My Faithful friend, Gina, sent me an email with the subject line Happy Tuesday. My first response was it’s ONLY Tuesday??? After not sleeping well last night I got up at 4:00 (after laying awake since 3:00 am) to a homesteader’s dream - milking 3 goats. I am loving milking again, even if it means getting up so early to be ready to leave for sub-teaching by 7:10. These 3 does are first fresheners (first time to kid/birth) but they are doing so well on the milking stand that I had enough milk on Saturday morning to make mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Last night I used both in lasagna, stirring the homegrown eggs in the ricotta I regretted being lazy and not steaming our Swiss chard to use instead of the can spinach.
I was scheduled for first grade today. The teacher is fantastic and gives me leeway so I took in the Kids’ Quilt I made and a stack of books I’d picked up at the library yesterday. I cheated on this quilt and had it machine quilted - the first one I haven’t hand quilted but I needed it quickly. We had such a good time reading “Down the Road” and “Kiss the Cow” while the kids sat on the quilt. I love watching the kids’ faces as I animate the story as I read it. It was such a disappointment when the teacher came back after lunch and I ‘got’ to leave. The kids all came up to hug me good-bye and tell me thanks for bringing in the quilt. Tomorrow is kindergarten and we’ll repeat the quilt story time, just with younger books.
Despite being tired when I came home I had too much work to rest long. John had just told me he was down to his last two t-shirts ….. timing is every thing when it comes to hanging clothes outside. The weatherman said rain much of this week but it had paused for this afternoon as I hurriedly hung out three large loads. Right now the sun is playing hide and seek in the heavy gray sky. Since I’m scheduled for tomorrow already I figured I go ahead and bake the ham and make homemade scalloped potatoes tonight - leftovers are wonderful. I hadn’t made scalloped potatoes in years cause I like them too much …. food discipline isn’t my strong point. There was an hour difference in putting the ham and potatoes in the oven so I used that hour to make more cheeses
So much needs done in the garden - wild sunflowers have sprouted all over it. It looks like a sea of green instead of orderly green rows. The English peas are forming and small little pea pods are so sweet I don’t resist grazing on some. Thankfully, the rain yesterday postpones weeding today!!
Barb posted to her blog (Just Between Us on my blogroll) about her fil, Don, dying. As much as I thoroughly enjoy living here and as much as I love John and being with him, I couldn’t help but feel jealous of Don going Home. I’m so glad for him - if we can’t have him here I want him Home in Heaven, visiting with Jesus and all others who went ahead of him.
I am sorry Don didn’t get to meet the two baby goats named after him. Last fall, we had told Don about the goats named after Barb, Leland (his son) and their two children. He was so tickled we told him we’d name a buckling after him. Unfortunately, Don S and Homer (Don’s middle name) were born after Don went into the hospital. Somehow when I look into Don S’, the goat, face I see Don smiling - I know he’s leaning over the balcony rail in Heaven trying to pet ‘his’ baby goat.
In honor of Don I’d like to share St. Francis’ of Assisi prayer - Don was this prayer in action -
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen