Life lessons

Anna's career of ham has come to a close. No tears were shed and basically she quit. Three weeks in a row of not being notified that she wasn't needed to work and having bothered to drive over there for nothing is sort of a hint that things are not working out. The woman who hired her is not in management anymore and is a friend and even she upon hearing what happened again said "That's ridiculous (different word) just quit". She felt bad as she led Anna and us to believe that she would be able to get some decent hours etc but since she is not involved in that way anymore couldn't really change anything. Anna's dad was less than pleased. But, with no tears shed I suppose Anna is a person who is not going to get too emotionally upset about someone else playing games with her. It all is a little more complicated than that but she is a better 17 year old than I was. I never had to work for anyone outside of the family until college really so didn't have to deal with such games. I worked at a summer camp and then at the bookstore where my mom worked until my Junior/Senior year of college. Spoiled........

That is all from the farm today. Cucumbers are taking over, beans need to be canned, and the house needs to be cleaned some more. Someone did mention to me that I might want to find the baby clothes sometime.........true. I dreamed the baby was born with teeth and looked really too old to be a newborn. Weird dream.......

Bible study

I forgot to mention the biggest frustration. No it is not Bible study but the inability to go to Bible study. My whole adult life I have for the most part been able to attend Bible study in one form or another but ever since Stefan became a wiggler, screamer that has not been the case. So I got the idea from another family to buy an MP3 player and have my daughter record class. That helped a lot but stupidly I attended Bible study a week ago Monday and it felt so good to actually be with the rest of the people there and not just hear it long after the fact. My mean and selfish self would just like to be there. But I have concluded that this in NOT my time in life and won't be for quite a long time to be able to attend. I knew that before so why did I torture myself with a taste of what I love? Of course I love my babies and want to do what is best for them above my selfish needs but that doesn't mean it isn't hard. So that was the reason I lost it Monday night this week. Ugh. Since we have this lovely upcoming schedule I am trying to work it out with dh that we can get the younger kids to bed by 8:00 at the latest and I will cheerfully stay home and do this. I did mention it might be nice to be able to go these last few weeks to class for just a little treat. Sunday mornings are great as Sandy does watch the little noise makers during class so that has been very nice and have I mentioned that the new schedule will be nice with the 5 to 9 year olds busy in a class of their own. Thank you Pastors! Oh, I said that last time. Sigh.

Time to go find my house.

Frustrations

I have dug in my heels and am insisting we have some return to routine around here. Life has been very unpredictable this summer with kids going hither and yon and the parents staying home and picking up the pieces in between their journeys. I have almost consistantly broken down in tears every Monday evening at church or at home for the sheer exhaustion of trying to keep up or maybe make some progress on a 'summer' project. Sigh. I think I am scaring some people away from me but truly it is not just hormones. It is a combination of a lot of things but as one friend observed, our weekends tend to be a scramble to get things done with little to no schedule outside of church and then Monday comes and I let down my guard and......lose it. My ultimate conclusion is that we MUST have some routine and limit to the nuttiness of our little homestead here and do weird things like eat at a predictable hour, keep up with the house and maybe spend some time together doing things other than slave work. The husband has been extremely frustrated with his tools that are supposed to be so wonderful and a project that was supposed to be somewhat easy to accomplish is becoming tedious. I told him to just do what he can do today and it will eventually get done but doing things like eating on time and putting his exercise, children, wife etc ahead of 'the project' will not hurt him or anyone else. This is probably too much information but.......I dare to blog.

I love the fall schedule for church and am excited that things should work out fairly smoothly from week to week and my little ones can get to bed at a reasonable hour as well. Thank you Pastors! The fall school schedule also seems to be good and is not sending me into panic attacks wondering when laundry and cooking will get done.

The baby coming in 4ish weeks is of course on my mind and some days I feel calm about that and some days I have too good a memory of the process of their entering the world. The last time went better than it ever had so I shouldn't worry so much about it. The doc knew what to do with back labor and suddenly things were not so bad. Same doctor so I am grateful for that.

So I am just hoping to not set myself up for public crying next week and dh and I are trying to work out a schedule that will work best for the kids and sanity. Cooler weather would help too......and if I am caught crying in public, please do not avoid me altogether and I will pull myself together eventually. It isn't just hormones or upcoming birth, it is a huge combination of stressers that processing outloud usually helps me find where relief might be possible.

Off to nighty, nighty land.

Baby names

Specifically girl names.....we have apparently not decided on a girl's name yet. Dear husband announced a week or so ago that he wasn't crazy about the girl's name. The kids all like it and I am not going to say what it is/was online as we don't like too much outside influence. So now I am trying to figure out possibilities and it is sort of hard. No....don't make suggestions as I like the name to come from one of us and frankly I have mulled over so many names that it probably would just rule out more. Oddly I like to have ownership over this process with the dear husband so there are no opinions stated.

I have looked and looked at A LOT of name sources and there really is nothing that jumps out at me as one that I just love. So then what? We have a lot of old names that we have chosen for a girl each time and then the baby was a boy so we seemed to start over again each time. I think I will write all of those out and give them to Charley and see what he comes up with. I do not like trendy names so I have to check out that list too. Although when we named Anna the name wasn't popular at the time but apparently it became very popular around that time. We still like the name (of course) so the trendiness was not such a big deal.

Then of course there is the time and energy we put forth in this process and the baby obviously could be a boy. We seem to have a few boys around here........I hope Charley is ok with our boys name. Maybe we just will change all previously thought of names and surprise everyone.

Better go sleep on it.

Sticking to the mundane

I think it best to remember to stick to our everyday happenings around here. I tend to not be able to express myself too well otherwise so........there. It is safer that way....

Another Saturday

It happened again. My cell phone fails to notify me of messages until days after the fact so we missed the message that Anna did not need to come into work today. I packed up the little kids and Anna and away we went. We suspected that something was up when there was no one at the store when we got there and our suspicions were confirmed a few minutes later. I am sure I had stated it was better to call the home phone as I am not married to my cell phone but I guess they missed that somehow. So now I feel a little less enthused to get anything done and it is already late.

Our sprinkler is being disagreeable again. This is the third or fourth sprinkler we have tried this summer and they seem only to work for a few days then they stop. I will have to wait for the hubby to examine this one when he returns from the fair.

Interesting auction

I thought this year's auction would have a poor response with the economy etc. becoming more of an issue for most people. Nope. Low and behold the boys did better at the auction than they ever have! That was pretty surprising to me. Perhaps the buyers figured that they would give a little back to kids who worked hard or something. All three buyers were new to the Horner scene and were very nice to the kids when they talked to them after their sale. This mom is happy. Usually we get half of what they went for this year.

I mistakenly bought them ice cream cones after the sale and the little children found various reasons to make ice cream into an ordeal. All my guilt for buying ice cream at odd times when they weren't around is washed away. I personally love dairy barn ice cream, especially peach. I neither wrestle with it or have it dripping all over the van or scrutinize the amount compared to my neighbors. Ice cream just makes me happy in general. ;o) But.......it is an ordeal for hot, can't walk, bored little children who have not eaten enough ice cream in their days to keep drips and holes in their cones from developing. Sigh. Till next year Dairy Barn! We won't be practicing this skill too much in the meantime with the kiddos.......

Fair Week and being 41

So I started out the week lamenting how expecting a baby at 41, battling heat and too much to do has been a challenge and frankly depressing. Things seem to be a little better. I still marvel at how far away anything is on the floor and how difficult it is to go up and down the stairs. Perhaps I mowed too much lawn last week and it has taken a week to recover. I don't know. My brain and body seem not to be able to cope as well this time around. I know I HAVE frustrated my family some as they are used to me being able to do and keep up with most things around here even if it is not house beautiful all the time. At least the family is accustomed to my making dinner and it not being too much of a challenge. Then they might find me taking a nap and everyone seems to be stunned. I never take naps and neither have I needed to while expecting. How odd.

I am excited the fair is just about done. The piggies are gone and the broilers go through the auction tomorrow. I will buy them back if they are not bid high enough. Then, we will clean up our area and head for home!!!!! Yay! The end of the fair always holds a glimmer of hope that we might start having a routine again and get on top of things here at our house a little more. Fair week means basically running back and forth to the fair to take care of this and that and attend stuff, and then the house gets somewhat out of control. I did find the strength to actually cook a decent meal tonight and the family noticed a difference and gobbled it down.

