This and That (life on a micro farm)

Here is a pictorial of how a little dude catches a baby chicken:

Got it!

Then the dog caught him.  

Then they made up, as Zeke prepared to eat him.

Then there was this.

Somebody send intervention, please.

And to help your eyes recover from that,

there's this:

That's life on the micro farm, folks!

Spring was Here! {now it's gone}

Spring is so here!  Wait, well it was here, at least over the weekend.  But it's gone now. 

It was sure nice while it lasted.

Here are some photos to prove it.  Lots of fun and new spring life!

This is one of my peach trees.  The pink buds are positively stunning! 

Have a fabulous spring/wintery day, my friends!

My Little Lunch Dates

The Littles and I decided that it was a good day for an impromptu picnic!

 (I hope you are celebrating Crazy Hair Thursday with me!)

What fun lunch dates!

And speaking of dates....tonight is date night with K-Man!

Distracted by Life!

Well hello, you!  I hope you're all dandy and wonderful.  I'm so sorry that my time here seems to be so sparse.  It's not my intention to be so neglectful, I promise!

I've just been a bit distracted recently.  More so than usual, that is.

Partly because I've been sleeping like a newborn baby.  You know, waking up every couple hours at night, cranky and wanting something to eat...then wanting to nap the day away.

Plus, I've been baking up a storm.

And then there's the children's goings-on.  Especially one in particular that keeps me on the edge of sanity.

So perhaps that's why my mother-in-law insisted on coming over tomorrow to help me spring clean!

That, and this:

My goodness.  Help is what I need, for sure.  And medication, and a nanny, and a personal assistant, and....

In other words, if you aren't busy, swing by my house and we'll make a party of it!


I'll put the coffee on.

Stan

Isaiah has been diligently reading his Bible lately.

And he came to breakfast this morning, Bible under his arm, and sat down to eat...and read.

As he was reading, he said,

"Mom, the devil's name is Stan!"

Me,

"What?!!  Stan?  No, Isaiah...it's SATAN."

Hahahaha!

He also asked a million questions about getting baptized, and told me

that he wanted to be baptized too.

I tried to explain, the very best I could, what that means, AND the importance of

first asking Jesus into your heart.

He was all over that idea!

And so, once again, I had the privilege of praying with one of my children to accept Jesus as Savior.

How fabulous is that!

The heavens are rejoicing!

God is going to use this ornery little guy in a very big way, I have no doubt!  

Skillet-Meals (and the circle of life)

Hello.  Hello?  Is anyone still reading this measly blog of mine?

For the two or three of you who are, my deepest apologies for being neglectful.  Life has me by the horns, I'm telling you.  And Brenden was home all week for spring break, and not that he sucked up all of my time or anything, but, I am using him as my excuse for having fallen short of holding up my part of my cyber relationship with you all.  

Having said all that, here I am!  

Besides my photos of B's birthday celebration, I have nary a picture to post of his visit back home. 

Well, except these:

 

You see, Brenden loves to make skillet-type meals.  Potatoes, sausage, eggs, and whatever else he can find in the fridge that he deems skillet-worthy.

And one day, he made something skillet-fabulous, sat down in the living room to eat it, then left it on the coffee table for the children to finish.

And finish it, Isaiah did.  Pitiful?  I'd say so.

It's the circle of life, folks.


And just like that, Brenden went back to college to do his collegy things.

As for me, I'm hunkering down for another crazy week, because life here is never lacking something to do, albeit ever so mundane.


Now, let's go out there and have us a great week, alrighty?

Olympic Hope and Cow Eyeballs

Good Tuesday, my friends!  How the heck are ya?  The ridiculously frigid, single-digit temps continue in my neck of the woods and I'll tell you what, I'm done with it.  DONE.  I can handle cold, but this is stupid.  The only smidgen of good I can possibly think of that will come out of this is that all the ticks and mosquitoes being wiped out, come summer.  But that's a theory that doesn't even seem to pan out, as logical as it sounds.   

Anyway, have you been watching the Olympics?  People, let me tell you this.  I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. Any sport, I will watch it!  And love it.  I'm all like, "USA - USA - USA... Goooooo USA!"  But, my heart just swells with pride for whoever wins, honestly.  They've all worked harder than any of us can imagine and I think that's just so neat.  They are the epitome of discipline and focus!  And my very, VERY favorite part is hearing the back stories of the athletes, the adversities they've endured, the obstacles, their families, all of it, I love it!  

