Hey everyone....

It's been super busy around here lately...tax time, soccer games, practices, piano, farm stuff, finishing out the steer calf to ready next week for the butchers, clothes shopping for Tall Girl as she has no decent shorts to wear, cleaning and redoing Jacob's room-plus restacking his beds to make bunkbeds, doc appointments, trying to keep Sophie from jumping the 5 foot fence...which she does regularly now, but has yet to figure out how to get her goofy self back over, LOL...school, church, training the pony and it's child rider, and generally going non stop, LOL!

I am planning a trip to Florida to visit my mom and siblings. One of my brothers is getting married soon and so wedding shopping is on the agenda. Mom wants to go to Sea World too! This is a birthday trip for me...it will be nice for me to get away for a little while and relax without the kids and hubby needing my attention...it's very overdue...my mom lives right off the beach. I love laying on the beach...listening to the waves and it's not summer yet, so the beach won't be crowded (atleast until the weekend).

I'll be heading back down in September for another visit for the wedding-with the kids this time though. Steve has shutdown at the plant so he won't be able to go. He's not as into traveling as we are though so it doesn't bother him too bad, lol.

Unfortunately his niece is getting married in October and he won't be able to attend that one either. They'll still be in shutdown mode at the plant...

That is what has been going on in a nutshell. Oh, my boys soccer team is still winning. These kids rock. I hear other coaches...they hollar at their kids, needing to tell them what to do and where to be...I got lucky. I think I've trained the kids to actually think on the field and not need me. I say things here and there reminding them to remember what we practice, or to give a "great job guys", but other than that, they just play...and they do it pretty well!

It's beginning to feel a lot like...well...winter at least!

It's actually been getting quite cold here. Low 30's at night is pretty darn good for this place. Though it was pretty warm again yesterday...I think it got up around the low-mid 70's.

I've got a chore on my hands today. Starting the kids up full force in school work...they had a lax week last week and rather enjoyed it a little too much, LOL. We did do some really neat science experiments with radish seeds. It will be a continuing occurance through the rest of the month.

Tall Girl has been really handling Napoleon well. I actually switched her to the regular hackamore...poor girl was just having to work too hard riding him in a plain halter. She is really wanting to take him out in the pasture to ride...but not yet. I need to ride him out there to see how he reacts. She's also been learning to hop on him bareback from the ground. That's funny to watch! But she did it yesterday with very little help from me. I'm sure she'll get it. She's a determined girl.

Christmas gifting is almost done. I need to start wrapping gifts. I hope everyone likes their little gifts though. I try hard to pick out neat things or to make useful things for people...

Oh, well...gotta run now. The farm needs feeding, the kids are going to want breakfast here shortly, and I've got to work on getting a bunch of ink out of some nice clothes.

***NOTE to SELF: Wash husbands work pants separate...that way the pen he stuck in his pocket will get ink all over them instead of our clothes too! Especially the cute little skirt my mom just sent me!

Our visit with Eric 'Herman' and family...

We had a really great visit with them yesterday! I had made some chicken salad (then tossed it into the freezer for a quick cool down-remember that...) and homemade bread (and another loaf for them to take with them-YUM!).

They arrived in their totally cool (as per my son) RV. The girls headed right off to play in the back bedroom with our daughter. She has a lot of Sylvanian Families dollhouse toys and they just loved them.

We all chatted and then headed out to the back to visit with the animals. The girls wanted to ride the horses and I had told them that they could at the library. They were quite excited about that. I got Pedro tacked up and took him out for a quick spin to see how his mood was...he was a perfect gentleman unlike the last few days when I had ridden him...he was a royal pain the last two mornings! He knows though when he has the kids on, he has always been good as gold.

I started walking out their daughter Becca. She is so articulate and was cracking me up with some of the things she was saying. At one point Pedro had left us some more 'horse apples' while walking along and I told Becca, "Did you know that horses can poo while running?!" That sort of thing always amuses a kid, LOL...she responds, "Now that's talent!" I laughed so hard!

Then I took Emmee out...she was too funny to...just chattering away about wanting to go to the "end of the world". I told her that we could go only so far because there was a fence at the edge of the tree line. We got all the way to the back of my property (though I own five acres, it's narrow and long), and as we turn around she says: "Wow, we're at the end of the world! Everyone looks so small!" Too cute!

Eric and Roseann got to ride as well...Note to Roseann: when ya'll get home, ask at a local feed store of someone looking for help at a farm in exchange for some riding time, or for some riding lessons. It is a lot of fun and I know you'd enjoy it.

