LIfe According to Mary

Wanted to record a few things before we forget.

We have been talking to the kids about not overwhelming our guests with shouts of "LOOK AT WHAT I CAN DO" and "WATCH THIS!"  We had a guest over last night and I reminded the kids to ask the guests questions about themselves and to make our guest feel at home. Margaret Mary greeted our guest at his car and then RAN to me beaming.  "Mom!, This man is so kind. Before I could ask him a question about him, he started asking me questions about ME!"

And an observation, "Mom, when you leave out cold things, they get warm, and when you leave out warm or hot things, they get cold.  It's like they go the opposite."

Bubba Love

When Henry was born, Margaret Mary was amazing with him.  She was gentle, she sang to him, laid down beside him and made him smile.  I expected the same thing of Henry was baby Peter was born.  Ha!  He LOVED baby Peter and wanted to be beside him all the time, but he didn't want to smile and coo at the baby, he wanted to press his head into his side and snuggle with him roughly.  I guess the saying "Girls bond by talking and boys bond by doing things together" is true.  So here is how Peter loves on baby John; by giving mama grey hair!  It makes me so nervous, but John loves it and laughs and smiles and only eggs his big brother on!  I guess it is preparing him for the wrestling that will be expected of him as he gets older.

Can't you just hear me?  "Peter! Don't do that beside the baby!"  :) 

Peter:  See Mom! He likes it!

Lets see how hard I can press my head into his head without knocking him over....

"Giddy up John, Giddy up!"   Lots of cowboy play around here.

I hope I always remember John and his side lying pose-

"Just da boys!"  Lots of craziness around here.  Many times I have to take a deep breath and say "Katie,  this is normal, YOU are the one who needs to chill out."

Always a happy camper. 

A Full Weeknd

I still need to post pictures from Christmas, but wanted to post some to-date pictures of this past weekend.  Friday night we killed two of our pigs and hung them to chill overnight like rednecks in our front yard.  In the morning, we cut them up and now have a freezer full of delicious pork!  Butchering and then wrapping the meat in freezer paper is always exhausting, but as a book I read recently said, "someone somewhere is working hard for your food." It's either you, or someone else.

We had just started reading Charlotte's web when we butchered the pigs and I was worried MM would have a hard time, and she did a little.  She was sad, and we told her that it was okay to be sad.  She sat beside the pig while it was beeing scalded singing, "we will meet again my friend..." It was too cute.  She still enjoys the process of butchering.  She even helped to scrape the hair off with a knife, which she thought was VERY COOL.

Later in the week Henry asked if Wilbur was going to be butchered, "I want to read THAT chapter!" he said with a grin.

No pics of the kill this year- was trying to keep an eye on Peter to see how he was handling it.  It is the worst part in the whole process.   Clifford only make a small incision for the pig to bleed out, so it was better, but last year our friend cut off about half his neck and that a little too much for me even!

scalding the pig and removing the hair

two men came to help. Clifford, one of them, is our neighbor and does this all the time. So he has the one in charge and leading it.  This is only our second time butchering pigs.

watching

ready for gutting!

Jason and Clifford doing the detail work before gutting the pig.

This is always one of my favorite parts.  I love seeing how the inner parts all fit together.

I didn't take any more pictures because I was busy wrapping meat, but here is John enjoying some porkchops the next day!

Sunday, we needed rest and leisure.

Isn't Henry looking old? He's not a toddler anymore.

Peter is looking older too, but he's still a toddler.

Please tell me that you never forget the sweet feeling of being cheek to cheek with a baby. So precious.

As usual, I have so many more pics to upload to the blog.  I just wanted to give a quick update. Thanks for being patient with me!

You know you live on a farm when...

When your daughter, after reading the first chapter of Charlotte's Web, looks up at you with big eyes and asks, "Can I get a baby pig?," and you smile and say "Yes," knowing that all the fencing is already in place and that she will do a fine job of raising one.

First Foods and First Loves

Its hard to see in the above picture, but John has cream all over his face!  He is eating solids (egg yolks, broth, cream) or I guess I should say he is eating liquids. He has two bottom teeth and so chokes when anything not liquid is put into his mouth.  But he loves food, especially cream!  We put it on a spoon and in his mouth and he just smiles.  We are happy that he finally gets to share in the fruit of the family cow!

