A long overdue update

Well, I guess it is time for me to finally post a message. It's been so long since I have written anything. It gets kind of hard with all of my little ones to have the time to post.

There hasn't been too much going on at the Bradley Household. We had a nice Christmas visiting with my Grandmommie, Aunt Jackie, and Aunt Jeanne who came to visit from California, Florida, and Connecticut. It was very nice to see them.

Our oldest had a breakthrough this week. She did two significant things. The first being that she handed the lady at Sam's the receipt at the door and also told her goodbye. That is a really big deal for her, since she is so shy. The other thing was that she is no longer afraid of our dog, Clover. She has been afraid of her, basically since she was a baby. I think the reasons are that Clover is a fairly big dog, as well as a hyper dog. This Monday, as I was about to let Clover out, my oldest asked if she could, instead. I thought that I would of course allow her, since she was desiring to do that. She let the dog out, and asked if she could play outside with her, too. Ever since then, she has had no problems with Clover. I am so thankful. Now, she can help me in caring for the dog!!


This past Tuesday, I attended a Charlotte Mason homeschool support group. It was the first meeting of this group, which my friend, Jenee started. It was a very good meeting, very encouraging and informative. I am glad that the LORD sent Jenee and her family to Memphis. I think she has a lot to offer the homeschooling community here in Memphis. She has been doing it for a while. As far as I know, the group that she started is the first of it's kind here in Memphis. I wonder if anything like it would have been started without her being here. I'm thankful for Jenee. She has been a blessing to me.

I am currently learning to be content. I have had times of learning to be content at various times throughout my life. Currently the issue is a change of address for the Bradley Family. Shane and I long to have land as well as a bigger house. I have been looking on and off for a while. It can get very discouraging. The prices here seem to keep going up and up. I think we may end up being here at this house for a while. It may be a long time before we get some land. Well, this has caused us to think about changing our living arrangements here at our current house. I have been asking Shane about making part of the garage into a school room. Shane has talked about expanding our dining room and kitchen, and moving our laundry area. We are also planning on a garden. We might as well do what we can here in suburban Memphis. We purchased the book, All New Square Foot Gardening this afternoon. Shane is about half-way through. Hopefully we will have a garden this year. I also asked Shane about having some backyard chickens. I have run into two people recently who have had chickens in their backyards.

Well, this evening when I asked Shane about the chickens, a cute little conversation occurred between my daughter and myself.

I said to Shane, “We could have four, one for each child.”
Daughter number two (who is three years old) said, “What?”
I replied, “A chicken.”
She asked, “What's a chicken?”
“You don't know what a chicken is?”
She replied, “That pumps eggs?”

Hopefully we will have some fresh vegetables, and some fresh “pumped” eggs this summer!!