Charley and the kids are at a poorly attended Chuck Wick's concert this evening. I am sure Anna is enjoying it. Charley likes his stuff too. The younger crowd stayed home with me and watched some dvds and basically did nothing. That too was nice.

The kids during fair week usually lose their minds and seem not to remember the most simple tasks as they are pretty distracted by the chaos of life. I can easily say I can't take much more of this insanity and Charley has been stunned as well, but I remember that this has happened for the last several years so I guess we should just expect this.

If the baby comes a week early there are four more weeks left and at the latest six weeks. Cecilia is the only one who came early and Anna is the only one who came late. I notice this is the girls who didn't pay attention to their due dates. We shall see, but that does not leave a lot of time for MY nesting. There shouldn't be too many distractions to cause us to leave the house but the home front and the garden WILL keep us busy.

Oh, the kids did pretty good at the fair but they are not too worked up about it either. We are waiting to see how Anna's project did at the State Fair. There does not seem to be any results posted yet.

Off to my bed/sleep magnet.......

Drive throughs

I stopped by the ATM this morning and politely pulled around the building a second time since I could not find my card quickly. How nice of me. Then when it was my turn I discovered that I could not reach the key pad from my 15 passenger van driver's window which has not been a problem in the past or at least not in the most recent past.......my stomach was hindering me. So I had to pull around again as my body could not get out between the door and the machine. Sigh. I did my cute little depositing and get cash thing but apparently this was taking too long for the person in the car who was now behind so they started honking at me!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Was it not obvious what the problem was? And do we ever use our imagination when we are mad at the people in front of us for taking longer than we think is appropriate? So I pulled myself back into the van after they kept on honking. I was FINALLY done (we are challenged to get to the bank at all.....) I honked back once.........dear husband upon hearing this tale mentioned a particular scene in Fried Green Tomatoes. TaWanda! Ah Christian Love! Oh bother my stomach inconveniences others. Can you believe the gall of me to think I could try to keep living like everyone else. I should have just lumbered into the bank right?

Oh, this incident reminds of the time I was expecting Stefan and stupidly parked in a spot for expectant mothers. I came back out of the store and someone had parked too close to my driver's side and so......I had to crawl through the passenger side to be able to get in the car. Perhaps the signs should include some courteous note about allowing room for clearance. I have not tried this type of parking spot again.........

Wascally Wabbits

It's war. They ate most of our beans and I have NEVER had this happen. We have discussed all the various ways we can get rid of the pests and unfortunately that will require even more work. I thought we would be busy canning beans this weekend but instead we will be digging trenches. We could never consider relaxing or anything. A gun has crossed my mind but as I understand it there are rabbit hunting seasons and this may be against the law. I can't shoot a gun anyway but it does make the cartoon Bugs Bunny make a lot more sense. Bunnies are cute but perhaps that is their best defense. They are PESTS! You hear that Cindy????? Pests!!!! We have worked our tails off keeping this garden and to lose produce to a cute little bunny is more than one expecting mother can handle or let's see that is really TWO expecting mothers. Disgusting.

I think I need a nap.

"The View" is updated

Finally I have a current picture up. I last updated the view in April I believe. Yes, it is very much like a jungle in the yard. I barely keep up with the mowing. Last night I mowed the lawn so that maybe I would be SOOO tired that I would sleep at night. That didn't work. I may still mow a patch only so I don't get too terribly behind. Here is a picture of the much talked about garden.

When I mow the lawn I see a lot of work everywhere. There is still some tree refuse to pick up out of the field, some little person collected walnuts in a plastic bag where they have been cooking for who knows how long by a tree, poison ivy invades everywhere, creeping myrtle creeps, poke berries litter the fence, brush grows faster than imaginable in the less traveled fields and I try not to have an anxiety attack.

I still need to take current pictures of this years pigs and chickens. The chickens were weighing in at eight pounds earlier this week which is really very good. Perhaps I already mentioned that.

Anna and Erik get home tomorrow. We have been disjointed as a family for weeks and it will seem odd to have everyone back together again. I am sure it will take awhile for them

to recover. Sigh. Every day during fair week can be a challenge.

Quick News Flash

Anna's dress is going to the State Fair. Yay! She needed some good news as it has been a trying week for her (not here - somewhere else). So no surprise I am very proud of her and won't mention to other fair sewers that she only took a few evenings to make her regency gown entry. (Trying not to gloat).

I am sure she will be happy to get home to her own beddy bye and eat some Horner food.

Tired

So there is a little more than six weeks left till baby and tasks on my list are frankly barely touched. We have gotten some done. I think I am at the point of survival and making sure I put up and use the veges that are coming from the garden. The onslaught is soon to come. I stayed up with my garden pal weeding last night till the sun went down. We got a lot done and the garden still looks great. She came back this morning in the rain and did some more. Charley would not let me go out and help which I felt sort of badly about but I am not sure I could help too much. We have had wonderful rain today so we should see a boost in production soon. The salad greens are still doing ok and are not bitter.

I love talking in the garden with my garden pal. The craziest things are talked about out there in the midst of sweat and hard work. It is far more fun to work together with someone else on such a project than going it alone. We review with each other the successes and failings between bugs and strange sudden deaths of plants and work together to figure out solutions. The crazy talk keeps us in good humor and helps us to perservere. I have no doubt that families worked together on such projects as a norm years ago and this sort of work bonded them as well. I can't say my boys are always bonding when taking care of chickens and such together but honestly digging, hoeing and hard work in general has always floated my boat and to have a kindred spirit willing to put forth this sort of work together has been quite a blessing for us both I think.

The fair is a week away and projects are turned in all next week. We are acccepting that some projects just won't get completed this year and we are NOT going to kill ourselves trying to make things work just so the leaders don't fuss at us. I will have to perfect the goofy smile if confronted by a bee leader who wants to know why our tired family did not have a project to turn in. Ignore, ignore, ignore....... Some are SOO into the fair and SOOO hung up on the competiveness that I have really aquired a distaste for it as there are many more important things to me than this whole fair thing. I know the kids learn things but my kids have learned because of themselves and their interests have been turning to other things as the years go by. Next years fair is in early July so we will have to consider what all else is going on before we commit to animal projects next year.

I better get to bed. The hoeing and digging left me restless and not sleeping well last night so hopefully sleep will cooperate tonight.

Chicken tractors

Some reader from a far who I have never met asked my mother what in the world a chicken tractor was so I am going try find an old picture of one. They are basically a cage with a lid that gets moved once a day to fresh grass and fresh bugs for the chickens health and protection from the critters. The picture on the bottom is of a turkey tractor actually and is pretty old. Matthew raised his first batch of 25 turkeys when he was 7 years old. He went out there faithfully and the birds were HUGE by the time they left the farm. You can see how huge they were and how 7 Matthew was from the picture. That was at least five years ago.

The picture on top is of Erik, ten at the time, pulling the tractor forward. I have done this on occasion, but not this year. We chose not to raise turkeys this year so we just have chickens. They still are doing remarkably well. I hope that helps the readers know what a chicken/turkey tractor is.

I forgot

My dear husband proved his eccentric ways last evening. He heard that a large tree had come down around the corner from our house. I am the one who told him. I clearly was not thinking when I told the man with the wood fetish that there was a large tree down within easy reach and free for the picking. So as usual while I was out and about for the evening my dear hubby gets it in his head to do the crazy.

He made a wood sled several years ago to pull logs in the winter time. The main part of the trunk of this tree was quite large and he had no way to lift it onto the trailer so........he somehow pulled it onto the sled since it is lower to the ground. Then, the crazy guy drug the trunk on this sled back to our house. People along the way were staring and apparently using their cell phones to call the police with their 'concern' for this lunatic. So when Charley got back to our house a policeman pulled in behind him. Mr. Policeman was smirking and asked him a few questions and relayed people's concern for his safety. Sigh. The log or sled had been putting out sparks as it was drug around. I suppose he could have told the policeman that he was from the mountains of Pennsylvania and that would have explained a lot. My husband will do anything for a log I think. He is now plotting what he is going to do with it.

Other times when I have left he has felled many a tree, some which nearly hit the house and definitely shook the house. I should never leave him home alone unsupervised........I never worry too much about the kids. Erik was laughing and taking great pleasure in telling me this tale when I got home with Matthew from Scouts. He will be telling dad stories till he dies. "I remember when dad did thus and such......." or "who needs Paul Bunyan, let me tell you about what my dad did one time."

Never a dull moment around here.......

