Getting rid of clutter

I have decided today to get rid of some clutter! It seems like I am constantly going through the house ridding it of things that we don't use or need, but I can't for the life of me tell by looking around. So today.......I am armed with a box of 55 gallon black garbage bags and some serious determination to get this house whipped in shape!

Living on the farm with all there is to look after, it seems like our house gets less and less attention. And of course, Dillon is the worst pack rat I have ever seen ( and he is passing along that problem to his sis ) The saying someone's trash is someone else's treasure, is literally true with Dillon. He will find such value in some of the craziest things. Of course I have let his collections of "garbage" go way too far. He doesn't even know the half of what is in his room. So today, while he is at grandma BB's for bible school, I am armed and ready to clean his room first! Then on to the rest of the house!!

It is such a refreshing feeling to look back and see a little more simplicity in the house when some of the clutter is removed. I am SOO ready for a refreshing feeling when I look around the house :)

We made it

We attended the AKGA National Convention in Batesville, MS this past weekend, and boy what a trip. Yes, it was closer to home than most of our past goat excursions....but the kids changed the whole dynamics of it all!

I usually attend the seminars and try to soak up whatever new information I can, but this year I ended up trying to keep an eye on Dillon and Mallory......not an easy task. Shane and I have already decided that next year the kids will probably stay with one of their grandparents. They enjoyed the goat convention so much this is how they wanted to spend most of their time......


while watching this..

Dillon and Mallory stayed around Gulf South Kikos farm display table most of the time because Mr. Jesse and Ms. Jane Beech had all sorts of goodies. I had a small cooler of drinks for them, but of course they didn't want what we had. Thank you to the Beech's for letting our kids raid your coolers! We will send them down to work on your farm to repay you....Just kidding!

I hope we will be able to take the kids on a trip that they will truly enjoy. I planned on taking them to Gulf Shores, AL; but it seems the oil spill has ruined chances of that...The news this morning said that our coast has had tar balls and tar patties washing ashore. So there goes the idea of taking them to play in the sand on our beaches. I'm beginning to wonder if they are ever going to get that leak stopped. Hopefully they will soon, but I think the recovery is going to take a long time.....

Vacation Bible School

Our church just wrapped up VBS last night with the kids program. It was great! Dillon overcame his stagefright and performed the song and dance with such ease....Mallory got up there with her class and did the song, while appearing very timid. It has become a tradition every year on VBS family/program night, they get a roasted pig. I just can't bring myself to grab a piece of meat from that thing sprawled out on the counter! I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't like looking at the animal while I'm grabbing a piece of meat. I prefer it to be presented on a plate already disassembled (if that's what you'd call it) Everyone said that it was delicious....Who knows maybe next year I will give it a try....

Each year there is always a friendly competition to see who can raise the most money out of the boys and girls to go towards missions. It's always a riot, because the kids really get into bringing any spare change they can get their hands on to beat the others. The competition had a little twist this year. Bro. Phil said he would eat a bug if the girls won and his wife Ms. Rhetta was to eat a bug if the boys won.... The girls won this year (there were only 3 boys that attended VBS this year).....Go girls!! I tried to upload a video and seem to be having some issues. I will try sometime later.

What we've been up to

My mother in law and I picked peas the other afternoon at Jenkins Farm, after we had put up 150 ears of creamed sweet corn. It was so hot that morning while we were doing the corn, but God smiled down on us with and overcast sky with a little breeze while we picked the peas. Shane, myself and the kids shelled peas well into the night (the kids mostly tried if you know what I mean). I ended up going to bed only to wake to more to be shelled. We will enjoy them so much this winter along with that corn! It is well worth it; nothing beats fresh food from the garden!

Last night, Shane and I took Sally the horse to FBC in McLain for their Vacation Bible School. This year their theme was a western one, and they wanted to get the kids pictures made on a horse. It was so sweet to see the little ones get so excited about getting to see the horse. Although, there were a few that were completely scared of her. After they had their photos made Shane took them for a walk, so they could say they got to ride a horse. I think there were 50+ kids that attended last night. Sally did very good with the children, and thank goodness the horseflies stayed away!

This is my nephew Noah. He was a real cowboy and started all of the kids raising one arm and giving all of us picture takers a YEE-HAW!!

The things you can do with pen and paper!!

Tonight as I went to tuck Dillon into bed, I noticed this sign on his door. I think he and Mallory might need a little space. Since summer has started, they have played so well together and then today they had a falling out.....After about an hour though, they were back to their normal loving selves. It was funny when Dillon saw me notice this sign on his door tonight; he said "Oh mom I can take that sign down now, I don't care if Mallory comes in my room any more." I can guarantee tomorrow I'll see this same sign posted on his door once again after they have been awake for no more than 30 minutes. Of course, it will come down again too I'm sure. Nothing like that brotherly/sisterly love!

I also had to share this sign Dillon made last year when he learned to maneuver our lawn mower around the yard. He is such a little entrepreneur...

Of course we knew he wouldn't be mowing someone's grass at 6 years old, but I asked him why was he charging such a cheap price. He matter of factly stated that he didn't want to "charge his customers too much!"

Last picture from him is from mother's day in Kindergarten. This is one of the best mother's day gifts I have received. It was a book all about mom, they had to finish a sentence with what they thought best described mom.......

