Missed Church

Yeppers, last Sunday. I missed church! I actually had a wonderful time too. I was outside in the awesome sunshine enjoying beautiful oak trees that 5 of us couldn't all put our arms around. I was outside enjoying the beauty of what God has created and given us all to enjoy. I was outside with horses. Yes, horses! I actually spoke with Pat Parelli and was blessed to enjoy his teachings and some of students, both human and equine. I was blessed with an all day, relaxed atmosphere, tour of the Parelli Ranch.

See you all in church tomorrow.

Should I Quit

All of you know that I haven't been posting here like I should. I am just doing other things and don't want to spend so much time talking about what I want to do or what I've been doing or even what I'm gonna do...
I just want to go and do it. That's what has me thinking that maybe I should just quit. I mean quit blogging. No - not forever - just for a little while. Haha...that's pretty much what I've done. Well to some extent anyway.

Here lately I've been...
outside more
enjoying home school
raising a baby squirrel
doing more with freecycle
planning and planting a winter garden
enjoying our 3 boys

Storms a comin

It's that time of year. It's been that time of year for a couple of months. Hurricane season! We live inland so we don't run around boarding up the windows and hunting higher ground. Our biggest concern is tornado's that spawn from hurricanes. We generally loose power for a couple of days and get lots of rain. I will say that we sometimes get some pretty high winds. Hmmm...that sounds like we get the hurricane. I guess we do. We generally keep our yard and barn area tidy but when a storms a comin we make sure that things are tied down. Anything that can fly around in high winds gets tied down. So much damage is caused from things that get thrown around in the wind of a storm.

This morning the boys woke me up for church with a surprise. The surprise...another baby squirrel. He was so cold when the boys first gave him to me. I was concerned that he wouldn't warm up, but he did. His eyes are closed, but if you look real close you can see a little bit of his right eye trying to open. By Wednesday or Thursday his eyes should be open. I'm having a difficult time getting him to eat (not really eat but drink his milk). Superman reminded me that it took a couple of tries on Freedom (our first baby squirrel) before he was really active at meal time. You can look back to a year ago and see our first little squirrel. I think we'll name this one Freedom II.

Bike Riding

Oh yeah! I've done it 3 days now! WOOHOOO! Yes, bike riding.

Saturday, we rode 2.5 miles. Me and all 3 boys. Explored a huge hole that was dug years ago.
Sunday, 5 miles. Round trip it was a total of 5 miles. Saw a beautiful green worm.
Tuesday, 2 miles today. We saw the largest hawk that I think I had ever seen.

I'm not sure why, but I think I may be thinking a little healthier. Maybe it's because I spend so much time inside now that I homeschool the boys. I am such an out side person that it almost drives me insane to stay inside so much. Bike riding gives me more exercise than sitting in my office chair and trying to read my emails while the boys do whatever it is they are supposed to be doing.

We'll see how long we keep doing this. We do have a lot of things coming up with the Boy Scouts, but they shouldn't create any issues with our bike riding.

Some Free Stuff

I found some really neat free stuff that you may want to take a look at. All of these are really neat and well worth your time to check them out.

The Mayflower: Journey to a New Life

Learning Through the Holiday Series: Thanksgiving Day

In Living Color: Fall Leaves

FlyLady's Holiday Control Journal

Field Trip

Everyone loaded in the car and away we go, one little squirrel in tow. After JD's doctor appointment on Friday, we all headed to my mom's where she jumped in the car with us and we were off for a 1 hour drive. Have you every heard this "Are we there yet"? Of course you have, especially if you have kids. They are so funny.

