...till death us do part....Marriage Takes Three

I was going to name this post "LOVE, and other mushy stuff". But I didn't think anyone would read it.

So, since you are reading this, I assume, this was the better choice in post names! :)

I wanted to take a break from talking about the farm and our home, after all, this blog is supposed to be about US here at Irishman Acres...our home, our farm, our family, our LIFE. 

The biggest part of my life, and what I am most proud of by far is......our marriage.

We started out our relationship as very young, naive, stubborn people.
Getting married did not change that...I think it just enhanced our faults.

A couple of years into our marriage we had already had 2 children, started a business, and built our brand new home on this acreage. Each of these big life events, separately, are big game changers and hardships for a marriage. But together they spelled disaster!

Since I want this blog to be "nothing but the truth", I will say that it got bad enough that we eventually separated and lawyers were hired. But to make this L O N G story a little shorter....
everything changed when I gave God the reigns in my life and a MIRACLE happened.

Our hearts changed....our goals changed.....and our LOVE grew from there.

This man, that I walked down the aisle to 16 years ago, scared to death....is THE LOVE OF MY LIFE.
My OBSESSION, my PARTNER, the amazing father of my children.

Marriage is not easy, it is anything but easy! It can be messy, ugly at times. But when you let go and actually invite God into your marriage....your world together becomes more than you dreamed.

I have a bookmark in my bible that a loved one gave to me when our marriage was saved, and I read the poem on it constantly:

Marriage Takes Three

Marriage takes three to be complete;

It's not enough for two to meet.

They must be united in love by loves creator,

God above.

Then their love will be firm and strong;

Able to last when things go wrong,

because they've felt God's love and know

He's always there, He'll never go.

And they have both loved Him in kind

with all their heart and soul and mind;

And in that love they've found the way

to love each other every day.

A marriage that follows God's plan takes more 

than a woman and man.

It needs a oneness that can be

only from Christ.

Marriage takes three.

by Beth Stuckwisch

So to all that know us, you all know that we are constantly a work in progress.

But what marriage isn't??? With the arguments that are bound to happen with someone that you live with day in and day out, it's what happens in between the arguments that matter! 

His heart is my heart....his life is MINE. Together, we are so blessed! 

God knew what He was doing, I am so glad that we listened!

Happy Anniversary Baileyhusband!

 We are definitely one of a kind, and together we share this CrAzY life! And I wouldn't change a thing!

~Kim, your Baileywife

2013 Happenings Catch-up

Well, HELLO THERE! 

It's been awhile since I've been here to my little end of the blog world.

I've actually been keeping up with my blog friends and meeting new ones, but just haven't been here to Irishman Acres blog to write and share our happenings.

Life is a funny thing....and ours is a busy one! 

I will ease back into this blogging thing, and hope to catch up on some things that have happened here.

I have some new additions to our farm to show you all. And some changes are in store to our home also! 

More on that in a later post....(winky face)

I have recently joined in the fun world of Instagram! You can follow along on our day to day life HERE.

Here are some things that happened in our life since I blogged last, get ready for a blast of pictures to follow:

We showed our cattle and some chickens at our county fair.....

{Calvin (with Sierra) won Polk County Grand Champion!}

{Wyatt showed our large breed cattle (Carmelle) for the first time!}

{one of our Silkies}

We showed our little Miniature Hereford Bull, Hawkeye, at the State Fair......

{Daddy got in the ring and showed Hawkeye...so cute!}

Everyone went back to school........

{first day annual photo}

Which meant my oldest went back to college...(insert sad face).....

You can see her first dorm room from last year HERE.

And this is her space this year:

{Her BEFORE bedroom}

{AFTER, yes, we just re-used last year's chair}

{Before LIVING ROOM}

{After}

Sports picked back up....

{Emma, Cheer Captain of her college team!}

{Gunnar, 2nd year playing his favorite sport!}

{Sierra, cross country}

As well as music practices and concerts, 4H meetings, Youth Group, this Mama going back to work, and so much more!

Finding the balance is key, I missed keeping my little journal of our lives here, and hope to share more. When I first started blogging, it was all about numbers. I think many bloggers feel the same way. Watching the number of page-views becomes addicting, and self deprecating actually. So this new year is also bringing me some new-found sense of self....and really, aren't blogs just for us anyways? :)   

Well, this is enough to get me started on our Catch-up of 2013. My next post I will show highlights from a dream come true project I did this fall!! 

~Kim

S U M M E R

Where did this summer go? This week I have officially signed my kids back up for another year in school. I walked into the schools and with all the hustle of the front office, the school scent and knowing that our summer is almost over was overwhelming! 

My 4 children are all in 4 different schools....Elementary, Middle School, High School, and College!

I should be used to this by now, right? NOT EVEN CLOSE! Next week we will be busy buying school supplies and first day of school outfits....and I just can't help but remember all the plans we had for the summer. Our summer "bucket list" never really happened. Oh, we had BIG dreams!! Ya know, things like: going to the beach, visit every park in the area, pool visits weekly.... 

But with all the 4H Fair projects, showing cows, farm maintenance and chores, 4th of July Party planning, and multiple Vacation Bible Schools to attend......not much else was accomplished.

I guess it could be worse, we do offer our children so many good memories of growing up in the country.

There have been many water balloon fights, bike rides, watching calves be born and chicks hatched. They have cousin overnighters and playdates..... roasting marshmallows, camping (for the first time!), running through the sprinkler. Yes, poor kids!

Our sons are learning how to grow their own vegetables, how to CAN wild raspberry jam, how to build birdhouses and new chicken coups. Our daughters have become more helpful around the farm for doing chores, now that they are getting older. 

