pride, cages, little boys and birds

The end of the matter is better than it beginning,
and Patience is better than pride.  Ecclesiastes 7:8

I guess one thing I have not been accused of too often is having a lot of pride.  In fact, my children often chide me for not having any.  Or of having it over the wrong things.  An example: number one son Gage says I was prideful of my old beat up Suburban I drove for eleven years.  I do admit I LOVED that old car.  It was big enough to carry a months worth of groceries for my large family, big enough to carry all my children and a few grandchildren, big enough to hold two cages worth of rabbits or a couple of goats.  It was beat up enough that when an old lady ran into me at WalMart in her Cadillac, I assured her all she had done was give my car more character.

So I guess it makes sense that my lack of pride - or my pride in the "wrong things" tends to carry over to my home, too.  My older children often try to convince me we should sell this place - my little farm - and buy something really nice in town.  Something with a manacured yard, pretty flowers and most importantly: NO ANIMALS and their paraphernalia.  And I would really enjoy giving my pretty daughter the pretty yard she deserves to have:

But unfortunately, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen...I just don't have it in me.

What I do have in me, I'm afraid, is that I can't turn down a free thing that I might eventually use.  So instead of a pretty yard, what I have is cages:

and more cages:

And yet more cages:

Which brings me to the point of this post.  The above - ummm - "beautiful" cage was a free gift from an old friend (as was the cage the rabbit is in).  We call this cage the "owl cage" because for several months it housed a barn owl we caught, which was the delight of everyone who visited our place.  We finally released it, but it was fun while we had it.  So since then, this cage has housed a few other things, including at times, little boys: 

but they are released as quickly as they are caught...

This morning, Luke was playing outside, and checking out this old cage, and he found a cardinal in it.  To his surprise, it let him pick it up.  In the whole wide world, there is nothing as exciting to a little boy as being able to hold a live, wild bird in his grubby little hands:

And once again, Mama was able to search her arsenal of free and bought cages, and come up with something to house the bird, at least for a while:

I think my favorite part of this set up is the self portrait of number one son right above it, his stern face showing his continuing disapproval of his mom's love of wild life and free 'stuff'.

We do realize the bird is likely to have to be released very quickly, because while this sweet, lovely, relaxed looking kitty certainly wouldn't give the impression of a bird murderer:

I'm afraid looks are deceiving, and after all, we ARE out of cat food...

So we will enjoy the bird for today, and then decide what to do with him.  And in the meantime, even if we don't have pretty flowers and a nice yard, wild birds make really nice props for beautiful daughters: