7 Quick Takes - 2021 So Far

 

 Happy New Year!

-1-

Like most, I’m not sad to see 2020 end, but I have clenched teeth about 2021.  I am pleased to say that I am feeling even better than I did after my last post, in which I described my COVID-19 experience.  It certainly was a strange illness for me.  For weeks, I had some fatigue and serious brain fog.  My hormones went completely wacko afterwards, also, and so did my moods.  I told my friends that I was either pregnant or post-COVID.  Well, it certainly wasn’t the former as those days are behind me now (sadly).  Things are slowly coming back to normal, and I’m planning to resume running again this coming week, which will probably look a lot like walking.  My husband had an antibody test done two weeks ago and oddly enough, it came back negative, which amazed me because he certainly was exposed to the virus many times while I had it.  I attribute it to either the virus not being as highly contagious as we had thought or God’s mercy.  Probably both.

 -2-

As we usually do, my husband and I welcomed the new year in while we were sound asleep. For the past 20 years, we have helped with a local Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on New Year’s Day and this year was no exception.  This was the 25^th year for our particular count, and I have been helping since the beginning.  Back then, I was a single, energetic, eager-to-learn young woman and now I’m a married, worn-out, been-there-done-that mom. Yet, a love of birding has remained constant in my life and it always will.  I hope that someday, I am an eighty-plus year-old woman still counting birds on New Year’s Day. Hopefully some younger birders will join me and drive me around while I peer out the windshield counting starlings and turkey vultures, which is all that may be left.

The intrepid birder.

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We had an epiphany!  We wrapped up our 12-Days of Christmas celebration with a sweet little Epiphany party at home and invited a couple of friends who also were now post-COVID to join us.  I made my first attempt at a charcuterie and it was a lot of fun to put together, even if not Pinterest worthy.  We also made our own chocolate coins, something I wished I’d thought of doing years earlier.  One of our kids reacts to soy lecithin, so I always have to make our own chocolate candy or buy the very expensive allergy-friendly variety.  Finally, I had my own little epiphany and realized that for the price of two bags of the allergy-friendly coins, I could buy a candy coin mold, a bag of Enjoy Life chocolate chips, some gold foil and make my own!  It was super easy and the kids enjoyed doing this as one of their “12-days of Christmas” activities.  At our 12^th Night party, we hid the coins and the kids searched for them.  Whoever found the baby in the king cake got to keep all the gold coins (if they were an Evil King) or they could choose to share their gold (if they were a Good King).  Turns out that Daddy found the baby, and while he was on the fence for a moment, he decided to be a Good King and share his wealth of soy-free chocolates.  Long live the King!

King Dad

-4-

After a much needed 2-week break, we resumed school work this past week.  The first day was as bloody as I expected it would be, and it was painful realizing that even sending them to school right now would mean still having them at home.  LOL!  But day 2 went much better after a few motivational speeches (aka, threats) from mom, and I think we are back in our groove again.  I still long for the day that I can have both boys doing schoolwork in the same room, but I have accepted that that day may never come.  For now, we are making homeschool work by having each kid in their own space and I wear the floor out going back and forth from one to the other.  You wouldn’t think I’ve been doing this for six years now based upon how every day feels like day one all over again, but I am hopeful that by the time they start high school, I’ll have a system down.  Maybe.   Strange enough, however, our kids continue to learn despite my (and their) imperfections so something must be working.

-5-

Added to the stress of homeschooling, COVID, and holidays has been my ongoing plight in trying to kill a deer this winter.   Crossbow season opened on September 19 and continues through January 18 and it looks like I will be out there in the deer blind freezing my thumbs off until the very last sunset of the hunting season.  It has been both extremely rewarding (read, time alone outside) and frustrating.  In the almost one-hundred hours now that I have spent hunting, I have seen exactly one deer.  That one deer walked up to my blind, looked at me and turned around, all within about 10 seconds.  I think they’ve got my number.  This is the second year in which I have been unsuccessful with deer hunting, and our freezer is empty of venison now, leaving me with a primeval feeling of failure. I am applying this year for a Kentucky elk permit, and my odds are about 1 in 100 in getting drawn, which I find strangely encouraging.  

