Skunk Repost

I'm reposting my "famous" skunk shooting incident from December 23, 2007 from a prior blog. What I don't note in the story is that I was pregnant with Elijah during the shooting session and that the incident later earned me the title of "Local Annie Oakley." (I couldn't be more proud; it's exactly as I want to be remembered in history!)

My New Skill - Skunk Hunting
It started like a normal Sunday morning; Ben started throwing up last night, so we were figuring out who was going to go and fulfill nursery duty and who was going to stay home and take care of Ben. (Someone throwing up has been our recent Sunday normal!) At first, I was going, but an errand arose that required JD after church, so it was decided that he and Moriah would do nursery duty and I would stay home with Ben and Julia. We were getting everyone ready for church when James came in from doing animal chores and we all noticed the distinct aroma of SKUNK. We looked outside only to see our two dogs darting in and out of the woods, obviously entertaining a skunk. I thought, great, we'll now have a skunk smelling dog to deal with later; but we continued with our church ready ritual.

JD left with the kids for church and I busied myself with the 20 things that needed to be done, not even considering the skunk, until I walked by the living room window to view our dog, Reagan, being chased by this skunk. Ben and I stood there and watched as Reagan ran circles to get away from the skunk and the skunk continued in hot pursuit. At one point, they took an entire lap around the barn and the skunk wasn't stopping. I went to the mud room door and called Reagan in; as she ran in, the skunk started spraying the house.

I went to the phone and called Animal Control, not open. I called the alternative number, they referred me to the Game Warden. The Game Warden told me that skunks are not an animal they take care of, but if it is aggressive, it may have rabies and needs to be shot before it bites an animal or person. I immediately call JD, but his phone is turned off because he's in the church nursery. I try to call our only neighbor, but am unable to locate his new cell number. I can't think of anyone to call that isn't at church on Sunday morning. Then the reality of the situation hits me; I am going to have to shoot the skunk myself! I have never shot anything other than a paper target fox THAT DIDN'T MOVE! I go to the gun safe and can't even remember the combination. During my struggle with the safe, JD calls me and he walks me through opening the safe. I take the gun and set out in my purple pajama pants and t-shirt, leaving sick Ben in charge of Julia.

I honestly figured that I was so slow in deciding what to do, that the skunk would have disappeared into the hundreds of acres of woods surrounding us. But, NO, he strolls out of the barn and looks like he'll be happy to chase me around the front yard. Now, you may think that I could just shoot him and the story is over, but that is definitely not the way it played out! First of all, the goats and other dog all came running from the backyard, where they literally had been standing in a little group behind the burn pile avoiding the skunk. I locked up the goats afraid that I'd accidentally shoot one of them in my way. I then walked down the driveway a bit, with the skunk following me, because I didn't want to shoot him right in front of Ben, who was plastered to the living room window watching the drama.

The other thing you need to understand is that I really love animals and the idea of shooting anything, even a rabid skunk, required me to keep talking myself into the fact that I had to do it - to protect my children and pets! Once down the driveway, I didn't want to be too close to the skunk, but I don't have good aim either, plus there were trees, fencing, etc, that made my aim more complicated. I shut my eyes and fired; I realized shutting my eyes wasn't going to work, because the skunk was unharmed. I aim and shoot FOUR more times, and the skunk decides he better head into the woods a bit, before I actually get lucky. I am now chasing the skunk through the woods. At one point, he turned and started chasing me; I turned, ran, slipped in the mud, my shoe came off, and I was standing bare foot in mud. I stuffed my shoe back on and and kept going. Our little hunting session in the woods ended when I was sure I lost him and headed back home via the driveway. I heard a car on the road at one point and considered waiting to see if it was someone that could actually aim a gun; but considering that I am wearing mud covered pajamas, I didn't think I looked credible enough to ask anyone for help. I returned home, after losing the skunk in the woods, and guess who was standing back in the front yard, right back where it all began?

I realize at this point that I need to be tough and just shoot the skunk at close range. I aim, fire and actually hit the skunk. But, he isn't dead, just hurt, and I can't stand the thought of leaving him suffering; so I run into the house to reload. This involves calling JD again to ask what bullets to use; at least at this point he is leaving his phone on for me. I told him that I shot it, but I need to shoot it again. He tells me that the gun has six bullets; I explain to him that I know, the 6th bullet was my first hit! I reload and head back out, the skunk is still alive. It took me four more shots to hit it again, since I couldn't stand the thought of getting too close

So, it is finished; well, it's still laying by the driveway waiting for JD to come home! It only took me 10 bullets and about 45 minutes to kill a skunk! I kept reminding myself on my hunt that this farm life was my idea, but sometimes I know that I'm in over my head! It would have been so simple if I had been the one who went to church!

