Busy Writer

We've all heard of writers block.  

We are not suffering from that.  It's more like a writer's too busy! 

My head is still spinning from all the changes going on around here. We've been milking our sheep and making delicious smelling soaps from the milk. Of course-drinking some too!  Katie has impressive milking skills!  

Sheep milk 

Sheep Milk, Oatmeal, and Honey soap 

Dare To Be Different

Spring is over!  Since Texas summer brings 100 degree weather, we find it best to utilize every bit of cool daylight in the spring to accomplish big projects. We sure have been busy and find ourselves slowing down a bit for the summer.

So here I am, writing about homesteading once again on the homeschool blog.  It's a part of our lives.  All of us have recently developed an interest in self sufficiency all at once. All in different ways.  It's nice to have one goal as a family but also have different ideas and hands contributing to make it all work together.

Katie's animal kingdom has been growing.  For an inspiring veterinarian, this is what life is about for her. She has much excitement she would like to share about her life as a homeschooler!

Who says misspelled words are all that bad?

Spell check?  It's for the birds and computer nerds. Bring on the misspellings! (and run ons!)

How boring it must be for a teacher to take her work home to grade only to see these funny misspelled words, giggle to herself, and then pass the paper out to the children the next day.  

I am fortunate.  During the grading I call Katie and read it to her exactly as she spelled it.  

Today's word was "tharfor".  

I put on my best pirate voice. I said, "Arrrrg me Katie.  Come to me.  Be ye tharfor arrrrrrrg merciful...."   She erupts in laughter.  

Blog-anima-travel-tography

I call this bloganimatraveltogrophy because I plan to cram all of the latest and greatest into one post. We have picked up so many new hobbies and activites around here since I last blogged about the birth of our puppies! Hence why we haven't blogged.  Too many activities, too little time.  

Speaking of the puppy litter, they have all gone to great homes and are thriving well.   We get monthly updates.   

Ok, back to the subjects. 

Blog-because we are bloggin'. :)  

Anima- is for animal.  We've picked up more. What?! Yuh-huh.  

Travel- says it all.  We took a trip to across the South.  

Tography- is for photography. Yes, we are doing photography now.  Not well, but we sure are trying.   

Make sense now? Ok.  

So let us give you an update.  

Since the last blog about the puppies, we got 2 blackhead dorper sheep.  A female lamb and a male lamb.  Just so happens ours sheep were already named- Patricia and Patrick.  Patrick and Patricia were both bottle raised by our good friends the Rodriguez's.  I don't know why anyone would want to leave Texas, but they did.  They left Texas to go back to Cali. and had to leave their sheep in good ole' Texas hands.  (We don't hold it against them.)  I would proudly admit that was our good ole' Texas hands if tragedy has not struck on Patrick.     

Patrick and Patricia 

Our poor stock dogs had never actually been around stock before the sheep arrived.  Some people say it's instinct for them.  I'm not really experienced enough to comment.  It's a known fact that herding dogs should never be left unattended around the herd.  Which was our intention.  We were slowly introducing them supervised and weren't getting anywhere with our female heeler, Sissy.  She has been stubborn since the day she was born!  Our male heeler was proving to be gentle and effective.  Even though our female wasn't, we were still determined to keep on persisting with her.  But one day our female heeler houdini-ed her way out to the sheep when we were gone.  In short, she attacked Patrick, resulting in his death.  So needless to say, we are now down one sheep and one dog.  

Oh, we always learn lessons the hard way.  The awesome thing about owning new animals is we are forced to learn about them.  We have to learn behaviors and how to care for them.  It's so much more interesting to Katie to open a book and learn about something she is actually touching outside her back door.  I find her teaching our 30 something year old city friends about when to shear a sheep or how to raise chickens! Our friend's 16 year old daughter Emily does that to me too. She always shows me up or teaches me something new!  Dang it!  I stopped calling the vet, and just call Emily.  

So since we were down one dog, we ended up keeping one of her pups.  Not for that reason but it turned out that way.  They let me name her this time.  Lola is her name.  We like her. 

