Springtime on the Farm

Getting the mowers ready for the season



Mom and Baby


Bucklings playing the challenge game. They love jumping on and off this sewer manhole.


My other kidlets playing the challenge game :-)



Moms and Babies relaxing


Isabel loving Chloe. Poor Chloe, she's hooked to her chain to keep her from chasing the guineas

Hmmm . . . . wonder what lives in here?

Isaac insisted I take a picture of the creek. We're so blessed to have this on our land so that our animals have fresh water all the time.

Isaac and Isabel think Chloe's new house is the greatest.

Boris looking casual and distinguished, as usual. He loves the camera.

Chloe the coonhound

Betsy recuperating. Hopefully she learned her lesson about chasing cars when she clipped the tire of a truck while going to the mailbox with me this morning. The super-nice guy felt terrible and backed up his truck to make sure she was OK. She was just a little stunned, LOL.

Speckled Hen lays her nest here every year. She has 4 little hatchlings this time around. They were out foraging, so hopefully I'll get some pics of her with her brood soon. It's precious!

This is Isaac's favorite spot, on top of the hay.

Way up there! He loves that spot!

Boris, cool as cucumber, as always.


First mowing of the spring. This was so cute. The grass is a lot greener in the front of the house.

Brenda and her baby

The challenge game. Aren't they cute? Isabel is crying in the background because Chloe ran by and her chain whipped underneath Isabel's feet and knocked her flat. Poor baby! She was OK, just mad. She climbed in Chloe's doghouse with her after that. :-D

My Baby Einsteins

OK, can I just brag on my kiddos for a minute before my buttons bust? :-)

Isabel, at 21 months, can finish a peg puzzle in no time flat. We keep ALL our puzzle pieces in one basket. She can dig through and figure out which pieces go to which board. I think she might be ready for a 100 piece puzzle by Christmas. (Kidding!) She is also starting to recognize a few colors. She definitely knows "yeh-wo" , "ohnge" and "pank" (yes, she's an okie girl). :-) To top all that off, she can sing her ABCs -- er, something that sounds extremely close, anyway.

Isaac, 3 1/2, is beginning to read!! He is starting to sound out short words. He's been able to do his letter sounds for a while, but didn't understand how to put them together and I hadn't planned to push him on it for a while yet. It clicked for him this week when Isabel checked out a library book called "Quack Shack". It has 3 sections, words with the "ack", "ock" and "ick" families. Each section has several words with different letters in front. We were reading it together, and all the sudden he started spouting off some of the words before I read them!

This morning we were all 3 doing puzzles together and he started playing with his letter magnets. We did the same concept -- ack, at, og combinations, putting different letters in front of each one -- and he was able to read several words by himself!!! It's a great start! :-)

Lessons for Everyday Life: Matthew Chapter 14 -- Isaac's Commentary . . . .

This past Sunday, Isaac and his classmates learned (via flannel board) the story of the feeding of the five thousand. They all listened well, and afterward answered my questions about the story, while coloring their little pages with pictures of fishes and loaves.

This evening as I was picking tomatoes out of the garden, Isaac asked if he could have a particular tomato that apparently impressed him. He carried it around for a while, licked it, bit into it, then laid it on the porch for later. His little sister soon spotted it and snatched it off the porch. When Isaac saw his tomato in her grubby little hands, he nearly had a meltdown. "NOOOOOOOOO Izzy!!!!" I stopped him. "Hey!", I said, "It's OK! You can share it. We have more." For a split second, he almost continued, but suddenly, his tiny face changed, revealing the big connection that had just been made in his mind. "Oh. I can share. And God and Jesus. And Jesus said we can share food! I can share food." He was recalling the lesson he had learned about Jesus asking the little boy to share his food with everyone, and how Jesus was pleased when he did so. Isaac stopped throwing his fit and graciously accepted when Isabel came to him and handed over his tomato.

"Isaac!", I praised him, "You are such a good boy. You are a good listener!" It's little moments like this that make my mommy heart soar. I've been so proud of Isaac lately for doing so many grown-up, responsible things, like getting his own drink of water and making his bed. But this tops them all. I know that he is approaching an age when the Spirit is going to be stirring in him. He actually applied a biblical principle to his life for the very first time. He knew that he should share, because Jesus said to. And that's enough.