Scout campsite amusement

NIce evening with Scouts

Last night we went to the closing campfire at the boys Scout troop. As has been the case with the troop since we joined I was very impressed with everything that they do. Their campsite was a veritable amusement park complete with a huge tower, rope climbing thingy, zip line, huge merry-go-round, swings, and an all around organized atmosphere. I will have to post a picture of the merry-go-round as I have never seen anything like it. It was a triangle of three posts roped together and then attached with rope to the tree way up. You wound the thing up and it would twist the kids around back and forth.

The boys also had a great skit, were the MC's for the campfire, and had a very nice 'crackle barrel' afterward. Almost every family was represented with parents who came to see what the boys had done which was also very refreshing and nice to see. Both our kids and the kids we brought with had never ending fun last night and did not seem bothered by the late hour. My hat is off to the leaders of this troop. I will HAVE to post some pictures here later. Troop 555 is the best I have ever heard of or seen.

I will happy to have my boys home this afternoon!!!! My family will be back together for the first time in two weeks except for about ten hours last weekend.

"If the pig comes for you Karin"

so says my sweetie pie after soliciting my help with loading the piggies. Instead of getting peeved at him for such a ridiculous statement while pondering my past experiences of being rushed by a pig, I burst out laughing. (thank you Pastor Grobien for setting such a wonderful example for me) "If the pig comes for me dear, I am running that direction. Why am I here?" laughing, laughing.

"Really Karin, this is not good for our marriage" says the farmer big strong and looking perplexed.

"Really honey dear," laughs Karin, "If that pig rushes me it won't be good for our marriage."

He did manage to give a half smile at this and stopped lecturing me on the health of our marriage. The first pig dutifully followed the feed bowl to the trailer. The second and the third little piggies started running around a little aimlessly as I was instructed to follow them. I smiled and handed my pig board to big strong farmer boy son who expertly, confidently herded the piggies in the way that they should go and they got on the trailer. So ends another year of pig loading and maybe next year the man will realize that his citified wife will haul chickens, wash chickens, haul kids to fair, cheer for children, cry at successes but......will not hold a pig board or watch pigs come at her.

Hope you enjoyed another episode of Horner comedy.

Very pleased with 4H fair this year

I am not pleased with the fair because my kids did well but rather because we did not do anything this year that the kids did not do willingly themselves. There have been years that we did things because, well, of course we HAVE to do it because we have done it in the past. Those years were crazy stressful, yucky times. I put my foot down last year that just because their dear daddy might be grieved that his dear children might blow everyone out of the water if they did thus and such, that pressuring them to complete projects that their heart was not in was.......insane. It is the MOMMY who has to drag the dear children around to complete these things and the mommy who has to deliver them.

This year every project that was completed and turned in was completely enthused, done well in advance (mostly) and there WAS NO NAGGING ON THE PART OF THE MOMMY!!!!!! The fair is only useful in so far as it teaches these kiddos to set goals and meet them themselves!!! I do not feel like a crazy person this year albeit I am tired but I feel a great sense of satisfaction that.......I have proven my point. :o) Projects generated by parental pressure are not worth doing.

In the Horner news here is the shake down:

Martin: Blue ribbon in beekeeping (better than last year), reserve champion in his division fine arts.
Matthew: Did not do any projects for exhibit hall (he is a scout through and through)
Erik: Honor group (third place) his division fine arts and Grand Champion Collections.
Anna: Champion overall in Formals. She is VERY happy with this and was not expecting that as she is a purest and did what the pattern instructed and did NOT put in an invisible zipper by fair rules (told me that the night before.....)

Love my kids. Love a good experience. Ready to just enjoy the ride this week at the fair.

Erik shines a little brighter

Since we are not going to the opening of the 4H exhibit hall tomorrow night I the fair office to let Erik and I see how he did on his projects. Well.....he got Honor Group on his painting which actually is excellent for his age level. The upper levels are very competitive and I have always been impressed with the work the 4Hers do in this category. His painting is a study of one of Eric Sloans paintings, his favorite author.

Then in Collections I had a choke up moment where we discovered he was awarded Grand Champion of the the whole project. I am so happy for him as he worked very hard on this as I said in my last post and truly he deserved the award. It is so much sweeter to know that a young person put their all into it and also know what a landmark this was for him personally in seeing that he can acheive quality work and then be sweetly recognized for the effort put forth. I am encouraged that perhaps we are turning a corner. He has always worked pretty hard on his school work but his confidence in himself is sometimes lacking. Having an older sister who seems to excell in all she lays her hands on also has been a challenge to follow. But....I hope he can see that we are equally proud of him in his own achievements and efforts and appreciate all the help he has given this summer as everyone else leaves to go do various fun activities.

I hope he has a great week and can simply enjoy the fair. We turned the broilers in today and the pigs go tomorrow. It seems like the pigs just got here. I better scoot off to bed as sleep seems to be lacking lately. More fun tomorrow as we also go see Matthew and Martin's Scout closing campfire. Their troop puts on great skits.