Lola 

So after that happened, we gained a 6 month old AKC female German Shepherd puppy named Pepper.  We weren't looking to own a German Shepherd and we didn't even know she was full blood when we agreed to take her off some guy's hands.  He was ready to dump her off for tearing up his property.  It was really a compassion thing with an added bonus.  Added bonus because she is a great dog! We don't know what all the fuss was about because, so far, she is a really great non-destructive dog.  She has fit in so well that she is mingling with our other dogs now full time.  We plan to breed her in the future.  

Pepper. It is hard to get a good pic of her.  She is fast! 

Now on to the travel.  We traveled 8 states in a total of 8 days.  Well 9 states if you count Texas.  We went through pretty Arkansas on through Grand Ole Opry-land to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  Then on to our short stop in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to visit my Mother in Law and family.  Katie took a shopping trip in Mimi's purse closet, visited a friend's cattle farm, and spent some time with her Great Grandmother.  It's always hard to leave.  

Katie on her Mimi and Papa's land in North Carolina headed back from the river

From North Carolina we took a Short drive through South Carolina onto our destination, Georgia, where we met up with my sister and her family.  We all piled into my Dad's house on an airbeds to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  One of the best parts about that trip was getting to see the places my father and his father built with their hands. 

From left to right: My sister Kelly, My Dad, Me, and Katie in front.  Standing in front of the church my Dad and his Dad built many years ago. 

Still has the original stained windows 

I learned that my Grandfather was a Baptist Preacher at this church and never took any money from the congregation to pastor.  

Also, we visited my mother's house she lived in as a child.  And the house one of my sister's was born in.  It was a modest home but my grandfather provided it for them as a young couple.

Here's the house my Dad and Mom first lived in together.  It's blurry because it was a bad neighborhood and we were driving fast! 

   

I visited my Grandpa and Grandma that I haven't seen since I was 15 years old.  

He says her kisses are so sweet that she's going to give him diabetes. :) 

Katie hugging her Great Grandpa with cousins all around 

Of course, there is my crazy mountain redneck Uncle Tommy that I could just put in my bag and take home with me. Don't let the smile fool you, there's mischief in that grin.   

Katie and her 2nd cousin Jayce 

 I learned a ton about my family history.  I shoulda taken notes! 

Mom's side of family from left: My great grandmother, my great great grandmother (and her dog), My great great grandfather, my great aunt, my biological grandmother.  Top row: My great uncle, my grandfather (he's the one in the other pic kissing his woman), Great uncle in law Wayne, and My great grandfather.  All have passed except my grandfather and great aunt.   

We visited Amicalola Falls in the North Georgia mountains and stayed in a cabin with my sister and family over night.  

Me, Katie, Jude, and Seth at the falls. 

My manly bearded sweetheart and I 

On our way home, we stopped in Alabama at Tannehill Historical State Park and picked up some handmade pottery.  Then on to Poverty Point, LA where it is said an ancient tribe lived.  That was a good homeschool field trip filled with controversial questions! ex: "If a tribe lived there, why didn't they find any bones?"  ahhh a mystery. 

Katie on the mounds Poverty Point LA 

Then of course, we did what all rednecks would do and stopped by the Duck Commander Warehouse in West Monroe, LA to check things out.  

Now the photography,  My husband bought me a nice camera for Christmas.  Since I was a jerk and ruined my surprise, I got my gift early. Bonus! Which meant I was able to take Christmas pics! 

Here's some pic's we've been snapping:

Friend Kate 

Patricia 

Mint in our garden

Katie's photography: 

And that's the latest and greatest! 

New Year, New Goals

I've been slacking in the slacking department.  That's when you know it's bad. ;)

For my sake, we will call it re-prioritizing.  So here I am again, attempting to write about something that has inspired me.      

So it's confessional time here.  I despise the whole idea of new years goals.  It's like an addict setting a date of recovery.  Why not do it now?  But since it's new years and I had an epiphany on Tuesday, that's what we will call it.  

Let me take you back to Sunday so we can get to Tuesday's enlightenment.  Sunday's best clothing. Sitting on the church pew.  Little legs wiggling.  I'm listening to the preachers topic.  It goes as follows: "Beware lest any man spoil you through vain philosophy and deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Colossians 2:8.    

What does that mean? The Pastor used an example.  I will paraphrase.  He said,  "I sat in the house of a young man.  As his wife drove away, he buried his face in his hands.  When he made a vow to be with her forever, he didn't give up on it.  But his wife bought into the vain philosophy that life was all about her happiness."

