By Lynn, on May 18th, 2011%
I find myself happy. The apartment home is turning into a cozy little nest. Counseling continues. But, again, I don’t feel free to bring all the issues to this blog. My heart is just filled with thankfulness over all of my friends and the encouragment I find in you all.

I bet you can guess what I am doing a lot of! Yes, transcription and QA work! But now with the house apartment quiet during the day, I am really enjoying my work. I’m not torn between school and work anymore, and Michaela is T-H-R-I-V-I-N-G!! Her teachers are awesome. They are so kind, and they have worked tirelessly to get her on track for the EOGs. (That’s end of grade tests for those of you who are lifelong homeschoolers.)
Michaela had been in a different math program here in our homeschool. She had been working at a different pace. We were using a different style altogether. And she walked into a public school about a month before EOGs. Yikes! I am so proud of her!

I was in The Wild Little Garden yesterday. Yes I was. I had planted some vegetables in March and then left without even a goodbye. My patch of onions is gorgeous! I looked at them yesterday and pulled one. Imagine them in a few more weeks! I am sure you can see my new made-in-Italy (thank you Goodwill) pitcher for holding utensils. Love it!
Our rabbits, all except one, have been adopted out. Two went to neighborhood children. One went to a homeschooling family with four gorgeous, smart daughters. One went to a little homeschooleded girl who is a brilliant artist with a brilliant musician mother. Three went to a sweet homeschooling family who drove about 1-1/2 hours to come get them. Actually it was the dad and his sons who drove to get them. He was getting them for his wife. Ahhhh. Love. Only Toby Keith remains at the old house.
Be assured that this move has not dampened my adventurous spirit one bit! I just gave Annie a bite of a tostada. With pinto beans on it. (This may lead to a separate post.)

There are new gift tags in the shop. And over the next few weeks there will be more and more gift tags going into the shop! I love making these! I must get pictures of my little art nook on here so you can see it! It has been a lot of fun setting that up. Art has truly been an outlet for me, even before the move. I am working on framing all of the canvases I painted before I moved and putting them around my bedroom/art studio.
Well, this is just a little break. Lots to do today! So I gotta run.
Enjoy this day.

By Lynn, on March 12th, 2011%
The Reformed Little Wild Garden is coming along. If only I didn’t have to stop to work. And cook. And eat.

The carpenter had a dumptruck load of mulch delivered for me. I love that man. Even if I do have to threaten him with a frying pan every now and then.

Even the rabbits love the carpenter. Because he lets them live here. Rent free.

And he even tolerates me saying things to him like, “Honey, I cannot believe you wanted all these rabbits.”
“Yeah, right,” he says loudly. At least he smiles when he says it.

Have we ever had such a springtime crop of chickweed? I think not! Part of me wants to let chickweed take over the yard! The neighborhood! The world! I just know it would draw in more garden fairies. Does it not look simply enchanting—the view under this bench? But The Little Wild Garden is going for a more refined, even reformed look this year, so out the chickweed went. Good thing the carpenter has rabbits that I can feed the chickweed to. I think I need to make a huge infusion and freeze it into “chickweed ice cubes” for summertime use. It’s such a cooling herb. What do you think?

The violets are lifting their sleepy little heads after a long winter’s nap. They look like lovely swans.

Violets. Be still my heart.

And more violets.
I’m off to bed. Be thankful. And happy.

By Lynn, on March 11th, 2011%

It’s a simple task but oh so helpful to me. I find after being out just a few minutes that I’ve forgotten my troubles. There’s something about having your hands in green plants, smelling the broken earth and listening to the songs of birds that is good for the heart and soul.
Suddenly I realize that I’m not worried about bills, world news, or being behind in housework or school work. I’m just me. Aware of God and how small I am in His big universe, but how much he loves us and has given us.
Today I am reminding myself to do more things outside. It does me good.

