Easter Week Thoughts

Purple sky courtesy of my cellphone/PDA/camera

Here is where I left the tractor when it was time for the Divine Mercy Novena

Every day of Easter Week has a special significance to the Dadwithnoisykids family.

Monday is typically 'Hypoglycemic Monday,' as the children's glucose levels plummet after gorging on candy for 24 hours.

Tuesday is the designated 'Repair Day,' with repairmen coming to work on one of the refrigerators, one of the dishwashers, and one of the washers. Going along with the tradition, only one of the repairs was completed, and pieces needed to complete the other jobs will be delivered before the repair can be rescheduled.

Tuesday and Wednesday were also 'Agricultural Days' as I put the boys to work on the property. After mowing yesterday, the boys dethatched the back property and collected the grass for the compost pile. Meanwhile, I dug out part of the garden and mixed in some of the old compost to make some raised beds for vegetable gardening. Some of the quinoa we seeded in the garden(on a whim) appears to be sprouting. Carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, poblano peppers(there goes that word again) are all sprouting in the little peat pots. We shall see what survives the summer. This spring has been cool and rainy, so maybe this year won't be another drought season....

Today we had visitors to celebrate early Histor the Wise's turning 17. We had a family come over, and as the kids played and the wives talked about their husbands, the heads of the households went for a walk. We talked about our respective jobs, about our children approaching adulthood, and other things that occupy our days. When I mentioned that I have had a premonition of 'seven lean years' approaching, he roared with laughter and said, "that's called kids going to college!" He has two children who have already passed through that phase of life.

Mr. Horse checks out my RWS Diana 300R .177 cal.(4.5 mm) repeating pellet gun. 900 fps, underlever, holds 7 pellets in a cylinder. Very little recoil and fun to shoot!

After dinner, we went to the back part of the property and shot airguns at paper targets or plastic toys. It was so wonderful to be sitting on the warm grass, breathing in the fresh smell of wild flowers in bloom, while concentrating on blowing plastic toys to bits. After a while, I just sat there, watching my friend and a couple of our children shoot as the last bit of daylight faded away. It was enough to be a spectator in this part of my life.

Here is one of the plastic men who lost his head:

Next came cigars on the back porch. This was my 4th cigar in my life, and it was wonderful. Below you can see our cigars, with my favorite Justin ropers in the background. We came inside to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Histor, and the night ended soon after with the Rosary and night prayers.

I am so blessed to have a good friend like the one mentioned above. It is good to be able to bounce thoughts and ideas off of someone who has or will be experiencing the same challenges I face as a Dadwithnoisykids. These kinds of friendship are priceless, and as I think more about this subject, I realize that God has blessed me with many good men whom I can number among my friends.

I would wager that such friendships are less frequent these days, as more time is robbed away from most people by that dreadful device called the television.

I can't mention friendship without discussing my closest friend, my wife. The past 18 years have been the greatest of my life, and all because of being married to her. It is wonderful to marvel at the way our love has grown, and how blessed we are because God gave us to each other. I was reminded of this last night, when the children found our wedding album and started looking through the pictures. I couldn't help noticing how happy I looked in all the pictures, yet I realize now that I had NO idea just how blessed I was to be marrying my wife.

Check out these cute chicks!