Well, here we are, another year to look forward to. God has blessed us all.
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a start to a Happy New Year. 😊
Dear Hubby and I celebrated our 32nd Wedding Anniversary before Christmas. The week of Christmas has always been busy for us because it is our oldest son's birthday, our Anniversary and Christmas all in the same week.
We were also busy celebrating the holidays with family and friends. We also got to enjoy a whole week with our girls while the oldest was still on Christmas break. Boy did she love being able to enjoy her old routine we had before she started school, even the naps. LOL 😆
I had a few last minute things to do before Christmas but it was so easy. I just made a quick big batch of snack mix for adult goodie bags for my families Christmas. There was even enough left over for us to enjoy.
We got to be the first ones to have Christmas with our girls because they were going to be very busy for the next few days after that.
I went to pick them up from their mommy's house and brought them back home and we made Santa his favorite cookies. We had all already ate supper so all we had to do was get baths, put on our Christmas pj's and make some popcorn. We watched a movie and then the girls were so tired, they fell asleep in their forts. We took both of them to bed. Bless their hearts.
They were so exhausted we just let them sleep in the next morning. I never thought they were going to wake up. They finally did and we got to let them open their gifts. That woke them up some.
Santa even photo bombed our photo shoot.
Their Daddy and Bonus Mom came and we got to have our Christmas with them. We had a good breakfast too because I had prepped a breakfast casserole the night before and popped it in the oven while we were opening gifts.
Then it was time for them to go with Daddy and spend the next day with them.
The next morning was Christmas morning and our younger son and his wife came and spent it with us after they had their Christmas together. I still had plenty of breakfast casserole left over so we finished it.
That night was Christmas at my parents house. Not everyone got to make it, but we al had a great time.
When your kids get grown and get married and move out, sometimes things change. They gain another set of family and you have to share your children with them too. You also gain an extra family so count it as a blessing.
School was still on Christmas break and the girls were with their dad that week so that meant I got them all day every day that week and we had so much fun.
The girls had started getting colds and coughs but we made the best of it.
We started by having fun with some of their gifts they received. One being Easy Bake Ovens. I never got to have one when I was a kid but I was bound and determined they were going to have one. They were so proud of their creations. Mainly, it taught them to read and follow directions, calculate measurements and measure correctly, to keep up with baking time, to use caution around something hot, don't touch anything that just came out of an oven when it's hot, making sure your oven is turned off when your done and to decorate and have fun.
This is how it went:
The next few days we worked on some crafts from the gifts they got. We made bracelets and key chains. They love doing crafts and they had fun.
I was really proud of the oldest. She followed along with the video step by step and concentrated so hard and did one all by herself. The little one, well, she got a little frustrated because she kept making mistakes but she will learn. Her temperament and attention are a little different than her sisters. No two kids are the same and you just have to know and understand each child's personality.
Since our oldest, Bonus Mom and the girls didn't get to go to their granny's house for Christmas on Christmas night, we took a road trip one day and I took them to see them. It made my parents day. ❤️
The next day I took them to pick put their own material for a project I want to teach them. I did not get to get any pics because I was too busy keeping my eyes on them. They made their choices and we came straight home. We did have to pick up just a few items in the grocery section and they were pleased to help with that. One got to read the list, the other got to put ( throw) the items in the buggy. LOL. It taught them to read and choose items. I even got to teach them a lesson in comping prices for different items. Here is a parenting tip: use every situation and circumstance as a teaching opportunity. Will it take time to do this? Yes. But it will be well worth it. I will do a whole other post on our project that they picked out material for.
Their colds kept getting worse and then I started the warm, herbal tea. One loves it and just loves to sip on it. The younger loves it better when she slurps off the spoon or gets to dunk donuts in it. Go figure. But when she didn't even want to do that I knew she wasn't feeling well. She started running fever and coughing her head off while the older one was getting better. So the oldest one wound up helping care for her little sister. It was a rough few days. All she did was lay around and sleep. We kept her fever down and gave her some otc meds but they were taking their time. It just had to run it's course.
One evening while I was taking care of little sissy, big Sissy was making pizza for all of us with little to no assistance. We mixed up the dough that morning and it was good to go that evening so she could get started. She did an awesome job. It fed all of us even hungry cow hands. 🐄 This is why you teach them to cook.
