Happy Birthday, E!

My handsome son is 23 years old today.  I say it every year, but I simply cannot believe that he has so quickly grown from that beautiful little baby boy into a tall, strong, intelligent, capable young man.   If you haven't read my old blog entry about his birth, you can read about it in an earlier post.  It was quite an experience!

Son, I hope that you have a wonderful day.  I pray that you continue your pursuit of happiness and that your thirst for knowledge and your quest for answers never die.  I hope that you understand that life will knock you down at times, but that you must find the strength within yourself to get back up again and again, and that I will always do anything I can to help.  I hope that you know how much you are loved, no matter how grumpy you might be :-).

Happy Birthday!

Our 15th annual "We Don't Have to Go Back to School Today" day!! and Austin the Duck...

The local school systems had their first day of classes today.  Poor little ones, the weather has been atrocious all summer and today it was BEAUTIFUL!

Here is a quick run-down of our 15th We Don't Have to Go Back to School Today day - all scheduling done by the Little One!  Our day began with breakfast at Burger King, followed by... (deeeeeep breath) shopping at Kmart and Tractor Supply (duck needed food), 3 hours at Chuck E Cheese, a visit to our favorite thrift store, 3 hours at the splash pad - we had it to ourselves most of the day and again the weather was AMAZING! - then supper at Sweet Peppers Deli complete with a shared slice of their Chocolate Eruption Cake - *dangerous* stuff.  That, my friends, was a wonderfully exhausting day!   The weather was absolutely perfect for the first time all summer, and we've been promised more of the same for the rest of the week!

Speaking of duck food...  Austin the Duck is SO beautiful and we love him dearly, but he goes to his new home this Wednesday.  We found him a new home a few weeks ago, but the amazingly sweet young lady (who has agreed to give him a proper-ducky home) and I had scheduling conflicts, not the least of which involved me spraining my ankle two weeks ago, plus we had triple-digit heat for a couple of weeks and I did not want Austin to begin his outdoor life when it was so hot! 

But the time has now come and although he seems to be very happy with us - snuggling in our laps, running around the house - with one of us right behind him with tissues, making sure he stays off the rugs and doesn't eat anything he shouldn't!! ;-), swimming several times a day in the bathtub, and playing outside in the back yard, it is time to let him go.  He has been an amazing learning opportunity for us all and he has enriched our lives with his soft peeping and whistling, nuzzling bill, curiosity about everything, beautiful feathering, and comical antics.  He will be missed.  Very, very much.  Never would have believed I would fall in love with a duck...

Hello to Ken and Some Good News!

First of all, I'd like to say "Hello and Welcome" to my newest follower, Ken Wilkes.  Ken is a really nice guy who has a blog over at  HomelessZillionaire.blogspot.com.     I look forward to keeping up with his adventures as he transitions into the RVing lifestyle.   Welcome, Ken!

Another quick update on the Lucky Duck... I think that I have found Austin a permanent home!  There is a young lady in our area who has an amazing farm where she takes in rescued horses, donkeys, and other animals.  She has a pot-bellied pig, baby goats, chickens, ducks - a true menagerie of rescued animals.  I wrote to her yesterday to see if she knew anyone who might be willing to give Austin a proper home, and she wrote me back within the hour, telling me that she would love to have him!  She has 3 other ducklings just younger than Austin and 4 adult ducks, so he will have a ready-made family.   I hope that they will accept him.   Although we have become quite attached to him and will miss him, we knew that we were just his foster family and are thrilled that he will have such a wonderful home!  After I meet this young lady and obtain her permission, I will post her information so that you can see what wonderful work she is doing.

