The Goings On

10 months ago, I said I planned to blog again on a weekly basis.  Heh.  Then last night my sister told me some of her friends, who read my blog, asked about me.  Then I felt guilty for not writing.  I'm Catholic, so that guilt comes pretty easily.  So here I am. Writing for them.  And you.  Are you still out there?

We are beginning week 2 of our 2 week fall break.  It is the absolute best time of year.   I can't tell you we've been too busy because we haven't.  But that's why it's so awesome....time to just stop and breathe.

I'm teaching 6th grade.  Those cute little farm kids I've been writing about for years are now 8 and almost 10.  What?  When?  How?  Little Miss just started guitar lessons.  How cute is she?!



I just dyed my hair dark brown.  Dare I say almost black?  It's definitely not like me to make drastic changes-change is bad, scary, and uncomfortable.  But I needed a change-I was in a rut of sorts.  And I love it.



I'm watching The Amazing Race and loving it.  My favorite team is the football playing duo.  I also love the ER doctors and the shaggy, homeless looking men.  I'm also watching the Colts and Broncos defeat their opponents week after week.  We went to our first Colts game in ages last week.  I would LOVE to be in Indy next week when Peyton comes home.  I fully expect a standing ovation and a stadium full of tears when he returns to Lucas Oil.  Sigh.


I've been reading some great books.  The Homecoming of Samuel Lake was good...and terrible...and so difficult to read.  But it was great.  Me Before You was amazing and ripped my heart out.  I do love a good cry at the end of a book and this one certainly delivered.  I just started We Need to Talk
About Kevin.    Phew.  This is going to be like The Lovely Bones, in which it gets in your head and sits and stews for weeks.  I'm anxious to be finished with it and don't want it to end at the same time.

 

I just made this chili for dinner tonight.  It truly is the best chili recipe ever and even though it's been unseasonably warm...I was craving a big bowl of chili.  That's what October is all about, right?

 

Things are all kinds of busy on the farm.  Busy like, "Hi honey.  Bye honey."  I haven't seen the two boys in my life for much more than an hour total over the past week.  But they are loving life and super happy to be back in the combine, harvesting the beans and corn.  The little miss and I are enjoying having control of the remote (Hello, Say Yes to the Dress) and plenty of time to shop.

I walked in my first 5K a couple weeks ago.  My very pregnant sister and I did it together.  It was fun and exciting and I hope to do more...maybe even a mini marathon at some point in the future.

The Little Miss and I made gak when we were babysitting my nieces last night.  Glue, water and borax turned into a whole lot of fun.  If you haven't tried it, here's the recipe we used.

 

How's that for a blog post?  Good, no?  Maybe you won't have to wait so long for the next one.  I've missed this. 

The Speed of Life

Over the past month...

My new sweet baby niece was born.



4 days later, my own baby girl turned 6.


3 days later, my other sweet baby niece turned one.



Then the kids and the husband were in a wedding for my cousin and his beautiful new bride.




We are now enjoying Fall Break. And when I say enjoying, I mean screaming at the kids to QUIT FIGHTING.

(These pictures of the Little Miss were taken 2 weeks ago, when it was 80. It is currently 30 degrees.)

And today we are celebrating my little man's 8th birthday. Gah! Crazy. Unbelievable. Impossible. He was as small as his new baby cousin just yesterday.


Life is flying by too quickly. Someone, please pass the pause button.

Harvesting Corn, Kid Style

It's nearly harvest time around here. The kids decided to get an early start. They grabbed a wheelbarrow and made their way to the nearest corn field. And the picking commenced.

Oh, no! Was that one of the guys? Do you think they saw us taking the corn?


Shhh. Let's stand here very quietly and maybe they won't notice us.


Always the daredevil, the Little Miss ventures out to drop another ear off into the wheelbarrow.


Abort, abort! Here they come!


When the coast is clear again, they decide to count their losses and haul what they have to the "barn."


Here they begin shelling the corn, putting the grain into the grain cart. By hand. This is a time consuming process that mommy loves.





Because little hands taking the kernels off one by one keeps kids occupied and quiet for a l-o-n-g time.

Happy Birthday

Little Miss had her first "friends" birthday party today. This consisted of two other little girls and Claire squealing, screaming, and jumping up and down. Luckily I had plenty of crafts and activities planned to keep the squealing to a minimum.

They stuffed their own teddy bears. Okay, they put one piece of stuffing in and I did the rest. And I dressed the bears. And filled out their adoption papers. Jeesh...whose party was this anyway?
Little Miss got a Little Pony doll and new baby doll. She was thrilled and has requested both her little friends come back tomorrow with more presents for her.

The kids also decorated a coloring book and visor with foam stickers. This actually took quite some time and they were quiet while doing it. Note to self...do this every day.
Then we got out the ball pit and let the kids go wild. Think of it as a poor girl's bounce house. Without the house and without the, um, bounce.
Soon balls were flying everywhere. It was every man for himself.
My sister and I both got Claire a stuffed unicorn. The same one...twin sisters we told her. They kept these 2 occupied while we waited for the third little friend to arrive.

