The Lord Is My Life

"The Lord is my life. My salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength in my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine

enemies and my foes...

...came upon me to eat up my flesh,

they stumbled and fell.

Though unhost should encamp against

me, my heart shall not fear.

Though war should rise up against me.

In this will I be comforted."

From "Gods and Generals"

I Have Finally Come To Grips

With the fact that I am an adult. No, I don't feel like one, (esp. those times when I getting a lecture), no I do not look like one (in fact I had someone tell me they thought I was 12 last week!  I am praying that he was joking!), nor is it the fact that I have been told that I can start calling adults (people closer to my parents age) by their given name.

No it's not how I look, act, or feel that makes me realize I've hit the adult mark. Rather it's how the younger people in my life or their parents view, call, or treat me, such as...

When our next door neighbor calls me Miss Katie when talking to her 7 month old baby and his sister walks in and says "Hi, Miss K K!"

Or when I hear stories from church members where their 5 year old says that I am not a Carlson child because I am an adult.

Then there are the times when Noah or Libby want to know about when I was a kid. (When I was a kid? Oh, you mean when you were born?)

But the biggest thing was when one of my sisters (Sara or Linnea) asked me a couple days ago..."So, Katie what do want to do with your life now that you’re grown up?"

Yup, now that I'm "grown up" I'm getting asked many a question, some questions are of the type that I never thought I would be asked until I was much older than my current age, while there are others that I never thought I would be asked, then there are those that I knew I would get asked, but there are always those that are curve balls, being an adult is not as easy as it looked when I was younger.

I Promise

That if I get one more comment, joke, tease, hint, raised eyebrow, nod of a head, pointed look, or any other indications from anyone on who I should marry, when I should marry, where I should marry, or any other thing on marriage. I just might scream.

O.K. so I won't scream. Though I might do something equally as astonishing for me. And that would be....I would do...I would say...Oh, forget it. So there's really nothing I can do or say to stop people from giving hints or advice, except for the answer I already give--"I am waiting for God's timing".

Is it that rare for someone to want to wait for God's timing and not to date? Apparently so, since no one can understand "I'm waiting for God's timing.".

Is it honestly that rare of a thing for a female to be 21 and never have dated? It must be since people's surprise at finding out that I am 21 and I don't have a guy yet or that I've never dated comes close to equaling those people that are surprised that I am at least 4 years older than they thought I was.

I guess the hardest part about getting all the hints is how to deal with them. Most people don't understand the "I'm waiting for God's timing." answer and to give the more in depth answer of--"I am waiting on God's timing as I know that he can and will bring the man that he wants me to marry into my life at the time when both that man and I are ready for marriage. Honestly for all I know God might not have marriage planned for me or he might have it planned for me at a far later date. Not to mention I am already doing all that God would have me do right now, with the dairy, my soap business, doing my best (and not always succeeding) at being the best sister my siblings can have and respecting and obeying my parents." would cause more crossed eyes then we have Dr.s for.

So, I guess at this point getting all the comments, jokes, teasing, hints, raised eyebrows, nods of a heads, pointed looks, or any other indications from anyone on who I should marry, when I should marry, where I should marry, or any other thing on marriage. Is all God's plan for teaching me patience and how to be a good witness for him.

Not like I do very good, since more often than not when people ask me if I am ever going to get married or tell me who I should "Grab up real quick before he gets away" I kind of look at that person with my mouth hanging open trying my best and failing at coming up with an answer that doesn't make me look like I'm pining away for marriage but am honoring God. Never really works, even with those pre-thought answers.

So, what is wrong with waiting until God brings along the man that he has chosen for me at the time that he has chosen for me without having everyone trying to pair me up? What is wrong with waiting and not dating?