How many of us have been there? Maybe not in this young man situation particularly, but have put our own happiness above doing the right thing?  

I have. 

Or maybe buying into the traditions and ideas of others that are opposing what God asks of us?  

I have.  I do.  

That's why I call this confessional time. Maybe I should rename the title.  Anyway, some days I buy into the vain philosophies the world has.  To name one, the philosophies about grades and education.  Slowly, day by day, I stop focusing on learning.  And slowly I begin to focus on grades and how many pages of what subjects were done.  Or can she pass the test? I can get my red pen out and slash away at mistakes and loose my child's heart. Or equally terrible, her love of learning.   

It's a come to Jesus moment here. 

Remembering that I don't remember hardly a thing of what I learned in school, I considered where we were going.  Is the end goal getting a certificate?  If that's my goal for Katie, then I have tunnel vision.  

The truth is here that I am a high school drop out.  Dropped out in 11th grade.  Got my GED.  In talking with high school graduates and even college graduates, I am not alone.  They have forgotten calculus, algebra, even fractions.  I don't remember history.  Never learned politics.  Don't care about Geography really.    

It's not about what I know.  It's about finding what I need to know to teach her.  

Homeschooling is a challenge, it doesn't come naturally for me.  It doesn't bring happiness some days.  But I am in it for the long run.  

People say, "Oh you're little girl is so sweet, God blessed you with a little child who's just so sweet. I could never homeschool my kids.  They aren't sweet.  I love my kids but they would drive me crazy." That's a compliment to us.  Of course, she's not perfect.  But the truth is really that yes, she is sweet. But it's not because she was born that way.  2's and even 3's were challenging.  There were days I wanted to be anyone but a mom because I didn't like the person she was becoming.  

My husband and I have spent our time teaching her what it means to be a person that is to be enjoyed.  Not purposefully.  But by habit.  We laugh at the jokes that are funny, and rebuke the tacky ridiculous jokes. But that only works if your children want to please you.  And they will only want to please you if you have won their favor.     

It's a good thing to win the favor of your child.  But a bad thing too!  And I say bad in my case because I am half the woman I should be.  And if she wants to be like me, God has a lot of work to do in my life.  But don't think for one minute that I don't take that seriously.  Somedays I spend the majority of my day admitting my faults and asking her to hold me accountable to changing them.  One day she slipped me a scripture about "keeping those things which we have committed."  I thank her for the reminders. Everyday I see her pick up my bad habits, I pray to God for grace to change myself for her sake.   

Can we win the hearts of our children by commanding them to do so many pages a day or requiring certain grades out of them?  No.  We just put an traditional image on them to be upheld. One could say grades are the evidence of what they have learned.  Sure, temporarily.  But come review time, they don't remember some random subject they were never interested in to begin with.  It's a filling up of precious time that can't be regained with useless information they will never remember.  Anyone relate?   

So here we are on Tuesday now.  I am reading a book complied by a bunch of older women who have homeschooled their children that did not have the luxury of a curriculum.  They paved the way for us modern day homeschoolers by fighting the law tooth and nail to have daytime custody of their children.  They didn't have someone telling them how to school their little ones.  Just a Bible and conviction in their hearts.  They learned quickly what they did wrong and things they did right. And one of the women said, "I asked my children often, 'What are you going to do with this life God gave you?'"

So here goes.  I said to Katie, "What are you going to do with this life God gave you?" 

Her response, "What does that have to do with playing?" 

Yikes.  I'm a failure! 

I said, "Nothing," and I repeated the question again. 

There is wisdom with the words that woman spoke because Katie's vision for the future begins to come out. She starts dreaming.  Inspiration is bubbling, I could see it in those big eyes as they lit up.  She's no longer focused on the temporal playing but her mind is drifting and imagination is churning in that sweet little head.  The mouth starts spewing her thoughts. So this led me to question how I can get her to that dream.  What will she need to know?  That question turns into a "school day" of learning about Syria.  I didn't know where Syria was at first.  Didn't know about Paul loosing his sight on the road to Syria's capital (Damascus).  Didn't know that was the first place Paul preached Christianity.  We found so much information on Syria right on our home computer.  It has inspired her to pray for this country.  Which by the way, needs it! We learned it is history's longest inhabited area. That information started entering her brain and caused her to ponder why God says Damascus is destined to become 'a pile of ruinous heap' in the end times per Isaiah 17:1. She didn't understand why, if it's the first place Paul preached Christianity, is it that only 10% of the population is Christian and 74% Muslim.  How did that happen she asked? Questions lead to answers.  Answers require learning.  

