Gratitude and Attitude and the Rest of the Story

First thing this morning I'd like to say thank you to everyone who takes time out of their busy day to visit here. I mean that sincerely because our lives are so busy we must make choices as to how we spent spend our limited time.

I'm not sure what it is you find when you come here but I do know what your visit means to me. You see, I live 9 miles from anything, it's a choice we've made and it's a wonderful place to be. But there is a cost.

Living in a rural community means you're isolated from other people and although things like this make it more bearable,



...it's still difficult at times.

Let's just say it's a very small pond and sometimes you long for the exciting stuff that's happening in the big pond. That's the grass-is-always-greener syndrome. The internet is the biggest pond of all.....the world is available to you. But of course too many choices can make us very unhappy.

The people I've met here "At Home" have enriched my life in ways that were surprising to me. I never expected such an open climate of sharing. I was raised in a time when resources and talents were kept "close to the vest". I've watched the roles of women change dramatically and I'm simply in awe of today's younger women. I'll talk more about that another day. I could write a book on the subject.

Lately my mind has been working on a Mission Statement because it's important to define what you're trying to accomplish in your writings, who you'd like to be conversing with and most important, what you have of value that you can share with others.

After a mini-rant the other day and my story about our own encounter with the Department of Children & Family Services I realized I hadn't gotten back to you with the rest of the story. And yes, you need to know the rest of the story.

No, we were never able to find out who reported us. I realize the necessity for anonymity in these situations but believe me when you're an innocent party on the other end of an accusation such as this it's frustrating and hurtful.

The Farmer and I spent lots of time on the phone with the agency and finally realized it was fruitless. We spent many an hour thinking about this. We were well thought of in the neighborhood, at least that's what we believed. There were no disagreements with the neighbors, so we ruled out a vengeance motive. That left us to examine what was happening in our house, or what our children might have said that could have been misconstrued.

There was only one thing we could think of that was a possible explanation. The Other Mother was not living with us at the time, but occasionally she would spend a weekend to help me clean (she's a whiz at that) or to babysit so the Farmer and I could go on a date. The kids would need to finish up watching TV early because at 7:00 p.m. her "shows" would start. Now, if you know anything about older people you'd know that they are loyal to their TV shows.

We think the problem arose from the fact that The Other Mother was a fan of a stupid dating game show called St^ds. Fill in the blanks or click on this link for an overview (don't worry - G rated). My kids would probably have been in the room and can imagine the result of a child saying to a neighbor, "We watched St-ds the other night".

Ooooops, they might have forgotten to mention that they were watching it with their grandmother!!!!

And that my friends, is how you find a social worker standing on your doorstep.

Pictured above is an Olde English Southdown Babydoll Sheep. Click on the link and be prepared to have your heart melted. I took the photo at Garfield Farm's Rare Breed show that takes place every May. I'm hoping they'll be there again this year. We don't have livestock, but I'm wanting one of these sheep!!