Getting Older and Springtime

I bet when you read the title you thought I was going to have some sentimental comments about getting older. Not me! I'm not getting older! :) But my oldest daughter is...tomorrow is her birthday! Since she lives out of state, and we couldn't be there to give her birthday hugs and whippings, we sent her a hug through a Hoops & YoYo card. She'll be officially hugged when she gets it in the mail. :) It's funny how my children can get older...and I just stay the same! (hahahaha! yeah right!) Anyway...bestest birthday wishes Amy!! We love ya! :)Springtime is officially here and boy, are things really greening up! Jacob cut the grass about a week ago and it's already thick again! There are signs of new life everywhere.

Here's our new pear tree budding out...

The cabbage and onions are really taking off with all the rain we've been getting...

And flowers are adorning the yard again...

Homeschooling

Today I was going over our homeschool records. We have 37 school days left in the 2008-2009 school year! Yahoo! I feel like it's been quite a productive year. Jacob has been able to take some college courses, and loved it! Rachel has really shown a vast improvement in her math during the second semester and doesn't seem to have that "dread" when it comes time to open the math book. :) In fact, she actually asked me last night if she could do summer school!?!?!? After I picked my lower jaw off the floor, I asked her why. She replied, "Well, I just want to keep going." Hmmm. Katie is ahead of "schedule" with her work, and, in fact, I will have to find more work for her to do in order to finish our required 180 days. It is sights like the picture below that make my homeschooling mama's heart go pitty-pat. :) I love to see my kids reading on their own and enjoying it. Though we use textbooks in our schooling, I'm not a firm believer in sticking to a book 100% of the time. I'm also a firm believer in this: not every technique/textbook/system works for every student. Each child is an individual…they have different personalities, different ways of thinking up solutions to a problem, different ways of learning. So what works best for one, may not necessarily work best for another. That's where the beauty of homeschool comes in. You can adjust the "technique" to the child. Flexibility. For example, while textbooks seem to be Rachel's choice, hands-on learning works well for Katie. That doesn't mean I get rid of textbooks when teaching Katie. We use textbooks for math and grammar. But when it comes to science and history, I'm not quite so rigid, especially in the elementary grades. I do have history and science textbooks, but we use them more as guidebooks. In science right now, Katie is doing a series of reports on different animals. She's doing the research, then writing detailed reports, instead of just reading about them in the textbook. (She's also learning grammar at the same time by doing this.) :)

It's the time of year when I generally try to get started in planning school for the next year. It may seem a little early for that, but I like to think it through and plan. It just occurred to me during this process that next year, I will only have two left to teach. Jacob will be in college full time! He is already registered at our community college and will be taking his first two year there, Lord willing. He is planning to major in business. He's got a good headstart after taking Economics I and Intro. Accounting. In fact, the counselor at the college told us he already had two of his hardest courses behind him! That's a plus! :) We also found out that he won't have to take any developmental courses, so we were glad for that. He's really looking forward to being a full-time student. He'll be doing orientation at the college in mid-April, and will start in the fall…entering a whole new phase in his life.

Just thought I'd give a little update on our homeschooling. It's a rainy east Tennessee day here...the Lord is watering all those cabbage plants and onions we planted last week! :) I'll be back with another post soon! Hope y'all have a good day!

Warmer Days!

