Oh beloved tomato and books

So sings my 7 yo dd while squishing tomatoes in the kitchen. The song can sort of get on your nerves eventually as it is the same words over and over again but, we will have LOTS of tomato sauce this winter. Don't complain about annoying songs while the assembly line is in action.

I mowed a little lawn this afternoon which helped lift my spirits some. I did behave myself so the experience did not last long but it was fun just the same.

Dh acquired a newer to him truck and he is off to the church to work on the sacristy steps. Do be careful pastors if you don't notice it. Perhaps I will give one of them a call who may not read this or talk to me between now and tomorrow morning. Hopefully the repaired steps will improve the appearance of the church some from the outside.

I am reading, reading, reading for my Literary Analysis classes. 'War of the Worlds' is the current read. It is ok. I think I get the gist of the story with basically everyone fleeing the martians. It would be nice if they would do something other than flee and die but I am only on page 90 so we shall see. 'Our Town' was pretty good. I haven't read that in 25 years or so. I vaguely remember a few of the scenes. 'Rilla of Ingleside' was interesting and I didn't remember that it basically chronicles all of WWI from the Canadian perspective. It was a quick read as the characters interacted and did not run away from martians at all ;o) I think I like realistic tales better than the Sci Fi thing. Next will be 'Animal Farm'. Who knew I would be reading so much. I think my brain is waking up from a long dream.......perhaps I have been beamed from distant planet of dishes and diapers for years and am now waking up to......dishes and diapers. It was a nice planet, better than Mars I am sure.

My magically exploding baby needs some attention.......

Doing the next thing

It is hard to decide what IS the next thing. I am pretty much tied to Miss Ingrid, between changing her diapers, cleaning up urp, and constant eating (Ingrid). We sort of feel like no one can ever leave the house to go do anything fun as there is too much to do here but.....we let them do it anyway. Matthew was gone one evening and I guess I hadn't realized how much I depended on his willingness and ability to help make dinner. We were floundering quite a bit last night.

Anna will be gone tomorrow, although I tend not to depend on her as I need to adjust to the next year before it happens. Charley will be gone some of tomorrow so we will struggle to get a load of laundry done and put away, vacuum floors, clean the kitchen and maybe make a meal for the next perona (the fish, can't spell.....) time. If we were to eat like kings we would be cooking and cleaning all the time. That is not possible with school going full force and effectively so perhaps that is how we stay thin. No time for frivolity in eating. Everyone loves my rolls but I can't seem to get to them right now.

Part of the reason I can't make rolls is the mere finding of the ingredients. We never do anything the easy way so if I run out of wheat berries that are accessible, I need to find someone available to go hunt for a bucket or 50 pound bag of berries. I find this sort of tedious when I have to chose what to do next so I might chose not to make rolls.

If Ingrid is sleeping I make a mad dash to the washing machine, or the kitchen or the mop to clean up something. The kids cannot possibly keep up with work around here and do homework. If the place is cluttered than this is the reason. Ten people in one house (yes, Ingrid counts in this department) make an incredible amount of work. I think everyone is a plopper in this house. "I am reading this book so I guess I will plop it here" or "gosh dinner was good, I guess I will plop my dishes on the counter and not check the dishwasher to see if it is available for customers". So.......I am hoping to make chore charts for both the Co-op crowd and for my crowd over the weekend. Sigh.

It would also help if we got up earlier in the day. I NEED to sleep so I do and then they do too as mom is not up......why not sleep? Ugh.

I am not really venting but describing reality around here. Perhaps if the parents loved organization more than we would have that model family, which lives down the road from us, and my kids would be buzzing around the house smiling and cleaning without being told. Ah how sweet.

Ingrid is sleeping.......

Her cuteness

Ingrid is developing lovely habits of napping. She has been napping for several hours actually and then I of course am tempted to conquer and divide on the home front and chase dirt and grime. I have managed to stick to the laundry and the disgusting floors and kitchen counter tops so far. Now my body is screaming for a nap and she will most likely be waking up soon. Perhaps she will nap like Anna used to years ago. We barely knew she was around as a baby so maybe it would be nice if Ingrid was awake long enough to enjoy.

The soggy yard seems to be drying up a little. To the north of us in Michigan I read that a dam is breaking so that is not so cheerful news. I believe we got eight inches of rain on Saturday alone. I am not sure what the whole total was. So much for the drought. It rained a lot last spring too with a dry month or two this summer.

