Some more...

Well I have skipped over a year and a half of writing in this blog. As I went back and read through what I had written, it was a little embarrassing. I am sure I will write something again that will make me wish I had not posted so freely. Oh well, that is life.

This morning I woke up to a quiet house. Now this isn't always so rare except for the fact that it was 8:00am. Normally Cyprian would have woken up around 7:00, demanding to be fed. Clement likes to sleep in the morning. Maybe he sleeps in because now he likes to nurse 3-5 times during the night. He use to sleep 6-9 hour stretches, but after meeting Wrangell( my godchild) who is active, I think he believes he will miss something if he sleeps too long. I was spoiled for four months, now I guess it is time for me to experience some sacrifice in regards to sleep.

It has thankfully cooled off. It was really hot yesterday reaching 101. I met a family at our parish, and the mother informed me they never use air conditioning. I was impressed and decided we could survive without it too. Whew, it got up to 93 in the house yesterday, and guess what, we did survive. Our sanity might have suffered a tad, but we didn't kill each other, so it is a start:')

I love my mornings because I get up and depending on if little ones are sleeping I go outside and let Augustine our cat out of the garage, making sure he has food and water. Then I go let the chickens out of their coop. They are quite rambunctious in the morning. If I have table scraps I toss them in the run, then clean and fill their water'er and then fill the feed trough. I then take the hose and hose down my garden. Next I pick up the Wallstreet Journal and bring it inside to read while eating breakfast. In the house I put the tea kettle on to boil, while making breakfast. During the week Franz eats at his computer, because he is working online tutoring. If I haven't said my morning prayers yet then those follow after breakfast. Then it just leads into what ever we have planned for the day.

This morning Franz was not here when I woke the final time. He took off at 5:00 to attend a conference in Abilene TX. We miss him but know that he is doing something he needs to. We actually thought about me and the boys going with to spend a day exploring Abilene. I decided it would be a too much right now. We are all getting over a nasty cold.

Franz is really busy with school and work. I have a hard time when school begins because I know we will not get as much family time. I am thankful though that each day brings us closer to Franz finishing his doctorate. He has several jobs, tutoring online, writing for the Texas Catholic and the Catholic Times, tutoring in the writing lab at UD, teaching a writing principles course, and coaching cross country at Cistercian. He is taking two classes while also auditing another. My Honey works hard, sometimes too hard.

Cyprian is in the process of potty training. Some days are better than others. I am currently trying to teach him the ABCs, his numbers, colors, and shapes. Cyprian enjoys spending a lot of time outside or reading books. He is exceptionally good with the chickens. I think he may be a chicken whisperer, they seem to love him. He is very creative, for example he took a clothes hanger and a plastic golf club, and stated that he was going "hunting for rabbits with his bow and arrow." I just love a child's imagination. He also has a fascination with bugs and lizards. Often times he will be carrying something around that either he discovered or rescued from Augustine.

Clement is so close to crawling. He has started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. He has two teeth on the bottom. They came through exactly a week before he turned 6 months. He also started eating over a month ago. He is a big boy with a big appetite. He loves to talk and giggle. I think he likes the sound of his own voice, and try's different sounds a lot. I believe has a red heads temper.

This will have to do for now. I need to put my little guy down for a nap.

HELLO!

Boy oh, boy oh! It has been a long time. First off we did not get a house and it was an unfortunate and annoying mess. God had a better plan for us. We just had to find out the hard way. Currently we have a house we are renting.

We are now happily situated in a beautiful two bedroom house on 2.2 acres. Yeah, we are still in the city but we have our own completely fenced in outdoor wonderland:') We have been blessed! My country girl heart is thrilled that we have found this little haven in a city. Our next door neighbors are a bunch of minature horses. And on the other side is a very nice family who have two big horses, dogs, cats, and a rabbit. Their daughter has even watched Cyprian for us. Behind the property is a bunch of goats, pigs, horses, dogs, cats, a goose, and some parrots. Of course people live there too, they happen to own all the neighboring minature horses.

Our house has a cathedral ceiling and fireplace, which last winter we used almost constantly. It consists of one great room which is the kitchen, dining, and living room. There are two bedrooms with huge closets, then just a bathroom, laundry closet and pantry closet. That is it. But oh it is so cute and cozy. I am praying we can stay here till Franz is finished with school and gets a stable teaching job.

Most exciting of all is that Cyprian is not a lone child. Clement Francis Klein made his grand entrance into the world on March 16, 2011. He weighed 9lb 4oz. He is a big boy with red hair and blue hazel eyes. He loves his big brother Cyprian, and I can only imagine how much fun and trouble the two boys will get into in the very near future. As it is I have to let Cyprian know that we do not ride the baby as a horse, or make a tent out him. Cyprian really does like trying to help Clement, he is very proud of his big younger brother.

My newest motherly pursuit is in raising chickens. We started with 32 chicks, one just died, and two we believe may have been chicken dinner for our cat Augustine. They are currently 6 and a half weeks old. Half are for butchering and the rest are my beautiful laying hens. I have named all my hens and the one pet rooster we are not butchering. I will go into more detail about my chicks later on.

Augustine our cat is doing well. He traveled back to WI with us this summer. I think he was glad to come back to TX. He has been aggressively staking and stalking his territory. Often times you will see him and the neighbor cat facing off. I have had to interrupt a few yowling confrontations. Augustine is still enjoying playing catch with the lizards, and only sometimes eating them and leaving little presents for us by the door.

All in all I have so much to be thankful for. I really will try to keep posting on this blog we will see how it goes. I need to look back and see just what I did write, it has been so long now........