New Location

I've moved!

Come find me now over at Wordpress at johnfollman.wordpress.com. I look forward to seeing you there...

Christmas Play

The kids and I went to a local Christmas play put on at a neighboring church last night. We had a lot of fun sitting on te front row, eating an watching the production. We laughed and were able to reflect on the coming and life of Jesus that we celebrate this time of year. And, mom got to stay back and have some rest time with little Noah!

Homemade Strawberry Jam

My wife and kids worked hard on creating this years strawberry jam today...

Sunday our whole family spent time in the afternoon picking fresh strawberries from a farm in Nancy, KY - Wilson's. What a grand time we had as the owner showed our kids how to pick a ripe strawberry, then let us loose to pick (and eat!)

So today, was jam day.

After a couple trips to the store for sugar, sure-gel, etc., we have two dozen fresh jars of jam, and we enjoyed some angel food cake with freshly crushed strawberry and whipped cream topping...

Shall I go on?? Delicious!

And far better, wonderful family memories!

First Days of Life

Now that we are starting to get settled in a little more, here are a few pics from Kaylie Jean's first days in the world...

What a beautiful blessing from the Lord!

Hiking the Big South Fork

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is go hiking. So, with a beautiful day forecasted tomorrow, I am planning our next adventure!

On a random note, I am mulling a change to the blog... will let you know soon...

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

The kids were having fun visiting with baby sister inside mommy's tummy tonight. They were pushing on Liz's pregnant belly, and Baby was pushing back :)

How beautiful!

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139

Home

This is how our trip back home to Kentucky started this morning. We thought we might be in for another long trip home. While it was a long trip (about 12.5 total hours) the weather wasn't nearly as bad as the way up to New York.

For the first few hours things looked like the pic, or at least with wintry slushy conditions, but once we hit Erie and headed south things started to clear.

It's good to be home.

Praise the Lord for a great trip and great Christmas vacation with family. We loved seeing everyone, and even got to see much of our extended family too this time.

We are so blessed!

Hero, or Zero?

What happens if you are a hero outside your home, but a zero inside of it? What if you are praised by the masses, yet scorned by those closest to you? What good is your reputation if it's only good on the surface?

Some how, men can be celebrated at the office, yet disconnected and indifferent in the home. And I would venture to say most of the time, it's the man's fault.

It's one thing to serve on the job, it's another to serve as a lifestyle. You can put on an act of kindness, engagement and leadership for 8 hours, then detach once you cross the threshold of your home.

The wife and kids look for leadership, appreciation and love, and they get disconnected gazes and half-hearted conversations.

So they look elsewhere.

Who would blame them? How often do you try to drink from an empty well? When do you stop going back because it hurts too much?

I know of this because I am that man.

I am the detached husband, the disconnected Daddy.

I work hard to fulfill the dreams of others, yet leave the dreams of those closest to me unfulfilled. I can feel their longing glances directed my way, but how long will they keep looking? At what point will they look elsewhere? They look to me, and when I need answers the most, when something of substance and love and manhood is most desired,

I come up empty.

Over and over.

I have nothing to give.

I have prayed to the Lord, the Father. The One who loves, is love, and the closer you get, the greater His love. The One who always gives us His full attention, the One who never leaves us empty to look elsewhere.

I need His help.

I see the issue, but something must change. Recognizing a problem is a cheap gift. Change must ensue.

I want my wife and kids to look my way, and not come up empty, anymore.

Duggar Time

One of the most wholesome and uplifting shows out there (and a Follman family personal favorite!), the Duggars! ("19 Kids and Counting" by TLC)

Natural Arch

We took the clan hiking tonight at Natural Arch in McCreary County, KY.

Great views and great family time together!

Surprise!

Now that the cat's out of the bag, I can share more details :)

I recently spent a few days traveling to the west coast of the country. My recent posts included pictures of Arizona, Washington and Oregon. But I purposely tried to not get into too many details, and didn't really explain why I was making the trip.

