Today Was One Of Those Days...

Today was one of those days. 

One of those oh-so-good days...the kind with the cerulean skies,

wind blowing in the autumn weather

and trees just beginning to give you a peek at their new wardrobes. 

Today was one of those days good for cloud gazing.

A day good for snuggling bunnies.

A day good for giggling at funny chickens.

A day good for nuzzling with new puppies.

A day good for wondering what lives in that hole?

A day good for admiring gorgeous mums of my Mom's.

A day good for watching a little girl take joy in working alongside her family.

A day good for standing toe to toe and living and working side by side with the ones I love most.

Yep, today was one of those days--

the days I like best!

Who Makes Decisions For Children?

The following video will break your heart.  But, you know--sometimes our hearts NEED to be broken so something can change--so we can BE the change that needs to happen.

Watch it all the way to the end.  Read the captioning at the end. 



Okay, so I would obviously agree that they needed to have the medical intervention, the nutritional help, and even the physical therapy.  What breaks my heart is the way it seems to happen.  We (Christians, missionaries, aid societies, foster care systems, etc) come in and make such DRASTIC changes and think we did a good thing.  And I can't argue that a measure of good HAS been done!  It has. 

But, what about 8 year old Jane, the mother-child?  You just take her siblings from her (who were her whole life and she theirs) and expect her to act like any regular child?  NO, that won't happen.  And the two little ones.  You take their lifeline from them and think they will just thrive because we have ridden in our our great white steeds to save the day?  You know, we might make them healthier, and we even might save their lives.  But at what cost?  Breaking up a family to bring a measure of good doesn't have to be the way it happens.

Jane needed to stay with her brother and sister.  They needed to stay with her.  Of course they needed help--they needed OUT of that desperately sad situation if they were to survive--no question.  But why couldn't that connection be preserved for them?  Why do we do this?  Even in our own country, in our foster care system, folks are all about putting the "handicapped" child in an institution or in a medical facility or a family who "deals with children like this", and putting the typical, healthy siblings in a different family, as if since there was a handicap involved, there was no emotional connection on the part of either child.  My Jared, Lena and Jonas are a perfect example of this phenomenon.  We had to fight tooth and nail for a year to be able to keep Jonas and Lena with Jared.  The state wanted to separate them.

I. JUST. DON'T. GET. IT.  Children--handicapped children, too--DO MAKE CONNECTIONS and have very deep and important relationships.  They deserve to have their connections preserved.  Help them, of course, but one of the best ways to help is to keep them connected to the people they care about and love WHILE you help them.

Okay, you may return to your regularly scheduled internet surfing now, and I'll step down from my soapbox--until next time something irks me, anyway. :)

They Call Me Wrangler...and I'm One Tough Customer...or not so much...

See these goats???  They are in JAIL!  Last night around 7:00 they decided that they would do this to the fence...

They pushed it down and climbed right over.  See, I believe they knew that Harold, John Wesley, Cody, and Jonas are all gone.  They knew that it was just me, William, Lena, MaKenzie, Jared, and Matthew here at home and they knew it would be hard for me to be out with them when I needed to be inside watching the littles.  But I couldn't just let them stay out roaming freely, so I put Matthew in his bed, and sat MaKenzie and Jared on the couch with a movie to watch and told Lena to come out and get me if there was ANY problem, and out I went to wrangle the goats with William.

Goats don't really do things in an orderly or organized way.  They just kind of follow their noses to the nearest edible (or even INEDIBLE) item or plant.  So they were going in 5 completely different directions and that wouldn't be a problem except that Mom & Dad have flowers and actually try to make their place pretty with plants and things.  Things that goats like to eat.  So, while William followed the goats around, making sure they didn't eat Grandma & Grandpa's plants and flowers, I tried to patch the fence. 

We put the goats back in the fence, and within about 14 & a 1/2  seconds, they were back out.  A fence fixer I evidently am not--now be truthful, does that surprise ANYONE????  So we called Harold and told him he had to come home.  On the phone, he talked me through several options (that didn't involve him driving 6 hours and arriving back at AJ at 3:00 in the morning) and we finally lit on one that worked--or at least has worked so far.   We decided we could use our extra gate to keep them locked in the shed until he got home and could come up with a better idea.  --Like electric fencing, perhaps--set on the highest possible setting!?

