#PrayBig

TWO-RIFIC! Let’s Get the Party Started!

by Karmen |

**THANK YOU to the hundreds of you who participated. Our #PrayBig GIVEAWAY has ended. See more details below about how you can follow and join the #PrayBig movement!

(Winners: Journal-Natasha Berry, Bracelet-Kisha Moore, T-shirt-Payton Hawkins, Metal bar necklace-Tanya Frost, Hat-Alicia Wilbanks)

Guess who’s 2?

When You Pray Big Things Happen is TWO years old!!!

We’re going to chat Thursday night about the #PrayBig movement, what it is, the countless ways the Lord has used YOU to BLOW ME AWAY and how you can be a part!!!

JOIN US –>LIVE Thursday night via Facebook at 8:30 because you don’t want to miss this and tis’ the season for giving so we’re hosting a GIVEAWAY!! (or two or three-YAY!)

There are lots of ways to enter, and we’ll be giving away ALL kinds of #PrayBig goodies for you or your favorite person on your Christmas list!!

Much Love,

Enter below, and scroll to see a list of all the prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Thanksgiving Tradition: To be or not to be a Pilgrim or an Indian?

by Karmen |

It’s the week of Thanksgiving, and though many days feel as if the world is on its head, “in everything give thanks.”

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I remember as a little girl during the season of Thanksgiving taking a notebook and making a list of things I was thankful for until I ran out of things to write down.

Mostly, I have my mother to thank for teaching me to make lists and to see the glass half-full.

In years past while hosting the feast for our rather large extended family and with the hope of stirring an attitude of gratitude we’ve set up a Thankful Tree. If that sounds fancy, it’s not. Our Thankful Tree was an old limb from the yard stuck in a bucket of rocks with strips of paper for guests to write down what they were most thankful for and lastly, clip it to the tree. There’s something special about writing things down.

Other years before the family baby boom where a few kids turned into 20ish we would gather in a large then, larger circle just before the blessing. While in the circle each one who wanted would take turns sharing a word of gratitude or praise.

So, tell me. How about you? What’s one of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions?

I would love to hear more about your Thanksgiving or Christmas family traditions in comments.

If you’ve considered starting a new tradition but aren’t sure where to start might I suggest you check out this BEAUTIFUL, FREE e-book by Sandi Sutton.

TRADITIONS, A Holiday Collective:

Sandi contacted me several weeks ago and asked if I would mind sharing a family tradition in her collective e-book. When I said yes I had no idea what the end product would look like, but I will tell you it is better than SPECTACULAR!

This e-book is beyond stunning, and Sandi’s passion and niche for photography are obvious!

Of course, she had me at, ‘family tradition.”

If you’re new here, it won’t take you long see my love for family and how crazy we are about tradition, particularly a Thanksgiving tradition with our extended family that may or may not have anything or everything to do with dressing like Pilgrims and Indians.

Now, for the sake of this post and not to spoil what’s inside, I won’t say anything more except:

1. I encourage you to download this FREE, BEAUTIFUL E-BOOK, and

2. turn quickly to page 44 just in time for Thanksgiving because

3. it’s not too late to start a new tradition!

Much love and thanks from me to YOU for making this space matter!

P.S. The SHOP #PrayBig page has updates because can you BELIEVE we are approaching the two-year anniversary of #PrayBig. We’re going to talk more about this soon but until then go check out the videos we’ve added HERE!!! (Side note –>currently we are SOLD OUT of mugs and red hats, but we do have a beautiful turquoise #PrayBig hat available LIMITED TIME only)

P.S.S. The Speaker page has been updated 🙂 Click HERE to see if I am speaking near you!

P.S.S. S If you have missed our recent Facebook Lives–GO NOW and FOLLOW @Karmen Smith, Blessings Beyond the Barnyard on Facebook because I love you and want to encourage you and your friends with

Real Stories

Real Life

Real Faith

An Update & Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

by Karmen |

“The distraction. We live in a distracted culture….Multitasking is our new moral imperative.”Yes, and thank you IF: Equip writers for the morning reminder! And yet, I fear (for me but maybe you too?) many of us dabble in many things and are disciplined at nothing.

