Isaiah 11

On the last day of Pesach we read Isaiah 10:32-12:6 as we look forward to the Messianic age.

My favorite part is all of chapter 11. Verses 6-9 talk about how during the Messianic age,

"The wolf will live with the lamb;
the leopard lie down with the kid;
calf, young lion and fattened lamb together,
with a little child to lead them.
Cow and bear will feed together,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
An infant will play on a cobra's hole,
a toddler put his hand in a viper's nest.
They will not hurt or destroy
anywhere on my holy mountain.
for the earth will be as full
of the knowledge of Hashem
as the water covering the sea."

What a beautiful picture. I hope to live long enough to see these times. I would love to pet a lion without fear of him eating me. To see a child play with a snake, knowing that they are safe together. There are opinions out there that say this will happen throughout the land of Israel, but especially on the Temple Mount when the Messiah comes.

Verses 11-13:

"On that day Hashem will raise his hand again,
a second time,
to reclaim the remnant of his people who remain from (the north, south, east, and west)
He will hoist a banner for the Goyim,
assemble the dispersed of Israel,
and gather the scattered of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
Efrayim's jealousy will cease-
those who harass Judah will be cut off,
Efrayim will stop envying Judah,
and Judah will stop provoking Efrayim."

Sound like brothers? Haha :) Verses 15-16:

"Hashem will dry up the gulf
 of the Egyptian Sea.
He will shake his hand over the Euphrates River
to bring a scorching wind,
dividing it into seven streams
and enabling people to cross dry shod.
There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
who are still left from Ashur,
just as there was for Israel
when he came out from the land of Egypt."

The offspring of Your servant David may You speedily cause to flourish, and enhance his pride through Your salvation, for we hope for Your salvation all day long, and look forward to salvation. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who causes the pride of salvation to flourish.

Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and speedily gather us together from the four corners of the earth to our Land. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who gathers in the dispersed of His people Israel.

Psalm 6

Psalm 6 is the one I read this morning. It starts out with David pleading to Hashem to not rebuke him in His anger, nor to chastise him in His wrath. This makes me think of a parent disciplining their child, and is a reminder to not do so in the heat of their anger. Collect yourself first, then correct your child. For we are much stronger than they, and we don't want to do or say something we might regret later. Punishment and correction is a necessary part of life. Proverbs 19:18 says to "Discipline your son, for there is hope; let your soul not be swayed by his protest." Just as a son is disciplined by his father, so are we disciplined by Hashem.

I love that by the end of the Psalm, David cries "Depart from me, all evildoers, for Hashem has heard my plea, Hashem will accept my prayer." Such hope and confidence in Hashem has he! My prayer is that I will continue to learn to depend on Him the way David did, and continue to strengthen my faith.

Prayer For Finding A Husband

A friend of mine asked a few days ago for me to send her this prayer. I love the way this prayer is put together, focusing on character and not physical attributes. For the character is what's important. Asking for provision of a husband at the right time, as well as for his protection. I think it is a good idea for us all to be praying for our spouses, future or present. Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds a great good, he has won the favor of Hashem." I believe this goes for finding a spouse in general, we could read "She who finds a husband finds a great good…" The woman isn't the great good to be found, it is that relationship, a great good to both partners. 

Prayer For Finding A Husband

May it be Your will, Hashem, my G-d and G-d of my forefathers, that You provide me, in Your great mercy and loving-kindness, my suitable marriage partner at the right time. May he be worthy of fathering a great Torah and G-d-fearing scholar, and be descended from righteous, honest, and G-d-fearing ancestry. Accomplish this as You did by providing a match for Adam, Avraham, Yitzchak, Ya’akov, and Moshe, each one at the appropriate time. May my future husband be good-natured, of pleasant ways and good deeds, gracious, learned, G-d-fearing, charitable, and kind.

May he be devoid of defects and faults, and be humble and modest, rather than hot-tempered and irritable.  May he be healthy and strong. Do not let anyone’s cruelty, hateful intentions, or deeds get in the way of my intended match. May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing before You, Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Counting of the Omer

Last night started the counting of the omer. The omer is the 50 days between Pesach (April 14 this year) and Shavuot (June 4 this year). I like to put a mark on each day on my calendar, something physically tied to the counting. On each day, we say a prayer, count which day of the omer it is, and read Psalm 67.

"Blessed are you, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us concerning the counting of the omer. Today is the ___ day of the Omer, which is ___ weeks and ___ days of the Omer. The Compassionate One, may He return for us the service of the Holy Temple to its place, quickly and in our days. Amen." 

Psalm 67 "May G-d favor us and bless us, may He illuminate His countenance with us. To make known  Your way on earth, among all nations Your salvation. The peoples will acknowledge You, O G-d; the peoples will acknowledge You - all of them. Regimes will be glad and sing for you, because You will judge the peoples fairly and guide with fairness the regimes on earth. The peoples will acknowledge You, O G-d; the peoples will acknowledge You - all of them. The earth will then have yielded its produce; may G-d, our G-d, bless us. May G-d bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear Him."

Chag Sameach, and happy counting!

I'm back!

Wow! It's been over a year since I've posted anything! And even before that I wasn't very consistent. Oops. I'm trying to get back into writing, so hopefully I'll be more consistent in my posting this time. :)

Since my last post, I have dispersed my flock. There were a number of issues going on, mostly parasite issues, and some of them would be cured only by not having the sheep (or any other ruminant, for that matter) in these pastures for a year or more. So last spring I sold all my ewes, and the lambs left in the fall. I'm down to one ram. I can't bring myself to get rid of him yet. I have him in clean pastures, away from all the harmful stuff and he looks really good now.

One of the local 4-H clubs has snagged me as their sheep project leader. This has been a fun journey! For the past few years I've been able to work with the sheep students during the summer, working on showmanship and the fitting of their animals mostly. But this year I'm able to work with the kids through the whole process. I'm really excited to see the growth and development in the students and their animals throughout this season!

I've also graduated from the college with my degree in Early Childhood Education. Someday when I marry and have children, I'll be able to use that to homeschool my own children with a more full knowledge of how to do so, and have some extra resources on hand. By G-d's grace alone was I able to complete that degree only 2 weeks after turning 20! What a crazy ride that was! It was very intense and very difficult, but I learned a lot.

I'm also currently in the process of launching my own sewing business, Graceful Seams. Stop by and check it out! I'm really excited about it! :D

There have been a few changes to the blog. Nothing major, just little things. The background photo has been swapped. It's a photo from my trip to Israel in the fall of 2012, the sunrise at Elon More. I've also added more to the "About Me", and changed my admin name to a nick name a friend of mine gave me a few years ago, and it stuck! You'll see it on most of my photos too.

So, there is a very brief update! Hopefully I'll be posting more consistently this time around! Chag Sameach!

Harvest, 2012

Here are a few pictures of our recent trip to Israel this fall.

 Colorful flowers

 Small and delicate flowers just outside the house we stayed in

 Precious baby. Her eyes really are beautiful

 Cluster of grapes, one of MANY!

 "But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches..." Ezekiel 36:8
It's happening!

 Pomegranates from the Negev

 Dawn at Elon More, where Hashem made the covenant with Avraham to give this land to his descendants

 At Elon More

 Morning Glory in Hevron

 Rose in Hevron

 Grape vines on the Mount of Blessing (Har Bracha)

 Olives! We were able to help bring in lots of olives the last week or two of our trip

 More grape clusters

 Jerusalem. Temple Mount from the mount of olives

 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news." Isaiah 52:7

 Gamla. "The Masada of the north"

 An old catapult at Gamla

 Vineyard in Shiloh

 The Dead Sea

 Flock taking a rest in one of the barns in Itamar

 The flag

 Another grape cluster

'En Gev, overlooking Lake Kinneret, Sea of Galilee

"...and to You it is fitting to give thanks."

