TKD Blowup

Well prepare yourself for more TKD than you'd care to know about.

But I just can't help it.  

It was so fun. 

These pictures make me SMILE! 

Saturday was the big day. 

5 of my kids were testing for BLACK BELT!! 

Huge accomplishment. 

Super exciting. 

And I have over 200 pictures and lots of video to prove it. Do you wanna see them all? 

No? 

How bout just a few?  Pleeeease....... 

First off ZBoy was testing for his purple belt.  His form has improved dramatically! 

Then Mally tested for her purple belt too.  Ok, so she's not so fierce looking but she's looking very pretty in purple and thinks it's far better than green.  

Nate showing off his form and mid-terming for his black belt.  

And here we start with the black belt kids.  Jess rocking his form...

Josh with his high kicks...

LB who moves like a graceful dancer, yet you would be foolish to cross her.

CT ...solid and strong....

And Lane who is as tough as she is beautiful. 

My man testing for his red/black belt and only 1 belt away from black.

And our friend Kyle, who was also testing for Black.  

He might as well have been my own the way we were cheering for him.  

So here's how it went. 

The colored belts did forms, kicks, and self defense. 

When they were finished it was time for the big show. 

Or as I like to call it....The Time When Mom Sees How Long She Can Hold Her Breath. 

The black belts and mid-terms had to break boards in order to pass.

HATE the stupid board breaks.  

Oh yeah, it looks all cool when your kid kicks through a wooden board or smashes it with a strong hammer fist.  But when the whole world is depending on that stupid board breaking....then it ain't so fun anymore. 

We bought boards at Lowe's, cut them to the right lengths, and broke them all over the patio. 

But when it comes down to THE MOMENT and everyone is watching and the whole place is quiet and your grandparents came and your super awesome friends are there...and your BLACK BELT depends on it?!  Well Yikes.  

So Lane went first.  They get 3 tries and I already told all my kids that they better break the first time and not make me wait until the last time since I can't hold my breath that long. 

But NO. 

And I wish I could post the video to show you her whole demeanor on the THIRD time.  She knew it all came down to this.   And she made this movement with her hands that I can't describe but it's hilarious and sums up the whole "I'm getting it now" that was all over her face.  But if I did post the video you would frantically scramble for the sound button to silence my annoying screeching.  

Then finally...CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!  

CT broke on the first time because he loves his momma. 

And so did LB with that fierce look in her eye! 

And Kyle!  YES!!!!  Look at the face! 

And then...oh my goodness.  The guy I was praying for extra hard because....well I felt he *needed* this black belt more than anyone else.  And I called and texted my friends to pray for him and 

THANK YOU GOD!! 

But we weren't done.  And after the three tries the boards did not break for Jes. 

And 2 of his sisters had tears streaming down their faces and Mr. Townsend said he almost cried too. 

The crowd did not erupt with joy and excitement and screaming.  There was the polite clapping and people telling him he did a good job.  And he did.  But.....  

Oh it was a huge disappointment and seeing my sweet son so sad made me wanna put down the video and hold him tight.  

But we still weren't done.  Nate was next.  And he also had to break for his mid-term. 

And again the boards didn't break.  

Nate was disappointed but not quite as much and besides there wasn't a black belt riding on it.   

Oh my goodness gracious.  The full spectrum of emotions.

And I can finally take a breath and love on my disappointed boy for a minute.  

The class lines up and the belt presentation begins.  First the colored belts.  All smiles. 

Except for 2 little boys trying to wipe away tears and clap for their friends.  

But then.  

Mr. Townsend pulls out a belt and ya'll....

It was BLACK. 

And it was for Josh.  

The one I had prayed for so hard. 

And I sobbed.  Like a baby.  So Meg grabbed the camera and took pics for me. 

And almost a week later I can't blog about it without crying again. 

And the sweetest thing happened that I didn't even know and my friends told me about later. 

The minute they called Josh's name to receive his belt, Jess immediately was a different guy and he was no longer crying but super excited for his brother.   They told me his whole countenance changed.  

And all was good......

Oh the happiness!! 

Our school of black belts. 

I think that color is rather flattering on them, don't you? 

Then there was cake and juice and celebration.

And ya'll I'm convinced I have the best friends in the entire world. 

When all was said and done, I saw so many of my friends bending down and speaking words of encouragement to Jes.  Telling him he'd get it next time, praising his good attitude....I can't even tell you. 

 I was blown away by the sweetness toward him.  And so incredibly thankful for the awesome people in my life.  

Recent Ramblings

Listen y'all, this is getting urgent.

 I've been checking out children's books from the library for over 2 decades and I've never lost a book that we couldn't find. But now....

Where is Clifford And The Big Storm?   It's nowhere. We've looked all over the place and even called the dentist office and made them look all over the place.   So if we have been to your house lately will you please turn your house upside too to see if we left there?  I'm out of renewals and had to call to ask for an extension which they gave me with no problem because who even wants a Clifford book anyway??

