Poker Party!

 After missing last year’s poker party due to the pandemic, we took a little bit of a chance and let M have one this year. 

It felt good to have a normal kind of event after more than a year of socially distancing. 

We know the pandemic isn’t over yet, but we carefully minimized the risks (kept the guest count low, only inviting friends who were fully vaccinated, etc) and felt like… this time…the benefits were worth the risks.

I’m so glad M has such good friends,..

Five Acres and a Dream...

... is the name of a blog I've read regularly since...

Well, I don't know when.

I looooong time.

The blog chronicles Leigh and Dan's life on their 5 acre homestead... everything from the ups and downs to livestock, to how to make really wonderful mozzarella cheese from goat's milk, to the challenges (and joys) of renovating their 1920's farmhouse. I love reading it because we've followed some of the same paths... fixing up an older home (on 5 acres of land), raising goats and chickens, and growing and preserving our own food.

Well, I just read that Leigh has written a book based on her experiences. You can check it out here...





Judging by what I've read on her blog it should be wonderful!

Bits and pieces

Summer is zooming by at warp speed around here... the busy days just seem to fly by!

What have we been up to?

Working in the yard and gardens... Keeping everything watered when it's so hot and dry is a daily job, especially with the new sod I just laid. (Which is looking very good, by the way!) We're getting a few tomatoes, but not all the plants are doing well... it might be a small yield this year. The jalapenos are looking great, and producing well, and the green beans and lettuce have gone wild! They must like these warm dry days... and the pumpkin patch looks great. All in all a good year.. (it's so much easier to garden without the spring hail storms!)

We had the septic tank pumped yesterday... What a miserable job! I'm not sure what the people who built our house were thinking, putting the septic tank (and it's covers) in the middle of the front yard. It means every few years we have to pull up the grass and dig up the covers (for pumping) then lay the grass back down. The grass, of course, doesn't do well with being pulled up and replaced and always looks a mess for a year or so afterwards. :(

We had S over the weekend... She's doing "ok" but not great. We took her to the movie in the park Saturday night (brrr... it was SO cold) and the farmer's market Sunday morning. I think she had a good time...

After doing well for a couple of months, M's gastroparesis has been flaring up lately. He was sick most of last week, and still isn't back to "normal" (for him). His diet is still super restricted (which can sometimes be a fight) and most of the time he does pretty well. I'm not sure why he suddenly got so sick... hopefully his gut will start working better soon and he (we) can all relax a little.

The kids and I have finished the annual chopping down/pulling out of the purple thistles for this year. We ended up with 11 LARGE trash bags of thistles, countless tiny stickers in our skin, and a deep appreciate for power tools. (We finally ended up having to cut one of the patches down with a chain saw!!) As soon as the trash guys come today, the purple thistles are GONE... hallelujah!

I've finally started work on a project that has been sitting around for a year or so... fixing up a little handmade wooden kitchen for granddaughter Emmy. I found the little kitchen at a garage sale a long time ago and it's been sitting around waiting for me to spruce it up for our Miss Emmy. Yesterday I took all the hardware and doors off, wood puttied, and gave it a light sanding followed by two coats of primer. Today I'll (hopefully) finish up the painting and start shopping for new cabinet and "stove" knobs, and a new counter top.

And yes, we've been getting school done too. We are working primarily on life skills these days, with work sites and other volunteer work being a big part of our homeschool. But we are still plugging away at math, using Teaching Textbooks. Math is a subject that, if not continually reinforced, both kids tend to forget... so we are careful not to neglect math. R's also keeping up with her ukulele lessons (you'll find her playing in the park on Wednesday mornings, she and her teacher moved her lessons there for the summer) and we always have a read-aloud going.

We're in the middle of our "Comedy Movie Night" series too... We started with "Christmas Movie Nights" during the holidays last year, and it was such a hit we decided to have some other movie night series' throughout the year. What we do is pick our favorite movies, or movies we think will be favorites, of a certain genre and schedule them, one each week, on a particular evening after dinner.  The schedule is printed out and posted on the frig. Our movie nights are usually Thursdays, and we're working our way through such gems as Three Amigos (the kids laughed 'til they cried!), R.V. (an old favorite), and Open Season (one of M's picks :). I think we all look forward to movie night, it's a time to just kick back and be lazy for awhile. Comedy Movie nights will last through the end of August, then we'll take a short break and start "Scary Movie Night" sometime in September, followed by "Christmas Movie Night" again in November/December.

I guess I've rambled about this and that enough... time to get out to the barn and get our big boys fed. ;)

A nice surprise and a big thank you!

I got a nice surprise in my mailbox this afternoon... mixed in with the bills and ads was the October/November issue of Mary Janes Farm Magazine. At first I assumed the mailman had, once again, left someone else's mail in my mailbox (and left my mail who-knows-where!) but no... it's addressed to me.

