God has always given me the joy of abundance in all that I have ever been or done.

This morning my thoughts wonder to the abundances I have had in my life. I was born the oldest of what turned out to be 12 children and, no, I never lived with all 11 of my siblings but at one point in my childhood I did indeed live with all 8 of my siblings and 2 parents so from my 8th grade year in life to my married year in life I did live in a house of abundance. We always had dogs in our house as well, I would guess that it reach a crescendo when we only had 6 kids and 2 parents, but we did have 22 dogs and one pampered Pekingese, my mom's beloved baby. We never had many cats in our home but that is not to say that there wasn't one, two or three sneaking around.

Off and on there were other animals in our lives, once 50 head of sheep.  My dad had bought a 50 acre farm, with or with out the sheep I don't remember, but we did indeed, in the end, have 50 head of sheep.  My mother also, soon after, went to the auction and bought 9 more for a dollar, I can remember all the men in the gallery laughing with shear hysteria when one of the ewes had to be helped out of the auction ring.  My mother did have the last laugh, in the end, though my dad too had also sniggered at her band of ladies when she took them home, all but one of those ewes drop a twin or a triplet on the ground a few weeks later.  The one large ewe that didn't died and my dad cut her open to make sure there wasn't a baby but found a stone baby.  My mother bought my dad a lovely registered yearling ram a short time later, she took him home and they put him in the sheep pen. The large ram, that guarded his herd, ran over at full tilt and rammed him in the head killed him dead, my dad ran over and slit the young rams throat, hoping to save his meat, but couldn't get him to bleed out, he was just plain dead. A short while later we were playing in the sheep pen and the big ram started to chase my brother, Red, my mother called him to come to her, having remembered the death of her little ram, the sheep did knock Red over but didn't hurt him.  Needless to say my mom was not happy with the ram, but had to not allow us in with the sheep, it's not like she could discipline the ram, as she would have liked. We moved shortly thereafter and the Shetland sheep dog we had went with the sheep, he would have been lost with us, as we moved into the town of Grangeville, he would never have survived with out his beloved sheep.

My mother, in my older years after junior high, had all 8 of us to entertain when we went to Zootown, and as they didn't usually have any money extra for movies, malls or dinning out we spent alot of time at the humane society dog shelter or the pound in Zootown.  Unfortunately my mother loves puppies so alot of the times we brought one home with us, they didn't usually stay long we child proofed them and gave them to someone to love.  To this day I love dogs, can't take when one is abused, I can child proof a dog like no one. When I say child proof I mean raise one or teach one not to bite or hurt children.  I now have 8 dogs, 5 of which some one gave me for various reasons because they knew I would take care of them and they no longer could. Poppie has his lovely little Minnie, she is a 3 pound chichuaua that hides in his shirt.  Most people who come across him down town, that don't know him, are surprised to see her peeking our of his shirt.  They are almost always hesitant to reach out to her, as notoriously chichuaua of her ilk bite, but she doesn't she has all the snottiness and attitude of any high strung chichuaua but she would never bite, especially not a child, it is just not allowed at our home, queen of Poppies shirt or not. We got Lewie about a year ago, she was six months old, a bitbull boxer cross, she has learned to be a lady, doesn't bite, even then she would like to be mean she does not bite at children, ever.  She however, when on her chain, doesn't like strange adults to come over and want to pet her, I am not sure why an adult who has never seen or been around a dog would walk over to a chained bitbull/boxer and want to pet her, but when they do she does growl at them.  I think she finds it funny that they immediately retreat from her. When she is off the chain and no longer in her area, they will feel a dog on their leg and without thinking pet it, shocked, to find that they are not petting the docile lab but the bitbull/boxer.  Odd how when you let them come to you instead of invading their spot they are more welcoming.

Needless to say my life has always been a life on abundance, no wonder I do things like cook, craft or anything I put my mind to with no restraint, I am not sure I was ever taught restraint, it is something I am working on, I guess my mom felt the need to teach abundance but let me work on moderation and restraint.  It will be a life long endeavor I am sure... tomorrow.