EKjourney Backup

 I love country living! I took this on my way back from a Monday morning walk with a friend.  After we walk, I get a chai and I drive the most rural backroads home.  This is one of the highest points on the drive home.  It doesn't look it but it is a hillside overlook before you descend back down lower into the valley Field Burns... This is actually the night sky.  I could barely make out the clouds because it was really quite dark but I decided to try and photograph them anyway on night mode.  It is a bit blurry but they were lovely. This looks like ship sails.  Very Peter Pan-esk. Sunset...

 We had been waiting and waiting for weeks for Eleanor to have her babies.  My window was open and I was awake and lying in bed around 5:00 in the morning and I heard the unmistakable sound of a mama goat talking to a baby.  I got up and sure enough, she had just had the little dark baby.  I quickly went back to the house for towels, a flashlight, and I woke up the two older girls and we made it back out in time to watch her birth the little tan and white goat. I was pretty worried about the runt goat.  She was half the size of the other but she seemed full of pep and I made sure to help her nurse and even forced some eye droppers of milk into her mouth (which she didn't like one bit).  Mama goat is excellent.  She never wanted us to touch her before but she was so patient, that I was able to milk her with no issues.   Really, could anything be sweeter than new life!!!  The little girls have been named Charlotte (dark) and Ruby (tan and ...

 Michelle and I have been friends for as long as I can remember.  We lived a mile away growing up (and way out in the country, this was a short distance) and have kept in touch all the years that time and life stages and distance have separated us.  We finished high school together (though separate graduating years) and my family moved up North but we have still maintained our friendship for over 40 years.   We used to spend a couple of days with the Johnson family on their property in Southern Oregon to celebrate Glorielle and Rebecca's birthdays at the end of July.  3 years ago, we both moved.  They could no longer host and our property was in clean up mode and they needed to be able to camp to visit.  This year, we finally made that happen! And our daughters, besties... Lots of pool play fun! Gideon, "Mom, do the goats eat chocolate chips?"  LOL! One thing that I appreciate and enjoy so much about a "larger" homeschool family is that they ...

 People-y is a good way to describe the season of life we just jumped in to!  So, anyone who knows me knows that I am very introverted and I need quiet and personal space and alone time to be a functional person...which of course is the irony of my life since I have 5 children and I homeschool them and they are always with me.  But, despite that lifestyle, I have managed to carve out my sanity spaces with Phil's help.  I garden, I go to bed early and get up early, and before the world turned upside down, Phil would take kids to Awanas on Wednesdays and to work for supervision duties.  This would allow me at least one (often two, occasionally three) evenings where I could get a couple of hours at home alone.  I also became really good at saying "no", even to good things.  I did as much extra curricular activities as possible but living on a farm, homeschooling that entails 6 hours of tutor time, Phil's unpredictable evening schedule, and the time and en...