When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press.

Part two of my latest pics. Had a problem uploading more pics!
These pics were taken by a friend as McKenna's 1st grade photos. Some of these are cute or silly, so I thought I'd throw them in! There's more pics in the earlier post so check it out!

It's a snowy day here today. We probably got about 4 inches. The ground isn't frozen though so I'm hoping that it will absorb it all when it melts in the next 24 hours instead of flooding out my chicken coop like it did last time.

Noel's boss Steve Appleton died last week and the memorial service was last Thursday. He was the CEO of Micron so there's a little uncertainty about the future but I think they have a good interim president so we're not terribly worried.

The kids are all doing good. We're ready to be healthy and well, though. They had the stomach flu last week and a nasty head cold this week. We all suffered, even Noel for different reasons. He had a pinched nerve in his back that I couldn't remedy. I massaged it as best I could and since he hasn't gone in to see a chiropractor like he was talking about I assume it's feeling better for him.

I received my bow from ebay and have to take it in to Archery Central to get it strung, a nock put on and some arrows cut and measured for me. I'm really happy with it. The draw weight is about 22 pounds which will be good for working on form. The girls are really into archery too. We purchased a membership at a local bow range and we take their bows there so they can shoot them. We also have a 3D deer target set up in the backyard.

I enrolled McKenna into a homeschool co-op that meets Monday mornings. She gets the experience of being in a typical school-type classroom with different teachers. She is taking Social Studies: States for 1st period, P.E./Health for 2nd and Super Science for 3rd. Eli and Madelaine stay with me in the nursery although Madelaine may be ready for structured classes next year. At home, she's learning her letters and their sounds and knows her shapes and colors. She really likes to "do school" with her sister. Eli sits and plays with legos or tangram blocks or pretends to shoot us with his toy bow and water gun.

Noel is doing reloading for his guns and Eli will sit with him for an hour just watching the machine measure out the gunpowder and then watching Daddy fill the bullets. He really enjoys pulling things apart - just like his father at that age. He'll climb anything he can wedge his little toes into and delve into the garbage to help Mom out! He loves helping me unload the dishwasher. He'll stand on the door and hold things out for me. He's still in his crib sidecar co-sleeper in our bedroom but likes snuggling in bed with his sisters when they're being put to bed so I have no doubt that soon he'll be wanting his own big boy bed. (Which will be fine with Noel!)LOL

I'll have to throw up some pics!