Stop, Drop and Roll

The days are getting warmer and the sun is shining longer which means there is more opportunity to work outside.  Each morning my husband and I exchange lists of our respective obligations for the day.  

Without fail, almost every single day the focus ends up shifting to accomplishing the tasks on his list.  It makes things on our side much more chaotic, but as any elementary-aged child can tell you: when the world is turning into a dumpster fire, the best thing to do is stop, drop and roll. 

Stop everything you're doing.

Drop whatever task you may have been in the middle of accomplishing.

Roll with the punches and things will (probably) work out just fine. 

Last week John really wanted to finish his library book.  The Magic Treehouse series is pretty captivating at his age and reading is something that I don't want to discourage in our children.  I needed to make ear tags and help Wesley work calves so John had to tag along and continue to read aloud about adventures in ancient Rome while I continued my work.  We swapped his magic treehouse for a magic vet shack and he shouted the story to me over the loud hum of the hydraulic chute. 

Stop, drop and roll.

And, because this kid can relax anywhere, he took a few moments to create a rock lounge chair.

The kids love to jump haybales.  If they could do nothing else for recreation I think they'd be just fine.  We had just started to enjoy our afternoon when I got the call that everyone needed to head to a pasture and help gather a set of calves. 

Stop, drop and roll.

The kids are having fun working with all their 4-H calves this year as they are now big enough to do most everything themselves.  We thought it was going to be a productive afternoon of scratching on calves when we got the call and suddenly tracking a bull sale online was more important. 

Stop, drop and roll.

We were interested in bull #10 and bull #110 in the sale order.  The kids did a wonderful job of tracking everything in between and letting us know when they were getting close to our prospects and it allowed us to keep working.

As this busy spring season progresses I have a feeling we're going to stop, drop and roll each and every day. 

Spring Sprang

It happens every year.  Spring suddenly sprang and here we are trying to play catch up.  I thought the toughest years were those with little babies and endless diapers, but I think perhaps I was wrong.  At least during that time I had control of the narrative.  I could control most of our schedule, doctor's appointments, play time and the like.  The only wild card I had was chasing around my husband, which admittedly is more than enough.  

These days we have school, field trips, three baseball teams with three different schedules, being a hired man for my husband, piss poor secretary and trying (failing) to keep house.  

The diaper days were 'easier'.  Or at least more focused.

Lunches with Grandpa are priceless.

One of our many 'homeschool' days. 

Cousin love.  These two are 20 days apart and thick as thieves.

Lunch on the go.

First spring show of the year. 
6:20am and everyone is loving life!

I love when someone else is kind enough to till my garden. 
He's not quite big enough to do it by himself but this was a nice learning experience.

Who knew tomato cages could be so much fun?!

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...

Trivial but Necessary: An Autobiography

So many of the tasks I complete these days are... less than glamorous?  Menial?  Pretty basic?  Any of these descriptions would suffice.  Let's be honest, I'm not out here curing cancer.  I'm a professional diaper changer and fire-putter-outer for my husband. 

For instance, this morning I had to drop everything and run out the door with all the kids so I could drive my SUV and lead trucks filled with cattle to their summer pasture.  It's way out in the middle of nowhere and difficult to give directions to someone in hopes that they'll end up at the right pasture.  'Turn at the tree that burned down a few years ago.'  'Go past that pasture with the pens and turn west at the next pasture with a similar set of pens.' 

You can see how things could south rather quickly.  Sometimes I actually get my own pickup and trailer.  Today was not that day. 

I'm trying to get better at finding the joy in this season of life.  Today I grabbed my camera and managed to snap a few pics.  We are very fortunate to live in this area and that is never lost on us.  

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. 

Marching Into Summer

It seems we blinked and now we're suddenly in the middle of summer.  Although, our too-smart-for-his-own-good six year old will remind me that 'technically it is not summer yet, Mom'.  Touché, kiddo.  I've not posted lately, and for a plethora of good reasons. 

1. I had a baby.  Again.  A little girl this time, named Reese.  For those of you keeping track this makes four kids in a little over six years.  It is rather intense at times, but we would not have it any other way.  

