Another Day at the Farm

We spent yesterday afternoon at my parents property - picking berries, mowing grass on the riding mower, feeding the birds, picking veggies, and then finishing the day off with a campfire!

(Ellie with her casted arm covered!)

(James - mad that the chickens just stole all the bread he was feeding them!)

(Russell feeding the chickens)

(Papa and Belle feeding the chickens)

Belle and Papa went on a "safari" (in Papa's words) and discovered a hummingbird nest! Belle came back with lots of scratches and bruises - but she thinks she'll be alright!



As always, the kids favorite part was the roasted marshmallows and smore sandwiches! As an added treat, the kids' cousin, Benjamin, spent the afternoon with us as well!

Mom and Dad left this morning for a two week trip out east with Jen, Peter, and Ben. How lucky we are that our "good-bye" was only for a two-week vacation, instead of only getting to see them for two weeks during vacation! Their departure means that for the next two weeks we (by "we", I mean Dave!) are in charge of the farm! We'll see if 14 consecutive days of being responsible for the farm makes it any less appealing to Dave -- my guess is that he'll complain that he barely got to spend any time farming!

This evening the kids started their week long vacation bible school, through our church, First Congregational UCC. This is Belle and Russell's second VBS of the summer, but the first for James! I have been appointed director of the arts and crafts portion of the week - and although "artistic" is most definitely NOT an attribute I'm blessed with, I think I'll be able to pull it off.

Chicken Butchering

Today we butchered the chickens from Mama and Papa's farm (we think there were 15 left this morning, though we started out with 25!). Dave went over to the farm bright and early to get things set up for the big event, and then my parents and a couple of their friends joined him around 7am. They were done and back to our house with the chickens in tow by 8:30am, and by 11:15am we had successfully plucked, washed, cut-up, and vacuumed packed them all! The kids really didn't participate in this event, though they have been indirectly learning about the process of raising animals for food, just by listening to our conversations. Belle did sit up at the counter with Dave for awhile while be vacuumed sealed the meat -- and he did a great job teaching her about the process of food storage. Hopefully in the next couple of years the bigger kids can start to be more involved with this process. I feel so blessed that my parents are so involved with our lives, (and that they own farm property so close to our home!). Sometimes I forget to express to them how truly grateful I am for their presence in my children's, Dave's, and my own life - tomorrow I'm going to make an extra effort to tell them how much they mean to me!

Introduction

I read an article about what you are supposed to write about on your first blog post -- and it advised me to introduce myself. Since I'm writing this blog primarily for my husband (Hi Dave!), as well as my own future reference, my initial reaction was to skip the introduction thing. But then I paused and thought about it a little longer, and realized that it actually might be interesting to read my "self-description" back a few years from now. So... here's my introduction.

I'm a stay-at-home mother to five precious, beautiful, intelligent and all-together wonderful little people. This was not my plan for life. I was going to do big things -- namely, I was going to be a doctor. And frankly, I had done most (albeit not nearly all) of the "hard" work necessary to make that a reality. But apparently God mixed up MY plans with those of another woman, and I found myself unexpectedly pregnant at the end of my first year of medical school. Thankfully, I had the good sense to marry an amazing man (prior to getting pregnant!) who was fully supportive of my decision to forever alter the path of our lives by discontinuing my medical education to pursue a career in stay-at-home parenting. So, Baby #1 arrived, and we thought, "Hey, we're pretty good at this family thing - why not add another? And another? And another? And another? (And another??- Joking!!)". And that's how we ended up going from just the two of us, to a seven person family in less than eight years from the time we said "I do". That's also how I ended up being in a position where my primary "job" in life is to hang out all day with the five people (after my husband) whom I love the most in the world!

I do love my "job", but I admit, it's tough at times - and some days are downright HARD. But I'm finding more and more that these hard times are easier to get through when I remind myself that I'm not in control of everything - but instead, I have a God who is in charge, and HIS plans for me are being fulfilled on a daily basis. Sometimes I wish that I could see more clearly what he intends to do with my life, but I'm learning to be patient, and trust that He knows. I'm striving to be a better Christian, and I hope that as my faith and obedience to His word grows, so will that of my husband and children.

In addition to being defined by my faith and my family, I'm an organizer and planner at the very core of my being -- I LOVE to clean, organize, categorize, and plan. Yes, really, I love it. In fact, I could have a slight obsession with these things... But nevertheless, I find that structure and order make me a happier person, so if it takes organizing (which in and of itself makes me happy) in order to make me less stressed overall, I guess the obvious thing to do is organize! Dave isn't hardwired the same way I am, so it takes a lot of extra thought and effort on his part to maintain my standards for order and cleanliness -- so Dave, for all the times I haven't thanked you, please know how much I appreciate all you do to satisfy this neurotic need I have. (But I can't keep myself from saying - our home DOES benefit enormously from this obsession of mine!)

I also work as a consultant part-time for Ingenuity, a company that specializes in knowledge management for the life sciences community . I truly feel that my job was an answered prayer from God. I was looking for something that would allow me to use my education, while at the same time allow me to remain a stay-at-home parent -- and this position (seemingly randomly) showed up one day on a Craigslist ad. It required an advanced degree in Cell and Molecular Biology or Organic Chemistry, and a minimum commitment of 10 hours a week. ALL the work is done from the comfort of my home, at what ever times I choose to work. The financial benefits of the job are a true blessing to my family, and I LOVE getting to "exercise" my brain on a regular basis!

So there's my self-introduction. There's so much more about me, and I hope bits and pieces of myself will come out as I document and share my life through this new blog. I've attempted a journal about a gazillion times in my life - and have NEVER been successful at sticking with it. So here's another attempt... my future-self will thank me!