Rural Babies

Today was one of those fleeting, perfect days that you just cannot soak up enough.  Minimal wind, temperature in the high 40's, bright sunshine... absolute perfection.  Thank you, Lord.  

Today was also a constant reminder of our rural life.  

The 'baby' recently moved from a crib into a big girl bed.  She does well most of the time, but last night woke up multiple times crying and needing her mother.  Alas, this required me to be awake multiple times, rocking her and providing encouraging pep talks to her.  After waking up at 4:30 I just decided to officially start my day which really isn't all bad.  It means I get to have quiet coffee - my very favorite kind.  

Whilst attempting to enjoy my peace and quiet I heard rustling outside several times.  I attributed this to raccoons and silently cussed them while I continued to read the news on my phone, sip my heavenly goodness and relish in the quiet.  

At daylight I walked outside to find that the boys' 4-H calves had gotten out of the pen last night and traveled the 100 yards up to our house where they decided to shit on our porch.  Obviously this wasn't' the end of the world, but something that made me cuss under my breath. Oh, who are we really kidding? I cussed out loud and asked the kids to get shovels to clean up their calves' manure.  I was immensely proud; however, when I asked the kids if they needed help.  "Nope.  Dad says if we make mistakes in life we need to take care of them ourselves."  Cannot love this enough.  

We ate lunch down at the shop today, during which Kathryn decided that the dogs were hungry and also in need of a meaty lunch.  She promptly trotted down the road several yards and found a dead rabbit laying on the side of the road that she carried back to them.  

Later that afternoon as I was cleaning in the shop I looked over to see Reese carrying handfuls of food to the dogs who were more than willing to lay on their dog beds as she handfed them eat tasty morsel.  

In between all these antics the children checked their traps, rode bikes, climbed all over equipment, worked with their animals and capped off their evening by hunting racoons with our neighbor.  Days like today make our hearts full and remind us just how lucky we are to raise our babies in this environment. 

Sometimes

Sometimes, well, all the time, I worry about our children.  I think that's normal for most parents, of course.  We lie awake at night and strategize about what went wrong, what went right and what we need to do better the next day.  My husband and I often remind ourselves that our mission is to make good kiddos right now because 'it's easier to raise a good kid than to fix a broken adult'.  Amen.  This is no lie.  Cannot stress this shit enough.  

We have unique concerns about each of ours, but then sometimes I'm reminded that maybe they'll be okay (at least for the near future).  

Kiddo #1: 

He used to make such sweeping generalizations that drove us absolutely insane. 

    Everyone does it.  It's always like that.  This always happens every time.

Now I often feel as if we live with a lawyer.  

    Mom, I hate to tell you but technically, that's not correct.  Not EVERYONE actually does that.  

I secretly love it when he corrects me like this.  It gives me hope for the future.  

Kiddo #2:

We ask him questions that make him utilize his mental math skills and he struggles.  

    And then we ask him to play blackjack and suddenly he knows his mental math like a genius. 

Kiddo #3: 

She likes pink.  She has beautiful blonde hair.  When asked a hard question she tends to giggle and deflect with her good looks.  We worry about her becoming a superficial girl that uses her good looks to gain attention and not put in actual work.  

    Last week I was standing at the sink washing dishes and gazing out at the yard and pasture.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small blonde child bouncing down the middle of the road.  I could see that she was lugging something along but couldn't tell exactly what it was.  As she got closer and started to march through the yard I could finally tell what it was.  She had a fresh, bloody deer leg slung over her shoulder that she had found and was dragging home for the dogs to snack on.  Kind to her animals and a country kid okay with blood.  We breathed a sigh of relief.  

Kiddo #4:

    We simply worry about her.  She's the last child and at this moment is very advanced for her age in the language department.  We carry on long, full conversations with deep meaning versus simple yes/no questions.  We've made the mistake of carrying on adult conversations in front of her more than once, thinking we were in the clear only to find out hours later that she absorbed every. single. word.  Sigh. 

Pray for us and prayers that we raise good kiddos! 

...And Just Like That

And just like that, we blinked and summer was over.  We played our hearts out in baseball, had weeks of swimming lessons and vacation bible school, survived the fair, sold our animals, spent countless hours in the hayfield and one day in town buying school supplies.  

That is a completely accurate recap of our summer.  

It was exhausting, but we seemed to manage very well.  The kids were up and out the door early each morning to walk their animals or ship cattle and then spent their afternoons in a myriad of activities - swathing, raking, baling or hauling hay mostly, and then we'd eat a light supper and head to the ball fields or work with animals again.  We had three children on two different baseball teams this year and it went pretty smoothly.  Everything this summer seemed to go smoothly even though it was incredibly busy.  Last summer each breath and each activity seemed to be a torturous struggle but that weight was somehow lifted and things were rather delightful these past few months.  

