Enjoying The Unexpected

I love the unexpected, don't you?  

Like today when I was fixin to dive into school and I got a text from Rhonda saying they were coming over for the day.  YESSSS!!  And even better...they were bringing lunch.  Sweet!!   

It was a great day of food and fellowship and ooohing over her little baby.   Our kids jumped on the trampoline and tromped through the woods even though it was WAYYY too cold for both!  

~This week started with a funeral.   I'm so sorry for Renee's family who lost her mom last week.  It was also the funeral for Chris Parker who was killed in the big car wreck of last week.  I didn't go to that one b/c I didn't know him.  But being from my little town and seeing the wreck up close, I was somewhat interested and very sad for his family.  

~On that same day we got a very happy surprise.  My inlaws were coming for supper and when they got here I heard my kids squealing outside.  It wasn't just G'ma and G'pa.  It was Mangnay too!!! 

Honey's aunt whom we dearly love and haven't seen in about 4 years since we moved from CO.  

Lots of hugs and kisses.  And tonight we are going over there for supper since she is leaving tomorrow. 

 ~Then a super awesome unexpected report came from my grandmother's doctor reporting that there is no sign of cancer!  BIG happy news since they told us there was no cure.  Thank you Lord! 

~Have you local peeps been to the Vietnam Wall Memorial yet?  Well hurry up because it leaves on Sunday and it's really neat.  It doesn't come here often and it's a great opportunity to see it up close.   

I printed off some war facts from the internet to read aloud and we watched a National Geo documentary on Netflix to get my kids up to speed before we went.   There are Vietnam vets there to help you look for specific names and tell you all kinds of interesting facts.  They were very appreciative that the kids were there and asked them if they had any questions.  

Jes-  If you were in one of those trenches and had to go bathroom, what did you do?"

Notice he didn't say "go TO THE bathroom"?  That's because in Jes' vocabulary "bathroom" is a verb.  You go bathroom.  

I'm pretty sure that man had never had to answer that question before.  

~Lately the kids have liked reading books in my bed at night.  When I finished Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, I sent them off to bed.  But Nate lingered.  I invited him to snuggle with me, sure he'd say no b/c that's not usually his thing.  But yes!  And it was so sweet holding him tight and listening to all the things that roll around in a 9 year old's head. 

Meet The Bees!

They came!  

12,000 little worker bees and drones all in this little box.

And Your Royal Majesty (the queen) in her own little throne room.  She is enclosed in this cage and it is sealed with a candy plug.  When the bees eat through the plug, she is released into the hive.  This takes about 3 days or so. 

Glad I had my notes from bee keeping class!  

Farmerboy using his hive tool to open the 2nd box of bees.  There is a jar of sugar water in there to feed them.

As you can tell we didn't have a lot of gear.  I have one glove, Jes has the other.  Some kids have a bee brush, some don't.  As it turns out, it's much easier to work the bees without gear.  Really I had no idea this would draw such a crowd or I would've given over my hat.  I feel like a bad mom!  But nobody was scared of them and everybody was careful. 

A lot of these bees will not sting because they are drones (boy bees) and drones don't sting.  Worker bees (girls) will only sting for 2 reasons.  

#1.  To protect the hive. 

#2.  If they feel they are in danger. 

Since these are new hives the bees had nothing to protect.  Josh got stung trying to brush a bee out of the bee brush and Jess got stung when the bee got caught in his shoe.  They were both fine with it and I'm glad they aren't scared.  

So far this has been so much fun!  Since we are such newbies I'm really concerned about killing them by overlooking something important.  I've already called a local bee man for help with queen questions and I figure these bee people will be glad when I finally get the hang of this and stop calling.  He basically told me to back off and leave them alone for 10 days until they get used to things.  

And I'm like, "Really?  You mean you don't open the hive and peek in 3 times a day to see what they are doing?"  

Apparently not.  

So for now, I'm just laying low and feeding them sugar water until we have more things come into bloom and they can forage for themselves.    I've already had to buy new lids with internal feeders because my external DIY feeder was feeding the wasps.  

I have the 10 days marked on my calendar.  In the meantime, I'm watching Youtube videos on hive inspections and how to light your smoker without catching the whole place on fire and having a bad day. 

The Race

I had a choice.  Accept the invite from Nate to play cars or wash dishes.  I picked cars.  I don't always pick cars, mind you.  Because I'm not like some super mom that drops everything to play fun stuff all the time.  But when I do make a better choice than dishes, I'm always glad.  

