Thankfulness

In the tradition of the season, I'm going to take the opportunity to list a few things for which I am thankful.

• My family and our health
• We live in such a great community--not many kids get to participate in a Thanksgiving feast at school and actually give thanks before they eat.
• The zoo--T.S. found one place the chickens have been laying, so he got to throw the old eggs at the tree. Somehow he ended up with egg on his socks and shoes.

I could list more, but I'll stop there for now.

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with all you want and that you remember to keep an attitude of Thanksgiving throughout the year. (Especially when you start your Christmas shopping and have to deal with the million other souls who are shopping, too)

I really am still here...

Despite the fact that I haven't posted in a long time, I am still here. This month has been a blur of school activities, lessons after school and preparation for a craft show. Happy hosted it's first annual Cowboy Christmas Roundup. I chose to be a vendor at the show. I spent two weeks prior to it making bottle cap pendants, jewelry frames and decorating clip boards. Originally I had planned to include a few more items in my inventory, but time was not on my side--maybe next year.

The craft show was a huge success for me. I'm very grateful for all of the people who purchased from me since I was able to pay for most of Christmas (and purchase a few things for myself)with my proceeds. I still have several orders to fill, and there is quite a bit of interest in my bottle cap pendants. I haven't been able to photograph them well, but when I do I will post them.

We are all busy, the kids are good, the show animals are thriving. We are definitely looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. I keep thinking I'll get a better handle on balancing work, family and blogging, but it hasn't happened, yet. I've nearly got the work, family thing figured out--blogging will eventually come.

A Farm Tale...

I was in charge of feeding Sadie's show lambs today. As I was about to leave the pen, I noticed one of our bottle calves (now 1 1/2 years old and way passed time to be sold) had come up into the pens to see if I had a treat for him. Not wanting to be licked and head-butted (He has a huge head and horns and likes to "nudge" you from behind.), I chose to climb over the fences to get out.

Fast forward to 20 minutes ago...
Robby jumped up, got a gun out and ask if someone was supposed to be here. I responded, "no," grabbed the phone and followed him out. Stripes and Tiger were right by our bedroom window. The "brilliant" puppy we got this summer hadn't barked at all.

I had forgotten to close the big gate to the pens when I chose to climb out.

I'm sure the two of us were a site trying to persuade the calves back in. Thankfully, they respond well to feed being shaken in a bucket. Hopefully the black heifer that is in the pasture with them is still in the pasture--hard to find a black calf at night.

Just another day/night on the farm...

Why I Love Trick-Or-Treating in Happy...

Last night I was again reminded of how blessed we are to live in our little community. Here are a few reasons why:

• You don't have to get out at every house with your kids for two reasons. 1. Everyone knows them. 2. You'd never finish trick-or-treating because you'd visit too much.
• My kids received candy from some of the same people that used to hand it out to me.
• If you do get out with your kids, you can almost bet you'll walk away with a piece of candy, too.
• When someone opens the door, you hear, "Come on in here."
• The first year T.S. went trick-or-treating, a friend of ours opened both hands and gave T.S. a choice--candy or a golf ball. T.S. chose the golf ball. He's gotten a golf ball from him every year since.
• I came away from one house with new crocheted pot holders.
• Sadie was sad that we, "couldn't stop by Roberta's this year." How often does a 9 year old remember that a 90+ year old passed away since last Halloween? You could never leave Roberta's house without a sack of candy and a hug/kiss. She always wore bright lipstick, too.