Happy New Year From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

 

What a year!  We've had ups and downs, victories and defeats, joy and sadness, met goals and fell short.  But we've learned and grown and look forward to a new year, a fresh start, a clean slate.  We look forward to 2026 - a year to make memories.  May the Good Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and give you strength!

Happy New Year - 2025

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As I write this exactly one hour and 16 minutes before 2025, I'm amazed and confused at how fast the year flew by.  2024 was a year marked by changes (both good and bad).  The past year was filled with  accomplishments and failures, work completed and work left to be done, rejoicing and mourning, answered prayers and those for which we patiently await.  Above all, we count our blessings and remain thankful to Jesus for all He's done in our lives.

New Year's Resolutions.  I'm not very good at these.  On the mirror in my bathroom, I have a sticky note of the last resolutions I made several years ago:

1. Read 3 chapters a day in my Bible: I failed at this one. I didn't read 3, but most days read 1.
2. Focus on exercise (sit ups/push-ups): I failed at this one in spectacular fashion.
3. Rebalance investments: Yeah, you guess it. I've pretty much stopped looking at statements.

We do have daily lists of tasks that we are successful at achieving, so we are productive people.  I'm just not good at New Year's Resolutions, so I don't think I'll make them anymore...  On second thought, I walked in the back yard yesterday and witnessed an event that made me rethink my reluctance.  I think I'll make a New Year's Resolution after all.

In 2025 I resolve to sleep with exuberance, to slumber with reckless abandon, to reach REM sleep so quickly that I'm sprawled out without a care in the world just like our big ol' dog, Belle does:

We here at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm wish you and your family a wonderful new year filled with joy and most of all, of God's richest blessings.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 KJV

Happy 2024

How did you bring in the New Year?  It's been years since I've even been awake to bring it in.  We're normally asleep.  The boys were over and in the late afternoon, we built a bonfire .  There were a lot of branches in the pasture near the barn that we piled up over a big stump and we lit it up.  We sat on logs and a couple of lawn chairs and talked.  Russ put some country music from his play list and we listened.  The neighbor walked over and we talked for a bit.  It was relaxing.

Elsie walked over to share time with us.  It was a good reminder for me.  I've kind of given up on New Year's Resolutions.  I do have some goals or To-Do's and Rosie is involved.  Rosie was unable to get pregnant when we had bulls on the property on two separate occasions.  In January, we'll have the vet come to the house for a farm call and see if he can figure out why she's unable to get pregnant.  Hopefully, Dr. Fontenot can diagnose what the problem is and that it is fix-able.

We talked and sang and laughed and even danced in a goofy fashion in front of the fire.  It was just a perfect night for a fire.  The sky was crystal clear.  We gazed at the stars and could see planes flying high above us with their blinking lights.

We walked back and forth in the dark, bringing fresh branches to fee the fire.  The flames licked at the sky, growing higher and higher.

We watched the glowing embers floating high into the sky.  What a sight to behold.

We don't know what 2024 will hold.  What a year it has been?  Full of victories and disappointments.  The challenges have been there, no doubt, but good memories (and even miracles) were made.  Lots of folks are saying that 2024 will include a "Black Swan" event and trouble, economic and otherwise.  No one knows.  We pray that the New Year brings health and joy, prosperity and laughter and good times and memories made with the ones we love.  We wish that for you as well.  May God Bless You!

Happy New Year! 2023

Happy New Year to All from the Sonnier's at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We wish you and your family the very best in 2023.  We have been away for about a week on vacation.

We will be back tomorrow with lots to talk about.  May our Lord richly bless you this year!!

Oh Lord, Lettuce Have a Great New Year!

On New Year's Eve, we always get together and celebrate Russ' birthday.  We very seldom make it to midnight, though.  That's past my bedtime.  We toast (before midnight) with some sparkling apple cider.  It's delicious!  Happy New Year, everyone!

The lettuce crop from the garden has been phenomenal.  We have been having the best salads every single day.  We plant five different types of lettuce varieties.  At first the germination was "spotty" and there was a lot of gaps, but they have really grown and filled in all the open spaces.  Now, we have more lettuce than we could eat.  

We like to mix a little bit of each variety in the salad bowl along with some fresh spinach.  The red and green colors and the different textures and shapes of each make it an interesting looking salad.

