Chickie, Chickie, We 'Shore Do Love Our Chickie!

Many have you wondered how S3 is doing since the untimely death of Chickie's tragic swimming accident.

How's this for an answer?

After the tragidy of Chickie, we received 35 new chicks in the mail.

S3 decided all the white ones were his, because Chickie One was white. He has many to choose from and every day, at any time, he has one of the many. He is pretty sure he always has the same one, but some ride on his shoulder, some ride on his head, some he just carries around.

Buck Howdy sings a song "Chickens, Chickens, I Shore Do Love My Chickens!" S3, and the rest of us, sing this song all the time, just as 'Chickie, Chickie, We Shore Do Love Our Chickie".

There is no more mention of Chickie One. However, new Chickie is getting super special privaleges. Moma sometimes has to chickie sit if he has to get ready for a hockey game or go potty, Chickie eats breakfast with us most mornings, Chickie is a fan of PBS we found out...the only things Chickie is not allowed to do is eat dinner with us (what if we had chicken for dinner, that would be uncomfortable for all present!) or sleep with S3 - and he has asked if Chickie can sleep in his bed a lot of times.

But, as you can see, all is well here on the farm with S3!

The Not So Lucky Cat Lucky

It's never a good sign when your oldest says "Moma, do we have a ladder? Cuz I really need one..."


We have the cutest little kitten, Lucky. S2 found him on the road one day on our way home from summer school. He could not leave it there so we brought it home...S2 cannot help but love on animals. Not bringing this kitten home was not an option.

My husband did not agree. I didn't want another kitten either, we have one I love and one I dislike and adding another wasn't exactly on my list of things to do. S2 promised to find a home for this kitten.

But we all fell in love with the little kitten that purrs as soon as you look at him. However, last night he had to go outside. I think my husband thinks we will try harder to find a home for him if we have to hear him cry.

But for some reason or another, Lucky climbed the big walnut tree in our yard.

The boys were panicked. They were certain that she would certainly stay there until something killed her or some other equally awful fate. I told them to leave her alone and she would come down. This is what the boys decided to do.

I don't know about you, but Lucky didn't seem too terrified.

I told the boys to leave her alone, eventually they did, until S1 came to the door cuddling Lucky. "She came down on her own like I said, huh?"I asked him smugly.
"Nope. I had to knock her out of the tree."

Literally, he knocked her out of the tree! Ah, but she seems fine now, doesn't she? But for her own safety, and the safety of my boys, I hope she stays out of the tree!

In Defense of my Husband........

When my husband arrived home last night from a long day at work, he asked me if I had gotten the house cleaned, laundry done and the weeds pulled. I had not.

“Everyone will think I’m a big meany after your last blog,” he said.

If anyone knows my husband, they know he is not mean. Funny. And a farmer through and through.

We had friends over for a campfire a few weeks ago. They had just returned from Florida at Disney world where it was exceptionally hot. My friend’s (K.E.) hair was long and super blonde and she was bronze tan. I am still growing out my hair, I am not super blonde, just regular blonde, and there was no way I was close to tan, I was still snuggled up in long jeans and a sweatshirt to stay warm. My husband said, “now that summer is here, you really should work on a tan.”

I batted my eyes as seductively as possible and said “if you buy me a bikini, I’ll go to the beach with you………..”

“I’ll buy you a bikini,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “And you can weed the potatoes in it.”

See, he is funny and a farmer through and through.

But after the conference this past weekend, he was a true romantic. He showed up at the hotel in his freshly washed and cleaned out pick up as a complete surprise just to pick me up.

Why waste a free night?

He drove me around the city, showing me the jobs he has been working on that I had no idea where they were; just get a photo of now and then of them. We walked the streets. He took me to a movie, a chic flick movie no less, and we went to a steak house for dinner. My husband loves to talk, but he let me talk all night long.

In the morning, we slept in. Since my parents were still keeping the boys, sleeping in was bliss. Knowing I was about to fall asleep to awaken whenever I felt like it, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, there are no words!

When we woke up, my handsome hubby made me an omelet. Now how sweet is that?

I am sending this out as a thank you to my hubby….what do you need to thank your husband or wife for?

Sequel to Monday Morning

To all of you who think I am impressive for making waffles from scratch...I just burned water in a pot.

Yup.

I was searching a song for my husband, heard a crackle sound and went "oh no! water for the mac and cheese!"

Sigh............

Monday Summer Mornings

Today is the first day all the boys are home and we don’t have summer school. It’s cool and refreshing out the windows, the sun is shining, there are big puffy clouds floating in a brilliant blue sky.

A perfect day for sleeping in.

Last night my husband and I drove to get the boys at my parents, where my mom made us her famous home made pizza. Yummy! As soon as we pulled in, S4 was jumping on the car like a hyper active dog; as soon as I opened the door he fell onto my lap and hugged me as hard as his little three year old arms could. Then he let me go, just to hug me again. For the rest of the night I had to sit with him while he went poop twice, heard how the garbage can stung him (it was a bee in the garbage can that hold pig food), heard about the beach, heard about the golf cart rides, heard about everything he was sure I needed to know.

