Happy Birthday Sister!

I don't have a sister, but my only sibling, Keith, married a fantastic gal, and I love her being my sister.  (She doesn't have a sister either which makes it extra special.) I love my brother, but if I am being honest, I love AD just as much, if not MORE!!!!

Today is her birthday!!! I wanted to make sure to put a shout out to tell her a very happy birthday. I'm so glad she is in my life. 

P.S. The picture above is from the cruise we took for my 40th birthday! AD treated me to a lobster dinner!!!!

Friday Funnies

 

I told Hannah she wasn't allowed to wear shoes on my bed. So she took them off and left them on the bed. This isn't really what I had in mind when I told her to take them off!!

Hannah's First birthday party

I've been meaning to post this for awhile and kept forgetting! At the end of January Hannah was invited to her first birthday party. It was her friend Emory from church, and Hannah got her own invite and was just sooooo excited about it. It was the end of the big ballet performance, and I was exhausted, but I couldn't say no to Hannah. It was so fun to get to see her do something that wasn't about her older siblings. (Of course, we all came with, but it was still her thing.) I snapped a couple of quick pictures and really wanted to document this.

Tribe Life Tuesday: Authenticity, The Inside Job

A weekly post from my childhood to grown-up friend Carrie ~ 

sharing her awesome life and her desire to have community while doing it!

Who are you in a world that is continuously engulfed in the waves of conformity? 

In which direction are you taking on water? It seems nearly impossible to live in this waterfront town and not be affected by the ocean. So grab your oar, life vest, floaties, bathing suit, or whichever gear fits best and let’s dive in! 

I have been mulling over this subject of authenticity all month long and, to be frank, I have found it to be more difficult to communicate then I expected. I’m struggling to put into words the thoughts that flood my mind about this topic, but I will try my best, thank you for wading in with me.

I’m currently knee-deep in this incredible book The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, in which he presented me this question, “Who do you need to become?” To put it into context: he was discussing how we write down lists of wants, desires, and goals, that are all outward. The qualities we want in our spouse, what our dream job looks like, what our homes and families will be like, you get the picture. He proceeded to commend the reader for the avidness of planning the future as he admittedly did himself, then the sonic boom question exploded, “Who do you need to become in order to have the character to obtain such things?” 

P A U S E. 

You mean I don’t just get to rattle of my dream life and then it just comes to me??? 

Bummer. 

And me, the authenticity girl, read that question, “Who do I need to become?” from an entirely negative lens. What do you mean? Who I am is enough! 

Then I cleaned my lenses and read again.

The second time was much better, much clearer. WOW! I actually agree and like it. While all our wants, needs, desires, and goals are great and we need them, we must also take into consideration who we must become to attain the things we are pushing toward.

Personally, I have some pretty big desires and goals I am working toward and I know if I were to get them today I wouldn’t be entirely ready to handle them. Especially because I want to do everything I do well. This means that growth is this slow, sometimes painful process that has to happen as I continue to become the realest, best version of me. 

Let’s think of this beautiful society we live in as a big, vast ocean with a multitude of unique living organisms. With the beauty of the ocean comes darkness in the depth, riptides, pollution, movement, and much shared space. And I believe there are three postures you can take in the ocean. 

1. Those who go against the current who constantly fight against the waves. You fight to gain distance, you struggle to breathe and, no matter what you try, you take on water through every wave.
2. Those who ride the wave and let the water carry them where it decides. 
3. Those who tread through the water "sideways" along the shoreline. They never get too far into the ocean, the sandbar stays pretty consistent and flat, and the shoreline is a small skip over. 

What posture are you taking in this ocean?

Thank you for reading. 

See you next Tuesday. 

Carrie

Review: Zirrly

It's review time! This time I am reviewing Zirrly which provides an opportunity to work on fine motor skills with Super Beads. We specifically reviewed the Super Beads Jewelry Set. However, there are MANY products available from Zirrly which I will reference below. 

First of all, what are Super Beads? Well they are the same concept as the traditional fuse beads that my kiddos have done often. If you aren't sure what that is, think tiny beads, a board with a cool shape, and ironing the shape when finished. However, instead of ironing, Super Beads allows you simply to spray the design with some water to fuse the beads together. In addition, Super Beads fit more snugly onto your Board which prevents the annoying I-slightly-tapped-my-design-and-now-it-is-totally-ruined-meltdown that often occurs in my house. (Which is only slightly better than the my sibling-slightly-tapped-my-design-and-now-it-is-totally-ruined-meltdown.) 

Our particular product of choice was the Super Beads Jewelry Set (pictured above) and it came with the following items (all for just $9.99!) 

