Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad!

First of all I would like to state how thankful I am to our parents for bringing us up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord! I have found that verse in Proverbs to be so true.

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."

Daniel, at his graduation was remarking on this same verse. Their instruction and "law" truly is a graceful ornament on our heads. My parents have that way of making things seem "all better" I know that for me, since my early years, when I would get overwhelmed or "bogged down" by some seeming weighty matter, spilling my heart to my parents and receiving their wisdom and advice was one of the sweetest things! I have learned so much from them, it is such a blessing to be able to talk to them anytime about anything! Well, this has to be cut short, as my dad is calling me to bed. I wish I could write up something grand and wonderful for you, Mom and Dad, but my writing skills are in no way equal to those of the well written Miss Rachel, so I shall close by saying, I love you Mom and Dad and I so appreciate all you do, and all you have taught us!

Love,

Morgan

Glory to God in the Highest!

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14


"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of host will preform this." Isaiah 9:6-7


"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces form Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:1-5


"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over there flocks by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:8-14


"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Merry Christmas!
-Morgan

Of Processing and Christmas Preparations

Hello all! Here is our week in review. Sunday, church was canceled because everyone was either sick, or not able to make it. We had our own little service together as a family, Katie played guitar and we sang Christmas hymns as well. On Monday we processed the last batch of broilers for 2009. Elliott and Oliver Alexander came over to help us. We were able to finish up with the actual processing of the birds before lunch. We did about 230. (Okay, we did eat a little late. But lunch was well worth the wait! Mom made two chicken pies, mashed potatoes and a big pan of baked apples!) After lunch we had a short break before bagging the birds, we played Kickball. That was fun and funny! These were the teams.. Katie, Maddie, Elliott and Lucy. and then Me, Hannah, Oliver and Rebecca. It was so funny to watch Katie's team. She and Maddie were both trying to come up with the best strategy for their team. Someone on our team would kick the ball and then take off running for the base, while Katie and Maddie were still talking and telling each other "if you had just done what I said, we could have gotten it!" Elliott was dashing all over the yard trying to retrieve the ball single-handedly while Katie and Maddie were still arguing! Also, the yard was very muddy from recent rain and snow so there were many slips and slides! We were laughing so hard and so were Katie and Maddie! After our break we finished up by bagging the broilers and then washing the coolers. Thank you Elliott and Oliver for your help! (Hey, was anybody sore from all that running during kickball? I must have gotten out of practice! It was probably partly from that big slide/collision with Maddie!) On Tuesday, Mom and Dad went Christmas shopping for most of the day, we did the normal outside work, including washing several days worth of eggs. It was very cold that day! We had to bundle up warmly! There is one thing I will say about beanie hats, I personally do not care for them, and I think it is safe to say that they don't care for me either! It's probably because of the way I wear my hair, either in a bun or a braid. So either I have a knob sticking out from the back of my head or my braid is constantly pushing the hat up so that it is perched on the top of my head in a most unfashionable way! But I generally wear them anyways because the cold and the pressure makes me dizzy sometimes. Anyways, to get off that subject:) This morning Mom took us older girls out to finish up with our Christmas shopping and then Dad took the little ones out. So now we are officially finished with Christmas preparations. This afternoon we watched the Christmas Shoes. A movie based from the song. It is a really emotional movie! The first time we watched it we all cried buckets of tears, including Dad. This time I was pretty sure I wouldn't cry because I had already seen it and I didn't think it would effect me like it did the first time. I was wrong. By the time the little boy is crying and begging his mom not to go, we were all sobbing and passing around the tissue box. And I don't mean "teary". I mean really crying. I think Will got a kick out of watching us, after a really sad part he would steal a glance around the room and take note of everyone who was crying, "Hehe, Maddie's crying... Morgan's crying... Katie's crying?!" Katie rarely cries, so that surprised him! After the movie he named off all the people that had cried. "Did you?" We questioned, as he was leaving the room. "Only at the part were he's getting the shoes" he admitted. Katie said she was trying to hide her sobs behind a laugh but it didn't work too well:) Well, that's pretty much catches you up! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! I shall close with this song, It's a little like "Mary Did You Know", a song from Mary's perspective.

"But Mary kept all of these things and pondered them in her heart"


This is not the way I dreamed
My story would unfold
A stable and a bed of hay
A night so clear and cold
The only child of God begotten
In my arms I hold
To us is born Emmanuel

Holy child of hope
Perfect child of peace
Born to be the Lord of life in me
Oh my precious son
Heaven's child has come
To make of me a child of God

I am just a peasant girl of simple honest means
Who am I to hold the Savior
Sent to set men free
To know the child I gave life
Will give his life for me
The angels sing Emmanuel

Holy child of hope
Perfect child of peace
Born to be the Lord of life in me
Oh my precious son
Heaven's child has come
To make of me a child of God

Oh my precious son
Heaven's child has come
To make of me a child of God

To make of me a child of God

-Morgan

Mom and Dad are back!