Thankfully, Dad and our neighbor arrived home from church around 9:00 and helped us figure out the ratchet straps that William and I had managed to get in a bit of a twist.  I had never needed to care about how ratchet straps worked before, but maybe I should learn.  I never claimed to be a farm girl.  A wanna-be is all I am. 

In other homestead news, here's a cute picture of one of Anna's puppies.  She's a good momma, stays with her pups nearly all the time and is generous with the kids (you know, the human ones), patiently letting them pet, poke & prod on her and the pups. 

Harold will be home tonight. And I can go back to just being Mom, instead of Farm Manager and Fence Fixer, titles I'll gladly hand over. I like "Mom" just fine.

Seven more additions to Hope Valley Farm...

Yesterday, it became increasingly clear to us that Anna was nesting. She came to the door a few times yesterday morning covered in dirt. When we followed her , we found that she had dug herself a little place under Mom & Dad's shed so that she could welcome her puppies. According to the websites we looked at, that was a pretty sure indicator that she was going to be whelping soon. So we kept a watch on her throughout the day, but nothing happened. Of course, if you were Anna, and had 10 people looking at you and asking you "When are you going to have your puppies?", wouldn't you wait for peace & quiet too???? So she did.

Harold, William & Cody went out around 7:00 this morning to check on her and they brought back the news that there were SEVEN puppies and one tired, but healthy and happy momma. I love her expressions in the pictures. The one right above this paragraph is saying, "Boy, that was hard work & I could sure use a nap!" The next one makes me think she's saying, "Yeah, a nap sounds good, but what am I gonna do with all them?" I know the feeling, Anna!

So, anyone want a puppy?

How to Entertain the Underwoods AND the Smiths...

See, we are all being entertained!  Yep, by goats.  They really are fun to watch. 

This is actually the end of the evening after a very long day.  We have been wanting goats for quite a while, but didn't feel like we could invest the money for all the fencing materials we would need PLUS the price of good dairy goats.  We've been looking at Nubians and the milking mommas go for anywhere from $150.00 to $400.00 each, depending on the breeder and the stock they come from.  Fencing would've been upwards of $500.00.  Obviously food and clothing are more of a priority, so we've been waiting for the right situation to present itself regarding the goats.

We found a listing on Craigslist for 5 goats.  4 nubians:  2 adult female, 1 juvenile female, 1 adult male, and 1 Boer wether.  The price boiled down to just around $40.00 each.  A bargain in the milk goat world!  The owners made us a great deal on the fencing materials as well--just a fraction of the cost we would've spent new.  The catch?  We had to come & remove it all ourselves. 

So, Harold, John Wesley, Cody, William, Jonas, Lena, and I set off early that morning to their house to pull all the posts out of the ground and roll up all the fencing wire.  Around 11:00, we had it loaded up and headed for home where we set up a temporary small-ish fenced in area for them.  This took a while.   

With just a couple hours of daylight left, we headed back to the goat-owners place to pick up the new "kids".  A little grain jiggled in the feed dish had them hopping right in!  Charlie, Stripe, Flip, Lily, and Gizmo became official members of Hope Valley Farm.

Here is MaKenzie meeting Charlie, the Boer wether, soon after arriving home.

This all happened on MaKenzie's birthday, so we joke that she got goats for her birthday.  I wanted to have a party for Lena and MaKenzie together since Lena's birthday would be the next day, however Mom & Dad were going to be leaving the next morning.  Since she was home with MaKenzie, Jared, and Matthew while we were out galivanting with the goats, she made the girls a birthday cake.  Chocolate, as MaKenzie requested.  Yum, it was good!

And here are the beautiful, if a bit mussed, birthday girls.  It is almost unbelievable to me that MaKenzie is 7 and Lena is 8!  How they are growing!

We sang Happy Birthday, and started serving the cake and ice cream when we noticed someone was missing.  Can you guess who?

CODY was missing!  I bet you can guess where he was...  WITH THE GOATS, of course!  That's my animal lover, Cody!  A long day, but productive and fun.  Lots of work, but many hands make light work.  It's fun to spend our days together working and playing.  I'm so thankful for all the individual personalities that make up our family.  It always amazes me how God put together so many very different people in our family, and it WORKS (well...you know, most of the time :) ).  Our differences complement each other and our similarities bind us together.  God is so smart!

How To Entertain The Underwoods...

We are evidently an easily entertained group. All we need is a new chicken coop and a few new chickens! Here, one had escaped and we were watching to make sure it would go back in before being Anna's, Brownie's or Domino's snack. Anna is expecting puppies in just a little under two weeks. William is definitely an excited expectant puppy owner--counting the days until they get here.

