My Cup Runneth Over

It's been a few days and there has been so much going on here. Every day brings new adventures and mild entertainment for anyone who happens to take note.

For home school - this has been our best week so far and I am very proud of my kids and what they are learning, even though I am their teacher.

For the farm - there have been little adventures...we got a 100 gal water container for the field to be sure everyone has enough water. Well, with the cold, all the water sources at the back of the house are frozen. And since I have already been transporting, 10 gal at a time, in two 5 gal buckets, from the front of our house to the back field, at least two trips a day. (roughly 200 - 250 feet one way) When this 100 gal tank arrived, I looked at it like anything else and grab buckets and proceed to just do it....not a good choice. After the second trip and I was already beginning to feel it....I was thinking 'there is no way'. After trip three, I could barely lift the buckets over the fence to dump them into the tank. After rounding the corner of the house on the return of trip four, I notice my husband's pickup in the front yard - here is the moment where I am like 'DUH!' I then round up every 5 gal bucket on the property, mind you, it takes everything I have to lift these 5 gal buckets into the truck now after my four trips....It still takes me two trips with the truck to complete the fill up. Took me two days to recover from those sore muscles!!!

This has also been a very wet season for us, but after two years of drought, we are thankful for the rain, but are also happy for any break from it. Today, after an overnight rain, I noticed some good sized puddles in front of the barn and along the inside of the back field that would fill up along the tractor barn side and decided that I needed to dig some drainage ditches....another, not so good idea....we have been scraping and leveling here and there and filling this low and that, so the back yard and pasture area are a mess. Anyhow, I am me, and continue even though it begins to rain - which I am thankful for because my family, who had just been on the back porch, went inside. There are a few areas that are holding some pretty good water and I decide need to be ditched immediately, so I head into the pasture and begin. I am doing pretty well, until I notice a scrap of wood holding up drainage in the middle of a freshly disturbed area of clay...I walk over and remove the piece of wood and decide that the ditch could use some widening and stand still and shovel for a minute or two. I then notice another area and start to back up to it, however, my feet are "glued" in this clay and the only part of me that moves, well, it was the top part...yup, down I go, right into this thick nasty red clay - laying my legs out straight, so that this goo runs right inside. Of course my first instinct was to look toward the porch and thank God, my family had not come back out!!! I get myself to my feet and then proceeds to try to get my feet out with boots still attached, took some figuring, but I got them! Headed to the house, knowing that there was no way to get in and not be found out! I walk into the house and EVERYONE is in the front room, and of course I have to do the full model view to show how completely covered I was! Well, at least I got everyone to laugh! Thankfully there were no charged and ready cameras available!

Needless to say I am ready for this week and settling back into housework and hoping that things can begin to dry out...

On Saturday we donated Lil' Butt to an under privileged 4-H program and the guy in charge, Andrew, came to get him. He (Andrew) was afraid when I got him here that I was gonna take him out back and shoot him - guess he didn't believe me when I told him 'middle of nowhere'. Anyhow, really enjoyed meeting him and Matt, and look forward to being virtually involved with the program that Lil' Butt will be involved in. And hope to someday soon be able to go visit their farm.

I love my life and all that goes on around here, life is truly amazing and I honestly feel that my cup runneth over and I hope that more people would strive for that feeling and find it. It is not in the new cars and fancy clothes, but in the simpleness of life and loving God and what He created for us to use (not abuse) and enjoy.