We all headed back in; besides it was getting hot out there...we got some lunch and I offered everyone some chicken salad, opened the refrigerator and at that very moment, I'd realized that I'd left it in the freezer earlier to cool down....I just laughed! It cooled down alright...only the inside of it was unfrozen! LOL. It was good and cold though. Everyone got to have goats milk and ice cream (of course made from all this goats milk we have). I sent them along a quart of milk, the bread, a few jars of homemade jams/jellies, and almost a dozen eggs (my chickens are still being a little stingy with their eggs) to take with them. I hope they enjoyed them.

We were so glad they could make it out here and I hope that they had a wonderful time! If they make it out here again and we're still here, then I hope they stop again!

I'm back....

...this picture came out fuzzy due to the sea-spray that covered my lens...I still like the photo though. Posing ones are nice, but I think this one captures us all...wild Little Man always being silly, the Drama Queen who didn't want to look 'too' silly lest she be embarrassed later after seeing the picture, Dad laughing at them both and me always looking towards the camera, just hoping that Little Man doesn't fall backwards because there was a pretty sharp branch behind him on that log, hence the holding of his legs!
It seems like I've been gone for quite some time...there is so much to catch up on!

We went to Perdido Key (near Pensacola), for a short vacation in mid-May. There were hardly any people there, but there were quite a few jellyfish in attendance the first and second day. Little Man and Steve got stung a couple of times...they were keen to keep watch after that. We headed out to eat a couple of times (since we had a condo, we ate in for breakfast and lunch most days) in Pensacola. We went to McGuire's and Flounder's. Both very good. The kids loved the playground at Flounders while we waited for our huge seafood plates to come out. We also really enjoyed tacking our family signed dollar bill to the post in one of the dining areas of McGuire's. Supposedly there is over $900,000 worth of money stapled to the ceilings and upper walls and posts there. It's quite neat to see. Hopefully next time we go down we will be able to find our bill again and take a picture.
I got a phone call the last day we were there, that my grandfather's doctors had only given him a limited amount of time before he passed on. He has been battling cancer for some time now and was nearing the end. Steve and I drove back to BR-he had to go back to work and there were no car rentals available for a one-way to BR...it seems that no one really goes there and so no one wants to rent you a car to there unless you're willing to pay out the nose per mile for it...surprisingly enough, it was cheaper in gas for us to just drive home and then for me to head back out.

I turned around the next morning with the kids and headed to Fernandina Beach. My mother lives there and we were going to visit with her as well as my grandfather in Jacksonville. It was nice to see my younger siblings there too. We visited with my grandfather that weekend at his home with some of my family. They headed back home after the weekend and I stayed to visit a little longer with him and with my mom at her home. The kids enjoyed the beaches there. They did a lot of boogie boarding, sand castle building, sand blob building, making a sand turtle (too cute!) and running along the dunes finding all sorts of things. We also visited the Zoo. It is a smaller one, but a nice one; though we all agreed that they need more Australian animals there!
We headed back home on Friday afternoon last week and got home late that night. I was exhausted and so were the kids. I've been playing catch up ever since. I have to head back down to Jacksonville this Thursday for the memorial service for my grandfather as he passed away early this weekend. I am so glad that I was able to spend some time with him and talk with him. He was still sharp and would wink at me before he started to tease someone. I just laughed.

He said something to me though that made me realize how important it is to spend time with your family...to not take advantage of how busy we get to use it as an excuse to not spend more time with each other. He said that he wished he had come to visit more often...to see the grand kids too. I squeezed his hand and told him that it's not just his responsibility to visit though....I am a grown woman and I knew where he lived. I could have visited as well and just didn't make enough time to do so. That I was glad though for the times we did spend with him when we were younger and for the times that he did see us later. I was thankful that I was able to spend time with him now and know that he enjoyed me sitting with him. Our time here seems so short towards the end. We take it for granted when we are younger and busy in our lives. I think that is one reason that I enjoy living in the country...it seems like everything is much slower paced. I like that. Milking goats, making bread, collecting eggs, training horses, caring for animals that will eventually feed us...it's all a process that takes a little more time than running to the store and just picking it up quick. I think we are in so much of a hurry to get here and there, that we fail to slow and enjoy the simpler things....spending time with each other, discovering a new place to picnic, seeing the little purple flowers that just popped up somewhere unexpected, talking with our kids, playing outside with them, reading for the fun of it, taking a nice stroll or a bike ride, going through boxes of pictures with your kids (or if your like me-the scrapbooks that I make for them), pulling over and watching the mama duck with her ducklings cross a road instead of flying around them because you're too busy to wait for them and almost hitting them (we saw this right before we left for vacation in our little town-my kids were upset by that), playing at a park together, laying in the grass while cloud watching or star gazing, baking a cake or cookies from scratch and letting them lick the beaters and bowl (we all did it as kids-I don't know about you, but I never got sick)...goodness the list could go on and on. With the price of gasoline going up as it is, take some time out, put some of those 'activities' on the back burner for a little while and find some nice things to do at home with your family...you won't regret the time spent with them and they will remember it.

