Friday night...date night

Friday night was date night at our house... but not with the husband... with the oldest son. Husband did not want to go watch high school football... but Clay was completely willing to brave the freezing weather. And actually by watch football... I mean stand around and socialize. I commented about the other the team... which ended up being about a team that we don't even play. That's how closely I follow. My son was yelling "go Huskers" and while... I personally think the Stapleton Broncos are pretty fun to watch... lets face it.... it is no Husker game. So while Clay and I are more into the social aspects of the game... we did have fun. He rolling down a hill multiple times, I chatting. In the car on the way there... I informed Clay that we were going on a date. Which he promply replied, "Oh, mom, I haven't been on a date in a real long time." True. Probably an entire lifetime... since he is only 4. The best part came when his auntie asked him what we were doing... "we're dating" he replied. I seriously could not love this kid more.

A Perfect Day

Just thought that I would blog about a perfect Sunday. I love Sundays.... if they are done right they are such a peaceful, fun family day. We got up today and made breakfast burritos as a family, nearly making us late to church. We went to church.... I was in the nursery... where I had the perfect lounging chair to sit and watch the children... I love rocking chairs. Crew is in a hitting phase... and went around hitting all the children on the head... to which one of the children said... "its ok, he's just playing duck, duck, goose." :) How's that for a little grace. After church was fellowship dinner.... lots of potluck delishishness. Yummm. Then Family and I went to the Cody Park in town. This was fun because of course the kids love a park... and there was a park festival going on which I love. So the kids went on rides... watched the geese... Crew even said a new word "geese." We wandered around eating ice cream... and chatting with people we knew. The boys loved the Merry Go Round. Great fun. Afterwards we went to my husband's great aunt and uncle to pick out new kitties. Now the funny thing is .... I don't particularly like cats... or animals for that matter. But for some reason they said they had extra and I wanted some. So the boys picked out 2... of course we couldn't just get one. Clay wanted to name them.... Lightening and Thunder. We also got to look at all the farm animals.... kitties, dogs, sheep, pigs.. and piglets, chicks, chickens, roosters, calfs. Then we came home, popped popcorn, had ice cream and homemade apple pie for dessert... and tucked the kids in soundly. Whew.... now that is what I call.... A Perfect Day. :)

End of Summer

Hello! My bro asked me why I haven't been blogging.... so I thought that I would fill him in. The unfortunate thing is.... its not very exciting what I have been doing. I feel as though I am an ant storing up for the winter. Only really.... do we have to store up for the winter if we have Walmart? The end of Summer in Nebraska brings.... loads and loads... and loads of fresh fruits and veggies that must be delt with. So this week I did corn, tomatoes (actually MIL did the tomatoes) and made salsa and such. What I need to do is figure out what to do with the 10lbs of peaches I bought. So hence, everything else goes by the wayside. But now I do have like 40 bags of corn in my freezer... so I have to say that is a good feeling. I am thinking of making peach jam... just need to find the perfect recipe. C and c are good.... today while we were getting ready for church... C went and got his and his bro's carseats out of the truck and put them in the minivan. He is such a little man. He is only 4, and he was like... mom, I switched the carseats for you. Little c is so busy.... I can't keep him out of the trash to save my life. Today... he was in the bathroom trash pawing and eating whatever he can get his hands on. Floss...tissue.... things that are tooo gross to even mention. I hope he outgrows this phase soon!!

Auction

My friend and went to an auction today.... great fun. It is sort of like gambling at a garage sale... because you are all raising your hands... and the adrenaline starts flowing.... and suddenly you have bought something completely silly. I am going to post pics of what I bought.... because I want someone to see them.. and say... yeah... those looked cute. They are.... silver coffee mugs. From far away.... they looked cute... like a tin child's cup is what I was thinking. And someone who was closer to said cups was bidding against me... so I thought they can't be too bad. Alas... I got them... and they were just rusty old cups. For 6 dollars. Which is a small fortune at an auction. I also came home with 2 small camping type chairs that I got for one dollar.... and the worst yet.... 2 dressers. Only one of which is close to cute. The other... the owner of the auction... was like... you should take this one too. So now, after 5 hours and 20 bucks..... I have 3 tin cups... 2 chairs and 2 dressers. Good thing I have an entire farm to fill....

