Just a quick blip for my records...I'll have a picture post coming shortly...

We watched a cute movie that we got from Christmas (actually we've watched it 5 times...with everyone we know that walks in the door, the kids insist they watch the movie with us).  It's called Horse Crazy.  It's a really cute movie.

There is a little girl in the movie about 8 years old that is really bossy to her older brother.  After the movie the other day, Susanna (4) came to me and began a discussion about the "bossy girl".  After prattling on a bit, she came to this conclusion..."Momma, that girl is "The Bossy", but you and Daddy are "The BOSS".

Good girl!!

On Saturday, we did a winter coat shuffle in our house.  Our oldest had the privilege of passing down his winter coat, which really still fit him fairly well, to his younger brother who was coatless.  He was not exactly thrilled at being given the opportunity to give up his coat for another, but he did it, nonetheless.  In return, I handed him a coat I had found at a consignment sale last year.  Apparently, I hadn’t looked too closely at it when I bought it for $2…the zipper was broken and the hood was missing and it wasn’t in great shape…

Anyway, at church on Sunday, when I left the sanctuary to wrestle, rock Becca to sleep I saw a brand-new looking coat on the table in the fellowship hall with a “FREE” sign on it…my heart jumped!!  I took a break from wrestling rocking and went to see…the coat would be a perfect fit for David!!!  …and on top of that, it was a UNC coat, which David loves! 

I just praise the Lord for his provision and for whoever was willing to pass their nice coat on to someone else, perhaps less begrudgingly than my eldest child did to his brother.  I praise the Lord that He cares about the little things.  I praise Him that He showed my son that He loves him, by not only providing a coat, but a Carolina coat at that!  I praise Him for the lesson it taught me…my reaction to my son’s reluctance to share with his brother was more frustration and less instructive and sympathetic.  I’m thankful for the reminder that I need to be more intentional in every day situations to use my children’s frustrations and hurts to turn them to their heavenly Father who cares for them…and their coats!

We took a family trip to Wal-Mart on Saturday.  It reminded me why I usually shop during the week when the (seemingly) only other people that shop are a few momma's with preschoolers and the wonderful older generation.  But, alas, we found ourselves there on a Saturday morning.

While gathering our groceries, the kids heard over the loud speaker that Santa Claus was in the back of the store from 10am-2pm.  We don't "do" Santa around here.  I don't have anything against the guy, I just knew from the get-go that I couldn't pull off such a wide-spread coverup with my kids...my practical side is too strong.  So, from the beginning, I've just told them about the real "St. Nicholas" and that people just like to pretend that Santa Claus brings presents to everyone at Christmas.  They're fine with that! 

Their curiosity about Santa, however, was piqued.  Sammy and Susie have never seen a Santa in real-life, they've only seen pictures, so the big kids wanted to go see him and show him to the little ones.  So, we told Sammy and Susie that we would go see Santa and that he's a "nice guy" and he's "just somebody's Grandpa". 

We then decided to go ahead and get a free picture with Santa just for the fun of it.  Everyone was on board with the plan...until we walked around the corner and saw HIM.  Immediately, Sammy said, "I don't like him."  The big kids hopped in his lap and Santa took Becca (14 mo) from Julia...bad idea...and the screaming began.  Susie and Sammy stood behind the camera and screamed while Becca sat in his lap and screamed.  We took the picture with 2/3 of the kids and went back to find Daddy.

Sam and Suz recovered quickly from the trauma...and from then on, every time Becca fussed I heard Sammy rush to her and say, "It's ok, Becca, he's a nice guy...he's somebody's Grandpa!"...with much inflection.

Fast forward 3 days when we found ourselves back at Wally World because I had actually forgotten my list on Saturday...ugh!!!  As we drove towards the empire, Sammy called up from the back..."Are we going to Grandpa's house?"  It took many such inquiries before we figured out what he was talking about.  Sam looked for "Grandpa" the whole time we were in Wal-mart.  I don't think he even knows Santa's name.

...and now Santa forever will be "Grandpa" to us.

...that if you ask your 7-year old daughter to occupy your 14-month-old baby for awhile and she decides to spin said baby in a chair for 10 minutes, that said baby will lose her dinner???

Now we know...

...cow that is...

We welcomed little Daisy Lee into our farm family this morning.

Ironically, we've enjoyed sunshine and warm temperatures here for the last week or two.  Gorgeous weather to birth in a field if you happen to be a cow.  I talked with Clarabelle extensively over the past 2 weeks about how perfect a time it was to have her calf.  She listened attentively and then waited until tropical storm remnants blew in from the gulf coast and decided it was her time to shine. 

