So little time, so just to sum things up in our world these days!

This just about sums up the Jman these days! He likes football! He love to be the wide receiving and he likes that it is rough! 

This just sums of Skeeter Girl!  She likes things that are not particularly toys like this gardening bag!  She has it all packed up for today's world. She has her pistol and some rocks.  What else could a girl need?  She was meant for brothers.  She is a tom boy!

This is my middle.  He loves all his pets and they love him.

Flarp and Skeeter

 When anyone asks Skeeter what she wants this year for Christmas her reply is interesting, "a pooper sounder."  Yes, folks FLARP is a big deal when you have two "bruders" and one of them got his pooper sounder for his birthday in November and would only let you play with it sometimes!

Then, I was looking for a word to help us remember some of our family values J and J thought that FLARP was the right word, and though it really is "inappropriate" as little J likes to say, none of them are forgetting it.  So, we talk about FLARPing decently often these days and it does not mean what you think:

F--FUN--we are going to have fun together.
L--LOVING--our family is going to be loving.
A--A-team--we are going to work as a team helping each other.
R--RESPECTFUL-we are going to try our best to respect each other.
P--PEACEFUL--PROMOTING PEACE--we are aiming to be peace promoters in our home.

So, this 2nd week of trying to be more "flarpy" I decided to give out awards to the kids for meeting some of those expectations.  I thought it was a good idea until Skeeter wanted her "sword" and Rooster wanted something tangible for his award.  He still asked me this morning for his award.  I just can't make him understand after 2 days that some awards are just pride in making good decisions and being noticed! 

It has been a fun few weeks and my Christmas stress has been pretty low this year! Yeah! We even made our own homemade play doh and I am not crafty AT ALL!  Still, that is what they are busy doing even as I type.  I love our family and investing in our relationships. 

Little Miss update!

 Little Miss is growing so quickly.  I wish I could post some cute and fun pics, but it just does not bring me any peace to do that.  She is talking a mile a minute and has the cutest voice.  I was having trouble getting her to do school with me...that was before I discovered that she LOVES the ipad.  She smiles and lights up like crazy when I hand it to her.  Today she even wanted to give up a sucker to play it.  She still loves her bike and being outside riding her four-wheeler.  We went to the beach one more time and she loves playing in the water and digging in the sand.  Yesterday when she rode the horse she wanted to trot like her bros and I thought I would watch her face turn to fright when Daddy started running.  Instead, she lit up with delight.  This girl is NOT afraid of a thing!

Both the littles, as I call them, started "school" last week at a local church.  They love going each week and when I told her she was going this week she replied, "I like my teacher!"

You are quite opinionated about what you want to wear and you are still a great eater!  I have found that you eat most anything with some sour cream girlie!

You don't love loud toilets and you tell me, " They scare my ears!!!"

You still love to do lots of flips and handstands and swinging on things...you can do a mean split as well. I think you might be a budding gymnast!

I love you and love to hear you tell me "one more thing" every night.  Your one more thing usually involves asking if we can go to the pool or the lake...after nap or in the morning.  You love to swim!

Farming and Little Miss

 

Little Miss could tell that I was feeling rough and having some back pain. She leaned over and kissed me and said, "I love you."   Then, I added I think you're going to be my little nurse.  She said plain as day, "NO, Momma, I am going to be a doc-TOR."  

Having free range chickens is like game playing every day. For the past 2 weeks, they have won the game...alas, today I found 20 eggs. Score!

 

 

Skeeter girl!

We were watching home videos and you have amazed us!  You are talking with about a million more words, and your little feet that once turned in are running and jumping strongly with no turning at all.  You like me to call you my baby-girl and we also call you Skeeter-girl!  You love it.

 You still love to run, jump, flip, twist and hop around on the trampoline!  You love to dance and sing.  I think you were born to cheer even if I don't really look forward to that!   

 AND, you love people. I don’t think there is one person in our lives that you don’t run up to and give a big hug.  You find some way to connect with everyone and you really seem to miss them when you don’t see them again the next day.  

You and I have some good times singing in your bed at night, but you mostly still love Zaccheus. 

You really enjoy saying, “my dooes it.”  “No, my don’t!”   You also are fond of, “I nose it”—you “knows” a lot of things to be three girl!  

I wish you were still sleeping later, but you kicked that habit.  You still take a great nap though so I can’t complain.

You like your nails painted, but you still play with guns as much as the boys.  You and Daddy have been playing baby dolls at night (and I play some during the day). I still think you are going to be a little nurse.  You love taking care of boo-boos and rubbing backs when someone is hurt.  

I am amazed at how well you can swim! You can jump off the diving board and swim to the ladder these days all by yourself.  If I push you down you can get rings off the bottom, and you love doing that.  

