Our Day--In Pictures!

This afternoon, we discovered this bunch of cuties out taking a stroll discovering the world for the very first time.

That's one momma who has all her ducks in a row!  I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

Is that a handful of cuteness or what?

I spent most of my day off and on, doing this.  Of course I had my "muscles" (a.k.a. "sons") move all the furniture for me!

John Wesley made manicotti for us all for dinner.  That boy's gonna make a fine husband some day!  Of course, he's had a fine example!

While John Wesley was cooking and the other boys and I were doctoring the rug, it was storming outside.  Jared was sitting near his window in his bedroom, playing with his cars.  He started yelling, "Mommy!!  Mommy!!" So, I went to his room and he said, "I just saw a whole tree fall down!"  Indeed he did!  

And thankfully none of my precious people (or any of our menagerie) were in the way when it fell!  'Cause it was evidently a pretty heavy tree.  It made quite a wrinkle in our van! 

Winston and Wilburta are checking out the damage to their digs.  Wilburta's cute pregnant tummy is getting BIG! 

Thankfully, Checkers, Cody's cat was still willing to give me a nuzzle, even though she's been kicked out of the house for bad behavior.  (Thus the Rug Doctor.) 

Farm-y News...

Yesterday, Harold took John Wesley to an ENT appointment while I took MaKenzie to a physical therapy appointment.  After our appointment, I got groceries.  After their appointment, they got a new goat.  She's pretty, but she doesn't have a name yet.  "Spot" is too obvious, and we can't all quite come to an agreement about anything else yet.

The garden is coming along nicely.  Much better than last year already.  Hopefully our heirloom tomatoes will take off and we'll have enough that I can can some.  We'll see...

 The corn's coming up.  We haven't grown corn in YEARS.  I didn't remember how fast it shoots up!

John Wesley did most of the planning and planting this year.  He does his research about what kinds of plants he wants to get and which he wants to grow from seed.  This year he's done a lot of reading about soil composition and what to add to make it just right.  (This was "for pleasure" reading.  Nothing to do with his school work.  I think I might have a farmer on my hands.)

Broccoli coming in. 

I had to take this picture because the fresh green color was too pretty to pass up.

As we walked through the garden this morning, I found myself humming the old hymn, "I come to the garden alone (although I really wasn't alone) while the dew is still on the roses (well, technically, in our garden, it's still on the broccoli and strawberries instead) but you get the point.

We have new ducklings.  They hatched yesterday.  The momma made her nest under a big old woodpile, so it's dark under there, but I lightened the picture a bit and you can just make out the duckling's little face if you look at the point of the arrow.  We're not sure how many there are yet.

In other, unrelated news, something DIED under our house or in our ductwork or in one of our closets or SOMEWHERE in the vicinity of our living room.  It's not pleasant, and we can't find the source.  I guess we'll have to wait until it's done stinking.  I wonder how long that takes?  Will home owner's insurance pay for a hotel room until whatever it is quits smelling up my house?  Maybe we'll move into the camper.

Summer Flowers...

 Flowers

 cut for me by my eldest son

 just because

 he knows they'll make me smile.

Little Lamb...

We woke up this morning to a new lamb.  We've been expecting that our Painted Desert ewe would give birth anytime for the past week or so.  She's been talking to her backside and acting out of sorts.

Today, she's much more herself.  Her new baby is tiny and adorable.  And...she's a girl.  At least so says John Wesley after his initial examination.

Garden Friends and Foes...

Cody and this cute little guy on his hat are definitely garden friends.

I'm not feeling the love for this not-so-little, nearly-transparent, grub-like creature I found in my broccoli, though.

I'm also not feeling so kindly toward these little green worms I found ON my broccoli. 

Clever of them to be EXACTLY the same shade of green as their food, isn't it?

The "Very Hungry Caterpillar" has nothing on my little green friends.  Well, really they're not my friends.  I flicked them off my plants into never-never land.  I'm sure they'll be back.  I'll be waiting.

Look at these itty-bitty bugs that were making lace of my eggplant leaves!  They are so tiny!  The holes they make are bigger than they are!  I'm not pleased with these guys either.

I'm no garden guru.  This is the first time I've ever even considered what might be competing with me for my food.  I think it's all going to come down to who's hungrier--me or them.  I'm fairly certain they might win.  We shall see.  For now I'm gonna do some research about organic pesticides.

Chicks Everywhere!!

Last week, we could hear the tell-tale "cheep-cheeping" coming from the incubator letting us know that we would soon have a gaggle of chicks emerging from their tight little shells into the big, wide world--our first set to hatch for this year.

We got to watch a few break out of their eggs.  It's actually quite hard work.  They're visibly tired when they finally are free of the shell, and not very attractive.

These two hens also had a clutch of eggs they'd been sitting on for a while.  They hatched a few days after our incubated bunch. 