OH, and I absolutely LOVE seeing the parents on the sidelines.  Goodness, I just weep.  How fabulous for them to watch their babies climb to such a place in life!

Do you love all that too?  I hope you do.  Oh, and the commercials.  Goodness!  The "Thank You, Mom" commercials??  Stop it.  It's almost more than my heart can take, my gracious.

And I'll tell you one more thing.  I can easily convince myself that I can do just about any of those sports, as I sit there on my couch in my bathrobe.  They make it look so effortless and easy.  Man, they're good.

But around here, here's what's been happening:

Lucy and Isaiah rediscovered their doctor kits and gave me a full exam (but apparently they didn't have a pregnancy test in there, to save myself $4.  Don't worry, I didn't mention it to them, this time.)   

Lucy was the doctor.

 And she appointed Isaiah to be her nurse.

(I love that!)

Lucy insists, however, that she is going to be a dentist and a farmer.  Goodness, that will come in handy! Because I'm pretty sure that dentists can get their hands on some good Botox.  You know, for those who need that sort of thing.

This most recent round of medical interest was I'm sure prompted by what's going on in Lucy's homeschool science class:

Yesterday they dissected a cow eyeball!  And even though Lucy was quite proud of the fact that SHE didn't throw up like one of the boys in her class did, I think we can easily conclude by this picture that she wasn't all-in on this, being that she's not the one wearing the gloves.  But she was still fascinated.  Almost as much as she was last week when they dissected a snake and found a bird in its belly!

Blah!  And that's reason #458 that I'm so thankful for the wonderful homeschool classes they go to!  I can't handle dissecting anything that was once breathing.

So anyway, my apologies if you were eating breakfast while reading this.  But lucky for you, that's the only picture I have. And so that concludes this riveting post.


I hope your day is filled with Olympic hope and low on cow eyeballs!

Love ya!

When Kids Pack Lunches {Isaiah-Style}

Because I am a progressive mom (and by that I mean, I am slowly progressing to being a moderately reasonably smart mother-figure to the little,  mid-size, and big people around me), I make the kiddos contribute to making their lunches for school.

But, of course, I have to oversee the littlest two...because, otherwise, they'll end up with a lunch like this:

When I gave Isaiah's lunchbox a quick glance yesterday morning, I noticed he had only packed two little rounds of pepperoni and chocolate pudding.  But God bless him for remembering a spoon!

So I made him rethink his packed mid-day meal...and he came up with this:

He added to his pepperoni, half a tortilla, cheddar cheese cubes, and cheese puffs.  All in one sandwich bag, no less, because it saved on baggies (his words), so why not?  So thrifty, this one!  Though he did report to me at the end of the day that his cheese puffs were less than delicious and crispy, as we all could have predicted, except him.  That's an important life-lesson right there.


And not only was he not on his lunch-game, he has his shirt on backwards.

And he could not have cared less.  Nope, he wore it backwards all the day long, without a care in the world.

May we all be more like Isaiah!  Carefree, whimsical, and packing our entire lunch into one sandwich bag, just because!  Even if it means sacrificing our cheese puffs.


Have a blessed and Isaiah-like Thursday, my thrifty/cheesy friends!

Cheap Entertainment

I have found that it's usually easier to not ask questions...but to just grab my camera.

We cleaned out a closet...and Isaiah found all new props.

Cheap entertainment via productivity!  SCORE.





Have a blessed Sunday, friends!  

And clean out a closet or two.  It's like Christmas all over again!

Chickens and Isaiah's (Chicken) Muscles

Friends, I kid you not when I tell you that this new year and all my resolutions are killing me, positively killing me.  All the exercising, organizing, making lists of lists, and whatnot...it's turning me into a grumpier old shrew, I tell you. And so it's no mystery to me why people ditch these wild ideas by mid January.

But I press on, for now.

As most of you know all too well, it's been snappy cold these last few days.  Goodness gracious.  But surprisingly, my chickens are taking it all in stride and have been unusually productive with egg-laying.  I highly suspect, however, that they've heard the rumors of a new crew of chicks coming this spring...so they're on their best behavior.  (My plan is working out perfectly!)

And on that note, the chick catalogs are starting to arrive, which means spring is almost here, right?

And speaking of chickens, Isaiah is on a new kick of asking me if I want to feel his muscles, then whips off his shirt with bursting manly-man pride.

He's a stud.


Well, I need to get my chicken dinner on the table.  Have a great Wednesday evening, folks!