Five Things for Friday, Kindness, Maria Merian, and Scaly-itis Edition
-1-
We have been having and on again, off again battle with our lawn mower this summer. It is super fickle and will only turn on if it feels like it, which isn't very often. Even when it does get going it doesn't cut very well because the blade is uneven. This means that even after mowing our lawn it still looks a mess because the grass is all different lengths! On top of that, I am the only one who can use the lawn mower because Jon is heavier than I am and it over heats really quickly when he drives it.
Ugg.
I have been feeling really bad about our yard all summer and have been trying my best to keep on top of it. About two weeks ago I was feeling especially bad about it because my sister and her fiance were coming to visit us and our yard didn't look very good. I was sad that their first view of our house would be through a jungle of grass. So the afternoon before they were suppose to arrive I decided to go out one last time and try to jump the mower battery... again... to see if I could get it to work. I wasn't too hopeful that it would work, but I wanted to try. I got side tracked blowing up the swimming pool for the kids and while I was thus employed Asher brought me the mail, excited that there was a letter, with no return address, simply marked "Farrell Family." I let him open it, which he did, and promptly threw the letter on the ground. Looking back now, I should have just left it there on the ground, but I picked it up and this is what it said.
It was signed "a concerned neighbor." I felt like I'd been hit with a baseball bat and slunk onto the ground. I was crushed. I couldn't believe that someone would be so unkind as to write such a mean letter, especially since they didn't know what struggles we'd been going through.
So, I bawled.
And bawled some more.
Then I called Jon and told him we should stop mowing our lawn for the rest of the summer... just to spite them.
And then I bawled some more.
When Jon got home we were able to talk more sensibly about the letter, and while it still really hurt, talking about it helped us see some important things. It was a real wake up call to Jon and I about how important it is to be kind. You NEVER know what someone else is going through. Kindness is always the best choice. Even when you think you understand a situation... you really don't... so just be kind. And second, we realized that we couldn't judge the person too harshly because, even though we'd never gotten the nerve to send a letter to someone, we both have thought unkind things like that before about other people and their homes. We really didn't have much of a moral high horse to stand on.
In the end, even though the letter still stings two weeks later, I'm grateful for it. Being on the receiving end of hatred and unkindness can sometimes be the biggest reminder of how important love and kindness are. I really hope that one day I find out who wrote this letter, just so I can tell them that.
-2-
Classic Tabby snarl
We've had two birthdays the last week! Rose turned five-years-old, which I can hardly believe, and Tabitha turned 1- year-old. I love those two little girls so much. And even though they are both often feisty balls of pure energy, who exhaust my patience and challenge my parenting skills-- I can't imagine my life without them. They fill my life with so much joy and I love their personalities. I just need to get all their energy, passion, determination and stubbornness moving in the right direction and these girls will change the world! Or at least have a really good time trying.
I was especially excited about the gift I gave Rose for her birthday. A few months ago we checked this book out from the library.
It is about a woman named Maria Merian who lived in the 1600's and was one of the first biologists. She studied insects and small animals and drew incredible pictures of them. She was one of the first to discover that butterflies and frogs underwent a metamorphosis. Basically, she is a really incredible woman. For some reason Rose LOVED this book. She'd ask to read it a few times a day. She also took to drawing pictures of butterflies all over her notebooks.
So for her birthday I got her a copy of the book, a butterfly journal, and scoured the Internet until I found some prints of Maria Merian's work (which was hard to find!), downloaded the highest quality I could find, printed them off, and framed them for her room. I think they turned out so beautiful!
And Rose was really excited about it all... which I thought was really funny. Who knew that a five-year-old would be excited about a 200-year-old biologist!
Tabitha's birthday present was much easier. We just bought a bag of balloons, blew them up and then dumped them in the living room. She was in heaven. It was the best one-year-old birthday present ever!
-3-
Our chickens have scaly leg mites. Sort of like fleas or lice that live under their scales and makes their legs look something like this.
Pretty, huh?
It is spreading through our flock and Asher has been very concerned about it. A few days ago I noticed the kids going in and out of the house with buckets of soapy water. When I walked out to see what they were doing I found Asher, Rose and Abe giving our chickens baths in the soapy water and overheard them talking about the chickens having "scaly-itis" on their feet.
