Holy Spirit of Wisdom

I had a rough day today...but I knew it was coming.  I will not go in to details...I only bring it to this blog because in spite of the hardship, I know God was with me.  I cannot help but think of St. Paul and how he persevered through hardships because of his love of Christ and zeal in spreading the Good News.

Yesterday, I was sent an email with a link to a prayer book meant to help with focused prayer.  It was a simple book..only one page for each day of the week that held a prayer focused on various aspects of weakness.  I set this booklet aside to pray each day; however, I did not have time (so terrible to use that as an excuse) for it this morning.  I decided to take it with me in the hopes that I would be able to pray later in the day.

Just after a crazy morning of bureaucratic red tape that sent me to several government offices around own...and just before the real doozy of the day...I found time for that moment of prayer.  Here is what I read for the focus of the day:

Today I pray for the gift of an open heart.
Loving God, let me not drift into rash judgments and criticisms.
Give me your long view of life.
Let me rejoice in the good and hope for change in the less good.
Today I will practice an open heart towards these beloved children of yours.
Hold them in your love.
I ask for the gift of patience with people who annoy me.
Let me shut my mouth when I am with them and open my ears.
Let me hear their pain and offer healing.
Holy Spirit of wisdom, help me see with the eyes of my heart.

Now...I know that God gave me that message especially today.  I am just thankful that I have next week to try it again.  May God forgive me for not responding as I should and help me to try again.

God is good all the time...all the time God is good!

Smokey the Bear at the Reservation

We gave a special talk today at the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation Headstart.  We talked about snakes and preservation of our forests.

We really enjoyed the young ones as they were so interested in learning and were thrilled by the visit from Smokey the Bear.

Amanda and Henry were settled in their talk about snakes with David.  When they talk about the venomous snakes of Texas, they use a red-tailed boa (from Columbia) to show the usual signs that are related to venomous snakes because it has the typical features (triangular shaped head, cat eye slit) without having the danger of harming the children.

The children are also introduced to snakes that are non-venomous that are helpful to our habitat.  This time we had Casper the Friendly Snake, which is a rat snake native to Texas.  Casper is an interesting snake because it is leusicistic...meaning it lacks most (but not all) its pigmentation.  One characteristic common in this type of pigmentation is the blue eyes...it really is a beautiful snake!

While Amanda nad Henry were playing with snakes, Brendan, Zaira and I were given the special task of taking Smokey the Bear to each of the classrooms.  I read the story about how Smokey the Bear became a part of the US Forestry Service (a must read if you have not heard this true story) and then in came the famous bear!  I then introduced the children and gave them an opportunity to talk to him and take pictures.  Most of the children were happy to see him but there were a few who chose to stay back!  One boy was so excited and could hardly wait his turn until he had the opportunity and then lost his nerve...LOL!...he was so brave as he waved to Smokey as he left the room!

Sean and Edward were able to help with the outside activity.  They worked with the Forest Service to show their equipment and play some games!  They had so much fun and were so helpful!

After our fun morning, we had a nice lunch with David (from Friends of the Forest) and his daughter and grandchildren...along with all the others who worked with the presentations.  It was nice to enjoy a meal with this group of nature lovers!

I look forward to working with the reservation in the future!  Thanks for letting us enjoy the reservation and the great group of children at the Head Start school.

A Sad Day for Our Apiary

After our trip to the apiary to check our bees a few days ago, Marie and Roger came out to inspect our hives.

We first went out to our 'demon' hive and had it re-queened.  This meant being brave (thank you Roger!) and opening the hive in order to find the old queen and then replacing her with a new queen that Roger provided.  It turned out to not be as bad as the past couple of visits (although Roger was stung several times and had to put on his dreaded net).  We found the queen after several attempts and (sadly) had to dispose of her.  We will need to check this hive in 3 weeks to assure that the hive is doing well with the new queen.

All said and done, it was not too bad of an experience.  In fact, we found out that these bees do make good honey!  Roger decided there was too much bur comb on one of the frames so he removed this.  It was full of honey so we were able to harvest about a small pint for our troubles.

