Our First Springtime Baby

Baby A arrived right on time, much to my relief as threats of induction were looming. 

  Baby A came with two serious pushes and Hubby "caught" him and put him right up on my belly. The midwives give mama and baby a "golden hour" -- which means that before the cord is cut or the baby is examined much he gets to lay skin to skin against mama for an hour. I love that time.

 Big sister A watched the other kids during the labor and delivery (about 3 hours).  And then since she had everything under control daddy was able to stay the first night with us in the hospital.

 We had to stay a second night since I had group B strep and Baby A was making some grunty noises (which turned out to be nothing, just the usual self soothing noises all our babies have made).

The kids have been anxiously awaiting his arrival for months. Asking all kinds of questions and looking at all the family photo albums from their babyhoods to try to see what to expect. Miss L had some great questions about how exactly he would come out and how he eats and poops in mommy's tummy.  The last 2 weeks of the pregnancy we had to limit the kids to only one question per day about "when do think he is going to come?" because my own patience was wearing thin and I had already explained that there was no way to know exactly when he would come. We skyped with the kids from the hospital, but they were all anxious for their turn to hold him, except brother S who is somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing.

Big sister A's first diaper changing in 4 years.  She helped with Miss L a little bit too.

All dressed up for his first pediatrician appt. The pediatrician said that he is very healthy so far, except that mama has shingles and hopefully he won't get chicken pox from me.

 

  As one of my college friends said - "What a great quarantine project" - Baby A's birth and the quarantine will be remembered together as Spring/Summer 2020. Playing with baby A is the most exciting part of every day for our family.  I am grateful for this peaceful time at home keeping ourselves to ourselves and getting to know our new addition.

Family Schooling: FDR's Prayer for D-day

As part of my research on WWII, I came across this text from President Roosevelt on D-day.  I was deeply touched by it and thought it would be appropriate to share it here.  Two major aspects reverberated with me: 

1. It sounds so much like Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty in the Book of Mormon (Alma 46).

2. Imagine having a President like FDR to lead the nation. He was elected FOUR times, through the struggles of the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and WWII.  He was obviously loved and supported by most Americans. And on a critical and historic day the speech he chose to give was a PRAYER. I can just imagine the national outrage if a president spoke like this today. I sometimes forget how far this country has slid away from faith and "in God we trust".  Then I read a prayer that the President addressed the nation with 75 years ago and it makes me wish for more leaders with integrity. 

Text of Radio Address - Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944: 

"My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. 

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer: 

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. 

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. 

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. 

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. 

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. 

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. 

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. 

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces. 

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. 

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. 

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. 

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen."

Farm Fresh: Rabbit Tattoo Parlor

We had 6 bunnies to tattoo this week before selling them.  The young kits are pretty easy to manage.  These older ladies were more fussy and wiggly.  First step is to wrap them up snug in a towel. 

  The rabbit's left ear is for "personal" tattoos.  The right ear is reserved for show classifications by the ARBA.  I like to use the pen type of tattoo instead of the clamp. It takes a little longer, but is much more legible. 
Here are examples of both kinds of tattoo (borrowed photos, since I forgot to take one of the actual tattoo).  Here is an ink pen tattoo:

versus a clamp tattoo:

Both kinds of tattooing devices can be used on other types of animals as well. I clean the ear with a baby wipe to remove any dirt or oils.  Then I spray it with Gigi's numbing spray.  One trick I have learned it not to wipe the ear after the numbing spray. I just blow on it a little and let it sit. That way it seeps into the wounds as I am needling the ink into the skin. 
 It is important to hold the inking pen close to the tip for good control.

 The pen should be held in the inkwell for 5-10 seconds to soak up ink.  If it seems to not have enough then it is fine to pause and redip the pen. After the ink is laid the ear should be blotted, not rubbed. And you can see whether you missed any spots and need to go over it again.

After it's all done, the bunny gets some TLC and a little bowl of dry oats to reward her cooperation. 

Farm Fresh: Spring Cleaning

We picked up some cast-offs, this swing and a couple sleds, from our friend's spring cleaning purge. 

 It replaced the kids' homemade (piece of rope) swing, much more comfy. 

Monday morning I stepped out the back door and saw Perry leading 3 ducklings out of her under trailer nest.  We paused in our spring cleaning to quickly prepare the white chicken coop/run for new occupants and ushered them inside. Perry was not pleased and wanted to get back to her trailer.  She kept looking for a way out of the white coop run and making upset noises.  The dogs are not trained to handle tiny poultry nor are the cats. We did see Perry attack Tiger on one of her walks (with escort) into the grass this week, but better safe than sorry. And she has settled into her new home now. 

 

  Lovely lupines are starting to flower.

 And my little lilacs are smelling fabulous.

Hubby dug up more stumps, raked up debris, and managed to get all the big logs hauled off into a nice pile. The front half is sunny, but you can see that the back half is in shade (2:30pm).   That is part of the reason that we need to continue another year or two of tree cutting to prepare for the blue and blackberry field. 

  This the little old berry patch that I transplanted everything useful out of last fall. Hubby used the tractor to dig out three good sized pine stumps so that it can be mowed with the rest of our lawn.

