Sweet Summertime

The year is flying by.  Nothing major ever seems to happen around here but we are making all sorts of tiny steps towards our little people becoming more grown up, independent folks.  

Each morning the kids are up and out the door as the sun rises so they can feed their livestock and walk the hogs.  I often wonder if the kids realize how fortunate they are to witness such a beautiful time of day in such a beautiful area, or if some of these sunrises are totally wasted while they cuss and discuss various 'little 80 year old man' topics.  

This year the boys work with their 4-H calves all by themselves.  Get them caught, rinsed, walk them in the yard, they can do it all.  It's so incredible to watch a 50 pound boy be able to control a 1400 pound steer.  Mom, I'm 56 pounds - please get it right.  

When the kids are working on their arts and crafts projects for the fair this summer I just give them the hot glue gun and walk away.  I think some of the kids have burned their fingertips enough times they may not have any fingerprints left, but perhaps they'll grow up to become bank robbers and thank me for being so farsighted.  

The oldest is 10 and cuts all his own boards for woodworking.  I'll admit, I still peer over his shoulder on this one.  Partly because it is super dangerous, but partly because I love woodworking so much.  He seems to enjoy it as well and I love that we can bond through this.  

The three oldest kids all played baseball this summer and had a great time.  All three also played catcher at times.  This was my favorite position growing up and it gave me great pride to see them tough it out during miserably hot games.  

This day was particularly rough. She got up early to help load cattle, had swimming lessons during the late morning, picked up rocks and sticks from a previously flooded field all afternoon and then was absolutely comatose during the hour-long drive to the ballgame that evening.

Arguments are starting to evolve around here as the children age.  During breakfast last week I heard a heated discussion on what type of spray we needed to use on our soybeans.  I don't think my favorite PBS cartoon, Daniel Tiger, has a helpful jingle I can sing to diffuse these sorts of arguments.  Also along those lines, I miss many of the PBS cartoons that helped us along during the past decade.  It seems now we've graduated to old westerns, science documentaries and exploration-type shows.  

I'll admit, we push our kiddos pretty hard out here.  We see how the rest of the world is spiraling and it only further solidifies our desire to raise our children more like '80's babies', with less technology and more time outdoors and filthy.  But it's not always work!  This summer we've tried to make more time to carve out a little bit of fun.  Great Grandpa stops by occasionally and though he doesn't stay long, the kids always glean a little bit of knowledge (and a lot of bull) from him.  We recently stole away for a weekend and went camping with cousins.  The kids are now hooked and have been mentioning pooling their money to purchase a camper.  And one of the best perks of kids maturing is that we can now eat at a restaurant and actually enjoy the experience!  Our good friends recently opened a sundry in a nearby town and it is quite the place.  I enjoy a reprieve from feeding a small army and the kids enjoy eating at such a fancy place with familiar faces. 

Fishing Lessons, Life Lessons

We had friends over to play a few days ago and the mother mentioned how impressed she was with our kids and the way they seemed pretty self sufficient with their chores.  Although I gave her the full disclosure that things didn't always run so smoothly, I did puff up a little bit with pride.  We have seen, and continue to see, the ill effects of standing around and constantly asking for a handout and we try very hard to make sure our kiddos *hopefully* won't be that soul sucking drain on everyone around them.  

4-H has been a wonderful addition to our family activities, as well as our church bible study group where the kids play and help out.  It is amazing how much the kids are able to absorb big picture concepts and how important it is to give their time and talents to others.  They are 'learning to fish' so to speak.  (You know.... teach a man to fish... nod in agreement, folks.)  

This year's Easter egg hunt in town meant more to them because they helped stuff some of the eggs and they are so excited to do it again next year.  They enjoyed seeing their friends open eggs to find candy and thinking that it was an egg they had stuffed just for their friend to find.  

Our latest project has been building a bench for an upcoming benefit auction.  Though the kids are too little to run a saw, they are wonderful at handing me hand tools and screws.  They are just as excited as I am to deliver this bench and pray it raises needed funds for a family.  

While building this bench last week, John (5), and I had the opportunity to cuss and discuss lots of topics.  He knows the importance of saving money and how much we value coupons in this house and was surprised when I told him all that goes out the window during a benefit auction.  He now understands that it is okay to spend a little more because all the money will help someone that we love.  We talked about making this bench and how the funds will help our buddy, Alex, who was in a terrible vehicle wreck and maybe this would help make his heart happier.  I could tell that John was absorbing some and we continued working in relative silence for the remainder of the afternoon. 

A few hours later John came in the house and asked for some cardboard to make a bird feeder.  I'm pretty sure he'd seen a demonstration during a PBS commercial about making a bird feeder with cardboard, peanut butter and birdseed a few days earlier.  

"Mom - we can make a bird feeder and then send it to Alex and the doctors can hang it up outside the window in his hospital room and he can look at the birds.  Do you think that would make his heart happy?"  

I cried.  A lot.  Big, fat, ugly tears.  99% of the time I question if we're getting anything right with this tribe but that was one time I knew God made sure he absorbed it all and had a servant's heart.  

***And here is my shameless plug.  If you are in the greater east-central Kansas area on Sunday, April 11th, please make plans to eat at the Chicken House in Olpe and participate in the benefit auction at 1 p.m.  Thank you***

Spring has Sprung

We had a little cold spell come through a few weeks ago and there were nearly two weeks that the temperature never rose above freezing - a rarity for our area.  

The very first day that the mercury rose above 32 in the thermometer my husband turned to me and said that spring had officially sprung.  I replied back that I'd see him in May.  

Neither of us were joking.

Calving has started for us, there is ground to work, cattle to be turned out to pasture, then calves to work, then planting... We are fortunate to be surrounded by men in our lives that put in an honest day's work.  We're in that stage of life where we help out meagerly when and where we can. 

