Personally I like to end things on a positive note and anticipating bad news can sometimes be as bad as the bad news itself, so I'm a fan of just getting the bad news over with myself.
But you can pick and choose which you want to read first. You'll just have to hold your hand over the screen and scroll if you want the good news first. You have ALL the control right at your fingertips.
Anyway.
Sigh.
Here goes:
BAD NEWS
I don't know how to break the news gently, but Little Red didn't survive the night last night. We thought we had her all nice and secure in the chicken tractor. In fact, at night Jake would safely tuck her into a dog kennel (the plastic kind with a metal door) within the tractor and then would let her out each morning. That's two layers of security folks. But apparently it wasn't enough.
Whatever it was, tore through our chicken tractor and then ripped that metal door right off the cage and made off with Little Red.
It was not a pretty scene to discover.
That predator is going down!
GOOD NEWS
Candace and her boys came to visit this afternoon and brought the Pioneer Woman's Key Lime Pie. I didn't even know if I would like Key Lime Pie, but oh sweet mercy, it was all kinds of good. And having a foodie friend who comes over with pie after you've lost your last chicken is pretty sweet too.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:21
Isn't it hard to believe that it's July already? The summer is flying by. Fortunately though, it's been great.
After cutting back my workload with The Old Schoolhouse in February, I thought I would perk up and start feeling better immediately. Alas, it didn't quite work that way. I really just started feeling better in the last few weeks - almost 4 months later! I still struggle with the normal ups and downs of fibromyalgia, but overall I'm coping much much better. I'm sleeping better and don't need supplements to help me sleep all the time and I'm able to get out and about much much more.
A friend pointed out to me that it just takes time for the body to heal itself. We tend to want quick relief, but after having burned the candle at both ends for far too long, it took me 4 months of doing practically nothing before my body could recover. The hard part was that it didn't feel like I was getting better during those months. At times, I actually felt worse and that was a real bummer, yet God was working and things were improving even when I didn't "feel" it.
In other news, we've lost all but one of our chickens and quite a few of our guineas. Apparently some predators decided to have themselves an all you can eat buffet on our delightful free range fowl. I miss my chickens and hearing the roosters crow. Now, we're down to 13 guineas and 1 hen.
Apparently her hiding skills served her well. She's our lone survivor!
Thankfully Billy and Baab are doing well, as are the dogs and cats. And the boys and I have had a great summer. After being so tied down while I was working so much, we decided to schedule at least one fun budget-friendly activity a week. It's been such a blessing. I think I needed a mental change of pace to help myself heal too.
Plus after much procrastination, I finally got my oldest son's transcript up to date. Woo hoo! Homeschool mom dance of joy! It really helped me to think about not only what I want to do with him, but also with the other boys this upcoming school year. I am SO thankful for this season of refreshment and how God has shown Himself faithful every step of the way.
I still think more changes are coming, but I know that wherever God leads us, He will prepare the way.
I wanted to write a big ol' long entry about how inspired and encouraged I was by the CHEK Conference in Louisville, but alas, I've been kind of busy ever since I got home and I am plum tuckered out.
I can share a few pictures with you though. I really enjoyed getting to meet a lot of nice homeschoolers and vendors. I managed to get a picture with Cindy West from Our Journey Westward and Malia Russell from Homemaking 911.
However I forgot to even take a picture of the TOS booth. Can you believe that? Ugh! And it looked really nice too. You can catch a little bit of it in this picture I took when Bro. Joe Adams (one of the CHEK directors) stopped by our booth to say Hello.
I hope you all are having a wonderful week and staying cool in spite of this crazy heat. I've been sending out emails to let people in the Hopkinsville area know about Norm Wakefield coming to speak to our group. If any of you are within driving distance, we'd love to have you come join us.
He's going to speak on giving your child a firm foundation (Christ!) for their lives and building a legacy of God's love.
It's going to be wonderful.
The Crossing Church in the Bradford Square Mall has graciously offered to let us use their building and we'll be there on Saturday, June 27th from 4-6. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity if you're in the area! It's free!!
