Life Feels Like A Yo-Yo

After all of the Easter excitement, we had a little quieter week.  We kicked it off with a 4H meeting on Monday night.  Ezr was elected to be secretary at the last meeting, qutie an honor for her as there are many older club members who could be in the positon!  Elam was eager to be one of the flag holders this meeting as well.

 

Tuesday morning, Elam had a dental appointment to fix some fillings that had fallen out.  However, when we were there, we discovered that he had an abcess growing which needed more immediate attention.  This led to a lot of choked tears and tough moments for our little guy who gags very easily, while the dentist tried to clean out any infection, drain the abcess and begin treatment of the infection.  From here, we hope the antibiotics do the trick or he may have to have the tooth removed.

After the appointment, we headed out to get his antibiotic.  While we waited for it to be filled, we went to the farm store, where we spent considerable time adoring the baby chicks and ducks, and holding plenty of them!

We have had a stray kitty who claimed us over the past week.  Alora may have helped with that process...  Before long he was sleeping on our patio by one of the basement windows, so we made him a little shelter and provided him with some nutrition while we searched for a home for him.  Right now we have a bunny sneezing and while we try to determine the cause, attempt some various treatments and pray it does not worsen to a point of needing serious intervention, we cannot take on a new pet, no matter how sweet and cute it is.  So, thankfully, after about a week of having "Cookies" around, our prayer was answered Tuesday night as a friend was able to take him to a heated barn with a little girl waiting to love him.  It was a little emotional for some of us, but also a relief to know he had a warm place to go

Wednesday and Thursday began a short term babysitting job for us.  My cousin Travis' little girl Bristol will be comign to our house a few days a week, and all of the kids are excited about this!  They have enjoyed playing with Bristol at Great Grandma's as well as Aunt Nancy's when the pool was opened, so to have her at our house each week will be a lot of fun for them and her!

Wiley continues to be a conundrum for us.  Monday's vet visit had us figuring maybe he was getting better after we switched out some hay and wrapped up 2 weeks of an antibiotic, only for him to be much worse by Thursday, enough to draw concern and have him return to the vet Friday for a swab to be sent out for culture to help narrow down what we might be dealing with.  We continue to pray for him to improve as we start another antibiotic and a clean out of his environment in hopes of relieving the respiratory irritation.

Thursday afternoon, the kids and I headed to Uncle Ryans for an afternoon of clearing his yard of downed branches and sticks after the most recent winds and rain.  This means that Ezri gets to drive the golf cart and the kids get to ride as they pick up the sticks and enjoy the weather.  This has become an option for a little disctraction in our weeks when we miss seeing Great Grandma every Wednesday.

We were blessed with a little warm weather for the weekend, with a sunny day on Saturday with temperatures in the high 70's!  We worked on some projects at home before heading to Kathy's late afternoon to help her with some yard work, chop up a fallen tree, and burn up the brush and wood we had cleared.  It was a lovely treat to have summer like weather after a wet, rainy and cool week.  We held on to that into Sunday for a while before the afternoon brought more rain and wind and what looks to be a week ahead of more cold early-spring like weather.  We are all anxious for the warmer temperatures to stick around!

Happy Easter!

 Another week of doing life has passed us by, and with it some memories.  We have been slowly working our way through reading the Wingfeather Saga aloud to the kids at night, a 4 book series they received for Christmas.  Lately, Elam has been working hard at copying down the titles of each chapter on his little scratch tablet, practicing his writing.  One particularly late night, he sat down to write the next chapter title down after we had finished reading, but didn't quite get through it. 

An ongoing struggle we have been having since early winter is the discovery of pantry moth larvae whic led to a full pantry clean out and kitchen scouring early this year.  Unfortunately, we had since seen a moth here and there, and after the last discovery of 2 more in a trap I had set for them, I got fed up and ordered a new pantry cabinet!  This one matches our kitchen and makes use of the space a little better.  A few hours of assembly with some various helpers and it was ready to go!

This past week held some anticipation as well as emotion as we prepared for Easter to be upon us, knowing this one would be very sadly different than we would like without Great Grandma's house and the farm egg hunt with all of the cousins.  However, the kids and I mades sure we filled a bunch of eggs for a big hunt here, and dyed up some eggs to make deviled eggs as we would have with Great Grandma.

Saturday, Hopkins held a community egg hunt, something that hasn't happened in seeral years, and even though it was VERY cold and windy, the kids were excited to participate!  

It was divided up over an hour, with differing age groups ever so often, a field of games to play through which the kids could win tickets for prizes, free books, chocolate bunnies with bunny ears, and so much more.

Elam could not wait for his turn to gather eggs!

Followed by Tierney

And then the big girls 

At the end of the hour, even the parents got to hunt for eggs, and there were special eggs with prizes too!

Back at home, after some hot chocolate to warm up, Ezri got out her new bunny ears, excited that she could now match her doll Bonnie!

That night, after the kids went to bed, we prepared for a busy Easter morning.  While I set out the kids' baskets and took care of some final preparations, Alex hid 500 eggs for the big hunt after lunch!

Easter morning, the kids were up bright and early!

Eager to dig into the treasures in their baskets.

Our resident Easter bunny was also interetested in getting some treats, which the kids happily obliged.

Then it was time for the kids to hunt for eggs in the house while Alex and I prepped food for our lunch.

Once all of the egg hunting had been accomplished and the treasures sorted through, we donned our Easter outfits for some pictures before heading off to church.

After church, we were joined by friends and family for a big Easter lunch.  With us were Grandpa & Grandma (who had just returned from Florida), Aunt Kerri, Uncle Mike, Aubrey & Wesley, Kathy, Travis & Emmett, and my friend Amanda with her boys Judah, Lucas and Asher.  19 people packed into our house... kids in the basement at a specially set table, adults in the more quiet upstairs with our china dishes, and we ate!  Ham, cheesy potatoes, cheesy veggies, deviled eggs, Snickers salad, rolls, taco salad, baked beans and macaroni and cheese rounded out the meal, followed up by cherry pie, chocolate ecclair, cookies and cupcakes.  Nobody went hungry.

Finally it was time for the kids to go find all of those eggs!  All 11 of them eagerly gathered and waited for the signal...

What a blessing to be able to spend such an important day remembering what Christ did for us with people who are dear to us!