I love this profile shot of baby John and Papa

You can see the cream a little better in this one!

Before we got Lucy, our dog, Jason joked how we needed to get Henry a dog because he loves our cat so much and no story ever starts with "Once upon a time there was a boy and his cat."  But Henry is in love with Annie and his love for Lucy doesn't come close.  He loves to snuggle with Annie and sleeps with her at night.  MM asked him the other day what he would do if Annie ran away and he said, "I would STILL love her." 

 John seems to like them both equally right now and enjoys crawling after them and putting his hands through Lucy's crate to pet her. She licks them and he smiles.

John on the move; army crawling across the floor!

Hours Out of Doors

 "As for the baby, he is in bliss: divested of his garments, he kicks and crawls, and clutches the grass, laughs soft baby laughter, and takes in his little knowledge of shapes and properties in his own wonderful fashion — . {Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 45}

John is so taken with the outdoors that this calm baby throws a fit when anyone goes outside and leaves him inside (at 7 months?!?).  He army crawls over to the door and hollers to go out, or starts crying and squirming if he is being held.  We are pleased that he loves being outside, but its getting hard to do my chores done inside! Margaret Mary calls mother nature her earthly mama and says that John just wants to spend time with his other mother :)

The kids have a love/hate relationship with Lucy.  She follows them around, playing in their games and then starts nipping them which gets them all crying and begging me to take her inside.  I think Lucy is great with them and puts up well with always being the "dragon" and being chased with sticks!

 

Always "roping."  He is being a silly cowboy in this picture.

Brothers

 “In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October.”

{Home Education, pp. 43-44}

 We are blessed to have nice weather all year round! I am guilty of sending my kids out without me many days, but I can keep an eye on them from my kitchen. Everyone is happier outside. 

Letting the Cows out!

Right now as we are establishing the pasture, we can only let the Cows out on it every once in a while. (They would eat the grass down too much and keep it from growing well).  When we do, the cows leap and kick their legs they are so excited.  We sit back and watch and smile.  Few things are as beautiful and relaxing as a cow eating grass!

The Queen of the Barnyard herself:  Mrs. Abigail. 

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas has been special because the children have really rejoiced in singing Christmas carols on their own accord this year.  I love hearing them playing in their rooms or outside singing "Ohhh sin of comfort and doy" (Henry), "Oh Come little children...", "Gaudate! Gaudate! Christus est natus, ex maria virgine! Gaudate!"  They argue over who is singing the words wrong and merge Christmas songs without meaning to, and sing them to the melody of other Christmas songs, etc. 

Love, the Craigs

John at 6 Months!

John is doing now what John wants to do.  He scoots all over the floor, messing with what he wants and then moving on.  He loves to follow his siblings and grab their toys. :)

Just when you thought John couldn't get any happier...

He does!

Too darn cute.  John was worth every moment of his tough pregnancy!

Concerned look.

back to smiling!

What a big boy! I  know I say this with all my kids, but I can't believe he is so big already.  He has one tooth and is currently cutting a second one.  Jason calls his one tooth his snaggle tooth.

The Big Fall and MM's first concert!

In case you don't know about the fall, Margaret Mary was skipping in our kitchen and fell face first onto our steel milk vat.  She cried for a little while and then calmed down.  I gave her some Arnica and read her a story and she seemed fine.  In about an hour she went to the post office with her Papa and I got a phone call, "Katie, I am coming home. Margaret Mary's face is swelling fast."  My heart beat so fast and I couldn't wait till they got home.  When MM got out of the car, she was crying and her face was swelled up the size of a softball.  It was horrible.  We took her immediatly to urgent care and the doc said it was just bruising and would take three weeks to go down.  She was a trooper and called her face "silly," but it was so hard for me to see her sweet face all black, blue and swollen.  But thanks to amazing friends and family who covered her with prayer and the homeopathic remedy Arnica, she healed very fast and here she is three days after the fall.  her face looks 80% better in this picture then it did that first day.  Bless her heart.   But she was not going to miss her first concert.  She, with some other kids from church, sang songs and recited poetry.  She did great, remembered all her lines and said afterwards "I'm really into this!"

I totally missed this shot, but here she is with her friend Veronica leading the children after the concert out of the church.  She said that this was the highlight of the concert for her: to be first in line! ha!