One Long Day

Yesterday did not want to end. We started the day by attending the funeral of my husband’s uncle. When I returned home I checked the cattle and one of the cows had calved, but I could not tell if it was alive, so I called my husband to come and check. It was O.K. Then I checked Mama Kitty to see how her stitches were after being spayed; her incision had come open and part of her insides were on the outside—a quick phone call and a dash to the vet left us with a very low temperature, half anesthetized mommy. I bundled her up and set her on a heat pad hoping she would live. That is when my mom called to say my cousin’s husband had died. The thunderstorms that passed through late in the afternoon seemed to echo the feelings of the day.

This morning Mama Kitty is still groggy, but her temperature is up and she ate a little bit. She has a big cone around her head to keep her from washing the stitches and we will need to keep her that way for 10 days; we will be giving her an antibiotic to try to keep her from getting an infection. I think the calves are all doing well, and I’ve let the children sleep in a little before getting the school day started.

“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.” Psalm 107:29-31

God bless.


Dear Mama Kitty

Farm Update

We took our last Mama Kitty in to the vets today to be spayed. The vet is having a special this month—a spaying and rabies shot for $25 as long as you have 4 cats to bring in. My neighbors had one cat and another had two, so we went together to take advantage of the deal. No more kittens here! How sad! Mama Kitty was showing her age and she was miscarrying a number of litters. In the summer she was exhausted trying to care for them. If we need more kittens someday, we will have to adopt.

My husband’s uncle passed away this week. Tomorrow is the funeral. His health had been failing for a while, so although we did not expect it, it was not a big surprise. We did not see him often nor did we know him well, but as usual it will be a time of remembrance and sadness for the family.

I am still working my way through the Psalms and we are still reading Isaiah during family devotions. Today we read, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation” (Isaiah 52:7). For whatever reason, that verse always causes me to feel happy.

Blessings.


Charcoal's curiosity resulted in a good photo!
What a crazy cat!

Not much time this morning for blogging. I'll leave this photo of a newborn here for you--can you see the umbilical cord still attached? Have a great day! 

He is Risen!

He is risen indeed!

I hope your Easter was one of celebration! We attended a sunrise service and Easter morning breakfast at my mother’s church. At our own church, we had a very special day—we had a wonderful service as we thanked God for his establishing our church 150 years ago. To think we who worship and serve there are a part of a legacy that goes back so many years!

I finally heard Mrs. Donkey heehaw this morning. What a racket! The first time I offered her a carrot she was quite cautious. The second time she threw caution to the wind and yanked the carrot out of my hand with glee! We will tie her to some of the cattle we want to lead on a halter and she will train them to go where she leads—and the cattle will be worth more when we go to sell them since they are broken to lead. We need to find a name for her.

I love her ears.

Gotta go! Blessings!

William of Orange 

Waiting in Silence

Do you have a Good Friday tradition? There is nothing as moving as attending the services at our church during Holy Week. Traditionally, after the Good Friday service the women of the church strip the altar of its vestments. It feels bare and empty. We leave the service in silence.

Easter morning we will arrive and it will still be somber and silent, but the women will transform the altar and pulpit by draping it in white—the Easter color representing resurrection and purity.

As a child, I recall coming into the church for sunrise service. It was dark and bare. We turned around in the pew to face the pastor in the back of the church while he read the story of Easter morning to us. When we turned back around to face the altar, the miracle had occurred—the women had quietly draped the altar in white. Lilies everywhere. The lights were back on and the choir and organ erupted in joyful celebration…

But today, we wait in silence and mourning, recalling the passion of Our Lord.

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Mrs. Donkey. Say hello to our
newest addition to the farm.

Good Friday

"I do adore Thee..."

A song we sang last night at Maunday Thursday services still hangs in the air. The Text is by Johann Heermann. I've linked the title of the hymn to the site that has the music in case you do not know the tune. Blessings.

Ah, Holy Jesus

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended
That man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For man's atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

For me, kind Jesus, was thine in carnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter Passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee;
Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

Maunday Thursday

I have decided that I need to either quit blogging, or I need to shorten the amount of time I take writing up my daily thoughts. We’ll try the abbreviated version for a while! Life is getting in the way of computer time!