You make a lot of funny faces!  When Daddy is dirty or you smell something stinky you make the most disgusted face.  It is really comical.

Then, when you are frustrated and I am trying to teach you something, you roll your eyes back in your head and sometimes cover your face…it is cute…but not funny to me at the moment.  

You prefer counting to reading and words any day; this is going to be tough for me!  

I love to hear our giggles and you do it often and much!  This is the best part of having a girl.

You love to ride the plasma cars with the boys.  

You love going to church.  You are in Cay’s class now and he says you are being really good!  

You love the new boat sister! 

You LOVE to ride your Minnie Mouse bike, but you are not loving learning how to brake.  

You know how they say something that isn't funny at the time will become funny. Well, J and I have both had exhausting lessons on teaching you how to use your brakes.  Despite falling terribly today at the park, you are not interested in listening to us teach you how to ride!!!   Daddy worked on teaching you and had sweat pouring down his face and even dug a hole in the ground to put your tire in so you could see it spin and then try to stop it!  I am laughing now b/c I have already done some extensive pointless lesson myself, and I bet one day one of us is going to experience the joy of seeing you stop yourself!  

You like broccoli and you LOVE tomatoes.  Amazing!  Still, you like just about everything dipped in sour cream.  You don't like meat too much, but you love a " smoovie," and boy you love my smoothies!  

We battle for about a month over the openness of your door at night, but now you are going to bed so peacefully and we are so thankful!  You look adorable in your sweet pink and purple butterfly room!

You were following Cay around the other day and he told you to go away.  (Now, when Cay follows Je-je I usually say...let him play with you...he loves you and wants to be with you.) So, when Cay told you to stop following him I died laughing when I heard you shout, "I LOVE YOU," in this pleading voice.  

I love you.

Farming and Failing

If you haven't failed at enough things in life, then you should take up farming.  We learn more lessons around here than you can find in any textbook.

"Country folks know a lot of stuff that ain't wrote down nowhere."  And, this is why I like raising my kids in the country!

We have some really funny books by Judge Roy English and I'll use some of his quotes here!

We went horseback riding and had a great time.  Later that night we were resting when we heard a loud mooing sound. They were all happily grazing many acres away as we rode, but the ONE GATE on the opposite end of the farm that we left open--they FOUND-- and then ended up in my front yard only an hour later.  When I flipped on the front porch lights is was like a seen from the show Mobbed.  The bushes that I spent the summer "saving" were trampled and eaten, but hey, the yard is greener than ever.

We go down to pick up 8 eggs with kids and then we make it home with 4.  Oh well, the dogs enjoy them.

We planted blueberry bushes near our pastures....well, the goats break out and have enjoyed those blueberries and I think I have had one.

I was standing on some soaking wet ground once and let a metal chain in my hang swing into the electric fence BY THE CHARGER.  I was shocked so bad that I got out my cell to call my neighbor and tell her in case I did not make it home...funny now...but not then.

"A rooster does the crowing while a hen does the work."  Isn't that the truth-ha!

We bought some young "hens" from someone despite that we said, "they sure do have a big comb, are you sure they are hens?"  Well, Henny and Penny became Lenny and Denny quickly and then ...J ate them.

"Don't ever name a pig you plan to eat."  Well, we did and Barbie is delicious about  twice a week!

We found a cat in our freezer--alive--after 4 hours of enjoying snacks.

Donkeys make great guardian animals...well, that rarely works out.  Ours tore up fences, fought with the horses, and stole calves she was supposed to be protecting.

We built four nice laying boxes for our chickens, only to find out that they prefer laying in the goats' hay (where eggs get trampled), and all 14 of them prefer to use the same box (must be like ladies always wanting to go to the restroom together--must be instinct).

"Stuff tends to break when it's loaned or borrowed."   We have repaired quite a few things that are not our over they years and we have never gotten back and gotten back damaged farm goods from quite a few folks!

Then, there is the garden.  So that we won't feel bad about all the stuff that coons get and that we let rot, we got a pig last year and that was a good remedy for that "failure."   It never rains enough here for good melons really, but we still keep trying and our cantaloupes really made us proud a few years.

Our lawn mower takes so much time to repair that I am seriously considering bringing the goats up to visit this summer.  "If it ain't broke, chances are it will be."  This is the mantra of my hubby!

We had some new friends over recently and the next morning I went out in the yard with the kids to find something really welcoming.  There was an enormous cow femur that was next to our sidewalk!  I suppose from the looks of it that a coyote had enjoyed it and then our dogs brought it home.  I am surprised our new friends did not go straight home.

"If at first you don't succeed, try raising rabbits..."  Maybe that is a thought for next year.