Then we went to our 'ghost' hive, and we found that the hive was diminished to nothing as suspected.  It was so sad to open the box to find that we could actually count the bees!  That is not normal and we knew that this meant the hive was not going to recover, especially when there was no evidence of a queen.  Roger said even taking brood from another hive and re-queening the hive would not help.  The hardest part for us was not knowing if we could have done something different.  This most likely happened in the last 4-6 weeks because the wax moths had already setting into the comb.  Roger did tell us that we probably would not have been able to save it when we noticed the problem at the earlier inspection either.  It just happens and we will just have to learn to watch for signs for our other hives.

Since we were opening hives, Roger decided to check our 'friendly' hive as well.  When we first opened the top we were surprised to see ants had invaded...not the case just a few days before!  I think I must have turned ashen because Roger said not to get upset...it would be OK!  Sure enough...upon closer inspection the ants were only at the top and had not entered the hive itself.

However, Roger did get a little concerned about the number of bees in the hive.  He decided to look deep into the hive, in spite of the obvious evidence of honey stores in the top supers.  That is when he discovered the tell-tale signs of swarming.  Sometime in the last three weeks our hive swarmed and we lost our queen!  I was so upset because we knew we needed to split this hive but put it off last year.  We thought we would do it after the honey flow this summer.

Roger told us that we obviously had a strong hive because they had already re-queened and there was already new brood.  That was a good thing but still disappointing to see that we could have prevented this from happening.

I still think we are so blessed to have this friendly hive.  I can tell you there is a huge difference in the demeanor of these hives.  The boys and I are so glad we had this friendly hive first because if we had started out with the 'demon' hive, then we might not be beekeepers today.  God is good and knew our needs.  We are looking forward to an amazing harvest in July!

Happy Momma Day!

I was starting to wonder if we were going to celebrate Mother's Day at our house this year.  I woke up and made breakfast and got the boys ready for Mass...and not much was said about it being a special day.  In fact, it was one of those mornings when I was lucky (and graced) enough to get the boys out the door with clothes on...now would be the time to mention that Brendan actually did not make it out the door with shoes on...LOL!

One of the things I struggle with is my 'grown' children not going to Mass with us.  I cannot force them to go and choose to pray fro them to see the importance.  However, I mentioned that it would be nice if I had a pew full of children on Mother's Day.  I must admit I was a little disappointed when we headed down the driveway minus three beautiful young ladies.

I was so surprised that soon after I gathered the boys into our pew I found Amanda, Christina, and Katy dressed in their Sunday best!  I was so happy... the best gift ever!  I really like being able to praise God with all my children surrounding me!  I wish I had a picture but will always have this memory to hold deep in my heart.

Father also spoke of the importance of names and the respect we are to give them.  So he had each of us call the names of our mother during the prayers for continues health.

Then the girls surprised me by taking me to get Chinese take-out.  AND to their surprise...my meal turned out to be free thanks to the generosity of Panda Cafe who had a special for moms!  Very good food at a reasonable price!

Once we had our dinner, I was presented with a wonderful smelling candle that is now set on my desk. I am a sucker for a nice candle.

Then I even had a phone call from Michael.  Along with a phone call to my mom.

It was a great day!  And just because I love my children and think they are all such sweet cuties...I will share my latest group shot of them all...Christina and Katie included because I love them so much!

Grizzly Bear Visit and some Bees

We had a boring day of school and were enjoying the fact that we were  gong to be done with school for the summer.  Nothing special about the day...well actually we did have our 4H meeting with our Audubon friend come but you can read about that on my other blog.  However, we were already home.

And then...the Grizzly Bear came!  That is...my brother Nathan...dubbed Uncle Grizzly Bear many years ago by Amanda because he is such a big guy...came for a visit.  YAY!!!!  We had not seem him in a while and he had not been to our house in over a year.

Christina was so funny...she HAD to have the house cleaned before he arrived.  I told her Nathan would not care but she would have nothing to do with that idea...a guest was coming and the house needed to look nice!  So she had us all hopping to get it cleaned before he arrived.