Laundry is a never-ending task, and here on the farm, mud season is in full swing making laundry an overwhelming task. I have found a way to help me cut down on my time spent keeping everyone in clean clothes. I’ve lined up laundry baskets along one wall for each person in the family plus one more. When a load comes out of the dryer, it gets sorted into the right person’s basket. Towels and miscellaneous go into the 6th basket. Each person is responsible for folding and putting away what is in his basket, and the children fold the miscellaneous during chore time. It works for us!

Today is Maunday Thursday. We will have church tonight. I enjoy Holy Week.

Blessings.


If you delay in folding your laundry...

The Mommy and calf we rescued yesterday 

Checking In

A lot has happened in the last week and a half. Here on the farm calving season is in full swing and we are constantly running to help the birthing and caring for wobbly babies. Yesterday my hubby called us on his cell phone; grabbing our mud boots and heavy rope, we went flying out of the house. We drove the short distance to the old farm, the parcel of land we had purchased 1st. Avoiding the electric wire, we slipped under the fence and ran the length of the old railroad right away. A cow, trying to give birth to a breech calf, had rolled over and gotten wedged on her back between some trees on the side of a steep bank. When we got there, my dh had already pulled the calf; he tied the rope to the cow’s hoof and the other end to the tractor and slowly pulled her over. Later, he brought the calf in to the warming box—the hard labor must have given her a poor start on life. We hope she does well because she is an ET (embryo transfer) calf.

Last night we heard a huge growling and screeching sound and my son came screaming into the house, “The fox is chasing one of our cats!” We called the cats and Blackie and Citrus were the only ones who did not come. We hope they come in this morning when we feed them.

This is Holy Week. It is the time to contemplate our lives and our gifts—the gift of redemption gives us hope. Blessings to you all.

Treasures from my son's collection. These are empty shells of the cicada. 

Building a hay fort 

Time Out

Heading out for a walk

Hello!

I’ve decided that I am going to take a little time off from Shades of White. I’ve been so surprised at how many faithful blog readers I have had each day! It has been a privilege to share my world with you. Right now I think I need some time to draw back and put my little world in order. It won’t be long before we are walking through Holy Week, and I do not want to miss this time of contemplation.

God’s blessings to you all!

Jean

If I Disappear...

One of my poohs dropped a book on my laptop and now the top of my W key is broken off. Tomorrow a friend will be stopping by to pick up my computer to see if he can fix it. I don't know how long he will have my dear Vaio (sob), but I hope to be back quickly. If I disappear...

Twins! The children tell me that this cow, Moonbeam, was JM's show heifer not Bethany's. Moonbeam's mom, Starlight, was Bethany's. What should we name these two? Castor and Pollux would be great, but these are girls!

Feeding December the 2nd--if you remember both this calf and her mom, September, were sick. Here the calf is getting a dose of electrolytes.

Blowing Snow and Twins!

The roads are awful! I had to go out early and I could not see which side of the road I was on due to blowing snow. I'm going to go outside and snap a photo of our new twins and the cattle covered with snow. Then I'll come back and post them if they turn out well.

The twins were born in the cold yesterday, and mommy didn't take care of one of them. That little one is not doing well. We found it and put the two of them together into the warming box over night which has a heat lamp in it just for problems like this. This morning mommy let them nurse and we are going to have to decide if we should supplement them with a bottle. The cow's name is Moonbeam and was one of Bethany's show heifers a few years ago.

I can't stay to chat, but I'll be back with photos in a little bit.

Have a great day!

A Light Bulb Experience

The light fixture in my closet was broken. Every time I pulled four turtlenecks out of the closet so that I could see what color they were, I grumbled. “Hubby knows how to change this light fixture and I do not. Why doesn’t he fix it?”

I remember someone telling me that marriage is not a 50/50 affair. We don’t give half of the time and take half--it includes our giving 100%. At the time I thought that statement to be ridiculous. I’ve found, however, that being content requires our accepting the responsibility of it all. When I see it as MY task and he chooses to fix it, I can be grateful. When I see it as HIS task, I’ll want to say, “It took you long enough!”

So here is the light fixture. Once I started doing it, hubby decided he better be sure I didn’t electrocute myself and he “supervised”. Next time I will know how to do it.

Purple, blue, green, and pink…the colors in my closet are back!


I did it myself!

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9

Do you have any light fixtures in your life? When we think we are giving 100%, I’m certain that we are not. Perhaps it is truly closer to that 50% that we think we should give. Go ahead. Change the light bulb…

Blessings.