Wednesday was our last night of Awana.  Award night and no class.  And this is hilarious. The very last night and we had like 10 new kids including the babies that had to go home after dinner! Apparently word got out that it was party night!   One of the new kids was a guy that would be in my class. A fourth grader named Jacob and NOT Robert (as I called him).  Turns out if you call him Robert he will not acknowledge you in any way.  Apparently he only answers to Jacob.  In my defense he does look more like a Robert than a Jacob and its too bad his mother did not consult  me before naming him. Anyway he told me he would come back to VBS but he won't come to church on Sundays because he is not a Sunday person. Well I'll take what I can get and look forward to getting to know him better.

My boy Shannon is back and that makes me smile.  He's such a sweetheart and I like having him in class.

So before games Geo talked to all the kids very seriously about what it means to trust Christ as your savior. I love these talks and it seems to me that every time he does it there is a hush over the crowd and the silliness is put aside for those minutes. As he was dismissing he asked anyone to stay who didn't feel like they had the matter settled between them and God and wanted to take care of that. A handful of kids stayed behind and 2 of them were mine.

My MJ and Hayden.

So I asked them what was on their minds because I always wanna be careful not to put words in their mouths during these talks. I talked to both of them and asked them a lot of questions and both of them wanted to pray.

I've been praying for these boys for a long time. And every week I have the opportunity to not only go through an Awana program but to dig deeper and explain things to them. That's what I love. Honestly we could ditch the book and still have a great class.

I will miss them this summer but I'm also looking forward to spending more time with the youth and that hot youth pastor that works there.

And VBS is right around the corner!! Oh JOY! My absolute fave.

~There is a war on gophers going on at my house. We caught one in the trap and it was pretty uneventful except for those of us who wanted to see a gopher snapped in two... which didn't include me because I'm not into things that look anything like a mouse.  Then yesterday we caught another one except it wasn't dead and Farmerboy had to go all hunter on him and shoot him like 6 times in the head before he died.

I know. You could've gone your whole life without knowing that right?  But if you have a garden you will be glad to know there are two less gophers in the world to eat your stuff.

Speaking of garden... you knew this was coming didn't you?..   My garden is not growing except for the onions. So I called PawPaw and he told me some ideas that made sense. Then I called my man with a list of what he needed to do. Being the sweetie that he is he made a run to the store to get a few things including a handy gadget called a Garden Weasel  since our tiller is super old and tired and should've retired a long time ago. But get this.  It was TKD night and I and didn't even get to play with it until it was almost dark.  It's pretty nifty and guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

~TKD testing tomorrow and Oh My Word five of our kids are testing for BLACK BELT!!  Black belt ya'll!!  I'm so excited for them.  And nervous.  They have to break all three boards with different techniques to pass.  Which shouldn't be a big deal but with everyone watching and the pressure of failing and then choosing just the right board holders.....oh my word!!

And then my Nate will also be mid-terming which means if all goes well he will test for black belt in 3 months.  I'm also a bit concerned for this one since he is a bit smaller and not quite as strong.  At this point he only has to break 3 boards but not in the same sequence.  We'll see.

The rest of my people will be testing for colored belts including my man who is just one belt away from black.

So needless to say it'll be a big day.  Grandparents will be there and cupcakes are involved.

First Hive Inspection

So after chomping at the bit to finally get in there, when the time came I was surprising reluctant.  The weather wasn't good and I knew I shouldn't work the hive then since it makes them more cranky.  The biggest reason I was putting it off was because I had no idea what to expect or what I was looking for.  Even watching the YouTube videos weren't helping.   But today was beautiful and I decided to go for it.  

One hive was decidedly more advanced than the other.  Not sure why. 

And even as we were lifting out the frames they were busy working. They have a bunch of wax built up.  Can you see the solid yellow parts?  Those are capped cells.  They are either full of brood (babies) or honey. 

They were not bothered by us one bit even though we didn't smoke them.  I'm more scared of fire than I am bees and Honey wasn't home to extinguish a mishap.  Plus it was one less thing to mess with. 

Ok this freaked me out!  Can you see how they have connected 2 frames with honey comb?  And when I started lifting out the frames it was tearing apart and I had no idea what to do so I put it all back and went inside to call a more experienced bee keeper.  He said I could just cut it apart and they would re-build it.  Hopefully keeping to one frame this time.  

I think the darker cells are full of pollen.  The bee guy said the different colors are from the different kinds of flowers. 

And the white capped cells in the corner I'm pretty sure is honey. 

We found both queens and put everything back together.  I refilled their feed jars and they acted like nothing happened.  Once the feed jars are empty I will go back in and cut the connecting comb then give them a couple more weeks.  By the way the one hive is looking we will be needing to add a honey super sooner than we thought!  

I'm so impressed with how they work and can even use the stuff I will cut away to make more comb.  

