October Stuff

A few pics of what we've been doing lately:



These pics are from when we released the butterflies. Hard to catch on camera, but it was really cool and exciting!



Monkey3 and Monkey4 are taking Ballet from a Catholic homeschooled teen we know locally - they are having a blast and I am grateful to have such a wonderful role model for them, the young woman who teaches them is just amazing.



Yesterday we went out to my parents' house for my birthday party, it was lots of fun! My brother grilled out ribs and ham for me [my favorite!] and we had chocolate chip pound cake for desert.

We also stopped by my sister's house to see her new chicken coop a friend built for her. It was really cool. She has caught my chicken addiction :) and we are giving her three hens for Christmas. This is Moneky1 showing off where they will live:



Today the kids got to go pick out their pumpkins for Halloween. This is an annual tradition at this point, and they take their pumpkin picking very seriously. LOL!



Here is The Boy holding Monkey5 - she thought the whole pumpkin thing was amazingly exciting:



Here is little Monkey3 holding a pumpkin that weighs more than she does:



And here is Monkey4 doing the exact same thing!



Besides all this stuff, the MonkeyDaddy and I have been planning and scheming to try to figure out how we can make our dream of moving out to the country near my parents a reality. We are looking at trying to buy some land near them and then, hopefully if God is willing, building our own home out there - possibly a cordwood home. We'd like to have 3-5 acres out within 10 minutes of my folks and raise not only our chickens, but some goats and pigs and maybe even a milk cow. :)

We are praying for discernment at this point - we need a Burning Bush to determine whether this is God's Will for our family or not. LOL!

Hope you are having a great fall! It is finally getting cool here...woohooo!!!!

High Anxiety

Gosh, everyone I know is really anxious right now. Is it like that everywhere?

It seems like we are all holding our breath to see just how awful things are about to get and we are all worried about it. I know I look at my kids and worry about what we are about to go through as a nation.

I don’t normally “do” politics on my blog. More or less I am a libertarian at heart, but I am also pro-life which means that I end up voting republican often. When ¼ of the infant US population is destroyed for convenience each year, that’s got to be my biggest issue – nothing else affects so huge a number of lives. [And since minority babies are more likely to be targeted and aborted, my strong feelings against such genocide affects my convictions as well].

This presidential race scares me. Does anyone else feel just plain scared?

I have relatives who will vote for Obama. Personally, I like the idea of having a black man as president – but geez, is this the best we have to offer? Give me Colon Powell or Alan Keyes – give me one of the many strong, intelligent, and leadership worthy black men in this country…

I don’t usually get scared by presidential elections – despite all the hysteria [“We’re gonna have to move to New Zealand if so-and-so wins, because things are going to be so bad around here"], pretty much one politician is as good [or not] as another. In the end, they rarely accomplish much in my experience….

But this time I’m scared.

I’m scared that the American People seem to be set on voting a man into the office of the president who is *amazingly* unqualified for the job. The man has no Executive experience. Seriously. [And the whole voting against the "born alive" act... I mean, good grief. We can't even agree it is a human being when it is OUTSIDE the womb, crying and breathing?! What kind of guy votes against not killing born, living babies?!]

We stand on the brink of one of those historic periods in our country – pretty much everything is very close to going straight to Hell in that handbasket.

And the best guy we can produce to lead this country in a time such as this is … Barack Obama?

Really?

Seriously?!!!

You know, I don’t just LOVE John McCain. Honestly, I’m not sure I really like the guy. But at least he is a proven leader – I don’t think he is a puppet controlled by the groups standing behind him. I don’t think he’s a “Rock Star” with no substance behind the façade and the PR. John McCain is a man of conviction. And he undoubtedly has the “intestinal fortitude” [or, ahem, the BALLS] to lead this country in such uncertain times.

McCain makes me feel a lot safer than Obama, even if I don’t just adore him.

And, I hate to say it, but much as I dislike Hilary Clinton as a person, I would feel a whole lot better about her as a Leader than Obama – she’s got the ability.

She has the balls to do the job. ;)

But you know who I *do* just love?

Sarah Palin.

How can you not love a mother of five who breastfed her kids and wore them in a sling, all while becoming Governor of the Macho State of Alaska – and doing it all by being a shoot from the hip, get rid of the corruption kind of gal?



She’s a lady I’d like to see in the Oval Office. A real example of what it means to be a *woman*, a *mother*, and successful at her chosen career.

She’s someone I’d like my daughters to grow up admiring and seeing as a role model.

So, God Bless Sarah Palin and God Help Us All.

My Poor, Neglected Blog...

Well, life goes on here and I am not finding much time to blog. My apologies!

In the past two weeks we've dealt with sickness, resuming homeschool [YAY!], trying to figure out how to get 8 people where they need to go when our vehicle only fits 7 [barely], getting kids to activities with a newborn in tow [did I mention I'm totally overwhelmed?!], hatching butterflies, adding more eggs to the incubator, dealing with an EVIL bank [they hold CASH deposits for 36 hours!!], and... oh yeah, I turned 39 in there somewhere!