The kids are having piano lessons with Anna at the moment and I am pleased that she is dealing with them patiently. It is sort of comical to listen to. We shall see how they progress but Anna certainly has a knack for explaining things. I will have to issue her pay check soon to reinforce this behavior. Maybe I should pay her with shoes...........I think she might like that. But of course she could take the money and shop around herself.

It is otherwise a study day for the kids. They all seem to be working hard and sorting their work load out for the most part. I need to get some planning done myself. On that note.....

Apples, Pears and tomatoes

Corn season is officially over. Sniff. It was a glorious month of corn eating and I will look forward to next year's crop. There is corn in the freezer but it is just not quite the same. It will have to do.

Tomatoes are very successful and everywhere in the garden. The three oldest boys went out and picked in the rain as it was a sauce day and we had no clue if it would ever stop. There is about 20 more quarts of sauce waiting to be canned now. Thank you Martin and Cecilia for being cranks with the Vitorio thingy in the kitchen. Thank you also that there was not too much cranking going on.

Pears......free and not getting used. We tried pear sauce and it was way too watery so will now see if someone can make a little pear jam. Otherwise people need to come get some pears or bug me to remind me to bring some to church. Co-op members feel free to take them!

The boys biked to the apple orchard when it wasn't raining for a bushel of apples. They took the Burley and gleefully brought home the first batch of the season. Yum, yum. They will probably make this a weekend journey and apple sauce time will begin soon. A bushel a week will give us plenty of sauce for the oatmeal/sauce eaters.

Ingrid is happy I have been sick as she has just been living with me and not being passed off on too many people so mom can cook etc. I did manage to clean a bathroom better than usual as it does see many visitors during the week. I will be hunting paper product sales in the future.......
I have enjoyed my time with Ingrid and she is starting to put on a little more weight as can be seen in changing features. She is basically a fish and doesn't know when to quit. When you nurse you will........ and .....The phrase "I am a baby, I nurse, that's what I do" kept running through my head today.

I do need to figure out how to get Stefan to stop using bottles as he is stubbornly addicted. I got him some whamocazamo cups which he has rejected. I am open to tips on this issue as it is a new one for me. He is hanging on to his baby life as long as he can.

Definitely muddling

I don't have time to be sick. I think things are a little better and Ingrid has not been too bad off so that is good but being a zombie and trying to mother 8 kids is a trick. Some kids do take a little advantage of the resident zombie and some are struggling with this stupid cold themselves.

We are managing to work on homework and I am trying to read required books that they will be reading. "The Red Pony" was a little odd and it didn't seem to have an end. I need to find another copy and see if that is the way it is supposed to be. "Babbit" so far is odd as well. It seems like it could have been written today but was written in 1920. So much for the good old days. I am only about 20 pages in so it will be interesting to see how all of that turns out.

Anna was accepted to IU yesterday and did receive a scholarship that will certainly help. It isn't a full scholarship but definitely significant enough to get the parents excited. Perhaps it is tacky of me to mention this but I am just a proud mama.

Back to muddling.

Rats, she got it

I was hoping little Ingrid would not get this cold that is running around our house but she started in the middle of the night with a runny nose. A two week old does not have much to run in the nose department. I am praying it does not turn into croup. Cecilia had that when she was an infant and it was 24 hour intense work times 10 to help her. Of course I would cheerfully help her but I also remember that little miserable face feeling miserable. Sigh.

I am feeling somewhat better. I can always tell if it is a cold that needs a very good nights sleep which cannot be guaranteed with a newborn but overall I got a lot of sleep and things seem better.

School went well yesterday and I am slowly getting things more organized. I need a new print cartridge to get the stuff I need off of the computer. Literary Analysis will definitely be my favorite subject to teach this year. I am getting the opportunity to reread books and read books that are new to me. I think everyone who read "My Antonia" was surprised at how much there is to discuss. That was a great read despite the Barnes and Noble version's need to have an introduction speculating on the author's orientation. I am tired of every artist, author, musician being put through such speculating. The book was a great book without reading into it motives that perhaps were not there. We did not discuss these questions.......

Today is math day and spelling for one kid. We also need to yank some more tomatoes out of the garden. Sleep should be put in the schedule as well.