What a nice surprise! Thank you to whoever subscribed me... I can already tell it's going to be a favorite.

R and I looked through the magazine quickly (while she was doing school) and have already found a recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Warm-Up that sounded so good I've got a pumpkin already on the stove cooking so we can give it a try now and, if it's as good as it sounds, add it to our Thanksgiving menu.

Here's the recipe (so you don't have to strain your eyes trying to read it from the photo!)...

Spicy Pumpkin Warm-Up

2 pints whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canned pumpkin (we'll use our own pumpkin, not canned)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp vanilla

Garnish: whipped cream, additional pumpkin pie spice

Combine cream and sugar in saucepan over medium heat; stir until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in pumpkin until well blended; add pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until mixture is warm. Pouor into mugs and serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of spice. Serves 4-6.

Mmmm....

No more time to write...gotta go finish dinner now. :)

a very long couple of days....

It feels like the past couple of days were several weeks long.

At least.

It was less than 48 hours ago that I first found out that my friend Lynn, and her younger daughter Mariah, had died in a car accident. Lynn's older daughter survived but is badly injured. Thankfully, they are expecting her to recover.

Lynn and I met about 8 years ago, and bonded over parenting our adopted children, and R and Lynn's daughter were friends. Only a month ago they were here visiting... and the girls rode Murphy, played Clue, and just wandered and played out in the big pasture.  Like M and R, Lynn's daughter have FASD. Lynn adopted as a single mom, and worked harder than anyone I know... caring for her girls, advocating for them, working full time to financially care for them, and working in the FASD community to support other parents. She was a powerful force, and amazing woman, and I'm so glad I knew her.

I've been rereading Lynn's blog and found this post... It, and many others like it that she wrote, that show so clearly her warmth, her love, her dedication to her children, and to the "cause" of preventing FASD and supporting families raising children with FASD. What a terrible loss her passing is...

Please keep her surviving daughter in your prayers.

I found this picture on Lynn's blog... I think this sign sums up pretty well how she lived her life.

Good-bye friend...

We went to court yesterday and were granted guardianship for M. So we're back to where we were before he turned 18 and became, legally at least, an "adult".  With guardianship, I will be able to continue to make his medical, legal and financial decisions. He will, of course, be a part of the decision making process... but there is just no way he is capable of making adult decisions on his own... at least not right now.

We visited our dear Granny yesterday too, we hadn't her seen for a while and missed her terribly. Since learning about the passing of her friend, R has wanted... has needed... to see Granny.... her "first" mom... and as we headed home after the visit, R said she that seeing her helped her to feel better.

After a quick quiet time at home, we headed out again to a Halloween party at M's girlfriends house. It was a good party, and R met some new friends and M renewed some friendships with kids he hasn't seen for awhile. It was a late night (for us), and we are tired today and spending  the day just hanging around the house. I'm cleaning (my therapy) and planning house projects (more therapy), R rode Murphy (her therapy) and M has laid around like a TV watching slug most of the day. If I had any energy I'd make him get up and do something else... but I don't... and a day of TV watching isn't the worst thing in the world.

An early Christmas present...

I got the most wonderful Christmas present from my friend L, the other day.

She brought it over to the house on Monday, and her timing was absolutely perfect...

It's a prayer quilt.

Isn't it beautiful?

It was pieced by a sweet 90 year old woman at L's church, then L tied the quilt... and with each tie she said a prayer for our family.

It has a lot of ties.

I can't tell you how much that quilt means to me.

It's been a rough week... M saw the pdoc last Thursday, and she followed up with a phone call a few days later. Neither the appointment nor the phone call went well.

She thinks maybe M has Autism (insert rollling eyes icon here). It doesn't matter that M has been seen by psychologists, developmental pediatricians, and psychiatrists since he was an infant. It doesn't matter that he's had diagnostic evaluations by thebest, everyone from the guy who's listed as the top child pdoc for our area, to the multi-disciplinary child development team at our Children's Hospital, to a whole team (posse? gaggle? herd?) of pdocs at NIMH, and NO ONE thinks he has Autism. (I mean really... what are the odds that one individual is truly going to have FASD, schizophrenia and Autism!)

So now I have to have another assessment done, to prove to her what I already know...

 It's frustrating... I don't believe in "collecting" diagnoses, or using the DSM-IV to label every characteristic an individual has. (Although I believe it can be done...)

So anyway, I was feeling pretty down... angry, frustrated, and alone. The pdoc is our only professional support right now, and I'm not feeling much "support" from her lately.

So right in the middle of all that, L calls... and says she has to give me my Christmas present right away. I really didn't feel like company, but L knew I wouldn't turn her away at the door. (grin) And when I saw the gift, I teared up... it was just the right thing to do, at just the right time.

 Thank you L... I've been so blessed by your friendship.