Last weekend I had a lot of fun with my friend, Candace, at the Lexington Homeschool Fair. We met a lot of nice folks. *Waving* in case some of them just happened to have clicked over to my blog from The Homeschool Minute.
This coming weekend she and I will be at the CHEK Conference in Louisville. If you're going to be there, please stop by our booth and say, "Hi!" I'm hoping that we'll sell lots of subscriptions there! Paul & Paulie Suarez are going to be there too and they're bringing lots of Homeschooling with Heart tote bags so you all won't want to miss out on those.
See how pretty they are?
I hope you're all having a wonderful summer. We've been taking advantage of the Great Escape Theater's Free Summer Movies and having fun with friends at local parks. We even did a little fishing last weekend.
He's not much a talker, but he's quite a looker isn't he?
I love him. I loved him from the first moment that I spied him at a local yard sale.
I knew that he had to be mine.
At first, my husband couldn't understand the attraction.
But after noticing that I was practically drooling over ALL of the metal animals -
(donkeys, sheep, and flying pigs - oh my!)
he began to think strategically and bought him quickly before I could
begin to make plans to own a whole collection of welded animals.
I'm not sure where May went. I looked back through my pictures
and apparently it rained a lot in May.
This is a picture of what is supposed to be the little creek in our front yard.
We had a TON of rain in a short period of time and that water just didn't know where to go.
For a little bit, we had an awesome waterfall going on. It looked like a raging river!
The boys couldn't wait to investigate it once the water quit moving so quickly.
And soon enough, all of the animals came out of the barn to check things out again.
You see that wooly sheep? He needs to be sheared this year. And I'm a little scared.
Any volunteers?
I found this link to a great post over at The Common Room on Children in Public Spaces. Years ago one of my friends recommended that I read Parenting in the Pew, but it was out of print and almost impossible to find.
I noticed that Amazon has an updated version available now so I thought I'd pass the info along.
I love that her approach to having your child with you in church isn't just about getting them to sit there quietly or keeping them busy with coloring books, it's about teaching your child (and the parent) how to listen and participate in an age-appropriate way.
And really the same concepts can be applied whether you're attending a play, a wedding, lunch, or some other type of meeting. With some practice ahead of time, and some good clues on what to listen for and expect, most kids can actually participate appropriately with the adults and be a blessing to the people around them rather than a distraction.
The other day I realized that I still needed to do some more work in this area. We went to a cousin's choir performance and my youngest was really, really restless. And even though he was quiet about it, anybody there could have told that he couldn't care less about what was happening on the stage and that he was just biding his time until it was over and he could play with his cousin.
I should have prepared him better for how long it was going to be and engaged him more with what was going on. It really does go back to the Golden Rule and thinking of others more highly than ourselves. The kids on stage had worked hard and deserved a good audience and the people around us didn't need to hear repeated whispers of, "How much longer is it?". Plus, he could have learned a lot from the musical if he hadn't tuned it out.
It has been a blessing to see each of my boys grow in self-control (Jon did sit much more quietly than he would have a year ago), but it's still nice to be encouraged that we can keep working on these things. I really do think that most children appreciate being taught how to behave in public. It's so much nicer to get positive attention rather than negative attention. It just takes a little more work.
Tony turned 40 today and we had a lot of fun celebrating with him and just plain ol' celebrating him. Tony and I first met in 1987 (when we were both just young whipersnappers) so we've known each other for almost 22 years now.
I knew he was a special guy right from the first time we met as friends. Even when my mother met him as she and I shopped in Wal-Mart one day, she commented on how nice he was.
Back in those days, people were buying cassette tapes of their favorite groups.
Today he got his first Ipod. We're on the cutting edge of technology around here you know.
But anyway, I'm glad that my mom and I were right about him being a nice guy being as how I married him and all. Cuz we've got these three boys and wow are they like him.
He practically shares a brain with this one.
This one has his make-everybody-laugh personality.
And this one has his heart.
