Saying good bye to Ms. May

Tonight we said good bye to our little "May." Our new breeding Mama, Raven, only had a litter of two, which I really think meant saying good bye, all the harder.

My parents are driving by the farm at 4am. I'm gonna meet them at the gas station about 10 minutes from our house to save them a half hour on their 12+ hour drive. 

Because I'm not going to get the kids up in the morning, tonight we say good bye to Ms. May. 

She is going to an older gentleman. His daughter is my friend on Facebook because we went to the same Christian school once upon a time in South Florida, many moons ago. 

He recently had to put his wife in assisted living after caring for her for a decade, and he needs something to fill his days.

This pup will do the job!

Oh man, this pup was our hardest good bye yet.

 

Girls' Club

I am SO blessed by our homeschool co-op and the people who volunteer to fill the hearts and lives of my children. Ms. Shannon is doing SUCH an amazing job with the "tween club" for girls.

Georgia Aqarium

We took the four kids to Atlanta. It's a bit overdue, but Sidge wanted to go to the aquarium for his 13th birthday (January 31). 

We realized that my sister-in-law, Adrienne "AD", and her oldest two children (Charleigh 13 and Baylee 11) were going to be in the area for Spring Break! 

While my kids knew about it, we surprised the Huisman girls by our presence at the Aquarium. Here's a video of our adventures:

 

After we were done at the Aquarium, we went to an amazingly delicious German restaurant in downtown Atlanta: Der Biergarten. It was seriously the BEST German food we have ever HAD in the USA. Amazing. Awesome. We also had some fun taking pictures afterwards:

 

 

When taking a picture of the whole group, it appeared that Charleigh will officially not be taller than either of my boys. We really wondered as she grew so much faster. But alas, it appears she may stop at 5'8". I wish I could bottle Charleigh's confidence though. That girl has no fear and is not worried at all about what anyone thinks. She is so good for my boys and I wish they could spend more time with her!

A brief moment with the girls

Abigail LOVED a blue cardigan I bought -- so, with the gentle PUSH of my friend Erin -- I decided to buy her one! Being a parent is SOOO hard. But holy cow does it fly by. Everyone warns you. But you just can't understand it until it happens to you.

And then we discovered that one of the Dunham's military "boxes" that arrives monthly came in after they had left. Erin let us open it. What fun was inside. It was a bunch of cooking things. Hannah happily donned the apron and dug in to make some sugar cookies! At present, Hannah is our easiest child. I never thought I would say that. The other three are definitely teenagers. :)

Ballet (such a big deal in our house!)

I want to remember more moments. I want to remember the evolution of her dance. So here she is putting on and picking a costume for this year's competition dance. She's going to be a bluebird and do it en pointe. This was simply trying out the costume, seeing what she thought, bringing it home, confirming it was the one for her. The picture doesn't do it justice -- doesn't do her justice. But I want to remember it anyways.

This year, Abigail is going to do a solo at the CBT (Central Ballet) competition downtown. This is simply a small showcase for girls in our studio. She is, however, also going to perform a duet with her friend Alyssa at a dance competition at the end of April.

The most memorable days ...

This is the life we've chosen. It's a good life. It's a dirty life. It's freezing cold. There are animals everywhere. We will have to skip church tomorrow because the temperature is dropping into the teens and it is too cold to have the puppies outside (and we don't have any way to properly monitor them inside.)

This is our life. 

It's a good life.

Summer to Winter overnight

My Dad and Mom are in town for two weeks. Their house in downtown Greeneville is coming together so amazingly. It is going to be such an amazing home. And they bought it at such a prime time. My Aunt Jan took my mom, me, Mom's friend Debbie who traveled with them, and little Hannah out for the day. We visited The GreeneHouse and The Burlap Bunny. While The GreenHouse has become one of my favorite Greeneville jaunts, I had never been into the Bunny. Wow was it awesome! My Mom bought me the hat (pictured above.) Make sure to read it carefully.

We finished our time together having ice cream at another Greeneville favorite: Creamy Cup. We ate down on the chairs in 70-degree weather only to wake this morning to this:

I don't remember having this much snow at one time here -- it's a rarity. I want to say we got 4-5". It was lovely!