One of too many sunrises I watched from the deer blind this season.

-6-

For southern Kentucky, it’s been a snowy winter.  I think we’ve had a total snow accumulation for the winter of about 5 inches.  God likes to tease us with snow down here, giving us just enough to get us excited and eager to build snowmen, but then turning off the snowfall just before the grass is covered.  So, the kids have instead turned to other snowy outdoor pursuits such as jumping on their trampoline and watching the snow fly up as they land, and throwing miniature snowballs at their grandfather as he unsuspectingly steps out onto the front porch, and tricking the dog into eating snow fluff stirred into her bowl amongst the dogfood. I am taking the boys into the forest today for a “snow hike” which is exactly what it sounds like.  The boys love to look for animal tracks and deer trails in the white stuff and sabotage their mom with snow balls down my neck collar when I’m not paying attention, then they’ll come home and muddy up the floors and toss wet clothes all around the woodstove and beg for supper.  I aim to please.

 

-7-

Christmas often brings gifts that keep on giving and such was the case with us.  A couple of weeks after Christmas Day, a friend messaged me asking if we’d like more chickens.  Did we need more chickens? No.  Do we have space for more chickens? No.   But like the homesteading gateway drug that they are, I just couldn’t turn down free chickens, especially when I found out they were Jubilee Orpingtons, a breed I’ve really wanted to raise.  So, with about 30 minutes notice, I went to pick up 7 baby chickens and built a make-shift brooder pen in our laundry room.  They are adorable and really growing fast and making me ever so grateful that my sense of smell that I lost from COVID has not completely yet returned.  My husband, who now is tasked with building a “chicken box” this weekend that will become base camp #2 for the new chickens when we move them outside, was not thrilled, but I just reminded him that thankfully, our friend didn’t offer me a free goat.  Yet.

 

Meet "Black-eyed Pea". His name comes from New Year's Day.
If you're from the south, you'll understand.

And that’s about it for 2021 from here so far.  Is the year over yet?   Just kidding. 

If you’ve made it this far, I encourage you to head over to Kelly’sblog and check out some more Quick Takes much more worthy of your time!

 

 

7 Quick Takes - Get Out(side) While You Can

I’m suffering from a case of writer’s block so what better time than now to do 7 Quick Takes, linking up with Kelly over at her blog.  Happy Birthday, Kelly!

-1-

It’s September!  I do believe that September is becoming my favorite month of the year.  I’ve blogged about this before, but every year, I love September even more.  I think people tend to overlook the wonderful things about September, skipping too quickly ahead to “pumpkin spice & jack-o-lantern” season instead.  But September, with it’s dusky evenings and cool mornings, late summer wildflowers and heralds of migration always leaves me feeling nostalgic and more at peace than any other month of the year.  I love the winding down of the summer and all its craziness. 

-2-

Unlike last year, this year, thanks to several tropical depressions, our September has been filled with rain, and so the garden is still growing, although the season is near an end.  This week, maybe even today, I hope to dig the sweet potatoes and then in a couple of weeks, I’ll be planting garlic, and that’ll be a wrap for Garden Year 2020.   The year has been good, but nothing like Garden Year 2019 was.  That year was our most bountiful ever.  This year, there were no apples nor pears, and a late freeze in May took a heavy toll on our potatoes.  Still, God always provides just enough, and our shelves are still filled with the canned food from last year’s surplus, plus we harvested just enough corn, squash, potatoes and tomatoes this summer to get us through another winter. 