• 1 necklace
• 1 pair of earrings
• 1 bracelet
• Design templates
• Super Beads
• Super Beads work tray
• 1 spray bottle
• 3 boards
• 1 design tool
• Instructions

I did this product with my two daughters (ages 4 and 6). They were able to easily participate in the product and follow the instructions with very little guidance or intervention for me. (Always a big plus in my book!)

Here are some pictures I took of my girls during our Super Beads adventure:

Hannah working on the bracelet

Abigail did the earrings and necklace

A closer look of the design template and Abigail's work

Little Hannah was able to work on this project easily.

Once the had finished with laying the beads down, I simply filled up a spray bottle with water and sprayed down the beads. After they dried, I got some pictures of the following finished products:

Hannah wearing the bracelet 

Hannah with the necklace. For some reason I didn't get a picture of the earrings but they turned out great.

Another pic of the necklace.

Another necklace picture

Okay, so now my actual review of the product. Firstly, for the price, I think this is a great buy for a rainy day activity. It is quite easy to do without much frustration and the price makes it something a family can afford without breaking the bank. The girls enjoyed what they made and enjoyed seeing it come together.

My complaint is that the water spraying wasn't quite as "easy" as I was hoping. If you don't get the spray done quite right, the beads can actually become a bit "gummy." They just weren't as firm as I would have liked. Now this was okay for the necklace and earrings, but the bracelet didn't hold up to the wear and tear of a young Hannah.

My overall take is that if you are looking for a fun gross motor activity for a reasonable price, this is a GREAT choice. However, don't expect it to be as sturdy as a product that costs a ton more. It is very appropriate for the money you spend.

I also want to encourage you to click this link below:

This link/picture will allow you to read reviews from my fellow Schoolhouse Review Crew Bloggers. They reviewed all kinds of other products from Zirrly. I have included some of the pictures below so you can see some of them for yourself! Jungle Animals!

Bird set!

3D Car and Truck 3D Animals
Spinning Tops
You can also check out Zirrly at the following locations:  FACEBOOK PINTEREST INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE

We Bought a Farm: Meet Talulu

I thought I would take a moment to share. a couple of snaps of one of our favorite chickens -- our Polish Chicken whom we have named Talulu. We often joke that the Polish chicken is in honor of Hannah whose hair came out of the womb out of control:

We actually started with about five Polish chickens when we got our first batch of layers. However, and we can only guess it's their hairstyle, they were targeted by the other chickens and picked on ruthlessly. We tried to pull them out and put them in a more safe "hospital" but we only managed to get ONE of our Polish chickens into the safety of adulthood. Talulu is now a forever chicken.

In truth, laying chickens usually start declining their egg production around 3-4 years old. We've told our children that we will eventually process out our laying hens. We know how old they are by the TYPE of chicken that they are. We brought in different breeds on different years. However, the kids are especially attached to a few of the chickens -- especially the ones that came in during our first batch when the farm was new and the chickens were right outside our front yard. Each of the kids will receive two "Presidential Pardons." They can pick two laying hens that will not be "processed out" and will get to live their life out on the farm despite the fact that their laying days are behind them.

One of those "veteran" chickens that Sidge said was in debate of giving one of his two pardons too, was named Popcorn. The other day, Sidge and I went out to do chores, and we discovered a dead chicken. This is almost always due to a hawk. We hate it, but we just accept that we will lose about one chicken a month to the birds of the air predators. (You are not allowed to hunt these birds at all!) 

Sidge is so sensitive and he teared up when he saw which chicken had died. It was Popcorn. To be very honest, I have no idea how he could tell which chicken it was. It had been quite eaten up! But Sidge knew. 

We try to not name animals that we might have to eventually put down. But kids are kids and they fall for certain animals. It's part of the adventure, and we are taking it as it comes. We have two geese (Flowers and Love) that we don't think we can ever let go of and at least one sheep (Snowball) that has equally secured her foreverdom on the farm. 

We Bought a Farm: A goat in my purse

Only in TN does a friend have a sick goat in her purse!

We Bought a Farm: The Writing on the wall

Prior to tearing down all the walls in our house, I decided to let the kids color all over the walls. Why not? When else in your life are you told you can just do whatever you want to on the walls in your house?!

Isaac drew his stuffed animal family as well as a guitar.

The scribbles are from Hannah but all the words are from Sidge who wrote all kinds of Christmas carols on the wall.

We Bought a Farm: A Great Day

Today was a great day on the farm. Okay, so I am sick. Not feeling well at all. In fact we had to cancel going to Bible Study and an Easter party with our homeschool co-op group. In addition, JB was sleeping from working last night.

But despite that, a surprisingly beautiful day (it was supposed to rain a lot of the day), a visit from our friend Anni, and Grampa and Grama here on the farm with us meant TONS of time for us all to be outside (even me who wasn't feeling great).

Here's some videos that Annie (and Sidge) took of some planting they did in the front yard while I was resting inside. While I am not feeling good at all, it comes in waves and I was able to get outside quite a bit as well.


