front porch view

the youngest three 

had a late breakfast this morning.

watching max and ruby took precedence

over breakfast, and max slept in...

probably because he woke me up

at 5 and decided to yell my name 

off and on until 6:15...

"om! om! OM!"

after 14 months of nursing,

we are *thisclose* to being done.

it's really bittersweet since he is our last,

but truth be told, i'm looking forward to

having my body back...sort of.

4 kids does a number on a body,

and at least i could forget about

part of it while i was nursing...

if you know what i mean.

sorry, dad(s).

so now, instead of my shirt being yanked on

first thing in the morning, i get to hear

"ite. ite. ite." allll day long.

the boy loves his bites.

 anyway, while they were having

breakfast, i looked out the picture window

and thought i'd share the sights:

a chicken almost on top of the neighbor's roof

sweet ella, who joined me

and our dumb ol' donkey.

let me tell you some things about donkeys.

first of all, we don't have a livestock trailer yet

and he's a big boy. he wouldn't fit in the back

of the swagger wagon like the goats.

that meant jason had to walk

him home...with the boys and i parking

on various side streets until they caught up.

it was 2-3 miles...and it took us 45 minutes to get home.

they are slow. 

very slow.

we never would have gotten away with that in the city.

second, braying is one of the worst sounds 

in the world. it's loud and wakes you up at all 

hours...not to mention the fact that it sounds

like he's in distress. sometimes i wonder if

i could use that as an excuse to shoot him.

third, they eat so.stinking.much.

that means they do something else

out the other end so.stinking.much...

no pun intended. =p

so why do we have him?

--we needed an extra guardian for the goats

who are being kept in the back corral.

--he was free.

--he is actually super, super sweet...

so "sweet" (protective), in fact, that he attacked one of 

the goats that "got too close to ali".

when he finally let her go, she ran off 

and he looked up at us with sad, pleading eyes...

and a mouthful of fur.

since he's supposed to be 

a guardian to the goats that puts us in quite a predicament.

if i had to guess, i would guess that he will be leaving soon.

i'm only sympathetic because the kids will be sad.

sydney wants to be cowgirl jessie from toy story,

and has aptly named him bullseye.

but we're all learning the livestock

and pets are two very different things...

tough lessons!

oh, and in case you're wondering,

this is what happens when mommy

leaves the table unattended to take pictures

out the front window:

max pulls an escape act from his

highchair as soon as i look away.

 by the way...

isn't the wallpaper border lovely?

ha.

it's going away very soon.

i have christmas money

and a head full of ideas.

this place will start to transform

very, very soon....

have a happy thursday.

thanks for reading!