Chick Au Naturale

This would be the first ever chick to have been hatched by a hen of our's. And we have seen that babies raised by their mothers do much, much better than those raised by incubators. I actually think this one's gonna make it. She's been sitting for awhile now but I was a little skeptical if anything would emerge since our egg hatching abilities tend to be lacking a little....apparently her's aren't. Grayson went out to tend to them the other day and discovered this little chick pecking away and working hard on its shell. The next morning we had a fully hatched chick. I was a little amazed.

But apparently stupid runs deep in animals and this chick proved to be no different. It fell out of the nesting box twice. I figured if it did ever fall out that there was not much chance of it surviving. But....it did. Twice! Something within this stupid thing liked the floor so much that he just kept doing it. The 3rd morning into it Grayson ran in at 7:30 to tell me the chick was now stuck under the coop. We had sealed up every hole and opening around it to keep the bigger hens...and snakes, hopefully....from camping out underneath the coop. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how this chick got under there. Then Grayson informed me of the small opening over in the corner of the coop where the grate doesn't quite meet up completely with the metal support pole. With sun already beating mercilessly down there we were at 7:30 in the morning digging a hole trying to desperately save this chick's life. The mother instinct of this hen was amazing to me though. There she sat, abandoning her other 3 eggs to tend to her one live chick. She sat on top of the grate while the chick huddled perfectly below the grate...right under the shadow of her wings. Grayson dug for what seemed like forever and made very little progress. And due to the fact he had put hay out there and a good portion of it had fallen through it seemed every path was blocked. 7:30 soon turned to 8...then to 8:30 and it did nothing but get hotter. Finally I did a little experiment and just picked up the mama hen and moved her over. And with her relocation, the chick relocated again right back under her. We were on to something! I ran in the house and got a piece of PVC and ran back out. I began to scoot hay away and make small holes to clear a path for this stupid chick to make its way to the side of the coop where it was within reaching distance. Once hay was cleared and a path was made I again picked up mama hen and moved her over. Chick moved too. After some time spent maneuvering and slowly moving big hen across the floor of the coop and watching baby follow she was soon within arm's length. Grayson made the winning catch. He scooped it up and after almost an hour and a half's worth of digging, scooting, trouble shooting and soothing a disturbed mama hen we finally had chick in hand. Not exatcly how I anticipate spending the mornings...especially when we were all already needing a shower at a mere 8:3o am. We reunited both hen and chick in which it took all of 3 seconds for the retarded thing to fall back out of the box. I'd had my fill of saving chicks by that time so I hoisted hen and chick up with Evye gathering remaining eggs and we set off to make them a new home in the big brooder. We flipped it down from where it rested on the wall from weeks of no use. Grayson scattered hay and we placed mom and baby in safe, low to the ground brooder. It worked and there they nestle at this very moment.

Checking out our newest addition to the flock

Despitet he joy of it all we did have a sad little disturbing lesson in animal science. Stupid hen refused to quit sitting on the remainder of her eggs. I had visions of these egg rotting, stinking and being completely unsanitary in her little brooding environment with her new chick. Never dreaming that God actually created hens to know that their eggs are dead I decided to play chicken god. I gave Grayson instructions to go steal the eggs away from her and do away with them. When we incubated and the incubation time was over it was his responsibility to get rid of the eggs. He had found it highly intriguing to crack the eggs open and see which ones had been fertile. He had discovered several fully grown chicks that had died at some point in their incubation. He was able to see everything and was mesmerized by it. So, this morning he once again asked permission to crack them open. I said it was fine. Not 5 minutes later he came in the house hysterical saying that it was alive and we had ruined it. Not being able to figure out what he was talking about he finally settled down enough to inform me that the one he had cracked open did indeed having a live growing chick within. He loaded his gun to go put it out of its misery, crying the whole time. By this time I was feeling pretty guilty. I told him just to go stick it under the mama hen and let it die under her where it was cared for...since it was probably going to die anyway. He didn't seem too keen on doing this either. A little exasperated at this point I asked "Is it fully developed or what???!!!!" He shocked me by answering, "No ma'am. It's missing both legs and its beak." Ok...so that's just kinda gross. In the midst of it all I had conveniently forgotten that he had placed the other hens' eggs under Slobbery so that she could do the surrogate mother thing. BUT...she had taken over them almost a week and a half into her egg brooding. So, they would obviously hatch at different times. Oops. So, then I just felt really bad. Knowing there was no way this chick would live for more than a few minutes I told Grayson just to go shoot it. He didn't have the heart to and, sure enough, less than a minute or so after it "hatched" it was already dead. It was kinda sad. Me, in all of my farming ignorance, killed off a perfectly good chick. I hated what it did to Grayson. He said it had been very much alive and was wiggling around. Ugh! Oh the things you learn the hard way. I mean...what in the world kind of person goes messing with a hen's eggs deciding when time's up? I've watched her mother this tiny chick and am just amazed at the mothering instinct God put in animals. So why on earth do I decide suddenly that she can't figure out when her eggs are no good.

So, we left the other 2 out there for her but she's not really sitting on them anymore. Maybe that was the only reason she was still sitting.....because that one lone egg was alive. I guess we'll see. But in the meantime she is such a perfect little mama. I'm just amazed at God's perfect creation and watching Violet, our front porch cat, mother her 2 little kittens and then watching this hen. They just know what to do and will guard them with their lives. It's really fun watching it all and the children have gotten to see firsthand what it is for animals to take care of their babies. Pretty cool.

Tending to baby and eggs

Mentally Deficit Animals

So, I'm starting to see a theme our animals seem to have going around here. Apparently our new puppy is so entirely stupid that she, for some unbeknownst reason to all mankind, decided to leap out of the bed of a moving truck. Granted, we were only going 20 mph but it was enough to do damage. We all piled up a few nights ago to go driving around town in the cooler air of sunset. Brad and I needed to look at property for the business and the children were rowdy and ready to have some fun. Athena and Cricket jumped in and we were off. With all of the older ones in the bed of the truck and Garrett, Gavin and Ivye inside we drove slowly down dirt roads stopping to talk to the occasional neighbor. We wove our way through streets with both dogs hanging heads out into the open air doing their dog thing. We crept our way up to a whopping 20 mph. Suddenly at some point in there I suppose Cricket decided she was ready to smell the world. The reasoning behind her actions were non existent...except for just sheer, stupid dog syndrome. And she just bailed. Out in the middle of the road doing 20 she hit with a loud resounding thud. I missed all the action but Brad was a little put out with her to say the least. He just kept looking in the rear view and side mirrors saying "Oh my gosh...she jumped! She's out. She just jumped. I heard her hit." I'm thinking, "One of the girls jumped????" assuming it was Aubrey but trying to put it altogether since it just didn't click. I mean, Aubrey does some very Aubrey things but jumping from the bed of a moving truck is not one of them. I turned around but saw nothing on the road. Finally I asked "Who???" for the 50th time and he answered that it was the dog. This whole time he's still sitting while children are shouting that she's on the road. Before going to her aid I ask if she's dead. Still not able to see anything he informed me that she was still moving. The only thing that went through my head was the fact we were fixing to go through yet another dog. So, I throw open the door and run to where she lay whimpering. She lifted her head so I gently scooped her up off the road and laid her back in the bed of the truck with 15 kids all coming to her side to calm and comfort her. Then....she just gets up and starts walking. What the crap??? She drug her back leg around and I was quite convinced at that point that she had succeeded in breaking it. Brad checked her over but there wasn't much we could do. Knowing his wrath would be soon to follow at being out the expense on a mentally deficit animal I quietly concluded that I would call the vet when we reached home. And, of course, he blew. His argument was to let her wait til morning since it was, of course, after hours and we would be required to make a trip to the emergency vet clinic into the big town. He refused and said she could wait til morning. Sooooo...that's just not how I was raised to take care of animals. I finally decided I'd just call to at least get dosing info on Tylenol or Motrin to ease the pain. Needless to say, it was a quiet ride back home and the mood of the night had been more than a little shattered. 3 legged dog, children crying and him seething. We arrived home and I gently placed her on the ground. She limped around for a moment and then began miraculously using her 4th leg though the pressure she put on it was limited. Once there was a glimmer of hope going Brad came back over and checked her over a little more thoroughly and surmised that her leg was not broken at all. At that point I couldn't decide if he was trying to pacify me and deter me from making phone calls or if he was rather certain all was intact.

