Wild Turkeys and Wild Indians

Life has been full of wild turkeys and Indians in these here parts. :-)  

We have had several encounters with real wild turkeys in our yard!  It's so cool to have wild life roaming around!

 And of course we always have wild Indians!!!   Karis decided to get her war paint on for battle and used up almost all of my lipsticks. 

Here the boys are excavating their chocolate chips after a great lesson about mineral, rocks, and fossils in our science home school book.

I've been busy too.  See that island that the boys are sitting at.  I made that!!  I found the buffet on Craiglist, painted it, put new hardware and bead board and trim, and made a butcher block top out of maple.  Now we have a bar/island/butcher block!

Life is exciting here whether it be new projects, wild turkeys, or adventures with our little wild Indians!!!

Spring of 15

 Spring of 2015 has been wonderful and hard, a mix of bitter and sweet.  Paw Paw has been sick, and he is the hospital today.    He is such a major part of our lives, our family, our hearts.... 
We know we need to treasure each day with him.  

Little Karis looks for him everyday, and she loves her PAWPAW so much. 

Besides sharing life with PawPaw and Grandma, we keep busy around here.

This spring...

• We finished up Clark's 2nd grade and Joel's kindergarten year of homeschooling.
•   We are raised frogs from tadpoles found in our yard.  
• We started remodeling our kitchen.  
• We planted a garden. 
• I made a boot holder for our back porch.
•  I refinished our cabinets and table top. 
•  We kept a fresh bouquet of wild flowers picked from the backyard. 
•  I made a picture collage for the living room. 
•  I painted a buffet, and I am in the works of making a butcher block counter top for it.  
• We hunted and trapped a killer raccoon that was getting our chickens.  
• Clark and Joel finished another season of soccer with Lee University!  
• Our three boy rabbits turned out to be one male and two females who had babies on the same day.  So now we are raising lots of baby rabbits. 

 Here's the before and after of the kitchen island.  The counter top still has to be made.

Joel graduated from kindergarten, and he had a great little graduation ceremony thanks to BCHE.

Easter 2015

Happy Easter, dear friends and family.  We hope this Easter will stir our hearts to be fully engaged and impassioned to live a life pleasing to our God.

Snowball and Ice cream joined the photo.  Cheese It soon joined as well.

I love this picture.  It was the last one I got.  It shows their personalities so well.  Clark is my rock and still trying to do everything just right.   Joel is cuddled up all close to his baby sister because he is watching over her and protecting her.  Levi is my Mr. Independent and silly nonconformist .  And Karis is not able to sit any more because she is my "Gotta Run Girl".

My pretty little girl

A Beautiful Life

 Katie, our sweet almost 14 year old Border Collie, lived a beautiful life.
Today I take moment to celebrate her life and mark her passing.

She had not been eating or drinking for a few days this past week.  We too were sick with the flu, but I knew she was dying.  We all spent many sweet moments with her while she was resting.  I told her the moment she told me she was in pain, I would take her to the doctor.  Well on Friday night she started barking which is something she has never done in 14 years.  She was a very quiet dog.  Between basketball games on Saturday, we took her to the vet, and he was certain she was dying too.  The children went out to the truck, and I stayed with her.

I whispered all the beautiful memories we shared in her ear.  I told her how proud I was of her, the best dog in the world.  I told her she was my friend, my partner, my quiet encourager.  I was with her till the end trying to repay all the love that she had poured on me through the 14 years spent together.


She was our first child in many ways.
 Before having human children, I brushed her teeth daily, celebrated her birthday by taking her to the pet store to let her pick out a present and treats.  We took her everywhere we went.  We even bought a vehicle that she would ride in comfortably.     She didn't seem to mind the intrusion of  human children.  She enjoyed the additions to our family as they came.  She taught them the game of catch like a pro.

 She was a super star in our family.  A dog that loved and played with all her heart.  Here's little Clark and baby Joel playing with her in the backyard.

She will be missed more than words can express.  There will never be another Katie.  

She had a beautiful life.

Wrapping Up 2014

 2014...Hmmmm what a year!!!!
I have to say I have never experienced anything like it.
So many wonderful things happened like

• Michael's new job
• the home of our dreams
•  in-laws moving in
• getting chickens
• two kids homeschooling
• living in Cleveland (crazy thing is I've wanted to live here even when we lived in Dallas)
• a new amazing church and church family (Cleveland First Baptist is great!)
•  our family complete with four beautiful healthy children.

But what a hard year too with missing my amazing, incredible friends in Hixson,  injuries and illnesses, moving (UGGG), starting over, faith shakers, and adjustments that have stretched us thin.

Here's some moments captured toward the end of the year.

Joel is our soccer star.  He is really fast and really focused.  Every time he scores, he turns back and gives us a thumbs up.  We see it a lot!!!

Christmas was fantastic this year.  We couldn't hardly wait for it.  Michael found a broken down go-cart on Craigslist during the summer.  He spent lots of time working to fix it up and getting it in top notch shape for Christmas.  It was a hit!!!  The boys also got bikes.  Karis got a dollhouse, vacuum, and a little kitchen.  Clark and Joel got BB guns too.  We found almost everything at a consignment sale or Craigslist this year for GREAT prices in great  condition!!! 

 And we got some sparklers and Roman candles for New Year's Eve.  The kids loved them, even though it was COLD!!