Random Musings

It's not uncommon for church kids to ask me: Any new animals? after visiting my house. If they ask this Sunday, I can say YES! Not the best pic, but shows them both. close up of the chick strange angle with both The crazy thing is that at least 2 of the 3 eggs this bird is hatching is not her own. I'm hoping the others hatch tonight or tomorrow morning. And we have a different bird sitting on a different pile of eggs now. So I'm thinking I may close her off and force the others to start laying elsewhere so we don't lose all the eggs. This is only the 2nd time we've had a hen hatch out eggs naturally (and the first one only had two hatch and neither survived past 3 days), so we've got optimistic hopes for this go around.

With every major storm (hurricane or tropical storm), or even torrential and long-term downpour, we can expect water to overcome the pond drain and head over the spillway (which is how it's designed so the water pressure won't break the dam). This week's 5+ inches in two days was no exception. Our pond level didn't get quite as high as during Hurricane Matthew, but came fairly close.  Water rushing from the spillway down the hill. This doesn't do the spillway justice. The water was a little over my ankle and moving fairly fast. I thought this was a turtle, but as I got closer to snap the pic, I thought it resembled more of a frog. As I went around Bobby to zoom in, I saw the body and quickly backed away, which he found quite funny. As we returned from our walk it was actually out on the dam a little ways out of the water...a brown water snake.  I'm not sure but we think we saw an eagle take one off while fishing last week.  Over the new drain...

In our new church building, one of the artists has painted/illustrated children's songs along the walls. One of them is "The wise man built his house upon the rock".  Before two of our three year olds moved into their classroom, they had a LOT of questions about that song. Evidently it was new to them. And with all the rain we've had the last two days, I found myself humming it this morning. Which then made me think of the kids from church, which had me smiling.  On either side of our driveway is a HUGE puddle. The geese are using it as their pretend pond, and instead of bathing in the real pond, they did it beside the driveway this morning.  And all this rain has helped the first planting of green beans to come up. This one's little head is barely poking above water.  Above is the whole row...in their river.  And a few of the beans planted Friday didn't stay submerged in the ground, or else I missed some while covering them. But it was cool to...

In all the craziness and upheaval of this week, I forgot I had a hair appointment today. Who forgets a hair appointment? Granted, compared to grieving parents and sick friends and a broken wheelchair hair is nothing, but I can only think of one other time in my life when I've forgotten about an appointment I had. So tomorrow when I get home from our Quilts of Valor meeting and before the yardwork begins, I need to call my hairdresser tomorrow and beg forgiveness and ask for a reschedule. On the flip side, while Bobby was at his meeting this morning I was able to go to the nearby Wal-mart and pick up a few things we needed, including tomato cages. Between appointments I was able to get all of them in the ground (though I'm still 3 short) and witness my dog chasing a rabbit around the shed. Earlier this week we saw an eagle dive for what we thought was a fish, but it came with up with a very long, wriggly thing. Do eagles eat snakes? If that is what it was, I'm very thank...

One of the motors in Bobby's chair died yesterday morning, so between texting family and phone calls from a friend in the hospital, we spent the day on the phone with insurance companies and medical supply companies. The company he has used for the last 30+ years is not taking our insurance. Hence all the phone calls. At some point toward the evening I started researching new chairs. We hope to know something tomorrow about whether or not his chair can be repaired and if so, will insurance cover it. Everything is so different with medicare. I'm just hoping whatever route we go everything can be completed by the end of May. Either way, it would be nice if we could have enough of an answer tomorrow to know whether or not to move the chair that is supposed to go into the driver's place in the van in its spot. Meanwhile, I miss his independence. It's the little things, like going to get his clothes off the closet door and they're not there because I didn't think to ...

Today our family's smiling, buoyant, and vivacious Kaitlyn will go through unimaginable pain and heartache - delivering her stillborn son. I am heartsick. The child (yes, I know she's been out of college for several years, but I held this girl's chubby little hands as she learned to walk and played "house" with tupperware containers in the floor at holidays with her when she was 2), who has yearned to be a Mom for many years now is cruelly having that dream ripped away in one of the most awful ways imaginable. I know over 20,000 women go through this in America every year, but that doesn't ease the pain any. So our prayers and thoughts continue to rotate between Kaitlyn and Nathan, and the grandparents who were so excited, and for the very hard days to come...the dates for the upcoming showers, the delivery due date, etc. Little Truman's nursery was decorated and ready to go, and walking by that room itself is going to be painful when they come home.  So...