By the way, that is me in that photo! 44 pounds.....I love it!

I am trying my best to acquire a greenthumb!! I have tried on more than one occasion to grow, maintain, care for (whatever you'd like to call it) flowers and plants. I haven't been very successful to say the least, but this year, things are looking better. I didn't do a whole lot to our yard this year due to us hopefully moving before this year's end. Then, I will get creative with maybe planting a small garden, and have plenty of flowers to look at.... These are some photos of my purple petunias and forget me nots.

There is hardly anything I like better than to get up early in the morning ( I have to set my alarm clock :) and take my cup of coffee outside with me while I look around the place just before the sun comes up completely. It gets so hot and humid after 7am it's just ridiculous! But, it is so peaceful and amazing how God has blessed Shane and I with this farm,when I look around. Who knows what our future holds, but for now I am so thankful that he and I can share this journey!

Decisions, decisions, decisions....

We are in the process of trying to get estimates for remodeling Shane's grandmother's old house down the road. Eventually we plan on moving into it due to the fact it is at a more central location and it has an even better view of the farm. I never realized how many times we would have to sit down and rethink of what we want to do with that house...Just when we thought we had it figured out something else changes. We both have decided today that we really like the look of log vinyl siding. You should really check out this site here. It is so neat how realistic it looks without all of the upkeep and expense of real wood.

Be praying for both Shane and I as we work together on this. It looks like we will be doing most of the work ourselves. Shane said that it will bond us even closer (I'm wondering how true this is ;) We do work well together but I have heard so many stories of couples trying to build homes together and it wasn't pretty. I know with God's help we will be able to do it, and we will look back it and marvel at what we've done. We seem to look back a lot to see how far God has brought us in our farming endeavor and it's quite amazing! So for now, it's many decisions to be made......

A night out with my hubby

Shane and I had the rare opportunity to go out last night sans the children. (although we mostly talked about them most of the night) We first went to Runnelstown to eat at the Catfish Wagon. DELICIOUS! Later on we went to the mall so I could go to JCPenney. That didn't go as I had hoped (swimsuit shopping UGH!) We ended our night at sonic for some ice cream which was sooo good. I really enjoy getting to spend time with Shane, we laughed alot and almost were having as much fun as kids!!!

A cottonmouth? EEEEK!

Okay, so I'm completely terrified of snakes.....they give me chills just thinking about them. Yesterday I noticed a hen acting strange outside the barn so I decided to go check it out. When I got there I wished I hadn't seen the snake...It was curled up with it's head straight up. I didn't know what kind of snake it was, but to me, no snake is a good snake! Last year we lost one of our LGD's to a HUGE rattlesnake, so I didn't want to let this snake go. I got a shovel out of the barn and planned on hitting it with the edge. It took me 5 minutes to get the courage up to take a swing. Last year I tried this method with a copperhead and missed (eventually killed it; boy those copperheads are M-E-A-N).....So after counting 1....2....3...about 10 times I finally got up the courage to go through with it. Of course I didn't hit it where I intended. I only made it mad and that was it for me, the shovel method was out. I watched it settle down by the pecan tree and I drove quickly to our house and grabbed the 22 AND a bb gun (you never know). The 22 has a scope so I decided to use it from a safe distance. I shot the snake twice with it and tried the 3rd time only to notice no more shells. So then I grab the bb gun. It would've probably been okay to leave it alone, it was pretty much a goner but I wanted to make sure it was absolutely NOT going anywhere! I probably used 10 or more bbs until I was satisfied that the snake would no longer move.....I found out later that it was a cottonmouth. Now I walk around looking down at the ground for fear that I may run up on another slithery creature!

Getting over fear of water

We have a small pool in our backyard that is about 30 inches deep. It is perfect for the kids, being that they do not know how to swim yet. Yesterday I picked up some goggles for the kids and they are having a blast with them. Dillon has had such a fear of swimming, but he is finally getting over that. He and Mallory both have been swimming underwater quite a bit. We will work our way up to deeper waters this summer to see how he does. I'm glad he is finally getting to enjoy swimming without being so scared...

Summer fun

We are already off to a great summer! Dillon and Mallory have had a few slumber parties in the living room, swam in the pool A LOT, slept in late, etc.

I babysat my best friend's daughter the other day and Mallory had a great time playing with her! Of course, they had to play dress up in all of the princess costumes. I did their nails for them. Dillon watched cartoons while lounging on his couch. They also swam that day and got super tired. After PB&J sandwhiches they had a renewed energy!

Saturday Shane and I woke up at 5 am to go horseback riding. I finally rode Sonny all by myself. He did good. We rode down a dirt road to see what was down it, probably the best thing was the power line clear cuts (I guess that is what you would call it) and we also rode down fire lanes that the Forrestry Service has plowed. I think in all we rode for two hours. It was very enjoyable to get to spend some time with my husband. We don't get to spend a lot of time just the two of us very often.

Later that day, we went to a family reunion. It was for Shane's grandmother's side of the family, the McMahan's. It was very nice. It seems like we just get too busy these days to take a little time to sit around and visit. We stayed for several hours and really enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins in the sand. They have already planned next year's reunion to be somewhere near Pascagoula. I am looking forward to what the rest of the summer has in store for us!