Here's Reagan trying to get in the mud room while the skunk was after her.

So if you get tired of the smell of Christmas baking and are looking for something different; you are welcome to come over to the smell at our house - Christmas skunk! The game warden told me that vanilla extract is the best thing to remove skunk smell; does vanilla come in gallon bottles?

Simple Pleasures

So, I probably shouldn't have been so optimistic in the blog department for today, because I spent several hours scrubbing both my fridges and freezers clean. I was motivated because there were dead fruit-flies in them and I couldn't stand just wiping them out again. So, the laundry may be to the roof and there are a sampling of all five food groups on the kitchen floor, but the fridges are clean and I can stand to go grocery shopping tomorrow!

This is our bulk fridge - large quantities of milk, eggs and cheese normally reside with the summer melons.
Here's the kitchen fridge, no fruit-flies. As a bonus, I found the lasagna that I made the other night that I forgot about - easy dinner.

Okay, so we'll hope again for more exciting blog material later - I'm working on it, promise.

Busy...Busy

We've been busy the last few days with all of life's demands and a few extra projects. Yesterday we spent most of the day outside laying top-soil, spreading grass-seed and strawing the bare patches. Although we worked several hours, we really only made a dent in what needs to be done.

It would be more pleasant working if it felt like fall, but it doesn't - it's in the upper 80's and I'm regretting that I packed up most of the summer clothes!


I've made countless trips to homeschool co-op today and now I'm off to soccer. I'm going to hope for a better blogging day tomorrow.

Parade Pictures

Here's the territory we staked out on the parade route. The parade was coming from the direction Elijah was pointing, so I'm not sure what captivated the interest in all the kids looking the other way.
Here was the high-light of the event according to Elijah - lots of fire trucks, with lights! He also loved the old cars, motorcycles and of course, the tractors.

This is the first time we've seen the Washington Redskins band. They were very good and Tori and Julia danced accordingly.

This was Elijah on the short drive home; later in the afternoon, when he woke up, he asked, "go to the parade again, PLEASE."

We are all excited that both sellers showed yesterday and both big items sold - bye, bye Visa. It's a relief to have completed our first year of life without any credit cards and now no balances either!

Big Day Tomorrow

Tonight was fun, I had friends, kitchen toys to try out and yummy snacks. One of my friends booked a party for February, so I'll get a chance to try out more fun stuff. I haven't decided what I'm buying yet, but I'm liking the host discounts!

Tomorrow is a big, big day around here. We are attending the local Fall Festival Parade. It is truly not an event that is blog worthy, but the kids have been counting the days down since they get candy. What I'm excited about is what we have scheduled after the parade - two people coming to buy two farm items that we bought a few years back and haven't used. As long as they both come, I think they will after several email interchanges including price negotiations, we will pay off our last credit card. While that in and of itself is exciting, this is even bigger considering we had a ton of home-building supplies on credit cards. Originally, they were supposed to roll into our loan at closing, but since we have had closing issues, we were stuck with the bills. We started Financial Peace last October and I would have never, ever thought that we could have pulled this off in a year! This isn't the end; we still have other bills, including our adoption loans, but it's the way "bad" debt gone!

Since I keep posting picture-less posts, I'll take some exciting parade pictures for tomorrow. Almost mid-night, good-night.

We Are Not Doing This Again Tomorrow!

Alei has had a rough month! After getting cortisone shots in her back a few weeks ago, (they are working, praise the Lord!) she had to get her wisdom teeth out this morning. We decided that I would take her, and JD could go into the office for a few hours and then come home and work a few more hours while the kids debated politics, read literature and played classical music on their instruments. Just kidding! We were hoping the that boys could at least pull off their phonics and math while JD worked on his computer while supervising the little guys playing.

Alei's surgery went well, but she was pretty drugged and difficult to get to the car. I zipped right across the street to the CVS that I always use and waited and waited in line only to be told the computers were down and it would be at least an hours wait. I was a bit nervous leaving half-conscience Alei in the car. What if she came to and wandered into the road or something? So, I headed to Pharmacy #2, but no, they didn't have a tech working that day, so their wait would be at least an hour. So, we headed home to the horrible local pharmacy that I publicly complained about and they filled the prescriptions in 20 minutes. By this point, it had been three hours since Alei had been out of surgery and it was hurting pretty badly. Wouldn't it make more sense if they had given us these prescriptions before the surgery?