Hi everybody, you probably thought I had dropped out of blogging altogether! Mom and Dad have been gone this week on their 25th wedding anniversary trip. They went to Williamsburg and then to a sweet little cabin in the mountains! They just got back tonight and we are so glad to have them back! I missed them terribly! But we had a good, productive time at home. My grandparents stayed with us while my parents were gone and it was fun to visit with them. Hopefully I'll be posting some pictures from their trip soon. Katie, Maddie (and soon Hannah) have started posting now, it's nice to have lots of different perspectives!:) Also, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the music post:) That subject will most likely turn into a series which I will probably post in January after the busyness. We're supposed to get alot of rain tonight and tomorrow with maybe some snow mixed in. I know in some places folks are expecting 8 to 10 inches of snow! Fun! (Though cold and harder to work in.) Tomorrow we have an on-farm pickup day scheduled. Dad and William will be running it because Mom and the rest of us girls have a surprise birthday party to go to. Well, bye for now! Sorry this post is not as interesting as the other girls' posts have been:)
-Morgan

P.s Yeah! I was finally able to get a video to load. So here is the test one, a sword fight from last Sunday at the Heffingtons house between Justin and Daniel T.

The Sunday Report (By Katie)

Hello Everybody! I'm a "first time poster" to so tell me how I do.

Now, we had church at the Heffingtons home today. We got up a little earlier since today was Sunday, and went outside to do our chores. It was after I milked when I found out the tractor was not working. (The battery was dead) I needed it to take hay bails back to the cows but the tractor decided it didn't want to charge either. So Morgan, Maddie and I had to push the hay bails back to the cow's pen. (At least Morgan was helping, Maddie was standing upfront pretending to direct "traffic" and making us laugh so that we barely had any strength!) Than, we got ready for church just in time. Dad and I were in charge of the music today so we almost left Maddie who was still getting ready! Mom and the little ones stayed home today. We arrived at the Heffingtons on the early side so we could set-up. Before the service, Mrs. Lynne played a song (which I believe it was called, Joseph's Lullaby's) while Daniel sang. It was a pretty song and Mrs. Lynne and Daniel both did a good job! We were practicing, some when everybody else started to arrive. Than Daniel , Alaina, Justin and I played our guitars. Here are the songs we played: Shout to the north, To God be the glory, O worship the King (I picked that one out, I don't know if anyone noticed but I was so nervous! I got shaky during the middle! See, I just learned how to pick it out the night before.) So any way... Then, Here I am to worship, Joy to the world, What child is this, Hark! The herald angels sing, and finally He knows my name.

Then, Mr. Strother shared and My dad shared. Than, we chatted some after the service and people started eating. (we didn't stay for lunch) So after saying a few more goodbye's, we left.

We came home to a wonderful meal my mother made! And, that's pretty much it!

Bye!

Katie

First Time Poster: Author Unknown

Hi Everyone! I've never posted before so I'm not quite sure what to say.... I'll write about what I did today. We had to wake up early and help Mom and Morgan get out to the last Farmers Market of the year. Since Morgan was gone I had to do her part of the milking. Afterwards I found out that all of the hoses were frozen, I had to haul 7 buckets of water from the workshop all of the way to the barn! For those of you that have never been to our house, it's along way!:) After that I went into the house to warm up by the kerosene heater. After that I helped my sisters make breakfast. We made eggs, sausage and heated up some pumpkin bread that Mom had made earlier. Then a customer came and we had to run outside to collect eggs for him while he waited. We took of running for the workshop to see who could get the best, least broken, egg basket first. I'm proud to say I got one of the best;) Then we broke the no-no rule. We raced back with the full egg baskets and a certain sister of mine, tripped on the net and and fell, dropping the egg basket and breaking five eggs, (though I think it looked more like half of the basket!) The customer, who was watching the proceeds, laughed at us, we were laughing too. After that we came back inside and and my next oldest sister and I crowded into chair and knit cozily together. Mom and Morgan came home at about 3pm and then Dad, Will and somebody else went outside to do some target practicing, Dad said I can go next time! Then Rebecca and I walked around the farm, stopping to watch this man rake up a pile of leaves and then burn them. Afterwards we came back and then I did this post. Guess who I am...:)

-?

Answer to Questions: Part Two

Here are the rest of the questions, (save the Christian rock vs. hymns. Best for last!)