Austin will be at least 5 weeks old this Friday... we found him on a Saturday and he was not much more than a day old, so we have decided that June 24th was his "hatch day".    He has quadrupled in size and is getting some beautiful feathering above and below his wings, on his tail and on his chest.  He is sort of growing into his feet and bill.  :-)  He is going to be a beautiful duck!   He is quickly outgrowing both his "pen" and his swimming pool, so we are very happy to have found him a new home.  We hope to deliver him to his new Mom either Friday or Saturday.  As I've said before, I have no idea yet if he is actually a "he".   We will know when he/she finds his/her quack in a few more weeks.   :-)

So... other than my son's little car being in the shop again - booooo, and trying to bear the unspeakable heat and humidity along with most of the rest of the country, that is about all that is going on here in Alabama.  It is Handy Fest Week here in The Shoals - the festival celebrating WC Handy, Father of the Blues, but it has just been too hot to enjoy the festivities.  I wish they would have it in October!  The music offered is amazing and I love the Blues, but have not made it to a single event this week.   The heat is just too oppressive... I hope that next summer, my house has wheels under it so that I can chase some better weather!!

The Little One and I are gearing up for our new unit studies... This year we plan to use the American Girl Historical Characters series as a basis for our unit, and also plan to study  a different country each month.   She loves her American Girl dolls, and really enjoys the books, so we are using them as a springboard for various activities.  I am tying the "Country of the Month" unit study in with the AG books when possible.  I had planned to do an in-depth study of American history in correlation with the AG unit study, but she really wants to study other countries right now, so I'm going with that.  I hope that next year we will be studying American history by traveling around this beautiful country and visiting the locations and monuments which most children only get to read about!  So American history will wait until we can experience it in person!

Hope you are all finding a way to stay cool and enjoy your summer.  Be careful out there!

Prayer request...

One of my former students gave birth to her baby boy on Wednesday, June 29th.  Brantley had to be airlifted to a children's hospital when he was just a few hours old.  He has pulmonary hypertension and a cleft lip which is causing feeding problems.   They are worried most about bleeding in his brain.   He is in very, very critical condition right now and I would like to ask everyone to put him on their prayer lists and say a very special prayer for him and his family. 

The mommy is a sweet young lady who is only 22.   Her young husband just returned safely from a 6 months deployment in Afghanistan.  Thankfully he made it home before little Brantley was born.  She lost her Mom at 16, so she has already suffered a great deal in her young life, and now is having to watch her tiny little boy suffer and fight for his life. 

Please join me in lifting up this little family in prayer.   Thank you so much!

Lucky Duck update...

Just a quick note to update you on the progress of our Lucky Duck aka Austin... He is growing like a weed and eating everything in sight.  He is a very messy little duck, so given that fact and his appetite, I am convinced he is a male!  lol  Honestly I have no idea, but it sounds good...  He loves curly endive and Bibb lettuce (organic) but is not crazy about spinach.  He loves strawberries and peaches, but won't eat blueberries.  He adores oatmeal and cornmeal mush.  And he drinks lots of water!

He is a week old now.  The research I did tells me that he was barely 24 hours old when we found him, so he had his 1 week birthday on Friday!  He has grown almost an inch !! and gained several ounces.  He is a happy little fella as long as someone is with him, talking to him, or holding him.  He will peep, peep, peep if he is left alone, though.  I can always tell when my Little One has left the room, because he begins to cry.  He likes to watch TV, and seems to prefer to listen  Journey.  Oh wait.  Maybe that is me!  But he doesn't argue about it.  :-)   I set his tub on the bed the other day while I was ironing, and he looked as though he were watching a ping-pong game - his head went back and forth, back and forth, watching the iron.  He just likes to be wherever we are...

He settles down at night as soon as we turn off the lights, but is up bright and early letting us know he is hungry.  I leave oatmeal and lettuce bits out for him at night, but I don't think he eats very much.  He is taking almost everything he eats to his water dish now, so it is difficult to keep it clean.  We change it at least a dozen times a day, and wipe out his bin more often than that!  He also could care less where he goes potty, so we usually wrap a cloth around him when we hold him!  :-)  We put him in a small tub in the bathtub and let him swim around at least twice a day.  He does not like it very much at all, but he needs to practice.  I have to remind him that he is, after all, a duck!  After his swim, he likes to cuddle up in our hands and go to sleep.  Yes we are spoiling him and no it is probably not good for him.  But he is so cute and irresistible!