How to best serve my family

With kids from age 17 to two weeks, I have been thinking a lot of how I can best serve them all. I suppose someone could callously tell me that I chose to have them all but that really is not what I am thinking about. I don't give a hoot about that view. I am thinking sincerely how best I can serve all of them. Who gets my full attention or at least most of it and when. Ingrid's doctor perhaps did not mean to imply that I would need to supplement the feeding of Ingrid as she is at the moment doing great with lots of wet and messy diapers, but I did sort of feel his statement of "You are not supplementing right now" leaned towards meaning I would some time soon. For some moms nursing is a cinch and they don't have to monitor their resting and drinking times so closely. After our experience with Stefan, I know that I have to.

How do I rest and remember to drink enough when there is laundry to do, meals to prepare, kids to help with their schoolwork and a toddler who has given up naps and has a regular loony time in the late afternoon. When I help the older kids with schoolwork, the younger ones look at me with their not always smiling faces (Benjamin is almost always smiling) and without words plead for attention. So I have to plan some way to include them in this school time. When do I do that?

This sounds pretty whiny but these are real questions that I am wrestling with. I have to accept my limitations and reevaluate much of my life as it has been for years. There is an impossible amount of things that demand my attention, but frankly sometimes I would just like to relax and spend time with friends or veg out in front of good movie rather than chase after all the household demands. I am trying to schedule the smaller children in but the tomatoes do still glare at me from the garden.


Ramble, ramble, ramble. Beautiful Ingrid is happy with life as it is right now and I want her to have what the older kids had as babies. Stefan just had too many issues to have the full benefit of a successful nursing relationship and I am OK with that, but at my age and knowing this little one could very well be our last, I would like to enjoy her babyhood no matter how inconvenient that is to house beautiful etc. Sigh.

Juggling

Of course life has been interesting since Ingrid was born. It is the height of canning season and the veges haunt us from their baskets as we try to get something done with them. I am happy with what has been done and I am trying to keep the process moving. I am the conductor from a chair and I also try not to burden any particular child more than another with this lovely task. Two neighbors have given us pears and apples. They will most likely become pear sauce and apple sauce. There is no more room in the freezers for corn which is pretty amazing considering I think there are FIVE freezers around here. One has three hogs in it and the another is FULL of chicken and corn. It is a good thing we have a generator just in case........

The tomatoes are all turning so my garden partner and I have never ending kitchen activity going on right now. I would like more salsa but my salsa maker, Matthew, is at a Scout weekend. He is the best, most compliant helper in the kitchen, even if he doesn't always pay attention to EVERY instruction. Hopefully he holds onto to cheerfully receiving instruction and doing it when he becomes a married person. As long as he can read while waiting for the canner to do it's thing, he is happy.

Recovering from Ingrid has been interesting as well. I think I just forget the process. Things seem to be steadily getting better though and I continue to try to behave. That has been pretty easy with the older kids assistance. Even Benjamin has been helpful with the making of sauce. He loves to turn the crank.

I need to go disturb Ingrid so she is awake a little today. Sleepy baby........

Thankful for help

I am very grateful for the help in meals that have come our way. Having a baby in August has been great in many ways but the garden does not disappear nor getting ready for school so the relief of not having to cook dinner as much has been a huge help. I need to write out some thank you notes and my kids have notes to write as well so perhaps we can have writing afternoon or something soon. Patience my friends.

Ingrid got a cute suit today. Very cute M! Thank you. I can't believe she will ever be that big as she is quite the peanut now. The way she loves to eat I guess should help me to believe she will grow. Anna and I got her a few cute little suits for now as it seems she and her sister didn't wear anything at this size. We have plenty for this short time so NO LITTLE GIFTS please. There are plenty of cute suits/dresses for the future. It is true that girl clothes are much more fun to shop for. The boys are not any less cute for being boys though, just no ruffles or little bows on their stuff.

We froze 47 five cup bags of corn the last few days. The kids do all of this which is nice and tomorrow they are excited to start squishing tomatoes. We probably need to work on more whole tomatoes as well......and salsa........Matthew is very good at making salsa and Anna is the whole tomato woman and the little kids squish the tomatoes for sauce as that is fun for them.

"How many Pastors does it take"

asked a lady in the narthex, "to put a nightgown on a baby?" Answer "Two wonderful pastors and two moms to help." Today was the day of Ingrid's baptism. Wonderful day in Ingrid's and our lives. There is nothing that makes me happier than a baptism. What can I say? The day speaks for itself. Happy parents, Godparents and pastor baptizing. She cried through most which was probably my fault for feeding the poor thing beforehand and perhaps not burping her enough and she was quieted during the most appropriate times as well. I don't think she managed to pee on anyone before her diaper was snuck on in the pew afterwards.

