Baby #3 is born!

John and Joy called about an hour or so ago: Robin gave birth to a little girl.

Locksley's babies are only 3 days old, maybe Robin was tired of her hogging all the attention. :) Robin has always been an attention hound.

More details to come. I am just happy that the mommas and babies are okay.
Oh, and that new baby goat? Her name is Scarlett. (as reported to me by Dante' LOL)

Honestly, I don't know how John and Joy get any sleep with all the goat drama. :)

happily,
-E

Eating Lemon Pie

Phil and I had dinner with friends to celebrate his birthday. Patti brought her amazing lemon pie. We would all gladly turn another year older (wrinkles and all) just to get a piece of her pie.

The recipe for this pie is a family secret. Since Patti isn't sharing I beseech someone to share theirs with me. I'd be happy to even approximate something like hers.

Cmon, send me your recipes.

full of lemon pie, happy, and headed for bed,
-E

No Trespassing

Maxwell has discovered a new word. He likes saying it. Likes the way it sounds rolling off of his 4-year-old tongue. He experiments using it in a sentence. That word is "Trespass".

As I worked outdoors today Max kept putting his rusty yellow dump truck in my path. "Mommy , no trespassing!" he would say sternly. If I continued past him , Max was put out. "Mommy, you trespassed," he would inform me.

My desire to walk through the yard unhindered seemed pretty reasonable to me. Maxwell's desire not be trespassed upon seems reasonable to him. After the third time or so I was about to get grouchy with him when it hit me: I had trespassed on a friend this week.

I didn't see the signs. They were vague. Or maybe I wasn't looking. It was obvious to the sign's owner, but somehow not to me. hmmm. But the end result was a friend felt hurt.

Suddenly the issues of right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable no longer matter. God says that ignorance is no excuse for sin.

The person for whom this post was written may never see it. If I could see her right now I would dust my footprints off of her sign, and hand it back with a hug and apology.

Regardless of the outcome, the story is worth telling.

peace to all,
-E

You just can't make this stuff up

Here is a play-by-play of a typical day in our life. It really should be titled, "The Good , The Bad , and The Ugly, (with yours truly playing the part of ugly) but that has already been taken. Read on. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it will become a part of you. Grinning- Ellen.





AM- * emptied the rabbit cages, lined the bottoms with newspaper, and filled both food and water containers. Shoot! We forgot to get more straw for bedding. It will have to be gotten today.

* Fed the dog and the cats. Rex generally fulfills most of his caloric requirements eating the neighbor's cat food. Aphrodite eats the dog's food. What's up with that?

* Friends come over to knit, crochet and talk. We exchange patterns, ideas and life stories.

PM* Dante', Max, Rex and friends pile into the van. We go to the community garden to tend
our plot. Surprise! Over the weekend potatoes have come up. We are jubilant. The
peas, radishes and green onions are tall. What ever happened to the beans, we
wonder? Organic slug repellent is sprinkled, stray calendula from last year's garden is
ruthlessly yanked.

* Rex ate a chocolate Easter bunny we didn't watch carefully in the car. We panic and
take him to the vet. She smiles and says he will be fine as he didn't eat enough to
make him sick.

* Next we head for the stable where we board our horse. The dog
comes along and usually causes trouble by trying to chase a horse. Max searches out
puddles and gets soaked-again.

* The goats need more grain and the girls want to see the cute guy at Milk-E-Way feed
and seed. So we drive 12 miles and buy the grain. The cute guy isn't there today,
which leaves the girls feeling rather deflated.

* We grab sandwiches and sodas at the McKay's. Full bellies make for good spirits.

* At Melissa's house we drop off the goat grain. Our pregnant girls are really fattening
up. Dante' takes some of the goats straw home for the rabbits.

* Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. We drop off Dante's friends and go back to our
house. The dog goes into his kennel, Max goes into the bathtub, and I go into the
kitchen to clean up and start dinner.

* Our cat, Aphrodite has brought a mouse inside. It promptly gets away from her and
is lost somewhere in the living room. Is that it? Did I see it? Paxson moves
furniture, Dante' shrieks, and Aphrodite grows bored. She leaves without retrieving
her prize. This would never have happened in her younger days. I realize she is
beginning to grow old.

* Phil comes home, dinner is over, we all scatter to the far ends of the house. William
helps with dishes. I fold laundry. Phil is working on taxes.

* Bedtime ritual for Max: Brush teeth, wash face, hands and feet. Read a bedtime
story before prayers. I steal a few moments of computer time before doing it all
over again.
Believe it or not, today was relatively quiet.(minus the dog drama) That is our life. It sounds crazy sometimes but it's real. You just can't make this stuff up.

Goodnight and God Bless,
Ellen

ps- I still don't know where the mouse is.

What do roast chicken and crabbing having in common?

Well, they have Christie. You see years ago, my friend Christie wanted to go crabbing. Someone had advised her to use chicken. Now most people would take the cheapest raw chicken legs , put them in the crab net, and chuck it into the water. Problem is, Christie didn't know that at the time.

So , having been told to use chicken, Christie went home and got busy in the kitchen. She took an entire whole chicken, lovingly glazed it with honey, and slow roasted it for a couple of hours. When it came out the oven , she jumped into the car, and headed for the docks.

Imagine the looks from the fishermen and seasoned crabbers as Christie proudly walked past carrying a steaming hot bird. It must have smelled so good. Heads turned as she went by , catching the aromas of that glazed chicken.

Then, she took the whole thing, used it to bait the crab net, and tossed it over. The collective gasp of the onlookers must have caught her attention.

Eventually another crabber informed her of the 'raw chicken' method. Embarrassed, she pressed on.

And who had the last laugh that day? Yup, Christie. Lord knows why but she took home a bucket load of crab that day.

So the legend of the chicken lives on. We can hardly go crabbing without bringing it up every time. Like any good story, it never gets old.

Return of the Red Lipstick!

No one is Immune......................................................















And I mean No one......................................................................

Beware the red lipstick

A friend sent me a gorgeously red M*A*C lipstick for the holidays. I'm not a huge red lipstick wearer but my friend Annie has raven black hair and perfect olive skin that just begs for RED so I made her wear it. Then I tried it, and it made us a little goofy.

There has got to be some kind of power in a tube of red lipstick. I'll share the pic with you. Just, please, be kind, and try not to laugh too hard at my mouth full of train tracks. Thanks,
-EJ