We Bought a Farm: More "Mr. Billy"

DAY 1

DAY 2

Yesterday, for the second time in two days, I got "stuck" behind Mr. Billy unloading his hay for the cows. There is no way to avoid this on road that are only big enough for one car. 

But on Day 2, as Mr. Billy climbed down from his tractor to unlatch his gate to make a left turn, he decided to come over and talk to me.

My initial thought is: "Oh boy."

He leans on the window. He hugs and kisses the girls (he calls them both "sissy"). And he talks. About the weather. The snow. The hay. The cows. His age. 

He just leans there -- as if he has all the time in the world.

It's truly such an amazing part of the southern culture. Patience. Time. Talking. Leisure. 

On a road only big enough for one car.

(Not ready to say) good bye

 

I am good at finding words. Especially the written word. I do the written word. 

I've had many friends. I have many friends. I love many friends. 

And along came this former professional dancer who happened to be married to one of my husband's childhood best friends. 

I honestly did not see her coming a mile away.

Our lives rarely crossed paths. I went to her wedding (19 years ago!) because my husband was in it. But I didn't know her. 

She grew up. I grew up. She had two kids. I had four. She found Jesus. I learned to love him more. She started homeschooling. I started farming.

Her husband deployed, and on that first deployment a few years ago, she came to visit us in Nashville.

A year or two later, she came with her kids to the farm and cleaned my refrigerator.

Each time, we would start talking like we were old friends. SOoooo different. (I can't say that enough.) She's petite and has no problem calling people on the phone to ask for things and order things. I'm 6'3" and can't stand to speak to people I can't see. I hate shopping. (She loves it.) We grew up in different worlds: me in a trailer park in South Florida. She, as a dancer in a more affluent home both outside of Boston and then in South Florida.

Dancing? Me, become friends with a dancer?

Although, now that I think about it ... Patty and I really love each other too so maybe I do have a thing for ballerinas.

But ... I digress.

(As I often do.)

About a year ago, Erin contacted me. Craig was deploying again. They were in Virginia but would have to relocate to California as soon as he got back. Because of COVID, their life in Virginia had been short and isolated. She wanted to take her Zach (almost 8) and Zoey (almost 10) and thrive not just survive.

She was thinking of being a nomad for 6-7 months. Travel between family and friends with her two kids and two Boston Terriers. I thought that sounded ... wonderful ... but hard. You need a home base.

She agreed. Any chance we had a home base for her at the farm?

We threw around a lot of ideas and somehow, things started coming together. It involved our RV and our farm, and a place for them to call "home" where the kids (and Erin!) could experience a thousand new things while Craig served our country in Qatar. 

John and I love our military. We feel called to them and always will. We also feel called to the orphan and the widow. Obviously, Erin is not a widow, but she was without her helpmate. And we wanted to step in for her.

What follows could be pages and pages and pages of stories and conversations and honesty and real life and hard stuff and amazing stuff. Big hugs. Falling in love with each other's children. Sharing the homeschool journey. Learning about farming. Learning more about ballet. Teaching. Reading. Loving. Friendship.

Friendship. Just genuine friendship. Just truly being honest with each other while living together and trying to teach our children to do the same thing.

I can't speak for Erin. I can only speak for Wendi. Wendi is so incredibly honored to have this woman in my life. Wendi's life has been changed by her presence on her farm. We are so incredibly honest with each other -- so real. 

I honestly cannot believe that in "two sleeps", Craig and Erin and her kids and dogs will drive off to California. It seems unbelievable to me. Impossible. How can it be? They live on our farm. Don't they? Zach's hugs. Zoey's incredibly verbal recognition of anything she hears. They idolize Sidge. He is their "Sidgey." The four youngest love to go on adventures and come up with all kinds of things to play. And even my "old man" Isaac has been known to see a soft spot emerge now and then for Zach and Zoey.

In fact, John, at Christmas, bought them each a present. That he picked out himself. He isn't like that. But it's different with Zach and Zoey. They are a part of our family. Forever.

I am shocked to think that Craig Dunham, the annoying kid one grade up from me at Fort Lauderdale Christian School would grow up and marry a woman that I would end up calling TRUE FRIEND.