My eldest son and I used to play cars A LOT because that was his favorite thing to do.  These guys do it differently than he did and its fun this way too.  In fact, he was out-of-pocket when it was going on but jumped right in afterward.  At 17, cars are still cool. 

So the race was ON! 

Is this picture hilarious or what?  I love this boy of mine. 

We raced every single car and made a pile of winners and losers. 

Then we raced all the winners until we were down to just two. 

I was going for the yellow fire truck.  He's heavy and fast! 

But no.  This little orange beauty took the prize! 

The Day That Nothing Happened

Friday was the day! 

9 little eggs were supposed to hatch in the incubator. 

AND....

24,000 bees were to have a new home in our backyard.  

No chicks.  

No bees b/c it was too cold to transport.  

Still waiting....

The Big News

Remember I told you that Honey took the day off Tuesday?  That meant that all day I went around thinking it was Saturday and at 7:30 that night I started thinking about what I was going to wear to church the next day.

Turns out the next day would be Wednesday which is just as busy as Sunday only with more to think about. As well as Awana it's also errand day. Otherwise known as cramming-a-crazy-amount -of-things-into-a-short-amount-of-time-day.

And I hadn't made a menu which means I didn't have a grocery list. Or an errand list or any list because I don't need a list for Sunday and all day it was Saturday.

Sigh.

Anyhow the big news is......

The garden is officially IN!

So here's the grand total of casualties things we planted Tuesday......
9 lettuces
22 tomatoes
50 onions (red and white)
1 zucchini (b/c those aren't that great to have around)
6 cucumbers (I don't think it's enough)
18 corns
9 kales
6 cabbages
6 cauliflowers
6 broccoli
92 leeks (don't even ask)
basil
dill
parsley
Okra (leftover from last year that came back)
5lbs seed potatoes
2 peppers
4 green beans
4 grapes
4 blueberries
a bunch of marigolds
plus something that is growing like crazy in the compost pile

It's beautiful ya'll.  And I just love it.
Then I went outside the next day (which was Wednesday and not Sunday) to find that something had chopped off one of my tomato plants at the stem!  The nerve!!  I threw the top into the compost pile and hoped the stem part that is still planted will grow.

We got it all done in time for the next rain which turned out to be a huge storm that blew the whole trampoline over upside down!  Of course my kids thought that was the funniest thing ever.  I'm thinking its a good thing it didn't blow into my precious garden or let's just say there would've been nothing funny again EVER!!

Our bee garb came in and this is what it says across the top of my hat.

ZHONG GUO ZHENG ZHOU

What the heck does that mean, you ask?  I have NO idea! And I'm pretty sure that wasn't on the picture  when I ordered it from Amazon.

One time Honey bought a guitar and after he brought it home and played it a few days we figured out the fancy designs on the neck were really pictures of Egyptian gods. Then he had to take the thing back because we were working with youth (kinda) and he didn't wanna be playing around with idols. So In the same way I don't wanna be rocking my ugly bee hat in the backyard while possibly cussing out my neighbors unaware.  So I need to look it up.

Wednesday Lane had her fist day of work and I almost cried when she walked out the door. I thought about her all day and was so glad when it was over and she finally came home with the report. Apart from a deafening crash of dishes that was all her fault, things went well. Everyone was nice to her and there was no need for her brother to beat anybody up. She even got tips. And it's not even a tippy kinda place so I think it was a success.

Only 2 more nights of Awana this year.  I had 5 guys last night who had a lot to talk about.  Including how Cole got in trouble 16 times at school that day even though he did nothing wrong!  I had no idea that teachers picked on kids so.

I got my VBS material!  And Misty was kind enough to give me 3-4 grade boys either because I'm not any good at anything else or because my life would so miserable if she didn't.  Maybe both.  In any case it's a happy th'ang!

I'm on a Paul Washer kick right now listening to sermons on my phone while I walk. It's spurred me on to memorize more Scripture. And that's prolly what I will talk about to youth Sunday.

A book by one of my favorite authors went on sale yesterday for $1.99. Since its normally $13.99,  I jumped all over it.

Buy now with one click? Well yes thank you!

And after planting 92 leeks in the backyard a girl needs some book time with her new book don't ya think?  So after dinner I told the kids they could watch Madagascar while I claimed the love seat to myself and opened up my kindle.
But since I never remember to plug in my battery it was totally dead. I was too lazy to go get my charger so I had to watch Madagascar too.

