Donkey Oven

"Mum, Penny's cooking that foal too long - it's gonna be burned!" The donkey blues had arrived. 12+ months of anticipating a foal, and it still hadn't popped! Like c'mon, there's no need to over-bake the baby! (Don't freak out though! Donkey pregnancies are 12+ months. XD)

Every day for weeks, we'd checked Penny daily to see if she had brought a little one into the world yet - all in vain. Truly so, for it wasn't until we went to a camp over this last weekend that she finally got on with it.
I'd had the sneaking suspicion that she'd give birth once we'd left, and I was right. Upon returning home, we met our newest arrival - a gorgeous little filly.
Since her mother is Penny, we're considering calling her 'Shilling' or something fiscal-related like that... XD Ideas?
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Mum likes Inky, so I think we'll go with that name. :) Thanks guys!

Goodbye Girls

It came to pass that 5 years ago we got into goats again. We didn't want to breed animals for death, so we raised dairy goats. British Alpines, Toggenburgs, Anglo Nubians, and even a couple Saanens.
I was quite the wild goat girl - my life revolved around the goats, and so did my conversations. "...and then I saw that Dolly had kidded! She's the third goat to kid this year, and now the boy/girl average is at 5 doe kids and 3 bucks kids! As she had 2 doe kids. You see....." 

5 years of blood (horns, sharp pointed feet and teeth draw blood!), sweat and tears (litres of both... lol), all effort put into our friendly, rascally pets. There's been joy and grief, excitement and pain. And yet, all things, good and bad, come to an end.

For the first few years, I wouldn't have dreamed of ever selling our whole herd, and yet it's happened. Indeed, the time of 'coming to pass' came - for today, the last of our pedigree herd has been sold. It was an emotional time for all - joy and excitement on my behalf; happiness and sadness on Mum's part. By far it was the most 'bittersweet' for her, than for us girls (Christella and I).

It has come to pass that we have moved on. Good-bye, my sweet, rascally girls!

No Brains

 So… I have learned that:

1. Negative thinking shrivels the dendrites (‘arms’ of brain cells that reach out to connect with other brain cells) in the brain. (~Anatomy and Physiology book)
2. Raised cortisol levels of stress also cause the dendrites to shrivel up. (Coffee raises cortisol levels. So does stress.) -Ginty, F., ‘Dietry protein and bone health’, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol 62(4), pp. 867-76 (2003)
3. A lack of essential fatty acids shrinks the brain (this often happens in pregnant women especially, as they don’t normally have enough on a normal ‘non-pregnant’ basis, and when called upon to share as they are pregnant, the lack becomes increased.) 
4.  Metallic/rock music suppresses the frontal lobe – part of the brain. Consistent suppression leads to inactivity; inactivity shrinks the brain – use it or lose it.

Now we all know that every other person thinks negatively to some extent most of the time. Ding.

We also know that the average person is a coffee drinker, and that every single person encounters stress in some shape or form on a normal basis. Dong.

It has been found that every other person is lacking in EFA’s (essential fatty acids) because of some reason or another – generally simply because the EFA intake is minimal to nil; plus because fried oils block absorption - a single meal with fried oils blocks absorption for up to 6 weeks; also allergies block EFA absorption. Who has allergies? Every other person has some type of an allergy, whether or not they know it. Ding.

The TV, movies, music, entertainment basically, encourages brain death through inactivity. Dong.

• We use only about 1-2% of our brains.
• I think that’s about all we have left anyway.
•  This world has to end soon – we’ll have no brains left!

Work and Photoshoots

So, I've been staying with my big sister for a little while, hence my absence. Life as an aunty is full! In fact, I wrote a poem the other night to that effect..

Cooking, cleaning and school;

these things my day do rule.

Facing every fear;

working with cheer.

Truly, of this my life does comprise;

and I do it by early to bed, early to rise.

It's a life full, but fun;

learning, working, racing the sun.

Yet I'll face it, head held high;

I'll use this time that's going by.

For I'm young but once;

tis the time to gather life experience.

