Sometimes a picture can speak a thousand words

And sometimes not a single one of those thousand can be spoken aloud, lest the small children repeat them. 

The farm life. At therapy.

I crossed my legs at my sons occupational therapy appointment today. This is what I saw:

The farm chores are done.

This is my son

This is my son.

My precious little boy. 

I would give my life for this little boy. He is my everything, and you know what? I am doing the best I can at being his mom. I am making hard decisions on his behalf every single day. Being the mom to a sick child is not easy. I am constantly fighting for what I believe is best for him. 

And you know what else? Even though many people and groups claim to be arguing on my behalf, they are wrong. I am that mom. My child is that kid. The one that needs everyone else to be vaccinated. The one that relies on herd immunity. My son has a very damaged immune system.  He does not make titers, so has no immunity to the things commonly vaxed for. 

There is a huge "anti VAX" movement, and right now they are being attacked, many claiming on the behalf of people like my son. 

I have something to say on that. 

I support you. I support the mother that doesn't VAX. I support the mother that does VAX. I support every single one of you that has followed blindly, or has reaserched until she can research no more. As moms, we are doing our very best. We are fighting the good fight, and we are doing our best. We are following our hearts, and saying our prayers ( or whatever form you follow) and we are all in the boat together, just trying to stay afloat. We are putting one foot in front of the other. 

So what say we let it go, and support each other. I know it has been said a million times, but the Facebook and blog posts slamming each other isn't going to help anyone. No minds will be changed. Support is the only way we will all make it out of this in success. 

Oh Jen, you silly sweater

I know. I am a little obsessed with Jen. It may be wrong, but it feels so right. Almost. It felt really right, until I ran out of yarn at the end of the first sleeve, and went to get the next Hank. And no. The Hank is gone. The Hank has done a lot of traveling with me as of late. I fear that it got tired of traveling, and settled down in some town we passed through. Oh, Jen. My dear Jen. Everyone is against us.

So now all of my sweater selfies have to look like this... What missing sleeve?

This little guy has had a super rough week. It has been a very real, hard week. He had dental surgery Tuesday, and they had to intubate the poor baby. That is painful, and this week has been rough. He ran a fever all week, and just felt icky. We saw his asthma doctor at primary children's this week. He failed his breathing test several times, so they medicate and continued doing it until he could pass it. It took over an hour. He was so frustrated. At times like that, my heart hurts for him. We are seeking a second opinion for immunology as well. Not because we dislike his current Dr, but because we want to start treatments now instead of in a few months after using him as a science experiment. Having his two disorders together is rare. I understand the desire to see more and gather more information. I really do get that. But in the end, the team l treatment plan doesn't change. I don't see a reason to delay it. 

Oh Jen, my love

I want you to know how much I love you. I love every stitch, no matter how uneven, or imperfect. (Though I really do hope those even out when we block you) I love your v-neck. It is my favorite neckline I have ever knit. Even though it appears that my center stitch may be a little off. We did it together, you and I. I love the softness of your baby llama. I have a feeling that we will be together a long time, if I finally get your sleeves knit. I am not sure the wife beater looks suits us.
I feel certain that no one will ever need to know that I altered you dramatically on the bottom half of the body. It really was my fault, and I admit that. It was just that I was enjoying our time together so much that I forgot to read the instructions, and assumed I knew best. I see now that I was wrong, and I know that your way is most likely far superior, but this way works well and is unique. It works. Trust me. Next time I will listen more closely to you. Well not on the sleeves. Let's not be too hasty.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jen-3jen-3

I also promise to get better pictures of you. Soon. Very soon. 

The Impulse Buy

I have been waiting to post about this! But I didn't dare, for safety reasons.
My impulse buy was a weekend get away with my honey to Vegas.

We have always planned to go to Hawaii for our twentieth anniversary. It is something we have planned for, well ever.  But in light of recent events, it isn't in the cards. That doesn't make me sad. We really needed a quick escape though. The pressure and stress of the situation is great, and we know it isn't going to get any easier. If we were going to get away, now was the time. Before we start spending all our "free" time at primary children's. So we looked on line, found a steal, and took off. We got flights, hotel, and half our meals for $427. It was well worth it. We woke up early Thursday morning, delivered Taffy's baby, a huge buckling, and jumped on the plane. While we were in the air, Kandy kidded. Of course. But the oldest was here to play catch. She did a great job.
Once in Vegas we napped. A lot. I don't mean that we "napped." We actually slept. We took naps every day, went to bed early, slept in. Relaxed. Breathed. It was zen. We walked the strip, looked through stores, went to Le' Reve, which was amazing. The whole trip was amazing. Things at home were under control as well, which makes it all the sweeter.
Now, picture!

 I knit these socks on the strip. Stripped socks on the strip... That shall be their name.

I ate this little guy.

I Peru much finished the body of this sweater. Just have another inch on the back. 

I wanted to eat this. The whole thing.

Hershey's world was incredible. I had never been three before. Happiness. This area is where you take a bag and buy kisses by the pound . Genius!

 How could anyone look at this and not feel complete joy? Chocolate!

At Le reve. So much fun.

Le reve

And the token sock knitting on the strip photo. 

Meet Bessibelle

We got a cow. Shockingly, this is not the impulse purchases mentioned below. We had been thinking about it, and researching it for a couple of years. Now was the time, so I started looking for a Jersey a few weeks ago, and things just worked out.
Bessie is five, and due to calve in the next week.  The timing was perfect, because we have several goats due to kid, and we raise them on raw cows milk. That gets expensive.. More expensive than buying and maintaining a cow. We also intend to raise her calf for meat. We have big goals to become more and more self reliant. We also intend to use the extra milk from Bessie to drink, make cheese, butter, sour cream, yogurt, ice cream etc.

Meet Bessie.

My daughter has her halter trained already, and my amazing husband set a feeder up just for her. One the goats can't poop in. Yay, best husband ever!!

The minuting is coming along. Slowly. Just switched to the third of for color change . I don't think this week be done by this weekend, and I really wanted to wear it . Maybe I will get a knitting miracle. 

My husband, the amazing one mentioned above, has been making wonderful paleo meals. This is cauliflower mash with a xhicken breast and balsamic reduction drizzle.. Yum. 

These are veggies for an omlet . I thought they were stunnin . Like yarn.. 

Veggies, turkey patty with a little cheese, and salad with the vinaigrette the hubby made. 

This week my daughter also made paleo cookies. To. Die. For.