Cricket proceeded to trot/limp to the backyard. We agreed to just take the wait and see approach. By the time bedtime was upon us and the time to kennel them came she was running wildly around the backyard. Soooo.....that's kinda weird. I put them up figuring we'd re-evaluate come morning. Grayson let them out the next morning and she was back to being the fireball that she is, as if she'd never fallen out of the bed of a truck.



Life is never dull and our days are filled with crazy entirely uncommon antics........but, I think that seriously had to be about the stupidest thing any animal has ever done around here. Between suicidal roosters and bungee-less jumping dogs it's a miracle any animal survives in our care. No wait....on 2nd thought......we have very few that do. No vet trip was ever needed...or pain killers for that matter. So, she's fine and we're back to summer days spent hard at play. She has since taken another truck ride but wasn't so keen on it and certainly showed no signs of wanting to bail.



And I figured I'm entirely behind on pics so here's a ton of how we spend very hot summer days.

Team work in cleaning out the toy cabinet.

Never far from her side

Lazarus fitting in nicely around here. Despite the fact we have told the children we will never have an indoor cat somehow we managed to turn a feral cat into this spoiled rotten house cat. He's so much cuter than those 1st few days we had him.


Ivye having discovered some foreign substance. She has got to be the world's worst at putting stuff in her mouth and eating...or gagging on......whatever she can. This time I'm thinking it was Hershey's syrup so it went down easily and was apparently enjoyed quite a bit.

Looking at property in 105 degree heat. Fun. The 1st time we've used the stroller since Garrett! I thought that was kind of funny when I realized it. It felt kind of foreign. I have come to LOVE babywearing...just not when it's 105 and we're hiking outside!

They didn't seem to care how hot it was. Any day is a good day for exploring.


Entirely proud of his accomplishment.

Slumber party night. He just moved from upper bed to lower bed but it seemed to be the thrill of a lifetime for all involved.

Aubrey's new bed buddy

Backyard water slide

Doesn't get much better than this!
Everybody gets in on it but these are the ones that stood still long enough that day to get pics of.

And it hasn't rained here in a month. Nope....this is what the backyard looks like after putting the sprinkler under the trampoline for days on end. Everyone benefits.

Hot sunny days

When I can't get to him fast enough somebody's always there to fill in.....or keep him quiet so he doesn't blow their cover since they did, after all, sneak a bowl full of yogurt right before dinner.

And what happens when you went sliding and jumping all day and got full on yogurt.

He, on the other hand, is still playing.

Still playing

Sweet happy boy

Stupid dog

Sweet, content, happy, happy girl

And what the girls do to my hair when they've had enough of the heat and make their way indoors.

The Fate of the Suicidal Rooster

So, our attack rooster actually, by the end of it, was really well loved. Once our chicks grew to be hen size he really chilled out. I guess with all the ladies to choose from and all of them mooning over him he wasn't feeling such a need to prove himself to the world and strut his stuff. He did....did being the key word here....a great job at roostering. I never tired of watching them all. It was the animal pyschology class I never intended to take. He was such a gentlemanly rooster. We'd go out once a day and give them the leftover sandwiches and all of the days' scraps and he would rush over to the food and then make sure his original 3 lady hens would get to eat. He'd pick it up and protect it from the chick hens and then place it on the ground when his ladies came around. And he could definitely protect them. He was the size of a small dog. The thing was massive. I used to think even dogs would be scared of him.....but we found that to be not so true about a week ago.

Cricket has gotten herself quite a few hens but never succeeded in killing any of them. I figured she just wanted to play since she'd pounce around, bark and play with it like a puppy, of sorts. I guess we just always got there in time to intervene before she had time to kill them off. One day last week the children were all rewarded for cleaning the playroom so well. Each participant was rewarded with a bottle of their choice of coke. It ended up that Grant, Garrett and Gavin took naps that day and the rest of everybody went into town with me for a quick errand. While there each person on the errand running picked their own bottled drink while I just brought a box of canned cokes home for the sleeping ones. This, of course, was NOT what any of the sleeping crew had planned. Grant had to be the most heartbroken of them all and wouldn't let the whole thing die while Garrett and Gavin were easily convinced that the canned cokes were much more wonderful than the bottled ones they'd been promised and drank up greedily. Any sort of coke is a novelty around here since they are never bought unless we have a birthday to celebrate. So, this was quite the reward for them all.

Feeling as though I should be the good parent and live up to my end of the deal Grant and I piled up in Brad's truck and took off for the gas station up the colleche road. While on our way to get in the truck I noticed our dear old rooster hanging out at the backyard gate. I shooed him away into the carport and went on our way never thinking much of it. When we arrived back home only a few minutes later we again passed the back gate...this time with the rooster on the other side of it....the wrong side of it. What kind of a stupid, crapped out rooster flies into a dog pen????? Cricket was jumping and rowdy having a grand ole time. Ole Rooster boy had indeed lost quite a bit of his dignity by that point and was missing all but 2 of his tail feathers. There was feather debris all over that portion of the backyard. When I looked closely even some of his down feathers had been pulled out. Yes, Cricket had quite the time tormenting the poor stupid chicken. I walked in and figured we had been right this whole time and that he indeed was too big for even a dog to mess with since he was still alive. Or maybe that he had just given her a run for her money and fought heroically back and actually won. He acted kind of funny once I was in there. Instead of running from me or towards his open gate to freedom he just stood there. I shooed him out with the toe of my boot and had to prod him a little to get him to move the right direction. He walked fine and did his funny chicken run over to the corner of the carport. Then he just kind of plopped down in a lone corner without going to locate his lady friends and reassure himself of their safety. Odd. So, I let him lay there thinking she just wore him out. Grayson offered him a trash can lid of water. Yum. He did drink a little. I grew tired of waiting on him to get up and move and was worried a little over his now labored breathing. I figured he was just getting dreadfully hot as he panted away so I again shooed him along and out into the fresh air and sweltering sun. At least there was air movement going on there Despite the fact the wind felt like a blast furnace it was at least blowing. Kind of feels like a hair dryer when it does that. He limped a little at first but then once he got going he was good to go. Running along and using both legs well. We went and reported to the rest of everybody that the rooster was fine and there were no long term attack effects. I gathered the scraps of the day from inside and went back out to disburse it all to my little poultry crowd. He was still fine and had located his ladies, hanging out with them. He even picked up the bread for them and politely handed it over like he always does. So, I emptied my basket full of scraps and he wandered off in good shape.

Later that night as dusk was fading and it was very near dark Grayson made his nightly venture to close them all safely within the coop. He came back in stating matter of factly, "Well....the rooster's dead." Knowing his love and ability to pull off pranks really well I didn't believe him. I laughed and argued with him until he finally convinced me by stating exactly where his lifeless body lay. So, I donned my boots and trekked back out there. Sure enough there in the tall pasture grass lay his gigantic, very much dead, rooster body. I nudged him with my boot and confirmed what was quite obvious at this point. It took some working up to it but I finally picked him up. At that point it got kinda sad. I really kind of liked him.

So at 10 at night I had my whole little entourage with me as we all went to dump the bird. With Garrison, Grant, Garrett and Gavin all cheering wildly that the big rooster's dead it appeared that the occasion seemed a little more celebratory to them. Grant has long hated the rooster since the episode where he chased him down and began pecking at his legs just being plain mean. But we had since found that rooster maturity brought with it a more docile state so those episodes had been forgotten. But poor Grant never seemed to overcome his incapacitating fear of roosters...or at least of that one. We're thinking he may be in need of a little poultry therapy. Everyone took turns petting his baby soft feathers, not so much grieving his loss but of the novelty of just being able to touch him without being pecked to death.

