My Family

 

Spiritual Life:

                       All of our family have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.

(Accept Emiley, as she is four years old and not completely ready.)

We all love and honor our Savior, Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is a big deal. God calls us to follow Him and live our lives like He would. Inside and outside of home and church, we need to act like Jesus would want us to. "Being a real man of God means having God real in the man.” We all attend New Life Bible Baptist Church when the doors are open. In our church, we all have jobs, whether it is helping greet, working in the sound booth, helping clean, filling the pews, playing instruments, or leading the congregational songs. We all love and enjoy coming to church together. Our grandparents are the pastor and his wife, which makes it really fun. We all love serving the Lord with all of our hearts. Jesus Christ is real in our lives, and we love serving Him.

Our Farm:

We are a blessed family of eight. We live on a farm together, helping and growing with each other. We own milking goats, poultry, horses, cows, and LGDs (livestock guardian dogs).We all love the family and the farm. We have orchards and gardens that help supply our food. In 2022, our family planted ~50 fruit trees on our farm. It was a lot of hard work, fun digging, and getting dirty. It will definitely be worth it all when the trees start producing fruit. With our goat milk, we freeze-dry it and make milk shakes, yogurt, and butter. We are also hoping to make cheese very soon. Our two cows are due with their calves in the fall of 2024. We will be making A2 butter and cheese with their milk. With our chickens, we eat and make meals with their eggs. We also freeze-dry the eggs to store them away. We all ride our horses together, whether it’s with my miniature horses with the cart or the bigger horses with a saddle. We all enjoy riding and having fun. Our LGDs live with and protect all of our animals at all times. 

Homeschooling:

Our parents have and are homeschooling all of us; we all use Abeka Academy for our schooling. We have all enjoyed being homeschooled throughout the years. Homeschooling is not just about book learning. We have learned so much about how to, first, live a Christian life. And secondly, how to be able to work, love, teach, care, honor, cherish, homestead, sing, play music, and many more things. As the older kids in the family grow up, we start helping the younger kids with their schooling. As the third-born, I have three siblings below me to help and teach. We older kids also help and teach each other, using our strengths and weaknesses. We are all so thankful that our parents homeschool us. We have missed out on the world’s sins and pleasures. I am so thankful. Please listen to this song, “I’ve Missed Out”, it is exactly what our lives are like, and I hope your life is the same.

Russell’s-https://youtu.be/TpYyHZb5eA0

Clark’s- https://youtu.be/YrZDKQfu5b0

Our Musical Journey:

Our lives have always been filled with music and singing. At very young ages, our mom started teaching us the piano, cello, and violin. At that point in time, my two older siblings were learning the instruments. I wanted to play the instruments, just not practice. If you know music it does not work like that. 😂 A few years later, our piano player at our church moved, and we needed someone to play the piano. My sister and another lady at our church started playing, but they needed more help. So, I started practicing the piano and began playing in church for the offertory and invitation in 2017. I am so thankful for what my mom taught me so I could play. Zachary used our grandpa’s guitar to self-teach himself in 2013. In 2019, Zachary and Timothy received guitars for Christmas. After practicing for a few months, Zachary started playing his guitar for our church singing. A couple years later, Timothy started playing the guitar at our church.

 We all enjoy playing instruments and singing together. We have always loved singing. Our mom has always encouraged us to sing and play music. My dad is not musical at all, but he does enjoy singing, and tries to annoy us sometimes. 😂 

 At church we all enjoy singing and playing special music. Zachary is now the song director at our church. Timothy plays the guitar, Ashley plays the piano, and I play the violin for congregational and special songs at our church.  At home, these are the following instruments we play and practice: 

Ashley plays the violin and piano; Zachary plays the guitar, mandolin, piano, harmonica, and bass. I play the piano and fiddle, and I am also learning the mandolin; Timothy plays the guitar; and he is learning the banjo. Melody and Emily are both learning the piano.  

I am so thankful for the music in our lives.

Conclusion:    

Our parents love, guide, discipline, teach, help, and encourage us. And they are always there for all of us. We all love each other and are there for one another at all times. I am so thankful for my family! 

Until Next Time……

Sincerely,  

Nataly Russell