So, Alei is doing pretty well, considering. From the scene I walked into at 2:45, I could tell that my plan of telling Moriah and Alyssa to clean their rooms and bathrooms after school work wasn't the best idea, since JD had "real" work to accomplish while I was away! Elijah was still in his jammies and there was still breakfast cereals on the table. When I inquired about lunch, no on had any. There were two full dishwashers that needed to be unloaded and a sink waiting for one. There was a fine layer of stickiness of the table, I can't imagine from what.


I flew around all afternoon, just trying to recover the house that I had that morning. I still had to make a chicken food pick up, take the boys to soccer practice and shop for people food for a party and the weekend.

Now it's late and I have a busy day planned tomorrow, but I don't think I have to leave the house. I'm having a Pampered Chef Party here tomorrow night - won't that be fun? Friends, kitchen tools and good food; it sure beats the gauze and pills of today! Any readers that live near, you are invited.

Some of Us are Having Fun

I couldn't put off the fact that my little girls had no fall clothes in their drawers any longer; day after day, they ask me to go down to the storage room and find them some pants. So, today I finally swapped out their summer clothes for fall/winter clothes. As any mother of a large family can tell you, it's a lot of work! It has been far faster this year, thanks to my husband finishing the storage room; at least it's all organized and labeled well. Tori has about five new pairs of glitter jeans for this fall, in black, grey and a few shades of denim; they aren't even that cute, but they were $1.99 at The Children's Place so they are her winter staple! Julia has a bunch of clothes that Tori is constantly trying to claim, but they don't fit anymore!

Julia was really, really tough on Monday and Tuesday after I had left her for the weekend. I guess she feels she's punished me enough for leaving her because she has played nicely today. Here is the game they played for a long time while I sorted clothes (after I told them that if they dug in a rubber-maid container again, I'd ban them from their own room.) Elijah was their baby and they kept him in the bed by feeding him gold-fish crackers. I'm quite sure he was stuffed long before lunch time. I'm also not sure of the condition of the doll bed, but sometimes you just have to get a job done!

Next week I still have the middle boys and middle girls clothes to do. To tell you the truth, the girls are by far the hardest. They tend to have a big mound of clothes that they just can't wear for one petty reason or another. They usually stand there explaining how they have nothing to wear for the fall and I'm pointing at the big pile trying to remain calm. I guess that's why I do youngest to oldest, to work myself up in difficulty. It's nice that the little guys wear whatever I stick in their drawer!

Guess Where We Went and Other Happenings

We had a scheduled field-trip this morning to the Fire Station. I feel like I'm drowning in work at home right now, but didn't want to miss letting Elijah see these trucks up close and personal. We saw one at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago and he has been anxiously awaiting our trip "to the fire truck's house." He was too shy to get in the truck, but let Alyssa stand with him for a picture. See the book in Alyssa's hand? I brought her to help me and on the long hall-way into the fire station, she was walking and reading! I had to tell her to not read while we were there.

Currently Elijah is asleep with his new fire-hat, from the station, right next to him. I had to talk him into taking it off to lay down. He is also wearing red socks on his hands that we have to call gloves. Why? Because in an adult version of a tantrum last week, I packed up all the hats and gloves and put them in the storage room, due to the hours I was spending a day putting new ones on Elijah. He was constantly frustrated that his fingers didn't reach the end of the big kid gloves, whined and pulled them off, then he would bring me a new pair and we would repeat the entire scenario. Now he has made due with red socks and if anyone dares call them socks, he yells, "No, gloves!" Poor little guy, I think I may dig around and find him a little person pair, in spite of the fact that I find it difficult to get all the fingers in the correct spot several times a day!

After the fire-house, I was helping the girls clean their room. I came across these two dolls. It turns out that the boy has sharpie-shorts on from Alyssa years ago. She has always been super-modest and didn't appreciate the naked Ken look. The doll on the left has paint tape on her face, because Tori told me that Julia likes to play with her, but her face "freaks her out," so Tori covered her face so that they could both be happy. Julia then said, "I don't really like her anymore either," so she's in the thrift store bag now.

I'm fuming about something I read on another blog, but I will address it another day, (or not if I calm down and decide that I shouldn't.) In the meantime, we all have to head to "town" for a few appointments.