Would you rather miss, 2 young adult nights or a once in a lifetime trip to Scotland with Rachel Heffington?

The 2 Young Adult Gatherings. (How could I pass up Scotland with Rachel?!)

Would you rather watch Dumbo, or March of the Penguins?

Well, seeing as I've never watched March of the Penguins, I think I'd chose the latter.

Would you rather eat clobbered milk, or an old sandwich you found in the back of the refrigerator?

How disgusting! Maybe I could make cheese or something out of the milk..........

Do you prefer cooking or cleaning up after a meal?

Cooking!

Would you rather eat chicken feet or jelly fish?

Umm...... I know where those chicken feet have been! If it was in soup that would be one thing... But if I had to just chew on it or something..... I think I'd choose the jelly fish:)

Of all of the animals that your family has ever owned, which is your favorite?

Probably the cow we had named Maggie. She reminded me so much of "Dolly" in Anne of Avonlea. Katie and I used to reenact that part in the field where Rachel Lynde is bringing Dolly back after the she had been in her prize winning cabbages!

Well, that's all for now, I will hopefully be answering the music question soon. Thank you for participating!

-Morgan

Answers to Questions: Part One

I have decided to answer these questions in two different parts. (The question post is still open by the way) Oh also, Oliver is hosting a Most Festive Blog contest over on his sister Meredith's blog. So vote for us! :) Alright, here goes...

What is your favorite kind of car?

I'm not one for fancy cars; give me a pick-up or a Ford Explorer any day.

When was the last time you cried?

None of your beeswax :)

What is your favorite movie?

I have quite a few... Return of the Daughters is one of my favorites.

What do you want for Christmas?

Something really expensive! :)

Do you have a sister named Maddie?

I think so.

Why did you try to scare away everyone from coming to the graduation by saying we had swine flu?

I didn't mean too! But I think everyone came anyways.

What is your favorite character in Anne of Green Gables?

Well, I like Anne of course! But I think Rachel Lynde comes in second :)

Do you like quoting lines from movies?

Oh yes.

Would you mind telling about the worst behaved you've ever seen me? (I don't mind terribly if you say the incident in Clayton and mind you stress the long-ago-ness of it! :)

Oh yes, the Clayton incident ;) Daniel was also involved in that dreadful deed. It was at our family's old farmhouse in Clayton, Georgia. We were there with the Heffingtons for a summer vacation ten years ago. (Ten years ago!) We were playing in the creek down the hill behind the house, when Daniel poured a freezing cold bucket of creek water down his sister Rachel's back. Well Rachel was none too happy as you could guess, and she whirled around with a howl and scratched him. He had several long tiger scratches on his chest. (I can't remember but I'm sure you got in trouble Rachel!) I remember that like yesterday! And remember you, Katie and I shared one of the upstairs rooms and we all piled into that one bed because none of us wanted to sleep on the old cot. We were afraid of the mice! And Katie would kick us off the bed in her sleep! hahaha! That trip was so fun!

What's your favorite animal?

I enjoy all farm animals, but cows are probably my favorite.

What is your least favorite chore?

Washing coolers!

What is something that really irritates you?

Good question. I think I would have to say when someone is disrespectful to me in my face. I guess that shows I have an issue with pride *blush*

Did you ever draw on the wall when you were little?

Yes.

What is your favorite color?

Blue

What is your favorite book (besides the Bible)?

So Much More

What kind of music do you personally like to listen to?

Hymns and some bluegrass/country

What is your favorite restaurant to go to (if you go to any)?

We don't really go to any, but when we do, my family enjoys anything pizza related :)

What is your fondest memory?

Our first Young Adult Gathering ranks the top!

What's your favorite song?

That's a hard one! I have lots! I really enjoy the hymns, He Leadeth Me, and Jesus I am Resting, Resting.

Do you play any musical instruments?

I can play the piano a little bit, and I used to be able to pick out a few songs on my harmonica before it accidentally went through the wash years ago.

Did you remember how to help milk the cows?

Yes, even though I missed seven milking's when I was sick, I did still remember how to milk :)

Which would you rather do: listen to rap music (Christian, mind you) for 5 hours straight, or go to a 7 hour opera concert that was sung in Latin? :)

I refuse to listen to rap music!!! "Christianized" or no. So I guess the answer would be the opera concert :)

Have you ever had sushi?

No.

Which do you prefer: video tapes or DVD's and why?

1. DVD's

2. Easier and faster to use.

That's all for now!

-Morgan

My Turn! (Original Q&A Post)

I think I may be the last one to do this, except Katie and Maddie might do it after me. So, if there are any more questions left to ask, ask away and I will try to answer them soon :) (Hopefully after some of this busyness I'll have time for longer posts!)