Tucks

A Sad moment has come. Clay came out to me when it was time to go to bed and said....."Mom, I don't need any tucks anymore. I am getting too big." Too big to tuck in is what he meant. Which generally means he doesn't want us to come into his room for some reason or another. But I know this trick.... the very same day he had asked me to step out while he changed his pants. I knew from experience this was shady. As he pulled down his shorts to change he revealed that he had a big piece of rag stuffed in his pants. Why do boys do things like this? They are such a mystery to me sometimes. Back to the tucking.... I said that we would be tucking him in until further notice. I don't care if he is the ripe old age of 4.

Pants on Fire

Recently, I have read that a child is actually unable to lie until they are in 2nd grade. This is because they don't have the reasoning... they don't have the intelectual capabilty to decern between truth and fiction. I am here to say... whatever. My child is either exceling in deceit... or he has figured out how to lie. This afternoon.... said older child was no where to be found. I hollered to him.... he yelled back "I'm pooping." Fine. Generally I never mess with this particular act. About 15 min later.... same conversation..... same responce. I decide to check matter out for myself..... as I know for a fact he has already completed this task for the day (I know this because 4yr olds don't always flush). I go in to the bathroom.... and he has knife and is cutting off the tops of Crystal light to go packets and pouring them in his mouth. Why? WHY?? Is this fun? I go to administer punishment.... Biblical Chastisement if you will.... and he says... "No mom, you are not going to do that right now." What? Where is my sweet little claydoh and who has replaced him with this mouthy child? He does however tell me that he lied to me.... which is a start right??

Celery Green

Just got done painting our guest bathroom. This is the first room of this current home that I have ventured in painting.... and let me tell you that it is ugly. Actually.... it is UGLY... but my mom and husband assure me that it is fine. I assure you, that they are LYING because it is the most hideous shade of green I have ever seen. And I am nearly hysterical at the thought that I spent the better part of 2 days working on this project and it looks terrible! So now I will have to spend more time, money and most importantly effort working to fix it. Has anyone else lived this nightmare?? Am I the only one.... you spend hours... days... thinking of it.... you know your not real crafty... but you think.... that would be a lovely shade of green. And then... in the spirit of a Can Do attitude.... you dive on in.... and poof.... you have covered up a lovely shade of blue... with puke.

Enough.

I don't deserve to blog. I should be cast into the island of failed craftpeople.

Homeschool

Currently I have a facination with homeschooling. For some unknown reason it interests me. Which it never has before, in fact I was always one to point out how weird homeschoolers generally were. But now, as I come to the point of putting my children in school... I suddenly have taken up an interest. An obsessive interest. Like, I spend hours after the kids are in bed looking at curriculm, gathering all the facts and info I can. And the thing is..... I am really starting to not care if my kids are weird or not. If you can raise them to be smart, hard workers, and likeable people.... does it matter where they got their education? If and it is a big IF as to what I will decide or not..... If I did homeschool.... I know it would cause a bit of a stir at first. I have been trying it on for size in conversations.... like dropping hints to my family.... who has been remarkably supportive. Mostly because I am sure that they are thinking that this is just a phase that I am going through and it won't last.... we'll see. My husband is supportive....I think that he could jump right on the homeschooling bandwagon..... we'll see. I just wanted to get some thoughts out there about it. Any opinions would be welcome!!

Lack of Supervision

My sister has inspired me to come back to blogging even though it has been 2 months. Blogging doesn't judge. Blogging merely welcomes you back.

