I need to go to the bathroom

So chirps the six year old THREE times this afternoon during the dreaded run the road with the kids day. How can one little boy need to go to the bathroom that much???? I suppose the big drink he had while we were out didn't help anything. Fifteen passenger vans are nice but they could be bigger so that I could put even more space between me and the children who are having their latest crises. I look back in the van at the bathroom caller and he has a big cherub like look on his face and gives me the big emploring eye look as he pleads for me to find another bathroom. Enough about that.

I REALLY do not like shopping with short people. The two year old loves to buckle himself up in carts and then tell you he's stuck and ask to be unbuckled. So you unbuckle him and he then rebuckles and it starts all over again. Fifteen passenger vans are also the home of all problem solving for siblings. The siblings love to fix their siblings problems in the van. Direction and instruction is what all children need while driving around from place to place. I personally would vote for total silence myself.

I put on some cute CD for the smallest people and the older ones start mocking it, telling me how creepy Raffi is so I promptly ejected it and dropped it in the library drop. They were stunned but the timing was priceless. I just happened to be five blocks from the drop. I used to be able to play anything without any complaints or commentary but mostly cute singing or swaying or whatever. Those days are gone now. My youngest children will be deprived of such cuteness. They WILL know about the retro rock and roll and country that is played most of the time with some questionable lyrics. But Mother Goose???? Nah!

Now I have thrown in the towel, passed the plate and am ordering pizza for dinner. They cheerfully contributed so we could have two pizzas and I am soon off to go retrieve them. Thursdays have been long and painful. One more week to go and I am thankful I will be able to go to the Wednesday classes next year closer to home.

Scheduling and getting stuff done

LaRena and I have decided on days to meet next year which is a good start to the planning ;o) Somehow I would love to keep the schedule so that there are several days of not needing to go anywhere all day. At least I don't want to leave before late afternoon. There seem to be endless appointments to fit in and breaking up the day seems to prevent anything from happening at home. Today I've been home all day and actually got a bunch of stuff done. I am certainly not caught up but am making some progress. I was going to go plant onions right now but it is raining again. I NEED to go biking so will look for a break in the clouds. Bills are paid, signed up for CCA (yay!), and spent school time with Benjamin. Phew. How can learning how to read be SOOO difficult.

I am amused by the Boy Scout Oath where it says the part about being Mentally Awake. Hmmmm.......some are. The poor little boys. My 10yo ds doesn't even know what mentally awake means so I don't think he was offended when I kept giggling at this part.

Off for a cup of yummy decaf with my eldest dd. Yum.

Charley's landmark experience

I just remembered what happened on Friday. Charley and I went shopping in Shipshewana and he was holding Ingrid while I putzed around in a music store. Well I overheard Charley talking to someone in the hallway saying "I knew this would happen someday and you are the first one to say it" Ahem. I immediately knew what had happened. A fifty something man had asked Charley if Ingrid was his granddaughter. ;o) He took it well and when I appeared in the hallway the man jokingly said "So this must be your daughter". :o) Har har. It hasn't happened to me yet but I am sure it wouldn't be too difficult. The gray count is slowly going up. I suppose if there are any other little Horner's in our future it would certainly increase the chances. Just thought you would enjoy Charley's landmark occasion.

My children play the orphan well

at least my little boys do. They are quite talented at getting this funny looking pathetic look on their faces. Stefan will lie in his bed after realizing I mean business and stare straight ahead with his little skinny self orphan look. He has taken up the habit of lying prostrate on the floor with a little sobbing here and there too. I have to try not to laugh.

Benjamin desperately needs me to locate his summer clothes. I told him to go to bed in his skives (spelling?) and he looked at me with the pathetic orphan look of 'oh oh mom, I have nothing on' and being basically pathetic.

That is all that is new and exciting here today. It isn't even new. The days are definitely muddling. Hot and sweaty today with a feeling of not having accomplished enough. Sigh. Thankful dear 16yo old son paid attention to my rant this morning and cleaned the kitchen without being asked......that is an accomplishment for sure.

