There are certain declarations throughout ones journey through life that are timely and, at the very least, somewhat expected.  However, as Grace sat, clad in pink poodle jammies, hair still in fuzzy braids from the night before, thoughtfully crunching Corn Pops and slurping milk through the straw on her "Cereal Slurpy Bowl", looks up at Jamie and I, and as though resigned to divulge her deepest secrets declares, "When I turn 5, I'm gonna travel the world", I couldn't help but smile and think that her newest ambition was a bit premature.  Then I remembered that this was Grace and couldn't help but wonder.

A vicious cold seems to be running through our household with a vengeance, hitting us all pretty hard, but particularly little Beth who spent 3 days with a fever and 2 full nights without sleep.  She is finally doing better overall but still has no appetite.  Grace has been plagued with a nasty cough and a bout of the "Arctic Sniffles" as she calls them, but is holding her own pretty well.  She moves between being "not sick at all" to "cough, cough, cooooouuuuphhffffff, Oh Mom, I'm soooooo sick" depending on the activities that may be going on, and whether or not she would like to participate.  Yesterday evening, in one of her periods of "not sick at all", she sprang up the hallway at mock speed and tripped on her life sized lion, (which still baffles me, considering our hallway is 2ft wide and as I said, it was a "life" sized lion), after crashing into the wall with a grunt, she picks herself up, looks around and says "Dude, that totally shook the Hamstrings right out of me".

CHILLIN' IN BIG SIS'S BEANBAG CHAIR

GRACE'S FRESH SQUEEZED LEMONADE

Today was another one of those days that seemed to breath the life back into you and you just can't help but step out and inhale.  We started our morning with the spontaneous notion that Jamie and I would head to Charlottetown to take part in the Home Show that is going on this weekend  After lining up sitters and organising the farm for the day it looked like all the stars would line up for just the two of us to get away for the day.  Then our spontaneous notion spontaneously combusted when Jamie got called in to haul a load of potatos.  So Grace and I enjoyed the afternoon in the yard building a snowman and forts and then spring cleaning the inside of our car while Bethany took her nap.

ALWAYS TIME FOR PUDDLE JUMPING

Supper was Chicken Soup which Grace helped with by putting the chopped veggies in the pot and stirring it, and Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits.  Always the mealtime conversationalist, Grace looks up from her soup and asks "Mom, when did Flowers Mom die?"  Flower is a calf we hand raised after we found her wandering in the pasture a couple of falls ago when her mother died calving of a prolapsed uterus. "When Flower was just born", I answered.  "Then how did Flower get borned?  Did she crawl out?"  Trying to quench any forth coming questions I quickly answered "No, Flowers Mom had her and then died soon after".  Not at all ready to drop the subject Grace continues "But, how'd she die, did the other cows eat her?" "No Grace, cows don't eat other cows".  "Oh, well, then why do cows piggy back each other all the time?"  To which I promptly answered "Grace, you want more soup?"

OUR OLD FRIEND

Our 9yr old dog Razor is unwaveringly loyal, wherever Jamie is on the farm, there also is Razor.  A steady and constant pack member who loves to be around his family and isn't opposed to a good belly scratch should the occasion call for it.  Still and all Razor is a "dogs dog".  A no frills kind of guy that keeps his love of snuggles well hidden from the outsiders eye and can come off a bit edgy at first glance from a stranger, yet run away with his tail wagging to let us know we have company.  While he is quite affectionate with us, he is not taken to spontaneous displays and, while always close by, is never under foot when we are working.  So when Jamie felt something tugging on his pant leg while working in the shop today, he was shocked to look down and see that it was Razor.  When Jamie looked at him, he left the shop, deciding to see what "that" was all about Jamie followed him to the grain mill, which had been forgotten running and was now overflowing onto the floor.  This type of behaviour is completely out of our old friend's character, it seems quite obvious that he knew exactly what he was trying to say.