-3-

School has begun, although for us, school never really ends.  We have always homeschooled year-round, which allows us to work learning into our daily routine when it is most convenient.  This year, we are doing 5^th grade, 4^th grade and pre-K.   I have thought often about blogging more about our homeschool experiences, but it seems like every homeschooling blogger has already done that.  For years, I mostly stayed “in the closet” about homeschooling, sharing little about it over social media and with family and friends.  But now, in 2020, it’s suddenly cool to be a homeschooler, so I’m a little less apprehensive.  I have no advice to new homeschoolers other than it is really hard.  But if your kids are anything like mine (and if they are, you have my condolences), they will learn despite everything you do wrong.  There really must be a lot of grace that God gives to homeschoolers for this miracle of learning to happen despite all the chaos and disruptions that make up our homeschool days.  I trust him to do his part if I only do my part.

-4-

With cooler temperatures that came with September and less time required gardening and putting up food, we’ve been doing more hiking.  We had a week without rain last week and took advantage of the low water levels to go to the river.  The water temperature was “almost” too cold for swimming, but of course that doesn’t stop little boys from jumping right into it.  They ran and played and swam and jumped and fished and cooked 2 pounds of hot dogs over an open fire.  Homeschool lessons of the day were 1) how to successfully build a fire using only one match and things we found in the forest, 2) how to cast a rod and reel without piercing your neighbor’s ear, and 3) how to leave-no-trace when all is said and done.   Life skills that will take them far, I hope.

-5-

We celebrated two birthdays this month.  September 13 was the 2-year mark for our dog, Chessie, something the boys made sure I did not forget.  Chessie got a lovely “cake” made of leftover chicken nuggets, cheese sauce and dog food sprinkles as her award for officially leaving the puppy years behind.  And as lab and lab-mix breeds are known to do, she is finally starting to act like she has a brain now that she has reached the two-year mark.  She is loyal to her family, especially Joah, who claims her as his own, and has shown remarkable patience around our chickens in spite of the fact that two boys keep trying to encourage her to chase them for their own delight.  She is also showing evidence of becoming a surprisingly good squirrel dog and expertly spots and trees any squirrel that dares put foot on the ground around our bird feeder.  No doubt, it is the mountain cur in her that we can attribute to that.  So, while I had my doubts about Chessie in her first year of life, her brain seems to be maturing, and she is turning into a remarkable dog.  This same phenomenon gives me hope for my children!

-6-

And of course, the other birthday not to be overlooked was that of our Most Blessed Mother.  Unlike Chessie, Our Lady did not get chicken nuggets for her birthday, but rather, some home-baked gluten-free chocolate chip cookies prepared by John.  And of course, also unlike Chessie, Our Lady was more than willing to share her special treat with the rest of us.   John took great pleasure in baking cookies for her birthday, perhaps knowing how generous she’d be in sharing! 

-7-

And lastly, this September will be recorded in my memory as the time when I took care of all the kids alone for 13 days straight while Tom was out of town.  Small potatoes to many mothers out there, I know, and I tip my hat to all of you ladies who are single-parenting, or who have husbands deployed, or are frequently away from home for other reasons.  You are superheroes!  But for me, this was the longest period I have had to solo-parent all the kids since becoming a parent and it was brutal, but worth it.  Tom got some much-needed time away and caught up on some work, and I realized that just keeping the kids alive and fed really is the most important thing.   And absence really does make the heart grow fonder, so I am feeling even more thankful now for this man whom God gave me to help me through life and especially, with this parenting gig.  I know even more now than ever that I couldn’t do it without him. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful ending to this loveliest of months!    Based upon the arrival of the fall migrant birds I’ve seen, the woolly worms, the persimmon seeds, and the general aura of 2020, I expect an early and hard winter so, get out(side) while you can!

7 Quick Takes - 7 Photos for June

For such a long year, it certainly is going by fast.  Rather than write another post about deep thoughts, I've opted to go for quick and easy this time and share seven photos from this past month, just for posterity sake, and to keep from breaking my own personal goal of one blog post per month in 2020!  So, here they are, in no particular order.

--1--

The garden.  There are people who take long summer vacations.  Serious gardeners are not one of them.  We finally got everything planted by early June and now we are in what I like to call "maintenance-mode" which basically means, keep the good plants growing taller than the bad ones.  To beat the heat, I go out about three times a week at sunrise and work at it for about two hours.  I love it.  The cool mornings, seeing the garden change daily, and having that quiet time to myself does me a world of good.  Each of our two older boys has their own garden this year, too, and I am encouraged to see their enthusiasm increasing a little every year as they take ownership in their own little patch of dirt.  Now, if I could just get them to pull the weeds...

--2--

Related to my last blog post and all that's going on in our country today, I guess you could say that this photo represents my form of protest.

--3--

And this.  He has recently developed a love of "saying mass" at home.  He walks around and hands out the host to anyone who will take it, saying "Body Christ".  He says he's making his own "home church", which isn't surprising because...

--4--

...we are now on week number 15 of having "home church" instead of going to mass at our church.  Because of the social distancing requirements, there isn't room for everyone to fit in our little church now, so we are trying to give others the opportunity to go, plus, ever try to keep a mask on a 3-year old?  My husband has done a beautiful job leading our "dry masses" at home, and then when we wrap that up, we all load up in the car and drive to our church where the priest gives us holy communion in the parking lot.  He is also allowing us to make appointments for confessions and hears them outside as well.  Strange times.

--5--

About a week ago, the boys and I joined with two other families and participated in the "Rise Up and Run" 5K organized by Melody over at The Essential Mother.  It was so much fun!  We were lucky enough to have a cool weather spell and took advantage of it to complete the run.  Before we did our run/walk/bike, each of us talked about who or what we were praying for during the run, and I was touched by how thoughtful our little ones were.  One child prayed for her grandparents who had lost jobs due to COVID-19, one for his father, one for a recently widowed friend, etc.  It was such a beautiful moment and I thank Melody for encouraging everyone to "Rise Up and Run", united in prayer.

--6--

This past week, we marked the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, which is a very special occasion in our family.   My husband and son both share St. John the Baptist as their patron saints, and it is also my husband's birthday.   St. John the Baptist has interceded for my family on at least two very important occasions, and I truly believe I have him to thank for two of my children.  I keep meaning to write a post on the subject and maybe I'll get one up in time for the Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist on August 29.

Our little John with his name-day gifts.

--7--

In the coming month, I will have been a parent for ten years.  Ten years!  It is not lost on me that my little ones are already half grown.  From the time that they turned eight, it seems like my two "twibling" boys have just grown up before my eyes.  It does break my heart, and scares me a little.  Last night, while helping me wash the dishes, my oldest began to explain to me his interpretation of heaven and hell and I really had to stop and listen to him in order to understand it all.  His thoughts were so profound and complex (he's been trying to read CS Lewis lately) and all I could think was, when did he learn all of this?  I focus so often on my failings as a mother, but moments like that remind me that God will redeem anything that I offer up to him, including all of my parenting mistakes.

Now, hop on over to Kelly's blog to check out some other quick takes of life in the Catholic blogosphere.  Thanks, Kelly!

7 Quick Takes - Easter Is Near

Linking up with Kelly over at her blog today.  Thanks, Kelly!

Well, let’s start with the obvious.  I debated about whether this blog post should be about sharing my deep thoughts regarding the COVID-19 crisis or whether to just keep it light and share about some of the wonderful things that are happening around here.  I’ve decided that with all that’s going on, and with the approach of Holy Week, we have enough hard stuff to dwell on, so I’m going to go with an upbeat post this time around.  I’ll save the deep thoughts for later.