I Sometimes Wonder About My Siblings

I think I've used that title already.  :D

Last night while making yogurt, Liberty was out there wiping walls for me.  :D  Spending time with my siblings is almost always enjoyable.  (That would all depend on their mood.  :D  Trust me you don't ever want to spend time alone with Liberty when she's in a bad mood!!)  So as she's scrubbing the wall she's bouncing from one subject to another.  "Katie, how does the wall get dirty?" before I can answer "Katie, why does the yogurt take so long?" before she's even given me time to answer she's off on another question.  :D

The question that really threw me off and had me searching for an answer (and never coming up with one) was toward the end of our working time in the dairy..."Katie, why don't you have a boyfriend?"

Me: "Uhhh...Wellll....Uh.....Why do I need a boyfriend?"
Libby: "Because...."
Me: "Libby, because is the start of an answer, where's the rest of the answer?"
Libby: "You want to get married right?  Well, you need a boyfriend before you can get married.  So, why don't you have a boyfriend yet?"
Me: "Well, first off you don't NEED a boyfriend to get married, you just need God to send someone to you and your parents, no boyfriend.  Anyways who said I need a boyfriend?"
Libby:  "God!"

Uhhhh.....I think I'll let mom talk to her about boyfriends and here I thought the only people who would be grilling me about a boyfriends would be friends and not my seven year old sister.

You know it's cold when...

It's WAY To Cold!!!  The next time I post in the summer about how hot is, please remind me of this post!! 

You know it's cold when you have to send someone out every couple hours to break the ice of the animal's waters.

It's WAY to cold when your pond has ice around it and your 7 year old sister says "The pond is half frozen!!".

You know it's cold when at noon you can see your breath.

You know it's cold when your siblings under the age of 7 don't want to get out of bed, even to watch a movie.

It's WAY to cold when you look at the weather and it's 30 with a windchill of 20 at 2!!

(And yes Sara I do know that this is yet another post about the weather. lol ) 

2009

I meant to do this last year but like normal, life took over and I wasn't able to do this post when I had hoped to.  Oh, well at least it's not life and death!  lol Let’s see if I can recap my family's last year in a paragraph or two per month. :D

January

Our year started with our Uncle, his family, and our Aunt coming out for a late Christmas. Christin and Grace left with our Uncle's family for the trip of a lifetime--Two months in Europe! That left Sara to get more then her fill of baby sitting and myself more than my fill of milking and babysitting. But we managed, and got some pictures and great stories from the girls.

February

Our goats started kidding the first week of February, not only giving us more milk for me to process, but Sara wonderful chances at learning the ins and outs of kiddings since I was busy watching children and couldn't help her. (Thankfully she had mom to help her most of the time.)

We lost not one, but two cameras, one roster, and a goat. The laundry, kids, and school piled up a mile high! While mom, dad, and I lost more sleep then we were able to find and Linnea turned 13!

March

Ah, that wonderful month in which Houston is overrun with cows and cowboys and half our family looks forward to showing goats while the other half look forward to showing rabbits at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

The girls came back from there run around Europe, Grace turned 17, it rained, and we had more babies born, and I started this blog.

April

As I look back April was busier then I remember...Seth turned one, Emma turned 11 (and I remember when she turned one!). Our goats started kidding for the second batch of 2009, as well as puppies, bunnies, turkeys, and chickens were being born or hatched. :D

We got a new buckling from Colorado, learned that for any child under the age of 15 a truck load of sand is the bet toy in the world. I sold my soaps and stuff at a conference, bought yet some more books (both for myself and for birthday presents) we started two new markets, we took more than one trip to see the bluebonnets, and the baseball season started.

May

To start off May I went and got my driver’s license. Something that I am sure many a people thought would never happen. I got more teasing and questioning about not driving then about not dating! What prodded me to finally go and get my license?  Well, the fact that my parents needed another driver for a third market on Saturday! Why else?  I passed with flying colors, the first test for me to pass in MONTHS!  Now I love driving and which car is my favorite to drive?  The standard, of course!

Tim turned nine and then accidently shot the inspecter with his Red Ryder!  We had more kiddings and lost a doe, Grace's horse tore off his eyelid, our goat club had its annual show where we helped put it on, we started another Saturday market, Seth said his first words, and our washer broke TWICE!