We've been working for about six weeks to get my father-in-law's mother (my wife's grandmother) out to Kentucky. We had always wanted to get out to Oregon to see my wife's grandmother again, but just weren't sure when that would happen. So we decided to try to bring her to us instead of us going out there.

We weren't sure if Liz's grandmother would go for this, seeing I had only met her once in my life and she's getting up there in years a little bit. But she showed herself to be a young great grandmother when she didn't put up a fight at all, but said yes to going on this little adventure!

My mother-in-law and father-in-law we're making a trip to Kentucky this week, so we thought that would be a great opportunity to bring her out and surprise my father-in-law at the same time.

Well, it all worked together when they came to my brother-in-law's house today (many people have been working hard to keep this a secret and make this happen!) and, get this, my father-in-law's mother from Oregon opened the door for them! What a blast!! He was so surprised and had no idea!

The look on his face, the tears in Grandma's eyes, and the joy in everyone's hearts made it all worth it. Praise the Lord!

Family Garden

Posting from my phone doesn't always go as planned... Just  tilt your head.

Shew....

Life has seemed a little crazy lately.

It's been tough to find time to really sit down and share my heart in a blog post. Moments of reflection help produce my most meaningful posts, at least meaningful to me. Unfortunately, those moments of reflection have been hard to come by lately.

As I work to find a rhythm in posting, it's been fun posting some pics from my life. These posts are generally quicker and shorter, yet they can still be very meaningful.

Take the above. Our family garden.

The picture above represents more than just vegetables, but also our efforts to eat as all-natural as possible, a love for growing, and more importantly, a meaningful outlet for my family and I to spend some valuable time together.

Cultivating a garden AND relationships...

Win.

Meal Time Musing

My oldest child and beautiful young lady Lauren has been making dinner (and dessert!) For the family once a week. She has done a great job as the food has been delicious!

If you haven't seen any pics of the fruit of her labors yet, here is one of her with her prized caramel, chocolate and nut covered apples! Yum!

Surprise Puppy

Well, he's here!

Yes, the family could hardly wait any longer. Rocky, our new puppy, is now part of our family.

We were planning to pick him up Saturday, but Liz an I connived a plan to get him a day early to surprise the kids. So when Dad arrived home from work tonight, he came bearing a great gift!

Hopefully we get bonus points with the kids for that maneuver ;)

Puppy Love

Oh yea. We're ready.

The puppy comes this weekend. Not sure if we can make it that long. Not quite sure if we really know what we are doing either.

:P

The Gardening Adventure

After a few days of garden planning, today I finally was able to begin implementing the master blueprint. You are looking at my careful preparations for this years new and expanded garden!

The kids and I spent a few hours outside planting the cold weather crops as well as some direct seeds. It was a blast! They were such a big help. I slowed down and loosened up (some) this year, which gave the kids more opportunity to dig holes, make markers, carve sticks, and plant veggies and seeds. What a fun time together. The kids have ownership of the garden and with God's help, hopefully our hard work pays off.

I am looking forward to the adventure of gardening with my family, and sharing some of the journey here.

Stay tuned.

Family Fun

We had a blast with the Sugar family over the past few days. Here's one fun pic of some of the kids posing together from our trip to Cumberland Falls.

*sigh*

Yes... very blessed.

S'more

Times with family like this leave you wanting s'more...

Pack

I received one of my birthday presents yesterday - my child carrying backpack.

I was so excited... and hopefully Caleb was too! Can't wait to hit the trails with my family!

Doggy Time?

We'd love to move out to the country in the future. You know, the classic "house, barn, and a few acres" talk. With that, comes the animal talk too.

My wife and I have generally shied away from animals in recent years, but the discussion has opened back up. Specifically, in regards to a family dog. We've even gone so far as to get an encyclopedia of dogs book (we flipped through it as a family tonight), and I was the one who picked it out from the library. (This is a BIG step for Dad!)

So, will we be getting a dog in the near future? Not so sure. But. At least we are talking about it :)