Ok so back to the field trip. Yes, we took our baby squirrel with us. Why? Because no one was going to be home to feed him. It was pretty cool though. MJ has a neat little bag that Granny Karen gave him. I think it's some type of camera bag. I was able to put a towel in it and then put in the squirrel and carry a baby bottle.
I toted the bag with the squirrel all cuddled up inside all day long. I had to stop from time to time and feed the little guy, but that wasn't difficult at all. I just unzipped the bag and stuck the bottle in and he nursed until he was full. Once his little tummy was full, he snuggled up in the towel and was fast asleep. There was one time when I was feeding him that a group of kids saw what I had. About 10 kids wanted to see the little guy, so I did a short show and tell. It was pretty darn neat.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It has been many years since my first visit to this park. During the summer the boys went with their 4H day camp. JD didn't want to go again, and his reasoning was that there were too many kids and they were rude. I explained that it was just us going this time. I mean there would be other people there, just not in our group. He thought about it and decided that it just may be fun. And it was!
We took a boat ride. We even rode a tram. We walked and walked and walked some more. My poor mom, at times I kinda felt sorry for her. She was a trooper though. And a very good one too!
At Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, there is a Hippo, bunches of Alligators, Birds all all sorts, Manatees, Squirrels, White Tail Deer, Key Deer, Florida Black Bear, Bobcat and so much more. There is something they call the fish bowl. You go underwater in a building and you can see the fish swimming all around. We saw Sheepshead, Red fish, Snook and more. The boys were all excited! They actually said that it was much more fun with me than with their 4H group. Awwwww!

I know - Pictures! You will all be please to know that the love of my life bought me a new Cannon camera today. It's fancy and I have no idea how to use it. LOL I am off to bed for now but there will be lots more pictures in the days to come.

Our Newest Addition

Nope - we're not making the house bigger. Even though we need too. LOL Our newest addition just happens to be another critter. A baby squirrel! He's about 4 weeks old, maybe closer to 5 weeks old. He is the cutest little thing too. Just look at him!

I had planned on Sleeping In when this little guy was introduced to me. He is between 4 and 5 weeks old, and his eyes haven't opened yet.

His favorite place to be is in a shirt pocket. This picture reminds me of a tree frog. You can see that he is pretty strong by the way he is holding on to my shirt.

PetSmart has the bottle, syringes, nipples and formula to feed him. It's not very expensive either. I spent less than $20 on the things I needed for the baby squirrel, 5 Comet Goldfish and a live plant for our aquarium. Not bad.

Freedom! That's what we call this little guy. Why Freedom? Because that is what he will have once he gets old enough and mature enough to be set free. Just like we did with the Baby Blue Jay. We don't try to save these critters so that we can keep them. We want them to survive so that we can enjoy them in their natural environment. The experience of raising the Blue Jay is one that the boys will never forget. There are many times that we see a Blue Jay feather and it reminds us of the one that we saved and returned to Mother Nature. It just makes for wonderful memories.

Sleeping In

Finally Saturday! I had some really awesome plans of sleeping in. Notice I said "I had"? There really is no telling around here what time one will get woke up or even how one will get woke up. It could be calm and gentle or it could be wild and wicked. Usually if you have plans on sleeping in, then you can pretty much plan on getting woke up by wild and wicked. Either one is ok in all reality, just as long as you are woke up. Because you sure don't want to miss the action.

Speaking of action.
Superman was going to get up early (not as early as usual for him) and he was going to take the boys and do a little welding. WW and MJ were the only ones allowed to go because JD just couldn't behave in class during the week. And you know my plans - yeah - sleeping in. So I'm laying in bed in my own little special dream land and in my sleep I hear "MOM!". I open my eyes and I see 3 boys standing beside my bed and JD is holding something. I hear "MOM, LOOK WHAT MJ FOUND"! Oh yes, they are all excited, I mean to the point that they might as well have just caught a leprechaun, except for the fact that it wasn't St. Patricks Day. Now I'm kinda squinting my eyes to get them to focus from being jolted awake. I see what's in JD's hands. It's a baby squirrel. No joke! I wouldn't have been anymore shocked if had been a leprechaun. The squirrel started hollering at that point. JD handed me the squirrel and I laid him by my neck, he crawled closer to me and just snuggled up to me and there he went to sleep. I talked to the boys about the squirrel and where MJ found him.
I laid there for about 15 more minutes and I just couldn't stand it any longer. I had to wake up Superman. I called his name once and he woke right up and I told him to look at my neck. My gosh - did he see a leprechaun too? Me - now I've raised a baby squirrel before and of course I was excited but not even close to the excitement that Superman and the 3 boys were feeling. I think I was more into the save it's life mode. Keep it warm and get it fed.