Oftentimes the baby likes to stand at the screen door and watch the world unfold in front of her.  From here she has a perfect view of the chickens, cattle, men driving up and down the road, siblings playing tag in the yard... It's not too shabby of a vantage point. 

Now that the temps are above freezing I can get back to some projects in my wood shop.  Each day I've been sneaking away for 15-20 minutes and applying stain to cabinet doors.  At this rate I'll be done in approximately 20 years. 

BVD snap tests take up the majority of my 'free time'.  I run tests for hours each afternoon while the baby naps for ourselves and several friends.  It's a very cost effective management tool that I wish would catch on for more that run calves.  

On days when the wind is NOT blowing 40+mph we try to walk a few miles.  I love these walks.  This is perfect homeschool time when we cover a plethora of subjects. 

• deer tracks vs. cattle tracks vs. horse tracks vs. raccoon tracks
• pasture management so we don't have invasive weeds like sericia
• how God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh
• genetics and breeding and why some calves are born with a bald face and some are solid colors
• calf life cycles
• rumen nutrition and microbes that live in cattle tummies (we mix and match our scientific levels)

I realize they won't absorb all, or maybe even half, of what we cover during these walks, but it sure is fun to see what their take away message was.  

On ridiculously windy days we often spend some time indoors coloring or creating with Playdough.  This little girl obviously spent more than a few moments in the fresh air that day. 

We divide and conquer when we can with parenting and often times it is not pretty.  This particular day I dropped off kiddo #2 at the side of a field with a sandwich, fresh chocolate chip cookies and a water bottle and wished him the best of luck.  His dad drove by eventually with the tractor, picked him up and they worked ground for several hours while I took everyone else to a 4-H meeting.  We rushed away as soon as the meeting was finished, swung by the field to pick up one of several verrrry sleepy kiddos and tucked them all into bed.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Day after day. 

Spring days are tough for school-aged kiddos.  Our oldest suddenly felt very ill this morning when truck after truck lined up in our yard and made just enough room for the school bus to pull in and pick him up.  He was so happy last year when school was cancelled due to the pandemic and it meant he was able to help work cattle every day.  This year will be rather traumatic for him and probably result in years of therapy.  Poor dear. 

I love this little life.  Glamorous it most certainly is not, but fulfilling it most certainly is. 

Wordless Wednesday

 Alternate title: WHY I CANNOT ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN A TIMELY MANNER

Content

I attended a media training several weeks ago and during this training we were asked to set goals.  One of my goals (which I obviously did NOT follow through with) was to create at least one blog post per week.

"Is that possible? Do you have enough content for something like that?" the session leader asked.

"Buddy, we have content.  It's the time I don't have." I replied.

So, without further ado, here's a bit of the content that I should have been posting weekly for, ahem, sevvvvveral weeks now.

We've been checking baby calves in the evenings.

Delivering eggs to great grandma.

Pulling over while driving to snap a few pics here and there.

We've been building workbenches. 

Stealing sweet feed from our horse.

Acting so dejected when I wouldn't let her up on the swingset to help me screw in boards. 

We've been having our annual heart checkups (still all good!). 

Riding roping dummies at night.

Burning, burning, burning. 

On the rare evening when it was too windy to burn, we skipped rocks.

We've been miserable with allergies.

As I stained boards on the swingset, the kids wrestled.

We've had shop picnics, car picnics, pasture picnics... you name it and we've eaten there.

We've been cloud watching, bird watching, who-was-in-that-pickup-driving-by watching. The upper deck of the swingset is great for observing life. 

We've been to the zoo...

I nearly died laughing.  She kept telling the tiger "Hiiiiiiii kitty". 

Picnic time with girlfriends.

Going to grass with cattle.

Being insanely cute.  Wispy hair is cute when you're nearly 2.  When you're 32 it's not nearly as endearing.  Same with freckles.  I've given my kids so many 'cute on kids, not on adults' type traits.  

I've been forgetting to utilize the 'action' setting on my camera, clearly. 

And I've been bathing kids.  Quite often, actually. 

It's an exhausting little life, believe me. 

Like I said.  We are most certainly not lacking in content, just time.

Dog Days of Summer

It has been a hot, miserable few weeks in our area.  We've had to get rather creative with some of our activities as I try to make the kiddos get as much outside time as possible.  I feel there is little to be gained from spending much time indoors.  

We play on our covered porch often.

And we've been 'swimming' a handful of times as well.  There's not much water in the creek right now, but they still enjoy splashing and exploring. 

Notice the black 'cast' on John's arm.  He told me that he broke his arm and needed to put a cast on it.  His version of a cast was slipping a coozie on his arm.  I love his creativity. 

We spend quite a bit of time in the feed bunk while their horse eats her breakfast every morning. 

Sage and yarrow, both from my garden.  This simple bouquet has lasted nearly a week on my table and still has lots of life left in it.  So simple and so beautiful. 

The vantage point from the top of a ground load trailer is pretty good, in case you didn't know. 

Poor Laurie is so patient with the kids and loves to be smothered with affection.  I love her love of the kiddos. 

An art project for the fair.  I cut up toilet paper rolls so the little fingers would spread out like an octopus.  Kenyon then dipped them into paint and made a picture of fireworks.  This is the extent of my creative genius.  

We love to go fishing with Dad.  

John is happy to cast and reel in fish, but he's not too crazy about the idea of taking them off the hook himself or throwing them back in. 

The boys like to catch fish and Kathryn can eat her body weight in fish.  I just throw some bites on her tray and stand back.  

Kathryn like to ride her horse, but mostly just sidesaddle.  I hope it's just a phase.