Going to Grass

Keepin' It Real

There is a lovely woman with her own television program that depicts her wonderful lifestyle on a ranch a few hours south of my house.  Let's call her The Frontier Lady. 

The Frontier Lady seems like a lovely woman.  Her children are well mannered, her husband constantly complements her, her kitchen is HUGE and IMMACULATE and SHE HAS AMPLE COUNTER SPACE and the list goes on and on and on...

Please don't think that I am bitter.  I'm not.  Jealous?  Perhaps.  What really strikes me is how perfect her life seems to be.  When cooking huge meals for her crew, The Frontier Lady is always wearing a beautiful blouse, has her makeup done and her hair is curled into beautiful waves and cascading over her shoulders.  (Also, I don't want to get nit-picky, but rule #1 with my mother was that our hair had to be pulled back into a ponytail for general health and hygiene reasons.) 

I would simply ask that she add a bit more authenticity to her program. 

For instance:

My husband called me one day this week, mid-morning, asking me to fix lunch for the men and take it to the field in a little over an hour.  I was planning on a casual baloney sandwich type day for the kids and I, but why not change all our plans?  Let's keep life interesting. 

I fried hamburgers and spiral cut fries, occasionally breaking up wrestling matches, switched around a load of laundry and laid the baby down for a morning nap.  Packed the car with lawn chairs, condiments, plastic plates and all the goodies.  (I'm sorry, we're not fancy enough for sipping lemonade out of mason jars.  We're just not.) 

I loaded the kids in the car after a round of diaper changes, drove out to the field and tried to figure out how to 'set up' for lunch.  Oh, did I forget there was a sustained 40 mph wind?  And did I mention the men were loading a manure spreader so he could scatter that cheap fertilizer over the fields?  Did I forget to mention all that?  Sh!t was flying.  Literally. 

When the men finally let their machines idle and paused for a few moments to eat I felt so awful for them.  They smiled to say thank you for lunch and their teeth were black from all the dirt and grime. 

I'm sure The Frontier Lady must have days like that.  She must.  Perhaps things like wrestling children, cooking plain ol' hamburgers and loading a manure spreader in a windstorm doesn't film well.  I can't imagine why not. 

'Member That Time?

'Member that time we (I) thought it would be wise to schedule surgeries for two of our children on the same day?  

(Before you all gasp and clutch your pearls, know that it was a wise choice to get it over and done with.  I dealt with 2-3 children sick at a time all winter.  The prospect of two in recovery at the same time didn't even phase me.)  

'Member when we were at the hospital at 6am, bright eyed and bushy tailed?  

... and then we had two hours to kill before surgery so we rode and rode and rode in the little red wagon they had in the pre-op area. 

'Member how Mom met her FitBit step goal for the day by 8am? 

'Member how we read book after book after book after book? 

'Member how bored we all got so Dad let you play with his phone and call random cattle buyers?

'Member how surgery didn't even phase you and you came home and immediately did a headstand on the love seat and told us you were a monkey?

'Member how it was also Dad's birthday so we baked him a cake and decorated it with sprinkles because that's all Mom can manage to do? (It's a star and a cowboy hat, if you can't tell.)

'Member how he loved his card and the way Kenyon wrote on it all by himself? 

'Member helping him blow out the candles? 

'Member all that?  What a day that was. 

Homemade Jungle Gyms

You play on a jungle gym?  That's cute.  We do too.  Sort of...

We have stock trailers that are great to crawl on (and crawl in if they are free of critters).  

See that large puddle in the bottom right hand corner of this photo?  Not two minutes after I snapped this, John strolled by very nonchalantly, suddenly dropped to the ground and did a somersault and rolled into the edge of this massive puddle.  What the heck, kid.  What. The. Heck. 

We have a balance beam.  True, ours is made of concrete and 24 inches tall, but hey, you learn to keep your balance quicker that way.  

Monkey bars.  You can never have enough monkey bars. 

Large hill?  Check.

Lots of large rocks?  Check. 

Run up and down aforementioned hill as quickly as possible, as many times as possible?  Check. 

King...

...of...

...the hill!  TA-DA!

Spring is Coming!

Thank goodness, spring is almost here.  12 hours and counting.  We can make it if we just hold on a little... bit... longer... I will be so relieved to leave this miserable winter behind all of us.  One that should never be repeated.  

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year.  The hubs tilled the garden for me and it looks marvelous.  Although I pulled most all of the plants out last fall, I left the hay/mulch on top and it was incredible how much moisture was retained in the garden soil.  It is nothing fancy, just good feedlot manure, but it looks, feels and smells like rich, fertile garden soil should.  Mmmmmmmm. 

Kenyon insisted we all leave handprints in the dirt.  And when your four year old asks you to, you oblige him.  

This picture makes me giggle every time I look at it.  Yesterday afternoon I laid Kathryn down for a nap.  I could hear her crawling around and playing in her crib for the first several minutes, and then there was a terrible shriek and cry for a few minutes.  When it didn't subside I decided to poke my head in and check on her.  She had pulled herself up but was too scared to let go and sit back down.  Its rough learning all sorts of new things.  And yes, when she woke from her nap I lowered her mattress first thing. 

It is absolutely exhausting just being so cute all the time.  That, and Mom took a very long, very hot, very needed shower right before nap time.  Well, apparently I went to take a shower and it became nap time.  

 This could quite possibly be one of my favorite photos of all time.  Not for its composition, but its content.  John was reading to Kathryn one morning before breakfast.  My heart melts every time I look at it. 

We love to read books.  Seriously.  Have you figured that out yet? 

Even Kathryn is figuring it out rather early.  

When we're not reading books and the wind is NOT blowing 50 miles an hour, we also like to fish in the evenings.  We've not caught anything yet this year but no one seems to mind.  

If it were possible to smother an animal to death with affection this horse would be a goner.  

Happy spring everyone!  Pretty sure that's not a 'thing', but I just made it one.