S2 was following right behind S4 and gave me a big hug and for the rest of the night he was showing me something he had done or sharing how S1 hadn’t wanted to play in the creek, hadn’t wanted to run down the paths, hadn’t wanted to do anything but play legos. He would wander out to play, only to come back and tell me something or rub my back or give me a hug.

S3 was carrying around the bow he has there and told me about all the great shots he had taken. S3 is a wanderer. He would wander in to tell me something, forget what it was, wander out to remember it and then come back to tell me.

S1 asked if he had to go home and told us about the Lego village he had built, explained how old bull dozer toys worked, informed us of all sorts of interesting facts about the car museum he had gone to with Papa and the tractors he had learned so much about this weekend.

I swear they all grew another inch and they all looked so much older in those nearly three days!

When it was time to go, S1 asked if he could stay one more night. S4 asked if he could stay there forever.

I was really hoping my parent’s house would be trashed, that my mom would look exhausted. Her house was spotless, she looked like nothing was abnormal about her weekend but she did have the suburban loaded for us to leave. And all the clothes the boys had worn that weekend were washed, dried, folded and packed.

How does my mom do that?

When we got home, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I didn’t even make my husband’s lunch. I have no idea what time the boys went to bed because they were watching a movie when I crawled into my nice clean soft bed, closed my eyes and never opened them till eight in the morning, when I heard the boys pounding down the steps. When they realized I was still sleeping, they put a movie in.

It was just a perfect morning. The boys were snuggled down with blankets watching a movie; I could imagine where each one was. The breeze was cool. I could hear my chickens clucking and the birds chirping. My cat was perched upon my back, ready to attack any mouse that may ever have a suicide mission to enter this room and come near me, and purring in the meantime.

It was all so perfect my heart nearly burst.

But I fell back asleep. I knew I was tired, but I was shocked when it was after nine.

I quickly jumped out of bed. The boys had just put in another movie.

S3 followed me into the kitchen where I was sleepily putting together a very strong pot of coffee. “Moma, would you make toaster waffles?”

Toaster waffles meant home made waffles. From scratch. I had been thinking pancakes, mix and water and whala! Pancakes!

But S3 wouldn’t give up. Oma makes him waffles…..so we made waffles. Just in case I would forget, he begins to haul out the waffle iron, the bowl and then he scootches a stool over to the counter to keep me on task.

The sound of the metal stool screeching across the linoleum brings S4 into the kitchen. He arrives like a tornado, trying to haul his wooden stool to the counter, screaming for someone to take the bottles off of it, banging the stool into the side of the counter and then asks what we are doing.

S4 is in charge of stirring, or rolling as they call it. As they help, the continue to rattle off all the fun things about Oma and Papa's house. S4 decides to help crack eggs, the egg explodes into the air and only the shell makes it into the batter. While I clean up the shells, he runs to the bathroom and gets out a rare clean bath towel to clean up the egg that is all over the counter. We continue mixing up the waffles; S4 takes a sip of his chocolate milk and immediately spits it out. “This is YUCKY!” I know it shouldn’t be, I have the same chocolate milk in my coffee! Although, I am wondering now….I look into his cup and the egg that had exploded is partly in his cup of milk.

While the waffles are cooking in the waffle maker, S4 gets bored and runs back to the movie and then runs back in to see we aren’t done yet, runs back to the movie…you get the idea.

S3 gets the first waffle and I give him a whole big, take up the whole dinner plate, waffle. His eyes get huge, he beams and walks proudly to the table to show it off. When his brother’s stay glued to Cheaper by the Dozen, he goes in to declare he is eating a huge waffle.

As I write this, everyone has a waffle at the table. Everyone who was starving, who told me how much they love waffles, hasn’t eaten more than a few bites of waffles. Instead they are all outside getting the slip and slide ready.

While writing this, I have been shot with a bow and arrow numerous times, I have a dandelion now behind my ear, someone pulled into the driveway and I had to crawl away from the door because I wasn’t fully dressed yet, S4 had to show me how sticky his hands are, S3 explained how big Chickie has gotten since he was gone. S2 choked back tears while he explained it’s not nice to use the hose to fill the chicken water when the sink is full of dishes, my husband called to ask if I was going to clean house, weed and do laundry today……..

My life back to normal. And I am loving it!

Writer's Conference Number One

Yes, this is a blog about life on a little farm with my super handsome hubby and my rambunctious four boys. Really, it is! But please deal with me one more time as I tell you about the writer’s conference I just attended this past weekend.

First of all, thank you to everyone who has been stopping in to check out the blog and enjoy these stories. Thank you to all who read Only U.P. From Here and helped me as I quickly wrote and asked for feedback from all of you in just one week – it was great fun to write and I never showed it to anyone but it was worth it still. I promise, you’ll be hearing more from Jo. I have a zillion ideas now! - . Thank you to all who prayed for us to have a great time….

