that country living is only peaceful, could never have lived in the country! lol
All winter our creek has been flowing like mad. It's as loud as a freight train at times, it runs so fast!
Well now that the rains have slowed down, the creek has quieted down some also. This past week the frogs have begun! One evening I sat on our master bedroom balcony, and I heard two frogs croaking to one another. Within two days it had to be hundreds, if not thousands. They were so loud you could no longer hear the creek. Now the frogs are as loud as a freight train! So funny!
This after noon while Alesia and our trainer took the horses for a trail ride, the little ones and I went down to explore the creek and see if we could find any frog eggs. I didn't figure we'd have much luck as I'm pretty sure they are all at the pond, and not in our creek. Sure enough, none were to be found. We did find a lot of rabbit fur though, so we didn't hang around in the lower pasture too long. Who knows what killed it, and if it hangs around down there. We know that a bear, and a cougar have both been spotted at different times over the years in this area so I didn't figure a mama and her three little ones should hang out down there with no protection for very long. lol We had the two dogs with us, but they are only mid sized dogs, Shelties. I'm sure they may try to 'save' us, but I'd hate to take the chance on their lives too!
So we came back up and decided we would try to get to the big pond over the hill some time soon with daddy along!
One year, when the twins were babies, we were able to get a hold of some frog eggs. We had about 25 of them. Out of the 25 eggs, about 6 turned into tadpoles, but only 1 survived into an actual frog. The older two kids and I will never forget the experience of being able to watch those eggs transform into frogs and I would LOVE to be able to provide that experience for the younger three this year. With the amount of frogs I've been hearing coming from the pond, there's GOT to be thousands, if not millions of frog eggs out there!
I've been trying to take some time each evening to just sit out on our master bedroom balcony, reflect on the day and enjoy the sounds of nature at night. About a week ago I could hear two owls hooting to one another. About two weeks before that, Joshua came into very close contact with one owl! He was so excited! He came out of the cabin on our property, it was dusk, and as he headed towards the house past a light pole (which has no light lol) he noticed something sitting on top of the pole! Sure enough, it was a large owl. I would have been scared, and would have stood there in fright. Not Joshua though. He had to see just how close he could get to it. lol He walked very slowly up to the pole. The pole is only about 5 feet high, so he was able to see the owl very well. He said he got to see the owl turn his head around! He thought that was pretty cool. 
He came to about 2 feet away from the pole, and the owl flew away. He heard the loud swish of the owls wings and was so excited that he came so close to touching it! Kids!
Our horses are doing pretty well, but the constant wetness of rain and mud has done a number on their hooves. I hate that it rains so much here. They've been entrenched in mud pretty much since mid-October. :( We'll have to put in drainage pipes and some hogsfuel before next winter. I'm not putting them through that again!
We've changed things around in our days. We now do school first thing every morning, before I even have my coffee. lol I find if I don't do it first thing, often times we rush through it. This is the book work mind you. The kids reading lessons and work pages. A lot of our learning is hands on, and that gets done throughout the day. I like to get the bookwork done first thing though and this is working really well. The kids are not allowed to do anything else in the mornings before they finish their work. First breakfast, then school, THEN playtime outside. I've also begun allowing the three younger ones to do as many workbook pages as they want. I used to make them do 2 or 3, on their own they are doing anywhere from 3-10 a day! lol Actually, as I type Julia is doing yet another page! And this isn't a 'phase' either. We've been doing it this way for over a month now and they continually do many more pages then I would of asked of them. I have so many workbooks too, that I don't fear running out of work for them.Throughout the day, they are all given freedom to learn anything and everything they want to learn.
Alesia is writing two books. One is a novel, one is a manual of sorts. I won't share more about the manual simply because we do intend on finding a way for her to publish it one day. Even if it's only on a small scale. It's a wonderful idea, and a manual that I feel is MUCH needed for some.
Joshua has been busy working with Graydon off and on the last couple of weeks. He is given the opportunity to do his 'book work' at different times when he wants to work with his daddy. We feel hands on work is just as important as book work, especially for Joshua as he has always felt this is the way the Lord is leading him in his life.
Business ( www.homemademama.com )has been doing very well, but I've decided to slow down on the 'front' for a couple of weeks. I'm going to be working behind the scenes on my new site, HomemadeMama's Baby & Child, and I will possibly be joining another group of work at home mom's within the near future as well. 
I'm looking forward to having some time to do other sewing for a few weeks though. I have plans to teach the little ones how to sew. We're going to sew teddies of their choice, and maybe some small handbags suitable for taking on nature walks. I also have fabric purchased for outfits for all the kids, and I have been wanting to set aside the time to get them sewn up! I can't wait!
During this time, Graydon (dh) will also be taking some time off. He's taking about 12 days off, so we may do some day trips as well. I hope the weather remains nice as I'd even love to hit the beach to take the kids on a scavenger hunt! There's also a lagoon not too far from us that I've been wanting to take the kids to. There's shacks there, with lots of history to learn. I'll tell more about that after we go.
Well that's enough rambling for now. I should post more often so I don't feel a need to share so much all in one post!