My friend Christiana is no longer sick and hurting...

She passed away yesterday afternoon.

Please keep her family in your prayers.

Long catch up post...

Happy 4th of July! 

 I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted... We've been keeping very busy, the days are just flying by.  

It's been an up and down kind of week, but that seems to be the norm for us. On the "up" side, I had the vet out last night to give Blaze his shots and take a look at the donkeys... and everything looks good.  We've finally decided on names for them, by the way... they are Tilly and Tucker. 

What do you think?

  

 I think Tucker is especially photogenic... 

 Anyway, the vet was out last night and the farrier was out a couple of days ago. Tilly's hooves are trimmed, she's walking better and no longer having to stand in the mud. I've also been able to stop the anti-inflammatory medication. I was told that she is about 9 years old, and Tucker is her "baby" and is probably about 2. 

Believe it or not she still has milk, so Tucker was only recently weaned (or is still weaning, I haven't actually seen him nurse, although it looked like he was hinting around to nurse today... ). I guess it's not that unusual for a donkey to nurse her baby for that long... especially if food is scarce. 

 Tilly and Tucker, grooming each other...

 

 Tilly was a wild burro... adopted at some point in her past from the BLM. Tucker was born after she was rounded up and adopted out. We were a little (ok a LOT) concerned that Tucker might not be "fixed", but the vet and farrier both agree that he appears to be gelded. Whew! (If he wasn't, we'd have to have it done, and it couldn't be done until I'd gentled him enough to halter him, and get him to stand still for a shot...which might be awhile!) 

 I called the folks at Longhopes Donkey Rescue and we are going out there tomorrow to watch their trainer work with their donkeys, and get some ideas for gentling Tucker. 

 The goats left yesterday for their new home... It was very hard to see them go. M fell apart for a while after they left, but pulled back together fairly quickly so all was good. It did seem funny this morning to go out to the barn and not be greeted by Betty and Rose... the barn seems kind of quiet all of a sudden. (lol, I guess that's a measure of how noisy those goats were, if a barn that still has two donkeys and a horse in it can be called "quiet"!) 

Blaze seemed sad when they left... I took them out through the barn, and he stood in his stall for hours after they left, looking into the barn... 

Waiting for them to come back? 

 I caught Blaze this morning throwing his weight around with the donks. Here's Tilly, done eating, is heading out to the pasture... but Tucker has to dart by Blaze (who is extremely cranky, check out his ears!) to get out of the barn.

 

 Whew, he made it, Tucker's a pretty quick little guy!!

 

 So that's the news from the barnyard. 

I was going to write more but since this post has gotten long enough, I think the save the rest for tomorrow...  

I'll close with some pictures I took this morning of the twin fawns that are living on the hill just west of the pasture. We've been seeing them off and on for a few days, but they are still very tiny and keep very close to mom. 

 Here they are taking a break from their nibbling to check me out...

 

 Mom was there quickly though (my cue to get AWAY from the babies!) and seemed to be checking them out to make sure they were ok.

 

 Sorry the pictures aren't any better... This is the best my camera could do while still keeping me far enough away from mama deer to be safe!

 ************************************************************** 

 And finally, and sadly, an update on my friend Christiana... 

She took a turn for the worst late last week, and her doctors are saying that there is nothing more they can do. She had the option of going on life-support, or going home with hospice support. She choose to go home. It sounds like it's only a matter of days that she will be with us.... Please keep Christiana and her family in your prayers.

A friend of mine is fighting for her life right now, she needs your prayers... 

 She is a truly remarkable, powerhouse of a woman.  She almost single-handedly put together the Empower Colorado organization... a group that is still going strong today, offering support, education, and encouragement to all parents of children with brain disorders. 

 She kept this group going and growing through the early years even while she was working full time and caring for her own son with a brain disorder. 

 She has supported countless parents, including myself, as we try to find our way through the maze of diagnostic and treatment services for our mentally ill children. 

She has held our hands and cried with us through the pain of watching our children struggle with mental illness...  

I am so blessed to know her... 

 She was diagnosed with leukemia last December and almost died in January... (Her care page is here, if you'd like to read about her ordeal) She miraculously survived though, her leukemia went into remission and she was able to go home from the hospital to be with her husband and kids. 

They found a bone marrow donor and she was scheduled for a bone marrow transplant the end of this month. 

 Then the leukemia came back... I got this email from her parents this morning: We need a huge prayer chain so I am asking you all to share this in church today or by yourself. Christiana's cancer has come back. The doctor told her, no more chemo, that it is not working. He is going to try some experimental drugs on her starting Monday. This is at the end of her life so I am asking you all to pray for a miracle. How does one say good bye to their child? Bob and I feel so empty, how do we go on without our child? Help us to ask God for another miracle. 

 Please keep Christiana and her family in your prayers...