What made me happy today?

Tell about something that made you smile yesterday or today.

It would have to be this layout and the memories that go with it. I don't usually attempt to go anywhere with all the kids without DH, but I had promised the kids I would take them someplace fun when they had a day off school. I was surprised at how easy it was and how good they were. My oldest son was the "keeper of the map" and he told us which way to go and what we were going to see next. My oldest daughter was in charge of my youngest son and they were so excited about seeing the animals and wondering what was going to be next that they forgot to fight! : ) On the way home, we stopped off for all the makings of ice cream sundaes and we went home and made them to share with Dad (who was working and not able to go with us). We just might have to do that again real soon! : )
Page Credits can be found here. And in case you're wondering, that wonderful baby carrier I'm wearing is a Kozy Carrier made by my friend, Kelley!

Zzzzzzzz

Blog Prompt: What do you think about when you can't fall asleep?

There are a couple of things I always pull into my mind in those wee hours of the night. I'm usually awake at least a couple times in the night to nurse the baby. First, I usually pray for my friends and family that come to mind, and other times, when I really can't sleep, I rearrange all the furniture in my house. (My husband HATES those nights! LOL!) ; )

Once when I was in college, I stayed all night at my sister's house. I had finals the next morning and had to be up at a certain time to get to the college on time. My sister set the alarm and apparently was so worried I would sleep in, she kept waking to make sure we hadn't. At 4:14 am, she woke up, looked at the clock and for some reason, her mind thought I was late, so she ran into my room and shook me yelling, "VICKI! It's 4:14! Hurry up, it's 4:14!" I jumped out of bed and then I realized that it was 4:14 and I had at least another couple of hours to sleep. LOL! To this day we laugh about that and oddly enough, often when I wake up in the middle of the night now, I look at the clock and it's 4:14. Immediately, I pray for my sister as that's something of a "code" for us. Later in the day I call her and tell her, by the way, I was praying for you this morning at 4:14. : )

DSP Blog Prompt - Free Cash

Blog Prompt: Tell about something that made you feel good this week.

My oldest daughter has loved horses almost since the day she was born. From the time she was two years old, and was able to talk, she started wanting a horse of her own. Any cash she got for birthdays or Christmas or Allowances went into a savings account and by the time she was nine years old, she had saved up enough money to buy her horse. Tasha was a four year old draft/paint mare and Tori cared for her, rode her, fed her, babied her, for three years. Then, last March, Tasha got colic for the second time. The first time we were able to get her through it, but this time, she was down and wasn't going to get up. We did everything we could for her - even had a chiropractor come out and adjust her, but it was not to be. Tasha died on April Fools Day 2006.

I worried that Tori would be hurt and bitter and be put off horses, but we prayed and cried together and the Lord used the experience to teach us both. Shortly after, Tori made a list of things she would like to have in her "dream horse" and started saving all her cash for the day she would finally have enough to buy another horse.

This week, my friend Sue called me. She was with us the night Tasha died and knew how much it meant to Tori to have a horse. She had talked to her sister in law who had horses about finding another horse for Tori. Would you believe that someone GAVE her sister in law a horse? After months of watching and trying this horse (whose name is Cash, btw), she has declared her safe and ready to move in. The incredible thing is - as Sue began to tell me all the details about this horse, I started mentally checking off the items on Tori's "dream horse list". This horse IS Tori's Dream Horse! And since Cash was a gift to Sue's sister in law, she is GIVING her to Tori! Tori has been out in the stable all week cleaning out Cash's new stall and getting it ready for her. She's even talking about making curtains for the window. LOL! Several times this week, she has said to me, "I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and find out it was all a dream." As soon as we can find a trailer, we'll be off to bring her home.

I did this layout awhile back of Tori on Tasha and oddly enough, it's called "Dream Come True". I guess the next layout will have to be called "Dream Come True...Again!"

Scrapbook Page Credits: Nameless Beauty Page Kit Created by ©2007 Beth Nixon
http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.c...ucts_id=5 091
"T" from the Boy oh Boy Sparkle Alpha from the Kit Created by Valeri Brumfield

Lambs, lambs, and more lambs...

Our first twin lambs were born on April 22nd and they've been coming steadily since. So far we're at 23 and there are 3 more first time - about to be Moms who aren't quite "done" yet. Here is a sampling of a few of them. Since we've been Shepherds, one of my favorite books has been A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm by Phillip Keller. Here's the description from Christian Book Distributors..."Walk the green pastures of faith and drink from the still waters of peace hidden in Psalm 23! Drawing from his experience as a professional sheep rancher, Keller leads you verse by verse through this beloved portion of Scripture, offering unique insights into the love our Good Shepherd bestows upon us, the sheep of his pasture." Having read this book and being blessed to be able to go out into the green pastures and sit among the sheep, knowing them all by name and having them come up to me to get their head scratched or to have them call me to come see their new lambs when I step through the gate, has just been a phenomenal, faith lifting experience. It makes me glad to have a "Good Shepherd" to care for me in the same way!

Scrapbook Page Credits: Mother May I Page Kit by Linda Rechtin

Annoying

Blog Prompt: List the 5 things that annoy you the most.

1. Cleaning a room and walking into it 5 minutes later, only to find it trashed by one (or more) of the kids.
2. Not being able to find something - especially when I knew exactly where it was a few minutes ago (I often find one shoe by the door and another somewhere else in the house - just ask the 2 year old where the other one is...)
3. Jealous neighbors who make your life miserable. (But we won't get into that...
4. Trying to mow the lawn and running over rescue heroes and the rock used for 2nd base because they weren't picked up when the "pre-mow warning" was sounded.
5. Dressing the baby in her beautiful Christening gown (which has been worn by all the girls in the family) only to have a "diaper blow out" resulting in a yellow stain! (Time to get out my cloth diapers to avoid that happening again!)

