CrAZy Days!

I am really behind on blogging because LiFe is happening!  School has wrapped up about as much as it is going to.  Mariah still has some Bible to finish up, Malachi is working on Reading all summer and Madeline is busy preparing for next fall.  Matthew decided (with a little encouragement from his parents!) to take a couple of summer courses.  He will thank us next fall when he isn't taking an overload of classes! :o)

 

This time of year is always so busy with kidding season, baby chicks, gardening and yard work.  We lost our Nubian "Wildflower" a couple of weeks ago.  We aren't sure what happened but the vet suspected it was a genetic issue.  That was a huge financial hit for our little homestead, but we traveled (not quite as far as last time!) to another farm and bought a new little Nubian doeling.  The girls haven't quite settled on her name yet, but I will post pictures of her soon.  Wildflower was a pretty goat but I think this new one is even prettier!

I had done some tree pruning and asked the boys to clean it up.  I looked out and typical of their personalities Malachi was busy cleaning up and Myles was busy playing.

When I announced that any hard worker would get a treat Myles suddenly sprung into action! :o)

 

One thing we always look forward to in the spring is picking strawberries!  We travel to a Mennonite farm down the road from us to pick.

 

 

We have had a very pretty spring this year and the weather was mild the day we picked.

Macheus took no interest in the berries, (He wouldn't even eat any!) but he thoroughly enjoyed being free to walk around.

Mariah loves to have her picture taken almost as much as her mother! :o)

Madeline

Trying a bite but not impressed.  He and Mariah are by far my pickiest eaters!

Malachi

Myles

 

Because we have so many coyotes our where we live we usually have to add to our flock in the spring.  We recently bought a predator light for our farmyard area.  Hoping it will make a difference.  This year Madeline ordered Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks and Americanas.  We have had some loss this year, but we have about 25 beautiful little chickens in the chicken tractor moving around our property right now and about that many layers that are free range.  I will have to take an updated picture soon!

Well. that is all for today.  Hoping to blog some more this week and get my pictures caught up!  Hope you all are having as beautiful a spring as we are having here in the sunny south!

Muddin'

Busy days.....  We are winding up our school year.  We won't completely stop schooling, but we will take a break from a lot of the monotonous stuff. 

 

We had a lot of rain for several weeks and the boys loved the mud puddles it produced!

This was one of several days that they got out there and got filthy!  I actually ended up throwing some of their clothes away!

I thought as we wound our school year up that things would slow down around here.  So far that hasn't been the case! 

I look at the above picture and can't imagine how gross that has to feel! :o)

I haven't uploaded pictures in several weeks so I will wait to write about recent happenings when I have pictures to go with it.  Pictures make it so much more interesting! :o)

Myles is such a carefree little guy!

Yep, Macheus thinks they are pretty funny! :o)

Historical Tour

About a month ago we took a trolley ride tour of a town that we used to live in.  My parents lived there until my mom's death three years ago.  My sister brought my dad to go on the tour with us.

 

The weather was perfect and our tour guide did a wonderful job.  Marc and I lived in this town when we got married and our first three children were born while we lived there.  I never really loved the town while we lived there and definitely have no desire to move back, but I do have some good memories from our time there.

These first pictures are from the military college that Marc was attending when I met him!  We got to tour some of the buildings, so that was fun for the kids to see!

There are some beautiful homes there and definitely a lot of history!

This was one of the old churches in town.  We heard  stories about Sherman's famous "march to the sea" and how much damage was done during the Civil War.

The inside of the church was beautiful!

The kids posing with Grandpa outside of our trolley.

Me with my girls.

After lunch we spent some time at a park where my older ones use to play.  The kids enjoyed walking on the path around the pond.

 It was a fun day making memories with family.  Another good field trip for Mariah finishing up her year of studying Georgia History!

 

Three years....

May 5th was the third anniversary of my mom leaving this earth behind.  She was in such bad shape that I could never wish her back to the pain and suffering she endured, but she sure left a hole in our lives.

 

                                         This was the last picture Madeline had taken with her.