I also had to make a dinner instead of the normal leftovers that we would have on Thursday night!  So I made a quick chili and cornbread.  It was ready right as he pulled into the driveway!

He was greeted with hugs by all except Zaira....poor thing was scared of his huge frame.  She never did get over his large size...but can you blame her...at 6'2'' and broad shoulders...he is close to 300 pounds without even trying.  If only we could convince her that he really is a teddy bear!  It really hurt his feelings.  I guess we should have told him to bring her chocolate!  LOL!

We had a good visit over dinner.  We could all tell he was wiped out from the drive, and we had a beekeeper's meeting.  So we left him to rest...left Amanda and Christina home with the younger boys and headed to our meeting.

We enjoyed learning about bees from our group as always.  Everyone was asked to bring a honey dessert and we had a good showing of desserts.  Sean had made a Honey Cake with honey glaze earlier in the day.  Everyone enjoyed it!

Then Ms. Marie shared some of her crafts ideas related to beekeeping...wax candles...message boards using old hive frames and more!

But the best part of the night was our guest "bee keepers!"  Each meeting, our club president asks if there are any guests and usually we do not have anyone...or they are coming from one of the bee schools   with the plan to join the group.  Imagine our surprise when a couple raised their hands...then told us they were at our meeting because they thought they might be beekeepers!

Our president was surprised and asked what they meant. The man told the group that there was a box of bees in their back yard so he thought they had their first hive!  LOL!  Our president did not skip a beat...he asked it they meant a beehive...and the man said no it was just a box that must have bees because when he shook it it buzzed!  Come to find out...they had an old bird house that the bees had taken over.  The couple was very interested in keeping the bees to help them with their garden.  The beekeepers in the room were fascinated by the idea of getting the bees into an actual hive box.  I have no doubt that this couple would be set up with in the week as 'official" beekeepers.

Speaking of helping with bees...I never told our tell about our hive inspections a few days back.  Let me just say that we have no dubbed our hives...Friendly Hive...Ghost Hive...and Demon Hive!  The Friendly Hive is our original hive and it continues to be a good hive.  The Ghost Hive is almost non-existent...and we are going to need to find out what happened with a closer inspection this weekend.  The Demon Hive goes into attack mode with a million bees zooming out to attack if we even get close to the hive!  We need to re-queen this hive, which means finding the queen...which means getting close and personal with this hive!  None of us have had the desire to do this!  So in walks our heroes!  Roger and Marie have offered to help us once again.  We hope to have them over for bee inspection and ice cream on Monday evening.

We got home to find Nathan asleep on the couch so I put the boys to bed.  I got settled into my regular evening routine, when Nathan woke up.  It was nice to have some quiet time to talk to him without distractions.  We talked until I was falling asleep in my chair.  Good time with my brother!  I am so glad he came to visit even though it was for a short time.  And...we are looking forward to seeing him again next weekend (more on that then...but I am looking forward to writing that post!)

It's Puppy Time

As if we had not added enough excitement to our house...we now have the addition of a puppy to fill our days!

I am not complaining...the children really needed a dog.  We have been looking for the perfect puppy (I know...an oxymoron!) for over a year.  In fact, we were hoping to find two puppies because we have heard that it is better that way.

I have always said that if I do not love the dog then we do not get it.  I figure...everyone else would fall in love with any old mutt.  I would need to be the reasonable one and choose a dog that we could actually enjoy for more than the initial puppy days.

So, about a month ago, we were told about a litter of puppies that would be ready to take the first part of May.  We were eager to go visit the puppies but were told to wait until they were weaned.  Yesterday we got the call to come pick our puppies...we were excited to hear that we would have first pick.

We arrived and found the most adorable of the group and I was convinced we had found our puppy.  Imagine my surprise to find out he was already claimed!  I thought we were the first ones to choose but another person had seen a picture of this puppy and asked they set him aside for her.  Not fair!" I cried....but they stuck to this plan.  I tried to convince them that we were ready to take him home right then and he would have a good home but they said no.