Not that I'm criticizing her choice of dates...at least she gave birth ON her due date...I've not been that timely  in awhile with my babies.   

We're officially old pros at this, I guess, now that this is our second calf and we've been enjoying our first calf, T-Bone, at the dinner table for about a week now, but it still seems pretty fun and exciting.  If you like birth stories and want to review T-Bone's story...I actually live-blogged his birth...here, here, here, here, and here .  I didn't have time to do any blogging this go-round.  We were sitting at the table after breakfast getting ready to do some school work when Joshy looked out the window and saw Clarabelle in the back of the pasture moving differently that she normally does...he said, "I think Clarabelle's having her calf."  I quickly went out (with Susie, Sammy and Becca) to check it out, but while she seemed a little uncomfortable, nothing visible was happening.  I went back inside and about 30 minutes later I put Becca down for a nap and went out without little ones to see...i walked halfway across the pasture when I realized I was looking at hooves and a head emerging...I turned around and ran back inside to alert everyone...the kids ran to the neighbor's house who wanted to witness the event and I quickly called and cancelled Julia's flute practice and was back outside in less than 5 minutes...well, every momma knows alot can happen in 5 minutes...if it's the right 5 minutes...about 3 contractions and a birth.  So, I missed it...when I arrived on the scene Clarabelle was cleaning up her calf...in the rain...

Again, I'm not going to criticize a momma in labor...much...'cuz Clarabelle is an excellent momma...but she did decide to give birth right adjacent to a manure pile.  Poor Daisy Lee flopped around alot trying to find her legs...right on top of the manure pile...in the driving rain...covered with all of the gunk associated with birth...it was downright lovely.  I almost felt bad for all of the stuff that poor Clarabelle had to lick off her girl.

Anyway, after an hour or so, the rain was picking up and Daisy still hadn't stood, so we got smart...with T-Bone, Brittany and I carried the 50-lb. calf into the barn from the far-end of the pasture.  Julia had the bright idea of putting Daisy in the Radio Flyer wagon and pulling her to the barn...it worked beautifully...

Once in the barn, we were able to hold her up to get her a feeding.  Once she drank a little from her momma, she was able to stand if we stood her up.  Another 2 hours later when we checked on them again, she was standing on her own and even trying to frolick...though she usually frolicked and then flopped to the ground...but at least she was trying. 

So much fun!  Just in case you missed my insinuation about T-Bone earlier in this post, I'll say it again so I have it on record, too...we had T-Bone processed last week...and now we have a freezer FULL of meat.  The kids were very excited about it.  Sammy has been going around telling everyone that T-Bone's MEAT and we're going to eat him.  Thankfully, due to our name for him, most people simply agree with the 3-year-old that, yes, indeed, T-Bone steak is "meat" and are even a bit impressed that a 3-year-old has such advanced tastes to be a steak connoisseur.   

Becca Joy is at such a fun age.  She is such a sweet, cuddly baby.  She plays so well by herself.  When she wakes up in the morning, usually before I'm ready to wake up, I bring her into the bed with me and she just snuggles with me for awhile.  When she tires of that, she slides to the floor and just plays with her baby doll for another 15 minutes until I can drag myself out of bed.  She's such a sweet face to wake up to !!

One quirky thing that we've noticed about this sweet girl is that she loves to sit in things...boxes, baskets, tupperware...anything that she can fit in...or try to fit in... she'll just climb in with her baby and sit for awhile.  She likes to be pushed around, too, but it's not required...she's perfectly happy just...sitting...

This tupperware container is, hands-down, her favorite seat...just her size!

One morning while I was trying to wake up and Becca was just playing near my bed, she started fussing...after I watched her for a little while I realized she was frustrated...the thing she wanted to sit in just wasn't working for her...  Can you look at the next picture and figure out what she was trying to sit in???

...yep...the little Alaska candle that she took off my nightstand...she was convinced she could fit inside it...perhaps her depth perception is not fully developed...and of course I didn't allow her to eat all of those goldfish off of the floor...I shared them with her .

In other news...Sammy's head is healing nicely...but this week he has tried diligently to get himself a new "ouchie"...This is where I found him when I came back outside after running inside for a moment...

...and this sweet young lady, quite possibly, was one of several accomplices...

Sammy was pretty excited about getting up, but was, understandably, a bit nervous coming down...not as nervous as me, however...and not as nervous as I'd like him to be ...