This is a horrible quality picture, but I think you can see what I want you to see. This is another bit of our boys' (and evidently mine, right?) current entertainment. They have an aquarium set up in their bedroom where they are keeping grasshoppers to feed to the chickens. They spend a few minutes each day catching grasshoppers to add to the collection. It's fun to see them shed their exoskeletons.

Cody decided to get a "chicken's eye" view of the new chicken digs. These are Black Japanese chickens (rooster, cockerels, pullets, and chicks) that John Wesley bought to resell. He got a fairly good price on them at the stockyards and is hoping to recoup his money plus more and invest in some more animals.

This week promises to be much more "normal" (whatever that means). We only have one day of appointments--on Wednesday in Cincinnati. Jared and MaKenzie have Occupation Therapy evaluations. The therapists there are finishing up a home program for us to work on with them.

Chickens and Rabbits and Braces, Oh MY!

Jared is doing great with his new S/W/A/S/H (S-itting, W-alking, a-nd S-tanding, H-ip) brace! The doctor wanted him to TRY to get 8 hours per day in it. He easily wears it without complaining for 18 hours or more each day! He had to get it because his hips are coming out of socket due to the extreme tightness of his muscles in his legs and hips. One hip is 30% out and the other is 60% out. We are praying that this brace will help us avoid or at least put off having to have hip surgery for him. Thankfully he seems to actually LIKE it, which makes sense since it keeps his hips properly aligned. It doesn't limit his mobility as much as we feared, so that's a definite plus!

Allow me to introduce you to John (left) and Erma (right). They are John Wesley's "golden-laced Polish" chickens. I think the rooster is gorgeous! He even cock-a-doodle-doo's for us! Love it! And Erma graces us with an egg or two when she's in the mood. Yum!

Here is Victoria, the rabbit. She's our third rabbit--the third inhabitant of the rabbit hutch that John Wesley built for Lena. The other rabbits were Lena's and they met their untimely deaths thanks to our dogs who seem to have a taste for rabbit! This one is Cody's and has lasted the longest, so we are hoping for the best. I'd like to have a male to name Victor! Then we'd have Victor & Victoria! :)

Behold the chicken digs, built by John Wesley also! Notice the gorgeous models who are helping to demonstrate! (Just like The Price Is Right!)

Chocolate and Vanilla are black and white Silkies and are the newest additions to the chicken house. They are also John Wesley's. He has become quite the authority on chickens of late. I love to watch him when he's interested in something. He reads and researches and obsesses and Googles until he knows enough and then I get to be the recipient of the million obscure facts he has learned about whatever it is.

This has been another crazy week! Monday, of course, was Labor Day, so we got to spend the day in our favorite way--TOGETHER--I think we watched 2 new episodes of the Walton's on that day. I don't know what we'll do when we are finished with all the seasons--it will be a sad day for the Underwood family! Tuesday, I sadly had to send Harold off to work. I took the biggers to our home school group where they have public speaking and Kentucky history class while I do story and play time with the smaller ones. Mom & Dad kept the littles AND made supper for us. Wednesday I took John Wesley, Cody, and MaKenzie to Lexington. John Wesley and Cody had orthodontist appointments, while MaKenzie had a pre-op appointment with the ENT and anesthesiologists at UK. William went to work with Harold, and Mom & Dad kept Lena, Jonas, Jared, and Matthew. Today Harold took Matthew to Cincinnati for a neurology appointment. William, Cody, and Jonas rode along because Harold is also picking up a chicken coop. (Yay! We can get more chickens and now I can get the kind that really lay eggs!!! Erma is just a little too conservative with hers--her one or two eggs every few days don't quite feed this family of 10.) Tomorrow is FRIDAY!!! I will take William, Lena, and Matthew to Pikeville for an appointment with the allergist for William. Harold will take the rest of the crew to Natural Bridge for a shin-dig his volunteer program is having.

Thank goodness for portable school work! The kids have gotten good at schooling on the go or at the grandparent's, phoning me if they have questions! Next week, when I can be home most of the week, our school days will be a bit more leisurely. I love the quiet structure of our regular routine days when they are all busy, absorbed in their studies or chores and I'm busy about my house work and answering the steady stream of questions about whatever they are working on at the moment. That is definitely the life!

Well, speaking of house work, I think I hear some laundry calling my name!