So we looked at the other puppies.  I tried to pick from the others but could not get past the first 'loss.'  I just did not see another puppy I liked as much as that first one.  Then Christina noticed that all the puppies were not accounted for from what she had seen in the pictures.  Sure enough...two of the puppies were hiding under the porch!

Then we saw her...the cutest thing (almost as cute and lovable as her brother!)...as soon as I held her I knew we had found one of the puppies we would take home.  She was so sweet!  The owners also pulled out the most roly-poly puppy ever!  They had named him Willie Nelson and he was cute but not right for us!  So, I tried to convince the owners once more to let us take the original puppy home with his sister.  No budging...so we had to leave with only puppy!  Oh....believe me...there was much wailing as I loading the children in the van!  They were convinced I had done them some injustice by not taking a second puppy home!  However, I just did not have a connection with any of the other puppies available.

We drove away and I told the girls that it was not right to be told we had first pick and then find out their were puppies already spoken for...so Christina asked me to pull over and she would make some phone calls to find out what happened.

As the rest of us waited at an abandoned gas station in the middle of no where, the others started asking what we would name the puppy.  Amanda was trying to convince the boys that she was the namer of all animals, when I looked up and saw the name for our new puppy!  We had stopped directly underneath the sign for the gas station...it was named Beulah's Stop and I decided that Beulah was the perfect name for our sweet new girl puppy!

So...we did eventually head home last night...but with only our sweet Beulah.  We have not given up hope that we will bring her brother pup home at a later time.  However, as of last night he was still taken.

Beulah adjusted well to her new surroundings.  She loves flopping from the porch into the little jungle of vines.  She really does seem to enjoy it and snuggles into the vines and falls asleep.  We have a HUGE doghouse that we placed a blanket from Edward's bed in...she likes that as well.  She slept through the night in her big house...waking up at 5am...lonely, scared and cold.  Not bad for our first night.

She will get used to us...and we hope she has a play mate soon.  Updates will follow!

A Little Tea before Prom

We had the joy of helping Amanda's friend (Katy) prepare for the prom on Saturday.  I really thought our prom days were over but it seems this will be one of two this year.

Although it was interesting listening to the girls giggle as they put on make-up and jewelry along with the pretty dresses (as Amanda and Christina decided to get dressed up just for fun!)...the real joy for me came when Katy's date showed up late.

We decided to go ahead with taking pictures of the girls while we waited for Matt.  The girls were basically all dressed up with no place to go...but they did not mope...they had fun!

We started out on a bridge leading into our woods.  The girls enjoyed dangling their bare feet off the edge.  They were so beautiful in this natural setting.  A perfect spot for these girls who love nature so much!

We continued the 'photo session' in a field beside our house.  More beautiful shots taken here!

The girls are so different in height that we decided a picture on our front steps would be nice to balance out the difference.  This is where the fun really started...one of the girls said...Look...a bird!  The next said...no its a plane!  And the third had to holler out...No...it's Superman!  Of course this led to them wondering where their Superman was!!!!!  LOL!  HE would pay for his lateness later with us posing him for his own photo.

Then Amanda said that it was time for a cup of tea and everyone thought that was a great idea.  Myself...as the photographer could not help but encourage their imagination and washed the very dusty mini set that had not been used in ages.  The girls had the boys move table and chairs out on our porch for a nice outdoor setting.

We could not have planned this better!  The girls had a blast!  I took a ton of pictures!  Matt finally arrived and was posed as their waiter!

We raced Katy and Matt around to all of the planned locations and poses.  Matt was good natured about the entire event but he finally had his limit as the clock showed that prom was already starting!  We rushed them to his car and waved our farewells!

Then the waiting began for me.  I never had to do this so I thought it was kind of funny to be in this position now.  However, Katy and Matt were home just after curfew (due to taking another friend home first!) and had a great time telling us their fun at prom.

This was just the first of the proms...another round in a couple of weeks with Christina.  The girls are already talking about bringing all their friends out to take pictures!  I guess I better starting thinking about how to make the next photo session just as fun!