Where has the time gone??

We have had a full and exciting spring.  It's hard to believe that we are already in the middle of May!  What have we been doing the past 6 weeks or so?  Come with me and I'll show you ....

April found us with babies -- goat babies to be exact.  We ended the month with seven new kids and three very happy and busy milking mamas.  By the end of the month, we had five of the babies plus one of the mamas sold and living at their new homes.  This was definitely a bittersweet experience and a learning one as well as they needed to be debudded (horns burned off and essentially dug out of their skull) as well as the males castrated prior to leaving.

Because of the two remaining mamas having milk for several and only having one kid remaining with them (we kept a male and female -- "Puzzle" and "Patches"), they had oodles of milk.  Truly out of compassion vs. any necessarily agrarian aspirations, we began to milk them to relieve their discomfort. Need I say that this has been a dream of Isabelle's since we first got our goats three years ago?  She and I share the job, but she is wholeheartedly the faster milker of the two of us.

Well, each day we researched more and more, and began implementing many sanitary procedures so as to save the milk (for the babies who had left of course!) ..... but eventually we (Joe and Kristi) got brave and found that (you guessed it!) the milk actually tasted creamy and good, just like whole cow's milk and not at all as we imagined (which we pictured to being the equivalent of licking our hands after petting a wet adult goat :-).  And so ..... we now have goats milk not only for those needy babies out there, but also for our own cereal and baking needs.  No "goaty" goat's milk here!  With a diet of home-grown pasture grass, pasture hay, alfalfa, and grain -- the milk is rich and sweet.

Now Joe thought (because we don't have enough to do around here) that he'd really like to finish his dream of having our driveway put in cement.  The asphalt was cracking and breaking up and needing constant yearly repair and resurfacing.  The price of cement had plummeted and so now was the time.

Eight days, over 100 yards of cement, and countless hours of fretting and frustration (me), picking one by one small chunks of cement out of the lawn, nightly efforts to restore our grass to its former state, several hours adding topsoil and sod to the border, and 7 days of curing ......

We have a fully functioning, wider cement driveway with a larger area near the barns (where the RV is currently parked) for basketball and turning around.  As you can see, it is speckled (a windy day necessitated the workers using a chemical to keep the cement from drying out) .... we're unsure if this will be its permanent appearance (grrrr.....), but at least it is cement! :-)

Of course there is life off the farm (I think?) and as we are currently surrounded by young love (no, not our own children .... but close friends and neighbors), I have had the opportunity to host/plan two bridal showers.  What sweet girls -- daughters of close friends -- and sweeter still the opportunity to serve and bless them in this way!! 

In between animals, yard obligations, weddings, and bridal showers, we have lived life -- attended church functions, cooked and cleaned, schooled through the remainder of our academic year's lessons, and practiced our instruments. The latter culminated in a year-end recital for Isabelle where she played "Millionaire's Hoedown" to an appreciative crowd.

She was privileged this year to play at a level which allowed her participation in a violin ensemble.  They practiced monthly through the school year to perform Teleman's concerto for four violins (played by 8 here).  Isabelle is the little one who's face can't be seen over the music stand :-)

And when all the tasks of  homeschooling in the garden of life are complete,  there's time for loving on and riding horses .....

And planting/weeding/watering the gardens .....

And cherishing God's creative genius by appreciating flowers such as these ...

He has given me renewed vigor for the tasks set before me.  In the midst of these weeks, I have also undergone another radioiodine scan and all that comes before it (10 day iodine free diet, two days of injections, swallowing radiation and the isolation that follows, bloodwork, and finally the scan itself).  What I assumed would be bad news, came back clear.  I am free of residual thyroid and therefore the possibility of further cancer treatment in the foreseeable future.   God has been so merciful to me and I walk and live and breathe thanksgiving for this gift of life.

I look forward to all He has in store as the sun shines deeper and longer and the sweet days of summer are just around the corner ....