After this Asher announced that he was now going to be a "chicken doctor" and set up a little office outside with a sign that announced when he was in and when he was out. It only lasted a few days, but oh it was cute! We've taken to calling Asher our "chicken whisper" because he spends a remarkable amount of time with the chickens-- enough that we've contemplated putting a chair in the chicken coop for him-- and is the most chicken obsessed person I've ever met in my life. Which is saying something because I once knew a woman whose chicken wore a diaper and rode around in her purse!
-4-
Our home school support group started this week and our first field trip was to the Living History Farms. We had a great time. Rose and I liked the millinery shop best because we got to try on corsets... and I think I want one. Really, I do. A whole set of old fashioned underwear would be so much fun! As would wearing hats with all those feathers and ribbons.. maybe I could start something?
Or not.
The other thing we loved was this old sheep-- yes sheep-- powered butter churn. Tell me this isn't the most brilliant thing you've ever seen in your life.
I really think we need one of these. Forget butter, I could have my sheep-- or kids for that matter-- power all sorts of useful things!
The other thing that really struck me about the Living History Farm was how many things have been invented in the last 100 years. It got me thinking about how much has changed in my life time (internet, computers, cell phones) and how different the world will be in 100 years from now. It made me wonder what the Living History Museum of the future will be like. In a 100 years will there be exhibits with things like CD players, phones with cords that plugged into the wall, computers you couldn't fit in your pocket and TV's you couldn't mount on the wall. Will kids exclaim, "Can you believe they didn't have the Internet?" in the same way my kids said, "Can you believe they didn't have electricity?" Will there be replicas of Walmart that people will walk into, the same way I walked into the old General store, and exclaim, "Oh how quaint, they came here to get all types of things. Now I just order my things online."
Who knows... but it is possible right?
What do you think will be in the Living History Museum of 2100 AD?
-5-
And I promise that Part 2 of my Miriam post is coming soon. It has been harder to write than I expected. It is a complicated story... as are the modern day applications. I am also teaching online seminary again for our Stake (which I LOVE) and setting that up has taken a lot of my computer time the last month. But don't worry, it is coming... just in case you have been dying of suspense.
Oh, also if you are on Instagram and would like to follow me my account is private, but if you send me a request and your profile picture doesn't look too scary, I'd love to connect with you. My account is hltfarrell.
Have a wonderful weekend and I'd love for you to link up-- even if it is later on in the week. I so enjoy meeting new bloggers!
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We have been having and on again, off again battle with our lawn mower this summer. It is super fickle and will only turn on if it feels like it, which isn't very often. Even when it does get going it doesn't cut very well because the blade is uneven. This means that even after mowing our lawn it still looks a mess because the grass is all different lengths! On top of that, I am the only one who can use the lawn mower because Jon is heavier than I am and it over heats really quickly when he drives it.
Ugg.
I have been feeling really bad about our yard all summer and have been trying my best to keep on top of it. About two weeks ago I was feeling especially bad about it because my sister and her fiance were coming to visit us and our yard didn't look very good. I was sad that their first view of our house would be through a jungle of grass. So the afternoon before they were suppose to arrive I decided to go out one last time and try to jump the mower battery... again... to see if I could get it to work. I wasn't too hopeful that it would work, but I wanted to try. I got side tracked blowing up the swimming pool for the kids and while I was thus employed Asher brought me the mail, excited that there was a letter, with no return address, simply marked "Farrell Family." I let him open it, which he did, and promptly threw the letter on the ground. Looking back now, I should have just left it there on the ground, but I picked it up and this is what it said.
It was signed "a concerned neighbor." I felt like I'd been hit with a baseball bat and slunk onto the ground. I was crushed. I couldn't believe that someone would be so unkind as to write such a mean letter, especially since they didn't know what struggles we'd been going through.
So, I bawled.
And bawled some more.
Then I called Jon and told him we should stop mowing our lawn for the rest of the summer... just to spite them.
And then I bawled some more.
When Jon got home we were able to talk more sensibly about the letter, and while it still really hurt, talking about it helped us see some important things. It was a real wake up call to Jon and I about how important it is to be kind. You NEVER know what someone else is going through. Kindness is always the best choice. Even when you think you understand a situation... you really don't... so just be kind. And second, we realized that we couldn't judge the person too harshly because, even though we'd never gotten the nerve to send a letter to someone, we both have thought unkind things like that before about other people and their homes. We really didn't have much of a moral high horse to stand on.
In the end, even though the letter still stings two weeks later, I'm grateful for it. Being on the receiving end of hatred and unkindness can sometimes be the biggest reminder of how important love and kindness are. I really hope that one day I find out who wrote this letter, just so I can tell them that.