We are looking for a home for him, but my Little One will not give him up to just anyone!  Hopefully we will find a good place soon.

The VERY Lucky Duck

Yesterday my daughter and I went to our local Arby's for an early supper.   When we went in, we used the side door, but as we were leaving, I decided to go out the front.   Not sure why, but later I was really glad that I did.   We were walking along the sidewalk toward the parking lot and I heard a strange sound.  I told her that I thought a bird had a nest nearby because I could hear "peeping".  But it didn't really sound like baby birds.  I was looking up as I walked along and suddenly realized that the sound was coming from below me.  I looked down and a tiny baby duck came waddling out from under my car!  I stood in shock for just a minute, then set my things in the car and tried to catch it. 

This little fellow was heck-bent on heading west - maybe he'd heard the advice to "Go west young man" - and waddled straight for Woodward Avenue.  Those of you who have been in Muscle Shoals, AL know how busy Woodward is, especially on a Saturday afternoon.  For those of you who haven't, just picture any 7 lane street through a small city on a Saturday and you will get the idea.  Cars were heading both north and south, and since there are not any traffic lights in this area, most of them were going quite fast.  I could not get between the little duck and the street in time, and out he went into the traffic.   I was standing on the side of the street, waving my arms like a mad woman and pointing at the little guy, hoping that drivers would at least slow down to see what was happening.  I watched him until he crossed 4 lanes, then saw a line of traffic coming down the southbound lanes.

I just could not watch this sweet little bird be killed, so I shouted for my daughter to look away and I turned and walked to the car.  She and I were both almost in tears - I will never forget the sight of that tiny little brown and gold baby dodging across all those lanes of traffic.  We backed out of the parking space, and as I put the car in drive,  she yelled "There it is!"  It had made it across SEVEN lanes of busy traffic!!! Unbelievable!!!

There is a small strip mall across Woodward from Arby's, and the little duck was standing on the sidewalk in front of Austin's Shoe Store.  We were able to go across the street quite quickly, and I parked in front of the strip mall.  By this time, the little fellow was waddling down the sidewalk in front of the various shops.   My Little One was begging for me to "save it", so I got out and chased it down the sidewalk.  It went around the corner of the building and made tracks - webs? - for the alley behind.

I jumped back in the car and pulled around to the alley, got out again - did I mention that we are in NW Alabama and it is H-O-T?? - and chased it up and down the side of the alley.  I would go one way and it would go the other.  This went on for several minutes and I finally called to my daughter to come and help me.  I had initially made her stay in the car, even though she really wanted to help.  So... she came over and we cornered the little guy - who was panting by now - and she just scooped him up!  She did in 5 seconds what I'd been trying to do for 5 minutes!  Of course she is lower to the ground and much more nimble than I am!  :-)

She handed him to me - she wasn't at all sure about holding him at that moment - and we took him back to the car.  I was thinking to myself  "now what??".  I told her to open the trunk to see if we had anything we could safely put him in, and I saw the Rubbermaid tub I use to hold all the "stuff" I carry around - jumper cables, extra water, oil, umbrellas... you get the picture.  So we unloaded all the stuff out of the tub and put him down in it.  My Little One carries water everywhere she goes, so I wiped out a corner of the tub and poured a little water there, so it could get a sip, and put a clean rag in another corner for it to lie on.

