For the last month or so, my mind has been in constant preoccupation with our upcoming move and house-hunting. It is like a dream-state sitting and scanning over the various homes for sale. Some are very beautiful. Your eye cannot help but be drawn to large homes, with all the beautifully done kitchens and bathrooms. They beckon with their sweet siren voices advertising comfort, luxury, and ease.

I never seem to be left to my sweet excursions away from reality for very long. There always comes something to “snap” me back to reality. This, I would describe more as a “catapulting”, but always with the same effect.

On a busy Saturday morning, as I was rushing in my usual way to get my kids ready to leave and yet get the essential chores done around the house before leaving, I dropped a mason jar I was attempting to fill with water into a bathroom sink. The bottom of the sink around the drain broke into pieces……

Many things ran through my mind as I stood there over the sink. How in the world does such a short fall from the faucet to drain, even from a full glass jar, manage to shatter the sink? What is this thing made of anyway? How much is this going to cost to replace? Just how much drama is this going to cause between myself and the relative whose sink I just broke?

I did not want to leave and just let the sink be found in its latest condition, so the relative was awakened and I proceeded to explain. I wish I could say that I maintained my composure, but I did not. The yelling began and after feeling quite assaulted I yelled a bit myself, trying to explain that I took full responsibility and would absolutely do my best to replace the sink myself and NOT leave it for them to pay for, which I was being accused of. A few days later and the situation is not nearly as volatile. The details are being sorted out, but I have been left with quite a few lessons to consider from now into the future.

Who am I and who do I want to be? I asked this of myself and God as I drove the quiet almost hour long trip that Saturday morning. And I listened not only to the stirrings in myself, but to whatever thoughts came along into my heart and mind. If I follow in these footsteps, my future would be ruled by anxiety, such that it would cause fear and anxiety in all of those around me that their next step would cause painful backlashes. Is that how I want to live? The anxiety levels in my own small family have been like nothing we have seen before just being a part of this environment. This is not us. This is not the environment we love and flourish in. I will not shift my focus from our love to an anxiety over “pretty” things.

The story behind the mason jar I was filling up should really be all that is necessary to explain a little about ME. I was getting fresh water for the chicks in the brooder in my bedroom. I am a home school mom of 3 very active little kids, 2 LARGE dogs, a couple cats, and some chickens. We are busy. We love to play and learn and get dirty. We love the outdoors and animals. I don’t always know what WILL describe me or even us well, but I know a few things that do NOT describe us. Graceful. Delicate. Immaculate (haha). Careful. In fact, delicate things are best kept out of our vicinity.

I am not a farm girl. I do not belong in the city either. I am somewhere in between, and so are my kids. That is where we are happy, and that is where we will flourish. Sometimes, I must also be reminded that I DO have a certain image to uphold, not for my own sake, but for my husbands. I probably should change out of pajamas before going out to tend the chickens, or check the mail. After this move I am sure that he will have even more eyes watching him and evaluating his life. This is his career, and I DO want to make him look good. We may very well have to say “good-bye” to chickens and a few other things. I must find that happy median.

So, as the clouds of sweet dreams dissipate and I pull my vision back from those oh-so-lovely homes, I am greatful in a way for this lesson in self-acceptance. I am holding on to the picture of reality.

(Turns out the sink was made of “vitreous china” and will cost me quite the “stupid tax” to replace, but such is life.)

That is how my son would say it.

I really wanted to share this little project we did. It was so much fun for all of us, kids and adults alike, and the cousins that live nearby even got excited and joined in with us. Last year my husband brought home to me these 4 adorable little chicks. Well, one of those turned out to be an accidental rooster. Since Fall last year, we have had 3 hens busy laying those beautiful brown eggs for us, and one rooster to make chicks possible. So, when it came time in our science curriculum to learn about eggs and hatching we decided what better way to learn about hatching than to try to hatch a few eggs ourselves.

