Happy Birthday Son!

It is my oldest son's birthday! They are growing up so fast. I thought I'd honor his special day with a recent pic of him catching his first fish with no help from a grown up!!! He was so excited! Happy Birthday sweetie; what a big man you're turning out to be!

Taught

This past weekend we were blessed to have the family of family come all the way from up north to help us with some yard work and give me gardening advice. This nice couple also brought chainsaws and tree cutting equipment much to my husband's delight. That meant he'd finally have some help and guidance tackling the big fallen willow tree in our yard. I was relieved as we'd planned a lot of "events" at our house this year (a reunion, a homeschool group campout, an annual rummage sale, etc). I was happy to see that monster of a tree get dissected into more manageable chunks! What struck me as amazing in the midst of all this was watching my SIL help with all the tree debris. She grew up helping do this kind of stuff on a tree farm and, although she hasn't done it in a long time, she still knew what to do and how without being told or asked. I have never seen her work so hard at anything. It was astounding to me. I was raised in such a way that looking at that fallen tree seemed an impossible thing to conquer. Had I been given the task of researching something, passing a test, something like that...no problem. But something big and physical seemed untouchable. I would've instinctively gone to look up in a book or online how one should remove a tree and then resigned to call "professionals"...lol...while she knew just start hauling one piece at a time, one log - one branch - one anything at a time until the job was done. That said something to me. That if you equip kids with real life experience, real hands-on knowledge they won't lose it. That kind of knowledge is so incredibly valuable. For all my booksmarts and "capability" should I get lost in the woods or left alone somewhere, I'd be a gonner. Somewhere there is a balance. Teaching kids real life skills early on and also guiding them to research what you can't teach them so they'll have the confidence that they can do anything set before them. I hope someday my kids will be the type to know how to dig right in and help with any tough task. I on the other hand mostly stood by watching feeling unable to help (I was wearing the baby in a sling! :-) ). It did give me some needed courage though to tackle a few other daunting projects...

Waiter! Check please!

My creative guys decided to turn one of our outdoor seating areas into a restaurant this morning. It was cute to watch them acting out the "roles" of waiter and customers. Gotta appreciate every chance to see them cooperating and working together. Last night they teamed up and moved an enormous pile of firewood together. I was AMAZED that they were able to accomplish that. What hardworking little men-in-training! This momma sure is proud of her guys!

All dressed up

If I was gonna "brag on" my boys I just had to show a pic of my little princess all dressed up for church!

Conquerors

My little guys are rarely subdued. They are little conquerors. While this can seem tiring many times, I don't think I'd have it any other way. I love the way they want to tackle the world. It is pleasing to see the way they want to get out and experience things. My husband and I pray constantly for wisdom in guiding them through their conquests. I wanted to share this picture of them that so defines their wonderful, energetic spirit.

Bible time

Here's a darling photo of my studly man having Bible reading time with our youngest two. Notice Daddy is reading a Veggietales Bible study guide but the 2 year old is "reading" a KJV pocket Bible...LOL. Too precious!

Pig Lure = Pizza Rolls

Pizza rolls: the best kept secret in wooing a piggie back into its pen. Who knew? Seriously works though! My hubby and I decided that we'd try our hand at raising our own meat (other than chickens), so we set about learning of pigs. They seemed small enough and easy enough to try as novices. He asked around at the county fair in the swine building. We were not interested in the full-grown show pigs but figured the "pig people" would know where to obtain babies. Sure enough one of the teenagers gave a call home to his dad right there at the fair and we came home with a date of when to pick up our 3 little pigs. My hubby put them in the barn at first. They were still relatively easy to handle while they were little. We later moved them to the spot of the yard that I wanted to turn into my garden and we used them as little rototillers. That worked beautifully! They did in about a week what we would've had to rent expensive equipment to do for this particular patch of ground. We didn't use electric fence to keep them in; just a roll of fencing attached to posts all around. It worked - for awhile! The piggies got big and got VERY interested in the world outside thier pen! They were still young enough at that point to come to my voice when called. They honestly came better than any dog I'd ever had (I'm terrible with dogs mind you!). I hollered out "Here piggy piggies" and they ran right to me grunting happily. That didn't last terribly long, however. We came home one afternoon to a note on our door from a neighbor saying to call him ASAP regarding the pigs. We went out back to their yard and saw only one. We then heard a strange noise from the barn. We called the number and discovered that the 3 little pigs had gone all the way down the street to the neighbor's house via the ditch. I think they even crossed the highway. This other house is at least 1/4 mile from ours! A driver on the road had called the sheriff's department. They were about to cite us with a "Pig at large" ticket or some such thing when the neighbor talked them into just helping get the piggies home (thank heaven it was the same neighbor whose dog we'd helped return a number of times!). Anyway, this neighbor said he spent all afternoon with the deputy trying to corral our pigs in the barn. He then gave my husband some contraption to electrify the fence and swore that THAT would keep them in. He didn't make fun of us or anything (well, at least not to our faces!) for doing it "wrong". Hubby tried the contraption. It did NOT work. The very next day we spent at least 7 hours chasing these piggies through the woods. By this time they no longer came to "Here piggie piggie"! I even rode our 4 wheeler up and down the street 6 months pregnant calling for them at one point! (that doesn't work either!) In exasperation we began pulling items our of our cupboards and freezer that might help lure them into their pen. Apples and potatoes didn't work, various breads and crackers didn't work. Their feed corn was absolutely useless now that they'd been foraging all morning through the woods behind our house. Finally, we tried the pizza rolls, BINGO! They LOVED them! We finally got them all back to where they belonged and eventually boarded them up in the barn to spend the rest of their days until we could haul them to the meat market. Go figure; pigs love pizza rolls! Just don't tell them they were pepperoni!