I'm still here and when others overstay their welcome

Adele, I'm so sorry you've had your heart broken so completely, but would you PLEASE go cry somewhere else?

Thanks for understanding!

TTFN!

(just kidding Willow!!)

Boys will be boys!

So I told you about Joshua's affinity for spicy things and the insanity involved in it. He convinced a few of his friends to join him in the insanity. And I filmed it. Doesn't this look painful? And they did it on purpose!

Joshua got religion and started doing a old fashioned gospel clap!

This poor kid was in shock for a good 5 minutes!

See the pain!

That gallon of milk was brand new. They drank the whole thing plus ate a half gallon of ice cream. All within about 20 minutes.

This kid was the only with any brains! I don't know who was crying harder, the boys who ate the pepper or me and the friend filming because we were laughing so hard. 

Boys!

TTFN!

She's a mother!

Remember Jeffrey? She's been broody for a while. We tried REALLY HARD to break her of it, but she wasn't having any of that! We would trap her outside the coop and she would walk around it all. day. long.  We finally gave in to her toddler like demands and let her sit on some eggs. The kids would get the biggest kick out of opening up the coop doors to hear her screech. 

She had three eggs. One hatched in the wee hours of the morning and didn't make it :o(  We saw another one hatching, but it seemed to be taking a long time so we asked Dr. Google what to do.  Meet the chicken obstetrician.  Joshua......

Joshua VERY patiently broke small pieces of shell off with the tweezers while keeping the membrane moist. It took several hours. Meet Colby (as in Colby Jack.)

Baby chicks are so sweet and Jeffery is such a good mother!

Oh yeah, the other egg was a dud. We candled it and there was no chick. Jeffrey doesn't seem to mind.

TTFN!

I can't believe it!

I can't believe I forgot to do a birthday post for sweet daughter Anna! I'm so sorry!! We were getting ready for our trip to Dallas that weekend. I guess I was preoccupied.  On their birthday, our kids get to pick dinner and dessert. Anna is getting very wise in her choices. No more pizza or macaroni and cheese for this girl. No, she wanted STEAK! That's my girl!

Happy Belated Birthday Anna!

 TTFN!

I'm so proud!

Did you know there's a way to get college credits without having to use up four months of your life and several hundred dollars? There is! It's called CLEP testing. For several subjects (mostly stuff you'd take in the first two years of college) you can pay a small fee, take a test, and, if you pass, get college credit! Joshua took the biology CLEP test this week and passed it. Now he's got 6 college credits. Way to go Joshua!!

Where have I been, you ask?

It's been a crazy busy week! For the first half of the week, I took 8 teenagers AND a toddler on a 3 hour drive to north Dallas. Insane, yes, I know! But it was for a good cause. We were going to a prolife training seminar with Justice For All. If you've never heard of them, I HIGHLY recommend their seminars. It was utterly amazing! The first day is spent watching videos and doing extensive role playing. The next two days are spent on a college campus striking up conversations about abortion with total strangers. I told you it was amazing!  No, really, it was.  If you've always known that abortion is wrong and you believe life is a precious gift from God, but wouldn't know how to have a logical, respectful, CALM conversation with someone who disagrees, then JFA is just the group for you. The group of teens I took blew me away! There was not one ounce of timidity in the group. They boldly shared their faith in the presence of loud, obnoxious, in-your-face protesters.  Truly, it was awesome. I just can't explain how awesome it was!

Well, after four days carting teenagers all over town at very early hours in the morning, I was exhausted by the time we got home. I didn't do anything remotely requiring thinking for the next few days.

Last night some good friends of ours had a barn dance! It was so much fun! I've often wished someone we knew would do something like this. It was almost midnight by the time we got home. It sure was easier to dance the night away 20 years ago!

Last, but not least, Anna is doing something called Nanowrimo. She's living on the computer every waking moment. Since we've been so busy AWAY from the house, I've had to give up my own time on the 'puter for her. She's still behind on her word count though.

Whew! Are you tired yet? I'm still exhausted. Could have been the dancing last night ;o)

TTFN!

Just another Manic Monday!

Ok, so I went to bed with a bit of a cold last night. My plan for today was to take it easy. I had two small errands that I had to do because Monday is the only day they happen. Fine. I can handle that. Do the errands. Come home and put my feet up.  Yeah...... Right......

It all started with the words, "Mom, I think one of the chickens broke a leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yes, it had that many exclamations with it. We got some meat chickens about two months ago. They had a date with an executioner next week. One of them couldn't wait that long. I bet you didn't know this but it's actually dangerous for a meat bird's health to let them get TOO big. They get to where they can't carry themselves around anymore. Their hearts begin to be stressed and then they can just die anyway. So it's really doing them a favor to butcher them! Did you know that?

Apparently this poor chicken got too big for his britches. I couldn't stand the thought of coming this far with him only to have him die of fatness. He's supposed to go in my freezer, doggoneit!  So instead of my lay low day I had planned, we butchered a chicken. On Halloween! And we don't even celebrate Halloween!  The execution date for the others got moved up a week so hopefully we won't have any more surprises.

Now I'm going to go make a cup of tea. That's life on the farm!

TTFN!