Wow! What a week!

Alliteration. It's a marvelous literary device.
We have had quite a busy week!!
And it seems that in these last few, hectic weeks of school and with all the sickness we've been facing, I am averaging writing about once a week.
Oh well, it's better than not writing at all, I guess.
Here are some of the things that have been keeing us hopping around these parts.
Last Friday, we took an all-school field trip to the ranch and farm that Rachel works on, as well as to her home, which is also home to various goats, rabbits, dogs, horses, etc.
We started out at B&N Ranch, the home to the hunt club she works at, and where "much cattle" are rounded up and sorted ( I know Patty got my Jonah reference there).
Rachel explained what rounding up cattle is like, and had the kids play a game in which they were cows being rounded into different pens.
She showed them a squeeze shoot, and they got to see some of big farm equipment.

Next, it was on to Wesbrook. There, the kids saw chickens in a coop (very interesting for me, since we are looking into building one of our own here), hunting hounds, and some horses.
They had lots of questions, and Rachel answered them all, satisfying the young curiosity that was abuzz.
After that, we went on to Rachel's house and had a picnic on the lawn.
It was such a perfect day: sunny most of the morning with blue skies and big white clouds lazily floating overhead, warm and breezy, hazing up in the afternoon.
When we were done eating, Rachel introduced everyone to the animals: there was a baby bottle-fed calf, whose name I do not remember; Snickerdoodle, the cow; Tia, the wild mustang; Blueberry, the donkey; Bounder, the big sweetheart horse; Scout; the pony; and a heard of goats (some of them new babies!) as well as sundry dogs and bunnies.
The kids were able to touch and pet the animals, and took turns visiting the baby goats,
and getting horse and pony rides on Bounder and Scout.
Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day:



When it was over, the boys and I headed home, and got Isaac ready for his first big Boy Scout camp-out.
Joe and Isaac equipped themselves with waterproof boots and ponchos, among other things, to meet the weekend, which was calling for rain, rain and more rain.
And rain it did.
In spite of the weather, there was a fire, good friends and his dad, and Isaac had a blast.


I was not there, but I know he got to cross a rope bridge,
throw a hatchet,
and probably about a thousand other things they didn't tell mom about!
This picture is worth a thousand words!!!
They returned home Sunday, wet and tired and full of stories and memories.
After dinner at Gramps, it was time to head to the all school skate party.
The party was a celebration for exceeding one of our recent fund-raising goals.
See this picture of Josiah skating. That's him in the background, hanging on to the sides. It is the only picture of him skating that you will see.
About five minutes after this was taken, Josiah fell and broke his arm. Well, he has two buckle fractures in his left arm from falling on it.
I was right there and I watched it happen. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion, but too fast for me to get there in time -- to stop it.
Here we are, deciding to take Josiah to the hospital.
I was frantic, to say the least, but Joe wanted to take him to the hospital while I stayed with Isaac since he had not seen him all weekend, and he thought the ordeal was something Josiah would need his dad for.
I stayed and skated with Isaac, and we had so much fun together, but a part of my heart was across town with Josiah as he was being examined and x-rayed.
Here are some pictures of the skate party, post accident:
Doin' the YMCA

Trippy
The first two days after the accident, Josiah was in a lot of pain.
It is so hard to see your child hurt, especially when there is nothing you can do to ease the pain or take the hurt away.
I am so thankful for prayer.
When there is nothing else to do, nothing else that can be done, there is always prayer.
We went to an orthopedist yesterday, and he set Jo's arm in a cast up to his elbow. He got to pick the color: light blue.
While all of this was happening, Daniel came down with pink eye -- both eyes!! Yikes.
You know the saying "when it rains, it pours"? Well, lets just say I feel like I've had my umbrella up for quite a while.
So, after Jo was done with his doctor visit, we took Daniel to get his eyes looked at.
I have to say, I thought the eye drops would be a bigger deal than they are. He actually does pretty well with them for being not quite two yet.
When we got home, we disinfected the house and I started getting dinner ready.
The kids were outside and we began to notice that our cat, Tigger, was breathing funny and was not wanting to come out of her box. We had known for some time that she was pregnant, and it looked like her time had come.
Sure enough, she began delivering kittens in the late afternoon. It was the first time I have ever seen kittens born. Amazing.
She had four kittens within 12-13 hours, but only three survived. One was still born. It is very sad, and my boys feel badly about that, but they are so happy with the three tiny kittens, and we have visited them often today. They are all Tabbies.
Three kittens, like three boys. I think all the kittens are boys, too. I know at least two of them are.
I want to name them Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, but Josiah says no to that. David thinks it is not a good idea to name kittens who may end up leaving home when they are older.
But I say it's okay to get attached, to love them, to care for them, to name them.
And if the day comes when they leave us to live with other families, those happy people can give them new names; but we will always know that once upon a time, three kittens lived in our garage and in our hearts, and their names were . . .