Archives for May 2006

Horses, Bruises and Baby Robins

Today has been quite a day.  It began by wondering if I was going  to Raleigh to take care of a friend who has been very sick.  I ended up not going because of some wonderful friends she has there who came and cared for her.  She's feeling better today and I hope she has some strength and energy for tomorrow. 

So after my morning “she's okay” phone call me and my hubbie got to go horseback riding again with our friends Tom and Adonnya.  Today I got a frisky little gelding named Dallas.  He's got to be part thoroughbred because it took him half the trail ride to calm down enough to be enjoyable to ride.  And I've got the bruises to prove it.  (I'll post them tomorrow.)  Dallas spooked at a stick on the trail ride and I ended up under his neck with my left foot on the ground and my right foot still in the stirrup on the horses back.  Now, if you can get a mental picture of this you know that only someone with a 34 inch inseam who is 6foot 2inches tall could accomplish such a feat!

My yoga instructor would have been impressed!! 

As my inner thigh scraped across the saddle horn I could feel the bruise forming.  Tonight I have a bruise about the length of a football though not as wide. 

Yes, ouch!!!!

Advil….you are my friend! 

After the 3 or 4 hour ride, a spooky horse, a bruised and raw inner thigh and a horse who wouldn't load to trailer back to the farm we finally returned home.  Both me and my hubbie were beat!  It was 4pm. 

At 6pm we were back at the farm for fried chicken, Adonnya's wonderful pasta salad and a little more horseback riding.  Yes, I actually got back on a horse this evening.    It's amazing how you can still succumb to peer pressure at the ripe old age of 41.

But this is not until after my boys found a baby robin in our yard who had apparently fallen from his nest and was very hungry.  Since he/she is not old enough to fly we've taken it in and the little guy;s eaten about 10 big ole fat juicy fishing worms since 5pm.  Now, he's sound asleep in a garbage container (tall so it won't fall out or the dog won't get it) with lots of towels for warmth.  I hope it survives the night.  He's in our closet where I hope he'll be safe until morning when he'll choke down a bunch of worms again.  It's really amazing to watch him eat.

So now it's 11:40pm and I'm barely awake, leg throbbing.  So I'm off to la la land, a handful of Advil safely tucked in my tummy.  I hope to post pics of my leg, the ride tonight and the “hopefully still alive” baby robin tomorrow.

Until then….
Have Jesus filled dreams and if you read this since I'm on EST.  Pray for our bird to make it through the night.
Julie


SPIDERS

After reading Amada's post about the giant monster in her closet I remembered a funny story from when we were first married.

my husband is definitely scared of spiders.  he had a room mate when he lived in california that collected black widows.  i remember him telling me stories about John throwing wads of black string over the shower onto him saying, “say hello to blackie!”  at which my husband would promptly FREAK OUT.

when we were first married and living in TN he came running into the bathroom one evening while i was showering.  he was yelling something like, “come here, come here!  it's an emergency”  (i had visions of this being my life after children, not with my newly aquired and very handsome husband)

quickly drying off i enter the kitchen with towel wrapped around my body to find my husband standing across the kitchen from a giant wolf spider shooting rubber bands at the thing.  okay, it may be a female thing but what if you hit it and it goes running instead of dying.  YIKES.

 

what do i do?  i promptly jump over the spider, grab the can of RAID and position myself for the death spray.  Ready.  Aim.  Fire.  What???  What's that?  As momma spider is promptly curling to her death a million zillion quadrillion baby spiders who where inconspicuously perched on her back run for dear life.  needless to say my spraying radius got bigger and bigger.

i think the entire breakfast area got a dose of RAID.

now that they are ALL dead….
who gets to clean them all up?

I'll let you guess!!!

now don't get me wrong…my hubbie will slay the fiercest of dragons for me, but spiders?  no way!


hoping you run into NO spiders today Amada!!!
julie


Friendship



(good friend )

A good friend of mine has been borrowing my camera lately to capture her family's spring activities.  She's becoming quite the photographer.  It's been so fun when she returns the camera to see the photos she's taken.  There are always a couple of pictures that her kids have taken.  I enjoy them because they show me life from her children's perspective.

This weekend her husband ran in a triathalon.  She borrowed my camera to take pictures of the race.  Last night I got to look through them and I was struck by just how much her hubbie has changed in the five years that we've known him and how much his friendship with my husband has impacted both of their lives.

About three years ago our friend was stuggling with his weight and a possible job change.  He began running for mental and physical strength.  My husband, who has always been a runner, began running with him.  And I think that is when their friendship began to grow.  Since that time they have become good friends….buddies, I guess.  They serve at church together.  They still run together occassionally.  And they serve the same Lord.

I remember seeing our friend trudge around our cul-de-sac like he was running through quick sand.  But each day we'd see him slowly, steadily running.  Sometimes we'd push the window down and yell something encouraging to him.  Othertimes I'd just sit and think how dedicated he was (and how painful it looked).

As I looked at the photos from this weekend I wondered how his path would have been different had my husband not reached out at a time when he needed a friend.  He has been an amazing example of endurance to me as I have watched him change from someone trudging around my cul-de-sac to someone running, swimming and biking in a triathalon. 

Thanks, Clark, for being an example of “going the distance”.  My prayer for you is that you would apply grace to your life as you continue to do so…..
IN HIM,
Julie

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes on not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2Corin4:17-18


Many of you have asked….

so, “No, I can't walk well yet.”  I feel like I've been sitting on a barrel for a week.  My husband went on a 7 hour horseback ride after my 3 hour ride.  I hate to admit it, I think he's doing better than I am. 