I'm Home

All day I've wanted to post, but I prioritized school and now I'm out of time. The problem is that I have so much swirling in my head that I'm not sure I can actually verbalize it yet. So much can happen in one weekend, both at home and away. My husband, somehow, did mine and his weekend work and still had time for deep reflection. I feel like we are at a cross-road in our lives, realizing the call that the Lord has placed on our lives. I think when we traveled to Liberia, a seed was planted that is just beginning to grow. Neither of us know what it will grow into, but as long as we are willing to grow and be pruned, the Lord can work with us. I hope we are allowed to catch a glimps at the upcoming Orphan Summit. Other than that, there are some exciting developments around here that I'm excited to share when the time comes!

Tomorrow is a crazy day, filled with appointments that logically should have been spread across three days, but I'm hoping for a chance to post a bit more.

Please take a few minutes and watch this clip from Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love. (You need to pause the music first at the bottom of the page.)

"Letter to Jen"

Jenny is on a weekend retreat with 80 other women from our church this weekend. I can't wait for her return to learn how God has moved in her life. With her gone there has been much Mr. Mom has had to do, but it has all gone well, so far. Not to take anything away from her, because she is definitely needed around here, but I think many are aware of the dynamic of how children act with only their Moms (which us husbands get to hear on the phone, or occassionally witness on video, as a result from a hidden camcorder), how children act when Mom and Dad are together with them, and how they act with just Dad. So, my morning started out early and very eventfully; I watched a movie at 6 AM. With so many movies titled “Letter to” something, and the impact of key movies in my life, it seemed fitting to title this blog “Letter to Jen.” This is a happy letter, so no worries.

"My Jen,
I’m sure that you remember the night we watched 'Snow Dogs,' at the base theater. As I was struggling to come to grips with all that God had placed on your heart and accepting that it was entirely the right thing to do, I sat there in this theater watching a Disney movie that most people would not view through a lens as an adoption story; however, God used that secular movie to pierce my heart and to not only accept that we were meant to adopt but that it was right to adopt black children. Sitting there, in tears, because Cuba Gooding’s character was adopted and I all of a sudden got it. God adopted us and we’re called to adopt, as well.

We had black and bi-racial children in our home as foster children, and I would have adopted any of them. But you were asking me to consciously, purposefully and prayerfully consider adopting children from Liberia, West Africa, and my mind got in the way. I let myself get wrapped around the axle and intellectualized the complications of raising black children in a white family and the impact it would have on their lives. Although I was not raised prejudiced against any ethnicity, I questioned whether we can ensure that they’ll be raised understanding their culture, who will they marry, will they be made fun of, will my biological children be made fun of, and on, and on, and on. This movie made me see clearly and God let me know it was the right thing to do.

When we went to Africa for Victoria, in 2006, I was all in it intellectually. In my mind, I knew it was the right thing to do. I listened to you about all of the statistics; even though at times you thought the words might not seep through they did penetrate. But, I did not have a heart attachment to the mission. I was hanging onto your shirt tail for the ride. Being there, experiencing the poverty, the hunger, gave me a connection to Liberia and Africa that I never imagined I would have. When we learned right there that Victoria had a brother, we both knew that we had to do something. It seemed right to take the leap to simply support him, make him eligible for adoption, and try to get him into the Orphanage, so that someone would adopt him. We did all that.

That wasn’t enough for me, he was little 'Tori’s' brother and he was too young to grow up in that war ravaged country, when we had the capacity to bring him home. God knew exactly what he was doing, he was peeling the layers of my stinky onion mind away one at a time, and because of the innate stubbornness I hold it has taken many years. I’m not even going into the layers that were peeled away to be open to a large family, accepting foster children in our home, adopting a foster child, fostering black children, etcetera, and etcetera. Simply put, if you had suggested siblings when we were going for Tori (and I knew that you were open to it) I am quite confident that I would have closed my mind to the whole thing. And the orphanage, they knew that Tori had a brother, but due to the health risk for the younger children there, they needed to get the young babies out fast, to save their own little lives. So they didn’t tell us about any siblings before we left, while we were there, not even when we were going to meet the birth mother. Had they done so, I am quite confident that I would have felt like I was being pushed into it and again likely closed my mind to the whole thing.

Then the trek for Tori’s brother Ben began, in late 2006. You were only comfortable providing support, and while I agreed for a short while, God assured me that he was meant to be part of our family. I began to urge you for what you once did so for me, we needed to adopt. You had made a monster, so to speak, and I became more decisive about these questions than you for a season. Even when you raised the notion of adopting one of eight babies that came into the orphanage at Christmas, while we were in the early stages of processing our adoption for Ben, you were shocked when I was open to it from the very mention of it, from you. I remembered the statistic that you shared with me before of a 25% infant mortality rate in Liberia, and I knew that we had room for one more. As it turned out we saved our daughter from a near certain death from Malaria and we both knew what we were doing was right.