LB... "I think the bees have more than paid for themselves in awesomeness."  

I agree! 

Cookbooks and Bubble Baths

~Are you ready for this?

I put a book on hold at the Charleston library.  I know!

So here's what happened.  A few months back a nice lady at church gave me a series of 8 books that I didn't want.  So I immediately PaperBackSwapped them to the same address (bonus!) and got a nice load of credits.  Free books?  Yes please!

But don't you know that when I really really really wanted to read this certain cook book they didn't have it.  So I looked at my FSM library and they didn't either.  And nothing even close.  So I put it my Amazon cart but then changed my mind because it costs $22 and there is NO WAY IN THE WORLD I would pay $22 for a book.  Plus it would have to come out of my school budget that I'm trying to save for September.  So nevermind.

But wait!  That's when I remembered my little bitty library up the road.  Surely they wouldn't have it but I decided to look anyway.  And lo and behold(!) they didn't have it but had something close.  Actually 2 books that were close so I held them both.  And while I was at it I looked around their site and found 2 african books that looked promising because I can't find my Pastor Surprise book that I'm wanting to read right now.

And when my son found out, do you know what he said?
"Really? We're dealing with those hooligans?"  Bless his heart.  I have poisoned his mind and turned him into a library snob.

Anyway I blame it on George.  He preached on bitterness Sunday so I decided to forgive them for having a lame story time.

~Have you ever taken your kids to a skate park?  We went this week for the first time and OH ya'll it was fun!  Nobody broke a bone or even cracked their head open.  There is a nice walking trail around it with a playground and a creek.  I can already tell this will be one of our new hot spots.

~It is right behind the high school and we were trying to find out where the school was because it may be that we get to spend some time there this year.  My son played competitive soccer for years and now the high school football coach is scouting him to play kicker.   We'll see...

~Did you have a good week?

I didn't.  One time my Colorado friend,Pam, said at Bible study that her life would be so much better if she could just leave her own stupid self at home.  Do you remember that Pam?  Because that deep truth has stuck with me and that's exactly how I've felt all week.  All year.

And it all sorta came to a head this week over an unfortunate incident involving farm equipment and I haven't felt like talking in about 3 days.  Which is perfectly fine since it was my mouth that started the whole thing anyway.

Today I woke up feeling so unmotivated.  And for whatever reason the beautiful weather took a nose dive in the 40s and it was cloudy, drizzly, and cold but I had to get outa bed anyway.  And do something.  So I tried to start a text conversation with Honey in the morning and he didn't respond until after 3pm so that didn't work.  Instead I decided to start school and make chili.

Then I took a nice long nap with my Mally Baby and woke up feeling a ton better.   But my hair didn't and Jes asked me if I had always had that cow lick.

Anyhow after dinner I decided to take a bath while everyone else was working on music for Sunday.  My friend Renee does not like baths and I'm convinced that she must be doing it wrong because there is nothing like a really hot bubble bath.   And this comes from a girl that hates getting wet.

My sweet ZBoy let me borrow his Cars bubble bath that he got for his birthday and I'm here to tell you people, that is some good stuff!  It bubbles up nice and thick and you can buy it at Walmart.

So I planned ahead and got the book I wanted to read plus a big cup of juice in a real glass.  I turned off the bright lights and turned on the smaller one since that's cozier.  I closed both doors and hoped that nobody flushed the pot before my bath water was at the perfect temp.

As soon as I was all settled in my Calgon-take-me-away type bath, I saw my glass of juice.  On the counter.  Way on the other side of the bathroom.  But I decided to live without it since it wasn't worth it to get all cold and climb out and get back in.   Problem was though that the dim light I picked was just that.  Dim.  And I couldn't see my book very well and I wasn't just going to sit there in the bubbles with nothing to do so it turns out I DID have to climb out, fix the light, and grab my juice on the way.   Obviously I am not as experienced at bubble bathing as I should be and I need more practice.

~I will leave you with a piece of farm news even though the only one who might be even remotely interested in my farm news is my dad.  And maybe Tracy.  3 out of 4 of my bee feeding jars still had feed in them today!  And that is big news ya'll because it means that they won't need me to feed them much longer and are finding plenty of stuff on their own.  And since bee feeding is sticky work plus one of my hives is easier to work with than the other, I'm quite thrilled with this.

Phone Shots

Littleman working on fixing up his scooter. 

I think he's due for an upgrade but he still likes this broken one.  

Weeeee!!!  The kids have been doing different things with the tree swing and this is their latest seat. 

DIY chicken tractor to spread the chickens out a bit and still keep them safe.  

New bee feeder lids.  This is the internal method so I'm not feeding everyone else's bees plus the neighborhood wasps.  They go through at least both of these jars in a day.  Sometimes more.  I think they may be slowing down soon since I see lots of workers with huge pollen sacks entering the hive.  

When I remove one of the jars, I can see comb they have built.    

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!