With everyone finally getting their fill of petting the dead bird we plopped him in the bed of the truck. There we were at 10 at night with a dead rooster and a ton of kids in the bed of it. I was a little at a loss of where exactly to do his dumping ceremony so we just drove down the winding trash road that leads to the Kickapoo river crossing. In the darkness with only the locusts and a bed full of kids to bring noise to the night we laid him gently on the shovel and then Grayson flung him as far as humanly possible into a nearby pasture. We promptly found that large heavyweight roosters don't fling so well as he landed with a thud in the bushes a few feet from us. I gasped at the far from gentle landing while the boys all shouted with glee and Grayson and Evye went into fits of laughter. We all stood and stared at him a minute...not exactly sure why. I guess just making sure he wasn't going to spring back to life at any given moment....which we were definitely not in any danger of at this point. We turned the truck around on the narrow dirt road and headed back home.

So, now our flock is less one massive rooster. And it really is still sad. How can you get attached to a crazy bird????? And even worse, how can one get attached to such a stupid bird???? I mean, really. What kind of chicken just flies over the fence and into the waiting jaws of a barking animal 3 times it size? Brad said he died of humiliation. He apparently couldn't handle having to strut minus the tail feathers. And a sight he was without them! We couldn't quit laughing as we watched him walk around the pasture lacking all rooster dignity.

We had 5 going but are now down to 4 due to that one's suicidal flight over the fence. Surprisingly, our little exotic, the handsomest and smallest one of them all, stood up and took his place. Every hen now follows him around and he is in charge of crowing them all back together. Chubbo bird used to crow and all of the others would come running so now Zody has stepped up to the plate and is rounding them up. We have 2 massive 10 pd white giants that could take him out in an instant but for some reason he pulled rank and got the title of chief. I guess the hens like a shorter man. Must go with the territory around here. In order to qualify for the job the male counterpart must be at least 2 inches shorter. Brad is proud that our chickens are modeling their marital relations after the two of us.

The Family Closet

Alright...I'll be the first to admit here that I thought the only people who actually implemented this were in dire need of unattachment parenting classes. We do not have children sleeping in bed with us til they are 3, I am guilty of weaning them before they can ask politely for me to cough up a boob for a suck or two, I eat granola but not in saving the earth quantities and though I have begun wearing all of our babies I do not walk around hugging trees, saving whales or preserving a beautiful tomorrow. Yes, we cloth diaper full time now, I use washable wet wipes these days, I make my children blow their nose on hand towels and we home make the majority of everything that goes into our mouths. So maybe we fit the mold a tiny bit when defining attachment parenting, granola eating, saving the world people but the whole closet sharing idea was over the edge for me to embrace. Ok....so I don't really do the whole nasal elimination on hand towels thing but I suppose I have considered it. Not in an effort to conserve the world....though I am glad we are doing more than our fair share of contributing to its well being but more so for us in an effort to conserve money and be as possibly frugal as we can be given a family of 10 on a firefighter's salary. So, though we may be at one with the earth, it is due to sheer necessity and I doubt I'll be making out with trees anytime soon or running with the wolves pleading their cause. How does that tie into attachment parenting??? Cause most people who practice attachment parenting also practice being one with the earth and I felt I should just clarify that we aren't there yet.

All of that to say....the family closet was a little too close to the whole idea of attachment parenting where you're just a little too one with your children. So, I criticized those who did it and refused ever giving in to the thought of actually admitting it's a pretty darn good idea.

With Grayson's chores having been transitioned to almost all outside duties I rearranged and that put Evye in charge of folding clothes and Aubrey was to help with towels. The amount of time it took one to two people to put up clothes was ridiculous. Granted, it is Evye we are talking about. The same child who never sees the need to speed anything up. And, honestly, I grew very tired of having baskets of clothes sitting outside bedroom doors due to napping children during put up time. Then the clothes in the baskets went on to sit for the remainder of the day and sometimes even on into the next day before finally getting put up. And by that time they had inevitably been expertly sat on, rummaged through or just plain dumped out so little boys could participate in laundry basket derbies down the hallway. Being the lover of organization that I am I began to contemplate the system and couldn't help but notice that it wasn't working at all. Time to go back to the drawing board. I was humbled to find that the only sensible option was pretty much to ...."gasp"....resort to an everybody closet. Do I dare humble myself enough to admit my prideful, judgemental ways and actually admit these people are on to something????? So, I decide it is worth the bath of humility that was required of me. I devise a plan and promptly set to work to better our clothes life.

Armed with 13 new, small laundry baskets I cleared shelves and began to organize and categorize. I transported the 3 small plastic rolling drawer carts from various places of the house into the closet under shorter clothes. Girls underclothes and socks, girls' pajamas and sleep shorts, girls' jeans and shorts, all boys' socks, little boys pj's and underwear, little boys jeans, little boys' shorts, Grayson's jeans and overalls, Grayson's shorts. This went on for a couple of days as I contemplated what was the best arrangement. The most freeing thing in the whole deal was the now designated "shoe baskets". Grayson owns his own shoe basket, girls share and little boys share. We have attempted on more than several occasions to keep perfectly lined and matched shoes together on shoe shelves but invariably each day there is a shoe hunt and tears shed over missing shoes.....or someone makes it to a destination without any on at all due to the closet miraculously having swallowed their shoes right up! And I will be the first to attest to the fact that closets have quite an appetite for children's shoes....more specifically, little boys' shoes. Little by little I was beginning to gain confidence as I went. I realized that this might actually be worth it. Brad was more than a little skeptical as I required him to give up his personal space and invited the entire family into our closet. Girls' shirts and dresses hung with mine on the "girls' side" of the closet while little boys shirts hung up high with Brad's uniform pants and jeans while Grayson's and Brad's shirts hung down low on the "boys' side" of the closet. White laundry baskets lined up like little soldiers sit on shelves perfectly. I even carried it out into the linen closet where fitted sheets have a basket, seldom used flat sheets have a basket and pillowcases have their own smaller tote type basket. We rarely ever use flat sheets due to the ease of bed making. I have found that when children are provided with a fitted sheet and heavy blanket that even a 3 year old is capable of making up their own bed. Only the older ones use comforters but even those are still placed directly over fitted sheets. From Aubrey on down they just use heavy blankets with fitted sheets. They are each in charge of making their own bed every morning and the lack of a wadded up flat sheet makes it easy on everyone. Even Gavin gets in on the action as he expertly rolls his blanket into a ball and places it squarely in the center of his bed. I suppose it's the thought that counts. Without fail his best buddy will come to his aid, spread it out and lay it imperfectly across his bed, much to Gavin's utter morning delight.

So it is that we have many more flat sheets than fitted stored at any one given time. Baby blankets got a basket and then larger fleece throws and light wintry night blankets got a basket of their own. We ended up consolidating so very much in the everybody closet that we even had 3 baskets left over with nothing to fill them with! I still have to move over Ivye's little things to her own baby basket but overall, most of the switching has been done. And I must say that we are all absolutely amazed at the system that has revolutionized clothing for us. Once clothes are folded all hanging items go to one central location. Once socks are matched and non hanging clothes are folded she just merely carries it to one location and places it in the correct baskets. No napping children to worry of waking, no placing items in 15 different drawers and 7 different locations. Just one trip and a quick sort of what goes in which basket. I even got some clear plastic page protectors while grocery shopping last week. I printed off in large print what went in each basket. "Girls' Pants and Shorts", "All Boy's Socks", "Little Boys' Pants", "Little Boys' Shorts", etc. I then zippy tied them to the rims of the basket so that they hang neatly and state clearly each baskets' purpose. I think I may go back and reprint it all on colored paper to make it even easier. Big girls' items could be on hot pink paper, Grayson's on red, little boys on green or blue and baby's on pastel pink or blue. Sweet Ivye's would, of course, be pink! I think it'd make it amazingly easy to identify at a quick glance.

