Hush Little Baby

Papa's already got you a cart and bull and a horse

 

and now he got you a  billy goat!

 

 

 

and a nanny goat

 

 

and a couple spares too!

 

 

 

"Can we go see the goats?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Can we go see the goats?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Can we go see the goats?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Can we go see the goats?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You get the idea.  Yes, we went to see them...several times.

Two were born Wednesday.  Two more were born Friday.

 

One momma has not had hers yet.  I'll bet she has them by morning based on how she looked this afternoon.

 

 

 

In spite of lots of trips to the goat pens, we also managed to spray, stake and mulch the orchard.

We also mulched the new raspberry patch so that our lovely yard boy will not mow them off for a third year in a row....not mentioning any names here of course!

 

 

 

JOHN!!!!!

(I'll mention names here instead.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love you, son!

I'm just happy I don't have to mow anymore.

 

 

 

 

But please leave the raspberries ALONE this year!!

 

 

 

 

Goodnight!

Before and After - Emily Style

Emily's room before the big makeover of 2014...

 

 

 

 

she was eight years old when we moved her to the basement.

 

She wasn't lovin' the eight year old taste in room color anymore.

 

Nor was she loving her little girl desk.

 

 

Welcome to the new teenage design choices...

 

I was very proud of her ability to design on a budget.

 

 

She knows how to save a dime.

Pink bulletin board...now black.

 

 

We painted her old cubbies black and rearranged them. 

 David cut a piece of laminate to make her a larger desktop.

 

 

 

Too small desk problem solved.

 

 

 

Emily took these pictures at the farm.

We printed them and mounted them in old frames I had in the attic.

I think she has a pretty good eye as a photographer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few of her snow globe collection...

 

 

 

 

Well done, Emily!!

 

 

 

 

John is not done with his room yet. 

His tastes far exceed his budget, so things are progressing a bit slower. 

 

 ...and he is in debt to his father for a new computer he was simply going to die if he did not get immediately.

 

You do not want to owe David money....

at least not if you're his son.

 

 

Poor John!

Thursday (because I couldn't think of a better title)

Grant is excited about baseball.

He has been practicing every chance he gets.

 

Dad has been helping him learn the basics.

 

 

Keeping his eyes open while throwing obviously hasn't been covered yet.

 

 

 

 

As I was putting away the cake plate I bought at Lois's sale,

I distinctly heard it saying

it would like to hold some cupcakes for the kids.

 

So I obliged and made some cupcakes.

I think it was happy.

I know the kids were happy when they found cupcakes waiting for them after school.

 

 

 

 

 

In honor of Throwback Thursday, does anyone recognize these girls?

 

 

or these very familiar looking people?

 

Happy Thursday!!

Take THAT, Winter!

I'm loving the blooms and the beautiful green grass the past week.

 

 

I'm sure I love the beautiful green grass way more than my son does.

He is not a fan of push mowing the yard.

 

We prefer to think of it as 'character building'.

He's not buying it.

 

 

 

The ornamental tree in front of the house has put on quite a show this year.

When I see this, I am almost convinced to make spring my favorite season.

 

Almost.

 

 

Not much going on this week.

I have been to the orthodontist eleventy billion times with kids getting wire changes

and fixing things that break the past several days.

 

Grant goes in tomorrow for a repair job on his braces.  They will replace the brackets that popped off his skinny little baby teeth.  While we are there, the orthodontist is going to fix a piece that has already come off of Grace's hardware.  It was just put on Monday and she already has a piece gone.

Either my kids have Teflon on their teeth, or something is seriously wrong with this process.  I can't imagine this should be happening with such regularity!

Good thing I like our orthodontist.  Otherwise I might have to consider changing practices.

 

 

 

I don't have the photo evidence yet, but thought I would share something fun from a couple weeks ago.

John and Emily went to listen to John Luke and Sadie Robertson speak at church on Friday night.

John then went with David to hear Willie and Si Robertson speak later that same evening.  These are the people from the Duck Dynasty reality show.  John was so excited because he also got to meet all of the speakers between the two shows.  I think having his picture taken with Sadie Robertson might go up on the list of top ten things to happen in my fourteen year old son's life.  He was quite taken with Miss Sadie's looks to say the least. 

 

And yes,  there were chants of "John and Sadie sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G" coming from the back seat of the big white bus for a few days after the encounter. 

Thank you, Grace and Grant, for keeping  your brother humble.

 

 

Along the concert/show line of discussion....

David has now forced me against my will to suffer through a George Strait concert AND a Willie Nelson concert.  I mentioned I thought it would be fun to go see one of the big groups from the eighties like Journey in concert. 

 

PRESTO!

 

While reclining in our living room without so much as disturbing the dog sleeping at his feet, my husband used the magic of the internet to procure two tickets to see Journey in concert in Cincinnati this summer.

 

He wants to make it clear he has no desire to see Journey, he is just suffering through the concert to show his appreciation for me going to see Willie and George!

 

Nope.

I'm not buying it.

