A short Thanksgiving romance by Maude

Maude writes romance stories under a pen name.  Please check out a short Thanksgiving romance she wrote at:

http://www.aletheiavongottlieb.blogspot.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Revolutionary War Re-enactment

Recently, we went to a Revolutionary War Re-enactment. www.battleofthehook.org  It was SO much fun!

Some Revolutionary War reenactors watching a skirmish.

The re-enactment was very large with over 1,000 re-enactors, 6 historically accurate boats, a field with battlements, and a cabin that was torched the last day (I was told  about that but didn't see it as we went on Saturday).  I have been to one Civil War re-enactment but this was my first for the Revolution.  There were people from all over the world at this.  Some of the re-enactors were actually from Great Britain and Germany and came across the Atlantic solely for this event.

Upcoming Fantasy Novel (by me!!)

I am just now starting to get my fiction stories published.  I write fantasy and romance.  The romance blog has already been announced on this blog (www.aletheiavongottlieb.blogspot.com) but nothing has been mentioned about my fantasy work.

That is because my FIRST fantasy novel has just been announced (and I don't have anything up yet blog/website/etc for this genre)!!!  I will be writing under the pen name Bryen O'Riley.

Here is the link to the announcement that my editor wrote up about my fantasy novel, The Stone.

https://www.facebook.com/LuthandoCoeur/posts/517816861635255

Please check it out!!

The Farmer's Dozen

It has been nearly 11 months since we bought our hobby farm.  We have 2 sheep, 25 chickens, 16 guinea fowl, 1 pig (the other one was recently slaughtered), and 1 farm dog. 

We have put up paddock after paddock of fencing.  We have build shelters and aviaries.  We have cared for and wrestled with our various animals.  We have plowed with a tractor and sowed with our hands.

Why God Made Men

My lower back has been bothering me so I (finally) decided to put cold or heat or something on it.  I put a cold pack on the first day, which was nice, but after talking to my husband about it he recommended I use heat.  The next day I put a warm rice bag on the area for twenty minutes and started feeling better.  The next day (because I can only manage to heat my back  once a day - twenty minutes is a long time for a mom of little ones!!) I put the warm rice bag on again and could feel a real difference.  So I stopped.  The pain wasn't terrible anymore so the twenty minutes disappeared.

Anyway, today my back started really hurting again so my 3 year old daughter asked if I wanted the rice bag.  I said thanks and helped her to put it in the microwave flat.  I told her to turn it on for 45 seconds then we would turn it over and push the 45 and start again.

She tried and tried and started to get frustrated that it wouldn't work.  She normally doesn't have any trouble pushing the buttons on the microwave so I went over to help.  She had successfully entered "45" but the "start" button wouldn't push.  I tried several times and couldn't get it to work either.

I took the rice bag out of the microwave and told her it was broken and we'd have Daddy look at it when he got home.

My daughter diligently told him about the problem when she saw him and when he came in from farm duties he immediately went to start working on the microwave.

It wasn't even 2 seconds later that he had the microwave happily humming away!

I was astonished!  How on earth had he managed it?

The Importance of Fathers

Last month my husband was out of town for a few weeks.  Of course I missed him but for the first time I saw beyond my missing my best friend and beyond the extra chores that fell upon me in his absence.  I saw the absence of the father of my children.

He wasn't there to wrestle with Milton, to snuggle with Maeva, to read books and play outside.  He wasn't there during bathtime or to give goodnight kisses. 

In fact, while he was gone Milton, who's been potty-trained for a year, started having accidents (yes, that is plural - I probably should have made it a capital S!) and Maeva, woke up screaming with night terrors several times. 

Sheep-Shearing

My family is currently reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder so I know for a fact that Almanzo says that sheep-shearing is fun...

So naturally, I was expecting sheep-shearing to be fun.

Nope, it wasn't.  It was crazy, hard and scary.  But mostly crazy!

Here I am with our half-sheared Leicester Longwool sheep, which is a critically endangered heritage breed.

We went to a sheep-shearing party at the farm where we bought our sheep and watched a man from New Zealand who had been brought in hand-shear the 20 or so sheep.  He sat the sheep down on their rumps and sheared them each in about ten minutes or less by himself.

It was our first time so we erred on the conservative side and figured with electric shears, two people, and a whole afternoon (for two sheep) that we would be fine. 

We weren't.

We're Back!

After an 11 month hiatus, we sisters are dusting off our keyboards and are ready to start posting to The Sisters O'Brien once again!  This time, however, we are setting no rules for ourselves.  As busy wives and mothers we are unable to commit to a Monday - Friday posting schedule as we did previously.  We will post when we post.  We hope that you enjoy our blog as we continue to share our lives with you. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our thoughts and please check back often (or follow us) as we continue The Sisters O'Brien.

p.s. We would love to hear from you so feel free to comment anytime!

Maude's writing blog

Maude has started a blog under her pen name:

http://aletheiavongottlieb.blogspot.com/


Feel free to check it out!!

A Sad Goodbye

Today I am tasked with writing a sad post. A goodbye post. It has been nearly a year since we began this blog and we have enjoyed it and been challenged by it. We have loved having the chance to write, and we have sure appreciated each person who chose to read what we wrote. Unfortunately, the time has come for us to end this endeavor. We each have our own reasons for stopping, but we are all in agreement that it is the best action to take. There has been no dispute between us! We largely took our other responsibilities and family time into consideration when making the decision.

Thank you for "following" our blog. Thank you for caring about what was happening in our lives and for appreciating our take on life. We have loved this experience as sisters, and we have treasured the time shared. If you are interested in keeping up with us in other ways, you can follow Esther's personal blog at: http://estherbeard.tumblr.com/ and find out more about Maude's production company here: http://ehrenkrookentertainment.com/. As for me (Lizzi), I guess I'll just have to be in touch.