I couldn't make myself blog yesterday.  Our day was busy, but I would have moments that I would stop and think of May 5, 2012 and feel the wave of sadness all over again.  The day she died we were all exhausted.  We had been going on three weeks of an emotional roller coaster with her in the hospital and then in ICU.  It was almost like I was numb when I got the word that she had died.  I probably cried less that day than I had the week before.  I remember leaving the hospital late one night and going by Kroger on the way home. (My kids still had to eat! :o)  I remember trying to shop and just sobbing the whole time.  Everywhere I looked I could see my mom.  She loved to cook and everything that had to do with the home.  I remember wondering how I would ever be able to function again.

Life marches on and time has a way of healing things.  I still don't think a day goes by that something doesn't make me think of her.  Our home is full of things that she gave us, made for us or belonged to her.  Her hand prints are everywhere... but especially on our hearts.

I looked at old pictures a lot yesterday just to find ones of her.  Thankfully I am a big picture taker (and so is McKenzie!), so we don't lack for pictures of her.  These aren't great pictures (and she would NOT be happy with me posting them!), but they just bring back so many memories.  They are good memories, but I wonder if I will ever be able to look through them without crying.

I know losing your mother is a natural part of life.  I have often wondered how people ever take another breath when they lose a child.  I can't begin to imagine the pain.  I think the sadness of losing my mom is because she suffered so much her last years, she wanted to live so desperately because of her family, and she died too soon.

 

This old home on Willow Bend Way will always bring back so many memories.

If my mom could help it, she would not miss anything that had to do with her grandchildren.  This next picture is of Malachi's first birthday.  She was having a pace maker put in the next day!

This was one Sunday afternoon when we went to celebrate Mother's Day with her.  I wanted to take her picture and she put her plate in front of her face.  My dad (always a goofball) did it too.  He hasn't been the same silly dad since she died.

 

This next picture makes me cry.  She adored her grandchildren, and they loved her too!  I have thought so many times about Macheus never getting to have a "Boo Boo".  She use to rub noses with my babies and say, "Nose, nose, nose."  I started doing that with Macheus and I was doing it with him last night and told him, "Your Boo Boo sure would have loved you."  He smiled and said,  "Boo Boo love you."  :o)

There are times that I can picture everything about her.  I can hear her voice, I can see her standing in her kitchen  Then in other ways she seems so far away.  So much has changed since her death.
If you still have your mother don't take her for granted.  You never know when she could be gone.  My mom wasn't perfect, but she was perfect for us!

Savannah

 Back in February (or the beginning of March, I can't remember!) we went on a trip to visit Savannah, Georgia for a few days.  Marc had business and we decided to travel with him to do a little Georgia History!

We took a ride on the Savannah River.  It was such a beautiful day!

 

Walking along River Street.

 

We walked miles, and miles, and miles while we were there.

No, we didn't see Paula Deen. :o)

There is so much history in this city from both the Civil War and the Revolutionary War!

 

And of course, we hit the hotel gym at night. (As if the walking wasn't enough! :o)

 

Madeline is much better with directions than I am, so she was our map reader when Marc was in meetings.

 

This was the cemetery with Revolutionary War graves and monuments.  It was interesting to me that this cemetery looked newer and was better kept than the Civil War cemetery.  My uneducated conclusion was that it was a more popular war, but who knows.... I just found it interesting!

Mariah studied GA History this year and it was neat to see her excitement when she would recognize names that she had studied!

 

The little guys were fascinated with the statues with swords!

 

The one day we decided to ride out to the beach it was FREEZING!

 

 

Huddled up together for one last cold, windy picture before we left the beach!

 

Myles and Macheus loved watching the traffic from our hotel room window.

Our last day there we went to Laurel Grove Cemetery.  This is where many confederate graves are and lots of slave graves.  It was one of my favorite things we saw while there.

 

I'm not a fan of Girl Scouts, but it was neat to see Juliette Low's house and read some of the history.

Savannah is one of my favorite cities to visit.  There's lots of history, neat things to do and beautiful homes to see!