By Lynn, on January 30th, 2011%
It’s a beautiful, beautiful, sunny, spring-like day here today! I would love to “be out in it,” but we are all at home today, and mostly inside, due to the fact that the carpenter and I have both finally succumbed to a cold. We did walk outside together this morning with our coffee cups and look at the bunnies. I told the carpenter that I was planning at some point to run small-gauge wire around the inside of the garden fence so that the bunnies could get out and run. He said there was no need. “They can’t get out of there,” he said.
So we secured the gate closed and made sure there were no cracks around the gate big enough to allow escape, and we let them out.

Gingersnap rests in the sun. As a result of letting the bunnies out to run, the carpenter noticed that Gingersnap is slightly deformed in his hind legs. I think they can’t be called splayed, because they don’t really frog-leg out. They are more turned in. He can hop pretty fast, but he’s not as agile as the other bunnies. We love him anyway and he is still our baby.

Rodruguez rests in the cool dirt. Oh my goodness, you should have seen his excited scratching and digging in the dirt. You can still see bits of debris in the fur around his face and paws. He’s loving this freedom to hop around and carry on like a “wild” bunny.

Peter has probably done the most running of all! He has been to all four corners of the garden, running and hopping and chasing his brothers.

Peter ran down from the wheel barrow, stopped to look at me, and took off again. Hippity hoppity.

Look at Peter go!
Michaela has been out to talk to her bunnies and watch them and admire their beautiful fur, shining in the sun. These nine bunnies make up, in large part, her something to love, a thing Miss Charlotte Mason recommended for children. It has been a very good routine for Michaela to have to take care of these rabbits every day!
I am off to drink more hot tea, and maybe some decaf coffee. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m just craving coffee a lot these days. I slept 10 hours last night but you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I look in the mirror and say, “You need more rest!” Nothing like a cold to cancel out beauty sleep!
Enjoy this day!

By Lynn, on January 20th, 2011%
A while back, early last spring I guess, we gave a little bunny to some friends. They named him Clover and enjoyed him so much! They made great bunny parents, but we knew from the start that he might not stay, and I said from the start that he was always welcome to come home.

Who knew, though, that Clover would come home with such a cage!! Reminds me of a pretty circus train car. We got much more in return than we gave by sending Clover out for a little while.

Let’s call gently to Clover as we walk up. That way we won’t scare him. Bunnies who live in mansions like this are prone to prying eyes and intrusions, so we don’t want to scare Clover.

Just take a look at these doors, would you! So many doors and so many special functions. If we lift up the little brown door, we can see Clover and visit with him and feed him. He has two really nice heavy metal trays. One is for pellets and one for hay.


Then we can open the big blue door and see where Clover sleeps. We can take out the old straw or hay that makes his bedding and put in new. We can also pet him while he’s resting and sing him a goodnight bunny song.
Are you singing with me?

Things just get fancier and fancier! Clover has a very large back door to his home that can be propped open. With a fence around Clover’s cage, there’s a place to stand and secure a little ramp at the back door so that Clover can run out and into his fenced-in yard (once it’s in place) and then run back up into the cage.

See how Clover runs to the back of his house to check us out?

The front of Clover’s house is much the same. There’s a door that will prop open. In the summer when it’s hot, and with a fenced-in yard, Clover could get a lot of air circulating through his mansion.

Clover runs to the front to see us.

Awwww. Clover’s playing peek-a-boo. Clover is not afraid.
Don’t you just love Clover’s little house?
Now, on the brooch-pin front, I’ve been working on more floral brooches. Love these! Others seem to as well. I want to have plenty made up for the farmer’s market for spring.

My boys are still sick, but seem to be getting better. I am so thankful that they do seem to be getting better. I just will be glad when they are totally well. I have not seen any of my children this sick in quite awhile.
Let’s purposefully enjoy this day, shall we?

By Lynn, on December 31st, 2010%
Not what you might think.

After days and days of very cold temperatures and frozen water at every rabbit cage, we woke up this morning to warmer air and a sunny sky.