 
Katie may not remember the facts about Syria as she gets older. She may find that God has a different plan for her life.  However, it is my job to help her arrive to wherever that may be.  To spark an interest in her heart to discover and learn.  If I could only dream as big as her!  

What are you going to do with this life God gave you?

My daughter Katie on left, our sweet friend Kate on the right.  

.     

"Syria is a horrible place to live right now because of the war with ISIS.  I wanted to learn about the continent of Asia and we chose Syria.  Syria is the area in Asia that is the most in need of our help.  Lots of kids there are getting injured because of the war.

I want to be a vet when I grow up.  I love animals and to me, that's all that matter.  Animals matter because, like cows, they give us food and milk.  Dogs and cats are good friends to people. And our sheep steps on our toes all day. :) She might give us a lamb if we get a ram.  I really love animals.  I don't know if I am going to have a farm when I grow up but right now, I really just love working with animals.  And I really like the cat Turkish Angora, it's pretty.  I know that one because I have a big cat book. I really do want to be a vet when I grow older but I am open to whatever God's plan is for me in my life." ~ Katie 8 years old   

New Birth

Since the beginning, it's kind of been our family tradition to own Australian Cattle Dogs. Though the official state of Texas dogs are the agile hard working Lacy dogs, there's a Texas feel to the Australian Cattle Dogs. And since our state is all about some cattle business, the Blue Heelers are commonly owned by ranchers for their stock working ability.

The Australian Cattle Dogs, also known as Blue Heelers, started long ago in the land down under.  Though many still debate to this day the heritage of the Blue Heeler,  it is said that they began from the aboriginal Dingo.  The Dingo is Australia's version of a coyote. It has been said that the Dingo's were taken from their mom's at an early age, hand reared by the aborigines, and taught to hunt and track.   

Dingo 

In the early 1800's the first settlers had limited availability for laborers and were having difficulty controlling the large herds of cattle that grazed on wide open unfenced land.  So they decided to give the Smithfields a chance at herding the cattle.  The Smithfields could not tolerate the heat, were slow on their feet, scared the cattle with continuous bark, and bit the cattle too severely.  

Smithfield 

Then a man named Timmins came up with a plan to cross breed the Dingo with Smithfield.  Which resulted in a great silent cattle herding dog with one fault.  If the dog wandered out of the owners sight, it would chew the cattle to pieces.

After introducing a rough haired collie into the mix, they soon realized the new breed was going for the cattle's head which caused them to run wild.  That soon died out.  

Then came the imported smooth haired blue merle Highland Collies who were bred into the dingo blood infusion from above.  The new breed resulted in the Dingo's trait to creep in from behind, nipping at the heel until the stubborn cattle decided to rejoin the herd without the tearing them to shreds part!  Instinctively the new breed would flatten itself out on the ground after nipping the heels to avoid any kicks lashed out.  Alas, the perfect cattle dog. 

Smooth Haired Blue Merle Highland Collie

So why not leave well enough alone?  The cross breed wasn't all that friendly with horses or humans.  There is always room for improvement, right?  The Dalmatian was soon bred into the mix to give them a good rapport among the horses (and humans).  Once this gene was introduced, it created a friendlier dog that was born primarily white only to obtain markings at around 3 weeks of age.

Dalmatian
Picture Credit

As much as the Dalmatian's influence improved the working relationship with humans and horses, it didn't come without consequence.  Some of their working ability was lost with this new cross.  No problem, they had a solution! After admiring the working ability of the black and tan Kelpie, they decided to add them to the mix.   

Black and tan working Kelpie
Picture Credit

All of these breeds together in perfect balance obtained a line of hard working, friendly, agile, high stamina, highly intelligent, beautifully marked, controllable, dogs that could tolerate heat.   

Whala!  And now you have an Australian Cattle Dog.  Interesting huh?

Australian Cattle Dog
Picture Credit

So why the title new birth?

