Hello! My name is Mollie Cundiff. Welcome to my picture perfect, always behaving kids, car and house are always clean, farm. Not! Let’s be real. Kids are messy. Life is messy. Farm life is REALLY messy!
I have piles of laundry (mostly clean at the moment-SCORE!) and dishes. My car looks like a cheese cracker factory right now and my yard needs some serious attention.
I am not a perfect Christian, mom, wife, or blogger and I never want to give that impression. I am here to support you in your mom journey by sharing real stories about mine.
My husband and I, along with our 5 kids, live on a 100-acre farm in beautiful South West Colorado (technically it’s 103 1/2 acres, but who’s counting?). We mostly raise cattle for beef (need beef?), but I also have a few pet cows. I am allowed to name the calves out of two cows, everyone else gets a number. It is a lot harder to get attached to “64” or “23” than to “Ellie” or “Mocha”. Harder, but I still accomplish it.
We also have chickens, A goat (that’s another story!), cats, dogs, horses, and ducks.
I LOVE ducks!
My ducks taught me a lesson this summer. One I want to share.
Here is the back story. We are part of an amazing, christian, hybrid school. I work there as an instructional aid, am Vice Chair of the school board and last year had 2 children attending the school. There are two on campus days and three homeschool days. I feel like it is the perfect blend of traditional school and homeschool. Anyway, it keeps me busy. Like many people, Covid-19 shut our school down in mid-March. That time with my kids was such a sweet time, Not having to, or being able to, run around all the time. Being “forced” to stay home-honestly, it felt like being allowed to stay home. Anyone else feel that way? Just me? Okay, I might have a problem saying no….
Back to the ducks! With all that “extra time’ I decided we should get baby ducks. I love ducks! (Did I already say that?)
We did not have a brooder house or any kind of set up for baby ducks. I decided they could live in a diaper box in my kitchen until they were big enough to put out at the pond. Ha. Haha. I did NOT know how FAST baby ducks grow!
They started out about 3 inches tall. The diaper box was working perfectly!
Three. Days. Later.
I was awakened by a thud and intense peep, peep, peeping. Naturally, I woke up Trevor to make sure our house had not been invaded by burglars trying to lure me out of my bed by playing off of my love for baby ducks. I have a great imagination you see. Anyway, he gives me the “all clear, no burglars here” sign so I go out to check the ducks.
One of them was running around, frantically trying to find his friends. We got him caught and put back, but I knew the Pampers duck nursery was no longer gonna work. We figured it out and in the end they made it out to the pond and are now HUGE and happy ducks.
Summer is VERY busy here on our farm. With irrigating, gardening, hay, cows and kids, it’s a lot! Sometimes I feel like my husband and I never see each other. One day he came home from work and I met him outside with a piece of strawberry, cream cheese scone cake. (Yum!)
We made our way over to the pond and ended up standing there for about 45 minutes just talking and watching ducks. It was mesmerizing watching them swim and dive and seeing how much they had changed from the little brown and yellow ducklings.
We both had many other things that needed to be done, but somehow it seemed ok to just watch the ducks.
That has become our escape. Whether it is Trevor and I or one of the kids and I. When we need a break or need to talk, we can head out and watch the ducks.
You may not live on a farm and have the same busy life I do, but we ALL have distractions in our life. Whether it’s work, play, church, housekeeping or whatever. We all have things in our life that keep us busy.
My mom used to say BUSY stood for Being Under Satan’s Yoke. He likes to keep us busy, keep us from growing in our relationship with the Lord and keep us from training our children in the ways of the Lord.
My encouragement to you is, take a pause. Leave the dishes. Leave the laundry. Redeem the time now to build solid relationships with your kids. Listen to them. Teach them. Go watch the ducks. You will be surprised how much those times will mean to them.
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean; but much increase is by the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:4
This scripture jumped out at me and, yes, I am going to compare my kids to oxen. Don’t judge.
Whenever I am pulling my hair out because someone spilled milk on the table and left it, or decided to cut up an entire package of construction paper into confetti, or chop my 3-year-old’s hair off, or swim in used motor oil, I try to remind myself that all these messes are signs of how incredibly blessed I am to have my five, beautiful, healthy, messy kids.
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Strawberry, Cream Cheese Scone Cake Recipe
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Meet Mollie
Mollie is a lover of Jesus above all. She loves her husband and family and enjoys gardening, teaching, piano, riding, and farming. She lives in SW Colorado with her husband and five kids.