This week we had "Spring Break" from schooling and replaced it with "Spring Cleaning".  At the beginning of the week the kids were all excited to be cleaning instead of schooling. By Thursday they were all saying how much easier school work is.  I loved that since now they understand how I feel about cleaning.  This is the spread sheet that I had taped to the fridge.  We made some alterations as we went along -- and I (ahem) was not able to complete all of my tasks to my satisfaction. Everyone else did all their assignments.  I blame my carrying over some tasks into next week on having to do a lot of training, evaluating, and handholding for tasks that were new to them.  We also had to pause for a youtube demonstration of what dust mites and other yuckies live in wall-to-wall carpeting and why it is so gross.  And why you should never set your pillow/blankets/stuffed toys on the gross carpeting.  I was successful in terms of everyone being converted to the "rip out all carpeting now" team, but it backfired in that everyone wanted to wash all their pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals after the lesson -- I had a colossal laundry pile to handle in addition to the other tasks.
I also had to explain that "cleaning" and "tidying" are two different things. Tidying is what we do on a day-to-day basis: put away toys, sweep/vacuum floors, wipe counters, straighten couch pillows etc. Real cleaning involves getting down and dirty with rags, scrubbing with cleaners, and usually stays clean a bit longer than tidying does. I also classify organizing shelves and decluttering (throwing away junk) as cleaning.  So a room may look tidy, but be disorganized, dirty and dusty when you zoom in closer.

Lego EV3 robot made brother M's week and has been programed and played with during all his spare time. I think this is a wonderful educational toy with endless play options.  Love this Smithsonian article about it.

One of the cleaning projects that I helped the boys work through was getting all the legos sorted by color.  They have quite the collection and it is hard keeping them tidy.  I know some people like to keep them organized rigidly into sets, but I love that they don't just create things and call them done. I think the science and engineering benefits of legos really expand as they make their own creations with their bricks.   There are so many studies about the child development benefits of playing with Legos (and free play and all the many other less expensive creative and building type toys and projects).

Farming and Schooling: Mix and Match

This week has been a good blend of farming and schooling. The weather is warmish by afternoon and we have been getting outside to do projects when the schoolwork is done. 

 We spent an hour one afternoon hoeing away all the spring weeds in last years potato patch.

  Seeing the lovely rich soil full of tilth and nutrition makes me so happy.  Four years of manure and compost have transformed this clay land.

  The next afternoon we planted four rows of sweet corn in this bed. I think it is just warm enough. The extension agency calendar says May 1st for planting sweet corn.  I chose to do a big corn patch because I hope that it will be somewhat "easy" to maintain for the kids and I with new baby etc. Nice straight rows that the kids can hoe/weed between was my thinking.

 The following afternoon we hoed another section along the outside of the fence and planted these lovely sunflower varieties from my French family. 

The broccoli made heads instead of going straight to seed. They are tiny, but at least we have something to show for them.  I started them under the grow lights in January, but still it gets too hot too fast.  Maybe next year I can plant them in the high tunnel.  

The rhubarb plants are getting big and flowering.  I am taking a free bee-keeping course online and all I can think of lately is "I wonder which kind of bees like those blossoms?"  I know I should cut off the flowers... 

I can see all 9 of my asparagus plants now. They shoot up so fast. Time for weeding. 

Our big patch of lily of the valley came up and is blooming, a sure sign of May weather. 

The new muscovy sitter, Sunny, abandoned her egg nest after we candled them. Sad. I would have put them into the incubator, but we already had these 10 guinea eggs in progress. 

Saturday we used the whole day for family and farm projects.  The kids helped me get this dresser (bought on craigslist right as the quarantining started) sanded and prepped for painting.  The kids did the first coat of painting and I did the second coat.  I think it may still need a light 3rd coat in some areas.  The kids LOVE helping with painting projects.  It is always a little stressful to get everyone a brush, old daddy shirts on, latex gloves on, etc.  But I know doing projects like these now will give them confidence and experience going forward. They are already doing a great job for their age. 

 Brother S and I cleaned out the all the cats' straw insulated beds from this winter and got the barn swept.  We recycled the clean straw as bedding in the duck house.

Then Brother M helped spray out and empty all the rabbit poop trays.  The big ones are hard for me to lift with my belly in the way.  Then I put together three new rabbit cages.  I need to separate/wean some rabbit kits. I haven't been advertising on craigslist because of the social isolation etc., but a lady who already had talked to me last year called about buying 4 rabbit kits for 4H.  I told her that we can work it out, just have to be careful to keep our distance.

 Big sister A cleaned out the coop portion of the duck house earlier in the week and dumped all the poopie bedding in the high tunnel. We rolled up the sides yesterday. It was 70F outside and about 100F inside.

So much compost. The baby pool is in the tunnel since we dumped the duckings bedding out there too. 

Realistic photo of what the coffee table looks like right after schoolwork is done.

 We studied WWII in history this week. We spent a couple days on it because I wanted to make sure that we did most of the activities that went with the chapter.  I think the mapping out of the two sides (we also colored Pacific area maps) really helps put the things we read in perspective.
Big sister A surprised me by saying that she was ready to get going on her pre-algebra math with Teaching Textbooks. We are waiting a week though.  I decided that we will spend this last week before baby is due doing "spring cleaning". 

 Brother M earned a lot of money helping clear the logs and sticks.  He has been saving it all toward this programmable Lego robot.  He has also been watching sales on eBay and was able to get a new one with a damaged box for about 30% less than on Amazon. It came in the mail a couple days ago, but he had to wait for this week's payday to officially pay for it and start using it.  He and daddy are playing with it now.

 Big sister A is losing molars. Kinda gross and yikes, she is old enough to lose molars!?!