Erik's day to shine

This spring Erik was searching through the 4H fair handbook and came upon the category of collections. Being the tool collecting maniac that he is, he started reading up on the category and he quietly started compiling an assortment from his tool collection to enter for this year's fair. He did this project completely on his own with just a little guidance on how to use different parts of Microsoft programs. The project required a story and his story was the best thing I have ever read coming from him. Having a great interest in tools and also having read up on the history of tools, he wrote quite the explanation of how his interest in tools has grown, his interest in learning how to use them and sharing this knowledge with others. There was a lot more to his story but this was my proud mommy moment. Erik is very hard on himself and to see how beautifully this project came together was a nice reward in and of itself.

The project was judged this morning and we don't know how he ultimately did but they had open judging. He waited three and a half hours for them to get to his division. He has since shared how he enjoyed the judge's comments on the other projects. The judge reminded me quite a bit of his Grandma Sylvia. She had an enthusiastic interest in the details of the various collections and had much to say about each project. I especially was struck by how she seemed to practically interact with the projects in a very personal way and saw the value of each collections change from year to year. Sylvia would make a great 4H judge as I have heard her say similar things when we have gone to exhibits together in the past or when she made observations of various kitchen tools or ways of doing things. I wonder if she could volunteer somewhere....

Anyway, when the judge got to Erik's project she appeared stunned at its organization and professional appearance. She read his story out loud and had to pause several times to exclaim things like "This projects blows the rest out of the ballpark" and many other compliments directed Erik's way. She asked him a lot of questions as to the use of each tool and was impressed with his knowledge. I was VERY proud of him and could see that it was a special moment for him as well. We did not stick around to see how he did overall as it seemed tacky to linger and breathe down her neck while she was making decisions. He will be happy no matter how it comes out as he had a chance to listen to the judge and her reasons for what she said etc. I will update the blog as I find things out.

4H fair earlier this year

They switched our fair to the beginning of July so we are in the midst of turn in week. I am sure I will in the long run love this plan as it will give me the rest of the summer to concentrate on schoolish stuff and maybe even do some fun things with the kids. June has been crazy busy and I can tell I am drooping today. Perhaps I will catch a nap later this afternoon. That would be fun. I slept horribly last night and had the craziest dreams. Yesterday I did not sit down except for at church and even there I was baby and toddler wrestling. Charley worked late and got up at 4:00am or somewhere thereabouts. The house is a total wreck still but I detect the kitchen improved some this morning. Thank you Erik.

Let's just say life has been ridiculously busy and I look forward to things calming down a little. Enough whining for today.....

Back from Bloomington

It has been a LONG week with two days in Valpo with Martin and the little ones, then three days in Bloomington with Anna for orientation. I'm glad that is all over with. I think everything went well. Passing the baton to Anna to take care of stuff is an interesting experience for me in that sometimes I don't know if I SHOULD take care of things or let her take care of them. Everyone is VERY tired with the heat and just being disconnected so I am hoping that in spite of the 4H Fair the next two weeks that we will be able to get somewhat settled and enjoy some of the summer. My thoughts are on the upcoming school year and each kids individual goals and whether I will be able to do everything. I will try to remember what I tell others when they ask "How do you do that?" (parenting eight kids) which the reply is "One day at a time". If everything works out for Anna I know she will have a great time and learn a lot during her experience at IU. I figured out a lot of stuff that I needed to know and I know Anna did too. Two more months til she is off on her journey. My roll as her helper is certainly diminished as I know she is quite capable and not as interested in my every question about stuff so I am sure this is part of my own growing pains.

Tomorrow morning I run out to the bee hives with Erik to see if they even have a beekeeping project to turn in this year. I better get to bed.

Sit up please

Sitting up straight or standing straight is more work than you would think. Spending eighteen years with a baby on your hip or nursing is not a recipe for good posture. That is yet another one of those reasons for why I am working on upper body strength. It is HARD. A friend's chiropractor pointed out the nursing thing where a side effect of nursing is bad posture. I had not really thought about that before. Genetics for me is....bad posture. So outside of sticking a stick up my back I need some sort of code word for people to inform me to stand up straighter. If I am tired or relaxing this is also a time where I am not thinking about posture. I don't see this in other moms but mainly with me. Vanity strikes again but there is also avoiding back aches from weak upper body strength. Sigh. Just something more to think about......

I am SO obnoxious

Have you ever been to one of those roundabouts where it is designed for the traffic to keep moving? I could not believe my eyes this morning when this poor woman who clearly had never even attempted one of these things STOPPED at every intersection of the turn. Can America handle these things? I love them and swiftly whipped around it when she finally got off. Poor thing. I am surprised an accident didn't happen.

Then I am so naughty.......I went to Target to get training pants for Stefan and Benjamin was looking a little unkempt with his shoe laces dragging all over the place. I was thinking "someone is going to point out to me that his shoes are untied"........."Wait for it......" ..........."Ma'am. Your little boys shoes are untied" (less than a minute later) I replied with a big smile "Why thank you!!!" in a very sing songy way. Sigh. I did consider walking round and round the store and counting how many times someone told me that. I still wear the tshirt which says "This woman needs all the help she can get because she won't notice these things that you are noticing without help". I know, I know.....he was just being nice but really? I tend to just give moms knowing looks when there little cherubs look less than put together. I had to rush home afterwards to avoid the public and being informed of any other idle information about what is wrong with my children......I am SOOO obnoxious.