I love days like this. The kids were outside so much. While Isaac and I played a game inside, the three youngest took a hike to our tallest hill, returned Hannah to the house, and then Sidge and Abigail went out for some "adventure" time with their binoculars and book of animals tracks and water and snacks.

We finished the evening watching a lighting storm in the foothills of which we live.

There are moments when I wonder what we are doing here. Is this really what we wanted? It feels so hard sometimes. But then days like today I am absolutely convinced that this is where my children are meant to grow up. This is where we are meant to be. While you can't remove yourself from society, I do think that submerging yourself in nature and stepping a foot outside of the hustle and bustle is a good thing. I think this is absolutely a fantastic adventure that we will never regret taking.

P.S. (No idea why Hannah is wearing black ear warmers. That's just Hannah for you.)

Our Science for the week!

A few days back, Aunt Sherrie (John's youngest brother, Rob's wife) texted us to tell us she was glued to a live video of some bald eagles in California and their three eggs that were starting to hatch. We logged on, and have been logging on everyday! It is so fun to watch these little guys growing up. I encourage you to jump on with your kids too. Here's the link. If you have to choose which camera to watch, check out the SAUCES BALD EAGLES -- Channel Islands. 

How a city girl, gone country grieves (and raises cows): Meno-Me

 How a city girl, gone country grieves 

(and raises cows)

I met Kimberly through farming. She, like me, has been dropped into this life and is learning to love it just like me. She is a Christian, however, our pasts are nothing alike. I've asked her to share her story on my Blog over the next weeks or months or however long it takes. It is filled with much grief and loss but will hopefully make you laugh and smile and grow and grieve along with her.

I have a frenemy, a second personality if you will. She started emerging about four years ago (coincidentally, shortly after the beef farm fell in my yard.) I don't like her most days. Some days I'm on her side. Some days, when I wake up and she's there, I just want to curl up and pray she goes away.

She's my Meno-Me.

If you're not yet in the meno-club, some of this won't make any sense. If you have survived the Meno-club and you're not in prison, I applaud you!!! If you're in the midst of all the fun we're having in Meno-club, then, well, you'll get it. Chill the wine, toss the coffee, and let's get miserable.

Before I go further, I do realize that controlling my diet plan, exercising, and natural remedies do help with many of the symptoms and most of the time I'm a good girl and obey.

But Meno-Me? She doesn't care.

In fact, she can be so mean and hateful and hurtful at times I'm cringing the whole time. Some of the ugliness is triggered by the dumbest things. She still doesn't care.

She's feisty and most times just plain miserable. For no reason at all. She's always too hot, while I am freezing, and oftentimes she's eating junk food well after dinner. Oh yeah, she knows I'm not fond of her. And she doesn't care.

Some days I wake up and feel all me. Encouraging, loving, serving. Typically that means she's on her "vacation", and I can go whole weeks without her around. But like her cousin, the Aunt that always visits at the most inopportune times, she'll show up out of nowhere and take over. It's like a volcanic eruption, with no warning signs. And she doesn't care.

I'm a firm believer God put me in the meat farm business at this time in my life so I wouldn't end up in prison. Meno-me gets some relief I think from the processing of meat products; killing something (with a good purpose) and no jail time involved. And still, she doesn't care.

I'm also a firm believer God gave me boys later in life on purpose. My daughters were rather challenging during their teen years. There's no doubt in my mind Meno-me would land me in jail if my girls were living with me during this time. And STILL she doesn't care.

I take heart. It's been a full year since that nagging Aunt hasn't visited, so for that there is some reprieve. I was able to take off some weight during the beginning stages of the Meno-club, which really helped with my sleep and general feeling of well-being. While Meno-Me still intrudes on my eating choices more frequently here of late, I just roll with it a few days until she goes on "vacation" then I get my balance back. My poor scale needs a new battery about every month.

The hot flashes, water retention, sleeplessness and general life pains are moderate and with the (finally) warming temps a lot of that is easing since I can be outside without 10 layers of clothes (which Meno-me will start shedding at any given moment). There are a few more years (YEARS!?!?!?!) left of the Meno-club, so I've been advised, and I like to think I have a handle on the basics. My husband is still coming home every day (for now). My boys have emo-sensors and know when the powder-keg is lit and have learned DO NOT ENGAGE. My poor mother, who lives with us, is thankfully too deaf to hear the Meno-Me rantings (God is merciful!) most of the time and my daughters live out of state. Lucky for them.

For you incoming "club" members, it's really not that bad (I'm lying). For you graduates of the "club" I'm not sure how you did it and left survivors. And for those holding the "Premium Membership" card, I'm with ya. Sweat, tears, meanness and all. 

Did I mention the facial hair.....?

Until next week!

Kimberly