Life on the farm

It has been a busy week here in Horner land. I am not sure where to begin. Since I last posted we have been cherry picking, weed pulling, house cleaning, you name it. The kids have been kept a lot busier with their pigs, which require walking and washing to prepare for the fair. They should have started this a while ago. The piggies are a little on the lazy side but still jump around with glee when I mow the lawn near their penned in area. The wash stand had rotted so the boys had to build a new one.

We started with 60 broilers and thought we might actually make it through with all 60 but a coon came to call the other night and got one. This is maddening as the coon only kills it and can't eat it through the fence in their chicken tractors. Then Sunday night I was awakened to the cries of another chicken. Fortunately it was not killed and but Charley and I did not sleep a whole lot as every little noise sounded like an alarm of near chicken death. Last night the boys put boards around the outside of each tractor and there were no mishaps last night. Phew. The chickens are big and I am hoping they all make it till their vacation trip to Walkerton in a few weeks. There is nothing quite like these birds for dinner any time of year.

The garden still looks fantastic. The kids and our gardening partner mom weeded the extra patch yesterday morning. Veges are mostly weed free. I need to go set the sprinkler going on some areas. The new area was the old chicken yard so it is actually twice the size in plants for being planted at the same time or later than the other patch. We must spread manure in the old patch this fall. We have bell peppers and Hungarian wax peppers coming on. I am happy to be eating more from the garden and less from the store. We need to inventory our canning stuff so we are not left panicked.

This afternoon the boys need to get into the hives and get their fair honey. Hopefully there is some. The swarm hive is doing very well by the looks of things.

Tomorrow we are going blueberry picking. The price per pound has gone up but so has everything else. I suppose it is true that homemade yummies will be much tastier than the expensive kind we pick up at the store. I love blueberry and cherry anything.

I should go relieve Matthew from the Stefan......

They're mine, all mine.....

So it is back to school time in the school supply arena and I have decided this year to not give them ANY school supplies. The supplies will be kept in my area for those kids who drift my way and their ticket out of my room will be to return the pencils to MY supply container. I haven't had brand new school supplies in a LONG time. They are sort of fun to see in all their newness in MY container. Lots of glue, maybe over 200 pencils (one penny for eight!) and the colored pencils are the best. I admit that when I bought some Dover coloring books to use in my art class that I bought a Cassatt book for me to color in my leisure all of my own. How silly. The rest will be used to give copies of certain artists through out the school year to color.

I am being beckoned

Nesting

So 'the list' has finally had its effect. At least an effect that makes me very happy. Every baby has inspired nesting on the part of my dear husband. We have a room or project for just about every baby. Anna's was our previous home and ended up being the detached garage and making the windows work. Then we sold it. Erik's daddy nesting project was the roof - four layers of shingles including the original cedar shakes. Matthew's daddy project was.....I'm trying to remember........probably the living room and the dining room. Martin's was "The Big Dig" in the basement. Cecilia's were the cabinets in the basement. Benjamin's was most likely planting 350 trees but I am not positive of that. Stefan's project was definitely some of the trim work. Baby ? has multiple projects. So far we have the bookshelves in the basement hallway finished after seven years and ready to receive organized books in a few days. It took till baby number 8 for the daddy dear to discover the joy of hiring someone else to do some of the grunt work and so 'Santa Claus' (Steve the biker guy) is coming to plaster our stairway walls, and the kitchen walls and ceiling! I am so proud of dear husband. It took a lot of humble pie and plain old not having enough hours in the day to succumb to hiring this out. Or is it that we can afford to do that now and couldn't before???? Then......we are planning a painting party to attack the rooms that will need fresh paint and the rooms that need repainted. He is hanging the doors in the basement hallway as well. Yay!!!!!!!

He has BIT the NESTING BUG!!!!! Awwwwwww!!!!!! My nesting includes watching training dvd's on writing and literary analysis and helping dd get organized for applications etc. There is also that lovely garden which we are now enjoying broccoli and greens so far. I am also the cheer leader and organizer of tasks handed out to the Incredibles otherwise known as my children. Sigh.

I am about to turn into a pumpkin so better post.

Getting it all done/large families

I still think the FlyLady is a good thing but any dream of the house being put together until our youngest is maybe 5 is sort of a 'looking forward to heaven' sort of dream. Beginning the eighth month is bringing back memories of a few other babies who after they were born I was amazed at the mere ability to move easily again. I can't remember which baby it was but I think it was Matthew where I found this absolutely amazing. I find bending over quite the chore as well as standing still, like during church or while pealing and chopping veges, to be equally challenging. So in trying to conquer and divide I have many choices to make. My two oldest children have their own projects and aspirations to work on now-a-days and of course I have my own goals. They would really like to help with those goals too but then there are all the every day stuff that still takes time to attend to that takes away from practicing or reading or blacksmith work or whatever the case may be. So juggling and trying to be satisfied with what got done today still can puzzle me. I am not despairing or anything but this large family dynamic is really mind boggling at times.

Then there is the dear husband who I have told that I will steer completely clear of as far as expectations so he can work on the two things that are most needed around here. He has been diligently working on the vestment cabinet for church and I think can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This project sorely needs to be completed as it is quite remarkable the vestments don't just collapse in a heap as it is now. The other project would be to work on the trim work all over the house. Argh. That too is a huge project. He will feel burned out and then little bambino will probably be here and school will need to begin.

I guess homeschooling and having a large family are part of the dynamic and the only answer is to keep muddling. I am not upset at anyone in the family or otherwise it is just thinking through what is reasonable and what to do next. What I need to do next honestly is to waddle down to the vege garden and get some lettuce and peas for a 4th of July salad. Zucchini will be attacking soon! Not soon enough.

I do think that it would be cool to compile a Lutheran large family tips/forget the guilt guidebook for all the young folk who are endeavoring on this path that we are now 20 plus years into. Perhaps it might spare some pain somewhere and I would hope to warn the homeschooling crowd of the dangers of discussing these struggles with fundamentalists who wallow in guilt messages from not being perfect housekeepers and mothers and wives. Another blog has addressed the myriad of questions that they would love answered on this topic so perhaps that could become the book.

Off to the garden. Try hard not to visualize.

Approximately 62 days

or something like that......till baby. So we plod along on our projects and trying to have some fun and relaxation every once and awhile. The young folks or rather the older kids, successfully extruded the books from the basement hallway bookshelves. They sorted them and now I need to have someone begin tackling cleaning and staining the shelves so that area shapes up soon. The toys are sort of sorted and back under lock and key.

We spent the day at a friends lake cottage with a few extra children in tow to relieve their poor mommy. She was beaming when I picked them up and beaming when I dropped them back off. Perhaps I will do this more often. Fun was had by EVERYONE. I am myself feeling a lot like a lumbering elephant but did manage to take Benjamin canoeing and then kept tabs on the kids who got tired or cold and came up to the picnic area. I do so appreciate the help of the third families mom and kids with corralling the little ones and entertaining them. The mom and I had some opportunity to exchange horror stories of losing our children at various places (such fond memories) and the lack of empathy there is for any parent who might have the same thing happen to them. I mean losing in the "where did they go" sort of way. No, we didn't lose anyone at the lake for more than 30 seconds. Some little people run fast and find it witty to run behind barriers laughing at us. No biggie.

This evening we had the simple cop out meal of pancakes and bacon with some sort of fruit. I am glad the fresh ground whole wheat relieves my guilt of not knowing what is for dinner. The kids had made pigs of themselves at the lake so I knew they weren't starving.

It is late and tomorrow there are picnics to be had. I better get my rest so I can tackle potato salad in the morning.

Glasses

So Martin and Cecilia both need glasses. Martin was devastated but now seems over it. He even gets clip on sun glasses!!!!! Jealous. Transitions, new ideas come hard for him. Poor guy. We peppered him with horror stories of how horrid glasses used to be and how we cried buckets as well when we were found out. I personally remember lying to my parents or at least concealing my obvious blindness and then was found out at a routine school check. Foiled by the system....... Cecilia on the other hand was delighted and had a lot of fun picking out her latest fashion statement. Very cute. Pink. She will just be adding to her studious ways with her studious appearance.

The kids picked over 300 beetles off the other day and need to be sent back out. Benjamin ENJOYED the task. The garden still looks great but needs daily attention. Tomorrow is full of stuff so will have to MAKE time to go put in some weeding time.

