each day as if it is my last, trying to make the most of every moment...because life is very short....

anyway....I keep telling my man that "if and when" he goes before me...which I hope he doesn't cause I'll never get a jar lid off again :) .... chances are greater that he will since he's 12 years older and always has been...

Gosh I keep digressing....ANYWHO....I'm moving out to the studio to live!

I LOVE  this space so much....every detail was built with love...SO much love poured into it. I'd use the house for I have no idea what....but this is where I'd live. It was built with the intention that it could be converted into a small cottage with full kitchen, full bath, etc. We just left out a few details to skirt the tax office. 

If I EVER figure out how to sync my Android with my Mac....I'll get pictures posted....but I'm having trouble. Be patient. I'm over 60 now....nothing comes quite as easily as before 59!!!

0 Comments

New Beginnings

9/20/2019

0 Comments

 

Transfusions

Have you ever felt like you just wanted a "do over"? To just start afresh? Start again? STOP, go back to START and begin again? Like you just need a transfusion? New blood?

​That's how I've felt. It's been a tough 3 years. I've been wandering in the desert. I've been wondering WHEN I'm gonna come out of this fog? It's been dry. It's been lonely. I've been in a drought. I needed refreshing. I'm far from depressed...I'm just dry. Something has robbed me of my joy....and if you know me....that's just not me. I've tried to put my finger on it, but I can't find the reason. Except perhaps having my creative life cut off for 3 years. 

​I don't know. 

I left this desert place for 8 days and came back feeling like I have new energy in my spirit. Like I've been given a transfusion. Life again. New blood. 
I just returned from a trip up North to visit the newest grandchild and only granddaughter. She was born July 31 to our son and his beautiful wife. I totally enjoyed my time with all 4 Grand Littles. They own my heart. It's totally theirs. (I was informed as Nana....these are my 4 and only 4 Grand Littles...I am a content Nana!!!)

Of course the kids were sick and I returned sick as a dog....AGAIN! 

I flew up but drove back...sick. All 1400 miles. 

​Our mom who is 85, has been living temporarily (winter months) with our sister and her family in CA, made the tough decision to sell her home of 40 years in Maryland. It was a painful decision. One born out of the acknowledgment that she can never live alone again. It wasn't necessarily a decision that was really voluntary....it was forced by life's circumstances....which as you age just sucks. Getting old isn't for sissies.

She parted with everything left behind. I rented a minivan and drove it back to Texas with a few treasured items; alone and sick. She bred into us 3 girls the endurance and strength of Moses. She has never been a quitter. She is a fighter with a leaky heart valve, blood cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. You'd never know it though, because she has NEVER complained 1 day in her life. She has sucked it up and pressed on. I wish I could claim the same....but I do complain, I do get weary and tired....I don't count it a badge of honor to admit defeat but it happens.

I cry out to the The Lord and anyone who will listen. I cried out a lot on this trip back to Texas...of which after our move, I swore I'd never do again....but circumstances required it so.....I pulled up my big girl pants and did it. The Hired Hand couldn't make this trip and it pained him so to put this burden on me....but that's the way life is.

As soon as I got home Hubs insisted he take me to Urgent Care ASAP. So, at 7:15P on Wednesday night we marched into Crockett Texas before I developed walking pneumonia again (had it in June). Having a lifetime chronic lung disease (asthma) causes these infections to go South very quickly...now that I'm a "senior". :( I'd lost my voice Sunday night and spent the entire trip home unable to speak to Hubs on the phone or to myself...or God...except in a whisper. Dad would of given me that quarter!!! I've always been a Chatty Cathy and Dad would promise me a quarter if I could be quiet for 10 minutes.....I'm proud to say, I never got that quarter, but on this trip I'd of gotten rich!!!

​Urgent Care did what it does best....they injected me with an antibiotic and I've spent the first 2 nights sleeping 12 hours with the help of NyQuil! After 4 days of near silence I can speak again. That's a good sign!!! :) 
I tried to find God's plan in this quietness I was forced to endure. I tried to rest in Him. I wanted to cry out with my voice....but I was enduring this Zechariah moment. Zechariah was the father of John, the forerunner to Christ. He was struck silent for 9 months....I was only silent for 4 days. I still cannot speak without my voice cracking like a broken cell service!!! But, I can speak.

The worst of this silence was being "lost" in Lexington VA trying to find the Enterprise Rental because my "maintenance" light came on only 200 miles into my 1400 mile journey. I'm not sure if it was a lack of cell service in the mountains....or the cheap plan my dear man has me on....I always like to rub that in every chance I get. (it's a fine plan living here in Nowhere Texas, but when I have to travel....well, it's a problem) Hubs, a man of VERY few words was trying to give me directions (his longggggg pausing was killing me!!!)....trying to figure out where I was so he'd know which direction to tell me to go....and my lack of being able to speak 1 word....it brought me to tears....I'd scream but....SILENCE! Texting didn't work. Nothing. I was at God's mercies.

After they checked the car and determined it was just the oil change sensor light that wasn't reset....I was sent on my merry way back to playing leap frog with semi's the entire way home. 