I also had BIG plans for this blog this summer...well, LIFE is messy (and busy). This blog is like a long love-letter to our farm and home....so if I don't write as often as I should, it's just because I am busy making memories with the ones that live here on our farm and in our home...

Oh, and because I have a dinosaur of a computer and it recently went on strike of letting me download new pics! So, I will just get caught up with what I have so far....and maybe when the funds appear for a new computer I can show you all the activities and happenings of this short summer we have had! 

Until then, enjoy YOUR summer....what is left of it!

~Kim

Gunnar's Beach, our little boy's room

Here is a story of our little family.....

                            

When Baileyhusband and I got married, we planned on having a large family. Somewhere along the way, we did get that large family! But it wasn't without a lot of surprises...and some heartaches.

Our oldest 2 children are girls (Emma and Sierra), they both came a little earlier in our relationship than expected (i.e. they were "oopses", good oopses, but still oopses, don't tell them!;)

I do believe that God has a plan for every one of us and our families.

After suffering a loss one year, we went on and had a healthy baby boy (Wyatt). A couple years later, we suffered another devastating loss and concluded WE WERE DONE! We had 3 children and now believed that is all we were "supposed" to have. But God had other plans for us.......and decided He was not done with us! Along came our little precious baby, Gunnar William!  

You see, this pregnancy was a little higher risk, there was early labor with under-developed lungs, bed-rest, tons of trips to the OB/GYN with my wild imagination always thinking "something was wrong". Yes, I was a little anxiety ridden with this little one. How could I NOT be? And when he was finally born, healthy as can be,  he came in a very dramatic way....but isn't the baby of the family always a little more dramatic anyways? :) 

My sweet boy is now 8 (almost 9....sniff sniff). And even though he was certainly a surprise, he totally completed our family! This is his room that I decorated for him while I was pregnant, although the crib and changing table has been replaced with 2 twin beds and a dresser. This ocean scene is calming...relaxing. Probably something I needed while pregnant....and the poor boy will have to live with for ....ever!

Yes, he has asked to have a sport themed room...one week, and then the next he wanted a camouflage room. And I am always telling him that he will just have to live with his ocean view!  

I am mean like that. His likes and tastes will change...and if he grows up and hates me for this, or is afraid of the water....I'm sure his therapist will blame his mother! 

And I'm OK with that....for he is the little miracle that God gave us, when we had given up. 

For now, I keep it fun for him to play....and restful for him to relax. 

And having 2 extra beds in the house is good for when company arrives too....sorry guests, your room with an ocean view will never change! 

Thanks little man for making our family complete, 

and for letting mommy clean your room and take pictures!

~Kim

All decked out for the holiday weekend!

Hope everyone had a beautiful holiday weekend.....

we had over 200 friends and family over for a party on Saturday....

lots of work goes into getting the home and farm ready for that many people.

Still recovering from the exhaustion....(in a good way).....and still trying to clean up!

~Kim

Top Ten Rules for Country Living

Top Ten Rules for Country Living

(according to me, a Baileywife, who after living in the country for almost 15 years, still has SO MUCH to learn!)

{Hershey and Buddy}

1. Plant tomatoes- LOTS OF THEM-  more than anyone can possibly eat or even can (i.e. canning into sauces, salsa, etc). This also goes for potatoes for us this year....who needs this many potatoes?? I love me some potatoes, rather baked, mashed, fried, or frenched.....but we will NEVER be able to eat all that will be harvested.

{a portion of our garden this year!}

  2. Share all that is harvested with your neighbors and family....or for us, our neighbors ARE family! :) Kind of like a free farmer's market!

 3. Know the difference between an annual and a perennial. Makes gardening a lot easier. And know the difference in your weeds....makes those itchy rashes less annoying in your life!

{perennials}

{annuals}

4.Be willing to re-plant numerous things due to storms, kids, deer, or a certain peacock! Actually witnessed this fellow helping himself to our pepper and zucchini plants, but didn't tell Baileyhusband....I let him believe it was a rabbit in the middle of the night that kept coming back! (hehehe)

{Felipe trying to eat the blooms of our zucchini plant} 

5. Make peace with spiders and snakes- still working on the whole snake thing!

{this was NOT taken here, I copied from Fresh Eggs Daily's Facebook page}

6. Be early to bed, so you can be early to rise. Your rooster is good at helping you with that!

But you don't want to miss the most amazing sunrises....

7. Front porches are a MUST.....keeps you cool in the shade, covered in the rain, somewhere to sit and sip lemonade after a long day of yardwork, and up off the ground away from snakes. (And please don't burst my bubble telling me snakes can slither up to my happy place too, I will pretend they don't)

8. Learn to drive a tractor and/or riding lawn mower. Let's face it, no one wants to push mow an acreage. (and you are up off the ground, where there are snakes) This took me many years to get the nerve up to learn a Kubota tractor mower, but now that I did, it is MY JOB.... My mommy-time to myself and listen to the music I want to listen to on my IPOD.

9. No need for a gym membership, there is plenty to do around the farm....weeding, raking, mowing, gardening, sweeping, watering, feeding....and if that isn't enough: the country roads are amazing for bike riding and jogging!

10. And speaking of the farm....You must have animals.... if for no other reason than entertainment. 

{Tiny, our gray silkie, half-way through his bath....this makes me LAUGH}

{no denying who the culprit was that got into the garbage! } 

These next few weeks are going to be FULL of farm entertainment....we are getting ready for our 4H County Fair, so we are knee deep in homemade projects and getting our "Show Animals" ready.

Hope everyone has an awesome family and friends- filled 4th of July Weekend! 

~Kim

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