It happens everytime.  I go to clean out the books on my shelves and I can hardly do it.  The books are stacking up, they are falling off the shelves, they are double parked, it makes sense to do it, but I can't!  There are so many good books to read, we collect them for another time, we know we'll read them sooner or later (and many we do), but we can't keep up.  There is only one thing to do......clean out the shelves, get rid of those books, surely we don't need them all.  So, I start going through them and I don't get very far.  I picked up one book, titled,  "A Merry-go-Round of Modern Tales" thinking I could surely get rid of it, until I opened it up.  On the inside cover it says:  "Paula Jean" from Mother and Daddy, Xmas, 1927".    But the real clincher was when I saw the illustrator, "Lois Lenski", one of my favorite children's illustrators and authors.  I couldn't get rid of it.  So there you go, "best laid plans of mice and men".  I come by it naturally of course.  Both my parents were avid readers, my Dad was a schoolteacher, and every room in our house growing up had books, sort of like my house today.  Can you ever have too many books?  I guess not!  My parents didn't think so, I don't think so, and for the most part my kids don't thinks so! 

In one of the old books I found on the shelf was a book of poems that belonged to my mother, titled,
"The Radiant Quest" by Grace Noll Crowell.  Believe it or not, one of her poems is entitled, "Upon Rearranging a Shelf of Old Books".  So,  the poem for today:

"Upon Rearranging a Shelf of Old Books"
Almost I feel the pulse-beat of the ages,
Now swift, now slow, beneath my fingertips.
The heart-throbs of the prophets and the sages
Beat through these bindings, as my quick hand slips
Old books from dusty shelves in eager seeking
For truths that flaming tongues of the ancients tell;
For the words of wisdom that they still are speaking
As clearly as an echoing vesper bell.

Here is the melody that lies forever
At the deep heart of living; here we keep
The accurate, recorded discs that never
Can be quite silenced, though their makers sleep
The deep long sleep, so long as a seeker finds
The indelible imprint of their moving minds.

Typical "snapshot" of Daniel and Jonathan.  Daniel loves to have his fingers in his mouth, unless there is food handy.  And Jonathan has decided that he can smile now when his picture is taken.  So, here is a typical smile for the camera....The other thing that Jonathan loves to do is look for shapes of things.  Last night at the supper table he told us all about pentagons, hexagons, rectangles, squares, circles and more heptagons, and other "gons" ............and on and on.  When he was here on Monday and we went in the back yard, he ran around pointing out all the circle shapes, the table, the stump of a tree, more tables, wheels, etc.  He had a lot of fun.

It was a sewing day today and a good day to be inside out of the wind with pollen flying around.  And soon we are having a friend over for dinner and roast chicken, potato casserole, green beans and lemon bars will be on the menu.  Recipe for the chicken is from Epicurious,  the potato casserole from Mom Meyer, green beans from our garden (last summer) and lemon bar recipe from Karen Cartmell.  All in all, lots of yummy food with recipes from different people.  And a great visit on the phone from my daughter-in-law, Megan, (updates on granddaughter, Analiese), conversation over tea with my hubby, sewing with sister Beth and friend, Janet, another phone conversation with daughter Erin and another phone conversation with other daughter -in-law Heather and yes you can say it was a good day!

We have new babies at our house.  Five were birthed in the last few days, and one has died.  This one that I'm holding was born just a few hours ago, and Doyle had to assist it.  Its leg was stuck and he had to pull him out.  His sibling wasn't so lucky and was stillborn.  We brought this little one inside by the fire for little while, to warm him up.  He was hungry and constantly trying to find something to eat.    Doyle finally took him back out and held the mommy up (she is so weak), and helped the little one stand so he could nurse.  He'll check them in a couple hours and help him nurse again.  He is pretty weak and we don't want him to die.  His mommy is weak also.  I don't know how long she was in labor, but I noticed her this afternoon when Bil, Jody and Rachel came over (probably around 2:00 p.m.).  She was laying down in the barn (which is very unusual when they are in labor) and she didn't look good.  So, we kept an eye on her, and then Doyle had to help her birth this little guy.  I hope we don't lose either of them.  We've lost other mommies and babies before and it's so hard to lose them.  Baby goats are some of the cutest little creatures God ever made.  They have so much personality and love of life, from the very beginning.

