Beautiful Blackhawk Lake

All kinds of lake tracks. Animals. People. Snowmobiles.

For those of you that are concerned about standing on a frozen lake.
The ice thickness is 15 inches.

The kids experienced a whole new meaning to being "ON" the lake.

Exploring.

Blackhawk Lake is in gorgeous rural Iowa.

Count your blessings

An age old saying.
Said by & heard by many throughout the centuries.
One that I said to my Little Miss, as I turned out her light for the night & shut the door.

This is what she gave to me the next morning......

"Look Momma. I counted them."


My children teach me so much.
Especially during this joyous & oh, so busy time of the year.

When is the last time you counted your blessings ?
When is the last time you wrote them down ?
and thanked God for them ?

I know that I am waaaay overdue.

I'll start with thanking God for my children.
I have learned so much while having them in my life.
They help me remember what's important.

Merry Christmas !

a day which will live in infamy.....

This significant day in history, makes me think of my Dad, who served his country so very well, as a Sergeant in the US Army during WW II at the young age of 18.
I have such a great amount of respect for my Dad, as my children do for their Grandpa.
An admiration for all those that were a part of "The Greatest Generation". The term coined by Tom Brokaw, of the generation of people who grew up during "The Great Depression" and eventually went on to fight in World War II.

My Dad was able to return from WW II, to his family farm, meet my Mom, have a family, and live a very honorable life. Many were not so fortunate.

Although this is considered a day of infamy, referring to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor.
A day of an extremely bad reputation.
A day of a very shameful or outrageous act.

This day brings me great joy !
Of the many, many joys that are a product of, "The Greatest Generation" and a part of my Dad's legacy.

the birth of my Little Miss, 8 years ago on December 7th.



the celebration of my son's new life in Christ 2 years ago, December 7th

Cookies, Cookies everywhere.....

Written by My Little Miss

Mix. Mix. Until I'm done.
Peanut Butter is so sticky.

That's a pretty design.

Criss-Cross. Ben says, "looks like Tic-Tac-Toe".


My Grandma made these with my Mom.
They are delicious.
I like them best with Hershey's Kisses.

Star likes cookies, too.

She likes to help clean-up.

...burning the night oil.

I'm up late tonight. Boo.
I normally don't have trouble falling asleep, as I drop into bed...exhausted.
Like most women & mothers do.

Tonight, I laid with my Little Miss & rubbed her back to fall asleep. Normally this is her Daddy's time, as he has warm, big hands that make her snuggle right in & doze off. Such a precious time to spend with her. She reaches up to my hair and says "I wish we had more times like this, just us girls". I dozed for a few minutes with her, and I'm sure that is contributing to my severe case of insomnia.

My big boy, has been awake many times this evening. "Come lay with me, Mama."
In his drowsy voice, he claims, "It's not cause I'm scared, Mama. It's cause I love you so much".
I'm going with the second reason, for sure.

Although we are recovering from the Halloween Haunts. He has a love/hate relationship with Halloween. Loves to pick his costume. (painful decision-making in Party City, I must add). Truly likes to be outside at night with his friends. And of course, loves the loot from the night. What he hates, is to be......scared !

His mind is huge & works in a way that fascinates & frustrates me all in the same moment. But, it gets the best of him. What's under the bed, around the corner, upstairs. For 2 weeks before, and after (if not more) he won't go upstairs alone, calls for me in the middle of the night, & is very easily startled.

So, I'm off to snuggle in with my boy. All this trouble to fall asleep & hopefully I don't find myself, a few hours from now, still in a child's bed, long after my alarm is blaring down the hall.......

Good night.

Patient Pooch

Our dog will do anything for the kids. Especially for Little Miss.
Although Star seems to be tiring of the singing, she doesn't try to get away.
In fact, the kids go out front when they are done.
Patient Pooch looks out the window and cries. And cries.
For them to come back and sing some more.

The second......."first day of school"....

.....or is it the first......."second day of school"?

Either way.
The pose by the light pole out front (which is sorely in need of painting).
Each year they pose, to appease their mama, and to record the first day of school.

Or, in this case, the.....second.

4th grade & 2nd grade

Psst. And they have completed 2 full weeks of school already.
So I'm a day behind & 2 weeks late. It happens.....

You can take the girl outta Iowa.....

......but you can't take Iowa outta the girl !


Today was one of my first trips to a working Dairy Farm (minus the kindergarten field trip with my kids). We had a great time ! I have always respected all the work & commitment of being a farmer. The kids, Grandma & I pitched in to help with the morning chores at a generational family-owned farm this morning.

We watched the milking process, learned all about the storage & distribution of milk. Had to be quiet in the milking room while the cows gave us the "cow-look" as we are definite strangers. Being quiet was tough for some of us.

Then it was time to feed the BABIES ! The oldest was 7 days old and the youngest 1 day old. If they weren't 60 pounds when they were born (and over 1000 when fully grown), I may have put one in the backseat to take home.

Here are a few pics of our farming expedition.....

Off to feed the babies with Janessa, Chloe & Ben.

Hand over the bottle Mister. Pet me later.
Those babes could slurp down 4 pints in just a few minutes.
And they did it twice !

What's not to love about feeding babies.
No matter who's babies they are.

Those cows would suckle on most anything.
Your fingers, your thumb, your elbow, your hair (not that we tried all these things, but that's what we were told).
And their favorite was the ear of the one that was being fed.
Chloe was willing to "lend a hand".
She would have stayed all day with those little cows.

Grandma in on the action.
She's a farm-girl.

Here's Kyle keeping those baby Holsteins busy while the day old learned to drink from a bottle.



Janessa feeding the day old calf.
They look skinny, but when they are finished they have big ole pot bellies.
Some lay down & others jump & kick around.