The red romaine against the oak leaf lettuce is a visually appealing color contrast, don't you think?

Why is it called oak leaf lettuce, you ask?  Well, I'll show ya.  Here is a leaf from the oak leaf lettuce:

Makes sense, huh?  Our family at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm wishes you the Happiest 2022 greetings.  Oh Lord, lettuce have a great new year!

Happy New Year To You From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

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Well, 2018 is in the books, wrapped up with a bow and all done.  In the upcoming days, we'll look back at some of the numbers like we always do - looking at rainfall, egg production, milk production, animal production, etc.

For now we'll look ahead to 2019 with a few resolutions and/or goals.  I've come to dislike resolutions simply because they are so doggone hard to keep.  I always start with such good intentions, only to fall short of following through.  And the salt in the wound is that it doesn't take me very long to get off-track on my lofty goals.

This year, I'm going to try to keep things simple, and I've asked my family to hold me accountable.  Here goes:  I like to make goals in three areas: Spiritual, Physical, and Mental.

Spiritual Goal for 2019: Read 3 Chapters a day in the Bible.  Doing this will enable me to read through the Bible in a year.  I like to read beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation.  I know many people will read a couple chapters in the Old Testament and 1 chapter in the New Testament each day.  I like to read the Bible through, though.  It is just more orderly and I can follow the timeline of what is going on from a historical perspective that way.

Physical Goal for 2019:  Do at least 50 push ups and 50 sit ups each day.  I am not real big on working out.  I would much rather work hard in meaningful work that accomplishes an outcome, but especially during the short days of winter, there's not a lot to do outside.  I'm 52 now and as the metabolism slows, but my appetite for good food grows, there's a weighty problem ahead (no pun intended) if I don't burn some calories.

Mental Goal for 2019:  Read a book a month. 

I have a few homestead to do's, but these are more to do list items than resolutions.  I'll list them here and will check them in a year to see how much we got done:

1. Put in sidewalks to help with trudging through the mud,
2. Add lighting to the barn.  Adding the lean-to's on either side of the barn made it darker in the barn,
3. Add lights to the cattle trailer.  Maybe we can be legal for Benjamin's last year of showing:),
4. Build a roof that spans between the barn and goat barn,
5. Bring in more fill dirt to fill in low areas around the barn,
6. Improve drainage around the barn,
7. Make homemade soap

So there we have it.  We have been blessed in 2018 despite some difficult bumps in the road.  May God bless you and your family in 2019!

Happy New Year! 2018

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

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As I was thinking about the New Year, I do look ahead and have goals set for the new year.  However, I admit I look back and have many regrets of goals not achieved, relationships not restored, desires not met, health issues not resolved, prayers not (yet) answered.  I wish I would have done many things differently.  Not that it was necessarily bad, but I wish 2017 would have been better.  Life is too short to waste time and energy dwelling on regrets.  I am reminded by the letter of the Apostle Paul the the church at Philippi that I should forget the past and look forward!  There is a much better goal or resolution - that is to press on, move forward for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and that is what I'll strive to do.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.    Philippians 3:12-14

Happy New Year!

New Year Thoughts

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Happy New Year, Everyone.  Another Year full of new beginnings, potential and promise.  I'm not real big on making New Year's Resolutions as I have a bad habit of setting some high and unachievable goals that I usually fail to reach.  Then I tend to dwell on the failures and regrets of the past year or years.  I think it is best to look ahead like this verse says:

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14

As we were driving back home from our trip that I'll talk about a little bit later, I heard the following song by Rascal Flatts that has some great lyrics that (I think) are appropriate for New Years.  The song is essentially talking about a wish that a father has for his daughter, but it can really be a blessing - hopes that one has for the future.  I've posted the video of the song below that you can listen to if you click the button in the middle of the image below.  I also attached the lyrics below the video.  I think the words are powerful and inspirational.  I hope you enjoy. I hope you have a Happy New Year, too!

I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you wanna go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile.
But more than anything, more than anything

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

I hope you never look back, but you never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you live,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And always give more than you take.
But more than anything, yeah, more than anything

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish. Yeah, yeah.

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish (my wish, for you).

This is my wish (my wish, for you)
I hope you know somebody loves you (my wish, for you).
May all your dreams stay big (my wish, for you)