These Are Sweet Days

The days begin early, end late, and are flying by so quickly! The farm and family buzz with activity as Christmas music fills the cozy farmhouse as well as the barn and outdoors. After a nearly nine month engagement, it is hard to believe that we are truly in the final few days. The delight, joy, and excitement of becoming the wife of my beloved Stephen is tempered with the reality of leaving behind my precious family. Less than three weeks until I become Stephen's wife means less than three weeks until I leave behind the sweet life I love so much. Although I am happy beyond words to be moving on to an exciting journey with my incredible man leading the way, it is very sad to think that these days with my wonderful family are nearing an end. How I pray that I can make the most of these final days! I don't want to regret the way these moments were spent. I want to treasure every hour of every day.

A few nights ago, as I tucked precious little Sheridan into bed, out of the blue she said she wished that she had a baby sister. She hasn't mentioned this before so I didn't really know what to reply, but I had the thought to explain how I always prayed to God that He would give me a sister and He answered my prayer, so now she could pray for this too. When I said a little prayer to appease her and help her fall asleep, it hit me that this simple prayer that I used to pray - which the Lord so kindly answered in the way I requested - here she is! This beautiful little blonde hair blue eyed three year old girl in her snuggly warm fleece pajamas... the baby sister I prayed for... and I'm leaving her! I cried and held her close to me.

Later that evening, when I relayed this story to Mama, she began to cry also. Living with a houseful of boys has taught both of us to rarely shed a tear, so we both really try to avoid the topic of me moving because we are crying way too often! I am trying very hard not to be overly emotional or sentimental about leaving home. I absolutely do not want to be a homesick, crying newlywed wife to my sweet husband.

There are certainly many exciting and challenging changes in store and I find great comfort in knowing that, as my grandmother once told me, if we are living within God's will for our lives we will have contentment and fulfillment. I am confident that my new life as Stephen's wife will be just as fulfilling as my life now because I have perfect peace knowing that I am following God's leading in this new chapter of my life.

And I couldn't be any more excited about the life I have ahead! God has given me so much more than I deserve in Stephen and I am thankful for him every single day. I am overjoyed at the thought of beginning our lives together.

Stephen has settled into our cozy apartment and I can't wait to move in with him! He sends me pictures and gives me tours via Skype. I am so blessed to get to begin my marriage in such a sweet little home. Every wifely duty sounds absolutely blissful because I will be able to serve my own husband. Getting married is the culmination of years of prayers and preparation and I am so honored to get to marry such a godly man of character. The future is very bright!

The past several weeks have been packed...

It was bittersweet to complete the final tractor service cutting of the season. I have enjoyed working for the tractor service for eight years and it has been thrilling to watch the business grow each season so it is sad to close this chapter, but I am so excited about what the Lord may have planned for my future as Stephen's wife (granted, it is highly unlikely it will have to do with tractors!).

While in NC completing the tractor service season, I also delivered my final cheesecakes to the restaurant I have baked for over the past four years. It has been a delight to bake for The Nicholson House. The owners gave me a kind card and sweet wedding gift.

One of the wedding projects which I am still finishing is monogramming the names of our reception's lovely server girls on their matching white aprons. I only have a few left to do, so I hope to finish this project early this upcoming week.

I created and printed the tags that will hang off of the strawberry jam wedding favors and now just need to finish the assembly of the fabric, twine, and tags on the jars.

My grandmother cut out the 250 fabric top coverings for the jars! This is what the finished product will look like:

I can't post pictures of the finished welcome gift package for our guests staying in our recommended accommodations because I entered a gift package into the Inspired Creations contest through Elizabeth Anne Designs. Although the likelihood of winning is very slim, I don't want to ruin my chances by doing something that is prohibited in the rules. The winner receives $500 worth of prizes, including a $200 Williams Sonoma gift card! I have actually only finished that one gift box so far (out of 25-30) so that is another project I still have ahead of me. One of the items in the boxes is a cup of homemade chocolate peanut clusters, as seen below. Fortunately, I have already finished all of the chocolate peanut clusters.

Mama is doing an incredible job decorating and Oma (my grandmother) spent the past several days creating many holiday wreaths and floral arrangements for the reception:

Following is Mama's "Inspiration Board'' for wedding reception decor on the farm - a collection of pictures from the beautiful homes we toured during the Edenton Christmas Candlelight Tour last year:

Our 3rd annual "Give Thanks for Udders" Farm Day, which was held yesterday, was the deadline for most of the infrastructure, decorating, and cleaning projects around the farm, so the house and property are nearly immaculate right now (hopefully this will somehow be maintained for three weeks!). In the picture below, Sullivan and Harrison are cleaning out an old chicken barn that is now used as a seating area with several tables and was used for the apple cider room during Farm Day. Sullivan and Harrison are taking their "summer break" from school during the months of November and December this year (we continued school throughout this past summer) so they can help with all of the many preparations here on the farm. Initially, they were thrilled about their break from school but now they are asking to go back to school work since the farm work is much more time consuming!

The farmhouse's exterior was painted and new shutters were installed. Sullivan, Harrison, and Sheridan helped paint the front porch's floor. The back porch was just tiled and it looks so nice, although I don't have any pictures!

Elliott built a small patio for our grill a few mornings ago. I don't have any pictures of this finished project either, but it looks very sharp.

The milking barn's second floor is where the wedding reception's dance will be taking place. In the picture below it was set up with hay bales in the center for an organization's showing of a documentary during our Farm Day.

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving turkey processing day. We had twelve workers and not very many turkeys (unfortunately due to predator problems) so it only took half the day. I drove to Charlottesville and did the milk delivery after finishing processing (and after getting a shower, of course!).

I've also baked 30+ cheesecakes during the past couple weeks. Although it was a daunting task, it is now completed and I have baked and frozen all of the cheesecakes for the wedding cake as well as all of the cheesecakes to reach my goal of a $1,000 contribution to the wedding fund. It is a great feeling to have this out of the way.

Farm Day was a success and we estimated that there were around 300 people in attendance this year. On Friday, we had a large field trip here as well so we have been busy with many people on the farm throughout the weekend.

The weather was perfect. We pray that we will have nice weather like yesterday's for the wedding! Children loved the hay rides on the authentic hay trailer:

Children milking the simulated dairy cow:

Elliott and Oliver worked the store and I just helped where needed, which was mostly keeping the barn stocked with warm apple cider.

Our dog, Sammie, just relaxed on the front porch:

We don't offer any scheduled tours on Farm Day, so I always sketch a little map for our guests who enjoy viewing the animals with their families:

I have been so blessed with three beautiful bridal showers! The third was today and was such a wonderful afternoon of fellowship with many friends and extended family. I look forward to posting pictures from all three bridal showers soon!

The sweetest moments of these final days at home are not pictured... Baking cookies with precious Sheridan in the kitchen while singing our favorite "Christmas cleaning song" (we turn it on whenever we need to do a "clean sweep" throughout the main living areas), which is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas"... Long chats with my wise and loving Mama while running errands... The sound of Elliott and Oliver's country jam sessions... Occasional meaningful talks with Harrison... Listening to Sullivan tell me about the progress of his latest book or some random history fact... Watching football and basketball on TV with Daddy. Laughing and reminiscing with my family late in the evenings... Dinner out at a restaurant together...

The Lord is graciously giving me increasingly more treasured moments with my family and less and less stress over the myriad of wedding details!