Our beautiful baby girl...

A day in the life of a crazy homeschool family...

Not really a typical Monday, but these things happen sometimes...usually not all in one morning!  Today was especially educational and exciting...

We've gone gang-busters on our vegetable and fruit garden this year.  With three acres, I think we probably have about 1/2 an acre of combined veggie/fruit garden area, not to mention the peach, pomegranate (in Oklahoma?!), fig, current, and apricot trees that we planted in both fall and spring over the past year.

We awoke this morning around 7am and I made sure to shut off the noises coming over baby monitor waves from the girls' room, and shut the master bedroom doors so that Max could sleep since he has a flight that will go into the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  Thankfully, that means we got him until about 2:30pm today before he had to go in and do paid work.

Today has been a beautiful day, starting out with overcast skies but still warm and breezy.  The kids and I made pancakes, which usually only happens on the weekend, but anytime Daddy is going to be with us in the morning is special, so we broke out the cast iron skillet.  While I was flipping pancakes, Gloria and JB went to "water" Biff (one of their morning chores now that we have a pet bull), now affectionately called "Lonesome Biff" (refer to picture on the right and/or the link above...if you are wondering).  The other day, Max, along with some help from friends and neighbors, drove Biff down Racetrack Road to the fenced area in front of our house, where he eats the grass and stares at us as we garden and do other crazy things, like 4-wheeler riding...and tipping.

After we ate breakfast, Evelyn was more than ready for her breakfast, which she generally gets on the couch in the side-lying position on my lap.  The kids wanted to learn UNO, so I explained it to them as they played on the coffee table.  To tell you the truth, I can't remember what Benaiah was doing at this point, but that might explain the pins stuck through the small plastic army man on the ironing board in the other room...it seems Ben Ben won...

The ironing board is low enough for benaiah to reach today because Gloria just got a new "Sew-Mini" sewing machine by Janome, which is perfect for Gloria to learn on (nice and slow!).  I put the ironing board low so that she could use her mini iron to eventually sew a "toy bag" for Evelyn on her mini sewing machine.  Gloria had finished her homeschooling early so I let her sew.  I ended up taking out a bunch of stitches though since I took a break from supervising her to change Evie's diaper.  She's back on track now though and doing very well for her first project.

Since Daddy was home this morning, he played marbles with JB and Ben Ben (Benaiah's preferred name these days), then did Bible Study with them, reading in a dramatic way the story of Benaiah (Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament) and the lion in the pit as well as some stories about other really tough dudes of the Bible.  JB was fascinated the whole time, whereas Benaiah only listened when he heard "LION!" and "ROARRR!" and exciting words like that.  Otherwise Ben Ben was writhing and getting distracted (typical almost-three-year-old...he'll be three on Saturday!)

 Since JB was having fun with Daddy and listening to scary Bible stories, he didn't get his normal homeschooling done early this morning like Gloria did. I needed to stay in the house to help JB as he added two-digit numbers and carried ones (he actually didn't need help, but acted like he did) so I figured it would be a good time to supervise Gloria sewing since she had been begging to sew on her new machine.  She got the edges of the fabric sewn down after ironing them and that was about it for the baby toy bag this morning because I felt the urge to go out and garden especially since that was what Max was doing and it was a perfect morning for outdoor work.

Gloria's first creation on her new sewing machine...Evelyn's toy bag...

As we are trying to get the kids to understand that homeschooling work comes before fun play, indoors or outdoors, after a slow math morning I abandoned JB in the house to do his hand-writing.  I'm not sure what he was doing for about an hour in the house while I was making mounded rows for melons and squash seeds, but JB came out of the house with his handwriting book, not having done anything.  He ended up doing his handwriting, which also consisted of learning the different seasons, outside, as Max and I prepared the melon and squash patch for planting.

The other thing that happened today was that Benaiah rode Gloria's 4-wheeler all on his own for the first time after I thought he had just gone for a passenger ride.  *One can see the scheming look on his face in the photo to the right though...It was one of those times where I would've said "no" if Gloria had asked me if Benaiah could ride on his own, but all-of-a-sudden Benaiah came scooting around the corner driving the 4-wheeler with a huge smile on his face (and a bike helmet) with Gloria looking proud and saying "Look! Look at Benaiah!".  The over-protective parent in me (which does emerge occasionally) subsided. I just had to smile and go get the camera.  Ironically, I don't think I got a picture because I was so amused by just watching him.  I was amazed that at his age (almost three) he was so good at driving it...for his first time.  Now we definitely need a keep-Benaiah-on-the-property gate...otherwise we might someday see him driving down Racetrack Road on a mini 4-wheeler...not something I like to think about.