--1--

Happy April!  Springtime has hit Appalachia in full glory.  Our mountainsides are blushing with the many shades of green as tulip poplars and the big-leaf magnolias spring forth (pun intended!) their new leaves.  Interspersed among them are the purple hues of the blooming redbuds, the white of the serviceberry (“sarvusburry” if you’re a local) and the cream of the dogwoods, each bringing with it a cold snap timed with the bloom.  This past week, we fired up the woodstove again as we passed through “redbud winter” and in a couple more weeks, it’ll be time for “dogwood winter”.  By the middle of May, “blackberry winter” will have many scratching their heads, wondering how it could possibly be so cold in May, yet “blackberry winter” in May is as predictable as the springtime.  My mid-western city-raised husband laughs at these local colloquialisms that I grew up with, but has come to accept that mountain folk have their own colorful ways of explaining the world around them.

Photo I took on St. Joseph's Day just as the sun started to peak out of the clouds.

--2--

In our own social distancing/ homeschooling/ homesteading way, which really hasn’t been much different than our life before COVID-19, we’ve been celebrating the feasts and fasts of the Lenten Season.  At this point, I want to send a big thank you to Kendra at Catholic All Year for her continual inspiration in helping us keep the faith at home.  I follow her blog religiously (pun intended again!) for her perspective and ideas and lately, it has been invaluable as I’ve searched for ways to have church and now Holy Week at home.  Thank you, Kendra!

--3--

St. Joseph’s Day is always a big deal at our home and this year, I attempted gluten-free cinnamon rolls.  They weren’t terrible.  Succeeding at gluten-free pastry making has been my last big hurdle in this gluten free lifestyle that we adopted three years ago in order to improve my children’s mental health.  I try to avoid xanthan gum and other additives, so have yet to find a gluten-free flour mix that I’m satisfied with when it comes to baking, but I’m getting closer.  All that to say, these cinnamon rolls were devoured by my family, proving yet again that even a hockey puck would be a delicacy to a 9-year-old if you just smothered it with butter and sugar! 

--4--

A few days later, we celebrated the Annunciation with some fresh flowers in the home, and ribs for supper, both definitely not something we’d do during Lent.  And, as he did on St. Joseph’s Day, God blessed us with a beautiful sunny day, which was not part of the weather forecast, as we’ve been plodding through day after day after day of rain since last year ended.  I was so grateful for some sunshine and much needed Vitamin D that obviously couldn’t come at a better time. 

--5--

All that sunshine brought out the dandelions and of course, we had to have some for dinner!  My kids love to eat fried dandelion flowers and we never have leftovers.  Picking them this year seemed especially significant considering the amazing health benefits found in all parts of the dandelion plant.  Combined with a little sunshine, I’m hopeful that our immune systems got a much needed boost during the past couple of weeks.

--6--

With the cancellation of public masses across the country, our family has been doing “home church” and it has been very successful!  Tom and Joah normally play the music at our church for mass anyway, so we have the advantage of still having live music just as we would at mass every Sunday.  We follow a dry mass outline very similar to the one Kendra recently described on her blog, and Tom gives a little “homily”, which is usually an explanation of the Sunday readings and gospel.  We get dressed for home church just like we would if we were going to mass, and it has been a good way to teach the kids that we don’t dress up for church so that others can see us, but rather, because Jesus can see us.   Of course, it’s not even close to being the same as going to mass, but it has certainly helped us keep our Sundays still feeling like Sunday.  For Palm Sunday, we are going to use some fronds from a yucca plant growing on our property and process around the homestead.  I suppose the chickens and dog will enjoy joining us!  I suspect maybe there were a few feral animals in the procession when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, so I guess it’ll be somewhat authentic.

--7--

So that has been my therapy during these challenging and scary times, i.e., keeping things as much the same as possible.  Sure, it could all change tomorrow, but that is nothing new.  No day comes with a guarantee, but the seasons do, and in this season, we are planting our potatoes, celebrating the arrival of the hummingbirds (they arrived yesterday!), picking dandelions, wondering at wildflowers, and trying to stay close to Jesus by not tearing each other apart.  And lest I dig into my deeper thoughts, as I have already promised not to do, I will stop there.  The sun is shining outside my window and I have yucca fronds to pick.  Happy Palm Sunday!   Easter is near. 