Because we did! S.C., J.R. and I had a total blast. (as if the initials of my friends isn’t enough to make you giggle…) It was our very first Writer’s Conference, and I am pretty sure it was apparent to all there. Before we had left I had made jam from two flats of strawberries (no, we are out of strawberries here on the farm, they all went underwater), put together a portfolio of some stories from here on the blog (school mornings and family pictures) and other writings I have done in the past (did you all know I used to write on a news paper (and miss it!) as well as church news letters and I send in essays for contests…which I have never won!) and, of course, the story you have been reading here. I also watched my cute adorable little nephew (whom I’ll be calling Jr here on the blog, the one who I visited when I was nearly arrested, you will recall) which meant I was up at 4:15 in the morning to greet him. We also finished summer school this week, it was crazy week to be gone – but when you live on a farm with four boys, EVERY week is crazy!

On Thursday night, the boys were off to my parents. I was awake til one putting together the portfolios just in case anyone wanted to read what I had written and racing around doing laundry. My husband needed towels and clothes to wear and I needed ‘business casual’ clothes to wear to the conference. I have no idea what business casual means – it means different things to different groups, really – but figured it meant dresses. On Friday morning at seven sharp, S.C. was there to drive us to the conference where we met J.R.

Good gracious, the things we learned! I spent most of the time with Dennis Hensley, who taught on Fiction writing. I have oodles of notes. And my rough draft that you all have been reading would mean nothing to him or anyone else of importance…except to me who loves it and to you who like it too!

S.C. and J.R. listened to Chip MacGregor most of the time. They have oodles of notes. In a week the three of us will be getting together to share all our notes.

Then Ann Byle arrived to the conference. She ended up being probably the one I learned the most from. She was excellent, and informed all of us that if you write you don’t have a clean house. Which is good and freeing to know, as if I could ever have a clean house since I live on a farm, my husband farms our farm, we have four boys, we have a dog and three cats and S3’s chickie has been eating breakfast with us. My house is already never clean, but now that I am a regular writer too, the house is just doomed. That’s why we have a home….not a house.

My mind is bulging with information. It will take me forever to process it all. But I already have plans to attend another writer’s conference this fall and between now and then I am going to attempt to send out some magazine articles to different family magazines.

On a personal note, this is the first time since I was pregnant with S2 that I was gone to a hotel with just girls. We giggled and snickered and laughed til we cried. We stayed up late, we fixed our make up, we wore dressy clothes, we went for nacho run at 10:30, we drank tons of coffee. We had a blast.

I am so thankful for these two friends of mine.

Probably the thing I have learned the most from this conference was that I write because I have to, it is in my heart, words flow thru my veins. If not a single person ever read a word I wrote, I still would write. While it is my dream to be published, as in a fictional novel(s) as well as funny stories of life, that is not why I write. If these writings here have brought you joy, if they have encouraged you to laugh at yourself, if they have caused you to pause and realize the blessings of children and family and husband, if you realize God has a sense of humor and loves us dearly, more than we love our children and families and husband…then I am a success. And besides all that, all my boys will one day appreciate all these stories….because I am their moma and they have to!

So, that is how the conference went. I will now go back to just writing about the boys for all of you who need good laughs. Stay tuned for Father’s Day story (S4 spilled the beans), adventures with the new slip and slide, the further adventures of Chickie and S3 and much much more.

Thank you all for your prayers, they were answered abundantly.

One more thing, of the stories you have read here so far, which ones are your favorites? I thought I would start looking at those first for future magazine articles.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

Farmer's Market Saturday

This year we have decided to branch Full Circle Farm out a bit. We went as a family to our first farm market to sell our produce there. Now is a “slow” time for us, but we thought it would be fun to try. Our first trip was Memorial Day.

It went way better than I ever imagined it going. My hubby used to own a farm market; he grew up selling on one of the busiest farm markets in the area. This market was just laid back, easy going, fun.

In fact, I was so sad when we didn’t have enough asparagus to sell the next week.

The following week I got to go…by myself with all the boys. Now just think on that. Me, four boys, asparagus and strawberries to sell. I promised the boys a fishing trip and McDonald’s if they went. They did, we did great. I was so worried about when they would have to go pee; we have to cross the road to get to a bathroom. But the boys did great. I could rave and rave about them, they did that well. It made this moma’s heart swell with pride.

It was a lot of fun too because I got to meet a fellow blogger, VS. It was so fun to meet her! I was thrilled she came down to visit us; it seemed odd to meet someone you think you know so well for the very first time. But it sure meant the world to me that she came to visit…next time I’ll have to hide a quart of our super sweet strawberries for her!

It is a lot of fun to sit there and chat with those around us. We are all there for the same reason….and we sit there chatting about the way to put salt on asparagus and how much sap it takes to make they maple syrup and how to make tea from herbs. It’s a blast! And me thinking it’s a blast just goes to show you how ‘farmer’ we really are over here.

I will try to keep ya’ll updated on the market front. It depends on what we have as to how often we can go. Later in the year I am sure we will be there every weekend but right now we just aren’t too sure, all depends on weather and what we can harvest…if we have enough we will so be there! I just wanted to give everyone a heads up on it.