Fun At Wonder Tree Farm

This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana.  If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE,  HERE,  HERE, and HERE!

Visiting farms is a fun educational way to teach children where their food comes from.  While visiting our kids in Carmel, Indiana last fall, one of the things we did was take the grandchildren to a local farm.  It's pretty funny since my husband and I already live in a farming community and the children could visit a farm anytime when they are visiting us...but we did it anyway!

The farm we visited was Wonder Tree Farm in Zionsville, Indiana.  It is a working farm that is open to the public on Farm Days, and they have an on-farm market where you can purchase some of their products and visit with some of their animals.  

Their market offers locally raised pastured meats, farm fresh eggs, raw dairy, and local honey.

Right when you walk through the barn doors, there are many animals ready to greet you.  They were all pretty friendly too, with the exception of one grumpy old billy goat who can you meet in the video at the end of this post. 😀

Of course, my favorite animals of them all were all the kittens!  My oh my, the barn was filled with the most beautiful, adorable kittens!  I wanted to take them all home with me.

Alethea and Atticus both love kitties too.  Just look at the smile on her face!  

Horses and goats were ready to greet us as we entered the barn.  They did not mind being petted at all and seemed to really like the attention.

Is this not the most adorable photo ever?  It's as if the farmer put the kitty here on purpose just for a great advertisement, but he assured me he did not.  The kitty really picked this spot for a nap.

Did you know chickens love watermelon?  I sure didn't.  The farmer got everyone's attention and told us to watch as he threw a watermelon on the ground.  All the chickens came running over and they ate that watermelon as fast as you could blink your eye!

A modest chicken coup can be seen in the distance.  Looks like the donkeys are enjoying the tall grass too.

Some cute ducks.  I've sure been enjoying seeing the ducks come back this spring, have you?

And this baby goat was my absolute favorite.  He was so cute.  He kept trying so hard to get some food, but the bigger goats, especially the big old mean billy goat, would push him out of the way.  Eventually my husband and I figured out a strategy but you will have to watch the video to find out what that was.

You can buy a cup of feed to feed the animals.  They seemed to really appreciate it.

Before we headed home, I had to stop and check out the kitties one more time.  I was amazed the kittens left the chickens alone.  My Jackson would have had one for lunch. 😂

They sure all loved curling up in the hay to nap!

Finally, I have to sneak a picture in here of Atticus with his grandpa.  He wasn't walking yet and was in the stroller the whole time so he didn't get as many pictures taken as Alethea did.

And now the long-awaited video.  This baby goat is so cute, you don't want to miss it!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

February Bible Journaling Pages

Once a month I like to share my Bible Journaling Pages and what God has been teaching me.  In the month of February I finished the books of Jeremiah and  Lamentations,   Because I have been working on renovating my bathroom, I didn't have a whole lot of time to create my own pages so I basically just read the Bible and colored in the pre-printed images already in the "Inspire Bible" (available on Amazon). 

 

Unless otherwise stated, all the images are colored in with either gel pens or colored pencils.  I tend to color larger areas with pencils then get the more intricate spots with pens.  I high light my Bible with gel highlighters, and I usually use gelatos or  craft paint for my backgrounds

My first page picks up where I left off in Jeremiah in last month's Bible Journaling post.  This page is significant because "lord of heaven's armies' is used 82 times in the book of Jeremiah.  One of the best Bible Studies I have ever taken in my life was on the Names of God:  what they mean and why they are important.  I memorized all the names of God and their meanings and now, years later, whenever I see them pop up in the Bible I always highlight them, for I understand their significance!  Needless to say, I underlined "Lord of Heaven's Armies" a lot in the book of Jeremiah.

"Lord of Heaven's Armies" describes God's might, His authority, His victory, and His purpose for His children.  God is a warrior for His children.  We are not left helpless in this world. He is fighting for us.

Ah, Jeremiah 29:11, one of mine, and perhaps every other Christian's favorite Bible verse.  It is always so reassuring to bring this verse to mind when going through a difficult time. What I found most interesting when reading this chapter was that God told His people this BEFORE they were going to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians.  God knew the horrible things that were about to happen, but He still said he had "plans for good."  I think a lot of people read this verse out of context.  They interpret it as if all they will experience in life is good things.  This verse was given to the people of Israel to help get through difficult times...to give them hope,  and we can use it for ourselves today when we go through hard times.

This is another beautiful promise from God to the Israelites, but also for us today.  Chapter 31 is all about the Hope of Restoration:  when all of Israel will be home again,  and live together in peace and happiness. We will rest from all the problems of this world, and our sorrow will be turned into joy.  I can't wait for that day!

I love this verse.  It is a great reminder of how powerful our God is.  I really love the sentence that comes before it too:  "I am the Lord, the God of all the people's of the world".  He is everyone's God, even if they don't acknowledge Him.

