Well, Spring has MORE than sprung and its time for updates!! The little bundles in the picture are too cute to not talk about straight away. Almost 7 weeks ago, a cat gave birth to a litter of kittens under Cranky Pirate's Jeep! It was a huge shock as there was a pregnant kitten wandering around, but this was a different one entirely. Little Valkyrie heard the kittens fussing, and I had to go get two of them and put them back with their mother. Apparently she was malnourished from the get go so, after feeding her and giving her a cozy spot, she seemed to be looking after her kittens fairly well...until she abandoned two of them under the jeep. We discovered this early one morning on the way out to school and, unfortunately, while I was inside getting a box to put them in, a neighbors dog got out and killed one of the kittens! :( The saddest part of this was that my sweet daughter saw the whole thing happen. However, we saved one, the sweet runt of the litter, who we named Odin. He was sweet and content and, unfortunately, was abandoned for a reason. Some other neighbors brought the other three kittens back...we're wondering how they got them in the first place, but are suspecting they were taken, since the mother cat kept coming to our house to find them. Just one short day after getting Odin's littermates back, He had to be put down, due to a congenital condition. So, we were left with the three! Little Valkyrie, who watched FAR too much Cartoon Network in her day, named the gray one(a boy)Grim, and the other two are Billy and Mandy...however we had to change it to Billie...thats right, 2 girls! Billie was, at first, so covered in ant bites that even the vet couldn't make a call on gender. We spent several weeks bottle feeding and tending to these kittens...and its wonderful. Sometimes, sitting up at the crack of dawn in the cool and quiet feeding a little utterly dependent creature with a bottle is some of the best and most reflective time you can have. Of course, NOW they are huge(comparatively)and are jumping over baby gates, off of bottles and litter box trained(Thank God!!). Its amazing how quickly life can change! These kittens are a handful, but have been some of what I needed to get my focus off of negative things and stressful things. NOW on to more serious reflections and thoughts. I've been wanting to update on Lent, and the list of things I wanted to either do more of or give up for that time period. Some of it went really well, and some of it was an epic fail. However, I'm not one to give up, so even though it all wasn't a smashing success, I did try and, I am learning from the things I didn't do so well on. I'm incorporating ALL of the list into a set of weekly and monthly goals I have for myself. Just because Lent is over doesn't mean I should stop working on myself. The areas I had the biggest struggle with involved money and all things involving gossip. I've also found that, unfortunately, I seem to come across in a way which has managed to offend alot of people. I try not to mince words with anyone. I don't want to hurt peoples feelings and will actually bite my tongue for quite a while, but eventually, I just say what a)needs to be said and/or b)what everyone else is already thinking. Constructive criticism is a good thing, meant to build up a person, to help them navigate the forks in the road and get to the place where they need to be. Now, as for me, I'm such a stubborn, narrow-sighted, inward-looking person that I need BEYOND constructive criticism...more like a 2x4 to the head! :D However, I'm also a very 'Daria' type...all dry wit and sarcasm, so even things I say out of total concern or compassion get misconstrued. It gets to the point where I just want to pack it in and not be bothered with other people....something in my affect is off and just seems to get me into more trouble than its worth! :/ That being said, I'm still intent to work on myself, for the right reasons. I'm refocusing on my Lent list, with the addition of a few items, AND also starting on a WONDERFUL e-book by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home dot org called Healthy Homemaking One Step At A Time! I've VERY excited about this book and ready to get started. SO, for the next two weeks my main goals or areas of focus are going to be 1)cut the gluten entirely out of my diet(doctor's orders), work on reeling in the grocery budget and trying to avoid the grocery store as much as possible and 2)Work on the first step in 'Healthy Homemaking' which is to reduce waste! I'm so excited about ALL of this that I've also sorted out a plan to update more regularly...as in Monday through Friday! Especially with all of the exciting things coming up! So, in the spirit of things, I will be back tomorrow with a yummy, gluten free meal plan for the following week!!
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