Updates On Our Family

Well things are still crazy around here, which I guess you could say is a "norm" with our family, and something I just need to accept as a part of our lives. :+) The twins, Anja and Alara, were here for 2 1/2 weeks this time. Then last night their parents, and the girls, were in a bad car accident. Both of their parents are in the hospital, and right now the girls are with their great aunt. We will probably have them here with us while their parents recover. The next thing is that we got a big swimming pool for the kids here at the farm. It's plenty big enough for the younger ones and the teens (and takes 2000 gal. of water to fill each time). As a matter of fact, we had 20 kids here to play in the pool on Monday between our neighbor kids (who are also a family with 10 kids), my nieces and nephews, and my kids! Do you know how much it takes with to feed that many kids? Precisely 4 loaves of bread, 1 1/2 jars of peanut butter, and 3/4 jar of jelly! :+)

Along with the swimming pool comes sunburns. My poor Sheyenne is by far the worse. She has burned on her arms, shoulders, and chest and back. She also has blisters the size of quarters. We have her on special creams, Aloe Vera gel, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, etc., but she is still miserable. She had sun block on, but apparently, it didn't help enough. She is just like me in this I'm afraid. I can remember many Track and Field days at school and the terrible sunburns I used to get, then topped off with numerous vinegar baths I used to soak in trying to ease the pain. Doug tried taking all the kids to see the movie "Kung Fu Panda" tonight, but Sheyenne is so miserable that they are coming home early. I hurt for her.

Well today is the day that Samuel, our baby boy, was due to be born. This has been a hard day for me today. I know he is safe in God's loving arms, but I still want to hold him and be able to kiss his tiny face. I will always miss him and love him. Does the pain ever really go away?

My dog breeding business is doing well. I am glad to have my dogs here and now have two dogs that are bred and another one being bred. I have one litter due in 2 weeks, and one due in mid August. Prayerfully, I will have a third one due by the end of August as well.

We went to the Exotic Animal Swap Meet in Allen, NE again this past weekend. We had a wonderful time!! And no rain! YEA! There were people there from ND, SD, IA, NE, MN and WI with numerous animals for swap and/or for sale, such as: camels, llamas, goats, pot bellied pigs, dogs, cats, ferrets, bunnies, baby calves, guinea pigs, donkeys, mini ponies, horses, peacocks...you name it! We brought home 3 more laying ducks (now giving us 4 females and 1 male), since I love cooking and baking with duck eggs over chicken eggs whenever I can. And of course we also brought home two bunnies! Ashley has named hers Issac, and Zach has named his Leah. I am praying for no baby bunnies however! Dogs yes, but I really don't want oodles of bunnies! Can you have a bunny spayed or neutered?!

Ashley and the younger kids planted a garden this week. I pray that we won't have so much more rain that it washes it all out. They planted corn, carrots, pumpkin, yellow squash and cucumbers. IA is in a constant flood state this spring, with so many of the fields being washed out, so I am praying that we are past some of this and that all will grow well, even if it is later this summer that we reap the harvest. With grocery prices going higher and higher, it's certainly worth trying.

Well I think this is basically all that's basically been going on at our house the last week or so. More later, and I hope pictures too!

Storms and More Storms

It has been storming off and on for the last two or three weeks now here in IA. Not surprising, as it is spring, but the winds have been just terrible lately! We have lost two windows on our back porch (at different times), one of our gas grills, and now the dog kennel! Thank God that the dogs weren't in it at the time!! I don't know where they would have ended up as little as they are!

The kennel was over the dog house!

Our Dogs Are Here At Home Now!!

