And I bet you didn't even know that I was "gone"!!      

     March was another unfriendly electronics month for me.  My computer obviously has something wrong with the hard drive and I was unable to access the Internet for much of the month.  Talk about frustrating!!!  You never realize how much you want to do something until you can't do it!!  Honestly I wanted to just chuck the whole computer into our neighbor's pond.  We spent hours upon hours trying to fiddle with this and adjust that other thing--all to no avail.  If it were not for my friends that I IM/email and my blogs I would have given up completely.  I ended up having to wipe my hard drive and reboot it ~AGAIN~.  Sigh.  Now my printer isn't working (can you even homeschool without a printer???).  I am resisting the urge to stomp my feet, jump up and down while screaming at the top of my lungs and pulling all of my hair out.    It eats away at me.  But at least for now I'm back online.  I don't know how long it will last but I'm enjoying this little bit of victory while I have it.

     Right now our house is bursting at it's seams with children.  My neice and 5 nephews (ages 18-7) are visiting.  That makes 17 people under one roof.  It's great!!  They were only supposed to be here for the weekend but we decided to make it a week long visit.  I had planned to let them stay for a week this summer when they can play outside freely but realized that the oldest boys will be working again and won't be able to stay for that long.  And since this week is 2 of my daughters birthdays--well I figured that this is as good as time as any.  Actually it was all of their begging and sad faces they gave me when I told them I had to take them home that clinched it.  What can I say, I'm a softie!!  The cousins love spending as much time together as possible and they get along very well.  After ps hours are over they play outside.  The older children play with their "air soft" guns in our field while the younger ones play in our playground bouncing on the trampoline, swinging or teeter-tottering.  (When it's not pouring down rain or hail, that is!!)  And there are baby goats to play with and feed as well. 

     I can't believe how much rain we've had these past few weeks.  I have no hope of getting into the garden any time soon.  My seedlings are coming along nicely though.  I have broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage waiting to go into the garden when it gets dry enough.  My warm weather seedlings like tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers are growing wonderfully.  I planted peas a few weeks ago but they didn't make it.  Too much rain, I guess.  I was so hoping for a nice crop of peas.

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Thought you all might enjoy this picture of Stevie and little Silas (who isn't really so little!!).  He's 3 months old now and so adorable!!! 

     If the Lord leads you, please pray for Silas who has been having a bit of blood in his stools for some time now.  The doctors don't really know what's causing it and suspect that it might be allergies--most likely milk. 

     Also Hannah's grandpa was out walking around their neighborhood in SC--he really loves walking--and a neighbor accidentally ran over him as she was backing out of her driveway.  She is deaf and couldn't hear him yelling at her to stop.  He's very old and doesn't move the fastest.  Anyway, this happened Easter weekend and he is stable but his pelvis is fractured and they are fairly certain that he'll never be able to walk again.  So sad.  Please pray for her grandpa and their family.

     And (finally!!) here are a couple of pictures of the goats...Hope with a few of the goat babies and our black Shetland Sheep ewe.

The gang.  They love to romp and play outside on a sunny day.

     That about sums up much of what's been going on around here!