A Week at Home

 Since I normally seem to spend my days in the car driving kids from event to event, I often used to say that I could get things done if I could have one week at home. Well, I wouldn't choose this but I have had my week at home. I have gotten a lot more done....

Alyssa and I tacked the baby boy clothes in my storage room. A lot of Nathan's baby clothes were left here as Alayna and Nathan spent a good bit of his babyhood here. Moriah brings clothes home from the little boy that she is a nanny for and they get dispersed to Samuel and Oliver and then everything somehow finds it's way back here because I'm the one with the storage room. 

We unpacked and repacked MANY boxes and labeled by size, so whoever needs them next will not have to tackle all the boxes at once. If the next person has a girl, we don't have anything for that!

It's the first time Oliver played downstairs and really enjoyed pushing trucks and tractors around, so some need to move upstairs. 

We found the tiger hat that I had bought Nathan on a trip to the San Diego Zoo. It was hot and sunny and Nathan spent the whole time taking it off and throwing it on the ground like a normal baby. Oliver, however, was thrilled with every hat we tried on him! He turned 11 months the other day and remains the most outgoing baby I have ever seen.

I started Selah and Bella on packing up their winter clothes and getting out the summer, so after Alyssa went home, we worked another few hours. It's finally to the point that it's not a three day task for me each season swap - just part of a day since the girls are the only ones that we even swap for. They still have a ton of clothes - Elijah and the girls above them just don't have many. 

My task was separating and dispersing the ones that Bella has outgrown. Since we are on lockdown, they are waiting to be delivered to their new owners. 

Other than clothes, I spent a good few days organizing all the bookshelves. This is definitely a post organize photo; they were a mess. I have gotten rid of most of what my kids have outgrown, but then Nathan starts K in the fall, so there is still things I don't want to part with. We have a lot of bookcases; I organized nine bookshelves in three rooms. 

Today we did massive goat maintenance and treating a baby that seems to have a touch of something. I drove the kids down our easement road and we cut pine branches for them to snack on. 

The fruit trees are blossoming pink and white and I truly appreciate my laying chickens as eggs were scarce when I was shopping last week. 

Yesterday the kids learned to play chess at Aunt Debs, so this morning I dug out the chess board that JD bought in Turkey many years ago. They were thrilled.

 Bella made us some cookies here and then brownies at Aunt Debs. 

 I hope you are all well during this trying time - I grieve at the impact in other places in the world that are so much worse off than ours! I pray it ends as quickly as it seemed to come!

Spring Goats

 There is a lot of action in the barnyard these days. 

Jewell the lapaca 

Just days after Agnus had her quads, Storn had twin kids, a girl that looks just like her and a darling black and white little boy. 

The next day, Claudia had twin boys, one also looking just like her and one solid black. Claudia and Carmelle were last year kids and I would have never intentionally bred them, but sometimes things happen when you have a stud just a fence over.  While Claudia's babies are great, Carmelle had one stillborn and the other die after Selah and I devoted 48 hours to trying to save her. 

We are supplementing the quads with bottles morning and night, so they are beyond tame and all jump on our legs upon arrival. We are starting to give tastes of the bottle to the other four so they will be as tame and friendly. 

We also welcome friends to come and love on the babies - 

We took the quads to a local preschool a few days ago for the kids to pet and hold. We all really enjoyed it. I am not going to show any darling kids holding the goats, but here is two of my helpers waiting for the next class to come out. 

When we aren't out at the barn, we have some excitment in the backyard; the pool is finally getting finished in time for summer swimming.