I need to read the Hobbit fast and furiously as the boys are having too much fun zipping through it. I am looking forward to something not quite so depressing as our previous reads.
Nighty nighty.

Biking and stuff

I am not sure what week I am up to now. Perhaps it is the sixth or seventh week. I finally extended my route when time permits which is a good thing and maybe dropped a few more pounds. With dh's recent spike in cholesterol I am looking for recipes that will help both of us in the same way but different ways. I am also looking into exercise that will strengthen my upper body. I feel like a total wimp.

The garden is slowly progressing. I have most of the onions in and the ones I planted almost a month ago look great. The potatoes should go in soon but the ground was too stinkin wet to get them in. I got some broccoli and and cabbage in too.

School is winding down but I still have a lot of reading to do and am convinced that between Ingrid and the reading, not to mention the laundry and everything else, that blogging has become a challenge.

Had way too much fun giggling last night over certain topics. Laughing sure does a body good.

Need to go rescue Ingrid from herself.

Haven't been blogging lately....reading a lot though

I am not sure why I haven't been blogging although I understand I should be doing less blogging and more snide remarks on other people's blogs. Or is my daughter supposed to do that? I have been having to read a lot for the two classes I teach here at home. Boy have the last few been hum dingers (spelling?). "Cry the Beloved Country" was a great book. I was supposed to read that one in college but the professor kept falling asleep in class and didn't seem to grade our papers so.....I passed on reading it then. It certainly was both depressing and just full of realities of the consequence of sin in people's lives. Oh joy, but actually interesting. I enjoyed the writing style the most even though it was difficult at times to keep track of who was speaking. I most enjoyed talking with the young folks in my class and hearing their perspectives on the books we've read. It is interesting to me to hear their life experience or lack of life experience come through in discussions. I sort of wonder what it has been like for them to read hard truths of the world as we have been slowly working our way through the 20th century in literature. "Cry the Beloved" and the other book we just read "Black Like Me" were the most eye opening to me of the lack of life experience they've had but I suppose it is more sad that I did not find the books as shocking as they did. I was relieved the authors were not too explicit but simply got the point across as to the error of people's ways. Both books cover difficult subject matter but I have no doubt were good for the kids to process.

I think they have left those two books feeling very blessed in their life situations. They have loving parents, are well provided for, and their aspirations for the future seem pretty bright in comparison. The kids reading these are all boys so I also find it refreshing that they are all gentlemen who were properly offended by the offensive and were truly saddened that these sort of things take place in the world. They are looking forward to some lighter reading and the Hobbit is coming up. I will decide tomorrow if we are going to read the next one on the list. It frankly doesn't sound too cheery.......it's NOT 'The Hobbit'.

I don't get flowers, I get bikes

Dh is not what you would call the romantic but rather the practical. The first year we were married he bought me my first new bike. I had never had a bike that was new so I was of course doubly thrilled. We would go biking south of town pretty regularly. We still have that bike but it does need a little work. It has worked well for the boys who are no quite yet giants.

My second bike he got me the year we started biking as a family and even took a bike trip to PA on the rails to trails paths (WAY cool if you can ever do it). In hindsite I think he would have gotten me my newest bike as I do spend more time biking on the open road than in town or on mountain bike paths. It too was a great bike but is now being enjoyed by a friend.

So yesterday he bought me my third bike. It is definitely a road bike and faster than the previous bike. I took it out yesterday with Erik and had a longer spin than usual. I am slowly getting in better shape but watching my son relaxing on his bike while I huff and puff up hills is sort of.....well just sort of......

This bike can also have the Burley hooked to it so perhaps I might be able to get strong enough to take a kid with me. We shall see.