As for the gown, it was my grandfather's nearly 100 years ago or perhaps it is 100 years now. From my understanding he was a big baby or at least that was the joke among his colleagues as he was 6 ft 4 in as a man and I remember a silly newspaper that was on his wall kidding him that he was born 3 ft tall etc. So perhaps putting a gown made for a certainly larger, older baby on a 7 pound something baby might drown the wee one in the gown alone as well as being 'drowned' in baptism. Breathe Ingrid, breathe! She is fine. She is most certainly baptized though.

The benefit of having Godparents who have 9 children plus one on the way is not feeling the obligation to have a party at the home of this not quite a week post partum mommy. Shocking that we did not party this afternoon but had a few quiet hours with my parents and will spend some time with the Godparents later in the evening. Perhaps I will have a gathering a month from now. Rest is key to this mommy feeling better and even standing through seven verses of the processional hymn was questionable at first but I got my bearings and made it through. I am always frustrated at this point to be able to do more but as history replays itself it does take a week or so to get over this point and it is very nice to have the family allow me to spend time with Ingrid and enjoy her before life speeds up.

I rejoice in a beautiful day and God's mercy in bringing her to this day.

It's a Girl!

Probably most people I know already know this but Monday evening at 6:00pm we were blessed with the safe and uncomplicated birth of a new little daughter, Ingrid Christina Irene. She is beautiful and healthy and I am thankful. She weighed in at 7 1/2 pounds and is 20 inches long. Anna may have posted her picture on her blog but I am not sure. This is my first venture to the computer. By the doc's dates she was almost two weeks early but by the ultrasound she was only a few days early. The Lord was indeed merciful in that things went pretty quickly and for that I am extremely grateful.

Charley said the funniest thing when she was born "It's a boy!" I guess the umbilical cord confused him and the doc said "No it isn't! It's a girl!" so that was an interesting announcement to me. I got to have her up close and personal right away so I knew the doc was right. Poor Charley.

Everyone is adjusting well including Stefan who I assumed would not be too happy but he loves her and touches her carefully. That is an answer to prayer for sure. He still hops in my lap if the baby is elsewhere so he certainly hasn't given up on having his mommy's attention.

Not sleeping

So last night was the third night of contractions, which has been proven with other babies in this family to go on for many nights with no result. They start in the late afternoon and persist till I can manage to get to sleep. It is definitely early to even expect any result from contractions and I have no memory of how this has gone down with the rest of the kids. I just know that with the rest of the kids 'false labor', if you can call it that, continues for quite a while before I know it is the real thing. Last night was the first night of this go around that my husband questioned me as to how I knew it wasn't real. The basic test we have found to use on my body is to drink a whole bunch of water and then try to get to sleep. It worked.....again. But now I am up and not sleeping. Oh, well. This has happened as well with the other kiddos. I wander around the silent house and perhaps clean a sink, read something or lay awake in bed. Some day soon I will be wandering around the house, heading for a place to feed the bambino. I think my body just likes to warm up to the idea of labor so perhaps I will be totally focused when the time comes. Since labor is something that can sort of run around my brain too much, practicing focusing is not such a bad idea for this mommy.

I suppose I will go try to get back to sleep again. Like I said it is early, as the due date is not till early September but who knows, stranger things have happened.

Processing

Veges and honey and a four monster chickens were processed yesterday. I think in years past my goal was to process at least 14 quarts of food daily. We overshot that yesterday. Our bees did not do too well this year but I believe that was our fault as they are in a bad spot. It rained so much this spring that they were sort of sitting in a swampy area with no hope of moving them so we are all processing trying to remember in December or January to move their home. I would say we only got 4 gallons so far but will check our other hive that is about 30 minutes from here in a week or so to see if the bees decided to cap the honey off. That was our swarm and it did surprisingly well for a swarm. No complaining here.

I am processing things that hardly seem a reality at the moment but I know will become reality soon enough. Lord willing the new little tiny person will be here in the next few weeks so I am trying to rearrange clothes etc. and find supplies for the little guy ;o). I look at new born/infant diapers and their SIZE is hard to process. Can a newborn bottom dollar be THAT little????!!!!!! Sigh. So much to think about.