Though we still have several more days before spring is officially here, you could've fooled me! The past few days have been wonderfully "springy!" :) We took advantage of the warmer weather, along with the drier ground, to plant our cabbage and onions. Now, we water. We wait.
The weeping willow trees are looking quite lacy with their budding leaves...
And just look at these beautiful Easter flowers...
Katie took advantage of the weather to go rafting on the pond. She'd spend hours at a time out there if I had hours to sit there and watch her! :)
She even coaxed Spud to get in the raft with her. But when he saw she was pushing away from shore, he jumped! :)
Ah, but winter is not over. The next few days are going to bring cooler temps at night. We'll be back in the 30s at night and by Thursday, up in the 40s for a high. But these spring-like days are going to be enjoyed to the fullest!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Yesterday, our third child entered that long-awaited territory...she turned thirTEEN! She has called herself a pre-teen for about 9 years now...so needless to say, she's looked forward to being a TEENager. :O) She's had a wonderful birthday this year, getting two things she has really, REALLY wanted! She got a new bow for her violin...which has made a big difference in her playing. And she got a flatiron for her hair. (sounds painful, doesn't it?) :O) She has VERY curly hair...almost unmanageable hair. And just like everybody else with naturally curly hair, she wanted straight hair. (Same as people who have straight hair pay to have curls, I guess.) Anyway, she was very surprised when she opened the box from her Grandmom and Granddad, as you can tell from the picture below...So now, not only is she a TEENager...she's a TEENager with STRAIGHT hair!
She didn't want a birthday cake this year...she wanted Papa Johns Pizza and broccolli salad and Koolaid pie. (super easy pie...I'll be posting the recipe on my other blog in a day or so.) Combine all of this with some money from her Papaw and Mamaw, and an oh-I've-just-got-to-have-it-book and cards from friends, and this is one happy little girl...oops, I mean TEENager. :O) Rachel is a joy, and is forever keeping us in stitches. She's always coming up with something funny to say or do. Spring is definitely in the process of springing here. We've had a foretaste of it the past few days! Our high was 70 degrees today! We are hoping to be able to plant our cool weather garden tomorrow, but I don't know if it'll be dry enough yet. But you won't hear me complaining...the past two years we have been way too dry! I'm thankful for the wet ground! :O) The ponds are very full now, and I think I can even see a bit of green grass coming up in the pasture. The cows are spending a lot less time around the hay ring now, and the chickens are starting to put out a good supply of large brown eggs again. Those are good signs that spring is on it's way!!
Hope you're all enjoying wonderful weather wherever you may be too! But above that, I hope you're all well and happy! I'll be posting again soon!

Operation Bird Rescue!

This morning, while Katie was "supposed" to be doing school...all of a sudden, she went flying out the front door. Matt said she was running after the dogs for some reason. The reason, I soon found out, was because the dogs had a bird. She had been looking out the window (instead of doing school work) and spotted the "incident" just as it happened. So out the door she goes...shoe-less in 20 degree weather, no less! The story had a happy ending for all concerned, except the dogs of course...who did NOT get the bird. But Katie was happy. And the bird was happy...a little shook up, naturally, but happy nonetheless. (If I was an animal...I'd sure pick Katie as my friend.)In other exciting news, Rachel has a new violin bow. We were informed by her teacher several weeks ago that she really did need a new bow. We did a home trial program with Shar Music. They sent six different bows for her to try. You can keep them for 10 days, which gave her lots of practice time, plus her teacher spent an entire lesson with her in helping her determine the best bow for her violin. Turns out, she and her teacher ultimately picked out the same one! So, one week and $450 later, Rachel has a new bow. If you're terribly interested, and I know you are, you can go HERE to see the one she decided on. It really is amazing to hear the difference in sound a different bow makes! Now...if we can ever just get fast internet, I'll upload a video of her playing.Jacob's Intro. to Accounting class seems to be going well for him. He likes it better than he thought he would...of course, he hasn't had his first test yet! :O) Today is really his first day "back in action." The entire family (with the exception of ME) has had some kind of nasty head/chest cold bug. It's been nothing to sneeze at (no pun intended). They've really felt bad with it. Seems to take about a week and a half to really get over it. But Jacob was the last man down, and he's getting back on his feet again, so I believe we're all in the clear now. :O)
So I guess that's about all for now. Hope you're all well and happy! I'll be back again soon!

Remember the Poison Ivy Tree?