 Female Sissy (left)     Male Charlie (right) 

1 Mom + 1 Dad 

Equals 9. (that's homeschool math) 

Born on Sept 19, 2014, we have reserved homes for all puppies! (the darkest puppy didn't make it) 

Yes, we have new puppies!  

Is all of this part of homeschool lessons?  Heck yes!

 

***Update on Pete****
The new baby kitty from last blog.

He is off meds and doing great. Eating crunchy food.  Though we are pretty sure he will be on the "Baba" forever.

Pete got to meet new puppies.  New mom (Sissy) was welcoming and also in booty-licking-bathing-the-litter-Mom-mode-so she gave him a good bath.  (Which he really needed!)  He wasn't too happy about it.

"I really enjoy having the new puppies.  The most interesting thing is that they have Dalmatian in them! It was sad when we took them to the vet because I could hear them yelping when they had their dew claws removed.  Some of the new owners wanted their tails docked.  I like them with tails!"~Katie 8 years old

Oh all this fuzzy baby goodness going on around here is just good for the soul!

Picture Credits

A Vision All Her Own

For a while now, we have known that Katie has a special gift with animals.

It's like she instinctively knows what to do and how to train animals.  At 8 years old, Katie has a healthy respect for animals but doesn't fear them.  So since her gift and vision for the future is to work with animals, we are doing all we can to pursue, encourage, and build up her skills to follow that dream. 

Cleaning up after and caring for animals isn't really my idea of fun. But since Katie's enjoyment is contagious, I find myself having a good time alongside her.   

We arrange our school schedule to take Tuesdays off so she can volunteer during the day at the animal shelter.  Clinic day happens once a month.  It's during the day and it's basically the biggest event in her life. She has many jobs on clinic day. Her favorite job is monitoring and crating animals in recovery room while they are under anesthesia.  Because the animals can react to anesthesia, it's important for her to check their breathing.  She helps prepare lunch for everyone including volunteers, docs, and nurses.  Also, the adoption center undergoes quite a transformation to accommodate the monthly clinic so she sticks around to help put humpty dumpty back together again.    

At our most recent clinic day at the adoption center, a lady brought in a newborn kitten found in a parking lot.  Since a newborn kitten has a schedule of eating every 2-3 hours on bottle and has to be stimulated to use the bathroom, this lady was not able to provide this kind of care.  Apparently, she could see the word "SUCKER" written on our foreheads because as soon as we laid eyes on him, we decided to take him on.  

It was too early to tell the sex so a friend of mine called him Herm. (Her/Him) My husband called him Gato.  I called him Kitty.  Katie called him Boo.  

 Here's Gato Boo Herm Kitty  

It's amazing to watch my little 8 year old become responsible.  When she told me she would care for him, that's exactly what she meant.  Bottle feeding, stimulating, medicating, and all! There are days that she has to be cheered on, but for an 8 year old, I can't complain. 

When the word was out that we were fostering a newborn, we were asked to foster another newborn kitty.  We accepted.  What's another one, right? 

Initially, I had an agreement with Katie that I would take night shift feedings for our first foster and she would take days.  When we agreed to take on the other foster, she offered to help with night shift feedings.  She was true to her word.  She was up with me every 3-4 hours feeding the kittens at night.  

This was at 8am after a long night of feeding 

I couldn't feel more blessed to have a mature, hard working, and loyal young 8 year old by my side to live life with.  She didn't become this way without some elbow grease and sacrifice on our end as parents.  She became this way because she has been provided with a lifestyle of learning and experiencing at a schedule that works for her goals in life.  She never has to ask if she is needed in our family because we couldn't do it without her.  

So how are the foster kitties now?  

The black kitty went to a new home that was a purrrfect match.  Gato Boo Herm Kitty turned out to be a male and we all decided on the name Pete, Pete is now a part of the family.  

Katie has trained Pete to use a litter box and he just started eating solid foods today. He's a chunky little guy.   

Here's Pete and a day old ducky in my farmer's daughters lap! 

"It's been a fun challenge (yet for the black kitty a noisy challenge!) raising Pete.  He's a sweetie.  He's cute.  He's like a sit in your lap cat. Also, very weird at times.  He fights for the bottle a lot.  I'm glad he's starting to eat solid foods because-man-that was hard! Though I didn't like the stimulating part." ~Katie