Happy 14th Birthday, Lilly!

Happy Independence Day/4th of July and Happy Birthday, Lilly!  She would have turned 14 years old today if she were still alive.  I'm so curious what she would have looked like and acted like at 14.  I miss her.  💕😇

I still make a cake in memory of Lilly's birthday every year:

I recently planted fresh flowers in Lilly's memorial garden, so everything is bright and cheerful.  My Mom gave me the patriotic butterflies:

My Dad and Stepmom sent lilies.  They're still slowly opening:

💖🤍💙

A rant and a rambling

Let's get my rant out of the way first.  This morning, I was very disgusted and angry when I learned, from some of my online Trisomy parent friends, that someone had created a seemingly informational website on Trisomy, and posted pictures of my Lilly and many other Trisomy children I know.  That was annoying but not the bad part.  The bad part was that if you clicked on the pictures for any of the children, to "get more information," you would be re-directed to a porn site.  YUCK!  I can not stand the thought of Lilly, or any of these innocent children, being linked to porn.  That makes me sick.

The internet has so many good uses but porn is NOT one of them.  The number of porn addicts is staggering and so sad.  People that repeatedly view porn are literally re-wiring their brains.  And countless lives being destroyed.  Whoever cooked up the idea to link these special needs kids to porn - well I haven't decided what punishment they deserve yet. 

We're working to get the photos off that site asap by writing letters of copyright claims.

OK. 

Yesterday Lilly's garden finally had a lily bloom - the first in over a year.  :)

Calla Lily

 

I mentioned recently that I had thought about trying to run some and had taken a few little runs to the mailbox and back.  My Dad (who is in his late 60s and is still running marathons and triathlons) encouraged me by saying to just try running "a little farther" each time.  I thought, "well I guess I could do that." 

I can't really explain it - I just have been feeling I need to do something hard.  Really hard for me.  I need a personal challenge to prove some things to myself.  I've never been a runner.  I used to play soccer when I was younger, and that of course required some running.  But not for distance. 

So I started running from the top of our driveway, to the road, and back up the driveway.  Two times the first night.  Since then I've added one or two laps each time.  Last night I made it 11 and a half laps.  And that equaled 1.09 miles.  I think that is the first time in my life I've ever run a mile!  And Tabby informed me that yesterday was Global Running Day.  Ha.

the slope coming up the driveway looks deceitfully easy

For the past month or so, the boys have been sleeping in a tent set up in their room.  A few days ago, Hunter finally was ready to sleep in his bed again.  And just a few minutes ago, Solomon told me he ready to go back to his own bed too.  Pretty nice camping though - inside the house means air conditioning and a lack of bugs!

Hunter likes to read before going to sleep now.  Here is his current book:

He raved that the chapter on induction motors was incredibly interesting.  I couldn't help but snicker.  On the inside. ;) I am impressed though, that he is reading books like this and understanding much of it as the reading level is way higher than a 7 year old level.  Motors are Hunter's current obsession and he has been collecting as many as he can.  He does all kinds of experiments with the ones that work.  I called him "Motorhead" but he didn't appreciate it.  I told him I once saw an old heavy metal band called Motorhead in concert.  He didn't understand what I meant at all.  ;)

The baby goats are doing well.  They nap a lot during the day and then are very playful in the late afternoon and evening.  They love to jump and bounce around.

In the second picture down, you can see new mama Sundrop in the back.  (The light golden brown goat behind the tree stump.)  I had intended to start milking her earlier this week.  However, she would have none of it.  We've never had a goat that wasn't willing to jump up on the milking stand and eat their breakfast while we milked.  Oh my. Sundrop would not jump all the way up on the milking stand and wouldn't stay up if we got her up there.  She finally got so upset she started butting with her head.  Ouch.

So I watched a few YouTube videos on how to milk goats that aren't interested in being milked.  Of course all those videos ended in success.  I have yet to have success yet.  I made some progress today though in that Sundrop allowed me to pet her back while she ate the first part of her breakfast.  But then she started headbutting.  Honestly I don't know how much patience I have for this.  On the one hand, I like the challenge.  But on the other, I've got enough other stuff to do like training, teaching, and helping my human kids. 

This "teenaged" chick cracked Tabby and I up the other day.  She was sitting on Lucia's bed, just chillin', like she owned it.

A number of our hens prefer to lay their eggs in a crate of hay in our woodshed.  The couple that owned the house before us warned us to be careful in their in the summer, because the snakes liked it.  Such as copperheads.  So once the weather is hot, I proceed very very carefully into the woodshed.  And I often pray "God please don't let there be any snakes in here but if there are, let me see where they are!"  Yesterday I took a cautious step inside, was surprised to see that there were not any eggs in the crate, and then saw the reason why. Very close to the crate was a long rat snake.  Yikes!  I just know that snake must have eaten the days worth of eggs that were laid there.  I halfheartedly though I needed to be the one to kill the snake but then saw that even if I were feeling gung-ho about it, it would be very difficult to do because of how the snake was weaved in and out of the logs.  Thankfully I didn't see it today, and the pile of eggs were back.  Ick ick ick.

Lilly's Garden

Last Friday, during our weekly Walmart shopping trip, we stopped in the garden department.  I told both boys that they could each pick out one (cheap!) flower and then we would plant them.  Then it was their job to water their flowers and watch them grow this summer.

It was interesting to me, just how interested they both were in looking at the flowers, and asking me the names.  I don't know many flower names so I showed them where to read the names for each plant.  Solomon finally chose a purple Petunia.  (He said he liked the name "petunia" because it was like a character on Veggie Tales.)  Hunter choose a white Impatiens.  We thought the name could help him remember to be less "impatient" at times.  ;)

I helped them plant their flowers in pots that afternoon:

Hunter has such a problem of looking at the camera for pictures.  Solomon loves giving silly grins for the camera.

Last spring, NONE of the lilies I had planted in Lilly's memorial garden from the previous years grew.  It was so upsetting.  This year I waited awhile just to see if anything would happen but nothing did.  I planted a couple calla lilies that I had been given several weeks ago, and those are both growing.  Then while buying the boys flowers, I bought two Asiatic lilies for Lilly's garden.  These worked out great because each had three bulbs in their pot them so when I broke them apart, I ended up with six lily plants. 

And, even though they aren't lilies, I bought three Lilly-colored plants.  I thought would add some nice color around the lilies.  Red, white, and blue.

After shopping, we load up our purchases into our car.  Then Solomon likes to help me return the cart.  We give it a push into the cart return then he "uses the force" to push it in all the way.  It's so funny:

On a completely different note, if you or someone you know has struggled with infertility, you may find comfort in a guest blogpost that my friend Megan did.  Click the title to read "Infertility Is Not A Curse." Megan and her husband went through so much pain, and five miscarriages, in the six years they tried to have children.  (They have no living children.)  But the Lord finally redeemed and healed them from that dark time, in an amazing way.

Now, by popular demand, here are some baby goat pictures!  (Christa still hasn't given birth to her kids.  Yet.)

Sundrop and baby Dandelion

Christa checks on her daughter (Sundrop) and granddaughter

Pippi's baby Odysseus

Solomon petting Odysseus

Pepper says "Hello!  Just what is going on around here?!"

Pepper - I am pretty sure she is NOT pregnant!

Happy Pentecost!

Back to Eden with redbud trees

Several years ago, one of my best friends told us about the Back to Eden gardening method.  She highly recommended we watch the free online movie about it.  Frank watched it and then prepared an area outside for a garden, using things he learned about.  He layered compost, mulch, cardboard, newspapers, chicken manure, leaves ... not necessarily in that order, and it made the soil incredibly rich.

How rich?  Simply look at our two redbud trees for a comparison.  Shortly after we moved here, we planted these two trees.  They were both looked like skinny sticks and were about 14" high.  They are planted only about 25-30 feet apart. One tree ended up in the "Back to Eden" garden area.  Here is the tree in the "regular" part of the yard:

And here is the tree in the "Back to Eden" garden:

Quite an amazing difference, isn't it?

Here's another picture of the bigger redbud, at the left edge of the garden:

Since nothing grew in Lilly's garden this spring, I have decided to follow some Back to Eden methods to get the soil in her garden really rich and prepared for some new lily bulb planting either later this fall or in the early spring.  Right now we are putting in compost.  I need to add in some cardboard when I get a chance.  Then dead leaves as I can.

Lilly's garden isn't pretty now, but I'm hoping next spring it will be beautiful enough to make up for this disappointment of this spring.

"Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit." - Jeremiah 29:5

A "Christmas" walk around the yard

Sometimes on Sundays, when life slows down a little, I like to take a walk around our yard and look for new things blooming.  This is our third summer at this house and each year has had new surprises.  It's sort of like Christmas.  :)
 
So if you have a minute, come along with me ....

More day lilies have bloomed!  The old ones (that were here when we moved in) still have had only one bloom.  (It's a very thick cluster - I wonder if I need to thin them?  Would that encourage them to bloom?)

An Easter lily has finally bloomed!  We had a bunch planted outside of Lilly's garden.  BUT ... that wretched thief that stole ALL of my lily bulbs from Lilly's garden has now stolen ALL of my Easter lily bulbs except two!  WHAT IN THE WORLD??!!  Being attacked from underground is no fun.  In fact it makes me mad.  (It's like being attacked by Satan - can't see him and he strikes when you aren't always expecting it.  And he just never seems to go away, does he?)

Peppermint is growing!

I thought this might be lamb's ear because the leaves are so incredibly soft.  But after studying Google Images, I think it is rose campion:

Day lilies with Tabby's flock of chickens behind them:

Things in our garden are growing nicely:

I don't know what these flowers are - first year I've seen them bloom.  They grow out of a rather tropical looking plant:

The puppies love to leave random bones around the yard that they find in the woods. Wish I had a animal bones identification book!  Jawbone anyone?

Exhaust Pipe sniffing a patch of wild daisies:

Pears growing on an old tree:

Tadpoles!

Old bottles we've collected  on the property.  (If you want old bottles - contact me!):

The woodshed - Frank stays busy cutting wood and stacking it in preparation for the next winter.  (We have a wood stove in our living room.)  Lots of cedar wood in there - it smells wonderful!

Stalker the chicken (a Barred Rock) is never far away:

Padme is a wonderful mother to Leia:

Precious continues to do a great job with these three biddies:

Greetings from the goat herd:

"Hello!" from Fred and George (the two babies that are bottle fed):

Finally, the Bloods and Crips seem to have finally worked out their differences.  (Their "Berlin Wall" came down last week.)  They still seem to segregate themselves much of the time.  (Birds of a feather ...)  But I haven't seen any evidence of brutal pecking, thank goodness!:

OK - enough picture overload for today.  :)