Ford Man!

The other day, Jesse brought me a collection of toy trucks. He said "we sure have a lot of Fords, Mom!" (Daddy is a Ford man, and all our vehicles are Ford made, and even the tractor is a New Holland, which is affiliated with Ford, and the engine in the bale wagon is from a Ford-you get the idea!)
Anyways-sure enough-the vehicles he'd brought to me all had that characteristic little blue circle with "Ford" written in the middle. I agreed with him "you sure do have a lot of Fords!" He extolled the virtues of his little vehicles, then went quiet for a moment, fiddling with the toys. Then he looked up at me and said "so why do they make Dodges?"

Parcel forwarding!

I have discovered an awesome service!! It is called Peacock's Parcels They're a mail combining/forwarding service located in California. You have your US purchases sent to them, and, for a very small fee, they combine it all in one package (they will also hold til you request shipping) and send it to you, allowing you to save postage, as well as buy from people who otherwise wouldn't ship to Canada. This is especially great for books, as you can often get free shipping on them to anywhere in the States, but shipping can be-well, SCARY to Canada!
They are a terrific company, I've used their services for a few months now, and I really enjoy working with them-they are funny, VERY service oriented, and very fast, and super reasonable too!! I'm not getting any kickbacks for posting this :) I just really want to share, in case it helps someone else-and because this company deserves any great exposure available!! :) So if you like to buy on Abebooks, or Amazon, or Ebay, or Hyenacart, or whatever-check them out! :)

What not to do...

Warning-possibility of TMI (too much info) in this post
It is a really, really bad idea when you have a bad case of mastitis, to just pop a couple of advil and continue on your mad dash of a day, instead of going to bed to rest and nurse baby and heal. You may have limited success, like hitting the feed store to get much needed feed for the critters, and delivering some nice fresh farm eggs to your Grandma, but it will get you in the end-like when your son's fiddle instructor sits down to work with him, after having spent some time tuning his little fiddle, and you suddenly get a feeling like you are about to crash, and then have to interrupt the teacher, who, seeing your sheet white face, and,thinking quick, grabs the baby from you and helps you to the bathroom, where you feel too weak to even throw up, and nearly black out, while she dials your husband to come get you. You do eventually throw up, and then lay shaking on the couch in the waiting room for your husband to drive you home while the other student's mother, who is pregnant, holds your baby for you. The short 20 minute ride home will feel like the longest in your life, as you alternate feeling too hot and freezing cold and hurting and aching all over like crazy.
I am much better now though, thank you, and Leroy did do an awesome job tending the kids, critters, and house while I lay in bed. Sorry to have given everyone a scare though!!

Babies....

Pictured here:
Tinkerbelle (the little goat), Snowy (white lamb), Starlight (black headed lamb).