  

7 Quick Takes - Leap Year 2020 Edition

Wood frog, the first frog to emerge from winter

--1--

Happy Bonus Day!  At least, that’s what I call February 29.  How awesome that we all get an extra day this year, and how even more awesome that it occurs on a Saturday. Win, win!  I asked my kids last night what we should do on this bonus day.  The votes were #1 no school work, #2 no chores, #3 play all day.  Well, they’ll get 1 out of 3 (no school work), anyhow.  Dream on, little ones.  After all, it’s Lent. 

--2—

Considering this day doesn’t really count, so to speak, I decided to take advantage of it to catch up on ye ole blog here.  My husband (my most faithful blog reader) thought my last blog post was my best ever so I thought about just stopping while I was ahead, but who am I kidding. This month was my 6-year blogiversary so how could I quit now??  I’m not sure I agree with my husband’s assessment of my latest post, but I will say that it was one that took me two years think about before I was ready to write it.  Needless to say, my perspective on parenting has done a complete 180 in the past 9 years. How easy it is to make our children into our idols and eagerly anticipate when they will reflect our “good parenting” for all the world to see!  I was well on that path until God gave me Teflon children, upon whom no traditional parenting method sticks.  So, for Lent, I am working on seeing my children as they are, accepting their limitations, trying to see the good, hard as it sometimes is, and ignoring a judgmental world that seeks to find satisfaction in comparing everyone to themselves.

--3—

So, speaking of the good, here is the best part of every February for us.  Joah turned 9!  I am now the mother of two nine-year olds for the next six months.  Try explaining that one to people!  For his birthday, he requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Easy enough, until you consider that the kid is gluten-free, dairy-free, and tolerates very few eggs.  Thankfully, through a vegan friend, I have learned so much in the past few years about how to accommodate his diet restrictions.  Joah loved this chocolate cake I made for him!  The frosting is also amazing and had no sugar in it.  Instead, we used dates.  He was a happy kid! For his birthday, we actually were visiting my sister, who has 7 kids, including three boys 10 and under, so they alone made a party.  It was complete mayhem.

--4—

I often say that Joah is the one who has taught me the most about true love.  It is he, more than my other children, who has required the greatest sacrifices, and who challenges me to rise above my own desires in order to meet his.  In turn, it is Joah who has the softest, most sensitive heart for those he cares about.  Two days after Joah’s birthday, we always remember the birthday of our little Karol Elizabeth, whom I lost in miscarriage two days after Joah turned one.  Joah has often referred to the fact that he shares his birthday with his sister in heaven.  This year, amongst all the chaos around the quick trip we made to visit my sister, I completely forgot about Karol Elizabeth’s birthday.  But not Joah.  The morning of her birthday, he walked up to me and told me it was an important day.  When I asked him why, he reminded me it was Karol Elizabeth’s birthday.  God love him.  He didn’t want her to be forgotten.  We decided to visit her grave and sing happy birthday to her.  It was the least we could do, but for Joah, it was huge.  Karol Elizabeth would have been 7 years old now.  This coming week, on March 3, we will be celebrating the birthday of her brother, Isaac Anne, whom we lost in miscarriage one year after Karol.  I am sure Joah will not let me forget.  God bless all my children!