Sisters Chat about 4-H

Maude: This week I thought we would talk about 4-H. I am not sure if you all heard about the announcement from the Dept. of Labor who is revamping child labor laws but they made it illegal for kids to work on anything but family farms (most family farms are legal entities and therefore would not be considered "family"). In addition there was language that would make 4-H and FFA illegal.This has been rescinded because there was such a big stink.
But it got me thinking about 4-H.
Esther: That's crazy and dumb!
Maude: I know, it is ridiculous!!!
Esther: like we need kids to be learning less. 4-H and helping on farms is such a great way to learn.
Maude: And it teaches them hard work. Plus there is something of a catastrophe looming for farms because around 80% of small farmers are set to retire in the next 10 years and there is no one to replace them.
Lizzi: Wow. That is certainly a catastrophe!
Maude: All the big farms will continue but small farms are the backbone of this country. Imagine the countryside without small farms!!
Yuck!
To those reading this who aren't familiar - What is 4-H?
Lizzi: I don't remember what the 4 h's stand for! Isn't that terrible?
Maude: head, heart, hands and health
Not sure why I remember that...
Lizzi: I was close! I was going to say head, heart, health and home. Close, but no cigar!
Maude: haha, Liz!
Esther: 4-H is an opportunity for young people to learn how to work, farm, build, sew, cook, and lead.

Mornings At My House

My household (other than my husband!) usually wakes up between 8 and 9 in the morning.  I am not a morning person and so I normally sleep in until the kids wake me up leaving my "quiet time" for night.  But this morning I was awake before 7 am.

I decided to surprise my husband and have breakfast and spend some time with him before he went to work.  I was thwarted as he had to go in early and I just missed him.  As I came downstairs, he drove off.  So I had some toast and read my Bible.  The house was quiet; the deck was cool; it was lovely.

Then at 7:30 am Maeva started fussing so I got in bed with her and snuggled down.  She was sweet and we both fell back asleep.  I felt like this waking up early thing had some potential.

lamb leg roast

I like lamb. I think it is delicious, however, I have very little experience cooking it.  I have decided to change that.

I bought 3lbs of a boneless leg of lamb.

Healthy (and Yummy!) Carrot Zucchini Muffins

These muffins are a sweet, tasty way to get my three-year-old to eat vegetables! They are about as healthy as muffins can get (maybe if I added bran they'd be even healthier.. will have to think about that!) and they eat like a yummy treat! 

Sisters chat about SUMMER

 Esther:  Since today is June 1st I thought we'd talk about SUMMER. I don't know about you all but after memorial day and once school is out I don't need to wait till June 20th to feel like I am in summer
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of summer?

 Maude:  HEAT.

 Esther:  I think of ice cream & drive-inns

Gardening - Asparagus Success!

We planted our asparagus early.  We dug holes in our red, clay soil, mixed in some black soil for good measure and watered faithfully.  After a month of nothing happening we decided that we would rather use that space in our tiny garden for our tomato plants so we transplanted out tomatoes from their starter pots in the house and put them in the section where we had just dug up the dud asparagus and we put the asparagus into the started pots and put them in our front window.

The general plan was to water the asparagus if we thought about it but otherwise to not waste anymore time or thought about the dead asparagus crowns.  We placed a spray bottle next to the plants and let the kids squirt (or sometimes drown) the poor little plants as they wanted to.

What to do with laundry...

This morning I was making my bed and thinking about the dishes I needed to get done and then I noticed the laundry pile in the corner of our room and remembered that I forgot to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer last evening. Ahhh! Ever have a morning like this? I started my day feeling overwhelmed before 8am, that is a little depressing.  Unfortunately, I think I start the majority of my days this way.  Beginning my days in such a stress filled state is just asking for disaster. I am snippy with my husband, impatient with my son, and just frustrated in general. What can I do about this?

Late Again

Late like always. I did not plan to talk about procrastination today. I had a great post started, but that's all it was. Started. Instead of completing it and scheduling it to automatically post this morning, I waited, thinking I would get time today to finish it properly. Oh, my. Will I ever learn that waiting is never the best policy? Waiting until tomorrow to complete a task simply means that it will be finished in a hurried, haphazard way, if it gets finished at all. 

Just a Little Pride

Our guest blogger today is our brother-in-law, Jim. He is married to our oldest sister, Hannah. They have three sweet boys.


I would like to talk about Pride. Not in the biblical sense, as in Proverbs 11:2, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom."

No, this is a different kind of pride. Let's call it the healthy kind. Like, when I grill four steaks and three of them actually turn out edible. Or, when I am successful in convincing my four year old that there is no actual Holiday called "Pantless Tuesday."

Of these healthy types of pride, my favorite is the pride I have in my wife, Hannah. This pride does not come from a selfish or arrogant place. Am I happy that she is beautiful and the girl of my dreams? Sure. To say I'm proud of those things would suggest I had something to do with it. Taking credit, if you will.

My pride is in her successes. The drive, determination and heart she puts into everything she touches. After eight years of marriage, I can be around her for ten minutes and wish I was a better man. On top of that, she has blessed me with three beautiful, smart, healthy and sweet little boys.

What a Girl Wants

It is funny to think back to what I wanted in high school and compare that to what I want now as a woman.

I wanted to be living in Europe with a career in something international, business suit required.  I did not want to be married and most definitely did not want children.  I wanted to be able to travel on a whim and see and experience whatever culture I found myself in.  I wanted independence and importance.

That is not what I want now...