Though I must admit, it hasn't been all work. Every now and again, Christella and I take some pictures. The other day I stole some time to set up a photo shoot of Hannah. She's just too cute not to. ;)

 

A friend gave her sunnies, and she wanted to try them out. XD

Little miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet, reading her book. :)

Aunty got some shots of Cabie doing his work. :D

Cabie multi-tasking. Drinking up his spirilina and doing school work.

5 isn't too young to start washing dishes!

The Turtle

Ever heard the story of the turtle and the hare? You know, the fable of the turtle who challenged the hare to a running race... with the turtle ending up winning because the hare took a nap. Well, I was told once that living by this story was the key to success. What?! I thought, But it's just a fable! It's got nothing to do with real life! Right? Right! Or maybe not so right....

You see, the other morning, I came across the turtle. I'd been living with it for years, without particularly thinking about it... until I studied about in my anatomy and physiology. I was learning about our three different types of muscular tissue when I saw it. As the saying goes, I saw the light.

Here's what I learned:

We have three types of muscle tissue: skeletal, cardiac and smooth.
Skeletal muscles are the ones we have control off. They're the ones in our arms, legs, fingers, toes... etc.
Cardiac muscle is in only one place - the heart. We don't have conscious control over this muscle, since it works continuously and automatically.
Smooth muscles are everywhere! Though the most prominent places are the blood vessel walls and the digestive tract. These muscles are involuntary, meaning they work without our conscious effort. But most importantly, they are slow-acting, untiring and steady in action. What's so important about that? Well, don't you see? That's the turtle! It wins the race by slow and steady. It gets that food digested, not in one or two big pushes, so to say, but slowly and steadily over a 5 hour period.

You see, we might live in a rush and bustle, all or nothing, now or never society; but our body remains old fashioned: slow and steady, faithful and true. I am the turtle.

I Was Born For This

I hadn't been home for long. Just over a day before I'd done the long trip from Sydney to home. We arrived when it was past midnight, and I had been, by then, awake for over 18 hours. The lack of sleep was now, well and truly, catching up with me. I was really tired! Even though I had just woken up.

All around, as I looked about, I saw work that needed doing. Work that *I* needed to do. And I caught myself wishing that life was easier. Why couldn't my life be one of ease?

That morning, breakfast time came a short time after I woke up, and thus I wasn't very hungry. So I decided that I should do my Bible reading before anything else. When doing my reading, I came across Isaiah 32:9 and 11. "Rise up!" it said, "Tremble! Ye women that are at ease; be ye troubled, ye careless ones."

I noticed that he was giving emphasis to the women who are living at ease. Those who were living carelessly. Why should they be trembling and troubled? Because easy living doesn't develop character. Life wasn't meant to be easy. For me, or anyone else.

It isn't going to be easy. It wasn't meant to be. It's going to be rough going. But I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me. (Phil 4:13) And I can rejoice evermore through it too. (Phil 4:4) I was born for this.
*This was written a few weeks ago.

The Day My God Died

"Mum, did you know that from 700,000 to 4 million people are trafficked worldwide every year?" (Trafficking - the illegal trade in human beings through force, fraud, coercion, or violence for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labor, and other slavery-like practices.)

"What?!" She exclaimed. "That is terrible!"

"Yep." I added. "And on an average, 15 girls are trafficked in Nepal, every day. The average age being 14, but 7 and up are taken too."

Mum was, naturally, horrified. Especially when we watched "The Day My God Died" trailer. Then, as we talked about it, I saw the connection.

We've all heard people say "Yeah, I know about the kidnapping, abducting, etc. But it won't happen to me. It hasn't before, and won't now. Nothing has ever happened to any of my friends either."

But what they don't think about is the hundreds who are abducted on a day-to-day basis. Even though it isn't and hasn't affected them, it is affecting millions of others.

The connection? Well, people always say "Vaccines are harmless. I've been vaccinated, and I never had any harmful side effects. My whole family is vaccinated - They're fine! What are you talking about, 'Vaccines are bad'? Prove it!"

But I can't! They haven't felt the horrors of being crippled because of the deadly syringes, and thus they can't empathize, relate or even sympathize. It's beyond them.
But what they don't think about is the hundreds who are crippled every day. Even though it isn't and hasn't affected them, it is affecting millions of others.