I pulled all the toys out of the basement to sort (again) and am getting rid of a lot and then locking the rest up and hiding the keys. Ugh! I have requested no more toys for the kids for Christmas. Personal vats of chex mix or a nice shirt for church would be preferable.

Parenting is hard. I won't say much more but sometimes I feel like a corporate manager making tough decisions that will benefit the employees in the long run. Hard decisions, hard words. Ugh.

On the bright side, Anna did well on the SAT in my opinion so that was a nice thing. Now this manager has to get the applications worked on, filled out etc by the dd so life will proceed without as much stress. 9 1/2 weeks to baby I think.

I am ripping everything out of the basement basically and doing whatever necessary to get it cleaned out and organized for a great start to the school year. Phew. We made a lot of progress today and hope to make a bunch more tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Better get to bed.

Bugs

So last night I discovered potato beetles attacking my potatoes!!!! War! We are trying some Jerry Baker solutions so will let you know how that goes. There also seems to be a problem with the green peppers and there are some thought on that as well in "Bug Off". I have never had a problem with peppers before. Hmmmm......perhaps we are taking too good of care of keeping away the weeds. It is way too stinking hot out right now for me to have the want to attack these problems right now. Perhaps this evening. Then the mosquitos will be out.......

Isn't this riveting information? The kids get back tomorrow noon from HT. Matthew leaves again Sunday morning for BS camp. Hopefully he weathers that alright. It is my understanding from my dd that she sang Karaoke with a bunch of other attendees some song about Texas. She and Maggers invited anyone who lived in Texas or wanted to live in Texas to come and sing with them. So I guess it was Pastor Borghart and Lenea and a bunch of people from Indiana who sang. I thought I was talking to an impostor but the voice on the other end did sound like Anna so I think it was the same person. She won't dance but will sing Karaoke????? Is this a new Anna?

There was also a recent call from her where she was very excited to tell me there is going to be HT conference in Sweden next summer. I am sure she is dreaming of going. Charley remarked from the other room, "If she learns Swedish maybe we would consider it". She is of course excited for the Swedes who have hauled to the US for years every summer.

Sweat

I must have tackled at least eight rows of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn this morning. It did end up getting hotter and humid but I think in a sense I become addicted to sweat. I love mowing the lawn and frankly I love hoeing. There is something about tackling a job that does not involve picking up little Lego pieces that I find very refreshing. I always feel better afterwards also. Yay, Sunshine!

We have little broccoli plants and lots of lettuce to nibble on so far. I can see the healthier broccoli plants are going to have us in the broccoli business soon. That will be nice. I plan to make a trip to a store for pine nuts later today as our basil is doing great and I love pesto sauce.

Martin diligently went through a row of corn to get rid of all the grass that is growing in that plot. That row looks much better but there is a lot more grass to get out as soon as possible.

If I had my camera I would take a picture of our lovely masterpiece out there. I think we will be able stay on top of things since this is a two family (two mom with a few extra helpers now and then) project. I won't allow Charley in the garden as he is a plant killer. He proved that again as he thought he could help til between corn rows yet couldn't see the corn plants.......Erik! Come to the rescue!

There are tomatoes forming (no salmonella here) and the squash and cucumbers are coming along. The onslaught of zucchini and yellow squash will be upon us soon.

I am interested in finding a good salad spinner (never thought I would see the day) so am looking for recommendations.........

Better go drink another gallon of water.......

Getting stuff done

So happy day! I found my IEW training video. It just appeared out of no where which is sort of odd. I am busily watching the Literary Analysis training video in my spare time so will be able to move on to the review my IEW stuff when I am done with that. Finding this set again was a huge relief as it was a HUGE investment. Now I can feel like I am getting something done as I sit around with Stefan while he is snoozing.

This morning I went for that lovely glucose test. The lab tech amused me as she takes her job very seriously (more seriously than any lab tech I have ever encountered) and as she was drawing blood she asked me if this was my second or third. I told her I would wait to tell her till she was done drawing blood before I told her. "Eighth" ......"What???? You must really love babies!" "Yep".

I mowed the lawn, got some of the perenial garden weeded, took the kids to the pool, chased Stefan around and by the inspiration of some friends dh is taking me out to eat for our anniversary which we have never gotten around to doing (May 30th was a busy week.....wedding, and dh leaving the country the next day). He is beckoning so toodles!

Bliss

Not that I don't like my family being around but this afternoon the hubby took my kiddos to canoe at a friends place. Ah...... The friends and the hubby tried to talk me into going but an afternoon with just Stefan and I has been delightful so far. He started the afternoon sleeping on my shoulder and now is pleasantly playing wherever I go with his little language. He never seems this content if there are other kids around and he normally is screaming for attention.

I do not feel a burning desire to tackle the world here but am getting a little bit of this and a little bit of that done. There are not children bickering, screaming, running through the house etc. and I know someday I will want that but quite frankly I have been on noise overload for awhile. There has been a lot of confusion with "are we going camping' "What, we are not going camping?" and all the preparation for the camping trip that wasn't going on. When I am taking the kids to the pool, or to appointments, or shopping, gardening, or church......I am not home. I like to be home and this quiet time is just what the doctor ordered. Stefan is cute and sweet and I relish this time alone with him to just think and hold him and listen to his cute little self. I am sure he won't be entirely thrilled with the upcoming little person so will try to find alone time with him then as well. So......off to go 'do some things together'.

Strawberry picking

I took the kids strawberry picking this morning and they did a great job. I started picking until Stefan decided it was more fun to run up and down the rows and into the driving area. So.....since it is easier for the kids to stoop and pick, I chased Stefan and they picked. They managed to pick 68 pounds in a little less than two hours. Not bad. Now to get them in the freezer.

We came home last night to the rest of one of our cherry trees laying in the drive way. It only took the phone line out this time. We just upgraded our cell phone so I was able to call people about plans for today. The cell phone seems to have better reception than the last one so some things are improving.

I need to go get some weeding done in the garden which is looking great. I should take some pictures. The potatoes are now flowering so that means potatoes will be busy forming soon. Yay! They were planted April 18th.

Charley would still like to attempt a camping trip sometime this summer but I just don't see how that will be possible. There is a lot going on and then of course there is the baby the beginning of September and I do not take new borns camping. I think the youngest baby to go camping was five months old or so and that was Cecilia.

Off to weed......

Camping cancelled and Dad's 55 years

Well, I suppose God reads my blog and takes it seriously. Har har. Just kidding. Last fall I blogged about how I hate camping or least many current aspects of it. This afternoon, while our youth group was at DQ cooling off from the car wash, my phone rang and it was Ludington State Park informing me the park had been closed due to flooding. I did reschedule but have thought better of it as I can not imagine that park will be recovered from 8 inches of rain on Friday simply because it stopped raining. I read that the town has many streets damaged and roads are closed, not to mention the ecoli alert for the beach and area in general. This pregnant mom with seven kids is not going to do that.

So.....instead, we are going to schedule some other fun events for the kids to enjoy and not necessarily all this week. I hope to take them to the Field Museum in Chicago in July and Charley hopes to take them on some biking outings. Since I really hate the preparations for camping and that camping with this many kids is generally work, God certainly has made me a tall glass of lemonade. Phew. I am now stocked with various treats that were going with us to Ludington that I will have to hide and take with us to the these various events.

Tomorrow is the 55th anniversary of my dad's ordination. I didn't know this before we planned our camping trip so now we have decided to go. We will begin our morning at dear old Emmaus and then proceed to Valpo for dear old dad. 55 years is pretty amazing if you ask me. He fits in his original cassock which is also amazing and a credit to his well disciplined healthy lifestyle. I would say he probably could use a slimmer cut. His family always has tended to get thinner with age so I am hoping I might inherit some of that tendency Lord willing. He graduated from Augustana Theological Seminary in 1953. Mom and Dad are attending a reunion this summer to celebrate with other fellow graduates. I believe they don't just get together with just the 55ers but with all the graduates that are able to attend. Here is his basic bio: LeRoy Oscar Anton Martinson, Ph.D., Associate Professor Emeritus of Sociology; Gustavus Adolphus College (A.B.,1949); Augustana Theological Seminary (M.Div.,1953); Columbia University (M.A.,1965); The University of Chicago (Ph.D.,1971)

Did you notice he has a few middle names???? Har har. I would say Dad is a little educated don't you think? So off we go tomorrow. It will be a short visit as they had previous after service plans but at least we can go. We were going to go biking afterwards but the Chesterton weather forecast is calling for rain......rain foils us again.

