some ramblings about, and by, our twin girls.
Julia spent some time reading the blog the other day, and decided that she too wanted to blog. We’ve been discussing if she should have her ‘own’ blog, or if I should simply add her post onto mine here.
Julia is our ‘youngest’ daughter. Well… not really, since she is a twin, but she is younger then her twin sister Shaylah by one full minute!
Julia & Shaylah in 2006.
Julia and Shaylah may be twins, but they are very different.
Shaylah on her 11th birthday December 2010.
Shaylah is a fierce advocate of all things animal. Especially small animals.
She’s a homebody through and through. She doesn’t care to go anywhere much, but would rather be at home with her duck, her bird and all our other animals. Even though we can persuade her to go stay the night at the grandparents, often she’ll flat out refuse, or complain when she comes home about how much she missed her bird, or the property, etc.. She loves country life. Thrives off finding bugs, new species of birds, snakes, lizards, and another favorite, frogs.
At one time Shaylah had a frog her brother had caught for her in our creek, and he gave her as a birthday gift. This was probably her best ever birthday gift. Shaylah named him Henry.
She kept that frog alive for over a year! Catching and feeding him moths she’d find on the property, even through the winter months when moths were VERY hard to find. If she went away to the grandparents overnight, I was left to find moths for Henry. Ha!
He lived in our kitchen that entire time, in a plastic frog ‘aquarium’ and she’d take him out for ‘walks’ and to play.
I remember going to the kitchen one evening, in the dark, and suddenly something hopped out in front of me. It was Henry. He had gotten out of his home some how and was hopping around in the kitchen enjoying himself.
Then one day Shaylah was holding Henry outside and he jumped out of her hand. One of our shelties, Levi, jumped up and caught him like he was a treat thrown twoards him, and swallowed Henry whole.
Shaylah was SO upset, and stood there in absolute shock! I swear if she could have, she would have reached down Levi’s throat, and yanked that poor frog right out of his stomach to rescue him!
Yes, Shaylah REALLY loves creatures, great and small, but mostly small. š
Shaylah recently did a blog post, on my husband’s blog here:
http://homesteaddad.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/guest-post-by-shaylah/
Julia on her 11th birthday in December 2010.
Julia also loves animals, but she’s more into the larger variety, like horses.
Julia (age 6) with her horse Nikki, shortly after we brought her home from the horse rescue.
Nikki is Julia’s biggest inspiration in all things.
Julia and Nikki have been through a lot together, already, in their short little lives.
When Nikki came to us, we did not know it at the time, but she was pregnant. We had rescued another horse around that same time, and she too was pregnant. Performing pregnancy tests on two horses was quite the new experience for us! We knew Mina, Alesia’s mare, would be fine. But we were quite concerned about Nikki as she wasn’t even two years old and should not have become pregnant so young! She was a small little thing, not even a horse really, pony size. We had no idea who the father was, how large he may have been, etc. as she was in a very large group of horses who had all be rescued together.
However, we hoped for the best.
Unfortunately, Nikki’s baby did not make it and she ‘miscarried’ at about 5.5 months, half way through her pregnancy. It was a very, very sad day for Julia. For all of us, but Julia took it especially hard. She was sad not just for herself, but for her poor little pony who had been through so much already in such a short time. Their bond grew even stronger.
Thankfully the vet said that Nikki would be just fine. She could never be a breeding pony as there was a problem with her uterus size/shape which caused the miscarriage. That didn’t bother us any. Nikki was never meant to be a breeding horse/pony anyways, but rather Julia’s great big pet, and friend.
Julia has always been a very gentle and caring child. She also just LOVES people. Like Shaylah, she loves to be home, however, unlike Shaylah, she also LOVES to be around others. She always goes out of her way for them too, rarely ever thinking of herself first. She also LOVES to work.
Her life dream is to have lots of land, a farm, and more horses.
As many horses as she has children one day, she’ll say.
She wants lots of children too.
Julia tells us all the time that when we grow old, SHE will be the one to take care of us. Shaylah then reminds her that SHE is going to help take care of us too.
We have a friend who is very ill at the moment. This has caused our children to be thinking of the future in a way most children their age probably don’t think about much.
It’s also caused them to be thinking about their own futures.
It’s actually done the same for my husband and I as well.
And this all brings us right back to our dream.
As I mentioned previously, this isn’t just our dream, a dream belonging to my husband and I.
This is our family’s dream.
In theĀ pursuitĀ of this dream we’ve come against some negativity, as one always does when things are worthwhile going after. However, we try to keep our chin’s up, and just keep on, keeping on.
Yesterday we signed the papers to put our hobby farm back on the market. Through this, Julia wrote, and wanted to share it here. I’m not going to bother editing it, or changing it, this is just as she wrote it.
And today, I have a choice. I can listen to the negative, or I can follow Julia’s leading, and remain positive.
Julia is a smart girl. I’m going to follow her example, and like her, ignore the negativities that may come my way, put my nose to the grindstone, get the work done and believe that through it all, we are going to do this!
I mean really, who could argue with this face?
I realize that you don’t know us and have never met us. But it sounds like there is internet friends waiting for you when you get here. I read everyday, and rarely comment, but I’m so excited that you might be moving somewhere near me. From reading the comments from others, I know I’m not the only one.