Life in between the dreaming

Life is crazy cool in our home.  I mean 4 kids all day, one geriatric dog, 4 tadpoles, field trips, life lessons, and preparing to live the green acres dream proves to make for full days.  Here's a run down of our week so far.

So a sweet homeschooling mama called me to tell me they had found the mother load of tadpoles.  I of course wanted in on the action so last Monday we went tadpole or polywog hunting.  It was a huge success.

As you can tell there was one causality.  We talked about center of gravity and why you should lay down before scooping the net....but par for the course, one of my kids fell in.  I think Faith was more in shock at the nastiness of the water yuck.  No real eminent threat, but she learned a valuable lesson!

    Let me fully disclose that we had one tadpole from before the hunt.  It is a special needs tadpole and has yet to morph into a frog...18mo later and still a tadpole.  The real reason I wanted some more tadpoles was for this lone special needs tadpole.  I thought maybe if he had friends changing into frogs maybe they could show him the way to frogdomeville. I know crazy but at this point whatever works right? I might add that some of his other friends were used as fishing bait so these are some of the lucky ones!!

 
  Lastly, for the tax day, we had free cookies at the American Cookie Company.  Some good things do happen on tax day!:)

Wednesday, we toured the Round Rock Express stadium....it was a behind the scenes tour.  We got to be lead by all park Bob, sit in the dugout, and walk the clubhouse.  My kids along with their friends loved it!!

Friday took us to the State Capitol....for TeenPact. It is a one day class to teach 8-13 yr. olds about the legislative process.  Holy Cow this was an impressive teaching day!

Apparently Lady Liberty got the memo to be there in full attire :)

We started out the class with sword drills, talking about what scripture had to stay about governing authorities, worshiping with hymns, and then going on a prayer walk thru the capitol.  The y talked about on of the most powerful things we can do is to pray for our leaders. Prayers for wisdom in policy making, prayers for more Christians to hold office and prayers that we could continue to pray in public....these are all things that are slowly dissolving!

Finally, both of my kids presented their mock bills to the legislature   They were coached on presentation skills, how to dispute a bill, and how amend it.  I may have learned more than they did!!!



Next up....our farm visit...did you know that you have to trim hooves of goats?  I sure didn't!!!

Easter 2013

Easter, this year, was a stressful time.  In that, I mean there are some family expectations that come into play. Like, aren't you supposed to have extended family, for dinner? Apparently, we are not!  With my parents divorce and their new significant others, it all just seemed too messy to hard to process, to much anger on the cusp.  So instead of having blood family, we opened up our house to neighbors both near to Christ and not familiar with Christ.  It was, by far, one of my favorite Easters! We got to love on our neighbors and serve in this home that God has blessed us with!

 Crazy amounts of amazing food!

 Neighbors meeting and breaking bread on the Super Bowl holiday of the Christian Faith.

Single people, married people, widowed people, new babies, old doggies, I think we passed the generational test!

and of course...you know how we love a good game.  We ended the day with Apples to Apples.  Blessed...Blessed...Blessed beyond measure with a full house to love on!

I love how Christ meets us all where we are at...wooing us with his constant grace filled love.  Today was such a neat example of it.
  

If it poops like a mouse then maybe it is a mouse !?!

Ok, first off, I am feeling a little schizophrenic. I have been dreaming about land, raising animals...basically being Mrs. Dolittle and then a friend posted this picture on her facebook page.

This is my friend's mother-in-law helping out with one of their roosters. Granted roosters are a bit bigger, but holy cow look at those talons.  Then all these crazy bossy thoughts start popping in my head like
....can you get chicken scratch
....what kind of chicken gloves does a person need
....I'm gonna die
....one of the kids will for sure die
...what do you do with an animal when it dies
....I am so ooo oo going to be in over my head!

And then when I am feeling completely inadequate, we had an unfortunate incident. Here's what happened.  So a couple of weeks ago we showed the house and most things ended up in the garage...things started to pile up and we slated to clean out the garage as one of our pre-listing duties.

We (ok Craig) started moving things out to organize into groups of sell, donate, or trash it piles. While moving we saw black rice looking stuff and then it hit me...we have mice, but not only did we have a mouse, we found a nest.  It was empty but holy cow I was on high alert. My son swears he saw a five foot rat.  So being proactive we bought both kinds of traps...

Ya'll know we homeschool so everything is educational.  This lesson had the boys FULL attention.  Let me just say that on the test snap everyone jumped....if the mouse/rat does not bite the dust I just may!  Let me also address that checking on said traps = large cojones. Craig may not sleep tonight....


Before you all start commenting...yes I know mice are small and relatively harmless but what about
rickets.  Ok, off to ponder this whole country living thing and oh and listen for the "snap".  

FYI...

When you are house hunting there is some lingo that must be "clarified".

1. Bring your tools does =bring a bulldozer cause this house needs to be leveled.

2.  Handyman's delight = almost condemned property.

3. Has flooded before = uninsurable property.

4. Open acreage living= not a tree for miles.

Just thought I'd share some learned opportunities. Both houses on the hunt today were a fail, but I learned some new lingo! God has a plan so let's see what he has next!:)

House Hunting!!!!!

I have to post 2 pictures of houses we toured,and people this is super exciting cause these houses we actually like and can almost afford. What I mean is that they are relatively close to the budget:) tomorrow we see 2 more....it could really happen.... Whoo hoo!

Nice big lot with almost 2 acres....open floor plan but just blah. I guess we should have started with this one cause it pailed in charm to the next one:)

This may seriously be the cutest house I have ever seen...so pottery barn meets country charm. Bathroom counters were farmhouse tables yet the master shower had a rain water spout from the ceiling. Super super super cute but backs to a public park and is in the middle of a downtown so the neighbors could be questionable...not to mention it is priced high. Praying about it and the last house too. Thanks for being excited with us...either way we gain some acreage and adventure!

How do people blog everyday?

I am a non-typical blogger.  While I do love meeting my word quota on here....it's hard to make time to blog.  Life is in overdrive, but I guess that's the point of blogging....capturing those moments that otherwise slip through the cracks. So here is a recap of the last week or so events!

Passover Seder

Loved that my husband was teaching our children about the significant symbolism in the passover meal!  This was so neat to share with dear friends and we all learned a ton.  Our God is so into the details!

This was our Passover plate...with lamb shank, matzah bread, bitter herbs, salt water, horsey sauce, boiled egg, apple chutney, and candles.  Where did we get such interesting candles?  Well, I am so glad you asked! The kids made them the week prior at the Williamson Bee Keeping event. 

I also got knee deep in this book...so dang good!

That's right...where else but in Austin, can you attend the Funky Chicken Coop Tour.  We had a blast at this very informative filed trip. When you homeschool nothing is off limits for a field trip!

We held baby chicks...so fitting this weekend of new birth!

We explored the latest craze...the mobile chicken coop!

The kids met other homeschool school kids that participate in a group called Fancy Feathers.  It is a 4H group that shows chickens....can you guess what the kids want to do next year?

This crew learned about the different varieties of chickens and the family decided we need 5-6 different breeds of chickens...so we can name them and tell them apart and have lots of colors of eggs.  We shall see about this one!

This is $2000 coop....I think my husband almost feel over when they said what their coop cost.  Of course, this was the first coop we saw!

Coop build buy 3rd grades...we can so do this!

family FAVORITE!

30 chicken coop

Next up Easter pictures...and how God got to show off at our house!