Erin, you have touched my heart in ways I cannot put into words. I know you have often felt misunderstood or unreachable ... but to me, you are none of those things. You are authentic and true and vulnerable and FUN! I look forward to our lives intersecting until we are very old and very grey. Although, I'll probably be greyer because I'll think it way too much trouble to color my hair. I'll probably be in sweats too because, well, let's be honest ... it's who I am. If I can, I will keep my pajama pants too. I'd like to be buried in them.

Again, words fail me. 

I love you friend. Thank you for touching OUR lives these last seven months. I know you feel that we touched your's, but truly, the gift went FULL circle.

I have so many more pictures to share. But for now, words will have to do,

Wendi

P.S. The pictures at the top of this post are from Erin deciding that Greenbriar needed to carry on into my life farther. She forced me to go to Marshalls again and extend my wardrobe. What you see in the pictures is the result. 

Aquarium!

This is Sidge's ZEN! This fish tank with his plants and his chair is where he goes to relax. I love that John and him have had such fun putting together this aquarium!

To the vet we go

Today I took both of our big doggies to the vet. Man, was that an undertaking. I've never taken two grown dogs to the vet at the same time. I honestly haven't been in with Ritter since his last appointment when he was one. I'm way behind on everything ... so I took them both. Man .... trying to keep one calm while the other starts barking or trying to comfort Ritter while Arabelle is jealous. I had Abigail to help me but STILL ... it was a lot!

We Bought a Farm: Enjoying the country

I am trying to make it a point to take at least ten minutes, two times a day, to enjoy my farm. To be outside. To see it. To really see it. So many times I am moving from place to place. So fast. So quick. But what has God given me? What is the amazing place I get to call home?

I've never had this feeling about a place like I do these mountains in East TN. A place where there is silence. There is quiet. There is peace. It isn't about artificially made traffic lights and fast food drive-thru's. Here, life is still ... mostly ... unadulterated.

And I want to remember. To enjoy. To revel in every moment I get to be alive here.

An incredibly important reminder

I think this often. I really, truly believe it. School is SO not the most important thing we do with our children. So why does it dominate so much of their existence? They may simply just BE who God made them to BE. Lest we never forget ...

 

My Hannah

I'm not sure why I am getting so desirous to hang onto every moment ... but I am. And these two pictures so present my Hannah. So beautiful -- inside and out. But also, such a piece of work. I am so incredibly happy to have had this one embryo join our family. What would be without her closure to our family?

Small Miracles

It's become harder and harder to update my Blog. 

As my kids get older, they don't want me to share as much. So many stories and things I want to share get tucked away.

The Blog has become my journal so I worry that so much of my life won't be remembered.

Erin and her family are in Virginia shutting up their life there. They are in TLF (military acronym for "Temporary Lodging Facility"). It reminded me of my Germany TLF. When we lived in Turkey from 2012-2014, I went into what they thought might be "early labor" and the boys, me, and Veronica (family friend helping me) were shipped off to Germany for about 3-4 months. 

So I went searching for the video, and I found this. If you watch carefully, you'll see my very pregnant self.

I write all this to say, I still want to try and included glimpses of our life, shared with permission (or at least knowing that I won't get lectured for sharing it.) I have told all the kids they can ask me at any point to change a post I wrote from "public" to "private" and I will remove it.

Today, John had off work. We went to the 9:00 service at church. I sat next to Ms. Kay whose husband had died a week ago. She hugged me and hugged me and hugged me, and after service she told me the story from start to finish. Here I am living my life, and Ms. Kay's husband isn't here with her anymore. 

Afterwards we came home. I did some work to prepare for school tomorrow. Monday is homeschool co-op, and I am teaching a language arts class which requires effort on my part. In addition, Monday is the start of my own kids and a school week. So I had to get some stuff done.

After that, I played a game of Wingspan with both Sidge and Abigail. John, the boys, and me (Gabe too) caught three rams and loaded them up to take to the processor tomorrow morning.

And the boys and I cleaned their room! Oh what an accomplishment that was. (I also figured out how to put it to music which was super fun!)

I am becoming more and more aware of how fleeting these moments are. How few years are left before they won't care at all about half of the things in their room ... I'm truly trying to enjoy each moment.

I did learn a lesson. Do not put your boys in charge of putting away the Christmas decorations in the attic. The entrance to the attic is in their room so I thought this was acceptable. Teenage boys have no concept of keeping at attic clean. Holy cow was that stuff a mess.

I fixed it.

And we fixed their room.