No flowers or chocolate here but hey a bike every so often is pretty nice too. They don't make me fat and I don't have to throw them away after a week or two. :o)

Biking week 4 - in praise of toe clips

A quick update on progress. I can now do my whole route in the highest gear. This is progress. Dh also got me a pair of toe clips for the pedals which solved all my knee troubles. Yay! Thank you Charley. I now walk forward without hurting all the time and it only took one trip with the toe clips to solve the pain issue. Very strange. If biking ever hurt your knees before this was definitely the answer.

I currently have a flat tire so need to fix that little problem. I managed to get two walks in today and took Ingrid with on the one. She had fun pulling my hair and my friend's hair. It was quite fascinating to watch her stroke Cindy's hair and examine it as if she were plotting her next move.....pulling. She looked so delighted and triumphant then. Anyway, the walks were good and it is always nice to be able to talk to someone while walking. I still think that biking shaves off more inches on me at the moment.

Speaking of inches I decided to start measuring the difference instead of focusing on the pounds. I have lost quite a few inches actually so that is a good thing by itself.

Looking forward to biking again tomorrow even if I need to borrow someones bike to get it accomplished.

brrrr...cold but summer's work has begun

Last weekend the boys and their dad put on a new barn roof and today the boys are cleaning out the chicken coop. We got rid of 75 plus laying hens (which weren't laying much of anything) last fall. Well, we did not clean out the coop as there really wasn't an urgent need to. So, now we are back to urgent need as the coop is going to be used to house the pigs till the weather warms up a little. Erik, Martin, and Matthew have been hauling wheel barrow after wheel barrow of the dry dusty stuff out for most of the day. Fortunately it is lighter as it is a dry and fine dust now. I pictured this job taking all weekend but I think they will be able to knock it out today. I suppose they have only been at it for three to four hours now so it hasn't been all day but my hats off to them for doing this with little complaint. I need to go make them a nice big farmer boy type of meal and plan to do something fun with them this evening.

With the pigs coming we begin the daily feeding and watering routine. It is earlier this year than last but the fair is also earlier so we will be done earlier. We are not getting new laying hens as I really would like to be done feeding, watering, collecting and washing eggs. There are SO many other irons in the fire that we decided it wasn't worth it right now.

Our meat birds come next month and a package of bees comes in a matter of days. I need to go out and prepare for that this weekend as well.....summer is here. :o)

Never ending noise

At the moment it is SILENT. I think I hear a few crickets (?really?) and maybe dd just walked by downstairs. The kids made NEVER ENDING NOISE today. Every time I began to say something someone else was talking or whining or making little two year old and seven month old noise. It did not stop all day. My dad comments on this while he is here visiting and I have to laugh as what does he expect from a family of ten??? I have heard that my kids are perhaps calmer than most but....truth be told they are very capable of being loud. I SOOO love the quiet of the evening and morning and need to laugh at myself as far as what am I expecting from a family of ten? Perhaps that is why I love biking and walking with friends so much . It is so not interrupted and nice and enjoyable. Laugh more Karin.

Biking week 3

Tackling the hills has become MUCH easier and reminds me of my cross country days of the thrill of the challenge and being able to push myself to GET UP THE HILL FASTER!!!! Go Karin go! It was very tempting to go a little further this past week but I think I am still going to wait till next week. My thighs do still talk to me as I start each day and say "No Karin, please don't do this. Please just stay like a slug at home and read another book and feel tired." I am not listening so far. My knees are struggling a little still. They feel most bizarre when I am trying to walk fast as they did yesterday while walking with Sandy. It is a sensation of not being to put effort into moving forward quickly. They don't want to move like that without a little pain. Must work on that Comasabi (spelling?). I won't be able to chase my lawn mower if this keeps up.

I did go walking with Sandy yesterday and boy does that exercise other areas of the body. Ouch. It was a sad attempt at race walking and the knees not cooperating kept me back a little. I did not go biking as a result but will hit the road this morning.

I have not lost a whole lot of weight so far but there is a little progress. I decided to keep track of how far around I am as muscle does weigh more than fat so I suppose it will take awhile before I see a lot of difference. Sigh. I need to be happy with the progress I've made and be patient.

Onward!!!