After Superman and I (with the baby squirrel) managed to crawl out of bed, we all went about our daily routine of brushing teeth and getting our other little chores done. Me with a squirrel in the pocket of my t-shirt. Superman, WW and MJ went off to weld and JD and I went off to PetSmart.

Fall in the Air

For the last couple of weeks we have been able to really feel fall in the air. It has been cool in the morning, then warming during midday and then a cooler in the evening. Well I have felt it anyway. Superman says it just started like on Sunday. Yesterday and today there was no mistake that you can really feel Fall in the air. It even has a distinct aroma. I love this time of year. Usually it's hot this time of year but not right now. The weather people say there is some type of front that could or will cause some type of El Nino that will dump lots of water on us this Winter. Even enough to end our drought conditions. Well it better be a lot of water if it's gonna bring our water table back up to the normal range.

On top of our water table being really low, I read in our local paper yesterday that some important people or company wants to create a huge pipe line that will send our water down to South Florida. Hmmm...Now exactly what are we going to drink when this happens? I guess they aren't thinking about that. Shoot, most of the swimming holes and fishing holes that were full when I was a kid are all pretty much dried up now. Will Florida become the next dessert? It kinda looks like it.

Today we have had a light drizzle of rain. The horses were running around all frisky and playful. They are so beautiful to watch. The weather means the boys have to play inside a little more, but that's ok too. They still get to play outside but not when it's cool and raining.

I'm off to do a little surfing and a little reading. I have more news to post, so don't run off.

80 Miles Round Trip

Yes the round trip from our home to our home school group meeting and then back home is 80 miles. I know it seems like a lot and some days it feels like double that. I had thought about not going to the meetings anymore then I get reminded of how important they are. I also get to thinking about what we learn on that drive.

We learn things like this:
Time, distance, careers, patient, money, laws, reading, direction, manners, spelling, history, geography, language arts, math, science and my goodness, so much more.
On one of our little trips we watched men working on clearing under the power line. They were using heavy equipment and putting limbs into a chipper. We talked about why they were doing it, how they were doing it and how dangerous it could be.
On another of our trips we talked about the train that we saw. The cars on the train were full of coal. That started a conversation about electricity, coal miners, our planet and more.
Yesterday - oh yeah - yesterday!

Yesterday on the way home I saw smoke. I mentioned it to the boys and tried to point it out, but with the trees in the way it was kind of hard to see. We came to an area that is farmed and I could see it really well and pointed it out to the boys. As we drove we kept looking for it. We were getting closer and closer. Excitement was building. Oh my - it's in our neighborhood. What's really cool about is that MJ is studying about neighborhoods, helping and sharing (such as neighbors, fire departments and such). Oh the boys were all paying attention now and the excitement was getting more intense.

"MOM!!!" Yeah I know. It's getting fun now. I pick up my cell phone and dial 911. The fire was huge! It was running across the tops of the trees. It was burning on the ground. It was growing and growing. I'm on the phone with 911 and the boys are excited. The dispatcher was asking me question after question. I was giving answer after answer. Something you may need to know about cell phones - when I dialed 911, my cell phone was still on the tower that dials into another county 911 center. I was giving the address and the dispatcher was telling me that it didn't exist. I know I wasn't going crazy.

Finally - transferred to the right 911 center. I knew I wasn't crazy! LOL I've been a 911 dispatcher and I know how all this works. I should have known before the dispatcher ask me what county I was in. I was amazed that no one had called in this fire yet. It was pretty darn close to a house too. And get this - the house that it was close to had cleared some land, piled up the brush that they had cleared (right next to the woods). Now I don't know and I am just assuming, but who ever lives their had to have set that fire. They were actually inside the house, we found that out once the fire department arrived on scene.

