Buckets, Bubbles and Bucks..

I know these pictures are horrible, but they are the only ones I have of Elijah's elusive smile. Aren't they cuuUUte?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bubbles are the greatest. The problem is, everyone wants to blow them and everyone who takes the bottle outside spills them. Every time. Its a murphy's law thing. When Micah came to me yesterday asking is he could blow bubbles, I kindly told him no, he would have to wait for his sister to help him. After a couple minutes, my conscience told me a good mamma would let their child blow bubbles at the expense of the bubble liquid being spilled. And spill they did. The dog did it. I know there are a gazillion recipes online for bubble liquid so I found one, made a bunch up and we are going to keep lotsa bubbles around for unrestrained blowing fun. Micah liked the idea.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So, I'm out cleaning my dog kennels and I hear a faint "Mooooooom!........... MoooOOOooom!" I ignore it at first, the good mom I am, until I hear it again(never tell the kids I did this, they get in trouble for the same thing!). This time with a little more urgency. I start walking around the yard and hear it is coming from the chicken pen. By then the other children have come to the rescue. Daniel is feeding the rabbits.

We look in the chicken pen to see Daniel sitting in a bucket. Only my Daniel. He said he put the bucket down, was backing up and fell in the bucket. Completely stuck.

What a nut. He was quite embarrassed about this. I asked his permission before posting, he read it, I made a change and he is laughing about it now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Mamma! I washed daddy's truck and he gave me two bucks!"

The Things You Find...

When you aren't looking for them...

When rummaging through the freezer, something caught my eye in the ice cube tray.

There, frozen in the ice, was a plastic horse. Who would do such a fiendish deed?

Daniel. And why? I am going to ask him and see what he says.

Introducing - Wordless Wednesday

Jensen

I know a lot of you know the Andersons, Jeff and Julie, and their little 4yr old Jensen. My mother said Janet Beld(Julies mother) just called and said Jensen is now paralyzed from the neck down from the spinal tumor. Yesterday it was the waist down, today the neck. They were able to share some happier moments with him last night. I would think now that the paralysis has set in he is pain free? This is just terrible for Jeff and Julie and the family to watch their little one going through. I sit here in tears thinking of Micah being in that state and going through all they have gone through in the last few months. They are making some very tough decisions today, please pray them through. The Lord has been faithful to uphold them and Janet said both Jeff and Julie are truly being held up by Him and trusting on His every Word. This all just happened so quickly. We do not know the Lords plans or thoughts, but we rejoice knowing all these things are what is best for us. How blessed it is to rest in the hands of a loving God knowing He has gone before us and laid all things out.

Adorable Pictures!

Alright, you have to take a side journey over the The Bakers Dozen and check out a small handful of the bajillion photos Renee took yesterday.

The Bakers Dozen

Today was a great day. It started out with Renee coming over and taking pictures of the absolute cutest baby...mine. Well, I think so. She is building a portfolio and on her way to becoming professional and has some of the most aDORable pics of babies on her blog. She was so patient as Elijah wasn't as cooperative as I'd hoped and she spent at least an hour and half rocking, posing, rocking and so on. I was asked to keep the room about 90 degrees so we could get some naked baby pic's, well, I think it may have been around 110 degrees instead. Woodstoves are so hard to regulate. Her 13 children and my 6 made for a yardful of children!




Secondly, I got a shower today. Usually showers lately are stolen late at night, but this time I got a *day* shower. Funny how petty things can make you giddy when you have a young baby.


Thirdly, I FINALLY got to go to The Porch. The Porch is an underground weekly meeting of knitting enthusiasts...o.k. rather just friends meeting to craft their hearts away. I have envied these ladies meeting for quite some time, and today my husband asked to take off early from work just so I could go, how sweet is that? I would have taken pictures but then, if I showed you, you know what I'd have to do....

Dinner tonight is Cashew Chicken Stirfry....mmmm one of our faves.

SO...I saw a friend, Hilary's, foster child wearing the most adorable soft baby shoes and I emailed her to ask her what they were. They are some new-fangled shoe called Robeez(sp?) I had never heard of them. So today when Renee came over, she brought 2 pairs from Hilary. One she scored at a consignment store and the other(pictured) she MADE. Yes, she made. I'm impressed and Elijah is up-with-it.

I got flowers today from a happy young boy...how do I know he's happy?

Because a face smeared with dirt means a happy boy...