We eventually put them all together out in the shed.  You can see the different breeds here.  We've got Black Copper Marans, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Golden Laced Polish chicks.  We've also got a Muscovy duck hen sitting on a clutch under the wood pile which should hatch before long.

Here's a clutch of Golden Laced Polish eggs waiting for the momma to decide whether she's gonna set or not.

I love our little farm!  Who needs science books when you've got real life science happening all around you every day?  (FYI we DO have and use "real" science books, but real life application is so much more engaging!)

Good News / Bad News...

It's been a good news / bad news couple of days. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're like me and want the bad news first so you can get it behind you (really I know it's just so you can gloat and laugh at me). Anyway, here goes...

Bad News: I came home from town to find my Mother's Day flowers in this condition today. At least they had the decency to leave the roots and dirt alone. Perhaps by the end of summer I may see flowers again. Boo hoo. I hope they were yummy.  (To see the "before" picture of my Mother's Day flowers, scroll to the bottom of my last post.)

Good News: Yesterday, MaKenzie had an appointment and afterwards, Harold took us to eat Chinese. Not that I could taste it or really even smell it, but MaKenzie enjoyed it. Anyway, this was my fortune out of my fortune cookie! I loved it! It couldn't be MORE true!  (Of course if the numbers at the bottom were, "4-8-15-16-23-42" we would have to call it bad news no matter what the words said.)

Thankful...

Having been sick since last Friday, I've spent a lot of time sitting in the recliner, or laying on my bed thinking the thoughts that every mother thinks when she sits idle for more than a minute...

"I really need to be...putting away that stuff...washing that load of clothes...cooking dinner...doing those dishes...or whatever---ANYTHING besides just sitting/laying here doing nothing!" 

But with a fever of around 102, I just didn't feel like it.  So for the most part...I didn't.  And in the "not doing," there were so many blessings that made me thankful.

I'm thankful for a husband that is humble enough to change his plans and to change our kids' diapers and cook a meal (or 5) when "life" happens.  Keeping our crew clean and fed is nothing to sneeze at (I should know, right?)--and he does it well, and more importantly he does it willingly and with a sweet spirit.

I'm thankful for a Momma and Daddy living next door, who will step in to watch a couple (or 8) kids and do LOTS of laundry and drive me to the doctor and and and and......the list goes on!

I'm thankful for kids who will carry on with life and "do the next thing" even without me standing over them "cracking the whip."

I'm thankful for a beautiful daughter named Lena, who helped do a multitude of seemingly little errands a million times a day,  just so I didn't have to get up.

I'm thankful for a son named Jonas, who saw me standing over the sink of dishes and sidled close, putting his hand on my back, and said, "Momma, you want me to finish those for you?"

I'm thankful for a son named William, who made a delicious birthday cake (from scratch, even) for his brother, cause he knew his momma wasn't up to it.

I'm thankful for a son named Cody, who, walking in from outside, came close to my chair and sweetly asked, "How you feeling, Momma?" And I could see the concern in his face.

I'm thankful for a son named John Wesley, who put in my herb garden completely un-asked and supervised the putting-in of most of our veggie garden this past week, while still doing all the rest of his "jobs." 

The word "thankful" doesn't seem adequate to express how full my heart feels when I consider the blessings in my life!  Today the thing I'm so very thankful for is ANTIBIOTICS and that because of them, I'm feeling BETTER!  But I'm not gonna forget that there are blessings to be found in "not doing."  There's a reason the Word tells us to BE STILL and know that He is God. 

Matthew Turns Eight!

 Matthew enjoyed pizza for his birthday dinner.

 And it just so happened that his birthday cards from Aunt Robyn and Uncle Dale...

 and from Mammaw and Pappaw came in the mail TODAY!!!  Yay for the USPS!

 Cute!  I love how he's attending to the cards and seems really to enjoy them!

 Daddy helped him read them all.

 Then Matthew got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa...

 Hmmm...whose present is this anyway????

 Matthew was lovin' the presents and cards!  He was really getting into opening up stuff!!!

 Now for the cake made for him by big brother William!  No candles.  Just a HUGE strawberry which Daddy promptly let him plop into his mouth (the WHOLE thing) after we sang "Happy Birthday."

 Sharing with sister.  Well, really the truth was that he was hoping sister would share with him, but you wouldn't know that if I didn't tell you and it sounds nicer to say he was doing the sharing...

 Enjoying his OWN chunk of birthday cake!

 Begging off John Wesley...as if he hadn't had enough of his OWN cake and ice cream!

 Grandpa and Grandma helping him figure out all the buttons.

 John Wesley and Jared full of cake and ice cream relaxing in the living room.

 Silly sisters.  And a big brother who is reminiscing about "back in the day" when he had a toy like this one...