We brought the baby home and put him in the bathtub until I could find a better home.  He is a fast little thing, and I did NOT want him getting loose in the house!  The Rubbermaid tub had worked well, so I grabbed another one that held some of my daughter's stuffed toys, poured them on my bed and brought the tub to the den.  Found a shallow lid to hold some water and a clean cloth to make a "nest".  Brought the baby - who I was calling "Lucky" and she had named "Austin" - and placed it in the tub.  He went straight for the water and took several long drinks while stomping around it, then proceeded to peep loudly for a little while.  He then promptly pooped and began to preen his feathers.

Now of course I was faced with the task of feeding the poor little thing.  I knew he had expended many calories on his mad dash across the highway and around the buildings with a crazy woman chasing him.  So I - of course - immediately turned to Google to find some answers.  He has since eaten quite a bit of cornmeal mixed with water, tiny bits of spinach and lettuce, hulled corn, watermelon, and crushed cat food (he loves that!).  He slept all night without a peep (pun intended!) and chirps loudly every time my daughter leaves the room.  She is beginning to understand the demands of "motherhood"!  She told me this morning that her cat and dog "weren't this much trouble"!!  :-)

I have read that ducks and geese imprint on whoever they assume is "Mom", and it seems as though my daughter is who Lucky/Austin has chosen.  She is - of course - totally in love with him too. 

Since today is Sunday, I can't call a local vet or the local Feed and Seed which sells baby ducks to get any advice on caring for him.  We have a cat, so we cannot keep him, but I do not yet know what we will do with him.   He is precious and I know she will not give him up easily, but I just could not leave the tiny thing alone to fend for itself.

By the way, I am saying "he", but of course I have no idea if it is male or female.  I am somewhat certain that it is a Hybrid Mallard, based on its markings, and that it is less than a week old, based on its size and feathers.  He is a pretty little thing, bright eyed and curious.  He will snuggle down in your hand and fall asleep quite easily, and seems to be eating well.

Any suggestions on care and feeding would be appreciated.  I'm making sure he stays warm and as dry as you can keep a duck.  :-)    I want to make sure he gets a good home where he can live out his days just enjoying being a duck.  I think that after yesterday's adventures, he has earned it!  He is definitely one Lucky Duck!

Happy Father's Day!!!

My Daddy was a big man in every way.  Tall, large-boned, heavy-set, brilliant, with the biggest heart in the world.   Any time I had problems - which seemed all too often for one so young - he was there with assistance in any form needed.  Although at times I bucked against the advice he was giving me, he had an annoying way of being right about so many things, and would readily admit when he was wrong.  Although he was definitely not perfect - and never tried to pretend that he was - he was a wonderful person and a great Daddy.

Daddy has been gone for over 14 years now.  He died the day after Christmas 1996, and I don't think a day has gone by since that I haven't thought about him and wished that he were still here.  He was a wonderful Granddaddy to my son, who was 8 when Daddy died.  My little girl never got to know him - she was born almost 4 years later.   She is the only girl in her generation and Daddy would have spoiled her rotten!  She has no contact with her father or his family, so she has really missed out on a positive male role model, which worries me very much.   Every girl deserves to be Daddy's Girl.

I would give almost anything to see my Daddy again.  To hear his voice, even if I didn't want to listen to what he was saying!  To hug him and feel his strong arms around me, reminding me that as long as he was around, I was safe.  I don't think I've truly felt safe since he went into a coma a week before he died, and wonder if I ever will. 

How I wish that my children had a father like I had.   All I can do is love them and let them know how special they are, regardless of someone elses choices.  

To every man out there who has stepped up and done the right thing by his children, grandchildren, step-children - whenever and how ever a child has come into his life - to the man who takes his responsibilities seriously and loves and protects his family - you are an amazing human being!  I pray that each and every one of the great dads out there got an extra hug and kiss today, and got to hear "I love you" from the hearts of those for who they have provided an example of how a REAL man lives.    Happy Father's Day to each of you!



I want to say "Hello" and "Welcome" to my newest follower, Four Windows with a View.  Thank you!  I really enjoy your blog and I am looking forward to following you on your adventures!