Anyway, we wanted to make him feel extra special so we made him a card and wrote 40 things that we love about him in it and took him out to eat at a Japanese steakhouse.
Whoa baby, that was some yummy teppanyaki. (My friend Mel taught me that word.) Our chef quickly spied Jon as the one to impress and had lots of fun wowing him with twirling spatula, egg tricks, cool fires, and the flaming onion. If you haven't ever been to a Japanese steak house, this YouTube video shows kind of what it's like. It was an awesome night of doing something new and fun together.
And a great way of celebrating just how much Tony means to all of us!
Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate. Psalms 127: 3-5
Boys. Men-in-training. I'm blessed to be the mother to three of them. And I do truly mean blessed. Through these three young men, I have been privileged to watch a bit of God's finest handiwork. I mean they just start out as these precious little babies and then they go through this really messy, loud stage. Then they get a little older and the next thing you know they are carrying all the heavy stuff, fixing things around the house, holding doors open for women, and learning what it really means to be a man.
Of course in the middle of all that, they can just about give you a heart attack. Boys aren't content to just ride bikes - no - they have to "do tricks". They like to climb as high as they can in trees. They tear things up and get things dirty. They like to fish and hunt and want you to "ooh and ahhh" over the things they bring home. And all of it is part of the learning process. Learning to be a man. And as a mom, learning to let go. Learning to let them be men.
God has created them to be strong arrows - arrows that can contend with enemies at the gate. God tells us that they are a blessing to us and as we aim them in the right direction, they will go on to bless many others. Just keep reminding yourself of that during the messy loud years and enjoy the blessing of boys.
Just schedule a field trip to your local 4H High Ropes Camp. They'll all be laughing and gabbing it up for a while.
But they'll start listening a little more closely as they get on their equipment.
And once they see where the course starts - WAY up in that tree, oh sweet mercy...
they'll think about what a good and kind mama you are.
See Son? Just keep walking on those ropes.
You've just got 4 more challenges before you'll be back on the ground.
See the ground?
It's fun down here. No special equipment needed.
Just watch your brother.
He's going across the Multi-Vine section.
It's gonna be fun - walking on a little rope 30 feet up in the air while hanging on swinging vines.
Doesn't he look excited?
I'm having lots of fun down here on the nice, SAFE ground.
Don't worry though. We know it's safe up there.
See? Just look at your dad.
I wouldn't send him up there if it wasn't safe.
And there are lots of real-life lessons up there - WAY up there in the trees.
Like taking a leap of faith... See how Mrs. Lee Ann is watching you from above?
And she knows that you can do it?
But it's still kind of hard for you to jump across to the other platform?
You're gonna feel that way sometimes in life.
But you've just got to have faith and keep going.
And if you get in a spot and you need some help -
like your younger brother in this picture... We'll be there for you.
And God will be too.
He's the One that you'll want to listen to.
He's the Almighty One and the best at rescuing people and stuff.
(I'm just trying to get pictures of people as they fly by on the zipline.
And sometimes I miss...) But you just keep on keeping on...
Run the race with endurance and keep walking on those ropes
and climbing that tower until you reach the end like your buddies here.
Because I'm thinking...
That God has some neat stuff in store for you (and your friends).
And you're going to need to listen to Him so you don't miss a thing. It's going to be SO worth it!
This is a picture of what is supposed to be the little creek in our front yard. 
Tony turned 40 today and we had a lot of fun celebrating with him and just plain ol' celebrating him. Tony and I first met in 1987 (when we were both just young whipersnappers) so we've known each other for almost 22 years now. 
We're on the cutting edge of technology around here you know.
They'll all be laughing and gabbing it up for a while. 
But they'll start listening a little more closely as they get on their equipment. 
And once they see where the course starts - WAY up in that tree, oh sweet mercy... 
See Son? Just keep walking on those ropes. 
Just watch your brother.
Don't worry though. We know it's safe up there.
See how Mrs. Lee Ann is watching you from above?
We'll be there for you. 
It's going to be SO worth it!