Did I mention she loves the unicorns? And sleeps with both of them?
The girls squealed their little lungs out in the princess castle. They hid and I found them. And occasionally Cole lifted the castle right off of them. That didn't go well.The girls had VERY pink cupcakes, ice cream, and milk out of the cutest little tea cups from Grandma. Both friends had places to go after the party and I started to panic when I saw just how "staining" the cupcakes were. So I grabbed dish towels and hair clips and voila! No mess!
A good time was had by all. And everyone is so tired from the festivities, I am planning early bedtimes all around. Good times, indeed.

Labor Day

In the tradition of TLC showing back to back episodes of A Baby Story on Labor Day, Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer has a little labor day fun going on. Here goes!

How long were your labors?

Cole-I went into labor at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. We went to the hospital at 4:00 p.m. the same day. He was born Wednesday at 5:33 a.m., almost exactly 24 hours after going into labor.

Claire-I went into labor at 4:00 a.m. on Monday. We dropped Cole off at Grandma and Grandmpa's at 5:30. Claire was born at 12:59 that same afternoon, about 9 hours after labor started.

How did you know you were in labor?

They both started the same way...lots of cramping. Things were much stronger and quicker the second time. My water didn't break either time. I had to have pitossin with Cole but things moved pretty quickly with Claire.

Where did you deliver?

I delivered at the same hospital both times...about 35 minutes away from our house.

Drugs?

That would be a big yes. I had IV drugs and epidurals with both kids as soon as they would let me have them.

C-section?

Nope. Delivery with both kids was pretty smooth. I had to push about 3 times with Cole and he was out. I pretty much puked Claire out. That sounds really gross writing it. But, I kept throwing up and she squirted right out during the heaving. They wanted me to quit pushing because she had merconium and they needed to get her out and cleaned up quickly before she started breathing on her own, but I couldn't quit puking!

Who delivered?

The OB/GYN I go to has 4 docs on rotation so I saw them all throughout each pregnancy. Two of my favorite doctors delivered the kids. It was just the doc and one nurse when I had Cole. But since Claire had the merconium there were 5 other people in there ready to get her cleaned and checked out. That freaked me out a little, but it ended up being fine.

Funny labor related story:

Okay, I added this one. But I felt it fit quite nicely. We brought Claire home from the hospital 24 hours after I had her. The 4 of us had just gotten home, along with my mom. I was on the couch nursing this squirt during one of her many marathon nursing sessions.

Farm Guy had taken Cole into the bedroom and they were playing and roughhousing on the bed. We heard a thump and then screaming. Farm Guy brought Cole out claiming he had just scared himself at which point he turned around and here was blood gushing from my 23 month old's head. Thankfully my mom was here and kept calm (not sure how she did that) and they loaded Cole into the car headed for the ER. Meanwhile I am still nursing my new baby on the couch, sobbing hyterically. After what felt like an eternity, they made it home from the hospital. My precious little boy came home with these:

Yep. He had to have 3 staples put in. They said he did great and didn't throw the fit you would expect. He did equally well a couple of weeks later when we had to take him in to get them removed. Such a brave little boy.

That's my story! If you want to share your labor story, link over to Shannon. Let me know if you do...I'd love to read your stories! Happy Labor Day!

Wordless Wednesday

While the girls work...the boys play.
(Can you read his shirt? It says, "Play in the dirt.") How appropriate!

Down on the Farm

There's nothing better than watching hot, sweaty farmers bale straw. So that's just what we did yesterday. The kids and I sat comfortably in the Gator (much to the Boy's dismay) sipping ice water and taking pictures.

The straw has already been harvested, as you can see. Now the tractor comes through the wind rows to make square bales. They used to have to throw the bales onto a wagon at this point. They've since gotten all fancy and have a little machine that arranges the bales into a tidy square and drops them onto the field, waiting to be picked up.

Here are the kids standing on one of the bale clusters. Right after this shot, the loader came screaming at us to pick this pile up. I've never seen Little Miss move so fast in her life to get back on my lap.

Next comes the empty wagon for the bales to be stacked. This is the part that used to be the most labor intensive (or so I hear.)

But thanks to this little contraption, the bales are easily picked up. The black thing on the loader has spikey grabbers (that is a technical term by the way) that curl into the bales to pick the bales up in a clump and set them on the wagon.

Now the tractor drives the wagon to the barn and the grabber puts them up into the hayloft where 5 VERY hot and VERY sweaty men stack them into place.

Meanwhile, the kids are busy feeding the cows. Yes, Little Miss is in the trough. No, she is not the food.

Notice the pink dress and flip flops. Always the fashionista...even when leaning on manure covered fences.

Here is Tractor Boy in his element. Since he couldn't be involved in the bale work, tending to the cows is the next best thing.

Please note the sensible farm attire on the Boy. I love this shot.

After a long hot day in the hay loft, Farm Guy came home and immediately disrobed down to his underwear. Sorry, no picture. I retired to the computer and went a little Scrapblog crazy.