Once A Month Post? I'm Falling Behind

It's that time again-where TIME never lets-up and runs away faster than I can catch it.

Spring! Our chickens are laying again regularly, thankfully ... and we're lambing, too. One cold-snap and our big ewe had five lambs. I wish I had listened to myself when I said to Steve a couple nights ago, "This is probably going to cause our sheep to go into labor." The next morning one lamb had already dropped and was frozen and two lay shivering on the ground. I led the ewe with the babies in hand to a warm stall and while I was milking her out to give the babies a warm bottle another was born and it was way too early and was already gone. I went into the house to strain the colostrum for the bottle and didn't see she had a little black lamb in the corner until the next day and it was too late. The ewe had four white lambs that she would have taken but the black lamb she would have shunned. I could've saved it and I've learned so much from this. Steve knew I was so sad and feeling really guilty so he made me another stall and I put our other ewe inside because she's due at the end of the week and this time we're not losing any more lambs. The two we have are too tiny and weak and I'm very grateful they made it.

Everything is blooming and I've kept busy when not fussing with the animals. I refinished a baker's rack. I'm not one bit happy with it because to me--the "faux finish" makes the rack look dirty. I put it in my bathroom to hold towels and baskets and now I want to finish it lighter turquoise and I want the "faux finish"  to be white-washed. My husband can't EVEN wrap his head around the change. He said, "You're doing that all-over, again?" "I could've bought a new one for all the paint I've bought this week."

I'm thinking I'm into a spring-cleaning mode and I'm doing this rack and rearranging the bathroom and here's my hallway. I'm going through every single picture I've ever had printed-out, every souvenir, and memory item are all out in front of everything and yes, it's a mess waiting for me as I put that off for a time and I can sit here up-date my blog. This is called procrastination.

I found our horse's important "Certificates of Registration" and even greater find was the second page I had torn out of a family Otis history book that my Uncle Walt was going to "borrow" and never returned in 1976. I was meant to have this book and the notes in the back were from my great grandmother to me. I could only find the one page that I had torn-out and we've moved three times since then. Here now ... I've found the other page I needed of our direct lineage. It's a very important page because it's the "closest" to me as in: I needed this page to connect me with the older page. Rule #1: Don't do genealogy backward.

The book came back to me even though the original is in Minnesota with my dad's cousin. My father's third cousin lived in the San Fernando Valley and I didn't know he also had a book. I visited his wife when Kiely went to Pierce College. West Hills is very close and dear Ginger said that her  husband, Glen Ambrose who had just passed away, wanted me to have his Otis book. It's exactly the same huge book of Otis and it's bigger than the Webster's Dictionary. It's over 5 inches thick and goes back to the time that Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury, England. I received the book again and it doesn't even go near my bookcases or pictures. It's a treasure and will always be quite accessible and in the living room. So again, I have the book and I have the two pages I need to complete so much of my genealogy. This is to be filed under: "The Lord makes a way for the important parts of our life to be accomplished."

I thought my life was extra, super-busy this past year. So much was jammed into just 12 short segments of our lives in 2011. This year already has been overwhelming, so much has happened in our lives and I'm so thankful. I'm not quite sure how to express all of the circles of activity going on around us. Our daughter's! Five of our daughters and that's all of them, are going through trials of fire. Maybe they're not huge roaring fires, but to each one of my girls, they're very big. Tressa is graduating from 2 colleges. One here in Moorpark; and the other in Arizona in November. Kiely and Matt graduating from Snow, while they're tackling work with three jobs in Ephraim and studying at the extension school for Utah State. Marnie is activities director and putting on grand celebration for the Santa Paula Ward 50th anniversary in May, but that isn't close to the work she's doing and giving, all the time. She completely amazes me. I live next door so it's perfectly evident. I see it daily and she takes care of us! Bree is having some health issues that scare me and the tornadoes that come with these next two spring months scare me even more. Larin, Oh Larin! I thought the weather would be your only trial driving around on the ice in Wyoming. I'm not surprised at your talent and the great success of your business, but at the top, is the new calling in Church and there too, I'm not surprised .... just in awe. And then, my son ....What does the Lord have planned for my son? This year may hold even more than I can imagine. I love you all so much and admire all your talents and strengths. I know you all have been blessed with great gifts from God. The teachings have been those of your father and I stand and admire all of you and your faith.

Me, well ... after a few months of getting fatter, I decided today after downing 1/3 of a whole bag of Cheetos and two soda pops, what the heck am I doing going to swimming and working my "bod" out so hard? I then come home and we go out to lunch and today I'm ruining all that I worked at doing! Why did I go exercise yesterday? Thank you Steve for the "bad" goodies, you knew if I could just have "junk food" just for a day and feel quite yuckie from all of it, I would learn my lesson. Here's a "Note to Self" to remember. It feels YUCKIE to eat things that aren't good for you. I'm really sick. Really. I made this picture below larger and I'm putting it in the back of my bathroom door. I can do that for now because it's not painted yet. It's from the Body Shop and I think I need to go there.

Steve will be home soon from teaching his CERT class. He's preparing to help with the funeral of our dear long-time friend Brother Brock, that went to Heaven this past week. I know that Steve has known them longer than I have. My brothers went to Mupu School with the Brock Boys and I knew them when I joined the Church in 1970, already.  Margaret Ann and Earl met me at the door the first day I visited the our Santa Paula Ward. I'll never forget their welcoming me in. We're rural neighbors and they lived just up the highway from our place where I grew-up. I admire Sister Brock's faith and how amazing she is through her loss. I took a picture of them not too long ago at our Ward Party.

We Will Miss--Earl Brock

If I happen to fall behind on my blog again, it's because I'm cleaning-up the disaster in the hallway and we are now... as of right now, deciding we're going to redo our entire bathroom with plastering, paint, flooring, and reorganizing. Steve's idea...but I got it started with the ugly baker's rack redo. And...if this isn't just enough ... a ewe is going to be lambing, and our dog is whelping, and I'm going to be helping.

Darby, the Mother

Duelly, the Father