Being first isn’t what I teach them…

I am a prayer. I pray for guidance. I pray for love. I pray for things daily that I have no control over. Prayer is my diary. Well, prayer and now this! 

If you know me, you know I grew up in a catholic household. I went to a catholic elementary school, went to church with my family on Sundays, attended a catholic high school and participated in many activities through my church. I loved being involved and I still do. Helping others is something that makes me smile and makes my faith stronger. Also, if you know me, you know I had my first child the day before my 18th birthday, so like everyone else, I have sinned. Mine is just very well documented! 😊 

Growing up, my parents taught my brothers and I their beliefs in our religion. They did not force them upon us and when we rebelled about church or our faith, they stood strong and prayed that we would make the right decision on our journey to find ourselves. They obviously succeeded because as adults, we all still practice our faith. One thing I have hung on to and want to instill in my children is you are not always first and that is just fine. You won’t always be first in sports, in school or in life. You know why that is fine? It is what our faith teaches us. God comes first, others come second and yourself comes third. Not being first is part of our faith and this means so much to me. 

I had a teacher when I was in middle school that would put John 3:16 under her name on mostly everything she signed. As a child, I didn’t really pay attention to it much but it obviously made a mark in my memory. As I grew up, John’s gospel came to be my turn to. Now, I am not saying that I read the Bible nightly or even weekly. I should but I have three kids, a farm and a full time in home job. By the time I hit the bed, I am already asleep most nights! I would turn to John when I was not coming in third. When I needed a reminder that He gave us his only child so that we could live. When I put myself before others or before God. When I would have those days where I thought my life was horrible and I had no one to turn to. John and his gospel were always there for me when I needed it. 

What I want my children to remember is that this belief should hold steadfast and foremost. No matter if someone condemns you over your choice of putting others first, you always stay strong and keep your faith! You will rise above it all by keeping God and others before yourself!! 

Now after this, I am going clean my house and cook a Mother’s Day meal because I do not come first!! I know my little mischevious ones will have a surprise for me because they put me before themselves….somedays! Haha! 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

John 3:16 

Where there is smoke, there is a brown child…

Spring has sprung here at our little farm on the point! Everywhere you turn there are babies of all sorts! From chickens to ducks to SURPRISE, a new baby horse!! 

If you know our family, you know all of our animals have been a collaboration between my younger brother and myself, along with plenty of chicken parents from the past 3 years of second grade classes at school and a few other amazing people! It’s a community effort here! We turn down no animal and are always up for sharing joint custody forever! With that being said we would love to introduce you to our newest member of the family, who is not named yet!! 

We also welcomed three new chicks from our friends the Moran’s! We welcomed Copper, Perry and Seymore! They joined our crazy family and we couldn’t be more excited! We have more babies hatching everyday! So amazing!! 
Summer is coming up fast and we are starting to prepare for it! We have plenty of new homes for all of our new animals and we even have a new inside friend! The girl child wanted a chameleon, so she now has one! Maeve is pretty unique and she closely guarded. Only I am allowed to take her out when girl child is not here. After the scare we had this week, I know why! 

Let’s get to the point of this blog…

Our bearded dragon, Gracie, is loved very much. She is played with on a daily basis and loves to hide under the bed when given the chance. So needless to say, in the bad weather last Sunday, Gracie needed to be loved on. Gracie lives in her aquarium in the boys bedroom. They have full responsibility for her and they do very good. When the power went out that day, the brown child took Gracie out and had her on the floor. Apparently, someone in a ten mile vacinity said the word fishing and the brown child immediately needed to fish, leaving Gracie to fend for herself in the biohazard they call a room. So off went brown child, middle child and middle child’s friend to fish…they were accompanied by a parent so don’t worry!! A little while later I smell smoke. This is nothing new here, as someone is always burning something. I wasn’t feeling well, so I rolled back over and fell back to sleep in my dark, cold room. I then hear the amazing smoke detectors going off, as if they were trying to tell me something. You see, I have this fear that my house will burn down. It’s a crazy fear but it’s real. I jumped out of the bed and opened my door to see my hall full of smoke!! Don’t panic I told myself but panic I did! I ran to the kitchen to see if smoke was coming from there. Nope. I opened doors and ran back to the hallway. Next, I pulled down the attic door to make sure it was not in the attic. Nope. Thank God!!! So now to find the source. I turn around to see smoke rolling out of the boys bedroom! I run there to see a heat lamp sitting on top of a wood chip from Lumberjack Fued that my middle child had a stroke over not two years ago. Smoke is billowing out from under the lamp and all I see are flames! I throw open the bedroom window and start flinging anything that is not nailed down that has flames. Heat lamps, pieces of wood, pieces of dresser, legos….ok, the Legos were not on fire but I stepped on 7.6 million of them bare foot to get to this damn fire so they needed to go. After there are no more flames and I have poured the water from Gracie’s bowl on the dresser to finish the hot spot off, I realize there is no Gracie!!! I’m already a ball of emotion and to top it off, I have a crazed, smoke filled lungs, pissed off bearded dragon somewhere in my house! I calmly call the man child and let him know his spawn have tried to burn down my house and I am now missing a cold blooded animal. I pranced myself outside and waited as smoke made its way out of the house. The children came back and the first thing I hear is it smells like smores in the house! Wasn’t what I would have pegged that smell for but hey, better than smells like burnt legos! Brown child goes in to find Gracie hidden under the bed and comes out with a very worried look. Apparently he left the heat lamp on the dresser when the power was off and never thought about moving it when the power came back on. I didn’t fuss because he had punished himself enough by seeing the smoke and charred parts of the dresser. Every piece of clothes in my house smells like a bon fire and I’m pretty sure I will never let them live this fiasco down! This will be a rehearsal dinner story for sure!  Here we are a week later and my house still smells like burning wood. The boys have yet to pick up the 7.6 million legos but instead have added to them. They are up closer to 8.1 right about now. How they got that many is an unknown to me. No one buy them legos ever again! I figured I would leave the pile of clothes on the couch so that they could lose the smell of the smoke before I fold them and put them away. They should be scent free by the end of summer. If not, they can sit until Christmas. That should do it! Also, it is a good thing I never throw anything away for fear of a child being scarred for life when they realize it. If it wasn’t for middle child having a complete hysterical meltdown at Lumberjack Fued and the sweet girl working there feeling super sorry for him, my house would be a pile of ash. 
Moral of the story, kids are messy hoarders who can hear the word fish from three light years away. Thank goodness for that!