On the home front, hubby came home with 7 lovely blueberry plants from Craigslist last night. They are on the right and I dug, reclaimed and replanted raspberry plants I lost to the tall grass last year. Let's hope that doesn't happen this year.

Our first set of meat birds, toasty and warm in the brooder.

Spring means endless bouquets of dandelions displayed on the dining room table. . I really think florists should sell bouquets of dandelions. I bet a lot of mothers who's children are no longer at home would buy them for the sake of nostalgia.

Resurrection Day Revelations

I found my other SD card with pics I have been wanting to post. So here goes...

First off, I know this is a long shot, but we would really like to find more of these 2 quart jars for storing/serving our goats milk. I have plenty of quarts, but these handy 2 quarts are fantastic. They are few and hard to find, so why not blog it right? Desperately looking for more, I'd be glad to buy them off your hands.

The binky says it all.



Emma brought the eggs in the other day and showed us all this monster egg, it was HUGE. Only a double yolker. I thought it was a triple, but not. About ten years ago, we had a quad yolker, it was impressive in size and the hen that laid it consistently laid double yolkers daily. Now that was a productive hen!

My litter growing ever so quickly! They are mooses!

My sweet Penelope. She only loves me for my grain.

My new goat barn! Paul's shop is starting to look like Noah's ark, a big long box. My barn will have a milking parlor in the end stall and three goat(or other) stalls. There is a large hay mow up top that the children are sooo anticipating sleeping in this summer. Living a farmers life on a very small scale.

Hurricane Grace. All curls, always smiling and a handful of trouble.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Happy Resurrection Day!!

I love the Good Friday service, of which Daddy taught at home this year, and the songs, oh, the joyous hymns! All the good old hymns we have been rejoicing to since I can remember. And the church service in which as soon as you walk in the door, you see the joy the savior has given us written on every ones faces. It is the happiest day of the year.

We made our resurrection cookies Saturday night.

Then after a fill Sunday and naps the kids sprang up knowing their egg hunt was up next. Daddy hid 54 eggs and told everyone they could find 9. Micah and Gracie were the first to hunt, then Daniel and Emma, lastly Jessie and Jacob.

Gracie made a hunt for Elijah, he still couldn't find them though.

MMMmmmm...candy.


MMmmmm...chocolate bunnies.



MMmmmm...chocolate high chair, light switch plate, wall, window and 20 month old.

Right before we ate our dinner tonight Daddy asked the children if they knew why we call Resurrection Day just that and not Easter. It led to quite a conversation and well, a study. Daddy looked into the subject of Easter and all the imagery involved, eggs, the name Easter, bunnies, etc. Well, after a lengthy discussion guess what? This is our last year celebrating with eggs, bunnies and hunts.

Now, this wasn't Paul's or my decision, it was the children's as a whole so before you throw eggs(pardon the pun) it was a 8 to 0 vote. From now on we will NOT celebrate Resurrection Day(really weekend) with eggs, bunnies, hunts and the like. We are going to KEEP resurrection cookies, candy, and maybe chocolate something other than bunnies. Jesus will always be the center. We will BEGIN celebrating with new fun games, Jessica suggested a scavenger hunt each year.

So our little study turned our family in a whole new direction this year. Wow. One article Paul read at the table that really changed the children's hearts was here . I have to admit I have always known Easter was pagan, but never wanted to look into it. I am glad my husband turned our hearts in that direction tonight and we look forward to creative celebration starting next year! I love how the Lord works in our lives and the lives of our children, tonight was a wonderful evening that we will always remember.

Alive and well...

Life outside the house? What's that? Oh...those first six weeks. I love'em...now. I feel overwhelmed with *life* at times, I so sympathize with my milk goat and the outdoors never looked so appealing...but I have this little creature the Lord so wonderfully blessed me with that needs me in the house. One thing that comes with having many children is you learn to savor those all-to-quickly-forgotten sleepless nights and the hours spent nursing. Elijah snuggles so sweetly and nursing is going so well I am relishing every moment with my ever changing little one. I swear, every morning he looks different and I have learned not to let these first weeks get the best of me, but rather enjoy them. I need to post more pictures.




His bump is staying the same, but everyone other than me says it is going down. I don't see it. Emma and Daniel have really stepped in. Every time the baby cries one of the two pick him up and rock him. Daniel especially, he is so good with Elijah, I never would have guessed.

Sorry again about the quiet blog, we have been so busy around here! We counted and have 62 animals right now with 60 chicks and a litter of puppies due in in the next couple weeks. Gotta love it.