It's official...

we are being overrun by eggs! We're getting a dozen a day right now and my fridge perpetually seems to have 5 dozen at a time in there! We pretty much walk out there with a carton and fill it up! It's nice though seeing them all laying so well.

I am going to be putting up a flyer at the feed store to sell some of these babies and a couple of goats. I really need to downsize. The feed went up again two weeks ago. Horse feed jumped a dollar in two weeks, cow feed .75 cents more, goat and chicken feed .50 cents more. This is the fourth hike this year...it's just nuts. Luckily we've got pasture and grass to put the animals out on. I need to get a bale of hay for the calf so he'll have something to munch on in there. I so wish I could let him out in the pasture, but the fence isn't good for that.

I'm heading out in a sec to feed some of them and let the smaller livestock out into the back and front yard. Atleast they'll keep it mowed down and we'll save gas from the mower, LOL. Gas is rediculous right now too...

Almost finished...

I have about 6 more feet to plant in 'Mondo' grass along the new brick pathway out front. I'd post pictures of my progress, but unfortunately with our good computer being out and using our old one without any of my programs for downloading pics, I'm not even going to bother attempting it.

It does look nice though and I can't wait for it to be done....my back has been killing me each evening from all the bending over and that Mondo grass is a huge pain to separate. I've just taken to cutting it apart in clumps and planting it, LOL.

Today we're back to the school grind. I did take a week off a bit ago, but with all the other kids they know on spring break, I let them have last week off too. We did have a ton to do anyways. Now we'll just pick up where we left off. I love that about homeschooling. They were still learning though. We discussed fire safety during the cookout for the Faith in God activity. They taught the other kids about the animals we had on the farm and how to handle them. They helped me set the stones on the walkway, dig up and plant the Mondo grass, and learn about the different kinds of dirt in our yard (I was also asked by Little Man: Does the orange dirt mean we're getting closer to the 'lava' in the earth? Can he build a machine and dig there? How close could he get? What dirt is gray? Has anyone tried to go into the lava before? The questions just kept coming, LOL!).

I'd better run...need to get the kids up to help me feed the farm, then it's breakfast and school work. Till later..........

Do I have to call them back?

We're almost finished with school today...we took a break for lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and strawberries) and the kids ran off to play in J's room after they were done. They are playing Animal Rescue and Adoption...LOL. I can see we've been watching too many episodes of Animal Planet at night! They are being so nice...we only have outloud reading and journaling left to do. I think I'll sit here just a little longer, finish my post, put two items on Ebay and then call them back. By then they'll probably be yelling at each other for some reason or another and I'll need to separate them!

The temps went down again though. But it sure poured down last night. The animals didn't seem bothered by it and all but one, Pedro, looked nice and dry. That horse just loves to stand out in the rain! He does have alot of winter hair though and he'd been sweating the last couple of days. Poor fella.

We sold another one of the male goats. We now have 1 left. Then we'll be down to 6. 6 goofy, fence climbing, loud mouthed, opinionated, pushy, food hogs! They are funny though and if you've never had a goat come up to you for some lovin's then you don't know what your missing! They love giving little 'burpy' kisses. It's weird, but cute!

Well the kids are already starting in on each other...I'd better go....

Oh...and the freezer, after it's so called repair yesterday, is still icing up! Guess who I get to call today?! Fun....

Can I go back to bed???

Remind me to take up roping lessons and get good at it before I try rounding up sheep again! I am sooooo sore today and don't need to be...soccer practice is this afternoon. I also slept horribly...oh, well such is life sometimes.

I've a ton to do today. I need to get the kids up, get the animals fed, get the house cleaned up, do a load of laundry...that's a never ending job when you live in the country! Start a meal in the crockpot that I'm sure everyone will whine about later and not want to eat and I'll say: 'This isn't Picadilly's cafeteria. You might want to eat unless you like feeling hungry all night."

Then it's off to buy a new phone. Our ringer is out on the only one we have right now and we all know how well cell phones work on clear beautiful days out in the sticks....they don't! Good grief the thing will work when it's pouring down rain outside and blowing like crazy. I don't know why I bother with them.