Burn Night

See all those weeds in the garden?  So last night we decided to burn some brush and burn off some weeds and have some ash to till into the ground later. 

And while you have a big fire burning you might as well have hotdogs and s'mores.  Right?

And potato salad.  Because...of course!!

FUN night!  

And a peek at the little chickys that are getting bigger and more chickenish every day.

Fast forward to today.
We've had a hard time tilling and getting the plants in b/c of rain or standing water on the weekends.  So Honey took the day off today and tilled.  Everybody had a hand in it.  Or both hands.  Pulling out weeds, planting, chopping a tree down, watering.

And guess what ya'll?  I Pulled The Trailor!  All the way to the feed store and back and I didn't kill anybody!

Almost The Weekend!

~Or do you consider Friday to be the weekend too?   Or at least Friday night? 

~We have just one more birthday of the Spring birthday run and we will have celebrated 5 kids in 4 weeks.  ZBoy is super excited about tomorrow and was eager to go to bed so we could decorate for him.  Tomorrow we are partying with macaroni and cheese at Grandma's house.  Only Grandma doesn't know yet.

~So I pulled out just one clothes box from the attic to start the great clothes exchange.  One at a time. 
I always know it's a mess but I always forget it's a MESS.  And apparently ZBoy grew a lot b/c the clothes I saved for him for spring are way too small.  He had a nice stack to try on from that one box and I love how excited even my boys get about clothes. 

~Honey and FarmerBoy and I were driving home from getting bee hives and saw a huge fire up ahead.   Like right around where our house is.  But as we got closer we saw it was across the street from where we turn in to our road.  There is a place that makes wooden pallets and it was engulfed in huge billowy bright orange and black flames.  The water the fire fighters were spraying had no effect.  I've never seen anything so up close and scary like that.  We  could watch it all from the back porch it was so close.  FarmerBoy had a hard time sleeping that night. 

I've had a hard time getting it out of my mind and the word I keep thinking of is consuming.
It has been an illustration of our consuming God in my thoughts.  How God is so mighty and scary and terrifying and with that same consuming energy loves us with a passionate, jealous, everlasting love.  I've been wanting to work up a youth lesson on it but can't seem to organize my thoughts. 

~We have more babies!  The momma bird that built her nest in the bird house on the chicken coop laid 4 eggs and 3 hatched this week.   This bird house has a lid that lifts up so you can see everything.  We saw them the very first day and they are so tiny and naked looking!  The poor momma bird is lamenting her choice of real estate since we are frequently in the chicken coop and peeking in her nest.  She's not one of those mean birds that dive bombs you though.  She just sits in the tree or on the fence waiting for us to leave. 

~Last night Honey and I got to dress up and go to the Jr/Sr. formal with our son.  OH how handsome he is all fancied up in his suit!  I'm so in love with that kid. 

~Our bees come next week and the law requires that you register your hives.  On the form you have to name your land.  They list examples like "01" or "big land".   Who would name it something like that?  I love naming things so I immediately jumped all over it.  Only I can't think of anything!  So help a girl out and give me some suggestions. 

~I decided to fill up my Amazon cart with some things I've been "needing" since Mother's Day, Memorial Day, and my birthday are all coming up.  My man had no idea that Memorial Day was a gift giving occasion.  Good thing he's teachable.

9 Days Of April

One year ago at this time we were moving into a little bitty rent house and squeezing all 5 boys into a pink room.  

Today I'm looking out the window to see ZBoy running barefooted in a zigzag path to play with his chickens.  I'm pretty sure it's the cutest thing on the planet.  

~Farm update:  We got 6 more chicks this weekend.  That brings the grand total to 12.  Which is enough for now.  They were moved outside last week and they are doing great.  The eggs are still in the house and our hatch date is next week!  We are still trying to decide if we have any roosters.  It's impossible to tell but we are guessing by their personalities.  

~Also next week...and on the same day, we get bees!  

~My little seedlings are puny.  NOT at all ready to plant which is really disappointing since I put some time and thought into exactly what kinds of seeds I wanted and what we were going to grow.   I think the garage was too cold, even under grow lights, and even though we have a heater.  Plus we use it a lot so there was a lot of door opening and inconsistent temps.  Anyway, my good man bought us a bunch of plants this weekend and we will hope the seedlings are ready by fall.  If not, I wasted 37 cents.  

Farm news done.  