Corn

So we are getting pretty industrious around here and I have visions of my family on their feet A LOT in the months to come. We are tilling up a bunch more ground to plant sweet corn. Since we have put in as much as we have in the main garden, there was much less space left for corn which we love. The last time I put up sweet corn was nearly eleven years ago and I was expecting Martin.....and had a kidney infection. Misery. So I guess the bad memory was preventing from much enthusiasm in this department. However, the price of food is affecting us all and we are sharing the garden with another family so we are getting down and dirty.

I am almost caught up with the lawn mowing for now. It is hard to behave myself when I see the nearly two feet grass all over. I suppose it is a plus financially that I am expecting as when I am not expecting the lawn stays neat and tidy and uses more gas. This way I have to behave and not do too much at a time. I sometimes do lean towards misbehavior like yesterday morning. I slept well last night. Sleep greedy......

Charley had the opportunity to go to the Eric Sloan museum yesterday. He never goes sight seeing in the States, but we have been reading the Sloan books and lo and behold the museum was where he was traveling yesterday. The boys are jealous.

I think I will go plant some pole beans and some peas........

Interesting chat

So during the kid's Catechesis class I had an interesting chat with a friend about why some people feel threatened by choices we make. I suppose it is normal for us to evaluate ourselves somewhat by what other people choose but it also seems a little pyscho. We were talking about how several friends or relatives have felt somehow judged by us because we choose to homeschool, or strive to eat healthier or that we might not be jumping on the bandwagon to do things exactly like everyone else. Why is it threatening to someone else what we choose to do with our kids etc.? Do they really think that we sit with our husbands and contemplate switching to whole wheat flour because it will make everyone else feel guilty? "I know honey, let's be sure to buy cotton clothes for our children and spend a little more on them so we can pass them down just so we will appear to be snobs." Come on, is this reality? Personally if one friend eats beef and another eats mainly beans is no big deal to me. I have enough to worry about without wondering whether I am meeting my whole wheat, fresh egg quota this week.



Or......what if I have a closet knowledge of something like music? Does it mean that just because I don't currently use it much (outside of knowing when musical mistakes are made during a service or concert) that I don't know anything about music? I just tend to stick with what I am given to do now. OH, and I also don't point out the mistakes.........



Newspapers come to mind. I only get the weekend newspaper at the moment and try to keep up but getting the weekend only is mainly because it is another expense, and I am the only one who really reads it. So I read what I can online to try to keep up. Does this mean I am ignorant and need help as I also don't watch the news at night (no reception) or does it mean that when something is going on I may grab the nearest person that I trust their political view points and ask questions. Not to mention the fact that I am busy (as usual) doing what God has given me to do and it seems to me that the world has been ticking from the beginning of time without everyone being up on all the latest news all over the world. This does not make me stupid or in need of help. This means there are only 24 hours in the day!

I have a dear friend who is afraid of dogs and frankly, so am I! I have a dog and I don't stop having her over because she is afraid of my dog. I tie the dog up because I value my friendship more than my dog. Her fear is no reflection on my having a dog or our friendship. I have been assured in the past of a darling little pooch (Rotweiler) being so wonderful and wouldn't I like to meet him and then upon saying no, they let the dog in anyway and I became the dog's personal chew toy. Gee, I wonder why I have a fear of dogs. Is that a reflection on anyone other than we are all different and do things differently????

I don't know exactly what my point is here except it bugs me to see families and friends giving each other anxiety attacks simply because they see some underlying evil motive that doesn't even exist. It is just sad and it was sad to see this friend the other night so worn out by the criticism. Hmmmm......

Busy weekend

Friday I had my cute little appt again and all seems well. Three weeks til the next one. I went from there to pick up a few more veges for the garden that we forgot. Perhaps I already said that. Friday evening we went to an open house graduation party and had a grand time. I got to see an old friend who I haven't seen since high school. He hasn't changed much and it is fascinating to me to hear of life choices after so many years. I find these sort of things pretty interesting. At nine o'clock it occurred to me that Anna needed to get to bed for the SAT the next morning and we all dashed to the van to hurry home. How did I forget that?

Saturday morning I of course drove dd to the test. She was cool and confidant which was great. She feels things went well so we are looking forward to finding out the results. She also observed that since she has been so intensely studying that sitting for four hours taking a test was not a big deal. We will have to make a note of that for her younger siblings.

Saturday afternoon I spent in the garden again. I am sure I did spend a little too much time in the sun but water is a great thing. Saturday evening Anna and I took off with Stefan to go purse shopping on the way to pick up Matthew from camp. I found a few cute suits for Stefan which was fun and a couple size big shirts for after the bambino's arrival for me. Nothing worse than a grumpy new mother.

The sermon was great this morning so I ponder HOW we love our neighbor. What is most loving? Is it always loving to not talk with people about things or is it more loving to talk things through. I lean towards the later as the first leaves too many question marks and hurt feelings. Great sermon pastor!

I best go eat and make some hamburger buns.

What to say today.......

My dh gets home this evening. We won't be here right when he gets home so perhaps that will nice for him in a way. He called at what was 1:00am for him last night and had about four hours to sleep. Sleep deprivation is certainly my summary of his trip. Paris, Bavaria, and Barcelona since Sunday. Hopefully he can get some sleep tonight.

I am getting confused as to what day of the week it is. Tomorrow is the SAT and I do feel confidant that the person taking it will be fine and her preparations will pay off. Phew. I always have a fear of getting to such things late so will be up bright and early tomorrow.

Our garden is looking pretty good with the cooperative effort. We should have peas within the week and definately spinach and lettuce. Some things were started later than I would like but I do have to remind myself that I never used to get anything in until after June 1st anyway.

Hopefully next week we can begin math with the boys and spelling and reading help for some as well. That girl taking the SAT will probably just want to read books for a week or sew.

There is severe weather on the way. I hope that doesn't affect dh getting home. I haven't heard from him since last night so I am assuming he is in the States at least. I loath bad weather/storms in the summer. We have had some dooseys in the past and the 100 plus foot tall trees around here have been know to wreck havoc. At least the electric lines are a little clearer of danger.

Gardening

So Monday and Tuesday I got in most of the plants that needed planted. My body is sort of in shock after all that bending, hoeing and digging. I suppose if I keep weeding steadily I won't feel so sore after awhile. The trick is also not overdoing it as once I get going it is hard to stop.

We are headed to the pool for a little R & R. The kids have worked pretty hard today so I am sure that will feel pretty good.

I guess I don't have a lot to say here. I did read Mostly Harmless's blog post and perhaps my grumpy post inspired that, who knows. I could ramble on some more about the subject of thinking of others etc but perhaps I will wait on that. I in no way was directing my grumpiness at the wedding. Dynamics of personality do play into how well people play with others though. Maybe I will ramble later.......

My dh called and he and his boss are searching for clothes for the boss as his luggage was lost. There are no shopping malls in Barcelona and dh said the boss may end up looking a little, uh, well.....not sure I should say but more youthful and having a different profession come to mind. He has been in the same clothes for four days. How nice. I guess it is easier to get away with that in Europe.

Better scoot to the pool.

Sunshine on my shoulder......

Makes me hyper...... So the boys and I planted most of the rest of the garden yesterday. I was determined to get all of those plants in so spent much of the afternoon hanging up-side-down digging holes and throwing plants in. Matthew came to my rescue by at least pulling the plants out of the flats. The plants should be pretty happy as there was a great rain right afterwards. I hope we get a little more today.

The baby chicks come this afternoon so the boys need to finish preparations for that. We are not raising turkeys this year as the price of feed is ridiculous. I am just realizing as I write this that we don't have any feed that I am aware of for these new chicks...hmmmm......hopefully the boys know what is up.

That last post I could dedicate to Debbie T. I am just teasing you Debbie but you said that you liked my blog as it wasn't always chipper and unreal, or something like that. Hope I didn't disappoint you. Just teasing. I actually found that a high compliment.

I went on a chip and dip run for the study maniac last night before Vespers. I hope she doesn't pick up this habit in college. She does have Charley and my metabolism though so perhaps she can get away with it for now. Opps.....I mentioned her again.

Stefan loved the pool yesterday and I loved him loving it. He was kicking and splashing in the big pool or he would hug me tightly around the neck jabbering away. What is not to love about that.