Lack of supervision.... is pretty much how I would currently define my current parenting style. This is because my son recently fell off a grain bin. He and his little friend were climbing up... and they had been caught 30 feet up in the air... and told to get down. But do you think this most diligent parent kept up with those boys?? Oh no. He did it again. only this time he fell from and unknown height and couldn't walk. Thankfully he is now walking.. just fine. But I have been reminded again that you must keep up with them! Here are a list of things they have recently gotten into for lack of supervision.

1. Crew eats dog food on a regular basis.
2. Clay hoed up an entire row of beans.
3. Clay peeled the bark off of a tree.
4. Crew dips his binky in toilet everytime he gets a chance.
5. Clay peed on toy because he was "tired of it."

Seriously. These boys are making me tired.

Branding

It is branding time here in the sandhills....yesterday hubby went to one, then we joined him for lunch. This was a really large neighboring ranch.... I was so intimadated when I walked up to eat. Cowboys and girls everywhere. And then there was me... pushing a stroller. This ranch is like out of a movie... complete with a cook, cookhouse.... bunkhouse... and like a gob of people. It was fun.... but they were all so tired from branding that no one really talked that much. When I drove up there were like 30 horses all tied to pick ups and trailers..... very fun.

Today was a bit more fun for me at least. This was our neighbor that is the manager of the ranch from yesterday.... only today we did his personal calves. So this was more people I know... and really laid back. I got some video... but my camera died so didn't get any pics. Clay and his friend Cooper spent nearly the entire time crawling all over the panels. This was so cute because they had on their cowboy hats and jeans and boots and they are both 3ish so they are just funny. Waving to people, yelling at the calves.... then waving their sticks around and riding their stick horses. DH wanted me to learn to wrestle (wrastle) the calves and I was really excited to try. Because this is something that everyone around here seems able to do.... so in my never ending struggle to fit in.... I had to try. So I climbed over the panel.... and got into the ring. For those of you who haven't been to a branding.... there is a corral... and men on horses rope the calves... drag them to the wrestlers and then 2 wrestlers hold them down. Then someone comes and brands them.... and someone else castrates them..... poor little guys. It is a rough day for them. So Ken and various other people tried to help me.... and I did eventually succeed. One of the cowboys said he would try and rope us the little ones so that helped. It was really fun... and I wished I had got to do more. Meanwhile... baby was crawling around... I had to wash off cow yuck with a wipe... doesn't work so well really. Then we all went and had lunch togetherr... which was really fun. People were laying in the grass.... It was so beautiful out.... not hot, not cold, a gentle breeze. A man who I didn't even know asked if could feed the baby some cake.... I love that it is so laid back and fun. The kids just run free and play.

Now if we can get through our branding.... that will require a whole new post of its own.

Whew... it has been so long since I last posted! Was feeling some pressure to be funny, and that was inhibiting my writing. So here I am again, more writing, less amusing, take it or leave it :) My fam has been wanting me to add so they know what we are doing! So lets see... calving is winding down.... now we have to plant corn (of course when I say we, I mean Ken) and brand. There are lots of brandings going on, we are going to 2 this weekend. I am very excited, because I have been to our branding, but not otherones so I am anxious to see how other people do it. Also, since I will be responsible for the branding meal.... I want to see what other people are serving up. Anyone who wants to suggest any yummies that come in mass quantities.... feel free to comment. This is a lot of pressure..... for one housewife. ALOT. But I am trying to not worry so much about what people think.... so we'll see how it goes.

Also, have started my garden.... I have planted... thus far, strawberries, onions, lettuce, and potatoes. Yumm. I bought the rest of my seeds... and will be planting more... but the locals say plant nothing more till Mothers Day. Fine with me. It took me a couple of hours to get the first part planted. My kiddos love it.... Crewy throws dirt around and Clay helps. Good times.