--5—

And one more thing about Joah.  Something that we adoptive mothers think about a lot is how our adopted child will feel when they get older and start to understand what being adopted really means. We have never kept Joah’s adoption a secret from him and speak to him openly and positively about it whenever the subject comes up. Two years ago, he was able to re-unite with his birthmother, a true miracle and answer to lots of prayer.  Now that he’s even older, he’s coming to terms with the sense of loss that I believe every adopted child must face eventually.  I know it is a struggle for him sometimes and my heart breaks for this part of his life that I can’t “fix”.  This year, as we did last year, our family spent the first two weeks of February writing love notes to one another and hanging them up in the window, where they look sopretty. Then, after Valentine’s day, I take them all down and turn them into little books for each person in the family.  This year, as I read over the little valentines hanging in the window, I saw this one written by Joah.  I do not know what prompted it (other than perhaps a yummy supper that he liked), but needless to say, it touched me and his dad so deeply.  In spite all that I sometimes think I’m doing wrong in the parenting department, little things like this remind me that there is always hope and that God will take care of the things that I can’t.

--6—

And not to be left out, the end of February is also a milestone for this little guy, who hit the 3.5 mark yesterday.  Maybe it’s because he’s the baby, but it just feels like he is growing up faster than the other two ever did.  He may be 3 but he talks like a 4-year-old and is a real chatterbox.  Sometimes, it just goes on and on and I have to ask him to please stop talking!  Seriously, he’s probably going to be the most extroverted one of the family, which is a good thing.  I’ve always said he’s been the cherry on top of my sundae and that hasn’t changed.  I wish so much that I could keep him little forever, but he’s not going to have any part of that.  I recently gave away the diaper changing table and we have replaced it with a small table and chair that I hope to use for Dominic when we start formally homeschooling him.  It’s so bittersweet giving away the baby things but I am old enough now to recognize when it is time to let go and move on, and that time has come for me and my husband.  I’ll never have the large family I once dreamed of, but I am beyond thankful for the three children whom I have here and my three in heaven. 

Performing his favorite chore...crushing egg shells to feed the chickens.

--7—

And of course, it all started with this child, the first one I got to hold in my arms.  As my oldest and least “needy” kid, I feel like I don’t give him the attention he deserves, and he’s now closer to being 10 than 9. My first decade as a parent is coming to a close.  I often think about how I have been a parent now for as long as I tried to become a parent and struggled with infertility.  Both decades transformed me into who I am today, for better or worse.   None of it has been easy, and all of it has tested me in very uncomfortable ways.  I wouldn’t want to go back to any of it and in most ways, I am glad those days are behind me.  Perhaps that is a good thing.  Perhaps that is how God prepares us for our final destination, making sure we always keep looking forward towards being in heaven with him.  Maybe it is best not to want to go back, not to want to cling to the past, but rather, to keep looking forward with hope and to be thankful for the coming day, that inevitably brings us closer to our last day here and our first day with him in heaven.  This year for Lent, I am thinking of that.

Standing knee deep in water last week, looking for frog eggs.
That apple didn't fall far...

Thank you to Kelly for the link-up!  If you’d like to take a leap back, you can find my Quick Takes for leap day 2016 here.  Or you can go check out other great Quick Takes at Kelly’s blog here. 

7 Quick Takes - Update & Growing Up

-1-

Hello, friends.  Well, so much for my attempt at getting a post up once a month this year.  Where the heck did August go???  Anyhow, I guess that's some indication of how my summer has been.  I blame it on the garden.  And kids.  But oh, how I've missed writing and now, I'm just trying to keep this blog alive until a hard freeze kills back the garden and I no longer have to keep up with all the demands of summer.  In the meantime, here's an update to cover the past 8 weeks.

-2-

First, the garden.  I realize I write a lot about gardening. I guess I need to get out more.  Outside of blogging, gardening is my therapy, but unlike blogging, the return in investment is much greater (which I suppose is why most bloggers have stopped blogging).  By mid July, the corn was ready for picking (this is the corn that took me 3 attempts to get planted, you may recall.  Totally worth all the effort.  Almost.), blackberries were ripe, and the first of many buckets of tomatoes was ready to be picked.  Let the freezing and canning begin!  This summer, I put up more food than I think I ever have before, mostly because we eat healthier now (i.e., no preservatives) and even more, because I have two boys who can now out-eat their dad. For skinny little runts, it's amazing how much food that they can pack away.  Lord help me in five more years!