Not sure what to say - HA

I have thought of quite a few blog posts lately. I am not sure how to put things once I get to the computer though. The kids and I had a great discussion this evening about our many glaring weaknesses and frustrations about ourselves. We certainly have a culture of our own here in this household. We also came up with the plus side of this odd family. I would say overall the plus sides are that every single person does seem to have a sincere desire to serve other people and help them in their hours of need. We have a special empathy towards large families as quite frankly, watching or helping a family with a lot of kids can simply be overwhelming and not exactly the first thing that people think to jump up and do. Large families are not quite able to lead glamorous lives either so we empathize. We don't care about glamour as there is no time to consider that we are missing it. So....we helped the brides family as I could just only imagine being in their shoes when it is considered a feat just to get through a regular church service and actually stay in the pews. Enjoying your daughter's wedding and not having to worry about little children who might cry and crawl on your head was not my picture of enjoying a daughter's wedding. So we helped to watch them when we could. Everyone in our family just sees that need and does it. There can be parties going on, or friends beckoning, but help we will. No, I am not trying to sound like a martyr but this is just what this family enjoys to do for fellow parents similar to us. We concluded that we love to do this and it is certainly a plus. The kids were having a sort of "we are a bunch of losers" sort of mood this evening so the time came to discuss what sort of losers we really are. Of course we are sinners to the core, and we DO realize that, but seeing my kids so depressed was I suppose a teachable moment.

The other thing we discussed was our great dislike of being criticized or have stupid questions asked of us like....."why is there laundry all over the place" or the assumption made that because we have a bunch of kids that we don't have any passions or ability to make it without the aid of the eldest. Or that all we do is change diapers and do housekeeping duties. Or we just don't handle criticism in general very well. When you live with this many people, criticism can just abound. After all there are 9(actually 10) sinners running around bumping into each other and of course criticism happens. We have our pleasant routines but there are also two parents here who are not always good at giving praise or appreciation to anyone. Making it through the day can just be wearing. I have personally had my share of people in my life who criticize me for my decisions, my grammar, my political views, my theological practices, my house keeping inabilities, my marriage etc. to the point that I have pondered designing a t-shirt with a target on it. Yes, that is sarcastic but truth be told I get sort of tired of it. So this family tends to be a little defensive. Who likes to be corrected or criticized anyway? Yes, there is the ability to take constructive criticism but I not so sure the comments that irk us fall in that category. So.....we pray and forgive and keep forging ahead. We remind each other to pray and forgive and that we are forgiven in Christ. Sigh.

On the flip side we also discussed that because we do have a large family that it makes PERFECT sense that we bond with people who also do. There are certainly those who love us and I truly enjoy spending time with. I thank God for that. I do not love the fact that I feel misunderstood and that some people seem sort of afraid of me or something. I am not in my comfort zone when I sense that I need to help people understand this large family or that I am being evaluated for my abilities or knowledge. I AM in my comfort zone with people I find interesting who I can take the time and enjoy them. I SO enjoyed talking with the Great Grandma at the wedding about her farm and her love for her family. She is a kindred spirit from afar who I may not have the privilege to talk with again. I think I am attracted to the quiet, hard working humble people of life who do not live a glamorous life but do have passion, love and care for those they have been given to care for. They are inspiring to me.

I am sorry I make some people uncomfortable including some of my relations. I am not exactly sure what to do about that but keep praying. I am usually just taken by surprise and sometimes stumped as to what to say in response. I guess I do not like either to be pressured or forced to agree with people when frankly I don't always agree. So at times I am forthright and say something. I don't think I am really THAT scary but of course I was told in High School that no one in HS wanted to ask me for a date as I was intimidating....smart.....whatever. This is getting long (not competing with anyone.....) but I do still struggle with the stereo type that because I have a bunch of kids, from nearly out of the nest to babes in arms, that I am not capable of making decisions or having many brain cells left. I have passions and interests that are most important to me and I AM NOT helpless because there are some younger kids around. I am not looking for pity at all and sort of resent it which is not too friendly or forgiving on my part. But really, PITY????? We love our family the way it is and I do happen to know what to do with this crew and really am perplexed with comments that insinuate that I can't handle contributing things because after all I have all these little kids to take care of. Two of the little kids are taller than me now! One could probably fly the coop now but I don't want her to, not for reasons of needing help, but because I love her and will miss her, so am I helpless?????? The help I love is from people like our new members who make dinner on Monday nights so at the catechumens (can't spell that tonight) can make it through the day without totally falling apart. It is a quiet help but is greatly appreciated by all. It is also a sort of humbling, wonderful kind of help to accept. Thank you H's for all of the stress relief you have contributed to.

So this post may sound as weird as the apple that fell from the tree's posts, but these are things that I am struggling with and would appreciate prayers for. How to not get depressed with misunderstanding and hurtful comments, decisions made for us , that may not have been intended to be hurtful but in the quiet background have been. I know, forgive them, but truly just getting over hurt is hard as well.

Love from this weird family....

Class act

So the wedding was great and yes, a class act. The bride's planning and forethought were wonderful and smooth and the bride's mom also did an awesome job of all the things she was involved with. My dear husband commented on the way home that he would classify it in the top five of his favorite weddings he has attended (we've been to quite few). The babies were especially cooperative - Gerhardt, Stefan, Frederick and Saranita caught their two hour afternoon naps just at the right time! Thanks kids! Or....was that the brides careful planning which I wouldn't be surprised, in which case.....thanks! Great planning! The reception went quite smoothly as well and fun was had by all as far as I could tell.

Today was Martin's 10th bday as well so he can say that over 200 people came to the party. He just doesn't have to mention it wasn't his party. He had a grand time though. He did mention yesterday that things are always very busy on or around his birthday. Sorry hon, but we are not sorry we have you.

21 years

So it is time for another anniversary. I can't say I have much deep to say but we are going to postpone celebrating till life calms down a little bit. We may get some carry out Dairy Queen. Who knows. I mistakenly told someone it was 22 years today but we will crack that up to a LONG year. That does not necessarily mean a long year with Charley but in life in general. I can't believe how much has gone on this past year. Our 22nd year will be equally busy but I can definitely do without some of the details of year 21.

Today I am still working on trying to get summer clothes and winter clothes in order and put away. The kiddos have grown a lot this year and making heads or tails of it all is definitely a chore. My wardrobe is enough to make anyone crazy. Is is winter and I am pregnant, winter and not pregnant but not skinny yet, summer with same options or either option summer or winter and actually skinny. Ugh. Someday I might end up with a simple combination but that is not say I am looking forward to that either.

It is supposed to rain and I am hoping it does. I have a little cooking to do. Tomorrow is Martin's birthday as well as DoRena and Sam's wedding. I am sure he can get some cake. I would love to leave the house in order and ready for Sunday but we shall see if I can maintain the steam. Perhaps it is time for a chocolate bar.......

The boys all got hair cuts and look a lot nicer. I hope to get to my hubby's head later this evening. Everyone says Stefan needs a hair cut but frankly I like his curly head. Who wants to chop off baby curls anyway????

Chocolate.......

Crossing things off the list

So "the list" is still long but we are making progress. I have just begun to put away winter clothes as they still are wearing them! We went to the pool on Monday which the kids loved and Stefan loved as well. Stefan did get his first skinned knee there so I can tell keeping up with chasing him around will be a little tiresome.

One of the things on my list was to clean up the book sale mess in the basement of the church. I was just bemoaning how I haven't found the opportunity to get to that on Sunday. Well! Thank you to whoever conquered that one this week. I can guess who may have done it. That was an easy one to cross of the list.

I watered my peonies in hopes they will bloom but things are looking grim. They are VERY late. Anna always has peonies in full bloom on her birthday and these are not even close this year. Hopefully some will make progress overnight.

Anna is downstairs making cake. That seems to be going smoothly. Whew.

I am waking Stefan up.....later!

For the record.....

Anna is not cramming for the SAT. She is systematically reviewing her Algebra and Geometry and frankly I have been quite impressed with her handle on math in general. Sure she could have made it further in Algebra 2 but the review has been good and she is learning a lot from going through practice tests etc. Frankly I would recommend this sort of review for anyone taking the SAT. Her essays have been pretty good as well but would like a little more practice with the time factor. Her greatest lesson was to not worry about the subject matter she chooses to use to defend her position but how she defends it using strong examples.

I am proud of her perseverance despite distractions and her commitment to conquer and divide. I am also praying that she has the confidence the day of without any stress the days before.