We started with about 7 eggs from our ladies outback. Our goal was to candle them with small flashlights as they grew and watch the growth and changes. One egg never seemed to start growing at all, but we were so excited to see the others growing and even at times moving. Sadly all the candling attention is I am sure what caused the demise of all but one of the developing eggs by the last week. Which gave us the opportunity for another small project. We took one egg that we were sure had died and cracked it open to examine the chick and see how far it had made it in its development and what it looked like.

As we waited, we read and diagrammed and cracked an unfertilized egg to inspect parts of eggs. Then the pipping started! Yay, we were so excited.

Our one tiny little chick emerged slowly.

Our sweet little survivor. This is about the point we realize there is a problem. We have ONE little chick, and chicks and chickens do not do well alone. This will NOT do. It survived this far, we were determined to give it every chance to survive longer. Off to Tractor Supply we went for a couple new babies.

And there they are, all huddled together like it was meant to be, hehe.

Our girls (we hope) growing fast!

Yup. Best Science Project Ever!

Yes, that is what I am doing. I am running away!!!!!

And straight into the arms of some of the most wonderful and supportive friends and ladies that I have ever known.

Why? Because I can. It is retreat time. I look forward to this every year. It that boost of refreshment and encouragement each year that sees me through. I love it so much, that I am driving cross-country with 3 little kids to be there.

This year I do not believe it could be more needed in my life.

To those who have already offered to be my “battle buddies” in this, a brief explanation:

This is a book directed to my very specific situation, including the wife of a deployed soldier. The question at the beginning of this particular chapter  was “How do I take care of Me?”

The first area involves “spirit-nurture” and includes a few interesting tidbits, such as the 5 important elements of your “healing place”. They include:

The Holy Spirit- your divine power source; The Word of God- your divine nourishment; Prayer- vital communication with your Healer; The Christian Community- your divine incubator; Mindset- your spiritual “battlemind” for divine healing

The “Spirit-Nurture Contract” is quite simple. It is about nurturing my own spirit so that I am capable of nurturing those around me. Starting within the next 5 days to 2 weeks, I will make the following adjustments in my lifestyle, and/or add the following activities:

1. (Starting today) Read my bible every morning BEFORE turning on the computer!

2. (Starting today) Play soothing christian/inspirational music in the house during the day.

3.

4.

Yes, I am aware that the last 2 are still blank. I will get back to you on that. =)

Next there will follow a “Soul-Nurture contract” and then a “Body-Nurture Contract”.

This is when my darling husband first surprised me by bringing chicks home.

I just thought I would share a few favorites while I was looking through some photos. I realized I have been very busy with all of the moving and haven’t shared much.

This is our nosiest hen.

And this is our accidental rooster. Kaleb has named him "Zeus"

I just adore this picture of Kaitlyn. We were at the lake with family for 4th of July.

I took this one during our trip to Colorado. Kaleb and Alex with their cousin Jozalyn.

I took this during our walk the other day. My little girl just looks way too grown up in this picture to me.

Finally, all 3 of my wonderful blessings together.

Be blessed!

I would love to say that we are diligent about taking our morning walk every day, but sadly, we are not. It is still new for us and it is already become a favorite part of our day that the kids ask for. It is a time for us to set the tone of our day with a little exercise, some time spent together, and a time for us to discuss. We discuss whatever needs to be discussed. I have attempted to have a good Bible verse ready that I would like us all to think about and/or discuss each morning. I have found this to be a wonderful time to talk to my kids about whatever moral/character issues or Bible lessons we are dealing with at the time because for whatever reason, they are very receptive.

I am also sharing these pictures with you for the simple reason that I was asked to take a few pictures. There is not a whole lot of fall color right now. We missed our opportunity to take those pictures as the leaves have already been falling for the last week or two. I still believe that our walk through the backyard is lovely and very peaceful. Please enjoy your walk with us this morning, and the little surprise we discovered at the end.

passing Nana's hunting shack (needs some work, hehe)

Our big silly dog (aka Jack or Worm!) frollicking in the dying grasses.

Almost back to the house.

We decided to check on the chickens before heading in and starting our schoolwork for the day.....