Less than 5 minutes after my call to 911 the Forestry Department and the local Fire Department were there. I was very impressed. A total of 5 brush trucks, 1 Forestry truck and dozer, and one tanker truck showed up. One of the brush trucks was from an adjoining county and the tanker truck was from the adjoining county. The tanker truck was there to refill the brush trucks. The boys were able to see all of this happening. They thought it was the coolest thing and they could hardly wait until their dad got home from work.

What an exciting 80 mile round trip!

Fourth Week of Home School

We are on the last day of our fourth week of home school. It certainly has been a long 4 weeks. We have had our ups and downs but there have been more ups than downs.
WW started out kinda like this was a horrible chore. Now he is wanting to start as soon as he gets up every morning.
JD hates school. He's also defiant. As I said before, I have my hand full with him.
MJ, well he is just excited about everything. He is really zipping through his school work and doing very well.

If I remember correct, yesterday was our 5th home school group meeting. We missed last week but our fearless leader caught us up to date. We meet at Rum Island Springs, it's a county park and a pretty darn neat place. Yesterday we took a walk up the river. We talked about plants, animals, the Florida Aquifer, protecting and respecting our planet. And so much more. The kids were also allowed to swim and enjoy mother nature.

Our little group is really growing. I mentioned to Superman the other day that I had thought about us not going to the meetings anymore because of the drive. I sensed from he that he really didn't think that was a good idea. I am really glad that we discuss things and can communicate so well with each other. Ok, I'm convinced that we will go to the group meetings each week. We all enjoy them very much, it's just that the drive is 40 miles one way. But then I think about all the educational things in the 80 mile round trip ride. And I have something really great for you in just a few minutes. The boys remind me every week that we have our meeting on Thursday. I like that they do that. Our group now has started what we call "Game Days", we will meet on the 3rd Monday of each month for educational games. How can I not want to go when we have so much fun?!

My First Home School Meeting

I am so excited! Me and the boys went to our first home school meeting today. It was great! The people were wonderful! We met at one of the Springs here in North Central Florida. Our group is the "Tri-River Home school Group" We meet every Thursday from 10am til 12pm. When we first got to the meeting, we had informal introductions, then all the kids ran off to play and swim. The adults kinda just walked around and watched the kids or went swimming. Me - I waded in the water, kidded around with the kids (all of them) and talked to a couple of other homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. A very relaxing atmosphere. Merrillee (the group leader) called us all up to the table and we had a more formal introduction, she talked to everyone (kids and parents), just letting us know what to expect. That lasted about 20 minutes and then we were all off to play, swim, mingle and do our own thing.

While Merrillee was talking to everyone, MJ tapped me on the arm, so I bent down to hear his little whisper, He said "Momma, I think I am really gonna like this group". I think all of my boys are excited about being home schooled now more than ever. Even JD seems more excited about it.

The first meeting in September will be more formal and less play time. However, there will still be play time and swim time. We will attend as many meetings as possible and we all look forward to the lessons that we all will learn. There will be Park Rangers, Bread Makers and many other speakers for our group. We will take nature walks and learn lots and lots about nature. I am really glad that the boys are going to be in that first hand. And Merrillee is an artist and she will teach us all Art. How wonderful is that?!

How a Day Should Not Start

After being woke up at 7 am by WW, just to ask if he could shoot his BB Gun and then again by MJ asking if he could play the XBox, it seems my day just got worse after that. Finally after all of the interrupted sleep I crawled out of bed, managed to stumble my way to the bathroom, brush teeth, get dressed, make my bed and start to read my emails. Finally after more interruptions I managed to read all of my emails and even answer a few. Off to the barn I go to put the horses out to graze. Today I thought I'd graze them on the road - wrong idea. LOL

About 15 minutes later I'm hanging out clothes and woe and behold the horses are gone. I don't panic over these things because this certain isn't my first rodeo. So I grab my carrot stick and head down the road. Oh there they are, just grazing away in the tallest grass they can find. I do my little raspberry kiss to them and they turn around and start walking back...

