BRINGING HOME THE BACON

Well, not bacon..but pheasant.

He got one!  

Brought it home and cooked it up himself! 

Doesn't get much better than that.

Congrats, kiddo.

NEXT!

 

Our final birthday for the year!

This guy, still a "Boogie," turned 14.

Instead of traveling, he was able to stay home and get his complete birthday menu.

He has shot up several inches this year and so now I am dwarfed by four.

I wasn't sure if I was going to share or not, but we also made a discovery.

 

This kid has always been quiet/shy/reserved around people.

We've been trying to "get him out of his shell" for years now with no success.

In the course of this year I came across the term "selective mutism" and/or "situational mutism."

Wouldn't you know, it describes our Boogie to a T.  Literally every aspect of it.

We followed up with our general practitioner who agrees and though we don't have an official diagnosis, (that would come from a psychologist) we have answers!

It is not just shyness..nor is it rudeness or defiance.  This is anxiety-based and literally shuts him down. Now most of the research on this deals with very young children, as a teen we obviously need different strategies.  We have the contact info for some therapies, but for the time being we are working on it. It is absolutely something that can be overcome, with hard work.  I may share some more about this at another time, but for the time being, to those who know him--Patience and Prayers.

We hope you had a wonderful birthday!!

HOME

 

November 17th, Mike's grandmother passed away after a brief illness.

She was 94 years old.

The funeral and service were yesterday and the Pastor kept using the words "Hope" and "Home."

We don't mourn as those without hope because we know she is now home.

BIRTHDAY BUDDIES

 We celebrated another birth-day last week!

12 and 10 for our birthday buddies

These guys pretty much do everything together and are really big helpers.

We hope you guys had a great birthday!

ZOO DAY

 We recently visited the zoo!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day in November.

I was rather amused, watching zoo employees put up Christmas decor while sweating in the 80 degree weather.

Otters

Penguins

We got to watch the penguin feeding and learn a bit about them

Everyone wanted to just reach out and touch this guy

Pretty cool that we have the same amount of vertebrae in our necks..

Old-school and SO much fun was had..

all 9 were on the merry-go-round.

ta-ta for now!

A HUNTING WE WILL GO

 We also have a new hunter!

This guy passed his written test with a 99% and did a great job on the field test.

He went out this week for the first time, saw some birds (pheasants) but no shots.

YET.

Happy Hunting!

LIBRARY

 

Our local library is getting a facelift.  

And a substantial addition.

Super exciting..however, in the meantime, it has been shut down for nearly a year already.

They do have a little service point where we can drop off and pick up books requested, and a very small selection that can be browsed, which we are very thankful for!!

It is nothing like the real deal though.

Over the summer we would rotate different branches of our library so the kids could physically pick out items..

The other branches are not close though, so it is hard to get there on a regular basis.

We are really, really looking forward to the opening of our local branch

in the spring of 2025!!