 about us the story of families   families fathers and mothers illustrating love in everyday situations we are a father and mother committed to illustrating god s love in everyday situations we want his love to guide all aspects of our lives amid piles of paper work stacks of dirty dishes quiet times with our children and lists of calls to be returned our first commitment is to love the lord our god with all our heart soul and might our marriage is a covenant with one another as we focus on the needs of each other we are rewarded with a special love that exceeds all our expectations our children are dear and special gifts from god we desire our home to be peaceful fun and filled with learning daily the lord brings other people into our home our desire is for each to leave encouraged may our business contacts encourage you to love those whom god has placed in your life we offer you these  tools of ministry  to your family as you experience the circumstances in your life  may 2012 in 1984 paul and i were married in lancaster county he a dairy farm boy and i from the northwoods of ontario we worked on the family farm for two years pioneered a house of ministry in the city of thunder bay ontario the next two moving back to pennsylvania in 1988 paul worked as a dairy hired hand in berks county he desired more involvement in his children s lives in 1992 this dream began to take shape in his circumstances we moved to cackleberry farm on new years day 1993 trying to embrace all that it meant to have a home business we desired to call our business by a name which would remind us daily to focus on the relationships of life we started with the word families and with the help of the dictionary wrangled out the acronym that has been the guiding force behind our daily responsibilities in our business social and family life see rightside column for more details over these years our children have come into our lives we have grown deeply fond of each other as we have shared business learning play and chores for over 20 years families has operated an outdoor furniture and playset business from our home through the years we have added features to our business to accommodate our maturing children and their desire to work with in the business we now reupholster furniture barbara is the seamstress paul mans the stapler they enjoy working together as they teach themselves the trade in 2008 we bought denny s lawn furniture an in kind sales lot we enjoy serving the dillsburg area and the customers of denny s lawn furniture in 2010 we assumed the management of becky s shoppe in morgantown pa this location is a showcase only it has been said that advertising s goal is to promote a spirit of discontent this has made us prayerful and careful as we chose the words and pictures we count it a privilege to share this website with you as we put it together we challenged ourselves with the task of giving you the information you need to make wise decisions about the function of the products listed we want you to be successful in the tasks you find at hand with or without these products we present these products as tools of the trade not necessities we trust you will find real help for your family within these pages 