I took the tops off the cages out in the garden and let the bunnies experience some bright, warm sunshine. They ran and jumped like crazy! It was fun to see them so happy!

Each cage was swept out thoroughly. I cleaned out from under each cage, filling each cage with some fresh food and hay. That’s quite a job first thing in the morning! Gets your blood moving for sure!

Gingersnap is pretty quiet and calm, and seems to wonder when Rodriguez and Peter will calm down. I know they don’t look like they have enough room, but the plan is to put a small-gauge wire around the perimeter of the garden so that the bunnies can get out and run while I’m out there to watch them.

They ran and ran and RAN. If I do let them out in my fenced-in veggie garden, what do you think are the chances that they’ll eat weeds instead of my veggies?

I’ve acquired quite a mass of bunny droppings and decaying hay in the corner of the garden. What fertilizer I hope to have come spring!

Toby Keith is more of a pet than an outside bunny. He gets petted more and visited by the neighbor children. He’s on the porch in a “real” storebought cage. At some point in the spring, I do hope to have him out with the rest of his family.
Well, I’m off to redeem some coupons and then I have to clean up my old house a bit, and then I have to work. That’s a cycle that runs over and over and over again!
Enjoy this last day of 2010.

By Lynn, on December 8th, 2010%
Life is what you make it, right? Of course! So I live on a farm.
In my mind.
I thought you might like to meet some of our farm animals this morning.

First of all, Boomerang, who got his name because of how much he jumped around as a baby bun-bun. He’s still very jumpy. Do you see his green food bowl? When you put his food in it, he likes to grab the bowl with his teeth, flip the food out onto his “floor” and then run against the bowl, ramming it into this little ditch between the open part of his cage and the closed part of his cage. I guess he does not like the color green. We love Boomerang. Boomerang currently has four children still living at home on the farm: Peter, Rodriguez, Gingersnap, and Toby Keith.

Now meet Midnight, Boomerang’s sister. Midnight and Boomerang were the first baby bun-buns born at Sage-Bunny Cottage. Midnight has been a mother one time, giving birth to five beautiful babies. They were sold to the pet store, where we learned that our baby bun-buns were much bigger than most they see come in at 5 weeks. Must have been all the greens and chickweed from around the farm. Boomerang has a record of escaping and visiting the neighbor’s garden.

Let’s pass through the front garden on our way to talk to the other bunnies, okay? I love the snow. Well, sometimes. Not sure I could handle it all the time. My hat is off to you all who brave big snows all winter long.

Now let’s meet Basil, the patriarch of the bunnies at Sage-Bunny Cottage. He is father to Midnight and Boomerang, his two very prolific offspring. Basil is perhaps my favorite. He currently has “the fence” around his cage so that he can get out of his cage and play on the ground. He has never tried to escape and he will allow you to pick him up if you do it just right.

Of course you remember Coco, the matriarch of the family. She’s the mother to Midnight and Boomerang. And guess what? She’s the mother and the grandmother to Gingersnap, Toby Keith, Peter, and Rodriguez. It was not intended to happen that way, and bun-buns don’t really have any family rules like we do, if you know what I mean.
Uh, moving on now.

This is Rodriguez, a sweet little male bunny with a beautiful color to his fur. Michaela and a friend named the little boy bunnies. Rodriguez will scratch, fiercely, but if you can ever get him picked up and into your arms, he will snuggle up and be content.

Ah, another of my favorites! This is Peter. I just love the color! He’s a beautiful reddish color with a gray-brown patch around his nose and eyes. He’s not easily held but he is friendly and will come to the door and visit. He’s beautiful!

Oh, here’s sweet little Gingersnap, who we think looks a bit like a horse in this picture. But we don’t have any horses on the farm, so rest assured that this is a rabbit. Gingersnap is not so easily picked up either.

Our amazingly brave and intimidating guard dog on the farm: Fatso Beagle Annie Bananie, who loves, just LOVES, to visit with the bun-buns. Who says beagles and rabbits can’t be friends?