-2-
.JPG)
Classic Tabby snarl We've had two birthdays the last week! Rose turned five-years-old, which I can hardly believe, and Tabitha turned 1- year-old. I love those two little girls so much. And even though they are both often feisty balls of pure energy, who exhaust my patience and challenge my parenting skills-- I can't imagine my life without them. They fill my life with so much joy and I love their personalities. I just need to get all their energy, passion, determination and stubbornness moving in the right direction and these girls will change the world! Or at least have a really good time trying.
I was especially excited about the gift I gave Rose for her birthday. A few months ago we checked this book out from the library.
It is about a woman named Maria Merian who lived in the 1600's and was one of the first biologists. She studied insects and small animals and drew incredible pictures of them. She was one of the first to discover that butterflies and frogs underwent a metamorphosis. Basically, she is a really incredible woman. For some reason Rose LOVED this book. She'd ask to read it a few times a day. She also took to drawing pictures of butterflies all over her notebooks.
So for her birthday I got her a copy of the book, a butterfly journal, and scoured the Internet until I found some prints of Maria Merian's work (which was hard to find!), downloaded the highest quality I could find, printed them off, and framed them for her room. I think they turned out so beautiful!
.JPG)
And Rose was really excited about it all... which I thought was really funny. Who knew that a five-year-old would be excited about a 200-year-old biologist!
Tabitha's birthday present was much easier. We just bought a bag of balloons, blew them up and then dumped them in the living room. She was in heaven. It was the best one-year-old birthday present ever!
-3-
Our chickens have scaly leg mites. Sort of like fleas or lice that live under their scales and makes their legs look something like this.
Pretty, huh?
It is spreading through our flock and Asher has been very concerned about it. A few days ago I noticed the kids going in and out of the house with buckets of soapy water. When I walked out to see what they were doing I found Asher, Rose and Abe giving our chickens baths in the soapy water and overheard them talking about the chickens having "scaly-itis" on their feet.
After this Asher announced that he was now going to be a "chicken doctor" and set up a little office outside with a sign that announced when he was in and when he was out. It only lasted a few days, but oh it was cute! We've taken to calling Asher our "chicken whisper" because he spends a remarkable amount of time with the chickens-- enough that we've contemplated putting a chair in the chicken coop for him-- and is the most chicken obsessed person I've ever met in my life. Which is saying something because I once knew a woman whose chicken wore a diaper and rode around in her purse!
-4-
Our home school support group started this week and our first field trip was to the Living History Farms. We had a great time. Rose and I liked the millinery shop best because we got to try on corsets... and I think I want one. Really, I do. A whole set of old fashioned underwear would be so much fun! As would wearing hats with all those feathers and ribbons.. maybe I could start something?
Or not.
The other thing we loved was this old sheep-- yes sheep-- powered butter churn. Tell me this isn't the most brilliant thing you've ever seen in your life.
I really think we need one of these. Forget butter, I could have my sheep-- or kids for that matter-- power all sorts of useful things!
The other thing that really struck me about the Living History Farm was how many things have been invented in the last 100 years. It got me thinking about how much has changed in my life time (internet, computers, cell phones) and how different the world will be in 100 years from now. It made me wonder what the Living History Museum of the future will be like. In a 100 years will there be exhibits with things like CD players, phones with cords that plugged into the wall, computers you couldn't fit in your pocket and TV's you couldn't mount on the wall. Will kids exclaim, "Can you believe they didn't have the Internet?" in the same way my kids said, "Can you believe they didn't have electricity?" Will there be replicas of Walmart that people will walk into, the same way I walked into the old General store, and exclaim, "Oh how quaint, they came here to get all types of things. Now I just order my things online."
Who knows... but it is possible right?
What do you think will be in the Living History Museum of 2100 AD?
-5-
And I promise that Part 2 of my Miriam post is coming soon. It has been harder to write than I expected. It is a complicated story... as are the modern day applications. I am also teaching online seminary again for our Stake (which I LOVE) and setting that up has taken a lot of my computer time the last month. But don't worry, it is coming... just in case you have been dying of suspense.
Oh, also if you are on Instagram and would like to follow me my account is private, but if you send me a request and your profile picture doesn't look too scary, I'd love to connect with you. My account is hltfarrell.
Have a wonderful weekend and I'd love for you to link up-- even if it is later on in the week. I so enjoy meeting new bloggers!
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