I shouldn’t be alive, I should be dead. By all physical means, I shouldn’t be sitting here in Israel writing this. But I am. B’H! By HaShem’s grace, mercy, and love for me am I telling you this story, and to Him be the glory for it all.

Two and a half years ago I went through a pretty rough season. The enemy tried to kill me multiple times, and even after that I had a few additional injuries to deal with. I wish I had written in my journal at that point about what happened, but I didn’t. But I know what happened and when, so I guess I’ll write it down now. Better late than never.


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April 27, 2010 - Mauled at work
I had a little incident at work. At the time, I was working on a dairy milking around 60-70 head of cattle. I loved this job, and would love to go back again.

I was bringing the cows in on a Thursday evening. It was still pretty muddy out, and there were more and more calves every day. I love having new little ones running around, they’re so much fun! One of the calves was walking down the alley in front of me, when he tripped and went nose first into the mud. He was still pretty young and getting the hang of his balance, so I bent down and picked him up, cleaned off his nose, and was letting him walk on when one of the cows (not his mother, mind you) mauled me. She hit me across my knees when I lost my balance and went down. She continued to grind me into the ground with her head, starting at my knees and working up. I was trying to get out from underneath her, but nothing was working. When she got to my waist, she stopped as quickly as she had started, and walked away. Later that week, my boss informed me that that cow had some kind of neurological thing going on that they were treating. Found out then that the cow that had mauled me was the one they were treating...

May 6, 2010 - Wreck with Roxy
I took Roxy out for a ride at about noon. Bareback as usual, and this time it was warm enough to ride barefoot. We walked down the road a ways, and ran through 3 joining hay fields. Roxy loves to run, and she’ll run through these fields and race the cars that are driving on the road. I love it when she does this too, she runs so fast that sometimes it feels like we’re flying. We ran in through the back entrance of the park, and played around on the trails for a little while. It was just like any other ride on any other day, beautiful and peaceful. I decided this time to take Roxy and go say hi really fast to a friend who lives about a mile down the road from the park. She loves it when we come by, and it’s nice to see her once in a while.

As we walked out of the park’s front entrance, I noticed a walker down at the corner of the road to the left of us, and noticed the beautiful pink flowers on the trees at the entrance of the park. We stopped and stood under the tree for a moment to take in the beauty HaShem had created, and then moved on down the road to the right.

We were almost there. I noticed a semi truck heading our way in front of us, and driving pretty fast. “Ok, we’ll be fine. I’m sure he sees us, and Roxy is fine with big vehicles.” Then I looked behind us, and there was another semi truck, also heading our way fast. “Huh, busy day today I guess. We need to get off the road and let them pass.” Neither of the trucks were slowing down. I don’t think either of the drivers saw us. On the left side of the road was a barbed wire fence right up to the road, and on the left was a deep rock ditch. I couldn’t pull Roxy off to the side of the road and wait for the trucks to pass, there was nowhere to go. So we ran down the road until there was a driveway or a yard that we could pull into. I saw the yard, and was thinking that we could just pull off the road, run through the corner of the yard, and into the woods. My friend’s house was just on the other side of the woods, which was actually just a small wooded patch that we play hide and seek in with the little kids.