No - don't go down that road, turn left - not right. Of course they turned right and headed to a small paved road (no big deal, it's just a subdivision road). So I walk and walk and walk some more. I call and call and call some more. I hear them in the woods and then the bust out on the 2 rut road beside me and start trotting back in the right direction.

No - go straight - don't turn right. Yeppers - 2 of them turned to the right and down the lime rock road. Off Redman and I go back to the barn and the pasture.

I run in the door, holler for the boys, grab the 4 wheeler key and run to the barn. Running isn't much of an option for me because it is already 98 degrees outside. I'm driving the 4 wheeler with WW on the front and JD on the back. We race down the 2 rut road and stop at the paved road - look left and right and back to the left. Deputy to the rescue! LOL Yes, down the road was a Deputy in his car with 2 horses grazing beside the road. We headed down toward him and he called me over to ask me if I knew who the horses belong to. "Yes sir, they're mine." "Ok, I will move out of your way and let you do your thing."

Off down the road the boys and I went on the 4 wheeler behind the horses, with the Deputy behind us. And in 3 minutes CoCo and Shadow were back in the pasture. A great big thank you wave from all 3 of us to the Deputy that helped. Not only did he help but he didn't even scold me for having the boys on the 4 wheeler. Just another thing that I love about the country. We use our 4 wheeler for our little farm and not for joy riding on the roads. Oh I'm not saying that we won't go and play in the mud with it, because we will. But there is a time and place for everything.

As you can see, all of the horses look so innocent. Just hanging out instead of getting out. I have to say - there is never a dull moment around here.

Superman Gets Attacked

I declare! My husband is always the silly one. He sent me an instant message last night telling me that he had found the property that would be perfect for us. Then he gets side tracked and has to tell me about being charged by 3 deer and attacked by a flying squirrel. I'm im'ing him asking all kinds of questions about the property and he tells me to stand by. LOL He has got to tell me the story! So I stand by.

First let me tell you that Superman is not a wimp, he is almost 6 foot tall and weighs in at around 265. His arms are like rocks. Ok, on to tell you (in his words) about his attack.

Superman: i was attacket by a flying squirl and charged by 3 deer on it
Me: no way
Superman: yes the squirl attacked me
Me: how
Superman: ok just read and i will tell ya
Me: ok
Superman: went on it with a nice white haired lady
Superman: she showed me the drive and i said i wanted to walk it so she left me there
Superman: i walked down the middle and around a bend into a clearing
Superman: i said this is where we will build the barn
Superman: went through the cleearing and over a small hill into a second clearing
Superman: i said there is where we will hunt the deer
Superman: walked out into the small clearing and jumped three deer
Superman: this scared the squirl
Me: lol
Superman: not done yet
Me: ok
Superman: the squirl was 40 feet away in a tree and said its time to fly
Superman: i saw it jump and thought it was a bird at first
Superman: then it began to fall
Superman: i began to duck, 40 feet away
Superman: it kept falling and i kept ducking
Superman: then it hit the ground with a little squeek
Superman: I was almost at the ground and made a big squeek
Superman: time of incident
Superman: 3 seconds
Superman: time to laugh and recover
Superman: 5 minutes

Now the fun part of the whole story will be when he gets home and tells it to the boys. I am sure that they will be rolling on the floor laughing.

Miss Potter

What an absolutely lovely movie! This movie is about Beatrix Potter. If you haven't heard the name, shame on you. Renee' Zellweger played the part of Beatrix. I always enjoy movies that Renee' plays in, she seems to really bring the character to life. About 15 minutes into the movie I was getting goose bumps. Just an awesome tingly feeling all over. Why? Simply because Renee' played such a wonderful part and brought the whole thing to life.
Not only did I enjoy this movie but Superman also enjoyed it.
Is it a chick flick? I think not. I think it is a wonderful family movie!