We decided to run to NC to visit my mom after church yesterday.  Michelle, I think I passed right by you.  Next time I decide to spend 8 hours in the car with my kids in a 24 hour period somebody smack me.  I love them but I love space too.  So, here are some pictures from our Friday night ride at our friend's house.

Here's my hubbie and middle son on Diesel….

Here's my oldest on “Colt”

And the rascal and baby girl on “colt”

Baby Girl found another horsey she liked a lot.

An absolutely gorgeous sunset……

While the moon rose to the east………….

There was a little static electricity in the air…..

Happy Belated Mother's Day.
Julie


Look at Me….

I got to go horsebackriding today thanks to my wonderful husband and my friend Adonnya.  My hubbie watched the kids and Adonnya provided the horse.

Here I am (first time in 15 years)!  I'll let you know if I can walk tomorrow.

My friend Adonnya.


More on Lacy

The kind people who own Lacy let my oldest take her to school today so he could tell them all about us finding her, then the owners finding her and us giving her back.  The neat thing about the story is that the family who owns her are Christians and they were praying for Lacy.  They were so excited that we were Christians and had taken good care of her and were willing to return her. 

It was fun watching my dear son share about what happened with his class.  Lacy spotted the mice in the classroom and made a beeline for them.  I guess she hadn't had enough breakfast this morning.  At 4 months old she is a strong dog and I imagine she's going to be huge once she's full grown. 


Lacy found a home

Well, today as I was preparing to go to the Animal Control station to see if our “stray” dog was there she showed up on the front porch.  She hung out for most of the day.  I caught wind of someone looking for her this afternoon so I put up posters.  The owners came to get her this afternoon.  Her name is Lacy although you'd never know it.  She's a sweet thing who wants to be loved all the time. 

So….happy ending.  Although my kids are sad.

A friend sent a wonderful Praying for Our Children calender today.  I don't know how to get it to you except to say if you want one email me and I'll send you a copy.  It's really wonderful.  There are 31 days and each has a topic with one scripture.  For example the 1st is Salvation with 2Timothy 2:10,  the 2nd day is God's Grace with 2Peter 3:18.

So leave a comment with your email or some bright idea on how to post it OR email me telling me you want a copy and I'll shoot one over to you.

IN HIM
julie


The Nomad

She showed up on our doorstep the day before yesterday, stole our hearts and promptly disappeared.  We're going to the Animal Control Dept. today to see if she's there.  When I called this morning they said they picked up a lot of dogs in our area yesterday.  So…..I'll let you know later today if “Jello” or “Maggie” as we've called her comes home with us.


Mama's Tools

Since I once again deleted another blog Im now resigned to writing in word and copying to HSB.  UGH!!

Since Janne came over to personally tell me about her contest I'm giving it a whirl.  Here goes……..

So, onto my favorite homeschool tools:

May I first say that I’ve only been at this for two years so the resources I have will probably be very different from you veterans out there. 

Category: Techie stuff

  1. My first is my computer….a Dell Inspiron 6000
  2. Second is my printer…..HP Photosmart 7960
  3. Third is my Kodak Digital Easyshare DX6490 and my Canon Digital Rebel (it’s the king daddy of cameras!!)
  4. Last but not least is my sweet hubbies job that allows for the above purchases.

Category:  Internet stuff

  1. HSB – you guys have been so encouraging, so loving, and so inspiring.  I think all of us have felt some of the same feelings at one time of another.  Feelings of inadequacy as a mom, feelings of joy, triumph!  Thanks for being there for me!
  2. Montessori Homeschooling
  3. EEK (Environmental Education for Kids) or Critter Corner also Nature Notes.
  4. The Parent Center (this has helped in learning styles and other cool stuff)
  5. Timberdoodle.com
  6. Trigger Memory Systems (Times Tales)
  7. Learning Page.com
  8. Enchanted Learning.com (this has been wonderful for both my 1st grader and K5er)
  9. Edhelper.com

Category:  craft stuff

  1. My paper cutter (a necessity)
  2. Craft scissors with lots of assorted edges
  3. Elmer’s Glue and Craft Glue
  4. Duct Tape (it’s amazing)

Category:  Other stuff

  1. Kumon Workbooks (I found these at Books A Million and have used them for K5 and 1st grade)  I love their tracing book that gets kids ready for writing.  It helped my 4 year old so much.  He’s writing letters now with ease.  The Kumon tracing book (link to photo on Amazon.com) is very colorful and has wonderful mazes to practice prehandwriting skills.
  2. Sing Spell Read and Write
  3. Lots of lined paper from CVS or The Dollar Store
  4. a big roll of brown craft paper I found at Staples for only $3 or so.  At the teacher store it’s outrageous.
  5. Xyron Clear Laminate Roll (on clearance at Walmart and works like a charm!)
  6. Hole punch
  7. Sewing stuff.  Fun fabrics.  Colored thread.  One of those ring thingies that holds the material (I think they are for crossstitching)
  8. Devotions for the Children’s Hour by Kenneth Taylor isbn#00080002425143 

Category:  Really Cool Other Stuff

  1. Nature. 
  2. The Zoo
  3. The Park
  4. My kids
  5. Church
  6. God (my very favorite) and His Word!!!


There are those times

You know…
those times.

The ones that seem to make a mental picture you carry with you for a long time.

Tonight I had one.  Baby girl was swinging.  The weather here has been unseasonably cool, so wonderful.  We decided upon a popsicle to go along with our swinging. 

Dad joined us.  And she just had to sit beside him to share her popsicle.

Daddy's girl.


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