Tomorrow, the camper will go to the camper "shop." This feels like the end of an era. The Dunhams will return for just a few more days at the beginning of March before moving to California. Erin has truly become such a dear friend. Losing her is really hitting me hard.

Story of the World (Modern Times)

Chapter 4 “The Taiping Rebellion”

Chapter 5 “South Against North”

Chapter 5 “After the Civil War”

Friday Funnies

 

Some funny conversations I overheard among my children:

Abigail: "Sidge, how many periods do you have?"

Sidge: "What?"

Abigail: "Like, in co-op? How many different periods do you have?"

Sidge: "Oh, I thought you were talking about periods at the end of a sentence."

* * * * *

Today, on the way home from co-op, I had Genevieve and Eoin and Ana with us in the car. The kids were doing the: "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" chant, and I told them I didn't like that one. I encouraged them to come up with new rhymes. Here were two we came up with:

Cross my turtle / Hope to hurdle / Stick a needle in my girdle 

But then one of them came up with one that had them stick their needle in pee. Genevieve remarked: "That wouldn't even hurt. It doesn't hurt to stick needle into your pee."

Puppies and teenagers

Isaac doesn't like pictures. Avoids the camera. And reserves his smiles for when he truly means (or you crack a joke right before you take the picture.) He isn't really a farm kid. Okay, he is NOT a farm kid. He has no desire for it. But he really enjoys the puppies. And he likes earning money. So for those reasons, the farm is a good place for him. He tells me to not expect him to live rural as he grows older. His heart wants the city ... but we will see. I have five more years to talk him into staying with me forever. 

Yesterday before bed, I started looking through some old pictures that popped up on my Facebook timeline. Like this one:

And I started crying. The tears just started running down my face. What an incredible gift I have been given. To think I'd have no children. To now have four. Why can't I appreciate each moment? Why do I get overwhelmed? What an incredible joy to get to be the Mama to these four humans. 

I am humbled ...

Hard Days

There has been a lot of sadness/loss/frustration in our house during the last few days.

My migraines/female issues have not been getting better. That's hard all the way around. 

Secondly, we had another dog fight here at the house. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the Bostons vs. Arabelle is not going well. This time, Zoey was trying to save the Bostons and got caught in the cross fires. She is okay, but it was NOT at all something I ever want to have happen again.

Speaking of the Dunhams, they have pulled out of our house for two weeks back in Virginia. They will tie up all the loose ends, get their house officially packed out, and then return here for five days before life takes them to California.

Despite the fact that our dogs do not get along, the Dunhams being here has been something I am not sure I will ever be able to adequately put into words. Erin and I, as different as we are, have become absolute bosom friends. From the first time we met "officially" back in 2014 (I had been at their wedding a decade prior but never really knew her), we have hit it off. Something just clicked for us.

These seven months sharing our lives and homes together has been something I will always treasure ... always be thankful for ... never forget. Zach and Zoey are truly two of my most favoritest children ever. Zoey is SO incredibly smart. So well-read. She reminds me so much, in so many ways, of my Sidge -- and she looks up to him. Sidge is, no doubt, one of her very favoritest people. And Zach? Oh my gosh is that kid funny! What a card. A piece of work.

So there was the dog fight which led to a bite. There is the Dunhams leaving. There is Grampa and Grama leaving town for a week. 

And then today I got word of a death in our extended family. My brother's wife, Adrienne, had an Uncle that passed away during the last few days. This touches us all deeply because he is the father of their fourth/adopted son, Maddox. Both of Maddox's parents have passed away now. We are so incredibly happy that he has Keith and AD and three siblings to live his life with. But what an incredibly hard time for the Broyles family. Please keep them in your prayers.

In addition, John just returned from work, and he had a very difficult loss at work today. Sometimes you lose a patient that is just really difficult. And today was one of those days. John was thankful that he handled things the way he did. But it is still hard when someone dies "before their time."

Lots to be thinking about as I go to bed this evening ...

Isaac the car collector

His life of everything Hot Wheels started young! Oh the sweetness of this little boy …. from the time he was little and we bought him his first little pack of 9 cars, he could spend HOURS (literally!) just moving them around, lining them up, and playing with them. He truly was the easiest most content little boy ever. Today he as an actual collector. I love him. He is such a sweetie. Then and now.