But I must say that the shoe baskets have been the greatest idea ever!!! Yes....they do have to fish around in it to find a match but the basket is large enough that this is easily done without shoes flying everywhere and being dumped in the closet floor. And when someone sheds their shoes they LOVE tossing them into the basket. It is neat, orderly and super clean. We even had room to put one of our older square laundry baskets on the floor in the corner for dirty clothes. It took only a few days to discover that this was now resembling Grand Central Station in the clothing dept. Kids shed pj's within it, if showers did not happen that night kids shed daytime clothes, discarded socks were strewn about as shoes were removed and tossed in baskets. By the next day I discovered the no longer needed, clothes hanger basket. I promptly gave it its new use as dirty clothes basket in closet floor. So far, and we are now weeks into this, the change in dealing with clothes is phenomenal. Each child finds it easy to chunk dirty clothes into the square basket, shoes are always where they belong and easy to find and clothes, though they may get unfolded in the rummaging of looking for a specific piece, are all well contained within the designated basket.......unlike drawers where they were half in/half out and incapable of being pushed all the way in unless everything remained folded.

I guess the creator of the family closet did indeed have some sense and practicality about them. And I can now say that we have proudly implemented the family closet into our own home. Now having been through this experience I have told Brad that if we ever build a house in our lifetime that we need a sizable laundry room connected to a small bedroom sized closet in which we can carry on our family closet. That would be so entirely great if a laundry room directly connected to a bedroom sized closet.

And an added benefit that surprisingly popped up in the deal was the fact that it eliminated all clothes from the bathroom beside the utility. So, a long empty rack now stood available for anything and everything. Instead of having to deal with a wadded up mess of clothes hangers tossed into a laundry basket I hurriedly retrieved them all in my excitement as yet another long term problem had been solved. They are now perfectly lined up on that clothes rack neatly hidden within the closet.

I realize a picture is worth a thousand words so I will work on documenting our switch from traditional to eccentrically large everybody closet idea. After having done this I can honestly say that this idea will work on any size family and simplify all of laundry life in general, cutting down work time considerably.......be it a family of 4 or a family of 10. It's just amazing to have it all in one location to go to in the morning and at night and to put up when clean. I am quite impressed with this change for us. So, pictures will follow.

Hitchin' a Ride to Minnesota

To my sweet children who were very saddened by the departure of their dearly beloved donkeys. Based on the true story of Fletch and Pearl.

Once upon a time not so very long ago there lived a sweet donkey named Fletch. No one knew exactly how old Fletch was. People guessed but Fletch would just laugh at them and kept his little secret. But old Fletch was a nice strapping, good looking donkey. He was born with a love for adventure. When he was just a baby he decided that the dry west Texas prairie was nice but he wanted to see more. So it was that he said good bye to his mom and dad and his brothers and sisters. His owner happily loaded him up and took him to a new home. This new home had lots and lots of children. They thought Fletch would be very happy there.

Fletch loved his new home. But eventually he grew lonely. His mom and dad and brothers and sister were not there and he had no animal friends at all. The children were so sweet and good to him but Fletch was still lonely for his very own donkey friend. Then suddenly one Saturday morning there stood a girl donkey on the other side of the fence. Someone did not want her anymore and she was very very sad. Fletch became her best friend and there they stood with him on one side of the fence and her on the other. She asked and asked to come into his pasture so they could be together. Finally Fletch asked the children if she could stay too and they were very excited he wanted to keep her. The children went running into the house begging their parents if they could please keep the new donkey. Their parents went and looked and felt so sad for the new donkey and said that she could stay. But she was very scared of her new people and didn't know how sweet they were. The entire family had to help and for two long hours on that Saturday morning they chased her all over their small town trying to get her in the fence. Finally she ran in and Fletch was so excited. They hugged and ran and rolled in all the dirt. The family named her Pearl.

Pearl and Fletch lived there for one year together as they became best friends. The children would come and feed them apples, hamburgers, goldfish, celery, and corn and all kinds of other good food. They were very loved. Fletch was happy but he had never forgotten that he wanted to see more of the world. One morning he woke up and asked Pearl if she was tired of living here. It was hot and dusty and there was no green grass to eat. He dreamed of huge rolling pastures and of nice sunny cool days where he could stand outside all day long and not get hot. Neither Pearl not Fletch had ever seen lush green grass before. They had only seen the dry, dusty, west Texas dirt and all of the cactus that were in their pastures. Fletch thought cactus were pretty but they were thorny and prickly and hurt when he would try to eat them. One day as he was trying to scratch the thorns out of his nose the horse next door told him of the beautiful pastures in Minnesota that had no cactus at all and were full of lush green grass where beautiful blue rivers ran through them. Fletch knew right then he wanted to go to Minnesota. The family was very good to them and brought them hay to eat but still Fletch longed to smell the green grass, roll in the big pastures and eat the fresh hay. He talked to Pearl and her excitement grew. Blondie the horse had said there were many many more donkeys in this new land too. And Fletch and Pearl loved meeting new friends.

Their family was very very sad that Fletch and Pearl wanted to leave. They loved them very much. The children cried and hugged them as the big man with the red headed little boy arrived with their great big trailer. Fletch and Pearl were a little scared since they had never been out of Texas so they ran away from the big man. But the big gruff man was kind and talked gently to them. The family's children talked and talked to them and told them that they were going to Minnesota and that they would be very happy there. Pearl listened carefully and finally walked up into the trailer. She called and called to Fletch. Fletch heard her calling and finally ran to the trailer too. As the children talked to him and he saw Pearl ready to go he remembered all of the reasons he longed to see Minnesota and he finally climbed in excitedly.

With Fletch and Pearl both loaded up onto the big trailer they became more and more excited. In the trailer were many more donkeys that also had heard of this great new land with fresh green grass. The donkeys already in the trailer greeted him and honked as they met their new friends. Fletch and Pearl were very happy. The children were happy for them as they hugged and loved them one more time and tearfully said good bye. They were going to a place where they could run free in the big green pastures where there were no cactus and dry dusty dirt. The big man with the red headed little boy started up his truck and they slowly pulled away.

It took them a very long time to get to Minnesota. The trailer rumbled along as they watched the sun set and then rise and then set again. Finally early one morning the sun was barely up in the eastern sky when the trailer pulled to a stop. Fletch and Pearl looked out their window and saw the most beautiful land they had ever seen. There were beautiful green pastures with white fences criss-crossing for miles. They were welcomed into a big red barn that was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The barn had lots and lots of hay, fresh cool blue water in their water troughs and lots of oats in their feed bins. Big barn doors were open wide as Fletch and Pearl stepped into their new land. The next spring in the green pastures of Minnesota Fletch and Pearl had a baby named Opal. And they were a very, very happy family where the green grass grows.

Loving the Unlovable

We returned late last Saturday, had time to unload, clean up puppy poop, shower and bathe everybody and then get everybody in bed by a very late 10:30 to rise at 7 the next morning for church. I wasn't exactly thinking in my right mind when I committed us for an all day church social the week before. Come 7 am Sunday morning not many of the children were feeling quite like church. Given the fact Brad now plays bass on the worship team and church is a whopping 50 miles away we now have to leave at the crack of dawn in time to arrive for him to set up and rehearsal....and I use the term rehearsal VERY loosely. But instead of leaving at what used to be 9:15 we now leave at 8:30. So, I rise at 6, the children at 7, everybody gets chores done and animals fed and taken care of, older pitch in with younger with getting breakfast down and clothes on and we usually make pretty good time. This particular Sunday morning was a little slower than usual given the very late bedtime hour the night before and the fact no one was wild about sitting through church after an entire day spent in the van. By the time we arrived home the day before they had successfully been in the van from 11am until 9 pm with only a half hour break for lunch and then a 45 minute break for the dog visit. They had done great but the thought of going anywhere yet again was not appealing at all for most of us. But we had promised to attend the church social....umm...we kind of WERE the reason for the church social....and then to join the service they were participating in at the nursing home in the small town the church resides. To drive the 50 miles home for lunch to have to turn right back around to go to the nursing home was insanity so it was decided that we would have a potluck lunch and hang out having fun til 3:00 rolled around.