Mercy is one of the Lord's many attributes.  In chapter 39 God has mercy on Ebed-melech and said "Because you trusted me,...I will rescue you and keep you safe".  God has mercy on us, when we come to Him and put our trust in Him to save us.

God's name is great.  In verse 26 of Chapter 44 God Himself says "I have sworn by my GREAT NAME".  We are to call on His great name, worship His name, fear His name, and glorify His name.

Jeremiah was a long book,  as much as I enjoyed it, I was relieved to reach its end and move on to a new book.  Here is the cover page of the book of Lamentations.

Lamentations is a short, but powerful book for it expresses the grief (it laments) over the suffering of the fall of Jerusalem.

What a beautiful verse this is.  God wants us to pour our hearts to Him...to "rise during the night and cry out" to Him,  and to lift our hands to Him in prayer.

God rewards those who depend and search for Him.  

I thought this "sign post" image was the perfect image to end the book of Lamentations.  The Israelites were still in captivity, waiting to be rescued and returned to their homeland.  They were longing to be restored into a right relationship with God once again.  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

Exploring Downtown Carmel

This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana.  If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE,  HERE, and HERE!

One early morning while visiting our children in Carmel, Indiana last fall, our daughter wanted more time to sleep in with the baby.  Well, being the early risers that we are, we decided to take our early rising granddaughter for a morning walk in downtown Carmel and allow our daughter to get more sleep.

At the time, my children lived very close to the Monon Trail.    "The Monon Trail is a rails-to-trails paved path spanning through Central Indiana, connecting to downtown Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The Monon Trail starts in Hamilton County, Indiana at the 96th Street trailhead in Carmel and stretches more than 20 miles north through Westfield and Grand Park to the town of Sheridan." (source) 

It was only a few short city blocks till we reached this gorgeous tree lined trail.

There were so many cute homes with meticulously groomed yards on this trail.  I would love to live in any one of them, though I can't even imagine the price!

Don't you just love all the little white picket fences in front of all these houses?  Which one is your favorite?

Carmel Indiana is an affluent town with a a stunning downtown or "Arts and Design District" as they like to call it.

The Arts & Design District is located in the heart of the old downtown Carmel and is home to art galleries, interior designers, show rooms, specialty shops, and restaurants.

The one thing that impressed me the most about Carmel was their beautiful roundabouts.  This city is known for their roundabouts.  Mention Carmel, and someone will inevitably say "Oh, do they have a lot of roundabouts."  But what I found fascinating was not the large number of roundabouts, but how incredibly beautiful they all were.  Every roundabout was a work of art in itself with a gorgeous fountain or floral display.  I seriously could do an entire post on all the gorgeous roundabouts I saw.

Here is my sweet Alethea standing in front an old home that seemed no bigger than a child's play house.  It is now an art gallery.

The house had the cutest gardens on either side of it.

This little girl statue was on the other side of the garden.  She is the same size as Alethea!  My granddaughter got such a kick out of it!  

They also have gorgeous condos for sale in downtown Carmel, the prices of them are unbelievable!

We found this pretty little courtyard in one of the residential areas.  

Downtown Carmel is filled with life-like statues.  We had so much fun discovering and interacting with them.  Alethea thought it was hysterical and quickly joined in on the fun herself, as you will see in the photos coming up. 

This Talbots shopping lady was one of my favorites!

Hubby got a kick out of the police officer.

Here's a close up of the police officer so you can see how life-like the statures are.  Truly amazing isn't it?

My funny husband came up with more and more ways to take fun photos with the statues.

This garden fairy was another personal favorite of mine.

Alethea started to get so creative herself interacting with the statues.  She just watched her grandpa and how he was acting and she learned really fast.  She just loved it, and giggled, and giggled.

I love the mix of modern with the old in downtown Carmel.  I thought this corner building was so beautiful, and you can really see how tiny the little house is in comparison to this large building.

My son inherited his father's sense of humor and joined in with our game of creating funny statue photos.

The old library turned into a restaurant.

Another one of my personal favorites, Alethea really liked this statue too....oh, oh!

Can't have a downtown without a coffee/chocolate store!

Isn't this the cutest photo ever?

This is a pretty area where shoppers can stop and enjoy a break or a meal outdoors.  Stroll down a little ways and there's a playground for the children (see this post).  

I thought this was the perfect statue of an Arts & Design District.

Gotta love this old time barber shop.

Still having fun with all the statues!

And finally, we found a shop that sold dollhouses and miniatures.  All the stores were closed when we were there, as it was quite early in the morning, but we enjoyed window shopping!

 I hope you enjoyed touring downtown Carmel with me and that you will be able to visit this sweet town yourself sometime.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!