Our little ray of sunshine, baby Reese

2. We've been busy.  Like, legitimately busy.  (Refer to reason #1)  When I still had my office job I would roll my eyes when one particular man would stop by MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK to tell me just how busy he was.  He'd take 45 minutes listing out all the busy things that kept him so busy and that's why he had to be leaving soon because he was so busy with the busy work.  Since then I've come to the conclusion that the number of times someone claims to be busy is often inversely proportional to the actual busyness of the very busy person.  I often wondered if he bragged incessantly because he was trying to convince his audience how awesome he was, or if he was just trying to fool himself.  

One of the house projects that kept me busy for a few naptimes - 

sliding shelves in almost all of our lower kitchen cabinets.  

I highly recommend this feature.  It's been a game changer for us.

3. We're not that exciting.  Seriously.  Who wants to read a blog solely about ways we've been beating the summer heat?  For your information, we beat the awful heat last week by reading books in our underwear as well as sorting and wrapping coins to take to the bank.  It made for a great lesson on the value of different coins, discussion about pictures of presidents, buildings and especially state symbols on the quarters.  I highly recommend if you're looking for activities that are out of the box (while you relax in a refrigerated box).  

4. A little mystery in life is a good thing.  You don't need to know every little thing we do around here (see reason #3).  I like to touch base every few weeks to document happenings around here, especially since this blog serves as a crappy replacement for our children's baby books.  

I'm glad someone laughs at my jokes.

 5. I told myself that I couldn't do something fun like write a blog until I finished several items on my to-do list.  Thanks, Mom, for ruining my life with this rule from my childhood that I cannot seem to shake.  I finally finished writing thank you's for all the thoughtful new baby gifts and foods and thus could write a blog without feeling a massive load of guilt.  (Actually, I ran out of thank you cards so it's more of a 'pause' on my guilt until I run to town and purchase more.)

A screenshot of a typical conversation with my mother. 

We keep it real with the tough love around here. 

Now that I'm out of reasons why I DIDN'T write a blog, here's the actual meat of the blog.

And more pictures of cute kids.  Because I know why you keep coming back to read.

There are many periods when we only see my husband for a few minutes each evening or else the kids would go days without seeing him.  Last week during many evenings we played in the wheat field and each kiddo took a turn in the swather with him.  This wheat was purposefully planted to be swathed and baled, not combined.

I absolutely love this picture of my husband, son #2 and his great grandpa.  John turned his feed cap backwards and asked his great grandpa if he could turn his cap backwards too, and look like a silly dude.  We all got such a laugh out of them looking so goofy.  Simple laughs are the best.

 When it is not hotter than blazes outside we try to walk a few miles in the morning.  I consider this to be my 'alone time' as the kids like to run ahead of me by a few hundred yards at times and I'm left to enjoy the quiet as I push the stroller with Reese.

If these kids learn nothing else from their childhood, they will know how to skip rocks.  Kenyon is especially good at it, and also good at casting when fishing from all the side arm throwing practice.  This makes it difficult to get him to throw a baseball correctly, but a challenge we're working on.  I'd love to have photos of the boys playing t-ball to share but I'm helping coach their team again this summer.  I enjoy working with the herd of kids, and I figure I should serve my time volunteering before our summers get crazy in a few years with the addition of 4-H livestock.  (Assuming the kids hold this currently level of enthusiasm to show livestock when they join 4-H in a few short years.)  

What a fun week this was... kind of.  During this week the men worked calves out in the pastures and I took them lunch every day.  Making a meal every day for a dozen people with a one month old baby is a special kind of pressure.  Then Kenyon fell off the top of a stock trailer one day and needed his head glued shut and then the next day John contracted e coli and spent four days in the hospital.  Good times, good times...

There were several storms that moved through our area a few weeks ago.  Also, a friend from church gave us a pair of mudboots that Kathryn finally grew into and I allowed her to wear.  She felt it was her absolute duty to test out the mudboots in each and every single mud puddle within one square mile of our house.  Well done, child.

So there you have it.  A little slice of our lives during the past few weeks.  Heaven only knows what adventures we'll embark upon before it's time to write the next blog!