Home From the Sea

We started out with eight brave souls.  By the third day we were down five.   All boys...they were bored and went home.  So we girls did things like recreate the Victorian photos found on the wall of the cottage.  You know...normal stuff.

I cooked a half of a turkey in the Star Kineo cook stove and while it was cooking (five hours!) I made cake donuts.

And Jake tried to herd fishing boats and seals.  They were about as cooperative as the goats.

We played a rousing game of The Flintstones Game.  Highly recommended.

Just in case you thought their mirth was due to good wholesome fun...they were laughing at the game pieces...which they oh-so-sensitively called "The Hitler Youth".  Horrible children.

We dug some clams...and ate them and ate them and ate them...

But mostly we just disconnected, read books, walked along the shore and tried to appreciate the quiet and beauty of this kind of raw place.  There was no electricity or running water.  There was limited cell service and no 3G, but so much more than all of that.  When you wake to ocean waves your day can not be bad.

Here's the website for the cottage.  Ross Cottage

Smiles,
Lisa

MOVE THAT.......goat?

In the middle of the chaos, right smack dab in the middle of it...the boy's physical therapist nominated our family for Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  Which is an honor, truly.  Although I don't know if  I want them to knock my little house down. 

There are a lot of things that I don't over share on this blog.  I have mentioned that my boys have special needs, but I try not to focus on that.  I never want my children to be defined by their disability-though it is the first thing you notice about them.  If you spend any time with them at all, you see so much more.  They are amazingly sweet kids and I am blessed that someone up there thought that I had the fortitude and strength to parent them.  But the fact is that they are sick.  They have a very rare metabolic condition that has only been diagnosed in about 60 cases worldwide.  We have two.  This condition affects their vision, their physical development and their cognitive development.  Essentially they reached about a five or six month old level and stopped.  They will never walk or feed themselves or swear or throw rocks at the UPS truck and the doctors have given them a lifespan of mid to late teens.   That part sucks.  Bad. 

I like our house, and I have shown you the pretty parts of it.  I have never shown you the rotting sills or the leaking roof or the fact that we have two bedrooms and there are six people living here or the fact that we have one bathroom and it is not wheelchair accessible.  Our little house is 900 square feet and 111 years old.  We can't fit two wheelchairs into the house even if we could get them through the door.  So, yes, a handicapped accessible house would be AMAZING.  I'm just leery of opening up our weird little life to the world to maybe get it... 

So anyway, that's whats going on there.  If you want to, and please don't feel pressured to, here is the facebook link that the physical therapist set up.   TWOMBLY FAMILY

I appreciate any support you can show our boys, but please know that we won't be devastated if we don't get this.  It's just such an honor to see how many people truly care. 

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa

Genius!

Oh good.  This is just what we need!  I mean really how can we go another winter without one of these?  Oh it was free?  WONDER-freaken-FUL.  Lovely, just peachy.  What a great deal. 

I mean what could go wrong?  Oh, you're going to use it to RACE with.  Perfect.  Good idea.  Why didn't I think of that?  That's brilliant. 

But don't we already have one of those?  I mean it may be missing the windshield, and the handle bars, but it's still good right? 

Now remind me again how it came to be sans windshield and handlebars.  Jeesh, now what was it that happened?  Something about going really fast on a frozen pond and losing control and three hours in the ER and numerous stitches, fractured eye sockets, fear of brain damage (verdict's still out on that one) and swelling.  No, doesn't ring a bell?  Hmmmm....well maybe this will jog your memory...

Dear Lord, thank you for not making me a boy.  They are dumb.  Amen.

Smiles from the (well insured) farm,

Lisa

Please remember to have your gourds spayed or neutered

So last year Big Bud went on a kindergarten trip to Treworgy's orchards where they were able to pick one apple and one pumpkin. Woo hoo, thought I, being the snotty wanna-be farmer that I am. They also got to pet a goat and look at baby chicks. Pffft, big deal.


So we went home and displayed his "pumpkin" on the sink window sill until it went a little punky. Then I threw it in the compost pile.

One year later, we have gourds....lots and lots of gourds.



Smiles from the farm,
Lisa