~Wait.  One more thing.  I got farm boots!  NOT to be confused with cowboy boots ya'll.  Because they are rubber boots with polka dots.   And I think they are just a little bit magic because I despise getting dirty almost as much as I hate getting wet.  But when I put on my farm boots, I'm perfectly good to get as dirty as necessary and I can even pet the dog without immediately washing my hands.  Impressive huh?  So I can play with chickens, weed the strawberries, AND stir the compost pile all because of polka dotted farm boots.  

NOW the farm news is done.  I promise.  

~So far we have celebrated 2 birthdays with one more to go this month.  My oldest son turned 17 and I did not cry.  He is such a love!  This week we have his Jr/Sr formal coming up.  And I'm like...HOW???  

Then our other son turned the fine nine.  That was yesterday..though technically it's not til tomorrow.  So when we took him out to lunch we still got the discounted rate of him being eight.  We might do this more often!  

~Grandma and Grandpa have been home all this time and have gotten to celebrate every birthday with us.  And we make them do everything else with us too.  They threatened not to come home next year until May.  

~So last week Honey took Friday off and we went to Silver Dollar City.  It was not crowded and the weather was perfect.  Grandma was brave and rode Thunderation right off the bat.  After that she declared herself done for the rest of the day.  

My favorite roller coaster is the little one next door to the Dumbo Elephant ride.  That's more my speed.  So I rode with Mally but ZBoy was excited to get to ride by himself.  Only the lady let too many people out of the gate and there were 2 people that didn't have a seat.  So the lady asked Zboy if he'd share a seat with a little girl.  I held my breath for a split second figuring we might all have to leave the ride.  Let's just say that lately he has not been so friendly with a change of plans that does not result in his favor.  But we did NOT have to leave and he happily gave up his seat.  Maybe we are making progress!  

We left the house at 6:30am and got home after 10pm.  Honey fell flat across the bed sideways, fully dressed, with keys still in his hand and was snoring in 3 minutes.   It was a long day.  And fun.  

~So almost all 9 days of April, plus a couple before that I have been exercising.   Walking walking walking and doing ball exercises when it rains or a kick boxing video.  I'm hoping to get into a good habit before the hot summer hits.  Then maybe I can find a treadmill on Craigs List.  

~This morning I was doing a short Bible study with the kids on James 3.  I had a good illustration about a pregnant lady with twins.  But then my little son piped up with "Is that the same person that wears the same clothes every day and trains coyotes?"  

Wha??

Then one of my older kids stepped in to set him straight because he knew exactly what he was talking about.  I was still lost and had no idea how pregnant ladies with twins would have anything to do with people that train coyotes.  Or wear the same clothes every day.  

In any case, I decided to wrap it up.  Because once little boys have their minds on coyote trainers there is no recovery.  

Busy Hands

One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 14:1 ....

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."

I confess that one of the reasons I like it is because I have a cute story to go with it.
Wanna hear a cute story?  It's about LB and she's cute anyway.

One time when she was about 5 we were visiting at Grandma's house and LB and her cousin Tate was eating mac & cheese.  There is always mac & cheese at Grandma's, right?   So they were eating and talking. I was listening and she started going into the whole Gospel presentation.  The girl was on fire!  And didn't miss a bit of it.  But like any good preacher she needed a strong closing and pulled out Proverbs 14:1.
She quoted it perfectly perfectly before she added, "Whatever that means!" (insert a roll of huge brown eyes)

And I would agree.  Not sure a wise woman building her house really goes so well with Jesus dying for your sins in the same sermon.  So Tate got a 2-fer.

So now everytime I read that verse, either out loud to my kids or just silently to myself,  I have to add..."whatever that means!" to the end of it just for fun.

Ok back to what I was talking about.

I've been reading through Jeremiah and just finished chapter 25.
Twice in that chapter, God spoke about the work of their hands...

"You have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm" v.7

"I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands." v. 14

As wives and mommas, we have great opportunities to bless our families and honor God with the work of our hands.

Cooking, washing dishes, changing diapers, cleaning up puke, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, folding, hugging, pouring, wiping, scrubbing, buckling, tying, lifting, sewing...and so forth.

 Most of the time the work is not so glamorous and I had one friend tell me one time that she was meant for more than "just wiping snotty noses all day".   What a great life she was missing out on!!

So when I am burned out baking another batch of pancake muffins or staring at a huge mound of dirty dishes, I want to remember that God pays attention to the work of my hands and it will be for either building or tearing down, honoring or dishonoring  the Lord.