That was my only "lost" moment. I followed Interstate road signs the entire way back....our son couldn't understand how I could just stick my phone away...and frankly with the cheap plan, what's the point of having it out????.....But it's amazing how road signage still works even in this day of technology!!! I didn't even get "lost" in Birmingham Alabama as I wound my way through a detour off the Interstate into the city. I was and always will be in the hand of God....He was guiding me all the way and I knew it. My friend Merry Mary was holding me in close prayer and speaking Psalm 91 over me for days and days. 

I rested in the shadow of the Almighty!

On my way through Chattanooga TN, I stopped on the mountain; Lookout Mountain. I went there in 1977 attending
 Covenant College as a freshman completely on a scholarship and government grants. I was a baby in Christ. I'd yet learned how to walk, let alone crawl. It was on that mountain that God reached down to this broken child and restored me. I wanted to go back. To see the place where my heart grew. Where I first learned about HIM! Where I learned to crawl.

​It's an amazing view...the top of that mountain. As you are winding your way up from the city on a narrow cutback road....at one point....the tree tops open, and the beautiful college (old hotel) that looks more like a castle opens up beholding the glory of God!!! Just amazing!!!

I didn't make anymore stops since it only added to the already long 9-10 hour driving day.

​Before I knew it.....

Here I was...home. 
Isaiah 43:1
​"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 
I have summoned you by name;
you are mine."
When did my transfusion come?

I'm not exactly sure that it came all at once....perhaps it came drip by drip.

​Sunday morning I had the absolute honor of being lead into worship of The Most High by our son who plays bass guitar.

I was first struck by how old he looked....oh my, he's 31 and such a big man. I wanted to stand there next to him and say....He's mine!!!!! Such a proud Mama! A moment of realizing all the blood, sweat and tears poured into that boy were not in vain. God does redeem. 

I thought about all the years I drove him to guitar lessons. I thought about the beautiful bass guitar he was playing and the day we bought it for him....I only remember he was very sick and we went to get it probably for his birthday, hoping it would lift his spirits. I thought about how God has never forsaken the righteous. I thought about my little grandson whom I pray for daily that he will come to know Jesus at a young and early age. How I held him in one arm on my hip as we praised the Almighty with the other arm! As he sung out as loud as his little lungs allowed in whatever tongue he chose. It blessed my heart beyond measure!!!!!!!! Watching Little Graham worship Jesus. Singing Hallelujah and Amen!

That may of been the moment.....as Ben opened in this beautiful heart felt song....
​I Raise A Hallelujah! 
However, it could of been in my quiet time. My time of listening....not speaking. 1400 miles of listening. 
Or, it could of been in the times knowing that relationships are restored even when they feel lost and broken by distance. 
However, it could of been on the mountain where I first began to learn how to grow in my relationship with Jesus. 
I truly can't tell you where my Transfusion occurred. It just did. 

I feel ready to make new changes...yes, yet again.

But isn't that what growing is all about?

​Change.

So, here I sit ready for New Beginnings. Ready to start again. 

​There was one song that played many times on my trip home.  It's called "Nobody" by Casting Crowns. 

'Cause I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody who saved my soul
Ever since You rescued me, You gave my heart a song to sing
I'm living for the world to see nobody but Jesus
I'm living for the world to see nobody but Jesus
In my broken, squeaky hoarse voice I'd yell.....I am a somebody....I am the daughter of The Most High God, Daughter of The King, The Divine Diane called by named and redeemed!!! 
That's who I am!!!!

By His Grace Alone,
​Diane

Learning to walk again

0 Comments



    Archives

    December 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    2015 WORD
    2016 Word Embrace
    2020
    30 Days Of Gratitude
    AAT
    About
    Acrylics
    Adrenal Fatigue
    Annie Hamman
    Antiques
    Art
    Asaph
    Brandi Dayton
    Brave Girls Club
    Cancer
    Carnivore
    Chickens
    Chinese Medicine
    Christmas 2019
    Cleaning My Genes
    Composting
    COX 2 Inhibitors
    Danielle Donaldson
    Dirty Genes
    DLP 2016 The Unplanner
    Documented Faith
    Donna Downey
    Doodles
    Dr Ben Lynch
    Dr Terry Wahls Protocol
    Dyeing
    Eat For Your Genes
    Ebooks
    EBV
    Election Day
    Erhlichiosis
    Faith
    Farm
    Farmher
    Farm Yarn
    Ferments
    FREE Downloads
    GAPS
    Gardening
    Grandchildren
    Grand Littles
    Grassfed Meat
    Gratitude
    Health
    Heirlooms
    Hens
    Herbalism
    HIS
    Histamine Intolerance
    Hormones
    India
    InkWash
    Inspirational Wednesday
    Instant Pot
    Intention
    Jeanne Oliver
    Joyful Journey
    Knitting
    Lyme
    Mast Cell Disease
    MCAD
    Meat
    Mixed Media
    Mixed Media Art
    MS
    Nana
    Nikon
    NRT
    Organic Gardening
    Painting Originals
    Photography
    Prayer
    Printables
    Prophecy
    Raw Food
    Real Food
    Recipes
    Salicylate Intolerance
    Salve Making
    Sheep
    Sourdough Bread
    Spirit Of Prophecy
    Spiritualism
    Standard Process Supps
    TEXAS
    Texas Gardening
    The Shepherd
    Vacation
    Vegan Recipes
    Vegetarian Recipes
    War Room
    Watercolor
    Whole Food Plant Based SOS
    Yarn Along
    YHWH
    Young & Raw

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.