Where should we begin? Maybe with the trendy hashtag #thestruggleisreal.

The struggle to write. The struggle to keep up or get ahead. The struggle to be content. The struggle to lose weight. The struggle to write. The struggle to focus. The struggle to simplify. Did I mention the struggle to write?

Today is a new day. Thank God for His new mercies that are new every morning! It’s Monday, warm enough to open the doors and listen to the birds so, let’s get caught up.

We’ll start with some of your most recent or frequently asked questions:

“Is your farm for sale?” Yes. If you are looking to buy a 33-acre farm with a pond, two barns and a house that is move-in ready, please feel free to view the farm on Zillow dot come or email for more details.

“Why are you selling?” We have prayerfully considered selling the farm since I left teaching almost five years ago. We have a sign in the yard, and we are we surrendered; to, however, the Lord wants this to play out. We truly are content to go or stay.

Are we leaving the farm for the foreign mission field? No, not right now.

Are we still fostering? Yes. Recently over a 10-day period, we had seven children in and out of our home. The needs are great. Overwhelming at times. I pray as you read this if you sense the Holy Spirit prompting you to get involved that you will be obedient. Everyone can do something. I praise the Lord for the many of you who have come alongside us to love those whom Jesus loves.

Am I still writing a book? Yes. I am going back to She Speaks (writers/speakers conference sponsored by Proverbs 31 Ministries) in July. My hope is to meet with publishers who would be willing to publish our story. We covet your prayers.

What is The Summit and how can you help? It is a 12-month faith-based recovery program for women struggling with life controlling issues. If you or a loved one needs help or wants to volunteer you can learn more by clicking HERE.

In other news~

Ladies, YOU REALLY know how to throw events!! Seriously. What a joy and sheer delight it has been over the last few weeks to come and speak to your conference and ladies groups meetings. I love hearing your hearts and sharing burdens. God has used many of you to answer my prayers. From the bottom of my heart to the top of my curly head THANK YOU for allowing us to come and for sharing #PrayBig with your people!

The boys and the cowboy (who had a birthday this month!) are doing their part to keep things interesting on the farm.

Are you following our family circus on Instagram? If not, come on over and join the party @blessingsbrnyrd. Last week in an Insta-story we shared where one of our cows got her horn hooked on a limb just before a thunderstorm. The debacle involved a chainsaw, the cowboy and ended without bloodshed. And all of the people shouted HALLELUYAH!

Friday we adopted a mustang yearling from the BLM. We named him Nevada because that’s where he came from and I feel confident he will be the new fav in the #adventuresoftuckandjake on Facebook. Today we loaded and said farewell to our nearly 500-pound boar because we are expecting a litter of piglets any day now. A sidenote: our ducks think they are chickens and our turkeys are bullies.

Come follow along! There’s always something new to see.

From here, we could discuss a couple of random conversations I’ve shared with one or both of our boys over the last few weeks on topics such as the short name for a man named Richard and where and when that word is appropriate or not

OR what kind of milk they drank as babies before they drank cows milk and where it came from OR what the middle finger means BECAUSE ADOLESCENT BOY CONVERSATIONS ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART!

Next, at Fort Payne Feed & Garden we are getting cranked up, and are R-E-A-D-Y for spring if we could get Alabama weather to cooperate. We got word last week that the Duck Dynasty crew has named VICTOR dog food “The Official Dog Food of DUCK COMMANDER.”

Did you know we are the only store in our town who carries VICTOR dog food?? Our little fat dog, Shiloh and our customers’ dogs LOVE it! Drop by for a free sample if you’re in our neck of the woods.

Annnnd if you are one of the millions of people who LOVE Chip and Joanna Gaines and their authentic, wholesome HGTV show, Fixer Upper, you may have noticed her obsession with fiddle leaf figs. She stages one in every episode, and we carry them at our store. They are low-maintenance house plants and great if you want to add life to a room.