She does have a wedding cake to whip out, which she is happy to do as she loves the bride and family and would frankly do anything to be of help to them. Erik is the same way and I am very proud of them for their thoughtfulness of other people. I believe we have a handle on the weekend that will allow her to be focused and not have stress to kill a few more days in over processing. Cryptic I know.....

Happy Birthday Anna!

So we hung onto 16 as long as we could and now......she is 17. Sigh. 16 was a year full of all sorts of new things along with some things more akin to growing pains. She weathers the storms, we muddle through and now to see what 17 holds for her. It certainly has been a year of sewing and contemplating college choices. That has been new for me as well. I don't remember this process too much as my dad taught at Valparaiso so that was where I was going. Most of the mail is for her nowadays so she goes and gets the mail from the box and proceeds to the recycling bin.

She is very happy that work called and told her she didn't have to come in today. She was sort of dreading that. Now we are going to traipse off to the farmers market for some veges and vege plants and then a quick trip to......can you guess?.....the fabric store. When you are born around Memorial Day then you get to enjoy days off and sales.

This coming year will hold SAT tests, drivers tests, college applications, most likely a few classes at the local college, a new brother or sister, and of course savoring her Emmaus moments and Emmaus friends (more sewing, I forgot). She is excited about college so I am sure we will also all enjoy the roller coasters that come with these changes as many of her friends have already experienced. I personally will hold onto 17 as long as I can.........

Today's feats

I would say today was pretty amazing. Not only did Anna work extremely hard on math, but we were also entertained by a new cd call Snack Time. It was really for the little children but we were all amused of course because we love to listen to such silliness. While Anna worked and listened, I sorted more socks. Cecilia helped and we have a laundry basket full now. Most of them seem to be for feet that don't fit them right now so the next problem will be what to do with these socks that are waiting for feet to grow into them! Ugh. Organization is SUCH a pain.

After the sock sorting spree I cuddled up with Stefan for a little snoozaroo time. He truly is much more enjoyable lately. He is eating well, loving the great outdoors and sleeping until almost eight o'clock in the morning. Sigh. Hold onto having a one and a half year old as long as you can. I think I am catching up on some MUCH needed rest.

My post napping activity was......drum roll please.......finishing mailing my Christmas letters, God children's presents from Christmas, baby gift for freinds in OHIO, and a wedding gift. Phew! Tomorrow will be return the Christmas gifts that haven't been returned. I can't wait. Our bedroom is shaping up finally and perhaps by the end of next week we will be able to walk through it. I am not such a great example for my children in this department but when you are committed to teaching, the house does tend to go to the dogs. What was my excuse a year and a half ago?????

Anna planted my lilies which badly needed planting and she is still downstairs listening to the cd and working her way through review Algebra one.

Erik sprayed the ant population, trimmed trees and bushes, planted my blueberry bushes, rounded up some more trouble places and helped Charley put together a gate for some friends.

I think everyone will sleep till almost eight o'clock tomorrow......

Twinkle toes

So sometimes you may think I am listening to what you are saying to me, but in reality Twinkletoes is doing acrobatics inside of me and that can be pretty distracting. Most of the time I AM listening but there really is nothing quite like have a squirmy little person entertaining themselves inside you. Of course if you are man then you would have no clue what I am talking about but you moms out there most likely do. This is a squirmy child. I suppose he is reving up to defend himself from almost two year old brother. That would be a good idea as Stefan is a little possesive of his mommy and seems to get more attached by the day. My other children have survived so I am sure he will too. No, we do not know if it is a boy or a girl but he is just easier than all that he and she stuff.

So if I suddenly look spaced off you may now know the reason. OH, and one other baby thought today. When people offer to do things for me seeing as I am expecting, it still takes me by surprise. THey have NO IDEA what I do at home so again if I appear perplexed it is because I probably can't figure out why you are offering at first. I will try to comply and let people be sweet and nice in this way. I am a slow learner.

The potatoes might be burning.....toodles!

Ironing

I ironed from 10:00 am till around 4:00 this afternoon. I still have more to do. Everyone's closets should be a lot happier. I think I had this blog post last fall but perhaps I didn't iron EVERYone's clothes. I found a few things of mine which I haven't seen for quite awhile. Of course I can't use them now but when the time comes it will be nice to have these old friends back. I also have socks to conquer and divide some more. Since I had the boys dig under their beds there have been a lot more socks passing through the laundry and I would imagine their rooms will smell better as well.

The older boys, including Charley, are off camping at Turkey Run. It has been incredibly quiet here with just the little ones. Anna was gone all day at work and then gone some more with a few other activities after work. She might be home soon and I hope we can chill out with a movie or something. I can iron and watch at the same time. What in the world did I do when I just had Anna, Erik and Matthew????? It was SOOOO quiet here today. I was hoping to get more done but it wasn't meant to be I guess. Perhaps I will catch up before September......

Socks

So Nick inspired me to sort socks. I am always baffled by how many unmatched socks there are and wondering where the other ones went. I think we should all have a sock gathering but we would have to be seperated by where we shop or something. We would probably end up with more matches. Sometimes I throw a holey sock out and I don't have the match so that would explain some of it. I think I need to bring everyone inside and go through everyone's room looking under all the furniture. Hmmmmm......maybe after lunch.

Anna is busy studying math while I sort socks and I think that is going well. THe boys are out gathering garlic mustard out of the woods and searching for Morrel mushrooms. We found eleven the other day. I guess I could say that I found them as I was mowing the field they were found in. There have been a ton of them this year.

Sorry about the lid comment last post but really I do find myself sort of scary looking. A friend loves this country song about if you want to have a happy marraige get yourself an ugly wife. Ha! I get it. No shopping or pampering. And no, I am not contemplating death in any other way but thinking that sleeping in Jesus doesn't sound too bad at times. Hmmm.....not helping here am I? If you have ever been majorly tired and buried in work I think you probably could relate. It sounds very nice to me.

No I am not going to apologize for this post.......back to Algebra and socks......

Family pictures

So my friend Karen holds the opinion that she never wants her picture taken. Well......after today I would say I might have to hold the same opinion......I don't like my picture taken. We had our pictures taken at church and the result is more than a nightmare. (Vanity). First of all they put you in the weirdest positions. She had my feet up this tall box, while holding Stefan who was wiggling all over the place, and then asking me to hold my head down (can you say double chin?) and then tilting it to the side, with no back support and of course I had the obstacle of the new baby to deal with as well. I don't think the photograper caught on to that. I look sort of like a terrorist was interviewing me or something. Yikes and ugh!!!!!!! So until the next pictorial directory I will have this horrifying picture of myself for all to share in the directory. Of course everyone else looked fine in the picture. I have noticed most pictures of myself can terrify me. I had the naughty thought to tell my family to feel free to keep the lid down at my funeral. Yes, that is shocking. I did mention that to my older kids and they laughed. I need a hair cut badly! Ack!

Here ends my shocking post of the day......

LIfe is intense

Day three of studying with Anna has gone pretty well. My brain is reawakening to all of that lovely high school math again and the good news is that I remember most of it. Geometry is my favorite and Steve Demme even makes Algebra more enjoyable than I thought possible. We also managed to get some of the house cleaned up this morning and Anna was able to get some practicing in. Every day gets a little better in the tedious department so perhaps by mid-June I might not be embarressed to have someone pop over.

Yesterday LaRena and I planted a little more garden and did a little bit of weeding. The rain has been cooperating for the most part and I reminded her that most things can not be planted till after the first of June. That is good news for her I would think as she has her own things to deal with.

Erik has been working pretty hard on his catechism in between working for his dad cleaning out the barn.....and doing a few things for me. I would like to do more math with him but will get to that sometime I am sure. Ugh.

So not a whole lot is new and different. I do regularly drop into La La land while studying with Anna so that could be counted as a nap I suppose. She is beckoning me to come and do the next thing.

Guv'ment two years ago

My mom pointed me to a picture of Guv'ment. He was quite the character in his prime. When I would water the flower garden he would gooble/yell at me to come give him some too. Whatever will we do without you Guv'ment.

That is the rest of the story......

I think I can, I think I can......

