7 Quick Takes Friday

I've really enjoyed the Simple Woman's Daybook I've been doing each Monday. It seems like a nice way to start the week... both looking ahead to what the new week will bring, and keeping a record of many of the little moments that are all too quickly forgotten...

I've decided to try ending the week with "7 Quick Takes Friday"... a listing of 7 short bits and pieces from the week.... I see it as a nice way of reflecting back upon the week.

So, with that thought in my mind, here's my first

7  Quick  Takes

~1~

M had a good week, he even commented on how well he's doing. It's wonderful when he's in a good spot mentally... I enjoy his company so much.

~2~

We had drop in company this week, A.M. (the farmer we got Tilly, Tucker and Lili from) was in the neighborhood and stopped in for a visit. We always love seeing A... He's a big rough teddy bear kind of guy, in his 70's now, and struggled through the fall and winter with some serious health problems. It was good to see him up and around and feeling pretty good.  He was happy to see how big Lili is, and when we told him we were going to get a few more hens in the spring to keep her company, said he had some silkies he'd give us, and we could have some fertilized eggs too if we wanted to let Lili hatch them. R is excited about getting the silkies...

~3~

My youngest grandson turned 3 yesterday... We celebrated with a pancake dinner with his family and friends. Three is such a great age!   Here's the birthday boy back in November "helping" to make pies for Thanksgiving...

~4~

We have a lot of January birthdays... Counting the birthday party we have on Saturday for Joe's dad, we've had 5 birthday celebrations in two weeks! Once February gets here we'll be done with birthdays for awhile...

~5~

The kids had a pretty good week with school. They've both settled easily back into our regular curriculum, and we're still doing some FIAR in the evenings as we read A Cricket in Times Square... It seems to be a combination that's working well right now.

~6~

I bought the new wood floor for the living room this week.  (HURRAY!!)  This house was built by a young couple back in the 70's... It took them years to build and is an awesome house (in a quirky sort of way), but for various reasons it wasn't really finished the way they had planned. For example, the chimneys were finished with wood because they couldn't afford the stone they had intended to use (we tore down the old chimneys and had them rebuilt with stone in 2006)... and the house was originally heated with a big wood burning stove, because they couldn't get propane or natural gas out here then (a previous owner converted to natural gas, hot water heat back in the 80's). They also carpeted the whole house, because they couldn't afford wood floors. We're not going to put hardwood throughout the whole house, but we are going to pull up the carpet in the living room and put wood down. Our SIL is going to install it for us, and I think it's going to be beautiful... I can't wait!

~7~

The farrier is coming this afternoon to trim hooves... It will be good to get it done, Tilly's back hooves are looking long... hopefully she'll feel better once they're trimmed. M always loves visiting with Raul, the farrier... Raul is a character and always asks M to find him a girlfriend, so each time he comes he asks M where the girlfriend is... The same little joke has been going on between them for well over a year now, but it still cracks M up. :)

Raul

... working on shoes (Murphy and the donkeys go barefoot, but Grant had to have special corrective shoeing). That's M standing in the background...