Changes

I have been thinking a lot about changes lately. When you have many little children around and you are busy with the daily task of raising them you only get glimpses and flashes of change. You seldom get to sit and truly contemplate the big picture of change that is life. When your children are grown and they begin to leave home in droves is when you really begin to see the changes that have come and are coming into your life and theirs. That is when you can begin to appreciate what they are becoming.


Here is my son Matthew. He is also my youngest. I am told by some that he is spoiled and that is because he is the youngest. Maybe it is true and maybe it isn't. I defy anyone who is told they can no longer have anymore children when they are 30 (when they are fully expecting to have a great many more) to not spoil the youngest. But that is neither here nor there to this contemplation. In the past 4 months many changes have come to all of our lives. In the last month I am proud to say that Matthew has stepped up to the plate and is becoming truly a loving and serving human being. One that Our Lord and Our Lady can be proud to call their own. He is kind, considerate, and thoughtful. He is generous both with himself and his posessions. He has spent the last month taking care of both his sister and me without being asked and helping out in the house and around the farm without being asked. He has truly been tireless. Not perfect by any means but he has the makings of a very good man.

On a different note, we went out this morning and found to our surprise that one other sow had started having her piglets. She had 8 in all with no fuss or trouble whatsoever. Later in the afternoon the other sow, Dora proceeded to have hers. She ended up with 11. She had a great deal of trouble and we have had to farm hers out to the two other mothers. We will see in the morning is she will be more accepting of her babies when she has rested some.

It looks like the clematis vine has come back as beautiful as ever. It is loaded with buds and will be quite beautiful when it flowers.
Even the cheap one in the corner that I bought at P&C last summer is back bigger than ever and loaded with buds.
Mary-Kate has finches everyday at her feeder. This one was playing hide and seek with the camera. It didn't seem at all afraid of me.
Matthew hard at work moving rakes. They had to change a flat tire tonight. They have a lot of hay down and need to get the round baler fixed tonight so they can bale tomorrow.
Lupus posed for her picture after her day of playing "nurse dog" to the piglets all day. She did a good job of watching over the piglets that the sow rejected. She has taken to following me all over the place. Then in the evening she has her rounds of visits that she has to make before she can retire for the night. She is a very sociable dog.

Many many changes happening around here. I would gladly take them all back in diapers. But I guess in God's plan this is what needs to be now. Now is the time for me to watch this part of life unfold.