In other news the five acres next to us has gone up for sale.  Doyle went out to talk to the Realtor when we saw her put the sign up and couldn't believe it when she said the asking price is $79,000 for five acres and two mobile homes on irrigated land.  We called our friends right away.  I imagine the place will sell quickly.  Doyle has always wanted it, so we are going to look into it also.  The Realtor told us she has an investment friend who wants it and would put another mobile home on it.  We won't like that and don't think its allowed by our covenants (although people have been ignoring them lately).  I do hope an investor doesn't buy the place, it would be a real huge loss to our little community here.  When you figure irrigated land was going for $30,000 an acre a couple of years ago, the price for this is a real "steal."

It's that time of year when we start having babies are our house, baby goats that is!  Here is the first of our year's annual crop.  This little one was the first of a set of twins.  This is the mommy's first baby and now she has two.  She is turning out to be a good little mommy "nanny." 

The same weekend we had a special baby dedication at Roger and Mary's house for Bob and Brenda Schrag's little boys, Braden (age 10 months) and Judah (age  2 1/2 months).  Bob and Brenda adopted these precious little ones and what a blessing to the whole family.  Braden and Judah join siblings, Joey, (and his wife and three little boys), Kim and husband, and Kay and husband and Cole and Kyle (who were also adopted when they were young).  We wish the whole family many blessings and happiness.  God is good!

Monday "madness" is the day I get to spend with Daniel and Jonathan.  They come to spend the day while their Mommy and Daddy are at work.  You never know what we might find to do.  This is a game that Jonathan and I played before naptime called "Count-a- Colour" (an exciting dice game of counting and matching colours.  It is made by Ravensburger.  I bought it along with several other games at our thrift store.  Jonathan is very good at it, so good in fact, he knows how to cheat!  LOL!    While Jonathan finished up his nap, Daniel (who was up from his nap) and I "played".  He had a lot of fun putting the dice on the board, but of course, he didn't know how to roll the colored dice and didn't know he was to put the corresponding colored dice on the board to match the color.  It kept him busy for awhile though. 

On Sunday afternoon our neighbor and friend, Hoss, came over and used his tractor to "rototill" our garden.  Since we are expanding our garden back to its original size (from years ago), we needed a plow to rototill.  The garden is now about twice the size it was.  The ground is  beautiful and we should have a gorgeous garden.....won't be for lack of trying anyway! 

Counting the gifts continues and last night as we were washing up the dishes from a very yummy meal of homemade pizza, made with my homemade pizza sauce, grass fed hamburger, green peppers from our garden, and homemade mozzarella cheese (made by Doyle and I on Saturday evening), we saw something we have never seen in 30 years of living at this house.  Seven deer were visiting our front yard and specifically our bird feeder in the front yard.  Quietly I grabbed my camera and we opened the french doors leading into the greenhouse.  I knew the picture wouldn't be that great, but I snapped a picture and got a glimpse of two deer.  The other deer were in the trees to the right of this picture and going towards the road in front of our house.  We knew there were deer around before, because we have seen the evidence of their presence (scat), but what fun to see them up close.  We are pretty sure that our dog, Sia has seen them more times than we have at night, because sometimes she is just wild and frenzied.  Speaking of deer on Saturday as I was cleaning the house I noticed a red fox running down our road in the front of our house.  That was also a "gift" and it went into my little book.  By the way, those of you who got a little book at Christmas, how are you doing on your list towards 1000?  (See Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Gifts for more information!).

Today was sewing day at my house.  Mary couldn't come and Heather is now teaching on Wednesdays, so it was just Beth and I.  We had a wonderful time though and we spent several hours cutting out material, padding, and old jeans to make into pot holders.  We now have several patterns and stacks of pot holders to sew next week when we get together.  We decided it would save a lot of time to make them "assembly-line".  Of course, we don't want to get too assembly-line like, (doubt we'll really have to worry about that!), but we do have a lot of things to make and once warm weather, Spring and Summer arrive, the time we have to make things will be greatly curtailed.