On our farm, it’s a rule that everyone get along, including little nose kisses on greeting one another, and no howling!
As far as the bunnies go when it comes to our homeschool, it’s nice to have something to love, as Charlotte Mason would say, and also to have a regular chore in which you must do your job because a life is depending on you. I think that’s a good life lesson. Don’t you?
I’m sorry that I don’t have current pictures of Toby Keith and our inside cat, Oreo. I will try to do that soon.
Today’s a busy day. Work this morning. Violin lesson this afternoon. Then all the regular things of the day.
Enjoy this day.

By Lynn, on October 18th, 2010%
As my neighbor would say, dang.
I don’t say dang, really, as a general rule, because I try to limit myself when it comes to anything akin to swear words, but dang seems appropriate this morning, in the same way I might spend two hours standing and staring and then realize it’s 11 a.m. and I’ve got absoutely nothing done and look at whoever is close by and say, “good granny!”
I digress. Help.
Will you walk with me and let’s figure some stuff out?

I can barely take care of me these days, and yet I have six of us to take care of, one with a broken arm!! Life is full of seasons. There are seasons of feeling like we’re on top of it all, bouncing along (or even dancing along) on top of the world, as it rolls through time with us totally in control. Or so we think.
Then there’s a season of eating big cups of chocolate ice cream at 11 p.m. and waking up feeling like we’re overweight and 10 years older than we really are, swinging through McDonald’s at least once a week because we never seem to be home to cook anymore, and giving up on anything more than the house being a trainwreck.

I have so many interests, and they are things that are good for me, but right now I can’t even get my brain wrapped around getting to bed at a decent time! This morning I was considering going out to buy a cookbook I’ve been wanting in an effort to get revitalized in the kitchen, but alas I’m waiting on the hospital to call regarding John’s preop appointment today.
I settled for running the juicer: a bunch of parsley, which is full of chlorophyll and vitamin A and an abundance of other stuff, an orange, an apple, and three carrots. I immediately felt better. Now I just need to wash the juicer to I can be ready to do this again some time very soon today.
What’s the point here? I’m so rambling this morning. I think what I want is a perfect life, which would include not having to do transcription (did I tell you I hate to type?) but instead working with plants and mixed media. Where are you, perfect life?
I’m smiling. I hope you are. We’re not here to have a perfect life anyway. We are here to be made perfect. And I’m supposing a lot of that process is having a right spirit even when we don’t feel like it and making the most of every moment in an imperfect world. So off I go to have some quiet time, wait for preop to call, and enjoy the sensation of chlorophyll visiting with my cells.

On our walk, let’s stop and talk to Basil. I gave Basil some chlorophyll this morning too: grass. It has made Basil very strong. Basil has learned to bust out of his cage. That’s the only thing I can call it. We keep a brick in front of his door overnight so he’ll be safe, but he’s still out every morning. I wonder if he runs against the door time and again, or if he climbs onto his perch inside the cage and flies down at the door, butting it open with his head or something. At least there’s a fence around his cage and he has not learned yet how to climb over or dig under.

Basil is my favorite bun bun. (Sorry for the dark, shady pictures.) Basil is the one rabbit that will sit still and let you pick him up. He’s just a sweety pie.
Dear me. We’ve I’ve rambled on enough. Thank you for listening. I’ll try and having something cohesive for the next walk we take. In the meantime, get your chlorophyll, spend a little bit of time creating something, and do go outside for some fresh air and sunshine.
Enjoy this day!

By Lynn, on August 9th, 2010%
I know I said that I knew I didn’t fall off the earth, but maybe I did. Maybe I did fall off the earth. I’m wondering if maybe I should have stayed gone. And yet wondering why it took me so long to get back. Those of you who are so busy you feel like you are meeting yourself coming and going will know what I mean. The rest of you: congratulations.

Annie can vouch for me that I’ve been extremely-crazy-busy lately, with barely time to cook. And the carpenter can vouch for the cooking part. As you know, Annie sits with me when I type all day, and then when I’m gone, as the carpenter says, “her world turns upsidedown.” She’s been upsidedown a lot lately.