Couple more side-notes...T-Bone our Jersey steer has been delivered to the "processor"...we are now on calf-watch...Clarabelle is due anytime now to give birth...so my milking break is coming to an end...I'm ready...I'm officially a milk snob...there's nothing like fresh Jersey milk...and I will be reminding myself of that in the dead of winter when I'm dragging myself out of bed in the dark...there's nothing like fresh milk...there's nothing like fresh milk...there's nothing like fresh milk...

We haven't made it to the state fair yet, but I realized I did take a picture of Joshua the day he made his cake...so here he/it is...

YUM!!

...and on to other news...we've been working HARD for the past 4 days.  We'd been dreaming and developing plans for a piece of our property for some time now wanting to add some fruit trees, blackberry vines and blueberry bushes.  We had gotten as far as 2 weeks ago cutting down a brushy area to start clearing for the blueberry bushes that we wanted to get.  That same day, I got an e-mail from a friend at church that said someone was selling out their "pick-your-own" blueberry farm that they had just started the year prior...YEAH!  They had 500 plants available, and we would have loved all of them, but since we haven't yet planted that "money tree" we had to settle for 45 bushes. 

So, on Saturday we began digging holes.  We had NO IDEA how hard our ground was going to prove to be...ROCK.HARD!!!  Friends of ours from church came to help and they were SUCH a blessing...We worked about 3 hours with them and accomplished 16 holes...2 feet in diameter and 12-14 inches deep.  They had to go and we set to work on the remaining 29 holes.  David then came up with an ingenious plan that really made the work go much more quickly...we just tilled the hole area until it was totally loose, scooped it out...stuck the tiller in the hole... tilled it to death...scooped it out...repeat...  What a life saver...our arms and backs were breaking!

A friend and I picked up the bushes on Sunday while David and a few more friends (did I mention we are blessed with incredible friends???) continued digging holes.  The kids and I have spent yesterday and today planting away and we're finally done!!  I can't wait to have our own blueberries!!  Praise the Lord!  I was just amazed at how God worked out so many details in a way we wouldn't have planned it had we done things in our way and our timing.  I love to see that God really does delight in showing us His love for us by putting His fingerprints all over things in our lives that seemingly are inconsequential...just because He can !

Sammy LOVED the holes...and he loved all the rocks we found!

After about 2 hours of tireless digging David inquired again as to "why" we had decided to get all of these blueberry bushes...after a few more minutes he mused, "I don't really NEED  blueberries!"  The boy worked HARD!  He's not always thrilled about work, but he'll always see a job through to the end which is such a blessing to me!  It's nice to be able to count on a job getting done when you send a child to do it.  Unfortunately, poor David ends up with LOTS of extra job because of that positive character trait...a trait that is still being worked on, prayed for, and lacking in certain other more hightly distractible and younger household members .

Row 1...

I did alot of work while Becca napped, but whenever she was outside with us she just sat in one place for an hour at a time and smiled at everyone and everything (of course in this picture she found her passy).

Next topic...

Sammy was the recipient of a wooden swing to the head courtesy of his 4-year-old big sister.  Apparently, they had a stand down...she wanted to swing and she had possession (9/10 of the law, I hear)...he wanted to swing and he had position...  She then used her "possession" to remove his "position".

...and finally, last topic...

Meet Mop-Top, or Mop-Head...a rare-breed rooster that has finally gotten old enough to find his cocka-doodle-doo (did you know that roosters have to learn to crow...the first few days that they begin they sound hilarious!!  Who knew?!?!)

Oh, did I say "has gotten old enough"...I meant "HAD gotten old enough"...

It seems that Mop-Top got his Top Mopped or chopped or...whatever...

Let me explain as briefly as I can.  I've twittered before about Max, our collie, preferring a distant neighbor to us...well, we finally put him on a runner so he would stay put.  Well, his "girlfriend", a 6-month old husky named Sheba, decided she couldn't live without Max and has now left her home and come to stay with Max.  No big deal...except...she likes to kill chickens.  One a day for about 4 days.  She only eats a little bit and then the rest of the dogs enjoy finishing off their treat...they, no doubt, are chearing her on.  Well, before she got taken back home yesterday, she got a hold of MopTop!  Not a huge loss, we don't really NEED another rooster...but I soooo wanted to have a picture of him...I just love his head-feathers!

I was resigned to not have my picture when Julia brought me MopTop's head this morning...looking so perfect...I had to get a picture.  Sammy couldn't figure out where the rest of him was...but he followed my instructions and threw the head to Max...who promptly devoured it, feathers and all...gross!  I hope Sheba stays home now!  The chickens are apparently, and rightfully so, terrified...I've only gotten about 8 eggs total in the last 4 days...from 40 chickens...or make that 36 chickens.  UGH!!!

If you happen to go to the North Carolina State Fair this year, a certain 6 year-old boy would love for you to stop by the education building to notice who won the "Chocolate or Mock Pound Cake" division for children 9 and under.

...and if you come visit us,, the same sweet 6-year-old boy might just make the award winning apple pound cake for you...and then maybe we'll get some, too!  Out of his practice run and final run creations, we ended up only keeping 1/4 of a cake...Joshy wanted to share it with everyone else !

Great job, Joshua!  We're proud of you! 

(P.S.  We haven't actually been to the fair yet...we just got the report from a friend...I'll try to post a picture when we go)

Back in the day when our numbers were fewer, I always seemed to make too much of whatever I was making...a huge 9x13 of enchiladas, a 4-qt pot of chili,  a double batch of cookies, etc.  We always ended up having leftovers for a week of the same thing and I inevitably threw stuff out that we just got tired of.  I couldn't figure out how to cook for just 2 or 3.

Thankfully, that problem has resolved itself rather quickly in the past few years...our little ones didn't seem to eat much early on...I could make 2 sandwiches to feed 3 kids and when we went out to eat we could usually get away with 1 kid's meal per 2-3 kids. 

Well, our little bird-mouths are getting much bigger.  We now only have leftovers 1-2 times a week and it's just the scraps from several meals combined.  ...and who knew a 9-year old boy could eat nearly a dozen muffins in a day?!?!  I actually really like seeing my kids ENJOY food I make...David's Sr's affection for food is what made my mom love him first...he would just swoon over everything she put in front of him and because of his (heartfelt) reactions, she LOVED to cook for him.  I can see the same thing with my kids...when they enjoy what I put in front of them, it makes my task of feeding them so much more enjoyable!  It's fun to cook for people who enjoy and appreciate what they're being served.

Another thing I noticed this week that is such a huge perk of having  a slightly larger than average family...I get to eat ALOT of different things without getting too much of anything...take these past 2 weeks for example...Here's a list of things that we've made (other than normal breakfast, lunch, dinner):

• 2 batches pumpkin cookies (96 cookies)
• 3 batches snickerdoodles (120 cookies)
• 2 apple pound cakes
• 2 loaves banana bread
• 1 peanut butter pie
• 1 chocolate pie
• 1 batch no-bake cookies
• 4 dozen blueberry muffins

That's alot of stuff in 12 days time and what do we have left to show for it???  about 1/2 of a chocolate pie (that we made today), 1/2 a piece of peanut butter pie (Happy 65th birthday, Papaw!!), and a half-dozen or so cookies.  Now, before we had so many good eaters I would have been a good bit plumper after making all of those goodies...but now, I get just enough (and then some) to satisfy my sweet tooth...and when it all gets eaten before I'm fully satisfied, well, I still have those yummy ghiradelli chocolate chips in my pantry that stave off any chocolate attacks and an ever-ready supply of ice cream in my freezer!

Our oldest three are working towards earning Presidential Fitness awards this school year.  We meet with other homeschoolers once a month to track their progress and they work on the "events" at home during the rest of the month. 

The events are sit-ups, pull-ups, shuttle run, 1-mile run, sit-n-reach, and I'm sure i'm forgetting one or two...  Anyway, I remember doing this when I was in jr. high or so and i really enjoyed it.  I don't think I ever got the top award because I was not flexible enough...never could sit-n-reach to meet their specifications!. 

They are all very excited about it and LOVE timing themselves while they're practicing.  Right now they are on target to meet their goals and apparently David's side of the family has a flexibility gene because our kids are doing what I could not back in the day.

David (Sr) and I decided to pretend we are in shape  test our own sit-up skills tonight and, well, we now are just hoping we have enough muscle left to get up in the morning.  The kids enjoyed a good laugh at my expense...Joshy pushed me up from behind while David and Julia watched the timer and pleaded with me to try harder.  In my pathetic defense, laughing made it a little trickier AND, I kept reminding them, my stomach muscles have been ravaged by the 6 sweet kids I carried for a total of 55 months (9 months each plus all of the overdue days gives me another month ) that are now laughing at their wimpy momma!  I still was able to get 15 in a minute with Joshy's assistance (he may be complaining of arm pain tomorrow).  David beat me with 25...and the kids whipped us both with about 40 each, give or take.

For what it's worth, I can do more pull-ups now than I could in high school...could be from carrying around kids for the last 9 years, or hauling 50-pound cattle feed bags for the last 2 years, or a combination thereof.  In any event, we'll focus on the positives...I'm STRONGER than I was 20 years ago!!!