June

We lost the camera, again. We got a new washer (it's amazing how things like a washer affect your life!), Grace's horse cowboy survived the surgery to put his eyelid back on, and Seth started walking.  Some good friends brought us a goat from Idaho, I got my first taste of farm sitting, and we started making and selling cheese at the Austin farmers market.

We threw a surprise birthday party for Mom, Liberty turned 7 and I had the pleasure of turning 21 on a Saturday!

July

We had our annual 4th of July party where the oldest 7 of us children got to have a dream come true--We got to load and shot a black powder rifle!

We finally got some rain, I flipped a 4-wheeler and lived to tell about it, mom and dad went on a mini wedding anniversary trip and at the same time gave a talk on goats and how to run a dairy, dad went to a cheese making class, we had a movie filmed here, and we had our five year anniversary for living out in the country.

August

Dad had a birthday, Judah turned two, Christin turned 20, and Sara turned 16 (Yikes!! She's legally old enough to drive now!)

Our van broke, we bought my dream car (a station wagon), I got in a little bit of trouble for posting about some of my sibling's habits, we took in our first baseball game of the year, and we started school.

September

This was a slow month.  :D  We found out that nine goats were pregnant and all due on the same day, I decided that never again am I going to butcher our chickens, I will more than gladly send them away for that task!  Grace had to make the very tough decision to put her first horse down, we got more rain, and I faced my fears and drove a stretch of road that has worried me for years.

Our grandfather came down for a visit, (No, we do not know how long he will be staying with us. Like many things in life we are taking this one day at a time and as of right now that one day at a time is for him to be down here with us.) For the first time (and hopefully the last time!) I bought decaffeinated coffee and am still getting teased about it.

And lastly for this month, we found out that mom was pregnant with baby number twelve!!  And this coming only days after two different people told me "You do know that the chances are very high that the next baby in your family could be yours, don't you?"  Ummm....Right, O.K. aren't we forgetting something here?

October

Noah lived to be five, we started two farmers markets (making it a grand total of five a week and four of those being on Saturday), we found a cat that likes me, the postseason started, we got more sand, and I decided that throwing large parties or organizing church events just might not be my sort of thing, the dratted Yankees won the world series, the baseball season ended and I had to pull up 75% of our flooring due to a water leak.

November

The first week of November mom, Sara, GrandDavid, and I headed out Monday for Iowa and got back Friday afternoon, with 10 goats. We saw some very pretty land, nice goats, and good friends.

We started our last batch of kidding for 2009;  We went to the circus, which for over half the family was a first.  I found out that dad reads my blog, and we had some good friends spend a few days with us dyring the Thanksgiving week.

December

We finished our last batch of 2009 kiddings, the whole world got an earful on Carlson family traditions, I lost a goat and gained two others in the process, I finished putting the flooring back in, I made a Christmas wish list (and got it), we broke three water pipes in 9 days, and dad had two weeks off from driving a bus.

One of the biggest things that happened last month?  We found out that baby number twelve will make eight girls in our family!!

So there you have it, our year in a wrap.

(Man that took longer then I thought it would!)

We'er Doing What!?

First off, just to let you know, I am not an NFL fan, I enjoy watching college football, but only a few teams, such as UH (Where my parents met) and A&M (We are in Aggie land, plus my mom almost went there).  With that out of the way I will now tell you that I do not like UT or OU (All you UT and OU fans, please do not get angrey you already knew I didn't like these two teams, didn't you?)

And the reasons I like and dislike the teams is not because I just sat down one day and picked the two teams I did like and the two I didn't like.  The likes and dislikes have been instilled in me since a VERY young age (as in I was going to UH games at the age of two months).  Long before I liked baseball I enjoyed watching football with dad, we really watched NFL, in fact the only time I can remember watching it is during the Super Bowl  with friends from church.  Other then that we always watched collage.

So my question is--Why are die-hard UT haters doing hosting a "party" to watch UT play in the Championship game?