Another school interruption.

We were peacefully doing school - biology.

Sailing along quite nicely.

It was a gorgeous day.  The schoolroom sliding door was open.

Then a bird flew into the schoolroom, and biology came to a halt.

The bird flew into the game room, onto a shelf.  Then into Tim's office, behind the copy machine.

After ten minutes of careful chasing, Conni showed up with this.

A darling little wren.  Conni stuck her outside on the deck rail.  She perched there for a while, got her breath and her wits back, then flew away.

Mission accomplished.

Bird saved.

An unplanned 15 minute break.

Back to school.

I'll admit the thought did actually cross my mind to keep the little booger.  We could use her for an upcoming biology lab project....

New chores, new fun.

Conni finally got something she's been wanting for a long time...goats.

Two of them.

They are dairy goats - French Alpines.  Mother and daughter, Sibyl and Saxony.

We fenced them into our overgrown garden, hoping they would do some serious damage to all the weeds.

It's pretty amazing what they won't eat.  They really aren't grass eaters - they like to forage in the woods more.
We took a lovely little trip up to Madison county to get some hay.  We fit 21 bales on the truck - should last a couple of months.

My farm girl animal lover.

 Putting in some hard work.

A few days later, during school, we saw a goat and a dog go flying past the schoolroom window.

Of course, school came to a screeching halt.

We ran outside to see what was going on.  The goats had knocked down our temporary gate in the garden and gotten out.  Obviously, Bear had to give chase.  Fifteen minutes later, goats were in their pen, we had our dewy, goat poop crocs in the laundry sink, and we were back to school.

Ah, the joys (pains) of owning animals.  I'm glad we can do it though.  Glad this girl can do what she loves.

Here's hoping we can keep the school interruptions to a minimum!

Back to school!

I remember back in the day when it was school time.

Mom would take us - all of us - shopping a couple of weeks before school started.

We each got a couple of outfits, some shoes, maybe some socks or underwear. (Those were usually birthday presents.)

But I think the best part was getting the school supplies.  I love school supplies.

To this day, I smile when I see shiny new books, smell that new book smell, or run my hand over a stack of perfect white paper.

I love having everything in order; ready for another year of school.  Love the stack of paper in my organizer.

Love the pile of new pencils just waiting to be sharpened.

Love the new chalk; perfect long sticks that flow so smoothly across my chalkboard.  (By the way, the OMYA brand is the only way to go on chalk.)

Love the stack of colored spiral notebooks; crisp, clean, and just waiting to be written in. ( $.01 at Staples {limit 6} and $.17 at Walmart.)

Love the cleanness of the schoolroom, the scrubbed baseboards and windows, the tidy desks.

Love the maps waiting to be explored.

Love Mr. Anatomy being ready and willing to be pulled apart, labeled, and put back together in a not-so-gentle manner.  He never complains.

Love the markers and highlighters ready to be used.

Love the line-up of text books newly arrived.

I think I just love school.  Back in the day, my sister and I used to play school for hours at a time.  Back when we had to use carbon paper to make copies, use cast off chalk crumbs from the school, and make do with paper clips on the end of our fingers for long, lady-like fingernails.

In fact, when I was young, I always had 2 or 3 things I wanted to be when I grew up.

1. A mother
2. A teacher
3. A nurse

I got married, had kids, and got to be all three!

I'm so grateful we've been able to home school our kids.  I love it.

However, I am glad that there is light at the end of my tunnel! Only 3 more years!

So whether you are homeschooling, or you are sending your kids off to school, take a minute to remember the excitement and anticipation of another year of school beginning.  Grab a text book.  Open it up and take a deep breath.  Ahhh.  Remember that new book smell?

Pull out a crisp new sheet of notebook paper.  Write your name on it a couple of times.  Remember the big, loopy cursive you used to do in Junior High?  Yeah, the one where you made little circles to dot your i's.  Or the back slant cursive.  Or the one where it is all capitals.  Go ahead!   Give it a try!

Hope you all have a wonderful 2012/2013 school year!

Paper sacks and turtles.

The other day I was working in the kitchen, and since it was so gorgeous outside, I had the kitchen door wide open. As I worked, I kept hearing a papery, rattly sound. I finally went in search of it and found this sack sitting right outside the door. It hadn't been there 20 minutes earlier and since I don't shop at Giant, I just figured someone had come by the house and dropped something off for me.

I peaked inside and found (not to my surprise) a turtle. I immediately thought of Conni. She had just gotten home from babysitting and must've brought this.
It rattled around in there for an hour or so, then when I peaked out again, the bag looked like this:

...and there was no turtle.
It had gotten out all by itself. I found it on the deck under my fern.

I thought Conni had let it go, but no... the next morning, I found the thing crawling around the schoolroom! She assures me it's not a distraction from school. So, as we do school, Brer Terrapin plods around the schoolroom, making little scratchy noises.
And so goes a day in our house.

Random things that happen when Mom leaves the schoolroom...

This morning when I left the schoolroom, I gave Conni a five minute break.  When I came back, her school desk had been transformed into a veterinarian clinic table and a minor operation was under way.  Bear had a cut on the top of his head and she was taking care of it.

Shaving the site of the wound.  Her Red Cross training is getting put to use!

Bear is so calm and still.  He lets her do anything!

Bear with a bandaged head.

He promptly tried to shake it off, but was unsuccessful.  Since he couldn't get it off, he just laid down in a corner and suffered silently.  His dignity was injured.

By the way, we think he cut his head this morning when he tried to jump up on Abe's bed.  He got a running jump, slipped on the wood floor, and "owned" the side of the bed.  Pretty funny, actually!