Missouri 2021 - Life on the Sheep farm

If you ever get tired of the life you're living, just take a giant right turn. Go somewhere unusual for a family vacation with no inkling of the word "vacation" in the title..like "sheep farm." We visited our good friends Betsy and Dan on their sheep farm in Missouri this summer. It was epic. It was amazing. It was full of all the hopes and dreams of what vacations are intended to do for your family rolled into one wonderful week. 

The journey there was a 2 day long car ride with a stop over in Nashville, TN. We had never been there either, so we toured atop an double decker bus

While there we visited with an old employee,  Laurie, and toured Animax, where she currently works. What a cool place. If you ever see any animatronics in a theme park or movie, they may have had something to do with it. It was a pity they didn't allow pictures or videos. 

We arrived in Missouri just in time for dinner. Betsy cooked a meal for us every night and breakfast most days. We were met by the house sheep, or the boys they had to keep away from the girls for lambing purposes. Lots of vocal sheep greeted us in hopes we had food to give them. Alongside the big boys were the babies still being bottle fed. 

When I say that this vacation was everything you hope a family vacation would be, I mean it in all the ways you hope to grow closer to your children. In the way of having family time without intrusion from television, video games, phones or the entire outside world for that fact. We had 8 straight days of just loving our kids and having fun adventures from horseback riding to four-wheeling. We explored the caves in Hannibal,  MO where Tom Sawyer (Samuel Clemmons) lived and wrote about in his novels. We went geode hunting in a river and spent most of a day banding and tagging 104 male sheep out of a flock that was 3 times that size. 

Do you know what there's an abundance of? Flies. Lots and lots of them. Poop as well, everywhere you turn. After a while the smell didn't offend so much and one learns to wear the muck boots to most every occasion. One of those occasions was our very first demolition derby at the county fair. I had no idea such things went on or how hopping a county fair with only 8 rides could actually be. However, we all were quickly lured in by the excitement of the locals as car after car rammed into each other and the crowd cheered them on. With all the lemonade and kettle corn you could handle, it was as good as a night at the movie theatre. The kids spent the night in a tent outside in the yard just for fun. They picked wild blackberries and one day, we were fortunate to meet the Amish neighbors. The father is a master leather-smith so all the boys got new belts. We also found out that Monday was "nut-bread" day on the farm. Sarah makes about 5 or 6 different varieties each week to sell from banana to banana/pineapple, to rhubarb, to zucchini and pumpkin. She does all of this without electricity. Baked in a wood fired oven in a house where the water is pumped by a windmill and one feels like they have literally stepped back in time to a long-forgotten era. I was somewhat envious of them in their pressed little outfits, all handmade and the hat and bonnet clad children who were so well-behaved. Everyone walking around with no shoes but just as kind as could be. I pretty much threw my money at them just to be able to have this belt for my boys that was handmade in this seemingly ancient place.

For a trip that consisted of 4 days in a car and 4 days on a farm, it was by far the best trip we have ever managed. The memories are burned into our souls like the ticks we picked up on the farm...buried deep.

I can honestly say, I never want to be a farmer. I have no desire to care for cattle, sheep, horses or any other living thing. It is truly a never-ending job that starts way too early in the morning.  

Blackberry picking

Geode hunting

Elliot and Cooper with the boys and baby lamb

Addison and Sadie Cow dog

 My girl on her first solo horse ride.

The caves in Hannibal, MO

Waiting on our bus to tour downtown Nashville, TN

So many sheep

Peter and Paul, Dan's Amish farm helpers.

Lover's Leap in Hannibal

The sheep dogs - Daisy Mae and Lauri along with 2 neighboring farm dogs who just decided to stay and work for free.

Lambs

Another highlight: The boys turned 7!!!!

The Amish Farm

Daddy in his muck boots.

Our night at the county fair!

Samuel Clemmons signature in the cave.

Laurie...Miss her.

Playing catch-up

I cannot believe I have gone 6 months without posting one thing! Apparently I've been busy...really busy. 

Well..we made it. We finished this God-forsaken year and all the children passed. We are all ready to move one. The world is opening up and life is returning to normal. It couldn't happen fast enough in my opinion. Addison has grown by leaps and bounds and the boysare getting quite lanky. Summer is upon us.

Here are some photos to catch us up.