Yesterday evening we received word that a close friend of Bobby's was on his way to the ER. We knew someone from the church would be with his wife (who is on hospice), but since they have no family close by, we decided to go be with him. We left last night and headed back this morning expecting him to be having heart tests and procedures today (he had a heart attack), only to find out everything was on hold until they could get a clearance from his oncologist. About 4 years ago they operated on him to "remove" parts of both lungs due to cancer. It was to take 5-6 hours. They basically opened and closed him, as the tumors were so widespread the dr said there was nothing that could be done. The given diagnosis had a life expectancy of 6 months. That was 4 years ago.  So now the heart dr is waiting to make sure it's okay to fix the heart. As we left late this afternoon that clearance had actually come but there won't be any procedures until tomorrow when they transfe...

Due to some scheduling conflicts we had to move the kids' Easter party at church to this Friday night. The seemingly obligatory conversation has already taken place (If it's not, you're being legalistic for not letting us have an egg hunt and the easter bunny come  then it's I don't lie to my children and teach them myths and Easter has nothing to do with plastic eggs and bunnies so if you have either I will not allow my children to participate. No offense to you, but... and the fall party is even worse for those conversations ) , so now it's down to the final preparations.  We've done a lot of different things over the years, but this year we're doing things a little different. We're having a variation of a passover feast. I say variation because we're having things I'm certain they don't have (a LOT of fruit, dill pickles, etc) and I'm making some sloppy joe meat to go with the pita bread because I KNOW some of the kids will not eve...

Today, on April 11,  I had the fun experience of watching a 3 yr old boy for several hours. We spent a LOT of time outside, and I had more "poop" discussions than I ever have in my life. (He noticed the differences between the chickens, geese, and dogs, and wanted to know which animal made which pile.) Today, on April 11, my only nephew on my side of the family turned 17. It seems like yesterday we were chuckling over his unique method of crawling. Today, on April 11, Bill Parrish, my brother-in-law's Dad, saw Jesus face to face, after facing months of infections and illness due to a ruptured intestine. I have many memories of this dear man, and not a one of them is even slightly negative. Tonight I hope to work on my "game plan" for Friday night's kids activity and finalize what I need. And work on a song, and maybe sketch out a quilt design. At this point it's too late for a movie, as I expect Bobby home from his meeting within 1.5 hours. I...

Since the new high school opened across the street from my mother-in-law, she's had some problems with teenagers trespassing onto the farm to fulfill their lustful desires. And no, I do not mean stealing or plundering. There's been one couple that has been run off twice during the school day, and this weekend a car actually came and parked in the middle of the field, headlights shining right on the farmhouse.  My husband was quite shocked when he heard, and asked "Have they no sense? Don't they know they're sitting out in the open between TWO houses?" We all laughed, and his uncle replied "Hormones don't have brains." And we all laughed, and Bobby nodded his head. Obviously they don't, but I'm still flabbergasted that people will walk, in broad daylight, beside a barn near a field and boarding stables, and think no one is going to find them. At night when it's dark I can comprehend a little bit more, but parking in the middle of a f...

The Bible Study I've been attending on Tuesdays finished up today. Yes, I know this is Monday, but our group leader had a scheduling conflict so we moved it to today. While I know timing wise it's the perfect time to take a break, I'm really going to miss meeting with these ladies. It's been a great group, and a good study. I look forward to finishing the book in the fall. My original plan for today had been to work some in the garden today and get some things done before the rain started. But when I stopped at Ken's Produce on the way home, two unplanned things happened. One, the bales of hay I needed to purchase were out. Two, they had tomato seedlings in 4pks for $2.00. I usually wait until later in April to purchase my tomato plants from Lowe's or Home Depot. You can get a qt pot for about $2.50.  So these are nowhere near the same size that I normally get, but I figured since things have been SO warm this year and I'm planting a lot earlier, it's ...

I was adamant that I would not cut grass until March, and I didn't. But now it's officially April, and our yard is beginning to look like it needs a real cut, not just a perfunctory "let's take care of the weeds and such". There's no point in talking about the fact the yard is now strange to cut because of the way the road paving project and school turn lane took sections of the front yard, nor how they've yet to remove the black silt fence and pile of gravel in the midst of the back section of our yard, nor that we still have the dog's underground fence line laying ON TOP of the ground as it can't be buried until all of their work is finally finished. Discussing it won't change a thing, and the grass in and around those areas still must be cut. My great-aunt who lived with us while I was small (she was tiny and weighed about 90 lbs soaking wet), would sometimes sigh and say "Sounds like somebody needs to go to the bathroom and get their p...