After spending so many years at home with small children I am now meeting more parents through all these activities and truly loving this little tribe we've created.  It is refreshing to find another soul that shares similar values and standards, not only in child rearing but their own work ethic and mannerisms.  Conversations are easier when you don't want to beat your head on a wall.  

The kids are getting older and starting to be really helpful with activities.  Some of them can even read, so now I can leave for short periods of time and leave them notes with instructions or lists of chores to accomplish.  (Funny, the first few times I left chore lists they always seemed to mysteriously blow away.  Hmmmm.)  

It's an exciting new phase of life, one where I can walk away from children, take a deep breath and be fairly confident they'll survive for a few moments.  We can skip naptime and the entire world does not end.  (Close, but not quite.)  And we are thisclose to being done with diapers FOREVER.  It's a thrilling time around here, let me tell you.  

John found a shell with the live snail inside.  He was so proud.  This was our exciting Father's Day.  The girls rode in the air conditioned tractor with Wesley to bale hay and the boys and I picked up logs from the edges of fields since a recent flood had carried them in. 

We are a filthy little family.  But I'm proud that they spend so much time outdoors on adventures.

Kenyon designed a replica of Big Brutus and took it to the fair.

Again with the filthy kids!

Oftentimes it feels like we eat as many meals in the shop as we do around our kitchen table.

Horrible picture?  Undoubtedly.
But this was my view repeatedly this summer -
three kids running out the door long before the sun came up.

She loves to drive the dozer, dinosaurs and the color pink.  Such a funny little one.

Everything can be made into an obstacle course, especially pallets of mineral.

She's kinda like her momma and has a soft spot for sweet little old men.

Reese is an excellent cattle counter, just like her dad.

She does a nice job of keeping herself entertained in the tractor while we move hay together.  
Also, I highly recommend the $11 writing tablet she's holding.  She can draw for hours with her finger and be perfectly content.  

*I should have mentioned that she enjoys almost all reptiles (like turtles) and not just dinosaurs.  My apologies. 

I'll See You in May

***Warning - I began writing this post in late March.

He came home from burning one night.  I told him to freeze - I need to shoot you!- he replied that he was so tired he'd like to be shot and put out of his misery.
This is one of my favorite pictures of him EVER. 

Most mornings my husband and I have a bit of a 'morning meeting' before he heads out the door as the sun rises.  It's not much of a conversation; more like a trading of our lists of chores and obligations for the day.  It's rather informal.  I sit on a little six-inch step stool our kids use at the utility room sink; Wes sits on his bench and laces up his work boots. 

Late last week his tone turned serious as he spoke to me.  "I just want to let you know; next week the spring run is on.  I won't be around much."

I used to take this talk more seriously, to be honest.  This time I laughed.  In his face.  I regretted it (to a degree) almost instantly.  

***I'm concluding writing this post in mid-May.  If anything, life has gotten worse over the years after the spring rush has concluded.  After pastures are burned, corn is planted, calving is over, cattle are out to grass and calves are worked we now have a huge rush with activities for the children: field trips, baseball, t-ball, spring concerts and award banquets.  

We. Are. Tired.  

At this point I laugh about the struggles we used to have.  I no longer worry about solo parenting everyone.  At this point I feel I'm well versed in the art of solo parenting four kiddos and honestly my husband's presence often throws a wrench in our routine.  Our struggles these days come from trying to find balance.  We *only* participate in baseball and 4-H during the summer, which sounds manageable.  This is alright until we add in evening chores with critters, homework and trips to the field to visit Dad.  

We have no trouble when our heads hit the pillow at night.  

I realize these struggles are temporary, but goodness they are still exhausting.  We are all counting down the days until July 1.... when the next adventures can begin...

Spring Sprang

I'm just going to throw this out there - how the hell is it already May???  Not that we ever have a 'slow' time, but this is just getting ridiculous.  

Also, while I'm in a mood to complain, I'd like to reiterate my displeasure that our neighbor Grandma Curry has been in heaven this past year.  Maybe God was sparing her from our crazy, which is somewhat understandable.  I constantly think of all the ways we could entertain her daily: walking hogs through her yard, walking steers through her yard, riding the horse through her yard, driving 4 wheelers through her yard...... You get the picture.  Maybe she had to check out in order to preserve the integrity of her yard.  (I jest.  If you don't get that you must leave this page immediately.) 

John is our very best child at stopping to enjoy the finer things in life.  Be it on top of a hog pen, a tractor tire or anywhere else... John has perfected his lounge pose.  