So by the time the evening rolls around I am generally spent. I am sure I look a little on the grumpy side but I suppose it is trying to maintain endurance to get little people to bed. I think I am also thinking about the many things I need to do to help my kids with their academics. Anna and I will be bonding this month in preparation for the SAT. School is not really stopping. It is just shifting gears. I feel a certain sense of guilt for not being there for Anna as much as I would have liked to. She muddles along but would benefit a lot more by having me as a greater presence in her school life. Self-discipline is hard for anyone so why would I expect her to be some sort of wonder student. We will try to make this month as fun as we can as well without killing each other working too hard. My 'list' will probably not get a lot of attention until the second week of June. Sigh. Anna did point out that most of the things on my list could be accomplished in an afternoon so perhaps our reward for slaving over school work will be knocking something off of the list.

No, we are not despairing but just thinking about what I need to get done can make me a little weary. I also need to keep Martin reading and helping Erik with his various areas that need attention. I think I can, I think I can........

Wrapping up the school year

This week we are wrapping up the main part of the school year as far as co-oping goes. We still will meet a few times a week for the older kids to work on math and I have some tutoring to do with a few of my kids at home. But.......I am looking forward to getting onto 'the list'. No, not the list that my children talk about some of the time but my to do list. Baby ? is around four months from appearance and there are MANY things that need attention around the homestead. I am sure we will not be able to cross off everything from the list but we can try. Charley has two things on his list and my list takes up several pages. I plan to everything I can to help him accomplish his list. Phew. Time for a nap! Oh, I already caught one this morning before lunch.

Anna's list is to finish preparing for the SAT in June. I think that is doable but this too is on my list. I will most likely drop her off at the library for peace, quiet and escape from the screamie meanies at home. I will NOT be tempted then to put her to work. She is incredibly capable of accomplishing the remarkable. Ok, ok, I will let you study.

Charley just told me he will be taking a trip to Europe in June so we will have a week to maybe help him with his list if he gets far enough along to leave the boys with tasks towards this end.

Oh yes. This blog post would not be complete with a plea to everyone not to nag or tease Charley about his tasks. He knows what he is doing and we will get there so.......don't ask. You will figure it out.

I forgot

Earlier this week Benjamin's pet turkey Guv'ment died. Such a sad day.....Benjamin wanted to go and see him after he was discovered and then when I stopped him he asked if we were going to keep him. Oh bother. He certainly had a long life. I am not sure if we have a picture of him or not. I think we do. I will have to look for it. Benjamin has survived the trauma and hasn't inquired after Guv'ment's welfare again. Can you tell we just watched "Sense and Sensibility"?

Anna and I went and bought a toaster this evening. This was an exciting excursion to be sure. There were a couple of choices and they now have new features. Bagel vs bread vs frozen....and cancel! The slots are wider so we don't have smash our bagels in but they still all have plastic buttons. My children will still be able to pound on the button and potentially break it. The old toaster had this problem and other problems of course. It wouldn't stop cooking and we being the observant family that we are would forget we even put a piece of toast in to begin with. There is an overall trust among our family members that the toaster will do what it is supposed to do and pop the toast out. It wasn't working like that. "What's that smell?" I would ask and discover another charred piece of toast smoking up the kitchen. Anna took action and threw it away yesterday. Horners can't live without toast though so bought it's replacement after her piano/organ lesson this evening.

Being in a totally obnoxious mood I scandalously bought a Fox in Sox stuffed animal this evening. I think it will have to live on our bed and be mine. No one can borrow it for long. I love that book. I wonder what Charley will think of it. I am sure he will be charmed.

Better be responsible and get to bed. Fox will go with me of course.

Nighty nighty!

Yesterday

I finally got to mow the lawn for a little while, of course behaving myself. It was tempting to keep mowing and mowing. It is such an escape for me and I do most of my reflective thinking while doing this sort of thing. When do I do that in the winter???? I did spare the blue flower thingies that I can't remember their names but the bees like them and also there is quite a bit of hyacinths still blooming out there. I think I also love to mow as I visit literally half of the ten acres almost every week. I would like to develop paths for the woods and make that an equally pleasant experience. I wouldn't mow the woods though. Our neighbors rake the leaves out of the woods in the fall but won't say anything more about that activity. We just pray for a good wind to blow the leaves into the woods. Works like a charm.

I have perennials to plant from an excursion to my favorite nursery. It was 36 degrees out last night so they spent the night inside. I am a much happier person left to my own devices outside. Sigh. Don't know what to do with myself sometimes. I think I must be hard to live with.

Menards is the source of real lilies as my brother helped me to discover. Lots of choices and great prices. Those will go in the garden as well. I must make myself order some new bulbs this fall for next spring. They are SOO much cheaper that way.

Off to mow a patch.

To push delete or not to push it

So the cute little response to my previous post got a reaction by some person in California who I don't even know. I could go delete it or just leave it. As I stated in my post, it was refreshing to talk to Cecilia who was truly intrigued by the Scientific evidence that exists to back up intelligent design. She did not throw her own articles or views of what she had been taught at me but truly was interested. Sending me a site stating that the movie is full of anti-science propaganda is so typical of the people I know who just simply throw this sort of response back at you. The film was hardly anti-science. Of course stranger in California was trying to help this poor silly mom in Indiana get the story straight. It just made me all the more tired and weary of this sort of response. Perhaps I will go push delete or let other people say what they would like. Or not......
Of course if I push delete I may be accused of censoring this persons views so there you go.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

So I never wrote about my evening out with the girls. The movie was great if not a little depressing but great just the same. I would strongly recommend it to anyone and especially to the crowd who believes there are no Scientists who question evolution or who pay any heed to intelligent design. Guess what? There are! I knew this already of course but the documentary was very well done and I cannot see how anyone could leave without seeing how Scientists are hemmed in by the evolution crowd. There ARE actually many scientists who have written extensively on the flaws of the evolution theory (theory not fact) who some think are just crazy, stupid brain washed people. Who is brain washed???? What are they afraid of???? I am not going to ramble on and on about this but will try to post some of the scientists interviewed and some of their books sometime in the near future. If you have opportunity to see the movie I do not feel you will regret it. It is very well done and even if you are an evolution camp person I can not see how you wouldn't get something out of it.

MY most refreshing conversations about this subject were with my cousin Cecilia from Sweden who is a Physics scholar. She was MOST respectful and curious to learn about what scientists have found to disprove evolution and support Intelligent Design. It was refreshing because she was not an angry person defending her views but participated actively in conversation, listening carefully and respectfully to what we had to say. I think Americans are sort of challenged to hold these sorts of discussions. She was fine with listening to new perspectives and ultimately I learned something about conversations from her. Wish she lived closer. She is actually the young woman in the picture of the bonfire in the May Day post. A person from Poland in the film actually stated that America has a problem with exploring Intelligent Design as they are so tied up with political correctness that it restricts conversation and Science from doing this. He claims this is not so in Poland. Interesting.

So......let me know what you think!

Happy May Day

Three years ago we were privileged to be in Sweden visiting relatives on one of their biggest national holidays. It is also the King of Sweden's birthday so we went to his birthday celebration in Sweden. Awesome. He is in the picture above and was accepting flowers from children. Seeing the military band play and their horses display their stuff was also great. My one cousin Inger had never seen the King in person so she was sort of jealous as she wasn't there that day. The Prince is holding the flowers. We were able to see the whole family.

May day in Sweden is a day to have big bonfires and sing National songs so.....we went to the biggest fire in Stockholm at Skansen (not sure that is the spelling) and we will never forget that. It was a perfect trip perfectly planned by accident. I had help from the relations but being able to arrive in time for these events in Stockholm made for a really great trip. We told everyone at home we were going to Sweden to participate in pagan celebrations.....not really. I did enjoy the choir singing National Songs and still wish I could get a copy of these songs.

We are planning to have our own fires today in our yard. The practical side to these fires in Sweden is that neighbors would combine their yard waste and make a big bonfire and of course they would have a party and eat and spend time together. The kids are very excited about doing this but I think it will be just our family unless any readers want to join us. Anyone is welcome to show up. There will most likely be two fires with one for cooking on. Yum, yum.

The most hilarious thing about that day which a cousin emphatically insisted was NOT a Swedish custom, were these men and boys dressed in peasant garb who......ran or rode up to a May Day gate thingie and would......try to beat a cat out of a barrel. It was a stuffed cat but they said they used to use real cats. Hmmmmmmm.........not my ancestors although there are Norwegians on my mother's side.....hmmmmmmm.......

I was not able to get the pictures to post as I wanted them too but of course you are all brilliant enough to figure it out. I hope you all get out and clean your yards and roast some doggies, hamburgers and if you have some Scandinavian blood how about fish. Enjoy!!!!