Youth Conference – Thankful Thursday

Today I’m grateful that our ward didn’t leave for Youth Conference as early as I did as a teenager, otherwise we would have had to wake the kids up for their morning chores a lot earlier. (Mostly because I need two other people in order to milk our Nubian doe and until the kids come back on Saturday, it’s just me here. Julia will be able to help tomorrow morning, but not today because of work.)

So, I’m grateful for them leaving later in the morning so that I’m not stuck trying to find a way to milk Ebony by myself. (She doesn’t like to be milked…)

Check out the original Thankful Thursday.

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Thought She Wasn’t Due ‘Til September… – Wordless Wednesday

image: Princess and kid, from martha0stout’s phone

The Worth – Thankful Thursday

I know I say it a lot, but I am incredibly grateful for my sister’s kids, my eldest niece and nephews. I’ve known them (and lived with them) for the majority of their lives (and all but a few months for the youngest actually now that I think about it…) and they haven’t really ever known me as anything other than the way I am. They didn’t see me full to bursting with energy and bouncing all over the place day after day after day…

(I was a right little heathen as a child. That one potential boyfriend for one of my sisters never did come back…)

They’ve grown up having to help take care of me during bad days just as much as I’ve helped take care of them. I don’t think I’ll ever really be a ‘full’ adult in their minds. I count enough for some things, but there are definitely times where I just don’t count enough (like driving for instance…)

But despite all of that, they still treat me like a person, even when I’m all dizzy and confused about who people are. They treat me like I’m a person and that is worth so much more than most people realize.

You don’t know how much until it isn’t there. Like all truly precious things.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (Will update link when able.)

Just Another Day

Hardened hands

Dirt encrusted

Wet and too dry

Tired and cracked

Reaching gently out

Nudging one kid

Away from the teat

Time for another

To have their treat

Mother tries to move away

Too many kids

Lifting up her legs

Cracked and dirty hands push away

“Only two at a time

Don’t o’erwhelm her.”

Gentle, but tired

The voice rings out

Tired arms reach down

Hefting up mewling kids

Cuddle three of the small ones

Quiet them and watch

As Mother feeds the other two

Calmer now she’s not rushed

Just another day.

Cracks Up – One-Liner Wednesday

Kids these days! (Martha cracks up)

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I cracked up because that first line? That was my fourteen-year-old niece. (I later found that she was talking about the way a lot of teen novels are leaning towards teen assassins, but I was kind of out of it (been really dizzy, vertigo) and only heard the first half and just cracked up.)

Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday. (Will update link when able…eventually…)

In Need of Rest

Until I cannot walk anymore

Slogging on through what feels like mud

Down and down and down I go

Even though hands hold me up

 

Useless, I often feel

Perhaps it’s time for a nap.

 

The kids are now on end of term break. They deserve it greatly.

Good Work!

How often do we wake up and run

Until all the morning chores are done

So that we can have a few moments of rest

To calm our hearts within our breast

Living with animals is such great fun

Even when you’re getting up before the sun.

 

We wake up at what I call O Dark Thirty every morning to start feeding, watering and milking the animals before the kids have to eat breakfast and catch the bus to school. I think they kids are doing pretty good at this, though there are mornings where I just know they’re going to miss the bus.

It’s That Time Again – One-Liner Wednesday

Yes, I was there when I watered it.

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Every day, twice a day (sometimes three times if it’s really hot) I go through the list of making sure the kids have watered all of the plants on the farm and this is what my sister’s youngest told me when I asked this morning.

Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday. (Will update when able.)

Kids – Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for the new little goats that we have. There are four and they are adorable and I would include pictures but my phone broke and I haven’t gotten the replacement to work for the pictures just yet. I will get some up as soon as I can.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (I will update link when able.)

EDIT: Link updated as of July 17, 2015.

Holiday Homework – Thankful Thursday

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving.

If you ask my niece and nephews why I am a horrible aunt, they will tell you many things, but right now my eldest nephew will mostly say it’s because I make him do holiday homework on national holidays.

I’m grateful for that homework, though, because it gives them something else to do when on some days they just stare at the ceiling because all of their friends are gone and they’ve all already used up their electronic time.

That and it’s good to keep that knowledge near the front of their heads so it’s  not such a big culture shock when they get back to school.

Check our the original Thankful Thursday.