It isn’t always easy to get your ducks in a row. We found out yesterday that it’s also hard to get ducks to stay in an Easter basket. It was Easter morning and we wanted to surprise our children after our church’s sunrise worship service. One of my childhood dreams was waking up on Easter morning to find a real live chick or a bunny or a duckling in my basket. It was one of those dreams that never came true. I know, it’s sad. But, I didn’t grow up on a farm. So, I can’t really blame my parents for only putting edible chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps in the purple plastic straw. All these years later, I decided to make my dream happen for our children! We planned for our children to find a duckling in each of their baskets at the end of an Easter hunt. But, by the time the baskets were located, all the ducklings had escaped across the hardwood floor waddling everywhere but going nowhere. We had chosen one male for our son and two females for our daughters. Of course, these adorable ducklings are always trying to stick together and, as my children played with their new ducklings, my young son seemed surprised, “My duck real–ly likes the la–dies…” The children played and cuddled with their ducklings all day inside and outside, on the hammock and on the trampoline and even on the swings. Well, we may never get all our ducks in a row here on the franch, but our children certainly have some new farm friends to love.
Why isn’t franch in my dictionary?
It's because my family made it up. It is both a verb and a noun. It is when you are not quite farming and you are not quite ranching. Instead, you're franching. It's like a hobby farm. But, that doesn't fit either, because it is way more than a hobby, it is a life. You spend way more than you make doing it. Yet, you still do it. And every life lesson can be learned on a franch.
FranchLife Lessons Learned
- The Lost Art of Writing Thank You
- Better than Blogging
- A Story by A Second Grader
- Summer Reading
- A Good Life
- How You Know You’re a Francher
- The Best Border Collie Ever
- Get Them Before They’re Gone
- The Old-Fashioned Way
- I’m Not Leaving
- His Mother Said That
- Easy to Make Lasagna
- A Poem in all the Mess
- Christmas Came
- If You Only Want A Sentence, You Better Say So
- God Speed the Plough
- Dinner Conversation
- Dressing Up
- Award-Winning Children or Chickens
- Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- A Miracle
- Do you Want the Good News or Bad News First?
- Who’s the Farmer’s Wife Now?
- Where’s Waldo?
- Just Ask Siri
- How ’bout a Toy?
- Stay
- Love Beyond Words & Borders
- It’s Chigger Time
- A Spider in a Tupperware
- Puppy Makes History
- Being a Mom Comes First
- That’s Not the End of the Story
- A Knight in Shining Armor
- A Little Bit Like Heaven
- The Grass is Sometimes Greener but it isn’t Home
- New Friends Not in a Row
- Your Life is About to Change
- Where is she?
- Franchsitters
- It’s a Matter of Perspective
- Gifts on the Franch
- Lucky
- The Day a Calf Lived
- How’s the what?
- Wooden Egg Prank Gone Wrong
- Where Did It All Go
- A Beautiful Sunrise
- Life’s Too Good on the Franch
- Sunday Best with Dirty Fingernails
- Rocking Chairs that Don’t Rock
- It’s All About the Breast
- To-Do Lists on the Franch
- The Day He Became a Hero
- Dancing on the Franch
- New Year’s with Chickens
- Exhausted yet I’d Do it all Over Again
- Reflections on Christmas on the Franch
- Not Your Mama’s Manger Scene
- Giving Back What Isn’t Ours
- Did That Just Happen?
- Hide-n-Seek on the Franch
- Man versus Water Pipe
- A Sense of Humor Required
- Unwelcome Guests
- I Won’t Run Out
- Muddy Paw Prints
- All it Takes is a Rubber Band
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- I’m Sorry, But…
- Empty Stomachs on Thanksgiving
- Franching Gets in the Way of Writing
- Animals Don’t Care
- Cow in Labor – Grab a Pitchfork, Don’t Ask Why
- No Parenting Chapter For This
- Time can Kill a Chicken
- Our Thumbs are only Light Green
- Going Broke
- In the Arena with Wild Hogs
- Franch Fashion
- Act Before You Think
- Bad Fences Make Good Neighbors
- The Birds and the Bees Hijacked by a Buck
- The Early Bird gets the Adventure
- The Other Man
- Eat Veggies Not Friends
- Saying Grace with Sincerity
- Am I a Boiled Frog?
- Why isn’t Franch in my Dictionary?
advice to me
- Grammy on Better than Blogging
- Grammy on A Story by A Second Grader
- Poppy on Better than Blogging
- Poppy on A Story by A Second Grader
- Gigi on A Good Life
- Annette on The Best Border Collie Ever
- Lin on Get Them Before They’re Gone
- Kit on The Old-Fashioned Way
- Poppy on The Old-Fashioned Way
- Lin on Easy to Make Lasagna
- Poppy on Easy to Make Lasagna
- Brad on Dinner Conversation
- Brad on Christmas Came
- Lin on Christmas Came
- Lin on God Speed the Plough
- Kelly on God Speed the Plough
- Seth on God Speed the Plough
- Kit on Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- Poppy on Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- Poppy on Just Ask Siri
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