Today I am thankful for plenty of work to do.  I am working with my kids to clean and cook and prepare for a trip,  making gollum juice for a sick boy, soup on the stove, chicken in the oven, and a new mop to play with.

See? I was meant for more than wiping snotty noses too!

Resurrection Sunday

Did you have a great Resurrection Sunday?

It was pouring down rain in my neck of the woods.  At first.  But then it turned into the most beautiful sunny day ever.

But I'm gonna re-wind to the day before.  Saturday, and we were in town running errands and visiting with Ms. Ruby.  Meg was with us and I remembered that I hadn't gotten anything new for the boys for Easter Sunday...as in clothes, well or anything for that matter.

The girls were set.  But the boys already had nice clothes that would work fine and I was good with that.  Except I changed my mind and I wasn't good with it anymore and told Honey we needed to go to Savers.  Because that's where I get 99% of my kids' clothes.  Besides if we didn't, FarmerBoy would try to pull off that striped shirt that he wears every other Sunday and that was not happening.

So I figured we'd be in and out.  5 shirts.  Done.

But it was more like a bunch of shirts.  And pants.  And 4 pairs of shoes.  One purse.  One belt.  And eighty one dollars.
That was ok too and it was fun.

That night we were going to the big Easter production at a local church.  My kids had never seen anything like that and I kinda built it up to be something great even though I'd never been.  Imagine their surprise when the power point said something about this was going to be a worship service.  And Nate was like..

"We came all this way for a WORSHIP SERVICE?"  (it was 9 minutes away)
"We paid all this money for going to church?"  (it was free)

The poor kid clearly felt betrayed.  And then it was too hot for him.  And he couldn't see.  And could he sit up on his knees?   It was not what he had in mind!

We got home and put kids to bed and I started ironing all the new clothes for the next morning.

Morning came and can you believe we had clothes issues?!  FarmerBoy did, in fact, plan to wear the striped shirt and was convinced he looked stupid in the new one.  Nate had some problem too that I don't even know about b/c Honey handled it.....that boy often has wardrobe issues.  Mally's new shoes were too big all of a sudden.  And there was a back-and-forth about whether or not to wear panty hose.  All this when I thought I was so prepared by ironing the night before.  Go figure.  But the hilarious thing is that I ironed and set out new pants for FarmerBoy to wear with his new shirt and the kid got out of the house in jeans and I didn't even notice until he was up front singing!  Whatever.  And really who cares anyway.

Apparently Mally decided to use the Sunday School hour to educate her classmates on the truth of the Easter Bunny. GASP!  Ms. Marianne told me about it later and I really don't know what to say.

We had a wonderful worship service with our youth singing and George's good preaching and a nice crowd of visitors.  My Awana boy Jaden showed up all by himself.  I'm glad....but sad that he came alone.

Lunch followed (with potato salad) and an Easter Egg hunt.
Then we had a big surprise!

That morning at 7:30 (15 minutes before departure time) my MIL called to tell me they were home!!  Home finally after 6 months or so in FL.  We didn't tell the kids and just drove up to "check on Grandma's house and watch DD before going home".

SQUEAL!

Lots of hugs and kisses and talking and golf and juice.  Because that's what you do at Grandma's.

We couldn't stay forever though since we have farm chores now and all (BIG smile!).  Plus it was date night ya know.

Do you even want to hear about date night?  It's hilarious.
I thought we'd stay home and cook lamb chops.  He thought we should go out.  We both agreed we should do something at the lake.  Since there's not a lot to pick from on Easter Sunday we went to CV's (like the grocery store CV's) and picked out something to take to the lake.  I looked at all the deli food and it was fried and brown.  All of it.  So I got chips and salsa, some nuts, and one of those "fresh" dips they have in the produce refrigerated section.

We took it all to the lake and ate while we watched a lady catch a fish.  She fiddled with it for awhile until she decided she couldn't take it off the hook and made her husband do it.  Then he handed it back to her and she put it in the water.  EWWWW!!  Tell me...how can that be fun?  It will take more than one good washing to get that nasty fish smell off her hands.  Then she went right back to it without so much as a baby wipe or a drop of hand sanitizer.

Anyhow. We hiked a trail and I showed him where the amphitheater was.  And then he remembered that he had to be at work at 6:30 tomorrow.  So that meant we went back home after being out a whole hour and 12 minutes!

The kiddos were happy to see us and I got to read to them before bed and it was a good day.

I hope you had a terrific day celebrating our risen Savior!