I get an e-mail newsletter from Susan Branch http://www.susanbranch.com/ every month or so, and today I had a pleasant surprise as she wrote about one of her all-time favorite authors, who also happens to be one of my favorite authors, my sister's and my mother's.  The author is Gladys Taber and she has brought me many hours of pleasant reading.  There are times in all of our lives where we need a quiet place of retreat, a time to go back to a simpler era and read about country life, animals and the farm.  Her books fit the bill.  I remember my mother reading them while I was growing up and I'd ask her about them.  "Oh, you wouldn't like these books", my mother said, "they are just simple, quiet little essays about Gladys' life, nothing really happens in them".    So, imagine my surprise when I grew up and started reading my mother's old copies of these books, to find out that my mother was wrong!    I fell in love with these books and have read them over and over.  Wouldn't it be lovely if there were other Gladys Taber's waiting to be discovered out there?

   Where are you going, Peter?  It looks like Peter is dressed for a blizzard, but actually he's dressed to go into our greenhouse to take care of bees.  Peter is working on the roof of our greenhouse and when he opened it up the bees found the honeycomb.  We don't know where they came from, but they found the honey.  What interesting creatures honey bees are.  We don't want them to die though, so we hope they find their way home tonight.

My new sewing room is all ready for projects.  A few of us have started our sewing and I think we are going to have loads of fun.  So far it's been great just getting the material on shelves and the thread and scissors in the right place.  Jonathan thinks its heaven on earth and today I asked him where he wanted me to read his naptime book and he said the sewing room.  (Well, I had to agree with him that it is a bright and cheery place....just the place to read about colorful sea creatures.)  Today is the first day I am officially babysitting the boys.  I think after we work out a few of the kinks we will have some wonderful times.  (But really going from just "Nalli" to someone who tells them when to eat, take naps and wash hands....well!). 

I've decided there's nothing much better than sitting by the fire on a cold, dreary day and having a hot cup of stout P.G. Tips tea.  After a long night of pretty much no sleep, a run up to Durango this morning, an hour or two cleaning the house and doing laundry, I've deserved a little rest!  So while I "rest" here are some random thoughts racing through my mind.

I am feeling like I am in a raging river, the water is going so fast I'm having a hard time staying upright.    Life at our house never seems to ever.......... be on auto pilot for very long.  Come to think of it, I don't think we've ever done the "auto-pilot" thing here.  I feel sorry for my children's spouses sometimes.  If they had any illusions about marrying into a family that is satisfied with the status quo they probably learned (in a matter of months) that living with a Meyer is sort of like living in a state of perpetual motion and dare I say at times turmoil?  Boredom will NEVER be an option in this family, but there are times when it sounds like a great way to live.  (But then again.............That would Be BORING!)  And actually I can't blame it all on the Meyer side, as the Staley's had their share of living on the edge.  I mean who in their right mind would drag a family of five with a very pregnant wife off to live on the Navajo reservation in 1959?  No one that likes boring or status quo.

Gratitudes and Attitudes:
The dog woke me in the middle of the night to go out.  I hit her on the head and didn't put her out.  She left me a wet "note" later in another room.  Thanks alot!
I watched a great movie last night while waiting for Doyle to come home.  The movie was an Agatha Christie movie, called the "ABC Murder" or something like that.  Great movie, didn't wait up for Doyle.
I'm going through a box of notes and recipes that I found in the pantry last week.  It's like looking back over 34 years of marriage....recipes from those early days of early bride.
Watching the birds at the bird feeder gives me a lot of joy and I am finding out how much I don't know about those little winged bits of fluff.  The cats like to watch them too.
Listening to little Daniel say "Nalli", "Nalli", "Nalli" makes me smile.  His mommy doesn't smile so much when the same little boy says, "mommy, mommy, mommy" 100 and 30 times a day............but who's counting after the first five times?
Little Jonathan asking patiently, patiently every time he comes to my house, could this be the night he stays over?  And one of these nights, he WILL stay over.
Little bits and pieces of "vital" information about Starbucks we never knew.  (And do we care?) Ok, some of it we do care about!    And why do we care?  Because of Peter's new job that's why!
Come Monday I'll be babysitting for Daniel and Jonathan as Heather starts a new job teaching.  Changes, changes, here comes another chapter in my life.