Most Sundays the children can sit well through the entire service but due to the weekend I think they were feeling a little stifled and it was more than a little effort to even begin to get them into church mode. I am so entirely grateful for how everybody in the church loves them so much and has adopted them like their own grandchildren.....so they not only tolerated them but extended helping hands since Brad is not exactly by my side during the worship service and my hands are usually tied up with either Gavin or Ivye. I'm not sure any discipline tactic I used ever really worked that day....ok, so it really didn't work that day at all. But they had boundaries and they understood them....they just kinda chose not to abide by them. By the time the actual sermon rolled around I was a bit worn out. When I explained how they had been in the van for 10 hours the day before the pastor's wife had the compassion that I wasn't really feeling at that point and graciously took them all outside to run their little butts off. And I sat and just....sat. And it felt really good.

Given the fact I had severely overestimated my abilities our contribution to the pot luck consisted of prewashed veggies and some store bought dressing. Lovely. I had plans to make deviled eggs...or better known as angeled eggs to the children, cornbread, a casserole and fresh homemade whole wheat rolls. Sooo.....I didn't get so far with that plan. I felt a little funny that our family was a good half of the numbers at the potluck so I felt I needed to bring a ton of stuff. As it was there was more than a enough food despite the lack of everything I had committed myself to. The children love celery and raw carrots with ranch dressing and we had tons of it readily accessible right here at home so I figured I'd just take that. They could eat tons and get full on it so they didn't inhale everything else in sight. It worked out well though given the amount of food that was brought by all 4 other couples.

So we ate and fellowshipped happily while children ran and played. Eventually younger ones were laid on pallets for naps and the older 5 settled into an UNO marathon. 3:00 did roll around all too soon, we awoke younger kids, packed up UNO and we were off to the nursing home. I am a firm believer in loving the elderly...especially those the world considers unlovable. Society today views them as a burden and sadly, a disgusting responsibility. I envision my own granny or Brad's grandparents there and feel so amazingly grateful that none of them have ever had to endure the sad, lonely life that exists behind nursing home doors. Depressing doesn't even begin to do it justice. Brad was not thrilled by any stretch of the imagination over the event that I had committed the family to on this beautiful Sunday. He deals with geriatric messes regularly on every shift so the last place he wanted to spend his day off was smelling the notorious odors that go along with a nursing home. I feel it is critical for our children to learn how to love these dear people that have lived a lifetime of stories and each in their own right could write an entire volume of books based one what they have seen and lived. And I am deeply convicted that they need to learn what it is to love the unlovable in a very hands on way.

Evye dearly loves elderly people and is naturally taken with them. She is our social butterfly where these people are concerned and is willing to spend vast amounts of time just listening to them. We arrived at the tiny nursing home in which the family was greeted skeptically by faces that made me wonder if they had the ability to think or comprehend much of anything. Surprisingly, more than I realized not only had the ability to still think rationally but were quite functional.....just needed aid physically. So sadly, these people live in their lonely hole in the world left to grow old in their wheelchairs away from the bustling activity of the world outside and away from all social life beyond that of the 4 walls they are confined within. And it is the understatement of the year to say that this place does not have many good Samaritan visitors. The children were introduced and sang a couple of songs for everybody and then we sung some old hymns. Our new school project is for me to pick out some hymns on the guitar and teach the children some new ones so that we are equipped to lead these elderly people in some worship when we return in August. I think it is very important for the children to know traditional hymns anyway and since I was originally raised in the Baptist church they are near and dear to my heart. I gently prompted Evye to make the rounds and greet each person introducing herself. It was hard not to get emotional as I saw her so gracefully and lady like go from person to person extending her hand and then hugging those that offered. She answered questions and looked like a little miniature modern day Clara Barton or Florence Nightengale of sorts. As the short little service ended and the boys were led around the room to meet each person I was continually greeted with how much everyone loved sweet Evye. Some of the comments that came were, "That little girl there....she's as sweet as they come." And, "Can you bring that little girl back with you next time?" Then of course the many stories of how much they loved her and how she reminded them of their own daughters or granddaughters whom they had not seen in years. One lady said, " That Evye girl, she just glows from head to toe. There's just something special about her. I think she's an angel sent to light up this place." Her love of them definitely showed and God was able to minister to these long lost lonely people through the love of an 8 year old girl. It was amazing to me to watch how God worked not through anything I did but through our children now. To finally get to this place in life is simply and utterly amazing to me.

That being said, the 4 little boys did nothing but ask to see the caged cockatiel, aquariumed fish and the onslaught of dogs these old people owned from the time we got there until the time we left. They could've cared less about who sat in what wheelchair. They did all speak when spoken to though so I figured that was promising. We went from observing sour sullen faces when we arrived to people that had fallen in love with little tiny Ivye and her sweet squeals and happy smiles and then loving the boys and all of their boyish antics. Grant took up with a 92 year old colored man that was bound forlornly in a wheelchair. When the man spoke to him Grant didn't have a clue what was being said to him. I walked over to translate the man's toothless speech and Grant easily conversed, which made my heart sing. I then asked the man about his own children in which he had only 2, one of which had gone on to have only 1 child and now lives in Austin and the other that has 2 children and lives in California. When asked if they visit often he says he has not seen any of them in years. Not being able to imagine what a life that must be I smiled and told him we'd be his adopted family and he now has an abundance of great grandchildren. He laughed and said he'd take them all and that we must return if we're going to be related. Towards the end he rolled away making his way slowly back to his room where Garrison unknowingly followed right behind him. The nurses fished him out of the man's room in which he said he only wanted to tell him bye. So it was that the entire family made our way back to this dear man's room and said bye. Upon finding he was watching the NASCAR race Grant propped his little arm right up on this dude's wheelchair and began watching with him. Dear old Judd was so taken with Grant that he invited him to stay and watch the race with him...offering him a place on his lap. It was highly doubtful that he'd ever in a lifetime be able to lift Grant up there for a lap buddy. They hugged Judd with promises of seeing him next time.

I think what I love most about old people is the lack of pretenses they have and the ability to just speak their mind no matter what. With a mostly loving overwhelming acceptance of the family I felt it was a good day in which the children learned what it is to love the world's unlovable. But as in everything you do, there's always the naysayers. This day only held one outspoken one. The old lady that used to be this town's top history teacher beckoned me over to her. I small talked and then she asked bluntly, skeptically, "Are you gonna have more?" motioning her head in the children's general direction. I answered honestly, "Yes ma'am. We've been so so blessed by God where our children are concerned. They truly are our biggest blessing in life. And by the time you get to 8 what's another 1 or 2.....or 7 or 8???" ending with a laugh at my own wittiness. She wagged her head back and forth and said without any hesitation of worry of offending, "It's too many. It's just too many." I smiled, patted her and said, "Oh, they'll grow on you. They're kinda like flowers. All you gotta do is love on them a little and they'll just bloom right before your eyes. Give us a few more visits and you'll be taken with them." She never found it within herself to smile but she did manage to say that she would be looking for Evye cause "that little girl just lights up the whole room." That was as close as she came to ever admitting to the fact that her day had been brightened by our assault on the place. And it was enough to encourage me in our efforts.

The sweet expressionless man that sat guard over the entrance doors I am quite sure never moved a muscle the entire time we were there. In fact, I was quite convinced he had no knowledge or comprehension of the activities taking place around him. As the place relaxed a little the boys got a little rowdier and began a game of taking off out the front doors. I rounded them up several times before really digging into them and threatening to sit them down for the remainder of the time we were there. This statue of a man that had sat unmoving for an entire hour suddenly came to life and began to laugh as I knelt only a few short feet away from him chastising the boys. He then shocked me even more by saying, "Awww....they're just being boys. It's good to see some life around here. You need to be glad for all of that energy...means you're raisin 'em right. It ain't right if they just sit there. And they're sure entertain'in to watch." At this point I had sat Ivye down in her backpack chair and she sat grinning from ear to ear as he talked. It won his heart over immediately and he began to love on her and stroke her head gently saying he hadn't seen a baby that little in years. As if on cue she squealed and lit up at him. Tears rolled down his old weathered cheeks. Still looking at her and avoiding any eye contact with me he stated, "You've got yourself a good lookin crew. You raise 'em up right and let those boys air out and exert some of that energy. It's good for 'em. Teach 'em to stand guard like a hawk over them girls. That's what they do...they watch over their sisters." I smiled and assured him that the boys were indeed being raised up right and we'd make him proud. He ended with, "No...you tell 'em to make their daddy proud." With that I again exited the doors to chase Garrett and Gavin down and he laughed. We left him smiling. The stoic, statuesque man had come to life.

I explained to the children on the way home that it was for that very reason that we were there. Brad and I then each asked them individually what they took away from their experience there and what they wished to do special next time we visit. Each came up with their own ideas of what they would like to do and ideas we might could try. We made arrangements with the pastor's wife to work on a few hymns so that the children could lead the tiny elderly congregation there in a few songs they know well.

This is indeed what makes up life. Teaching your children what it is to love those the world has thrown away or deemed as problems for other people to deal with. We were able to explain the importance and Biblical principles of what it is to care for your family as they age and the results when people do not walk according to the word of God. We were also able to read stories during their school stuff this week about the culture of Biblical days and how it was very much standard protocol for each family to care for their aging family members as part of their responsibility within the family. And how important it is to continue loving and caring for those that you love and that have loved you since before you were born.

I think what I loved most was watching the faces of those light up and come to life. Knowing that we brought them a brief moment of joy in their dreary mundane life. It indeed was worth all of the trouble it took to get to church that summer morning. I had every intention of taking pictures of it all but once there I felt as if it would be invasive to them and that we had not earned their trust just yet. So, as we grow into this and come to know each of them a little better I will ask their permission to take pictures with the children. It is my hope that we can take some and then let the children make some little popsicle stick frames and decorate them. They could present these sweet people with a little bit of cheer to brighten up their rooms. We'll see.

Our Black Little Cricket

It took awhile to find another puppy after Buddy's ordeal. And really....I still kind of wish Buddy had made it but Cricket is quickly becoming family. It's been a very long time since we've had a puppy this little. Dumped and in sad shape the rescue took her in and we picked her up at the ripe old age of 13 weeks. We made the trip back to Dallas yet again on Saturday after having just been there for the wedding the night before. Brad had returned home but Mother joined in on the fun. The children LOVE going out to the house where the rescue is run.

After some quality time, despite how hot is was, loving on the new puppies and making all of the rounds between the available dogs we picked our little Cricket up and started the journey home. She did great though the children were a little disappointed she preferred the floor over the van seat riding with them. We got to our last town before arriving home when I looked at the gas gauge and was suddenly reminded that we would be blessed if we made it home based on how much we had left. There was no way in the world we'd ever make it to church the following morning with what the gauge showed and being in this part of the world there is absolutely nothing open near us on Sundays. I called Brad who said to turn around and go back to the town we had just blown through to fuel up. Since we were not that far out at that point it was only a minimal delay in getting home. What I failed to think about during this process was the size of a new puppy's bladder. She actually got excited when we pulled up to the gas pump and finally acted like she was wanting out...which she had not done when we stopped to take a bathroom break earlier. I just thought she was finally starting to cheer up from having left her "home" at the rescue. Once Grayson had pumped a sufficient amount of fuel in so that we were assured of getting home and making it to church the next morning we set off for the last 16 miles....again. No sooner than the van had hit the road there were 6 children shrieking that Cricket had pooped. In complete disbelief I asked ridiculously, "She pooped????!!!!". That would be right about the time the smell wafted up to my nostrils. Said out of experience now...it is surprisingly quick how fast the smell of dog poop can make its way from the back of a 15 passenger van to the front of a 15 passenger van. And even worse....this dog has diarrhea due to the heartworm medication she is on. That was by far the windiest and fastest 16 miles I have ever driven....not to mention loudest from the amount of children that were left gagging and still hollering their protest in the back. I'm not sure what was worse..the bugs that I was being hit in the face with due to my head hanging out the window, the smell that still managed to find my nostrils or the 80 mile an hour winds that were drying out my eyeballs. Van doors were thrown open before we the van even came to a stop in the driveway and children starting pouring out every door of the vehicle as it rolled to a stop. Of course, dog stepped in poop then jumped on van seat in an effort to get out. Now poop on seat. Or well, rather diarrhea on seat. I should clarify to make sure the mental picture painted has been done justice.

Brad was thrilled.

With all hands on deck to help unload from the trip we made quick work of it. I promised to clean it up but Brad went ahead and lovingly did it...despite the fact it is always me begging for more animals. But of course with Brad doing it it was done in typical Bradley fashion. When I questioned him as to what he scrubbed it with I was answered with, "Oh....I just cut the carpet out." You cut the carpet out??????!!!! He then promptly and reasonably pointed out that this van has no resale value at all....which I must agree with him on that point. So now we have a missing patch of carpet to compliment the wire and bolt dangling from the back of the van as the outside door handle, that clangs obnoxiously I must add as we drive down highways doing 70 mph, and the rope hanging from the side door within to open up that door. All added in true redneck fashion by my loving and surprisingly un-rednecked husband. Then of course, lest I forget, the missing cup holders in the front seat that just conveniently fell out. Yes...I'm thinking the missing patch of carpet goes well with our rope door pulleys and clanging round bolt that beats the van as we do our Muppet thing down the road.

And the whole dog poop thing just goes with the feral cat pee that the mountain cat was so generous to share with us on our trip to TN last year. Peeing perfectly right where the driver puts his/her feet. We still to this day smell cat pee when opening the van up on a hot day.

So it is that we welcomed Cricket home and have a new puppy, which the children are ecstatic about. Every kid needs a puppy in my book. And she is turning out to be a great dog. She hangs with her pack and never leaves. After a few exciting chicken rodeos and seeing nothing but a little black bullet and 40 non flying, heavyweight chickens take flight we have had no other daily excitement with her. So far she hasn't managed to make dinner out of any of her bird friends. It only took a few days worth of correction and some consistency to get her going down the right chicken road. Her interest in kittens is still a little alarming at this point but so far so good.

Family Pictures from the Wedding Trip

So...I forgot to post the pics we were able to get while in Dallas. The girls want to wear their dresses everywhere we go. You'd think it's the only dress they own. We tease that they have become their uniforms. I'll admit that it is more than a little fun to say that you made them...with a lot of help from your mother.....when they receive compliments.



Looking at pics of me right now is depressing so I rarely post any. But I sucked it up and decided to just go ahead and post. I'm down 10 pds and still have 20 to go. But as the saying goes....we are our own worst critic. So I cringe when I look at it but there is some redeeming value knowing I have dropped 10 pds and a dress size and am desperately doing something about what's still left.



Somehow I amazingly didn't manage to get any other pictures taken the entire time we were there despite the fact I had the camera. My intention was to take pictures of picking up Cricket, our puppy, too but it ended up more than a little hot and we were too busy playing with the litter of new puppies she had at the rescue. So, this is what we came home with after the weekend was said and done.

So everyone's not exactly looking in the direction we had hoped but it's not bad for a hurried shot. One can get the general idea we had going.

I was snapping away seeing what I could get and once I loaded them all onto the computer this one popped up. It doesn't get much sweeter than this!

Daddy's sweet girl. I love this picture!



By this time the whole group was falling apart and Scott, my brother, showed up so they were more than little wired. That would be Scott's khaki pants in the background and no one was wanting to have anything to do with pics at this point. But it's still a funny shot and expertly shows the picture taking experience with 8. They're such a pretty group...including my sweet, gorgeous mother...picture perfect or not! It is an honor to say that I hope I look that good when I'm her age.

And this was the one that I inserted in the sidebar.....but I'm thinking I love "the kiss" better. Grant's so funny....he was a little too happy in this one.

Growing the Menagerie Some More

Well.......somehow in stating in the previous 2 posts that Tuesday and Wednesday following Memorial Day were somewhat uneventful was not entirely true. I had a momentary brain lapse....or in my case I think it is a lifetime brain lapse...and forgot that when we returned home very late from Brad's grandparents' that we briefly spoke of how pregnant our cat looks. That would be the same cat that we saved from imminent death sometime early last year. We took her home and nursed her back to health, treating the nasty life threatening wound that she had managed to get across her throat. She was grateful for the love that was shown by the children and somehow just never left. So, we ended up with yet another front porch cat. Sometime in there a feral kitten showed up and was befriended also....both by children and pre-existing feline. He lived under the porch for quite some time and we caught brief glimpses of him. When the weather turned cold and winter set in we set out an extra heat lamp for him and it didn't take long for him to gravitate up to the porch too. After several weeks we finally managed to pet him and he has stayed around every since.