DSP Blog Prompt - My Mom

Blog Prompt: Describe your relationship with your mom or a mother figure.

Hmmm...I love my Mom. She's my best friend. I live two hours away from her, but talk to her on the phone every day (sometimes two or three times). In recent years, she's been inflicted with Deteriorating Joint and Disk Disease (among other things) which has caused her a lot of pain in her back. She's had back surgery twice, neither of which helped her. She has to live with constant pain, and sometimes (as you would imagine) she has a hard time dealing with that. (I can't even begin to imagine what she goes through!) Sometimes, when she's at the end of her rope, she calls me (and/or my sisters) for support. I try to listen and understand, but it can be frustrating, knowing the pain she is in and not being able to do anything about it. And being in pain all the time can really get on your nerves, so occasionally, she takes her frustration out on those she loves (don't we all?) She has her good days and bad days, but we love her and try to do what we can. The best thing I've found is to try to be cheerful and tell her funny things the kids do or ask her about her childhood and get her reminiscing. That usually gets her laughing and feeling better. As I said before, laughter is the best medicine. I miss the old days, but change is inevitable... and I guess, overall, I wish I were as good a mom to my kids as she was to me. I never had to wonder if I was loved. It was evident in everything she did - and still does!!

DSP Blog Prompt - Best TV Mom?

Blog Prompt: Since Mother's Day is approaching, who do you think was the best TV mom and why?

That's an easy one. It has to be June Cleaver! I just watched "Leave it to Beaver" yesterday and all I could think was, "Her house is SO clean!" "She has showered and done her hair!" "She's Super Mom!!" There aren't too many days when my house is clean for longer than 10 minutes. I just finished cleaning the living room yesterday when the couch was attacked by an army of goldfish crackers (whose general was a 2 year old boy). So anyway, as I was praising June, it finally dawned on me - NOW I know why she's perfect! SHE doesn't have a computer! (Oh, not to mention her husband and children are perfect, as well, and they all do their chores without complaining! : )

Our herd has grown!

FINALLY, a week and 4 days after Buttercup's due date, Pansy has made her appearance! She's our first Normande/Jersey cross (hence the white face). Here she is!

Go Crazy 'til the Cows come home

I haven't updated for a few days because we've been busy here with farming. Most days are routine, but every once in awhile you get "one of those days". Yesterday was one such day... The morning started as it always does - going out to the pasture to check the sheep and lambs, see if there are any new ones that were born overnight and put out their feed. We had been having a problem with one Ewe who lambed twins on Saturday and rejected the second one (it wandered away while she was cleaning the first lamb and since she didn't bond with it right away, she wanted nothing to do with it). We were able to graft the lamb onto another ewe who lambed a short time after she was born, and they were doing OK as a family unit. We had one ewe left to lamb (we thought) so I went to see if she had lambed, but she was still wide and waddling. ; ) There was a new lamb, though. One of the yearling ewes that we assumed was not bred, was standing there licking a newborn lamb. She was one of the smallest yearlings, so I went and looked at the other 3 yearling ewes that we also counted as "not bred" and noticed that they all looked like this one did just before she lambed, so we're waiting to see how many more there will be.

We missed church because we had to care for a ewe that had prolapsed just before lambing and we were bottle feeding the bum lamb until we were able to graft her onto a new mom. In the evening, the ewe we were waiting on to lamb had twins while I watched in the pasture. They were number 22 and 23.

Mike had gone to another farm to pick up some laying hens we were buying with them and when he came back and walked into the chicken coop, he noticed it was full of smoke! The chicks had somehow knocked down the heat lamp and it was laying on the pine shavings smoldering. Luckily, he caught it in time, got the coop aired out and remedied the situation without losing any chicks. He was able to get the new chickens settled into the coop before the kids realized it was getting late and we hadn't had dinner yet!

In the busy-ness of lambing and waiting for Buttercup to have her calf (which she hasn't done yet - 1 week and 2 days past her due date) we both neglected to lay out the steaks for dinner, so we were all starved and dinner was frozen solid. We decided to order out and when Mike was on his way home with the food, he approached our farm, only to find 11 cows standing in the middle of the road - in the dark - with cars coming in both directions!!! He called me quickly on my cell phone and I called for the kids to get outside. (Whenever the call "THE COWS ARE OUT" is heard, that's a sign to drop whatever you are doing and get outside!!) So here it is, 9:30 at night and Mike and I and 3 of the kids are chasing cows back and forth up and down the road, all while trying to get them in pastures or barns to get them off the road. In the stress, they are running in all directions, and cars are still coming in both directions. I'm trying to flag down cars with my flashlight, DD is chasing cows through the hay field (she's wearing flip flops and falls in a ground hog hole before she gets them to run back toward the barn), her younger sister is manning the gate on the pasture, trying to make sure cows are going IN not OUT - (inspite of her best efforts, she lost a few!), DS is blocking traffic coming the other direction and holding the flashlight for his dad to see how to fix the electric fence they had knocked down to get to the "grass that's always greener on the other side of the fence".

FINALLY, after 45 minutes, we had all the cows back in place, the fences and gates were secure, everyone was happy and we sat down to our cold Supper (It's now after 10 pm!) By the time we settled down and everyone discussed what part they played in the saga, it was 11 o'clock before we got to bed, so we told the kids they could sleep late and we'd take them to school when everyone was up and ready.

So I called the school this morning to let them know the kids would be late. I told them, "Yesterday, we had sick sheep, bum lambs, almost burned down the chicken coop, got 50 new chickens, and the cows got out. We ate dinner at 10:30 last night. We didn't have the nerve to wake the kids up at 6 am. We'll be there in a little while..." Just a taste of life "on the funny farm"!