And to our great joy found the very first eggs. Our chickens are LAYING!!! Yay!!!

Thank you all for joining us this morning. May God bless you all!

One of my favorite sayings is “Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself.”

Though I realize that God has already created my children and myself to each be the people that we are and the people we are to become, I also realize that each day we as parents are a part of that creation process. As I walk with my children each morning and discuss our verse of the day or as I guide them through each day, I am creating in them the character that they will have. I am also creating character within myself as God leads us on this journey. The thing about life is that it is so daily, and each and every day is our opportunity and challenge to destroy or create. I look forward to this time I can share while we are “Creating Us.”

My 4 month old taught herself to roll over onto her stomach in just the past few days. Didn’t I just have that kid YESTERDAY?
It has been so interesting and frustrating lately watching as each of my children’s personalities has played out in a bit of a stressful time. (We are packing for a move in just a few months)
DS8 has been back and forth between absent-minded and then totally responsible and mature. DD5 has had several diva meltdowns, yet I can see the glimmer of hope as she is SLOWLY starting to really understand how her actions caused the consequences instead of blaming everything on others. And baby is just..well… entertaining at times. Very busy little one. Grabbing anything she can get her little fingers on.

See what I mean. She was 3 months old and seemed to think she could type.

On the other hand she can be rather cranky at times. Like right now…..

My son is beating himself up about something and I am determined to LET him. Not because I am mad, because I am actually not. I AM hoping maybe this will be a learning experience that sticks with him.

You see, we have been having some issues with him not paying attention to what he is doing. He spills things daily and knocks things over. No, I do not believe this is a motor issue. He is fully capable of controlling his body when he wants to. He is awesome in Tae Kwon Do and Gymnastics. I truly believe that he just doesn’t pay attention.

I have asked around for ideas on how to encourage or teach attentiveness just in the past week. Then today something happened that not only got his attention, but seems to have taken the idea of paying attention and hit him upside the head with it. He dropped the baby.

More specifically, he managed to walk about 10 feet with her, from the kitchen to the living room, before he walked himself right into a little chair and fell over it, baby and all.

Thank GOD (!!) that she was not hurt. She ended up falling bottom first into a bucket of soft toys which gave her a good start and caused quite a bit of crying. Also, thank God (!!!) that somehow mommy managed to not yell or get angry at all. Truthfully, I was too worried about the baby to even think about being upset.

Today I have overheard my son making several comments to himself off and on. Usually along the lines of “I should have watched where I was walking.” I admit that I hate to see him beat himself up about anything, especially when it is an accident. Yet, I think I am just going to let this one simmer a bit. Does that qualify me as a bad mommy? Oh well.

First of all, let me say that the visit from my mother and step-father went great! Better than I had prayed for. We had a great week with them here. They took the kids trick-or-treating (something I don’t usually do) and attempted to spend some time with the baby. I say attempted because it turns out that our little one doesn’t like new people. Actually she didn’t seem to like anyone but me. She finally warmed up to Grandma towards the end of their trip, so Grandma and Papa got a few days with her in a sociable mood at least.

We even took the opportunity to cut up some pumpkins and cook them down for freezing. I have never cooked pumpkin before. I am the sort to stock up on the canned variety when available at the store. In fact, I never wanted to try because to be honest, I hate cleaning pumpkins. We all had a pretty good time working on it together, though.  The kids helped my mother to clean them and bake the seeds, while I worked on chopping and peeling.

Today I am very happy to say that my baby is doing much better than this weekend. She scared me enough on Saturday that I took her up to the hospital. She had been experiencing some congestion issues, but Saturday afternoon she started have trouble breathing. Well, being that she is only 7 weeks old, I had a problem with that. Anyways, the hospital ended up diagnosing her with RSV, which I am told is basically a bad infant cold. So, they sent us home with some breathing treatments and she spent the rest of the weekend cuddled up on the couch with her daddy who also was experiencing a yucky cold.

Considering dd hasn’t really let anyone else hold her but me lately, this turned out to be some great bonding time for them.