-3-

Second, the kids.  We had two birthdays in the past month.  Our oldest turned nine and our youngest is now a 3 year old.  I have officially left the baby years behind now, and yes, I'm more than just a little heartbroken.  One of my goals was to have him potty trained by the age of 3, and we came in just under the wire after 3 months of potty training failures and setbacks.  Anyone who says you can potty train in a day, three days, or a week obviously knows more about parenting than I do!  This is my third time around, and I have yet to have one successfully trained in less than a few months.  But then again, God only gives me the stubborn and strong-willed kids!

3 years old now!

For the Feast of St. Dominic (his name day),
we took him out to eat waffles!

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The newly minted nine year old is growing up too fast.  Nine is an odd age, such a mix of big kid and little kid.  I know that the days of cuddles in bed, holding mommy's hand on walks, and jumping in all the mud puddles is coming to an end soon.  But not too soon.  Today, he is anxiously awaiting for me to return home from the library (where I go to write) so that he can show me the cliff he found along the creek and take me on a "adventure I won't soon forget" hike, as he likes to put it.  He's full of stories, loves nothing more than a captive audience, reads every book in the house, and turns music up way too loud.  He's a lot like his daddy and a little bit like me but more than anything, a person unto himself.  He'll always be my free spirit, and I dread the day he flies the nest because he just can't wait to see the world.

9 years old now!

Celebrating his Baptismal anniversary on the
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary

My free spirit jumping into the pool.
He said he felt like a bird.

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Meanwhile, the middle kid continues to keep us all on our toes.  I think that's just what they do, eh?  I like to say that God gives some people ten kids and he gives other people one kid that feels like ten.  Ha!  That would describe our Joah.  Not to ever be outdone by big brother, this summer, he made some pretty big gains, including conquering the water slide and diving board and swimming now like a champ.  He's also been a ton of help with the gardening, has started enjoying reading more, and of the two older boys, Joah plays with Dominic best.  I see a lot of similarities between Joah and Dominic, and I'm so glad they have each other, especially since they share the adoption bond.

Best little corn husker around!

Kindred spirits.

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As for me, my last blog post was a bit of a lament as I struggled with my feelings of being a stay-at-home mother.  It's so easy to feel isolated as a SAHM, and although I have a great husband who encourages me to get out and do other things from time to time, the day-to-day responsibilities are hard for me to walk away from.  I carry a lot of mom-guilt when I leave everything in his hands because I know it is not easy.  Yet, on the other hand, I feel a restlessness building up in me when I am in full time mom-mode day after day, month after month.  I'm working on trying to find a balance, and really admire all the women out there who are successfully living multiple vocations.  All that being said, I did manage to get away for a couple of days last month and be a biologist again.  I and a few other biologists trapped a Rafinesque's big-eared bat cave, and we caught 28 of these cute little guys (and gals) in one night.  It was so much fun!  Aren't they just the neatest looking bats?  Definitely one of my favorites.

My, what big ears you have...

My alter ego.

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So, I think that pretty much brings you up to speed.  All is well, or as well as one could hope.  Every day brings its struggles but every day,  I wake up and offer it all to Jesus.  The good, the bad, the ugly, there is some of all of that in each of my days.  It's a constant challenge for me to look for the good, repair the bad, and to not get lost in the ugly.  Each day is different, but the pattern does not change, and in some uncomfortable way, I think that's a blessing, because it's God's way of showing me mercy until I finally get it right.

Taken after Mass during which we celebrated Dominic's
Presentation to Jesus (a Hispanic Catholic tradition for 3 year olds)

Thank you, Kelly for the link-up, and don't forget, tomorrow is someone's birthday so be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday! She never forgets ours. ;o)