I remember gently turning her off the road, and all that happened afterword. It all went so fast. She slipped on the asphalt, and we went down. We hit the edge of the road, I remember hearing her hooves slide out from under her and feeling us fall. I yelled “NO!”, though I don’t know if it ever came out my mouth or not. We hit the asphalt and slid a bit, which cut up Roxy’s knees and nose, and my right hand. The initial impact of us hitting the ground slammed my right knee into the ground, which also carried up and adjusted the right side of my pelvis. My horse rolled over me, compressing my now twisted 130-140 pound body under her 1300-1400 pound body, crushing my chest and cracking most of my ribs. By lower back too was twisted and then compressed. Thankfully, she only rolled over me the once, and I came off of her before we both continued rolling. At this point, I blacked out. It’s probably a good thing too. I ended up with a grass stain on my shirt that went over the top of my shoulder close to my neck, and I don’t want to know how that happened. We both continued to roll, and at some point I actually flipped so that my head was facing north, and my horse’s head was facing south, the direction that we were headed. This accident should’ve killed me instantly, or shortly thereafter from all that happened. When I woke up, I was laying about an arm’s length away from a large oak tree. My first thought was a combination between the question of “Am I alive?” and “Roxy”. I rolled over quickly and saw my horse laying there on the ground, on her back, and not moving. I thought she had died. I ran over to her, grabbed her legs and pulled them toward them, and she stood up without missing a beat. She was dazed and confused, and bleeding. Checked for broken bones and more blood, she was fine. Her nose was very tender, so I left it until later. I clamped one of her knees between both of my hands, and her other knee between my shoulder and my cheek. Her knees were so bloody that her blood ran down my cheek. Neither of the semi truck drivers even seemed to notice that we were there, let alone stopping to see if we were ok. I didn’t see either of them after I woke up. The walker that we had seen when we came out of the park saw what happened, said “Hi” as she passed, and told me that it looked like we took a bad spill, but that was all. A few vehicles drove passed as well while I was trying to get us put back together again before heading home. At this point we were close to 4 miles from home, and walking was the only way to get back. I didn’t want to call my Mom from my friend’s house, because of the way Roxy and I looked at that point, I didn’t want to leave that bad picture in the girls’ minds of a girl and her horse all bloody and hurt. So we walked back to the park, and I cleaned the blood off of the both of us, and we continued to walk home.

Thankfully I was bareback. If I had put the saddle on her, the horn would’ve impaled my stomach and there would’ve been a lot of internal damage. I knew that I hurt, but I also knew my horse hurt and I wanted to make sure that she was ok before I worried about how bad of shape I was in.



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The fact that I’m alive today is a miracle. A testimony of HaShem’s grace, mercy, and love. But even though I lived through all these things, there was still a lot of pain and injury in my body. But, only until this trip to Israel.

We have been here in the Mountains of Israel for about 2 months now. About 7 weeks ago, my lungs opened back up. From the accident with my horse and my chest being crushed under Roxy’s weight, my lungs had been compressed and hadn’t opened back up fully. It was hard to run or do much physically, and I couldn’t take a deep breath very well, if at all. The mountains last year were hard on me, because breathing was hard. But this year, HaShem opened my lungs close to the beginning of our trip here!

About 4 weeks later, I was doing my prayers in the vineyards in Shiloh. I stepped backward and something happened to my hip. My pelvis actually separated in the back, and the right side tipped back into place. It has been fine since. It was almost as if HaShem took my body and adjusted it so that it is back to where He created it to be!

A few days later my right shoulder, which has been tight and not wanting to work for me, loosened up. I can now rotate my shoulder without pain! My shoulder being tight before wasn't from an injury that I remember, but it had been tight and unable to rotate for quite a while. It is healed!

I have been so blessed to have been healed while we’ve been here! HaShem is good, and His kindnesses never fail!

“We gratefully thank You, for it is You Who are HaShem, our God and the God of our forefathers for all eternity; our Rock, the Rock of our lives, Shield of our salvation are You from generation to generation. We shall thank You and relate Your praise - for our lives, which are committed to Your power and for our souls that are entrusted to You; for Your miracles that are with us every day; an for Your wonders and favors in every season - evening, morning, and afternoon. The Beneficent One, for Your compassions were never exhausted, and the Compassionate One, for your kindnesses never ended - for we have always put our hope in You. For all these, may Your Name be blessed, exalted, and extolled, our King, continually forever and ever. Everything alive will gratefully acknowledge You, Selah! and praise and bless Your great Name sincerely, forever, for it is good. O God of our salvation and help, Selah! the beneficent God. Blessed are You, HaShem, Your Name is “The Beneficent One” and to You it is fitting to give thanks.”