 

 

I'll still keep the tickets to see Journey though. 

 

 

The Message of Easter

 Easter has come and gone with all of the typical festivities.

 Eggs were colored

LOTS of eggs!

 

 

Grant burned through a dozen eggs in about a dozen minutes.

He never does anything slowly

....ummm, kind of like someone else that lives in this house!

 

Grace took the more deliberate meditative approach to egg coloring.

 

 

Emily got in on the action with a metallic egg coloring kit.

 

 

 

 We attended church services Friday night after everyone got home from school.

If they look a bit frazzled here, it's because they were!  It was a little bit of a rush to get them in and back out the door on time.

 

 

Saturday was spent in Illinois visiting with family and watching the sale of household items belonging to Aunt Lois.  It was hard to see a lifetime of belonging scattered in a few short hours, but I know Lois would have been pleased with the time we spent together catching up on one another's lives. 

 

I brought home this lamp along with a few other treasures.

I am sure seeing this lamp will always bring back the wonderful memories of times spent in Albion and elsewhere with one of the most adventurous women I have had the pleasure to know.

 

 

 

Sunday morning the kids woke up (WAY before we were ready) excited to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.  After emptying goodies from baskets, they headed outside to find the eggs hidden in the yard.

 

 

Checking out the bounty from the hunt

 

 

 

 

We had another impromptu egg hunt when we arrived at the farm later that Sunday morning.

One of the ducks picked a bush in our landscaping near the house to lay her eggs.

 

 

 

One egg fell victim to Remington's curiosity, but there are nine remaining.

Baby ducklings in a few weeks would be the best Easter surprise this year!  Let's hope!

 

 

 

 

 

I just want to mention one more thing.

If you find Emily with a bow in her hair, she would like you to know the reason she is wearing it.

 

 

A junior at their high school by the name of Maddie took her own life last week.

Maddie usually wore a bow in her hair.

In honor of Maddie and to show support for her family, the students at their school have decided to wear bows the rest of the school year.  Some of the young men have even been wearing bow ties.

 

I can't imagine the pain.

Life is fragile.

 

 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

¹³ But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

 

Thankful today for the real meaning of Easter!

It Is Official

Spring is officially here.

 

 

How do I know that?

The sound of music drifting through the air and the sight of kids lined up eager to select their treat from the ice cream man....

 

 

or woman? 

We couldn't decide from a distance.

 

Another sure sign of spring...

well, at least it looked like spring until my lovely pink tulips were covered in SNOW the other morning!!!

 

Spaghetti spider

 

 

 

Stick uncooked spaghetti noodles through a section of hot dog.

Cook.

 

Spend more time being creative than I did here and it makes a cute little spider.

Kinda gross.  I know.

 

That is probably the reason Grant found them so awesome!

 

Yes.  I got some pictures to load.  Yeah!!

 

Goodnight!!

I Know, I Know!!

Yes, I am a total slacker!  I know!


Lots going on, I just can't get time and motivation to work together to blog.  I am still trying to figure out how to us my lovely new Windows 8 computer.  I am not doing so well....especially in the picture department.  Anyone want to give me a lesson on how to download pictures now?



John has accomplished a year long goal in ROTC.  He now is wearing blues for his uniform.  He was elated to finally get to wear them. No pictures to share since I cannot get them to download properly!  Maybe later!!  Emily is still working toward hers.  Her teacher grades differently than John's with regard to how the students earn the privilege of wearing the blues.

Emily has shifted back to thinking she is NOT taking ROTC next year.  The wonderful memories of the military ball must be fading.  That was the one thing that had enticed her to register for a second year of ROTC in the first place.  She has now decided she is tired of the uniform inspections every week and the military ball is not worth the uniform headache.  Perfectly sound logic for a fourteen year old girl I would say.

The school district has recently amended the school calendar.  The students will no longer be required to go until June 13th.  They have backed up the last day of school to June 6th.  Small victories.  I will take what I  can get!

No baby goats yet.  We are expecting them to appear any day now.  David and I are headed to the farm tomorrow to start cleaning out the new house.  I am sure we will take a few minutes to check on things including the goats.  Maybe they will have a few surprises for us!

It snowed here on tax day...probably a half inch on the deck early that morning.   I am so over snow.  That is all I have to say on the matter.

Grant is becoming an avid reader.  He is now reading early chapter books and doing pretty darn well at it.  Yes.  I am a bit biased.

Grace is weaving scarves.  Don't be surprised if you are the recipient of a scarf is you are family.  She is pretty prolific at making them. 

Going to go tonight.  I don't want this to turn in to a novel.  A picture is truly worth a thousand words, but I don't want to type that many and you don't want to read that many either.  I'll keep working on the download issues and see if I can't get some pictures to load soon!!

Goodnight!

Well Imagine That!

I have a new computer.

Actually I have a new brain in my old computer.  I wish someone could do that for me too.  My old brain is not smart enough to use the new computer brain.

And now, back to blogging as usual.

Well, maybe I will start tomorrow.  It's late tonight!

Goodnight!