Perhaps you remember last July when I posted about the really big tree that had fallen across the fence? It was just crawling with poison ivy...and I took pictures of Katie climbing all over it. The title of the post was "Another DUH moment in the life of me." Why such a title? Because it's a well-known fact that Katie has had some pretty severe reactions to poison ivy...and there I stood letting her climb all over the tree...I just wasn't thinking! *sigh* Anyway, yes she had another bad reaction that July also...and Matt and I both also got a pretty nasty case of it ourselves. Hard lesson learned. After cutting that tree off the fence line back in July, it has just been sitting there all this time...after all the hub-bub with the poison, nobody wanted to touch it! :O) (Once bit, twice shy.) So 6 1/2 months have gone by, and Jacob finally got brave enough to hook it to the tractor and drag it back to the house. It made me shudder to even look at it! :O) It was really quite a big old tree...81 years old to be exact...we counted the annual rings.
Jacob spent the better part of his afternoon cutting it up...
and busting it.
Katie spent the better part of her day helping stack the wood and yes, playing with Spud.
Rachel....let's see...where was she during all this work? Well, I did see her pick up a piece or two of wood...but it all happened so fast, I wasn't able to get a picture. (This girly girl does not like to get dirty...but turn her loose in the house and she can clean like nobody's business.)

Speaking of cutting wood, we have had so much cold weather this winter, we're getting low on our wood supply. But we have sure enjoyed a taste of spring this past week!! We had temps in the 60s! It was gorgeous! I'm sure we've not seen the last of Old Man Winter, but these warmer days have sure been welcome. I think the cows and chickens enjoyed it more than we did! Just look at this hen...that pretty red comb and those dark feathers. This ol' gal is getting ready to start laying after taking the winter off. :O)

White Again? :OP

We awoke this morning to more of the "white stuff." (Have I ever mentioned that I'm not a snow person?) I'd say there are several inches of dry, powdery snow. It's still snowing some but not like it was yesterday evening. It's early in the morning right now and the kids aren't awake yet, but my guess is that there will be some hootin' and hollerin' youngens sledding down these hills before too much more time goes by. :O) Don't have any pics of the snow yet...maybe later today...but you can visualize it...white. It is sooo cold too! Yikes! Last night, when the temp was 12 degrees, the wind chill was minus 2!! We had wind gusts of about 30 mph! (It sounds like a train coming through this holler!) :O) Too cold for my blood.

I do, however, have some pictures to share with you of a new heifer. Aren't ya excited? I knew you would be. Matt and I spent several hours at the stock pen this past weekend. By the way, have you ever been to a livestock auction? You really should go sometime. I love hearing the auctioneer, and watching the farmers bid. They each seem to have their own bidding style...including Matt, who cannot for the life of him bid without his cap. I know when he takes his cap off that he's fixing to bid on one. :O) He sorta just waves it a little bit...just enough to get the auctioneer's attention. So yep, the stock pen is...well...it's an interesting experience. The sights (and definitely smells) stick with you for a long time. Poor Rachel doesn't have the stomach for it...she can't take the "aroma." She nearly loses it when she sees people eating a hot dog or hamburger in the midst of all that smell. But it's fun. No kidding. I always enjoy going with Matt. Anyway, Matt wanted to get one more heifer while the price of cattle was somewhat lower than normal. (We're counting on prices going up in spring and summer.) He ended up with this gorgeous black angus heifer...about 9 months old. She really is quite pretty, don't you think? Look at that thick winter coat and those stout legs! Woohoo!

Whenever we get a new cow or heifer, we always keep them in the corral for a few days so they can settle down. The other cows always gather round the corral to check out the new kid. :O) The newbie and the other cows are always anxious for the time when we let the newbie out of the corral so they can push and shove and establish their "pecking order", so to speak. It sometimes takes a few days for the new one to be completely accepted, but eventually it usually always happens. Funny thing, if the newbie is a bull...it's not a problem. We keep him in the corral for a day, maybe two. We let him out...the "ladies" might push or shove him once...but they cut him a lot more slack than they do another cow.

So here are a few of the cows...waiting patiently for the newbie. :O) (The cute little Jersey on the left is Carl...he'll be in the freezer soon.)

Here's Whitey...she sticks out like a sore thumb here. Most of ours (except the Jerseys we're using for beef) are Black Angus. I think she's cute, but Matt insists on selling her this spring.
So enough of the cow pictures. I don't want to over-excite you. :O)

By the way, I put a link to my new blog over on the side bar. Come visit me over there, too! (No cow pictures are there...I promise.) :O)

That's all for now, folks!