The school year is approaching and there are things I want done before the school year arrives. This past week I had a huge personal-household-tax-related-yucky-business-matter to work on. That’s all I’ll say, but realize that over the past two weeks it has consumed HOURS of my time. I’ll just be glad when it’s over. I’ve also gotten a yearly physical (not that anyone needs to know that) and, dare I say it, a colonoscopy. I joked about sharing the colon pictures on here, but I guess no one would ever come back and I could just shut the blog down completely. (My children didn’t speak to me for a few hours after I returned home from the appointment with my colonoscopy pictures.)

Annie, on the other hand, does not care how gross the hepatic flexure looks on paper. She still loves me. Thank goodness for that.

I’ve also been busy with bun-buns. We have eight now that I suppose we’ll have to keep for awhile. When it was time to sell the last litter to the pet store, someone beat us to it and the pet store had all they could sell and then some. So here we are. The phone rang the other day and when I answered my sister jokingly said, “Uh, yes, is this the petting zoo?”

I don’t like for the bunnies to be always in cages, getting little exercise, so I’m creating some places for them to run and enjoy eating violets and clover and laying in the grass. Coco is first to enjoy one of the timeshares I’ve set up in the yard. She is totally loving it. I hope that when the fruit of my loins numbers in the dozens, someone will make a place for me to run and jump, too.
I accidentally let a rabbit get loose last week and you know where it headed, right? Yeah, over to Mr. and Mrs. Perfect Vegetable Garden’s house where it plopped down in a flower bed and began voraciously ripping foliage from some things in bloom. I didn’t see it right away, but my oldest son, who’s tearing apart yet another engine in the yard, came inside and said, “Mom, there’s a huge black bunny in the neighbor’s yard and it doesn’t run off when you walk toward it. I think it’s one of ours. Did you let one go?”
Goodness gracious, deja vu, here we go again. By the time I got to the neighbor’s yard, Midnight was carrying out the aforementioned voracious eating spree. I shook some lamb’s quarters at her and caught her pretty easily. Thank goodness for little miracles.

On the gardening front, there is only one path down which one can safely walk these days. I’ve set up buckets of machetes at the entry ways of the other paths, just in case anyone feels inclined to cut their way into the garden to look at creatures with me.
I don’t know, it just feels like time is going by faster these days. Or am I losing my mind?

I had to put this picture in (above) because I just love the bright green fern you can see in the background and how it contrasts with the dark spider legs but sort of dances with the bright yellow on the spider’s back.

I’ve also been busy (and delightfully enchanted) with the farmer’s market. I love the time with my mom. I also enjoy meeting new people and seeing now-familiar faces. I have quite an inventory of pins building up and a few dolls to choose from, so I think it’s going well. The little doll house was a hit with the children and with a few adults as well! We were asked it if was for sale, but I made it especially for my mom, so maybe I can make one or two more in the future to sell. We’ll see. It was so much fun to make, but I realize I’m already at my limit as far as things to do. At any rate, don’t my mom’s little clothespin dolls look so sweet in their new home?

Finally (and I’m not sure why this picture is so faded on one end) I’ve slightly rearranged my living room (uh-gain). I had to. I found an extremely sturdy, real-wood bookcase at Goodwill. Upon being put in its new place in my “pink room,” it was immediately filled with books. I asked my husband, “Can you believe there were this many books floating around the house without a home?”
Without giving it a moment’s thought, he said, “Yeah!”
Hmmmm. I say one can never have too many books.
I have to work today, so I better close for now. I hope that my weeks can begin to slow down a bit now and I can focus on school and getting everything ready for that.
Enjoy this day!

By Lynn, on July 2nd, 2010%
I know you’ve just been on pins and needles wondering about our bunny escapees! I am finally free (FREE I SAY!!) after working all day to sit down and blog now, so I will tell you the story. I’ll share some pictures along the way. Some bun-bun pictures, that is.

