Looking Back and an Addendum

I was under the weather this morning, so, after chores, 

I took a nap. 

There, I said it. 

I took a nap! 

I can't believe I am free to do that on days when I am dragging a little! 

It is beastly hot out right now, and high humidity.  I know, because I made a run to Walmart to get some photographic paper.  I am making a surprise for Keith for his birthday. 

I am sitting down to do the post and then going out to refresh water for everyone. 

Here are some sunflowers blooming this morning...how they cheered me up! 

That picture was actually taken last night... and this was behind them: 

Unfortunately, we didn't get a sprinkle. 

We need it. 

Here are the three little chicks this morning, now about half-grown.  They have all turned out very well, and I think the two pullets will be good replacements.  I'm even happy with the cockerel! 

I am working on a project at the moment, and  have been looking back through the last five years of photos for it.  It's hard to just run them by, because each brings up a memory.  I think women are more prone than men to let things like this slow them down... but I sure am enjoying remembering the days past. 

This is our tenth summer here at Calamity Acres. 

Look at our gorgeous Ranger Boy five years ago, in 2008.  Wasn't he absolutely a beauty?

To us, he still is. 

My heart breaks when I think about what is to come with Ranger... but he has had a wonderful life here at Calamity Acres, and we have valued having him so much. 

Here are Roosters One, Two and Three as young cockerels!  My gosh, they look so tiny! 

Three actually had a brother, Four, who looked just like him.  Four did not make it through the very cold winter three years ago. 

That picture was taken November 2, 2008.  Almost five years ago!  

They are five year olds already! 

(Gosh, I use a lot of exclamation marks.) 

Here is our first pug, Addie Mae (right), and our second, Hannah Jean.  Hannah was almost blind when we adopted her.  Addie came from the Leavenworth Animal Control facility, and Hannah, from Second Chance rescue, a wonderful organization from whom we also got Abby. 

Addie died of heart congestion... and Hannah had glaucoma and complications from her enucleation (eye removal) with glaucoma starting in the second eye. 

These two little girls sold us on pugs, and we loved them so very much.  They rest here at Calamity Acres now. 

Here's a picture also near and dear to my heart... My sister Kathleen with the sweetest smile on her face, and my dear mother, Mary Catherine.  Both gone now, and both so deeply inbedded in my heart.  How I miss their smiling faces.  

This picture was taken before Kathleen was diagnosed with cancer... her future was bright and sunny, and she was married to a wonderful man who treasured her.  I love how pictures freeze that place in time. 

My mother's housedress from this picture is hanging in my closet this very minute.  I just could not donate it. 

This grainy picture is son Brandon, stopping to adjust his shoe during a basketball game in high school.  How this picture froze him in time... in a season when he played so very well, and was such a joy to watch.  I am so glad I took so many pictures that year.... and short films, that we still have.  

His loss is a hard blow to handle. 

We just don't know how many years God is going to give us... and we need to treasure each and every day that we can! 

I added a new blog to our blog roll today, one you might think is unusual.  If you read it, you will see why.  No... it doesn't have fancy pictures (yet)... but the writer is very, very witty... she has made me laugh and cry and I treasure each and every post she has written.  

I hope you'll enjoy "The Three Little Pugs" as much as I do! 

Here's the Addendum: 

That's a big one.  I did NOT change this waterer! 

A wasp in the goat barn got me. 

War is declared. 

A Beloved Birthday

My mother's... she would have been 97 today.  How we miss her, my sister and I.  She has been gone 3 years on October 6th, and it seems like just yesterday we sat and visited with her in the nursing home.  How we miss her laugh and her jokes and her calling us "Little Girl". 

Her hands so strong, she made the best pies in the world and her chicken casserole was to die for.  They became knotted and bent with arthritis at the end.  We wore homemade clothes to church, and uniforms to school.  She made us walk to school in the fall, winter and spring, because it made you strong... and we were strong enough to carry umbrellas! 

She loved to watch the birds in their aviary.  She always thought it so funny that I kept chickens.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Love Remembers

On October 6, my sister and I held our dear mother as she passed into her Lord's arms. We have missed her terribly these sixteen weeks, and can't believe so much time has gone by without her. As she lay there the final weekend, we both talked to her, laughing about old times, and telling her things that were happening in the home where she spent her final weeks. We talked about recipes and kids and the seasons and the holidays coming up, and what was on TV. These things she loved: Notre Dame football, soap operas, cooking, baking, reading, saying her prayers... her grandchildren, large and small. Names were hard for her in her last 3 years, but she could remember faces. Whether she called me "Mother" or by my given name, she always knew me. We watched her grow more childlike with the days, though Alzheimers was never part of the package. Her outside world shrunk to the four walls of a shared room until her final five weeks. We kissed her dear hands frequently, bent with arthritis, the fingers swollen and useless. We watched her poor worn out body try to keep itself going, all the while telling her it was okay to leave us and go to our dad, who had gone on so many years before, and her parents and brothers, whom she missed so terribly. When she finally breathed that last breath... we told her good job, and sat with her until the driver came to take her outer shell away, knowing her soul was already rejoicing. Now we think of things constantly that we would like to tell her... about all the little things that we can no longer ask advice for, or just to talk. Hold tight to your loved ones, because there is finality in our ends. She had a good life, and for that we are very grateful, but love remembers.