AND for the past couple of days Gemma has been trying to be colicky and fussy all day - we are *praying* this is a temporary thing and not a permanent state of events for the next 6-12 weeks. [I can't do colic again, I really can't... I WILL lose my mind!]

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some pics for your entertainment.

Here is a shot of all the kids, the first pic I've gotten of them all together:



Here are Monkey5, Monkey3, and Monkey2 checking out the butterflies that grew from caterpillars we ordered through the mail. I was amazed it worked, but it did - and was very cool. This was part of Monkey3's birthday present from way back in April... took me a while to order the caterpillars! We let the butterflies go today - it was neat to see them fly off. [It is still really hot here, so have no fear for the butterflies...the directions said it was safe to release them at these temps]:



Here is a picture of Monkey2 holding Gemma and Monkey4 looking on:



And here is a picture of Ms. Gemma herself - all wide eyed and looking around. She weighed 7lbs 1 oz at her 1 month check up, so she's gaining weight well - she looks right chunky to me after seeing her at 4lb 14 oz when we left the hospital!



And this is what my incubator looks like right now:



I've got more Cuckoo Marans eggs in there, lots of Ameraucana eggs, some Silkie eggs, some Polish eggs, and some Welsummer eggs in there.

Right now my hens aren't laying well - we are getting one egg a day most days! And I have tons of people wanting to buy eggs... so I need to get some more hens laying! I also plan to learn to slaughter the males and use them for meat [I know, creeps everyone out, but I am starting to have strong feelings about not patronizing factory farms - I like knowing my food had a good life and was loved and well cared for....plus you can't beat the health benefits of organic, home grown meat...].

So, that's the update on us... hope you are having a great week!

And isn't October just the best month? I LOVE Fall...

Friends in High Places

Boy are my children well connected!

This story I'm about to share with you is absolutely 100% true.

We have a hen house, but when the weather got hot, we moved all the hens out to an open backyard fenced in run - much cooler for them there and they loved it. But now that fall weather and first frost are on the horizon, we want to move them back into the hen house to keep them cozy and warm.

So, DH went out last night to get the hen house ready and came back in very quickly saying there were mice who had moved in there. [ACK!].

This led to much chaos - all the kids were in the kitchen when he announced this, two of them immediately ran out to the hen house to "see" [and one of them decided to *touch* the "mousey" - guess which one? Hint: It was my fearless, animal loving Bull Rider... ].

As this was happening, another kid, the bleeding heart oldest, immediately went into dramatic hysteria about how we couldn't just *murder* the mice, they were so cute and little and we couldn't *kill* them and WHAT were we going to do to those poor mice anyway? [Which then led to a conversation amongst the children about diseases mice can carry - including the black plague [LOL!] and rabies...]

I was still just stunned [and completely creeped out] and had formulated no plan at all. After I frantically washed the Bull Rider's hands with hot water and antibacterial soap a couple of times, my husband gallantly offered to go out to the hen house with his air rifle and *shoot* the mice... somehow this did not strike me as a fabulous idea.

At this same time, I'm trying to finish cooking dinner [which was all done at once and needed my attention]. So, as a way to calm the kids down and deflect uncomfortable questions about mouse-icide and what exactly happens to your body if you get the plague and how does it kill you, I mentioned to my daughter that maybe she should pray to St. Martin de Porres to get the mice to move out so we didn't have to do anything horrible to them [there is a story about St. Martin where he did just that with the mice in the monastery].



They decided this was a great idea, so they got out one of their Saint books and Monkey1 led them in prayer to St. Martin to beg him to please talk to the mice and ask them to move elsewhere. Then they decided they should definitely pray to St. Francis of Assisi as well - the patron Saint of animals. Then, just for good measure, they decided to also pray to Mary, the Blessed Mother... because "she's the mother of everyone in the world, maybe she can talk to the mice". Then they had a long session reading about all their personal patron Saints....and they had FULL confidence that the mouse problem was solved.

I found this all slightly amusing, and honestly totally dismissed it from my mind [me of little faith...].

So tonight, I went out to check out these mice in the hen house so I could try to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of them and... they were GONE. I am *so* not making this up - there was no sign of them. Just yesterday they were all curious and coming right up looking at anyone who went in, and today they had vanished. I looked all over and couldn't find a single living thing in that hen house. It gave me chills - seriously.

I have often been humbled by God's answers to my children's prayers. Amazed even. But this... I mean seriously. It was wild.

So, THANK YOU St. Martin, St. Francis, and St. Mary. Thank you for hearing my children's prayers and for talking those mice into moving elsewhere so we did not have to "murder" them. [And nobody got the plague!]

Praise God and all His wonderful creation!