Next we realized that we were pregnant with Elijah, and I had to convince you that you were in that way. I can remember just being completely at peace with the notion that we were about to have another child. You were kind of shocked that I was so calm. We both just laughed at the realization that we were pregnant again, nine years after our last, with number nine. Having nine children is a far cry from the two that I thought I only wanted when we married. In Elijah I can see more than anyone else how much I’ve changed and want to grow closer to God, with you and our family. I type now with him asleep on my shoulder after partially waking up from a nap. He is such my little buddy. I don’t love him more or less than any of our other children, but I do love the experience more. So much has changed inside of me and I just love being with the little guy.

So, here we are, seemingly stalled again in sharing the same vision regarding what our family is called to do. Do we adopt more children? Do we become missionaries? Do we just maintain status quo because we have 'done enough?' God’s answer to your fleecing prayer to Him last August has convinced me that we are not to be content with the latter plan. There is no doubt in my mind that we are to do more. But I’ve let my mind get in the way, again. I am intellectualizing having more children at my age, achieving a comfort zone for our latter years, you getting your way in dragging me to Africa to live, which may avoid the former while sealing the fate for the latter. Once again I have caught myself trying to map out my own plans instead of letting God’s Will unfold in our family’s lives.

This brings me to the 'Last Flight Out,' a movie that I stumbled upon at my workplace break room. The DVD case had a camouflaged cover and the words 'Operation Bless Our Troops.' Seemed innocuous enough, I pray for our troops every night, the inside cover shows a picture depicting adventure, possibly even some gun fire, etcetera; a man’s movie. The producing enterprise is Billy Graham Ministries. I think it will be good. I grabbed it and set it on my desk over a week ago, and don’t even mention it to you, all innocently enough. I bring it home the day you leave for a weekend women’s retreat, not even planning on seeing it this weekend. I wanted to watch the next Burn Notice episode with our daughter, but she had her friend over, which wasn’t originally planned either, and they cast me aside to do fun teen things. So, I wake up Saturday morning, make my coffee, and sit in to watch this movie.

Just as 'Snow Dogs' gripped me to realize adopting children from Africa was the right thing to do, the 'Last Flight Out' made me realize that I am not really trusting in God for our future; I’m trying to make it out for ourselves myself. Maybe a thousand people could watch this movie and not get the message God has given me, just as I was the only person in a military base theater balling at 'Snow Dogs' (and I did not use to even well up easily back then), I clearly realized that I’m not trusting Him as a Christian should. I don’t know what He has in store for us, but I want it, whatever it is. I’m going to endeavor to not let my intellect get in the way. I want to watch this movie again with you, even risking that it may not impact you the way it has me, because I’m thankful that God again peeled another stinky onion layer away. I hope that we’re getting close to a good center.

I will probably never know who it was that placed this movie in the break room. They were likely just clearing out their desk, since the movie was made in 2004, and could have just as easily pitched it as placed it where they did. Again, in a most unsuspecting way, I am leveled by the unexpected impact of a specific movie at exactly the right time. This movie, the 'Last Flight Out,' has moved me to prayer. I prayed this morning that God would tear away everything in me that would just want to 'hold on.' I want to let go. I want to see Him work in our lives. I want to be a vessel to bless orphans. I want to personally make a difference in their lives, not just sending money in some clean and innocuous way that satisfies an urge to act but stifles it with the status quo. I want to make it public. I don’t know how long it will take, but He does. I don’t know what He will have us do, but He does. I don’t know what resources it will take but He does. I want to live in the center of His will. I need you to be with me, I can’t do it alone and I don’t want to.

Love, JD"

For the record, "Scrooged," with Bill Murry, changed my life in 1989, and led me back to Jesus. I am quite sure that most people just laughed at it (and as a Chrisitan, I am not now recommending this movie, as I remember it when I was in the world and cannot attest to its cleanness). Although Jenny hasn't really liked my movie watching addiction through the years, and I've gotten much better, some have made a real difference in my life.

And men, it is very difficult for us whom God has designed as providers and protectors of our families to entertain the thought that just maybe our wives might have a better vision for our family than we do. I challenge you, to listen to them. I would not be where I am today if not for Jen. I know it, she doesn't believe me, but it is true.