Camping In The Yard

Tonight the boys are camping. Camping in our pasture. It doesn't matter where they camp as long as they are sleeping in the tent. They say that this is a huge responsibility and it makes them proud that they are allowed to camp, even if it is in our pasture. We are planning on taking them camping in a couple of weeks along the banks of the Santa Fe River. They are really excited about that and they thought that tonight would be experience for them. We plan on swimming all day, sitting around a camp fire in the evening and a little after dark, tell a few ghost stories that the boys can laugh about and then fall asleep and listen to the river.

The boys certainly are progressing nicely. They are starting to talk a little bit about Christmas. We have never had a Christmas with children of our own and I'm not really sure who is going to have the most fun. Us or the children?! Regardless of who has the most fun, I am sure that it will be remembered for a long, long time.

The Day Has Come

After finding our little Blue Jay and nuturing him along, the day has come to set him free. Some people have ask if we would be able to set him free and return him to the wild. Our answer...Of course we will. When we rescue any critter from harms way, our long term goal is to return them to the wild. Our short term goal is to nuture them to the strength that they will be able to survive on their own, the way Mother Nature intended.

This picture is just a few days after we found the baby bird. There are just a hint of tail feathers.

This is the day that I opened the bird cage with the intention of releasing him back to Mother Nature. There certainly are a lot more tail feathers now.

Once I took him out of his bird cage, he wanted to fly around the room. It wasn't easy holding onto him to get these pictures. All of us were so happy that the baby Blue Jay had survived and was able to be released.

Little Baby Blue Jay, how beautiful you have become.

These pictures were taken during the time that we had the Blue Jay. He loved to sit on our shoulders while we walked around the house. For about the first week that he rode on someone's shoulder his grip was almost non-existant. After the first week you could really feel the strength in his feet has he gripped our shoulder or our finger. We didn't let him ride very much on our shoulders because we have cats and dogs in the house. One little leap could have been fatal.

It was a beautiful day when we released him. We released him at the spot where we found him. I held him on my finger and when he was ready to go, he just took off. He flew into a section of woods that fronts our property. He perched on a tree limb and we watched him for about 10 minutes. After all of the kids walked away, I walked over close to the fence and I told the beautiful little bird that if he thought he was not ready that he could come back to me and I would keep him safe. He leaped from branch to branch and seemed very happy. I was sad when I walked away, because I would miss him. I was also happy that I had saved his life and I could return him to the wild where he belongs. Saving and raising the Blue Jay was a very wonderful experience for our family.

Baby Blue Jay Alive and Well

We have had our little Baby Blue Jay for 5 days now. He certainly is growing and doing really well. I was concerned the first day that I found him because I really didn't think that he would

make it. His little feathers are growing so fast it seems that I can almost watch them grow. It won't be long now and off he will be flying.

Here are some pictures that I took of him today. While I wait for the pictures to upload, I just went in to feed him. He was on the bottom of the cage and when I opened the door he jumped up to the opening in door. How awesome! I put him on my shoulder and took him in to my husband. The bird tried to leap/fly onto my husbands desk. He is really making progress!

Mocking Bird Blue Jay

We rescued a little Mocking Bird. Or so we originally thought it was a Mocking Bird. It has turned out that the little Mocking Bird is actually a Blue Jay. When I found the baby bird it was dirty and had dog slobber on it. The dog slobber really made the dirt stick to the baby bird. Now that the dog slobber has dried and the dirt is falling off the feathers sure look blue. Sure enough it is a Blue Jay.


It isn't easy raising wild birds. I have tried in the past from little ones that I have found. The success rate is about 50%. I know I sure said a few prayers for this little guy.

Yesterday the boys and I spent all day at the river. Our neighbor was kind enough to bird sit for us. She is a wonderful lady and loves animals just as much as my family does. On the way home we stopped at her house and picked up our little Blue Jay. She had found a bird cage that she is now letting us use for a little while. She was even kind enough to take some pictures of him. She has also given him the name of JayBee.









We have now put a piece of driftwood that we found at the river in the bird cage. I put JayBee on the driftwood and at first he didn't have very good balance. That certainly has changed today. Today he is up on the driftwood begging for something to eat. It is so funny to watch him stretch his wings. The boy's are really enjoying this little guy being in the house.