If you missed our herb class at the store a couple of weeks ago-NO WORRIES, you can take a sneak peek HERE and make a note now that we have another class APRIL 15th! Gardening 101 will be at Fort Payne Feed & Garden @10 in “Karmen’s Korner.” (My newest classroom! It is where we will be hosting a variety of classes and this classroom just-so-happens to be staged with antiques that are for sale!) We are thrilled to have another master gardener coming to present Gardening 101. He will be discussing the different ways to plant and care for your basic garden veggies because you don’t have to have a tractor or 40 acres to grow a garden. Our dear friend Alice, from Alice Circle, will also be there to help you with lettering and labeling your garden goodies. Stay tuned to our FPFG’s Facebook page for more details. Your support of mom and pop shops like ours matters!! When you #shoplocal, you are helping sustain local communities & WE ARE GRATEFUL!

Finally, saving the best news for last. These two little darlings are my youngest nieces.

They have asked Christ to forgive them of sin, confessed Him as Lord and surrendered their lives to Him. Yesterday they followed Christ’s example in believer’s baptism. It was a glorious day to be with family to celebrate new life in Christ.

Until next time dear friends may you, and yours be found more faithful than fearful!

Much love,

P.S. Share in comments a praise in your life or how we can #PrayBig for you

One thing to try if you’re dreading the holidays

by Karmen |

The best way to finish something is to start.

We could start with how many times I’ve started this post in my head, or we could start with the come-apart I had in the car on the day 14 days ago. Thankfully no children were present, and only the passerby in the parking lot saw me ~~screaming~~ talking to myself.

If you’ve seen Summer School when the character, Chainsaw, overwhelmed with stress grabs his head, while taking a test & SCREAMS at the top of his lungs, “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! “Tention breaker. Had to be done.”

Anyone in need of a tension breaker?

Yesterday my oldest son declared, “Tomorrow it will only 27 days until Christmas.” Which is precious and absolutely delightful because it is the most-wonderful-time-of-the-year except that it’s ONLY 27 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!! #forcryingoutloud

October was like two seconds, and now we are two days shy of wrapping November raging full throttle into the holiday season.

Ferris Bueller was right. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Which brings me back to my last post- if you missed the video where I hid on my porch and trapped the cat in the bathroom (who has since been hit by a car and gone on to kitty-cat heaven), you could watch it HERE. The video. Not the cat.

In that post, I shared how we dove head first into foster care and discussed a bit about why I was stepping back from speaking events to tend better to the littles God had placed or allowed to visit our home.

A lot has changed since that post. For the sake of privacy & without going into great detail, I can tell you we savored our months as a family of five but now are back to being a family of four. It’s been eleven days since the little one that left us forever changed had to go. We’ve been cherishing sweet memories, and are re-establishing a new normal.

Just yesterday at church I had someone say, “You’ve walked this road before.” Speaking of years ago & our seasons of grief after we lost our son and then a daughter to preterm labor.

“Yes and no,” was my tearful reply.

Yes, we have experienced loss and sorrow before but none like this.

It’s different.

We, meaning our whole extended family, store family, church family loved hard and fell fast for the little one God sent our way that we were sure would be with us forever until he wasn’t.

Many have said, “Well, this is part of it.” Meaning loving and losing is part of fostering.

To that, yes, it’s very much like standing in the road and then being surprised when you are hit by a car but can anyone ever be ready to be hit by a car?

A recent & frequently asked question,

“Now what?”

WE GIVE THANKS.

Thanksgiving was bittersweet. We dressed as we do on Thanksgiving Day as Pilgrims, Indians and cowboy outlaws.

We hooked the buggy and rode to the feast.

We said the blessing,

ate lots of food, played whiffle ball with family and friends, laughed a lot & then, we cried for the ones who were missing.

“In everything gives thanks” doesn’t happen by accident. When life knocks the breath out of you and our hearts break we have to CHOOSE thanksgiving sometimes even on Thanksgiving.

WE TRUST.

We are trusting God to make it all matter. My nephew told his mother the evening after he heard our news, “Some days are happy. Some days are sad. This day is a sad day.”

Romans 8:28 is one of our go-to verses. We believe God works all things for good for those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purposes. That doesn’t mean all things are good because there are many, many things in this life that are not good but God in His wonder, and amazing grace can use those things too. He can and will use it for our good and His glory.