So it was that we returned home and Violet, our grateful to be alive cat, was looking enormously pregnant. We were told by the vet many months before when we originally thought she was pregnant that she indeed could possibly be pregnant or that she may have some awful sickness that there is no cure for, in which it distends a cat's belly and makes them look pregnant. When no babies arrived we sadly thought this was the case. But she seemed to grow and even out over time and remained playful and the farthest thing from sick. But as she walked in front of us the night we returned home we both commented on how largely pregnant...or sick......she was looking. The next morning she had some strange behaviour . She challenged good ole 70 pd Athena and was trying her best to hole up under the concrete foundation the shed sits on. We removed her from harm's way and once again she went right back in there trying desperately to bury beneath. She is a no crap taking kind of cat and will easily fight off Athena so now she has even poor Athena....10 times her size....scared of her. We finally began to realize she was acting so strange that it might be possible that she was near giving birth to the kittens we didn't know she was carrying. We made a bed for her in the laundry room and closed the door for her own peace. Less than 4 hours later we welcomed 3 new kittens to the family. Of the many births I have participated in a cat's was never one of them. So, it was exciting to watch her have her babies...and a great science lesson for all involved. So, our Tuesday after Labor Day was spent watching the miracle of feline birth and learning to hold babies. This seems to be an important lesson around here since the last time we tried this it didn't go so very well since the boys thought it was so entirely fun to "frow da kitty".

But once more I am completely overwhelmingly in love with homeschooling. I think it is fair to say that I fall more in love everyday, but it is days like these that I realize the importance of what it is we do and how blessed we are that our children can be freely homeschooled. They have the ability to watch a cat give birth instead of reading about it in books or looking at pictures. Our little ones can see what it is for a kitten to wait a week to open its eyes for the first time and know what it is for them to be shut during those first few days. We can hatch an egg...or at least attempt to....instead of reading about it in books. We can study the storm systems that go through and watch the weather pattern. Not at all that public schooled children cannot do this but I love the freedom we have to turn it into a learning lesson and create an entire day's school work out of it. I love that they were home to watch the cat give birth. Admittedly, I would've gone straight to the school and pulled them out to watch it but I love how everyone was here participating, helped find a box, made it comfy and were able to come and go each checking in on her.

So it is that we had 3 new kittens. They were thriving but on the morning of the 4th or so day we went out to discover only 2. My favorite one of the group was gone. I am thinking she may have accidentally suffocated it and then taken it off and buried it during the early morning hours. She kind of had a tendency to lay on them despite what a great little mother she turned out to be. It was disappointing since we had planned to keep 2 of them and she was one of the ones that we had chosen to keep. So, I suppose we'll never really know whatever came of the kitten but we are down to 2 of her's. We now have left Samson and Delilah. In their little threesome they were Peter, Paul and Mary but then we couldn't just have Peter and Mary after Paul disappeared.

Then a week after our little triplet kittens arrived and we lost the one Grayson was out working in the farthest carport when he came running in excitedly saying he found the kitten. I had a hard time believing she was still alive and that Violet would just abandon her. I went out tentatively bracing myself for what we may find....mainly bracing against the thought of trying to revive a more than half dead..if not mostly dead....kitten. What we were met with was a 4 or so week old feral kitten that was quite stuck in between the metal poles of the carport. As any good parent would do we unstuck it and....yes.....took it in. The oohs and ahhs and "May we keep it pleeeeease??????" rang loudly for hours. It was disgustingly horrifying to discover that it was nothing but a massive flea bag with all sorts of feral kitty problems to overcome. Ugh!!!! I saw imaginary fleas on me for hours following the bath we gave it. We soaked the scrawny thing in water to have hundreds and hundreds of fleas surface. And even afterwards she had dead fleas stuck in her hair for days. Digging out the long lost flea shampoo we sudzed her up in the bathroom sink only to discover how entirely skinny she really was. Having a few of the Frontline flea meds for cats left I went ahead and applied it after her bath despite the fact it said for 8 wks and older. I figured she was close to dying anyway. Amidst the digging out the flea stuff we also did the whole mineral oil for her ear mites since she seemed to be eaten up with those as well. A day later with this new kitten still around...minus 200 fleas and a bunch of ear mites.....I found myself talked into a trip to our nearest little town to buy eye antibiotic to get rid of the eye infection it had going. In the meantime this kitten has taken up with Aubrey and never left her side. So in all of my years of vowing we would never have any cats somehow we have acquired what is quickly becoming an indoor cat. We tried putting her with Violet and her babies after we got her back in good shape and no longer contagious with anything but poor Violet wasn't having anything to do with it. So abandoned kitty now has a little rubbermaid tote bed, complete with baby blankets, in the floor of the girls' room. I think it is feeling indebted to us for life and has actually ended up being the tiniest, sweetest, unintended gift for Aubrey. After Brad finally gave in since Aubrey occupies a very soft spot in Brad's heart he appropriately deemed our new kitty Lazarus since everyone is quite convinced that God brought Violet's kitten back to us. No one really seems to notice she did some heavy duty growing while in heaven. She miraculously seemed to have come back 4 times her size, had her hair dyed and learned how to eat solids and wean herself in only 3 short days spent in heaven. God definitely knows how to grow some kittens!!! No one seems to care that I'm fairly certain she is a girl and she somehow ended up with Lazarus as her name. Oh well. I guess we can always go to calling her Lazzy....that's kind of girly.

And amidst all of this....we brought home a puppy from Dallas. More pictures and stories to come on that.

The Wedding

Continuing on from my previous post.

With Brad's help we were able to leave earlier than expected despite the previous day's unexpected change of plans. With a small bag full of wedding clothes, hair gel for boys, hairbrushes and bows for girls and other odds and ends in one small bag it made the fast change of clothes process quick and easy. We arrived in time enough to make the change and complete hairdos and then take off yet again to grab dinner and head to Dallas. Once again the traffic in that area is astonishing to me. Brad and I seem to incessantly be contemplating whether to stay here or make the move "home". We had agreed to pray about it and make a trip up there as just the 2 of us to really pray it out and see what we felt God calling us to do. This trip confirmed in both of our hearts that God does indeed have a very amazing plan for our life but it more than likely does not include the DFW area. It only took returning this one time to know that though I am no st ranger to that place, it is somewhere I really do not wish to ever live again. Cars...the infinite sea of vehicles was not only appalling but quite astonishing to me. It seems there are a hundred fold more people there than when we left only 2 1/2 short years ago. And the attitudes.....oh my gosh....the attitudes are sooo entirely horrific there. I forget just how badly the sardine lifestyle of the suburbs brings out the rude and ugliness in people. It is sad to me to see so many unhappy people in the world.

We ran into old church friends at dinner so stayed a minute to catch up with them and then continued on to Dallas. The ocean of cars that sat before us at lights and on freeways was enough to fill the children with disbelief. I am quite sure that it would take at least 6 months to see that many cars in our small part of Texas. They see it every time we go up there but it is still never any less mind boggling to them to see that many cars on one road. At this point they had now been in the car for the 3 1/2 hours to get to Fort Worth and then the 2 hours we were now stuck in trying to get to Dallas. We made it there with a few minutes to spare to get a few pictures and then the wedding began.