I am also processing parenting strategies and trying to figure out how to combat forgetfulness in the kiddos. Or is it selective deaf behavior. I am not a fan of nagging but seems that is my title at times. To think I was so appalled at nagging as a kid. Shocking isn't it?

What I really need to do is go wash a few floors and perhaps take a nap as the honey processing didn't end till nearly midnight. Bed magnet.....can I get by you to the bucket and the mop???? Here's hoping!

Confirmation and other things

Our family has been having a vacation at home. We have had two college friends and their families (15 total people) through since last Thursday and the house suddenly seems very quiet. Stefan's Godparents and family were through and should be back this Friday simply because they were in the area. They have eight kids and are convinced the baby is a girl as our count by girls and boys is exactly opposite. Erik's Godparent's were through for his confirmation and that mom is convinced the baby is a boy and says she is usually right. Well, it will be one of those ;o). The kids have been spoiled with at your disposal friends and entertainment. That is why I call it a vacation without leaving home.



Erik's confirmation went very well and I was of course proud of him. In his examination Saturday night as well as when I went over things with him, he usually forgot his wife but remembered the land and animals etc. He didn't know I was smiling. Don't forget your wife Erik! I am sure he is relieved though and ready to move on but not stop going to church. He worked very hard on his memory work so he should be happy about how things went as well.



My parents both have medical issues going on so we are in frequent contact with them. We won't know anything conclusive till Wednesday so I won't elaborate on that but that is what is going on presently.

Benjamin says the cutest things. There is a friend at church who was finally able to come back after knee surgery and complications and Benjamin saw her Saturday night and talked with her. She has a wheel chair and a brace so this sort of caught his attention as well. He fell asleep during the examination part and remained asleep till we left. So on Sunday morning he saw her again in the same spot he saw her the day before and he asked in a very put out way "You're still doing this????!!!!" It was pretty funny. She got quite the charge out of it.

It is a day later than I started this post so need to go pay attention to garden stuff and cleaning up the house despite the fact that everyone seems pretty tired still. Maybe it is just me so I will take the 'slow and steady wins the race' attitude.

A lot to do

Our guests are coming a day later than they originally planned but perhaps that is for the best. We have so much that needs to get done around here our heads are spinning and we had too much fun yesterday so I am certain the kids are at least tired where as I am good and tired. Where to turn first? Benjamin came and talked to my stomach this morning insisting that that the baby come out now. He started searching my sweatshirt pockets for the baby but only found his hand on the other side.

We definately need to pay attention to the garden today. It is a good thing my garden pal is returning so she can process some winter goodies too but she will probably be exhausted as well. All these tired people........that is a good thing. :o)

We visited a different fair yesterday and I did see the pros and cons of each. Their fair is more fair as far as entries as they don't require tons of expensive stuff like framing etc in order to enter. That was nice and refreshing. The hoops our fair requires you to jump through can be pretty ridiculous especially in the expense department. There seemed to be less of an age restriction as well. The only con I observed was I think I understand they all turn their exhibit stuff in on the same day and the lines are long. I am not sure how I would feel about that but I guess it would get it over with. We have several turn in days and we need to keep track of them all......that can be a pain as well but the lines are not so long.

Off to work......

Almost baby time

So the few weeks before baby can be sort of weird and awesome at the same time. They are weird to me because this life within kicks and squirms but does not have a face to me and unlike most expecting parents we don't know if it is a girl or a boy. As soon as the baby is born I can not imagine life without that little one but before I might have a freak out over worries of how to handle life afterwards. Unfaithful me. Throw in a little worry over the baby's welfare and being anxious about labor and my mind just keeps spinning over all these different thoughts. You would think that this would be routine. My brother commented once when I was starting labor with Cecilia that giving birth must be like going out for pizza anymore. Well.......I hardly describe it as similar to going for pizza but still labor and delivery are not my favorite topics after one pretty bad back labor where the baby never turned and has a permanant bump on his head to this day in memory of that grand event. I had to laugh at the pastor this morning about saying 'in reality (or something like that) that a person should really die in the labor process" Thanks pastor, that really helped my pysche but believe me I can't argue with that point. That back labor kid was the time I was really ready to check out. So stop worrying Karin and God WILL help you through. I just seem unfocused this time around. All I can do is proceed, pray and trust things will go ok and afterall labor and delivery are not a permanant condition........

So wiggly baby, what will you be like, look like, cry like etc. I am excited to find out and am looking forward to the afterward.........

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....