Yesterday we were able to bring our breeding dogs home after two very long months of waiting. We are all so happy to have them here! We have missed seeing them and playing with them so much! Long story short, after our son-in-law's mother tried to cause us much grief in several areas when the kids first talked divorce (which is no longer their plan), his mother was then determined to close down my new dog breeding business before I even got my feet wet (she didn't like the idea of "our" grandson being raised around dogs, especially ones for dog breeding, though she has never stepped foot on any of our properties in the 5 years time we have known them to even know what she is talking about), we decided to send the dogs to stay with a friend of ours, and started applying for everything we could to make it safe for the dogs to be here and not be doing anything that she could use against us. We got a Kennel License, even though the man who came out from the Dept. Of Agriculture didn't see our need to have one yet. And, even though we are already zoned for farmland, cows, horses and pigs where we live, we even went before the Board of the Zoning and Planning Commission and requested that my dog breeding business be added to the zoning area. PTL the board voted a unanimous yes to it, even though, as one member put it, "It is silly to have to do this." It has been a very costly endeavour for all of this as each individual application costs between $40.00 - $260.00, it will be well worth it to know that we are covered 100% in any way that we can think of. Our dogs had all been licensed (even dual licensed in the same county), had their vaccinations all up-to-date, etc., but none of that mattered to our SIL's mother as she considers "dogs to be dirty animals." His family will not like knowing that I have chosen to still pursue this business, but there is nothing else that can say about it that will change my mind. The Lord blessed us with Sheeba, our pet Yorki-Poo, having a litter of two pups ready to sell just at the time we needed the money to do all of this. He is so good!! I am blessed that He has granted us his favor in all of this, and that things have gone well for us. I am wanting a small hobby business, and to breed tiny little dogs around 6 lbs. in size when full grown, not to build a whole new building and have several hundred large breed dogs!! BUT, PTL, God knows the desires of our hearts, and has blessed us!

So, welcome all to my 'official' dog breeding business,

"Heaven's Tiny Petals."

(The Chihuahuas pictured are not mine, but our daughter's dogs.)

:+)

Our 16th Year of Home Schooling is Almost Upon Us!!!

Wow!!!! Where do I begin?! I have been contemplating school for next year. It has been such a long three months since our baby Samuel died, and I am just finally getting back in to the groove of things, somewhat anyway. What has been a huge blessing to me was the Homeschool Expo sponsored and put on by Cindy Rushton. I love Cindy!! I have always enjoyed her website, blogs, ezines, etc., but was especially blessed when she helped encourage me through her emails (being able to relate with me after losing a baby/babies) herself. She blessed me with a special opportunity to join the Expo a couple of weeks ago. I needed that burst of excitement and encouragement again! It was like a breath of fresh air for me! I had a great time visiting with all the other moms there, sometimes there were as many as 200 of us at a time for one class! That was awesome!!! At any rate, I enjoyed the Expo very much!!!! If you happen to read this, thank you again Cindy!

This is what brings me to my thinking here. God continually keeps bringing me back to this one path over and over again. I have been reading (as often as time allows me to) anything I could find and devour on the subject. You could say that it is a philosophy...a way of raising children...the Charlotte Mason way!! :+)

Charlotte Mason was a British Educator who was born in the 18oos. Her Victorian style of writing often throws people for a loop in today's world, but her ideas deserve a second and third look. First, she begins by reminding mothers that there is no higher calling, no greater responsibility, than raising a child. She believes that, "Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life." She uses a literature-based approach to education and believes in using few textbooks or workbooks (though we will be using them for math at least for this coming year), there are oodles of interesting books to read and/or have read to our children. Every day there are art projects, nature walks, music or some sort of activity to do. She believes that children of all ages should have plenty of play time outdoors whenever absolutely possible. She believed that fresh air and sunshine are so important for our children. Freedom to run, play and go where their imagination takes them. She truly believed that wholeheartedly. So do we. That's one reason we moved out to the country in the first place 7 years ago , and why we moved back out to the country a year ago, this time to stay, after a short period of five months in town again. Our hearts belong in the country!!! Ask any of our children and I think they would all agree (except for maybe our oldest son Zach right now). (grin)

So, as far as our 4 youngest children, and God willing, will be using the Charlotte Mason ideas and principles of schooling this upcoming school year. There are several curriculum websites geared toward helping someone who wants to school this way, to set parents on the right path, and we are checking into which ones we want to use. Right now we are vacillating between AO (Ambleside Online), or OFE (Old Fashion Education). I am praying for God's guidance on which to use. There are a couple of others as well, so time will tell where God will lead.

Two Special Little Girls

These two beautiful little girls are twins, Anja and Alara. We have done foster care for several years now, and when these two little girls came to live with us, they were an immediate hit with our whole family, tiny as they were! They have now been home with their parents for quite some time, but we still consider ourselves blessed to be a part of their lives, and to get to see them and spend time with them. They are here this weekend visiting us for four days. Their parents are taking a much deserved mini vacation for a few days. Between working, school, and also their two other children, they are continually busy people. They are wonderful parents and are doing a wonderful job raising their children. It is amazing how much the girls have grown, and how much they can now talk, talk, talk. They are such sweet little girls!! Many times, when you have little ones in foster care, and the time comes to say good-bye, it is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. That is why we are so blessed that we get to see and spend time with the girls, and keep in touch with their family. Aren't they just beautiful?!?! :+)