Kenyon, the oldest, is a hard worker alllllll the time.  He rarely complains, even on days when we have to process cattle in 50mph winds.  We are proud of his work ethic and hope it carries through his entire life.

The heifer he showed last year at the county fair had a calf and it was nearly declared a national holiday.  I kid you not.  And for as friendly as Leeva was in her show calf days, I don't suggest you go out to try and pet her calf now.  Or do.  Just let me try to film your demise.  

But if you must meet your maker somewhere, this is not such a bad place, am I right? 

We are huge proponents of 4-H.  We always have been and always will be.  This picture perfectly exemplifies why we love it so much.  Big kids serving as an example for little kids.  

Pasture burning is not our favorite season, but it must happen each spring.  I enjoy the beauty in such chaos. 

We had a calf that was born rather traumatically and couldn't walk for a few days.  He hung out in our yard and was entertained endlessly by our children.  Perhaps that was motivation for him to learn to walk and run away from the crazy people?!  Durning his time here he learned how to blow bubbles, draw pictures, water plants, read books....

We joked that one thought she was a calf, one thought he was a dog.  Guess which one was which?!

I drive an SUV 99% of the time and this is one of the reasons why - I can haul calves and their assigned caregivers in a climate controlled environment

.  

The kids have enjoyed working with their 4-H calves this spring.  It's amazing to see an 80 pound kiddo command attention from a 1250 pound calf.  

Sometimes Reese and I have to feed when everyone else is busy.  I glanced over one day to see her contemplating the meaning of life.... and whether that second bowl of scrambled eggs and spicy salsa was a great idea for breakfast.  

She is a dirty baby.... as I feel most babies should be.  

Even though it has been one of the windiest springs in recent memory, we've taken advantage of the fleeting, still evenings and had picnics on the porch.  These types of nights are priceless.  

We hope your spring is going well! 

Winter Doldrums

It's that time of year again.  The rush of the holidays (even though they were scaled back due to the C-bomb) is gone and we're mainly trudging through each day and looking forward to warmer weather and longer days happening soon.  We do our best to make the best of these short, mundane days.  One bright spot during this time I've realized is that I stare at our kids quite a bit.  A disturbing amount, if I'm honest.  I try to soak up every little bit of their hilarious antics, innocence and oddball questions.  For example, Kathryn felt a bit 'off' yesterday.  "Momma, my head feels a bit busy (dizzy).  Do you think I maybe have a gear out of whack or something?"  

Our baby is no longer a baby.  For real.  She decided to start potty training before two years of age and we're slowly but surely making progress.  And she's incredibly conversational.  Though her sentences are short with just two or three words, she can convey exactly how she feels, what she needs, what she wants and most importantly, what you are doing wrong in her eyes.  

This one has personality for DAYS.

Wesley and I made a flying trip to western Kansas just a few days ago.  We drove 3.5 hours EACH WAY to look at bulls, leaving at noon and getting home by 9pm while my sweet mother-in-law watched the kids.  It was wonderful to act like a real human again, although I felt like a total fish out of water.  I was able to get out of the pickup and SIMPLY WALK AWAY.  No car seats to unbuckle, no line of little people patiently waiting to have their jackets zipped up.  No one asked for snacks, a sippy cup, or how much longer we would be driving.  My husband laughed often at my bewildered nature.  I should not be taken into public much anymore at this point.  

We soak up the outdoors as much as possible on these nice days.  As I write this I can look out the kitchen window and I swear it looks like the Meridian Shriners live here.  The kids drive four wheelers up and down our road, back and forth, over and over.  

We had a few snow days this past week and school was not in session.  I made a very deliberate effort to not let the kids simply watch television and it actually felt amazing at the end of each day.  They played board games (however they wanted, rules be damned), colored pictures, played with a wood burner, read books and ate huge meals I cooked.  Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled when they were able to go back to school, but I thoroughly enjoyed having them home for a few days.  

John has a reading assignment each evening and is so good to read to Reese.

When the kids do watch television, they love to watch Mountain Men.  We highly recommend it.  For us, it showcases regular people doing fairly regular things.  For town folks I would imagine it is rather novel.  Due to this show the kids have found a passion for trapping raccoons.  Not that we need another chore around here, but it has been fun to drive by our traps each evening and see if the kids managed to catch another critter.  

Thank goodness, we've only caught one skunk in our traps thus far.
I got to shoot him and made a clean shot where he didn't make any stink, thank goodness!

Many of these days and weeks have been trying but when I take a step back and really analyze our situation, I realize we've gotten a pretty sweet deal in life.