Crazy Summer!

Apparently I wasn't joking when I said this summer would be busy!

The end of May we got out chickens! Twenty five Buckeyes. We have had 3 losses, so far. One didn't make the trip so well and passed away the day after we got them. One our dog got to, when it flew the coop. And the last we aren't completely sure what happened to. My husband just found it in pieces in the chicken run.

In June we decided to put aside all our lessons for the summer, realizing we would be too busy to really get into them. We returned the botany book and will hopefully be doing that as a co-op type thing instead, this fall. Near the middle of the month we traveled to upstate New York, for my brother-in-law's graduation. We stayed in a cabin at Gilbert Lake. It was great! The cabin had 2 rooms. One with a bunk bed set up and a twin single bed. The other room had a full size bed. There was a nice fireplace, which we ended up using on the last night, due to rain. The kids still wanted s'mores! We only went to the lake once, we were so busy doing other things. We hit our favorite places while we were out there too, Baker's Maple, Pine Ridge which is an Amish grocery store, the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, Frog Pond Farmer's Market, and Fly Creek Cider Mill. We also went to Howe Caverns and the New York State Museum for the first time. Both were pretty neat. Cave aged cheese is pretty yummy! My husband and I also, enjoyed our 11th wedding anniversary.

In July, my teenage sister came out to visit and we got hair sheep! Five ewes and a ram. The ewes were born in January and the ram in May. We spent the 3rd of July at a lake with some friends to celebrate our independence. While my sister was here we visited the zoo, Lake Michigan, went to the famous Manchester chicken broil, checked out the local fair, and a few other simple but fun things. Then, in the middle of the month, this crazy mom of 4, drove across the country with my little ones and my sister to take her home. It took 2 and a half days to get there. Long drives, interesting weather, and different scenes. It was beautiful but long! Stayed at my mom's for a day, dropping of my one sister and picking up my other sister and my niece. With a bigger brood, I continued on to Portland, Or. We hit the Bonneville Fish Hatchery and Multnomah Falls on the way. In Portland, we visited family, the zoo, and the beach. I miss the mountains, trees, air, and ocean already. When we were done there, it was back to my mom's house to visit. Unfortunately I had a sick girl on one day, another on a different day and I lost my keys, so I didn't get to do much. Did get to visit with family and eat at Roe Ann's drive in (mmmmmmm) and the Chinese Cafe'. Two of my favorite food places. Then it was a long, exhausting, nauseating drive home.

That was about a week and a half ago. And upon my return, we discovered that I am pregnant with number 5. (Although if you talk to my 8 year old, she'd tell you number 6 is in there too) We girls believe this one is a girl also. I won't be surprised when all the negative comments roll in, but I refuse to feel negative about this, aside from loathing nausea. I love all of my other children. They are each a joy and a blessing and even though they make me want to lash out irrationally from time to time I still wouldn't give them back. So I might as well relish in the beauty of all this and be thankful, because it certainly beats the alternative. Besides, I make super cute babies and am very blessed to have such ease in having them. I could be less fortunate.

The kids and I (with no additional youngsters in tow) arrived home to also discover that my husband had bought Narragansett turkeys while we were away! We now have 10. 4 adults (1 male), 3 youth, and 3 babies.

So it has been a very busy and exciting summer for us. I hope the fall is much more calm! However, as I type this up, I'm also working on lesson prep for September. We've decided to start back to school on the 3rd. Though, I may have to push it to the 4th for a special program my daughter's friend is involved in. I'm excited for the new school year, though, and all the growing my family will be doing together. I can't imagine things any other way. Or at least I don't really want to.