It was only 1 pm and along came another excitement.  Right when Max was about to get out the first aid kid for Benaiah's scrapes after having tipped the 4-wheeler over on himself a few times (it's a pretty light 4-wheeler), we heard a strange noise in the living room.  It sounded like someone madly typing on the keyboard one minute and bashing against the window the next (it couldn't have been me this time because I was in the kitchen).  Max checked it out and found a Swallow fluttering around the computer area apparently trying to get revenge on me for knocking down their nests a few weeks ago (that's what I get for leaving the front door open).  He was definitely threatening to poop on my keyboard.  Fortunately, he only managed to dirty the window sill.  Now I have swallow poo on both sides of the window!

Despite double-sided window poo, scraped knees and elbows from an adventurous little boy, and seam-ripping, days like today make me feel so blessed to be able to home school our kids on three acres in Oklahoma and blessed to have Max home this morning to share it!  Thank you for this season of our lives, Lord!

Tractor Play

Sometimes I don't like JB's expressions in pictures because he's trying to be a goofball and can ruin the picture (especially if he does it in every picture in a series), but I think this one's funny bein' that he's in a tractor bucket...although it may not help his tough-guy image that his little sister and brother are both smiling.

Apparently Not a Daisy...

We may have acquired a pet bull (not Pit Bull, but pet bull)  ...or dinner for the next two years...

Max found a young bull wondering around without any collar, I mean, brand, or ear tags on it.  He got a neighbor to help him look for the owner and also worked with the Deputy Sheriff here in town to find the owner, but it appears that no one has claimed him yet because we still see him every day across the street in our down-the-country-road neighbor's pasture mingling with their cows.  He's kinda cute...he looks like an adolescent bull with two short horns and not nearly as big as some other, more mature bulls I've seen around here that have the wide faces and mean looks.

Today when the kids and I were on our way to Bible Study and then again on the way to swim lessons and soccer practice (Tuesdays are busy!), we slowed down when we passed him to say hi and talked about what we would name him.  In an effort to keep the kids from getting attached to him as a possible long-term pet I said we should name him "Beef" or "Beefy", JB suggested "Biff" (which kind of amused me because he's never seen "Back To The Future"), and Gloria in her innocence kept insisting on naming him "Horny".  I just remained silent on that one 'cause I didn't know how to explain to a 5-year-old why that name might be fitting, but not appropriate.

In our own yard, a tractor in which Benaiah got to ride (along with Gloria and JB)...Heaven on earth for this little boy...

                                    Tractors and airplanes...half of what this part of Oklahoma is all about!

In conclusion: Living in the countryside of Oklahoma sure has been fun, an adventure, educational, hard work, and rewarding getting to know our country neighbors, who are such a blessing.  They've set us up with cow pee- and-pooed-on cotton burrs for fertilizer, cow-peed hay for mulch, and tractor-bucket fulls of good Oklahoma dirt for our garden. For some reason, in Boston, where I grew up, this was not typical...

:0)

Just Shovel It!

We brought two trailer loads of cotton burrs that have been soaked with cow manure and pee.  This is great fertilizer for our garden.  These pictures are from about a month ago.  We already have our seeds sprouting in a mix of dirt and this stuff.  It's kind of strange that we are growing food in cow poop and pee, but it adds good nitrogen to the soil, which plants love, and I will make sure to wash everything we get from the garden!

I can relate to "The Pioneer Woman",  Ree Drummond, who calls herself "an accidental country girl", but is loving it.  Actually, my marriage to Max (which inevitably makes me "country") was not accidental but orchestrated by a sovereign God.

Paws in the Air

Evelyn comes by this position honestly with her legs almost as short as her arms. Have you ever thought of the proportions of a baby? Not being able to reach over your head and touch your hands together and being able to hold your toes laying down with nearly straight legs? Not to mention being this chunky and this flexible at the same time... Max says "even her rolls have rolls".

Zephyr has no excuse, it's just unnatural for a dog...unless it's dead, which she's not...

Some beauty, interest, and history added to our home...

Surveying Damage

Max was seeing if it would be at all possible to climb the tree and cut branches down, but decided it wasn't...too dangerous.  God has saved Max from many "fatal" incidents, but sometimes ya also gotta use wisdom.

A good morning chuckle...

Benaiah gave me a good chuckle this morning...he doesn't always just give me mini heart attacks.  After Gloria said she thought the room was too bright for Evelyn with the sun pouring in the window,  I replied that Evelyn was fine.  Gloria asked me "how do you know?" For lack of a better answer, I said, "Mother's instinct."  Benaiah apparently was listening in the background and exclaimed "I'm not stinky!" I guess the defensive potty-training (with two older siblings) side of him came out. 