Speaking of cowhands, it was weaning time on the farm. We also purchased another registered weaned calf and brought both of them to our pasture so we could watch them everyday. And we did just that.
Then our adventure started. Sunday morning I looked out to check on the cows and noticed one was on the other side of the fence. I was here with the girls and one was running fever and laying on the couch. I could not bundle them up and take them outside and I wasn't leaving them in here by themselves. I got them set down with lunch and something to watch on TV and went back to the window. In only 15 minutes the other calf had followed and they were both out of sight. The guys were on their way back from picking up more cattle panels from Tractor Supply. They got home and dropped everything and grabbed the Ranger and cut out. They drove the back woods and walked for hours until dark. They were on their trail but had to call it a night and say many prayers. After a restless night, the guys got up and got together and were on the hunt again. Once again, rode around, trudged through the woods for hours. They were always one step ahead of the guys. Once again it got dark. We had guys coming in freezing, exhausted and starving.
It was New Years Eve and we were trying to have some kind of normalcy in the home for the girls sake although they were upset over the calves missing. We counted down to Midnight (at 8:30pm) and watched fireworks from Thailand.
We went to bed and said our prayers and prayed for the calves safety.
The next morning they were still upset. The guys hit the woods and back roads once again. It was time for me to take the girls to their mommy's. I was getting my clothes on and heard someone in the bathroom. It was the oldest one in there pouring her little heart out to God on behalf of her calves. She had so much faith and prayed so earnestly. Oh, the heart of a child.
I drove them home and came back and rode the backroads and sent out messages to friends in surrounding areas.
When I was tracking the guys on GPS I noticed they were going really slow near our road for a long time. It was dark so I had to head home. I got a fire started and soup on the stove to warm up these guys again.
I found out later that while they were near our road, they had chased them up and out of the woods to the road and was coming down our road when they came up on a neighbors house, their dogs started chasing the calves back down into the woods. There went that. It was dark and the guys came in for the night.
The next morning our son took off work and they hit it again. They never saw a thing and were out from sun up to sun down. The next day it was dear hubby on his own to try and look. He was on them and stayed on them. He had food in a bucket and used his phone to use the sound of a momma cow balling. It was working. We had a dart gun handy with some sleepy time medicine. The gun malfunctioned not just once but several times. Dear hubby stayed on them for hours. Our son finally got off work and met him where he was in the woods. Together, they darted them with the sleepy time medicine but not without one stepping all on our sons leg and ribs. While our son stayed with the calves, dear hubby speeded home to hook up to the trailer. A friend helped get the calves up to the road and loaded on the trailer. Seeing that trailer coming into the driveway and into the pasture knowing our calves were finally home safe and sound was a huge relief. They did not dare let those calves out. They spent the night in there and slept it off. We kept them in there for most of the day so they could calm down and relax. Dear hubby worked on fences and would walk over and talk to them and try to pet them. Finally it was time to open the trailer door and let them out. They came out slow and started exploring the pasture again. Hubby has been patiently trying to get them use to him. The new one is still skittish but she is following our calf more and more. Maybe she figured out that since her way of doing things resulted in a not so pleasant experience, that she might try it her way now. Who knows what goes through an animals mind.
I'm just so grateful that God heard a little girls prayer and answered it. Yes, we all prayed, but God is so tender to children and I know it was hers he heard most of all.
In the midst of all the calf drama, little sissy was getting better with her sickness while me on the other hand got the flu. Dear hubby trying to take care of me and calves all week has wore him out. Bless him. I am just now getting my appetite back and trying to eat just a little to get my energy back. Not how we wanted to ring in the new year but at least we came in with a bang.
Calves are doing fine so far. Fence is fixed and more getting checked on and fixed just in case. We have more calves that will be born in early spring so let the rodeo begin.
Now that everyone is settled, maybe we can get back to finishing our kitchen renovation up. We got the rest of our cabinets that had been out of stock forever. We had to get them because they all had to match. I will post on that later.
Now is just the time to get my house back in order and undecorate since I haven't had the opportunity to do that yet. I've got things on my bucket list to do so has everyone else.
I hope everyone is having a great start to your new year in 2024.
Be sure to subscribe to our email list if you are a visitor and love our content. You will get an email every time a new post is on the blog. Be sure to leave comments. 🙂
No comments:
Post a Comment