What a day!

Well, yesterday was an eventful day in many ways! First Kiley got her cast off - finally!!! It was amazing and sad to see how thin that one arm got in just six weeks - no muscle definition in her hand or forearm! It was almost eerie to see her hold the two arms together so you could really see the difference. We are working with her on stretching out the tendons and muscles that have been immobilized for so long. But, she is a hard worker and will keep at it!! Thank goodness! When we left the doctor's office he said something about "call me if you need me" and I had to laugh - with five kids, all very active, somehow I am thinking we may very well be seeing him again! Oh, well!

Then, it was Solly's first day of drum lessons - what a great thing, I think. As I write this, Solly is upstairs practicing with his snare drum. I am letting him use it without the "silencer" because his sisters need to get up, and I am not totally fried yet. We did discover that drumming while Mom is making dinner - the end of the day, and the witching hour for everyone, that drumming then makes Mom's head vibrate and spin around, so I am working on picking and choosing when I say "enough!". At least it is just one drum, just the snare at this point. The boys are all working on the drum, the older two are observing the lessons and then practicing at home, so we can make the most of the lessons! They all want a full drum kit - I am thankful that it is not at all in the budget right now, so I don't have to think too hard about that! When things are in the budget, then I will have to think about it. I have always before said that I don't want a drum kit until we have a new garage/barn (in the plans for someday, somehow) where they can have a room for it, where I can escape it!!! LOL! Constant drumming could totally send me over the edge, but you know, I got used to the trumpet practice while we had that going, so maybe I could get used to it also. The drum teacher heard us talking about the guitar lessons (all three boys), violin lessons (Kiley), and piano lessons - all five kids, and commented that we could have a worship band at some point with all the instruments! We really could. And Kiley definitely needs to do vocals. She certainly has inherited more from her dad than her mom in that area. The others have varieties of vocal abilities at this point, but I certainly am not the expert in that. Kiley works hard at it, so that is the difference.

OK, so the cast, the drum lesson, getting feed for the animals, and then we got home and started to feed. Well, a couple of the goats and one sheep were out! So, while we were working on getting them in, Buddy (Newfoundland/Lab mix) was "helping". It was probably funny to watch, but frustrating at the time. Once they were all contained, I went on a search for how they were getting out. I didn't find what I was looking for, but did find another surprise!!! I was poking my head in the middle stall, and over in the plastic "hutch" that the goats like to snuggle in, was something that didn't look quite normal. As I got in there, it is dark, I could see that it was a newborn baby goat! We didn't even know which goat was pregnant! The baby was very cold, still wet and partially covered in afterbirth and placenta. So, given that he was cold - what do you do when faced with that??? I followed gut reaction - get him warm - so tucked him inside my coat (ugh) and wrapped him all up as I headed out of the stall. About then Kiley was coming to tell me that Nana (one of our pygmy goats) had blood coming from her back end - so we knew who the mother was! It was normal afterbirth, they drip for a couple days (thank goodness for previous experience!). You should have seen the kids' faces as they realized what I had tucked in my coat!!! Alex even cried (Nana is his, and the only buck on the place, Skippy, is also his). We rushed the little guy in, wrapped him up, warmed him up and cleaned him off. He was shivering and crying, but we got him so he was much more vibrant than the nearly frozen little guy I had found!! Thank goodness we keep the kid milk replacer on hand, so we got some warm food in his belly and got him sort of stable.

And then just laughed! In the middle of all that craziness - imagine five excited kids running around, mom covered in mess trying to decide what was best to do, and a tiny bleating little goat - when the phone rang and it was one of the companies I work for!! LOL! Thank goodness they are already convinced I am crazy, because while Alex answered the phone and was trying to get it to me (imagine a great deal of hubbub), Solly pushed talk on the other phone, so it was conferencing to two different rooms now, with shouting, bleating and mass confusion!!!! Agh!! When I finally got the phone, after getting Solly off and and conferencing off, my boss was laughing her head off!!! I am apologizing, holding the goat, trying to hand it off to Kiley and there is just so much going on! Her comment was that I had my hands full and it was very funny! I told her that it would be even funnier if she could see what was going on! It is funny now, but generally I prefer that people don't see our times of mad chaos! People must know that it happens, but I try to keep the illusion that it is always calm and collected! Agh! So, yesterday was the day of showing how crazy our life can get. But the reality is that those moments of craziness are really generally short, not all day or every day or anything - really! I'm not just saying that to try to convince my mom that we aren't crazy! Well, we have our moments, but most days are calmer! What an experience!

So, we have a baby goat in the laundry room in an old playpen, with a heating pad, and are bottle feeding the little guy. We tried to get him back with his mom - first time baby for her - but it was not successful, she had no clue and was totally uninterested. We will try for the next couple days, because bottle feeding a baby goat in the house is not really on my agenda! We don't need to confirm to everyone that we are crazy. Though my rural friends just look at me and say "of course you did" when I describe all this.

I had wanted to put in something about music, messages and growth, but that got bumped for another time! I will try that later! For now, I need to do my part of the morning chores - drums, piano and guitar are all being practiced by different children right now! My head is spinning!

Have a blessed day!
Christy