Our Cutie Pie

Wearing Daddy's hat. Her favorite place right now is the kitchen counter so she can watch me cook or wash dishes or whatever I do in the kitchen.

She loves sitting on the counter in her "Bumbo" next to the cooking utensil container and chewing on spoons while making lots of interesting noise when she tips the whole thing over.

Benaiah gets skunked...literally

Benaiah makes life interesting and sometimes takes days, weeks, or years off of my life.  Those are usually made up for though when he flashes his chipped-tooth smile or talks to me in his gruff toddler voice about "bulldoshers" and "dump twucks."

In Alabama, he and Zephyr would tag-team to go down to the steam in the valley about 1/2 mile from our house through a thick wood.  Also in our year in Alabama, he got second degree burns on his left leg afterventuring into a fire pit that still had hot coals.  That terrible incident had us going to the emergency room in Montgomery and the wound clinic twice a week for a while.

Here in Oklahoma, our little Benny decided to take a walk down our long driveway and onto "Racetrack Rd" which has cars that fly down it at 60 mph.  He went about a 1/4 of a mile before a nice neighbor picked him up and brought him to her house.  After 20-30 minutes of desperation and calling the Sheriff and thinking of "what would life be like without Benaiah" (which brought on many tears), I saw a man in a 4-wheeler came up our driveway who had seen me running around the property with Gloria and JB following not-to-far behind.  He asked me if I had lost a little boy in a helmet (he had been wearing a bike helmet so that he could ride with Gloria on her battery-powered 4-wheeler).  My heart settled back into my chest and my stomach un-knotted a bit when he mentioned who I knew was Benaiah.  Upon being returned to our house, still in helmet, he immediately asked if he could ride on Gloria's 4-wheeler.  I just took him inside and held him close.

 This same adventurous boy does not aim to please (so-to-speak) when it comes to potty training...nothing seems to motivate him or threaten him into going on the potty.

Anyway, today he added to the list of adventures when he chased a skunk in our backyard and got sprayed after backing the skunk into a corner while trying to pet it or pick it up.  JB came running into the house saying "Benaiah is playing with a skunk."  My first thought was "a dead or a live one?"  I confirmed that it was very much alive after bolting out of the sliding doors to the back yard to see Benaiah almost hovering over the skunk as the skunk had its tail at a 90 degree angle and the hairs sticking straight out perpendicular to the tail.  The skunk stench that originated only 20 feet from where I was standing wafted into the house and stuck.  I had Benaiah come inside which added to the stench.

I smelled him and noticed that the concentration of the skunk spray smelled to me like nail polish remover.  Max told me that was probably the alcohol in the skunks defense weapon (I'll have to look up the "ingredients" in skunk spray).  I had called Max telling him what happened and he looked up (probably on his Blackberry) how to take skunk smell out of skin and clothes and whatnot.  I was glad he didn't tell me to bathe him in tomato juice because I think I only had a 6oz can of V8, which would have only de-stunkified his big toe.  Instead, Max advised me to make a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and a little dish soap.  I took this mixture and Benaiah to the bath tub and scrubbed it everywhere on his body including his hair.  After this was done, my ears were ringing from the high-pitched screams of a little boy who does not like being in the bath in the first place unless it is purely for playing purposes, and who had a cold, white substance rubbed over his body.  I placed his stinky clothing in whatever I had left over of this solution.

I allowed Benaiah to play in a warm bath after torturing him with de-stinkifying solution and washing him as well as pouring water over his head (his absolute least favorite thing).  I figured he deserved just to play and enjoy the warm water after being tortured with cleanliness.  After being sprayed, he did not seem traumatized at all, go figure.  While I was talking to Max, Benaiah got his play shotgun and with a big grin on his face said he was going to shoot the skunk (he wants to do whatever Daddy does lately).

Needless to say, I closed all doors and made sure everyone stayed in the house for a while.  Max came back after just leaving for an evening flight to make sure the skunk was gone and it was safe for us to walk out to the van to go to swim lessons.  Thankfully, when we got back from swim lessons, the stink in the house was mostly gone because Max had left a few doors open with screens locked to air it out.

So if anyone reading this gets skunked or has a kid or a dog that gets skunked, please learn from my experience!

As I have praised God that Benaiah didn't get hit by a speeding car or didn't get burned worse by the hot coals,  I also praise God that I have such a wonderful husband and that, Lord willing, the skunk didn't pass on rabies (which is one reason we shoot skunks that show up during the day).  I am also glad that Benaiah didn't get sprayed in the eyes...that surely would have added to the torture for both of us!!