Ok...so I may be a little ignorant here but I figured a Friday night wedding was somewhat informal. I was always taught while working my few years at the corporate offices of a highly successful tuxedo company that Friday evening around 6 or 7 was nice casual, as you would wear to a Sunday morning church service. Light, airy and pretty. Saturday later afternoon was the same...4 and 5 o' clock weddings were nice and toned down but still dressy. The big formal affairs were Saturday night weddings. A Sat night wedding at 7 meant business but a Sat night wedding at 8 was no holes barred, bring out the china, spend the money, elaborate, diamonds and crystals wedding. In fact, I was actually taught to counsel people on this when they came seeking wedding advise. So you can imagine my surprise when we arrived at this late Friday night wedding that began at 8pm to see that it was as formal as they come. Staunch, stuffy, black tie event held in one of the most beautiful churches in all of Dallas. Many a violin lesson was taken and recital played here in my childhood days. So, I was familiar with this beautiful piece of Dallas. Somewhere in this Friday night event it struck me as to how insane this was. We had all 8 children with us that had been seat belted in the van for the last 5 hours and only out long enough to change clothes and eat dinner and we were thinking they could not only attend a black tie event but sit quietly through a wedding that formal . To say there was a need to run off some excess energy doesn't even come close to describing this little scenario. With my brother and long time family friend meeting us there we all ventured in. We all had a good laugh at the horrified looks that crossed every person's face as our well dressed, good looking brood filed in. Not even one person would speak to us and if they looked our way then they might dare have to actually acknowledge that we really did exist and were actually serious about taking them all in. The usher that took me down the isle was the most good natured of them all and about the only one that would dare even aknowledge the fact we were there to be seated. He asked me...or more stated....as we headed down the isle, "You are family, right?" I laughed and said no. He stammered and stuttered and said, "Oh...I just assumed.....with all these......" Between Scott, Chandler, Mother, Brad, me and all 8 of the children we seriously took up one entire pew of the many massive ones that occupied this beautiful church. That had to be the most heads we have turned in an entire lifetime. I couldn't decide if I wanted to just melt into the pew and conveniently disappear out of sight or to revel in this new found attention we were getting.....despite the fact it was attention that was far from pleasant. I think scrutiny would put it a little more appropriately. The children sat perfectly and politely taking in their new environment. Gavin got a little excited but other than a few loud conversations from him before the ceremony began all was going entirely well. Ivye sat perched on my lap playing happily and seemingly oblivious to the fact she was sitting yet again. Somewhere in there Grant's world fell apart and his attitude turned from patience to sheer and utter disgust for life. He was ready to play. He held it in and in typical Grant fashion he threw his fit rather quietly while he seethed inwardly. It was disciplined all the same. It is not the action and the severity, or lack thereof, of it but the attitude that is disciplined. At one point we had stood to sing a hymn and he had unknowingly laid down in the spot I had just vacated. As we finished singing I sat down with Ivye in my arms and promptly and unceremoniously sat directly on his head. It was hard not to burst into fits of laughter as he then went into loud fits of sniffles trying to reign in his behaviour and bad attitude. He was quickly quieted and we proceeded on. With only a few foot fights between Garrett and Aubrey the rest went amazingly well.

With the bride and groom declared married and their exit finally made the congregation rose and we filed out. There were throngs of people. It was by far the largest wedding I have ever attended. And all while trying to keep all 8 of them in sight. Somehow I cannot imagine being the Duggar's in New York City. It seemed Brad and I were constantly counting and recounting little heads in the mass exit of bodies. We managed to make it outside with all 8 accounted for. Brad left to return home immediately following the ceremony but the rest of us decided to make our way to the reception..somehow insanely imagining that it might miraculously be more causal. Ummm....no. Not just no but really no.

The highlight of the wedding must have come when we decided to valet park the van. Yes....the ancient, giant piece of moving crap that it is. But it is paid off crap so it is wonderful, wonderful, blessed-beyond-all-measure crap, of course. Brad was a bit horrified that we would even think of doing such a thing. His pride was at stake and when the van is concerned there is definitely not much room for pride in the picture. Ok, well...more like NO room for pride in the picture. Brad said he was quite sure the valet guys needed an extra tip just for being willing to drive it. So, on the streets of downtown Dallas in the dark with cars flying by at break neck speeds we unloaded every one of the children, unbuckling carseats as fast as we all could. Grayson, Evye and Aubrey had ridden with Scott so there were no older children to get a head start on the unbuckling process before our time came. We crossed over the busy streets to arrive at the hotel where the reception was being held. Jammed into an elevator we made our way up only to discover that the reception was significantly more formal..if it is even possibly to do that...which I am quite sure they proved to do. Dimly lit chandeliers hung, suspended from upholstered, drapery shrouded ceilings. It seemed the room was so dark one needed a flashlight to take in the surroundings. I was quite tempted to grab one of the glass candelabras just to figure out who it was I was talking to. As my eyes adjusted I began to see china settings with white covered chairs swathed in yards of fabric and bows. Clear glasses topped off the china place settings and glass covered candles flickered. I had visions of my dear children setting the place on fire and gleefully manhandling every bit of the place settings that adorned the tables. That scenario played out horrifically in my mind while the other scenario briefly occupied it as well....the fact that they could sit well and perfectly behaved but growing more and more and more bored until finally at some point an explosion would occur since I was after all asking for an emotional breakdown of any or all of them at this point. We were now going on 9 hours of cooped up claustrophobia for them. It wasn't looking too fun anyway since I am the down home, jeans and boots kind of girl. The whole formal wear, diamonds and crystals tinkling just doesn't light my fire by any stretch of the imagination. Give me a good plot of dirt to plant some stuff in, some fun loving animals, a porch swing and a pretty day and I'm good. I mean, we are talking after all about the girl who wears her wedding ring once a year since I have never really seemed to have heavily tuned into the jewelry side of myself. With the constant on and off that it does due to continual hand washings I am afraid I am going to set it down somewhere and at some point not be able to find it again. Believe me...it's happened many more times than once. So, I wear it on our dates and that's about it.

With the china and glass staring at us menacingly I turned to Mother and fessed up that this was not my idea of fun at all and an ice cream sundae sounded like much more fun for everybody involved. We counted heads once again and just as soon as we had come to this place we were leaving it. Down the elevator, down the sidewalk, across the heavily traveled street and back to the valet guys. With ticket in hand I explained and we were lovingly spared the 12.00 fee since we had been there all of 15 minutes. The guys were wonderful and though we had to stand on the street corner for a good 15 minutes waiting for the van to be returned they pulled it up into a cove so that we could load in peace away from the traffic and speeding cars. As we had stood waiting on the van the older ones and I had devised a plan of loading everyone in and avoiding the cars. So we passed the time doing that and talking of the huge buildings that dwarfed us and the bright colored lights that lit up all of downtown Dallas. We stood at the base of the giant green building and were only streets away from the famous Dallas ball that is present in every postcard picture one ever sees of Dallas, Texas. The children loved this and it kept them busy until the van arrived. With all 8 safely loaded we made our way through the streets of downtown and back to the freeway that would take us back to Mother's for the night. By the time we arrived in Fort Worth half the van was asleep so the ones that had remained awake got ice cream. The others never knew what they missed out on. We reached Mother's sometime around 11 that night and quickly and quietly laid the sleeping ones down. We visited for awhile before exhaustion eventually claimed us as well. The next day held excitement all it's own....for puppy day had finally come!

Oh...somewhere in there our family seemed to have made fans. Once over and everybody was exiting we had more than a few people stop to marvel over the children. I wouldn't have even mentioned this in this post if it had not been for the "Yeah....we definitely saw y'all coming and were a little shocked. We definitely were not expecting this and were so pleasantly surprised!!" and "Oh man!!! We did not expect such amazing behaviour out of this crew right here. Your kids are just amazing!!!!" and then the "Are they all your's????!!!! They sat there so perfectly. They have got to be the most well behaved kids ever. Sure is a lot of them to act so well" It was funny to me more than anything since it truly showed in every way what people were expecting out of the crew when we walked in. It easily explains the horrified looks on every person's face there when we arrived. We all couldn't help but get a good laugh when the comments started to roll. Even Scott thought it was quite entertaining to hear people's perception beforehand and afterwards. It is sad to me though how people see children and just expect the worst. Whatever happened to well behaved kids? It seems they are more the exception now than the rule. I think the relief and amazement on everybody's faces were priceless. Almost makes me want to do it again. Ok....well maybe not. But it was fun seeing the reaction in everybody.