"'Tho We've Gotta Say Good-Bye For the Summer"

That King Charming and Me...

We're always coming up with crazy ideas and doing weird things. 

I think our friends must wait to see what new crusade we'll be on next. 

So here's our latest: 

We're winding back the clocks to the dark ages. 

We're turning off our TV. 

We're turning off our Internet. 

We're craving a memory-making, nostalgic, and active summer without technology to distract us or steal away our time.  So we're taking a vacation from technology until September. 

We plan on having a family movie night once a week, and we can get on the Internet any time we are willing to ride our bikes to the library to do it.  Other than that it will be an old fashioned summer.  I might even write a few snail mail letters.  : ) 

I'm definitely planning on reading a lot of good books and hopefully writing a rough draft of a novel.  There will be Otter Pops, BBQ's, slip and slide, sprinklers, etc.   

I thought the kids would throw a fit when we announced our plan, but their response was, "You mean you guys can't be on your computers?" (said with shocked faces)  They just couldn't believe they get to have a whole summer of our undivided attention.  (Talk about convicting) 

I'm going to miss you all.  You may have noticed how infrequent my blog posts have already been this spring.  I think making the decision we made for summer has prompted us to be on the Internet a lot less already.

I'll check my email as often as I can at the library and may even be able to sneak in a few blog posts.  Otherwise, I'll see you all in September!

Have a great summer! 

Love,  

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The Persevering Pen

Born a scribe and given the gift to pen,
She dreams of painting stories with her words-
Masterpieces that entertain, elicit laughter,
          Even tears.
Portraits of adventure and beauty
The medium of words pointing to the
          Master Storyteller.

Her dream is pure while she is small
She writes on scraps and in notebooks-
Lists of characters with fancy names, fragments of plotlines and
          Fantasy places.
Mere scratchings of a little girl
The simple, innocent words revealing
          Sweet Dreams.

Growing older, and tasting life,
She clings to her pen but doubts her words-
Voices from within and without, voices of truth,
          Voices of lies.
Messages of ‘not enough’ and ‘too hard’ bombard
The world and her fear invite her to quit before
          She Fails.

Born a scribe and given the gift to pen,
She writes through the fear and the failures words that-
Sometimes fall flat, sometimes soar high, but always come from
          Her Heart.
Running the race marked out for her she remembers
The One who gave her the pen and calls
         
          Press On.


 
I wrote this poem today for a contest Rachelle Gardner (literary agent) is hosting on her blog.  I think she was looking for something a lot lighter and with more humor, but this was what came out of me today.  I decided to share it on here, too, because I know a lot of you share my dream for writing, and that others of you have your own dreams.  I just wanted to encourage us all to not let voices of doubt or fear keep us from running after the dreams God has written on our hearts.  I need this message as much as all of us.  : )  
 
Have a wonderful weekend!  
 
Love,  

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Introducing the Van Cluck Sisters

We have some new fluffy babies around here- 

Chickens!  : ) 

We may have been slightly influenced by a certain royal wedding last week when we named our girls. 

We each picked out a chick of our own and decided they needed very aristocratic names.  Prince Charming had a little help naming his chickie.  "Bird" just didn't seem fancy enough.  : )    


Meet the Van Cluck Sisters:

"Goldie"
Lady Goldia Rosemary Van Cluck

Goldie is a Golden Sex Link chicken and belongs to Youngest Princess

"Angeline"

Lady Angeline Ann Van Cluck

Angeline is an Ameracauna chicken.  She will lay pastel Easter colored eggs.  She belongs to Oldest Princess.  

"Lady Di"

Lady Diana Van Cluck

Diana is a Rhode Island White chicken and belongs to King Charming. 

"Ramona"

Lady Ramona Augusta Caroline Van Cluck

Ramona is a Golden Sex Link chicken and she belongs to Prince Charming.

"Bea"

Lady Beatrice Anastasia Adelaide Van Cluck

Beatrice is also a Golden Sex Link chicken and she's mine!!  : )

We are so excited to have fresh eggs.  They should be laying for us before school starts again in the Fall.  Right now they are still in their brooder, but King Charming is hard at work designing and building "Cluckingham Palace" (a.k.a. The Coop).   

As soon as they establish their pecking order, and we can see who is the boss, we will know which of the ladies will receive the title of "Her Majesty the Queen".  After that we'll decide who will become our princess, duchess, countess, etc.   We're not having fun at all.   : )

I originally titled this post "Meet Our Newest Family Members" but King Charming put the kabosh on that.  He has told us over and over again they are not family members, to not get too attached, and to remember these chickens are food providers, might die, and might end up in soup.  We're prepared for the worst, but still having so much fun.  I can't believe how fast they are growing and changing.  On Saturday they were puffballs.  Now they are already getting their feathers.  

I like being a chicken farmer!  : )   

Want to vote on which one you think will end up Queen? 

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