I love Spring!

Spring helps me get out of my rut of consequences and struggling to find ways to be creative with them. S has spent the week learning science. The Science of if you don't pull all the weeds right, and then procrastinate, you have to again pull weeds in ALL the garden beds!



S, T and MJ have also learned that when mom and dad say quiet time starts at 9:30 it is wise to shut your mouth then. They had to clean the yard of all the winter collection of trash, bones, rocks, broken toys and assorted other junk. Mom is so mean, she gave MJ the back yard while T and S got the pleasure of the side, front and pool area. Why did I give the girls an area together and MJ his own? Because MJ WORKS and the other two compete to see who wins the lazy contest! I figure they deserve working together! MJ got his done in one afternoon, with a little exception while mom ask him to help her. While the girls were very busy for two days. They may NOW be finished. Dad hasn't checked!

What was so funny with S and the garden is that when she did it right she came in excited and so happy. She felt wonderful inside. She was glad she was made do it right. She could hardly express all the "bubbly feelings" inside, her words. As she pulled weeds she came to understand that it wasn't a punishment, but a life lesson about caring for a garden and being responsible. We then talked again about being tomato staked. Even at 17 she needs it. I have a tree out near the swing we were on and I used it. When it was young the wind broke it over. I took a metal rod and put it in the ground right beside the tree set it up and then taped it tightly to the rod. It grew like this for a couple of years, until the tape rotted away. Now the rod is pushed aside while the tree stands firm and tall. This I showed S is her. She needs to be taped to me, not forever, but until she is strong enough to withstand the world and make good choices. I think she could see that. Now does that mean next time she tugs at the tape she will like it, no probably not.

Since everyone else was in trouble MN had to get into it a bit. She had picked up a "dumb" attitude from somewhere. I finally lost it last night and told her she wasn't welcome down stairs except for meals until she came up with the reason. She finally did. Took her half of today. She was "fitting in" with some kids she had saw. She didn't want to be different and since they acted that way..... She was denying who she was. A powerful, smart young woman of God. She admitted it and I hope learned a lesson. While she was upstairs thinking she made me this:

As you read that remember that I had read her the riot act both last night and this morning about attitude and acting stupid! Those that know me know that I don't mince words and tend to be very blunt about what I think. Yet maybe that is what she needs.

I will Post....

Not a lot going on today, or all week. Kids did start a new or old year of school depending on the child on Monday. Everyone seemed happy with it and did well. They were all finished by lunch. With very few redo's. T had the most. Her problem is she is in way to big a hurry. It isn't that she can't do it, it is she doesn't even bother to read the lesson before doing the questions. Most of the time she still manages to pull a C out, but a C just doesn't cut it here. My new threat/promise is that if she has a re-do she will have to sit a LONG time and just think. Oh what a terrible consequence that will be for her!

My DIL sent me new pics of the kid. I had to share my favorite.

In other news we did get part of our garden planted on Sat. We planted green beans, squash, cantaloupe and watermelon. I didn't buy any tomatoes or peppers. Walmart just didn't have any that I liked. Guess that was God, since it was 27 degrees this morning. Since we didn't have much in the way of blooms on our peach trees I doubt after this we will get any fruit. I haven't looked to see if the fig tree which was just starting to leaf out got bit.

I am off to see what I can accomplish today. After a cold start the day is warming up quickly. We are already at 59. Maybe I can accomplish Bible study in the sun! That sounds like a great thing to accomplish. All be blessed!

New Week!

I am SOOOOOO ready!

We have had a good weekend. We didn't go camping. I don't regret it. It would have been fun. Kids continued to fight and bicker into Sat. It was a lot of petty stuff that was driving me nuts! Funny it drove dad nuts too! So he was coming down on them as hard as I have been... OK, harder! Finally they had a wake up call! From there the weekend went great!

We had a great visit with oldest son and his family. His wife is due about Jan. 1. We are talking bets on when she has this little boy. His daddy was 6 weeks early and hasn't been late for anything he could help since. Daddy says if this baby isn't early it is his mama's fault! I admire her, she is working to finish this semester of collage, be mommy to a busy 5 yo, wife, my ds's secretary and be pregnant all at the same time.

We did a lot of working in the garden this weekend. I bought a weed eater this summer that I really liked. It had a cultivator attachment you could buy. We talked about it and decided to buy it. WOW! I am impressed! For what we want it works great! I have a raised bed garden so no huge areas to till, but lots of about 3 ft by 9 ft areas inside cinder blocks. A regular tiller wouldn't work. This worked great. Three passes and it is tilled. I plan on covering the beds with gin trash (cotton husk, stalks and burrs). I have a couple of piles of it from the last two years that we used for livestock feed. It has decomposed nicely. A friend said one year he dumped a bunch in his garden wet it good, then covered it with black plastic for a few months. On cold mornings the steam would rise all winter. The next spring it would grow anything! It was the best garden he ever had. I am thinking of doing something along this line to kill out a lot of the weed seeds in the beds. The beds that I plan on using for winter food I will just add some of the decomposed gin trash.

While part of the kids and I sorted my sheep the rest worked on some fence repairs then on to cut some fire wood. My sheep are all looking rather fat. They should start spitting out babies soon. I moved them to the front side where it will be easier to watch them. I have about 80 head. I sorted off my late lambs that were boys. They will be going to the sale in the next few weeks.

We managed to get our next beef sorted out so he can have some extra feed to finish him off. DH put a bail of hay in the pen and I will be sharing my cow feed with him for a few weeks. Then we will have beef! I am ready! We are down to not a lot of beef. The fact that this calf wants to act snotty has nothing, well very little to do with the fact I want him in the freezer.

DH has us enough fire wood to last a while. Not enough for all winter, but for a while. We haven't built a fire yet. We have turned on the electric heater in the living room a few mornings. I have shut my bedroom window to about 4 inches and moved the fan out of it. :)

Tomorrow we are having an un-school school day. MN has decided she wants to donate one of her goats to Rehab, which is the West Texas Rehabilitation Center http://www.westtexasrehab.org/ She found out they help kids and she wants to help kids so she is donating one of her angora goats. To make it even more "special" the girls are decorating it. They have so far painted her toe nails and horns and combed her hair. In the morning they plan on covering her in ribbons. They have a bunch made into bows already on tiny rubber bands. She should be cute. I hope she stops the show so to speak and brings a huge amount for rehab. MN would be thrilled to help so much. I will try to get pictures of the whole process tomorrow.

For now I am off here to spend time with DH.