Dreams

I’d like to start a Christian classical school. I’ll wait until my youngest is nearly ready to leave the nest. I think I’d like to have a high school—most children who are homeschooled have parents who can teach them reading and elementary math, but they get frightened when they get to the high school years. This is just a dream, but perhaps I will someday get to try my hand at it. I’ve a friend who taught high school science before she started homeschooling and another friend might teach the math. I’ve a degree in English linguistics (English as a 2nd language teacher) and was certified to teach Spanish (but I’ve forgotten most of it!) and did student teaching for K-12 librarian. After homeschooling my 3 children through high school, I think I could teach most classes…

What do you think? How should I structure this? What would work best in a low-income, rural area?

Dream on…

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

Psalm 95

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord: Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.”

Doesn’t this make you want to celebrate life? Dance! Sing! Smile and hug your children!

“Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”

We have a Good Shepherd. We can worship Him in spirit and in action.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”

Ah! To remain in worship, we have to remember Him in our coming and going. We have to humble ourselves before Him and listen to His calling us to do what pleases Him. We need to set aside our agendas and do His bidding. We cannot run or turn our backs on what we are called to do—you know that little voice that says, “I know, I know! I’ll get to that as soon as I take care of this task that I must do now!” Sigh. Thankfully, he just picks us up, dusts us off and sets us on our feet again as soon as we call out to Him, realizing we have lost our way.

Does this dialog make sense to anyone else?

Blessings.

The melting snow creates rushing waters that are
churning through the tube under the road that connects
two pastures. Spring equinox will soon be here!

Catch-Up Time

Monday morning. I couldn’t sleep and at 5:30 the kitties and I curled up on the sofa in the sun porch to watch the fire in the wood stove. It was a busy weekend, and today I’ve decided I need a mental health day—isn’t that what the school systems call it? I’m going to sort and organize a few things around here and let the poohs sleep in.

I weighed in on Saturday morning, and much to my chagrin, I had not lost my .5 lbs! I’d been careful this week, so perhaps it is time to add my weight lifting to the schedule. I know that weights can actually increase body weight since muscle weighs more than fat, but the burning of the extra calories should be good. I was trying to decide what to do—should I try to lose a whole pound this week, or should I rework my calendar? The answer to my question was made easy this morning because the scale said the mystery .5 lb is gone this morning! I’ll just keep on track and see what happens next weekend. I hope those of you who are joining in had a successful week.

The children were in the 4-H county music contest this weekend. The boys took blue ribbons for their pieces and Bethany received what is called a star blue, which means she will be asked to play in another program in May. All of the hard work at the piano does pay off, even if some children are determined that the task is both boring and useless. There are days that I think it would be nice to hire someone else to give those piano lessons, but I don’t suppose the battle goes away that easily!

We had to call the vet this weekend. Bethany’s cow and calf, September and December the 2nd, have not been doing well. The vet thinks December’s scours could be due to the antibiotics she has had. Did you know that farmers give their animals yogurt to reintroduce good bacteria into their systems just like we do for humans? It is rather odd going to the grocery store to buy Dannon yogurt for the cows…

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Have you ever considered what this means? There seems to be two obvious translations. 1) We are asking God to forgive us in the same manner as we forgive others (ouch). 2) God forgives us and we shall in like manner forgive others (I’ll try).

The 1st one is a translation, in my mind, of living under the law. The 2nd one is the path of grace—as we are made holy, we respond in ways that are pleasing to God.

Let us walk in grace.

Blessings.



The wood pile in the yard under the pines

A Raccoon for a Pet?

I think we have a raccoon in the house. Raccoons wash their food, right? Today I walked up the stairwell and was greeted by a little white cat who wanted to play. He dropped his pink mouse at my feet and looked at me with sad eyes. I smiled and reached for the mouse, planning to toss it down the stairwell for the little guy…only to find that it was S-O-G-G-Y.

We’ve observed his behavior. I think his brain is too small for the task. You see, he decides he wants a drink of water and approaches the water dish. However, he does not remember to drop the mouse before he tries to lap the water with his tongue. Plop! The mouse is floating in the water!! Oh, my! Mouse!! His little brain does a double take at his friend and he begins to paw the water, playing with his mouse. Out comes the soggy fuzzy. He picks it up with his mouth and heads out of the room, when suddenly her realizes that he didn’t get a drink! He returns to the water dish, and plop! The mouse is floating there again. Oh, my! Mouse!!
We’ve seen him repeat this action 4 times in a row. Cats are not only fuzzy on the outside, but they are fuzzy on the inside, too—Inside their heads…


Snowflake--"Will you play with me?"