No farm is complete without the muddy ole farm dog that loves to fetch.


When we were finished. We didn't look pretty. Nor smell pretty.
But we have some pretty fantastic memories !

Thanks to my niece, Janessa (and Kyle) for helping us play farmer today...

Janessa, here's your favorite little one.
I'll be sure to get you a picture.
This one was born last week on Janessa's birthday.
Complete with the number "7" on her head.
Pretty neat, since July is the 7th month.

Stand by: cowgirl in progress

More like full-speed ahead for our Little Miss.
She's up to second-gear (as Daddy would say in motor-talk).
Chloe trotted today on Shoogah (aka Sugar).
Did a "keyhole" at a very slow pace.
And she is almost more southern than sweet tea !

Here she is near the big corral overlooking the beautiful Tennessee hillside.

She's met all the horses on the home-place. Knows all 9 names & what type of horse & what they are good at. Ms T is impressed that she can get herself up in the saddle without a boost and remembers everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that she is told in those 2 hours.

I sure hope Ms T is willing to follow through on the promise of having Little Miss spend the day with her on the farm, before summer is up.
Cause you have to know that Chloe heard that !


On our way home from her second lesson today, Chloe spoke of her dream to be a cowgirl, but more importantly a veterinarian. How she wants to live on a farm & raise horses. She would have her vet clinic on the farm as well, and if the animals need to stay and recover while they are sick.....well, she'd be more than happy to have them.
She couldn't chose whether she would be a vet for big animals or small animals.

"You know Mama", Chloe says, "a horse is a big animal and a dog is a small animal. I couldn't chose one or the other".

"Every good cowgirl has a great dog", as she smiles & widens those chocolate brown eyes.

Oh dear. I've fueled the love of animals.
Better start packing Pa, as we're loadin' up the truck to move to the country.....


The "B" Ranch has a nice ring, don't ya think ?

Going to see a man about a horse

Little Miss had her first horse riding lesson today.
Western style.


She was awake long before she needed to be.
Has been waiting for over a month for "horse camp".
Going to meet "Sugar". Or as those with a southern twang call, "SHUGA" or "SHOog".



She's got a fantastic teacher. She's very calm, kind, patient, and southern.
Living on her family homestead of over 150 acres. Retired from the police department.
Now returning to her love of horses & teaching kids.


To be continued.....sorry Grandma !


Can't get any more pictures to post. Grrr.
I'm off to bed, as I'm helping with the Cub Scout camp tomorrow morning nice & early.

STAY TUNED.

Same horse time.
Same horse station.

If it walks like a duck.....

.........quacks like a duck.........

.......looks like a duck........

.......well, then it must be a duck......

After 20 + days of waiting and turning eggs, Chloe's 1st grade class are now proud owners of 3 fuzzy ducks. The children saw the first 2 hatch, and the next morning their was another little soaking wet duck, minus the shell. They saw first hand the little egg tooth, which disappeared in a few days.

Little Miss has a terrific teacher this year. She has been teaching 1st grade for over 25 years, and seems just as thrilled about the milestones and learning of these children, as she must have all those other years. She's just as excited about these ducks as the kids are. In fact, she took them home over the weekend, as she couldn't bear to think of the being at school alone all weekend.

Having ducks is a lot of work for a teacher. From the "plastic hen" aka incubator, to cleaning the cage, feeding & watering, and filling the baby pool for the ducks to swim. Well, today that was my job, as well as being photographer. I loved every minute of watching their little faces get so excited as they watched those little ducks swim.

This makes those last few weeks, before summer break, so much more exciting. My Little Miss told me last week, that I should come see "her ducks". She's already started the mourning/separation process from the teacher and the ducks, that will occur next week.

Commodore is the black and yellow duck shown above. Don't you think the look in his eye says, "don't you dare put me out in some lake.....take me home, take me home !" Oh, you guessed it....we've had that conversation already. He was the first born, and the teacher is a Vanderbilt fan. The other two yellow ones are named, Sunshine and Lightening.

Here's my Little Miss Doctor Doolittle and her very special teacher.

All rise for the President of the United States.....

President William McKinley AKA.....Little Miss.....Chloe !

Here she is practicing for her presentation on her assigned President.
I don't know about other Moms, but I so enjoy projects that my children have to do at school.
Yes, some of them may be timely, lengthy, or a lot of work, but.....I.....learn a bunch.

Chloe received a "4" out of a possible 4 for her grade on this project.

Although she says she "forgot" to wear her costume during her presentation AT school....the teacher still gave her a "4" for bringing it. Chloe seemed to have every intention of wearing it, although she was a bit concerned about dressing as a boy.

Well, there were only boy Presidents.

It seems that the teacher asked her unexpectedly to get up and give her presentation.
So....it doesn't really matter if she wore it at school, cause she wore it in our kitchen and that was great !




Chloe had a big part in her research on President McKinley. She read a book from the library. We looked online. She chose the pictures to be printed out. She even wrote the caption beneath the picture.

I'm all for our kids doing as much of their projects as they can on their own. Mr. B and I will work alongside them & do what they need help with. It's always interesting when the parent, for whatever reason, does the project all themselves FOR their child. The child is JUST as surprised as the teacher is, when they open it at school.

Not our Little Miss. She's very decisive, determined, and smart. They had a series of questions to answer about the President, as well as make a visual aid, and extra points (the "4") if they dressed up.

Chloe's newly learned words are "assassin" and "assassination".
President McKinley was shot in the stomach in his second term of office. He died 8 days later.

Her other chosen details on President McKinley were:
-- He was the 25th President of the United States.
-- He had a parrot that could whistle "Yankee Doodle".
-- He smoked cigars, but was never photographed with one, as he knew they were unhealthy, and a bad example to children.