I left you hanging after telling you about returning home last night from my karate class to find my husband, Thomas, looking at me rather seriously. He pulled his reading glasses to the end of his nose and began to talk. “I walked outside this evening while you were gone and saw Mark looking a bit irritated.”
Mark is our very good neighbor and I knew this could not be good if Mark was looking irritated and Thomas was telling me about it. “What happened?” I asked, wondering what I’d done.

“Well,” said Thomas, “I heard him say something about a rabbit so I looked that way and saw him looking at a large rabbit sitting in his yard. I think he was about to kick Coco.”
Kick Coco?? My neighbor Mark had never looked like Mr. MacGregor to me before. Never until that moment. Before I could say anything, however, Thomas continued speaking.
“Mark looked at Coco in amazement and said ’That’s a wild rabbit!’”
My husband at that point noticed Coco’s little baby, the one that looks just like her, only a few feet away. He said to Mark, “Well, actually, that might be our rabbit.”
“Really?????” Mark asked, puzzled.

I was still wondering why Mark might kick Coco, but Thomas said that Mark probably thought the thing was rabid because usually WILD rabbits take off running when you walk toward them, not just stand there looking at you like they might come toward you and climb up your legs. He has a point, and Coco does look wild, after all.

At that point, Thomas said he undertook trying to catch the bunnies. Now, the bunnies might stand there looking at you as long as you look shocked, like Mark did, but try to catch them and they hop away. Thomas managed to get the little one, who scratched his arm “all to pieces.”

Meanwhile, Coco was hopping towards the edge of a wooded area. Gasp! Thomas said he went inside and called Michaela. Her version was that he yelled upstairs, “Michaela!! Get down here right now!!!” (Nothing like your wife’s bunnies running around your neighbor’s yard to get you stressed out.)
And not just any neighbors but neighbors who are BIG into vegetable gardening. I suspect Coco had spent long enough smelling their cabbages and peas and green beans and had figured it all out and knew in her heart exactly where she’d make a run to if she ever escaped.

Thomas the Carpenter Man told Michaela to get him the pellets and a small bowl. He filled the bowl with pellets and shook them at Coco. She came close but not close enough. Thomas went and picked some lamb’s quarter and shook that at Coco. She was enticed. He said he got her behind the neck and pulled her into a laundry basket and then carried her back to her cage.
Case closed! And cage closed! We discovered that Michaela had been the one to leave the door open. Not that anyone’s in trouble. Just sayin’.
I passed Mark’s wife on the road today and she waved, but somehow it did not seem as hearty a wave as usual. Nah, it was just in my mind. It had to be. Still, they now know that we have nearly a dozen rabbits who are dreaming day and night of devouring their veggie garden.

Ahhh, the bunny escapees. This is how they look when you open their door, Coco and her little as-yet-unnamed daughter. Is it any wonder they jumped out? I should say not.
I patched Thomas’s arm up. It really was not, as he put it, “scratched all to pieces,” but he did need some peroxide and some attention. I have found that attention is always the best band-aid.
Well, I must run. Much to do tomorrow! And tonight I’m making a clay goat for a doll to hold.

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About Lynn 
Approaching-50 mother of four. Thrifter. Content with lots of clothes bought for very little money. Loves retro. (That could be styles from the 40s and 50s. And sometimes stuff even older than that. And sometimes stuff from all time, all mixed up together!) Bluffs about decluttering but secretly loves STUFF. Goes through stages. Has standing and staring spells before rearranging the entire home. Just because. Tune in each day to see what new outfit comes home from G.W. Boutique next. (That's Goodwill, by the way.) Oh, and she owns a spoiled beagle named Annie. And this blog.
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The Players
Lil Ol' Me
Son Daniel, 23
Son, Big Joe, 21
Son, John, 17
Daughter, Michaela, 13
Annie Fatso Beagle
My Symphony
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Contact Me
I would for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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