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

I grew up with a little table prayer that the children would always say. Today our family usually has a family member pray at the beginning of each meal and sometimes at the end of the prayer we all join in to say the little prayer together. We started this when the children were small and we still do it.

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest;
Let these gifts to us be blest. Amen

There is something profound about our inviting Him to come share the blessings that He has given us.

Blessings to you all!

A face only a mother could love... 

Friday

Today promises to be a busy day because I should be in two places at the same time! We are about an hour’s drive to two different homeschool group's meetings. It is unfortunate that they meet on the same day of the month! I will need to take my daughter to play practice and my sons to roller skating—in opposite directions. It is good I have a husband who can do some of the running for me.

I walked yesterday. I headed up to the shed and then walked along the fencerow, following it all the way down to woods in the draw. I found a collapsed shed on the corner of our neighbor’s property that was full of hay bales. I’d never seen that part of the farm because I normally would not walk through those woods in the summer—too many brambles. It was fun to see the tracks and trails. The snow in some areas was undisturbed while other spots looked like the animals had been out for a party and a dance. I found lots and lots of rabbit tracks and numerous coyote trails, and there were small delicate prints of a young deer who must have passed through. I wonder how many animals have made their winter dens in that old hay-filled shed.


When a rabbit hops, his small front paws make a single
track, while his hind legs leave individual prints, making
it look as though he has three feet!

When I got home I found out that one of our cows had given birth. My hubby had gotten some photos of them—it is always exciting to see the wobbly little ones trying to keep up with their mommies. It was a cold morning to enter into the world!

Our new baby. Mommy is washing the little tyke off with
her warm tongue--this is needed to get the circulation
going in the little one. Later I saw them curled up together
in the corner of the pasture.

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

It has been a hard week at our little country church. In the next few days we will have two funerals. We pray for those who grieve.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me by the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for Though art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Psalm 23

Blessings.

Becoming an Author

Donna suggested I write a children’s storybook about a cat. Let’s see…

At the home of Mr. Farmer, the farm is quiet until the sun begins to rise. As soon as the sunlight begins to lighten the sky, the chickens awaken and the rooster begins to crow (can I say this even though we do not have a rooster???). That’s when Mr. Farmer gets up and begins his day….

(A couple of pages later)

One of the cats on the farm is nicknamed Cookie Boy, but his real name is Oreo. He is white and black and is a big kitten. He has always liked to follow Mrs. Farmer when she goes for a walk, but some days he gets himself in trouble.



Oh, oh! Now what will he do?

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Yesterday I spent the evening reading Reading Strands: Understanding Fiction. I want to challenge my children more in their study of literature. I want to learn how to ask questions using the Socratic Method—I’m not very good at that. When I get done with this book, I’m going to work through some of the pages in The Well-Trained Mind and The Well-Educated Mind. I suppose I ought to work through some of the Republic, too. Does anyone have other suggestions?

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

None! I’m thoughtless.

I remember singing a round as a child:

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!

Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice!

This song has made its way into my mind this morning. We always sang this song at the top of our lungs (rounds do that to a child). In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that song sung in any way but exuberantly loud.

Off to sing in the shower…

Blessings!

Badgers, Eagles, and Cats

Last summer we had a badger who would burrow along the edge of our road. He’d leave holes that were less than a foot in diameter with a pile of fresh dirt next to it. I doubt the old guy wanted to stick around very long because badgers are shy, and even though the road is not well-traveled, I’d guess he would not like the traffic going by his home.

The photo of the patch of snow that I posted yesterday is one of the badger holes filled with snow. What I’d like to know is who might be down there sleeping the winter away!

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I walked yesterday. As usual, I was accompanied by the fuzzies.


Orion, Oreo, Ruffy, and Betelgeuse scampering in every
direction. When they walk with me it always seems as
though there are a lot more of them than there really are!

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Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40: 28-31

We read this in our family devotions. I had a hard time getting up this morning, and I definitely fit into the category of those who are weary. It is good to know that the things that God has given me to do can be accomplished as on the wings of an eagle. There is a difference between what I would put on my to-do list and what God puts there. The things that He has assigned me, I can do for He will not grow weary in His job of empowering me.

Those who are willing to put their hope in the Lord will have their strength renewed. I don’t know about you, but I needed that this morning!

Blessings.

The blue tag says, "I'm a boy."