Last Wednesday, May 2, we received a call to take a 2-month-old baby girl.  It was a no brainer!  So Baby Bella (my nickname for her) came to stay with us.  Unfortunately for us, not for her, she only got to stay for a week.  DCS was able to find relatives who wanted her.  But we had a wonderful, if somewhat crazy and busy, week.  She is a sweet little girl, such a cuddler and a cute thumb-sucker!  When she has to sneeze, she makes two or three abortive attempts which end in a coo.  It made me laugh everytime.  She was a dream to foster and I miss her.  It's amazing how quickly these little ones snuggle into your heart!  I won't say we spoiled her, but she got ALL she wanted to eat whenever she said she was hungry and if she wanted to sleep in someone's arms instead of that big, lonely crib, well...in her short life, there has been little enough of this. 

Okay, I give up!  I had been messing with the template settings on my page and got so confused that I thought it was time to start over.  So this is the new look, complete with a pic of my house and my favorite color, green.

And now a recommendation for all of us hobby farmers.  Hobby Farm Home magazine.  I love it.  It's an offshoot of Hobby Farms magazine and is only published 3 times a year.  There have only been 2 issues so far, a winter and a spring.  The first one was good, but this spring issue is much better with articles on:

•  Making cheese, kefir, and yogurt
•  How to enjoy auctions
•  Repurposing rainwater
•  Spring cleaning your barn, shed, and home

There is a recipe for goats' milk mozzarella (for Jen, if you're reading. :-) )  Also you can go to their website for more articles and recipes from Hobby Farm. 

Today was beautiful!  Sunny and in the 70s.  We had a fun time catching up on outdoor work.  And I am sunburnt!  But the pool is closer to being ready for swimming and the pond is clearer for my goldfish, who are very appreciative!

We also have frogs in our pond, such as this guy hitching a ride on the plastic duck's back.

It must be spring (even though the weather outside doesn't support that idea!) because there are kittens and peeps at our house! 

Here are from left to right, Angela, Oofy Prosser, Tuppy Glossop, and Bertie Wooster, all named from P.G. Wodehouse books.  They are only 1 week old, but their eyes are starting to open already.  They were born to an orange stray cat who we were positive was a male!  Oops!

And here are the chickens, Barley, Boppy, Beaudelaire, Blacky, and Barbeque.  The last is what happens when you let 4 yr. old Tori name a chicken!

I was planning on doing some spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago when the weather here in East TN got so warm.  Since we run our woodstove all winter, everything gets a dusting of soot and needs a good wipe-down at the end of the season.  But I didn't get to it and now the weather is COLD and we've got a fire going in the woodstove again.  So see how much trouble I saved myself by procrastinating?  

One of the benefits of all this freezing weather has been cutting the spring flowers and bringing them inside.  It looks like a florist shop in here.  Usually I'm squeamish about cutting my lilacs and Rachel's tulips because they last longer on the plant.  But the heavy freeze we got last night was going to do them in anyway, so no guilt!

Have a blessed Easter!  And if you're going to Sunrise service, stay warm!

Here are 3 good reasons why I haven't blogged in a while! 

We are doing some daycare for the spring.  Tori (4) and Naomi (3 months) will only be coming until school is out.  Summer (20 months) will be coming indefinitely.  None of the girls are related to each other, which means 3 different drop-off and pickup times.  Summer arrives at 5:00 in the morning.  That's taken some getting used to!  But we are having a great and busy time. 

This is also one of my favorite pictures of Heather, my oldest daughter.  She has a heart for children and has worked in childcare since she was 13 years old.

Want to see a list of what others are reading this spring?  Just click on the picture!  Feel free to join.  It's not too late.

Here's what I'm currently reading:

Cornbread Nation 3: foods of the mountain South - Ronni Lundy

Kidnapped  - Robert Louis Stevenson

And sitting in the stack from the library are:

Better Than School - Nancy Wallace     This was one of the first books I read when I started homeschooling in 1990.  I think it was the only one available at our library in FL except for Mary Pride's Big Book of Home Learning, which I also devoured!

Your Money or Your Life - Joseph R. Dominguez

All We Knew Was To Farm: rural women in the upcountry South 1919-1941 - Melissa Walker

Edith Head - David Chierichetti A biography.

Crime of the Century: the Lindbergh kidnapping hoax - Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier

Hamburgers and Fries: an American story - John T. Edge

The above list is what happens when I wander the non-fiction stacks of the library just to get a copy of Preparing for the ACT for my daughter!