My loves

 

Heart and Soul, Part 2

 On March 28, 2013 I wrote a blog about a statue I saw in front of a nearby middle school. It has taken 7 years for me to fully realize the entire story. It has nothing to do with lack of research but everything to do with strange twists of happenstance. Here is the original blog.

https://thurmanmanor.blogspot.com/2013/03/heart-and-soul.html

Last year we proposed renting out our office to another company. The space was enormous and we simply didn't need that much room. This is where David Moretz enters my story. He had been an acquaintance of Michael's for a while and through that, learned we had a desirable space for lease. Although we weren't marketing it, he came upon a client looking for such a space. He was a nice enough man...a fellow real estate agent. I respected his involvement in putting 2 and 2 together. The marriage of building and client was amicable and they have been our tenants for a year now. I liked David enough to call him if I saw a commercial lead or direct others who were seeking commercial space his way. He seemed to appreciate the gesture. 

This is 2020. The year to forget. The year of struggles. A year of unbelievable events and unprecedented stress worldwide. The year I began to teach 1st grade to my twin boys which seemed monumental.

It is also the year I realized who David Moretz, the realtor friend, truly was. He is the father of the little boy I blogged about 7 years ago who is immortalized in a statue in front of Langford Middle School. Have you ever see those gifs where the guy is motioning that his head just exploded..that was me. 

Then it hit me. The gravity, now that I personally knew this father, of what had taken place and what this man, David and his wife had endured. A sick child; surgery after surgery; a heart transplant. Each thought took another breath away as I felt the tragedy this man had lived through. I don't think I can comprehend the entire depth or the toll it took on this family.

This beautiful boy, David's boy, lived a short and powerful life. Then I stopped to think about what everyone is hiding. It's almost cliché to say that we never know what someone is going through. In this case, what they have survived. That is the only way I can come to terms with the tragedy of losing a child. Pure Survival. Can't you imagine though what that survivor would actually look like if you could see all the damage done.

You can't see these things on someone's face or body. There are no physical battle wounds, but it was a physical and emotional battle they endured from fighting for someone's life. There may be times that it's their own life they have fought for and won. The point is, if you meet someone who has gone through something like that. They have been to war. They have innumerable scars - on the inside. Scars we may never realize they carry even though we see them monthly, weekly or daily. 

It makes me realize how resilient we are and how much we can endure when there is no other choice. 

Today while driving through town I  heard the song "Even If" by Mercy Me. I've heard that song 100 times and even sang along. However songs have a magical power just like scripture to morph into a completely new animal with an entirely new meaning depending on what you are trudging through at that time. That is what happened to me today.

I heard a song about a man who just couldn't keep going at that minute. "Right now, I just can't," he sings.

He sang about knowing God's ability to save him through that fire that he was consumed with and also knowing that God just might not save him.

"It only takes a little faith to move a mountain. Good thing.. a little faith is all I have right now."

But what about when God chooses to leave those mountains unmovable? Where do you get the strength to endure that road, like David Moretz did? Like so many do.

"Give me the strength to say, It is well with my soul."  THIS!

What if the answer isn't good. That is where you will find God the most. To believe that our Father knows the struggle...He could stop it...He doesn't....and we have the faith, no matter how little, to say - "OK God. But you're going to have to hold me up right now. There's no way I will make it on my own."

I encourage you to jump on youtube and read the lyrics of so many of the songs Mercy Me sings. Completely God-Inspired material. Completely true. Absolutely amazing to see this in action, "Even If" it's 7 years to make the connection and receive this huge "Ah-ha" moment that leaves me in tears. 

Phineas and Ferb

In the spirit of Halloween/Covid style, I made the boys costumes with full facial masks.

Seriously though, Alex told me what we were going to be this year. I had almost given up hope. It wasn't the hardest to put together but it was the most unknown we've done so far. Unless you were about 22 or younger or have children that are 5 to 13, you just wouldn't know who we were. It was fun though to see the kids who "got it" after staring at us for a little while. 

Actual Halloween never looks the same as family dress up day. On actual Halloween, everyone gets to pick their own costume. Yes, this means mommy has to supply 2 costumes a year per child....but I love it so its fun. This year William was a full-fledged cowboy with a gun, holster, rope, badge and horse. Alex remained Phineas..just wihout Ferb. 

 

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth