24/28 days

This Spring has been exciting with our cat being pregnant and a hen deciding to sit on a nest of guinea fowl eggs!  Not to mention the usual excitement of Spring after months and months of severely cold weather. 

Our kittens are one week old today.  Their eyes are still closed.  What a fun surprise, waiting to see how many kittens she would have and what colors they would be!!  I could hardly contain myself - going out there two or three times a day to see if she was still pregnant! 

And now we are T minus 4 days for guinea eggs to begin hatching.  I don't expect high fertility rates because I sold some eggs to a local woman and she didn't have very good success hatching them in her incubator, but one or two new guinea keets would be so exciting for me!  Look at all my exclamation points in this post!  I really am living my dream.

May 5, 2018

Yesterday Seamus turned SEVEN.  Where did time go?  This year one of my kids will reach double digits!  I've been a mother for nearly ten years.  I think I just need to sit with that for a while. 

I try to pay attention inside of every day and every moment.  I try to live that way, aware of right now.  And the reality that ten years has passed still takes me unawares. 

Important things that I haven't written about that are a huge part of our lives:

• For nearly three years I have made sourdough bread every week for my family.
• November 2016 my Mom got Guillan Barre syndrome, and suffered a brain injury.
• March 2017 we moved to Dead Horse Creek and started living the country life.
• February 2018 Derek's dad developed a brain bleed and suffered brain damage leaving Derek some really big shoes to fill at work.
• I have been learning about meditation, essential oils, vibrational frequencies, and how all these things tie into my faith in God in really cool ways.
• I have grown a set of wonderful friends over the last six years, at church and through the homeschool community, but a few have become my family:  Angeline, Jennifer, Rochelle and Elaine.
• For three years now we have butchered pigs in the Fall with Mike and Angeline. 
• Six years ago we began attending Covenant Mennonite Church
• Making the decision to buy into the family business
• Learning about parenting and homeschooling through authors like Shefali Tsabary, John Holt, and Gordon Neufeld

I am sure there are many more.  But for today I will leave it here.

Michael Finnigan Begin Again

I just don't want to forget things.  Four kids makes for lots of things to try and remember.  Weight, illnesses, funny phrases or pronunciations.  Today, without filling in the gap of TWO YEARS worth of missed blogging, I am going to jump right back in.  So that I don't forget.

Last week Poppy had immunizations.  At five months old she was 15lb, 14oz.  I dug through the blog for the other kid's weights and I couldn't find Benjamin's!  That's because I had post-partum depression and didn't write anything down....I'm sorry Benjamin.

Here's how they lay out:
Luke @ 3months: 17lb
Seamus @ 3months: 15lb, 14oz
Benjamin @ 3months: loved, but not recorded
Penelope @ 3months: 13lb, 13oz

Maybe I can go find Benjamin's in his immunization record...?

One of Each, Please.

Kids Say...

I have been writing these down in my book, but not getting to post them on the blog so there's a lot of them this time!

I knew I was raising boys, but being the only woman in a house full of xy chromosomes has its ... repugnant moments:  Sitting at breakfast one morning Seamus started screaming.  Derek was sitting beside him and gently and quietly assessed the situation, put his finger on one of Seamus's nostrils and said, "Blow".  Seamus promptly blew a cheerio out of his open nostril, picked it up, and ate it.

(sliding off the tall bed without help and talking to nobody in particular) I wasn't very scared, it's good to try new things. -S

I'm not practicing, I just like playing piano! -L

You shouldn't put almonds in your nose. -me

If you have working paper, you can make pirate ships! (construction paper) -L

Thanks for getting that booger off me. -S

Crapulation....seriously?! -L
No, crapul-ENCE. -D
For real, it's in the dictionary! -D

Gwammy and Gwampa are my best friends. -S

I climbed on the most gripful rocks. -L

Chipewayans are like dinosaurs and they have guns. -S
No, they have bows and arrows. -L
Right.  Chipewayans have bones and arrows. -S
(while reading Two Against the North)

You're sad now that I'm big. -S

The quarter is magneting to here! -:L

My birdhouse is gonna catch an eagle. -S

I'm the rotten egg!!!! (grinning and shouting) -S

The boys took off running and Seamus shouted, "I'm fast!"  Luke quickly pulled ahead and Seamus shouted just as joyfully, "I'm slow!"

My penis is a tall building. -S
What kind of building? -me
A business. -S
(eyebrows raised) It's his BIZ-ness. -Grampa

My wound is like the one Westley got from the Rodent: both on our left arms. Only his was from a rodent and mine was from the road. -L
Yours is a ROAD-DENT -D
Did you dent the road, or did the road dent you? -me
(we got a lot of mileage out of this one...pun intended)

Happy Easter egg hunt Mom! -S

I already went poop, Mom -S
When? -me
Sixteen pounds ago. -S

Easter is all about candy...and Jesus. -L

Barenaked Ladies and London Bridge are my favorite songs. -S

Why do Stanley and Luke get to sit by their chuthers? -S

I have most of my gummi bears 'cuz I suck. -L

I'm on my balance Mom! -S

(after lunch) Can you hose me up, Auntie Lissa Bergen? -S

 (after spinning) The house feels turning. -S

I cut my shirt with scissors so we should hammer some tape on it. -S

There's a Charlotte's Web interview! (preview) -L

Can I go tank-topping? -S

Seamus!  Don't cut Mommy's head off!  Just zing or cut her. -L

Mom! Pretend that I'm your son and that water is fire. -L

Benjamin's poop is yellow because he was out in the sun too long. -S

Milestones

While Mom and Dad were here in April, Seamus toilet-trained himself!  He just went from diapers to gitch and never looked back!  Note to self:  when Benny is ready to be toilet-trained he will let you know - don't freak out and try to train him before he is ready...it will backfire.

Also while Mom and Dad were here Benny rolled over from his tummy to his back.  Mom was so good about making sure Benny got tummy time everyday, and one day we put him down and all left the room and when we returned he was on his back!  He is now rolling back to front as well and front to back, and pretty soon we are going to have to put the baby gate back up!

Luke, Derek and I are finishing the Chronicles of Narnia this evening.  We have been reading them aloud since the end of March.  Before that there was Two Against the North, a lot of Ivy and Bean books, The Secret Garden, and some of the Little House on the Prairies books.

Three-year-old Seamus