Nothing too much new with C and c. c had a first bday... which he loved. Complete with cake all over his face. Oh to be one! That is not so pretty at my age. Allright... will fill everyone in on how the branding is tomorrow...... Ken said he and I might wrestle some calfs together.... oops... sorry, I know this is a family page!:)

Butchering cows, butchering hair

Kind of a gruesome sounding title. But I would like my family to know that I will be participating in the butchering of the cow. I actually hope to be involved as little as possible... so far my only job has been to buy the ziploc baggies to store it in. Anyway... we had a cow pass.... or break her leg.... so this was apparently reason to make her into hamburger. Which I didn't really know that we would actually be making the hamburger. How organic is that? Grow your own meat, butcher it yourself. Good times. Am wondering if any of my other cowgirl friends have had to participate in this? I doubt it.

In other news.... I have dyed my hair back to its original color.... well that is what I told her to do.... but it is super dark. She and I were going for a Lauren Graham (gilmore girls) kind of look... not so sure we achieved it. My husband said it was kind of goth.... he is not known for his sensitivity. He said it in a nice way, but still..... I taught clay at least to tell me it was pretty. This is part of the fun of having children... programming them to say nice things at appropriate times. Tell mommy she is pretty dear... tell me... TELL ME. Kind of freaky actually. Actually I just told him when girls get their haircut, you always have to say it looks nice... I think this is just good manners.... like opening doors and such, part of the things a mom teaches her son. I think maybe my mil dropped the ball on this one. Although after much staring he did say he liked it....

Train up a child....

Train up a child in the way he should go.... and when he is old he will not poop in the yard. I do realize this is not an exact quote of the proverb.... but it was fitting for today. My little 3.5 yr old has decided it is much funner to go in the yard as opposed to the potty. Today.... again I saw him squatting in the yard.... actually he doesn't go in the actual yard... he goes out in the "tall grass" with the dogs no less... a fact which he is proud of. So I head out to the yard to AGAIN tell him to go in the house and he is like mommy, I don't always go in the yard... I mostly go behind the tree. The thanks for this wise teaching can go to Ken.... who directs him to go number one behind a tree because for awhile there he was just busting it all out in the driveway, yard, parking lot etc. Anyway.... if you get grossed out you may want to quit reading... but in the spirit of being honest I shall continue with life with a 3 yr old boy.... so we get to behind the tree and it is clear that perhaps my dear son has not used a potty all week. Maybe 2 weeks. The evidense is right there. He thinks this is very clever and hilarious. I wonder.... how long will he do this? They say no one wears diapers to kindergarten.... but is this because they all freely go in the playground? On the upside he hasn't had an accident in a long time..... But I woundn't recommend a stoll through my yard in bare feet :)

A glass of Wine.... or 3

Good Evening! We just came back from dinner with my BFF and her mom..... and me and my mom. So fun. It did involve 3 bottles of wine.... and that is no joke. And the thing is.... we are totally a strait lace kind of people. But we laughed.... ate.... and laughed some more. Those are the best times.

We are having a cattle drive tomorrow. My hubby and 8 of his closest friends.... actually it will an aunt, uncle, 2 cousins....a friend or two all on horses driving cattle about 10 miles. The only problem is it is currently snowing. To which my husband says.... I'm not going to let a little cold weather stop us.... the cattle will move better. Whatever. Sometimes I wonder how he and I hooked up.... it is below 40 degrees and I think that I shouldn't have to go to work. Or really even get out of bed. My job will be.... fixing lunch for everyone.... and watching our cattle that are already calving. This will involve going out in the pickup every 3 hours... with my little ones and making sure that if anyone is trying to push out a baby.... that everything is going well. I am not sure that I am the best candidate for this job... but if all I have to do is make sure the hooves sticking out are going the right way.... well..... maybe I can handle it. Problem is.... what am I supposed to do if something does look wrong? I can just see me and my mom out there.... like hmmmm.... now what are we supposed to do? Get the calf puller ma.... lets get er done. Yeah right! If anyone feels like chili on cold snowy day with some single cowboys..... stop on by. Yes linz... this means you.

Riding Horse

Lets see..... We moved some cows yesterday..... which involved me driving a pickup carrying a bale of hay to tempt them.... and my mom, mother in law, and husband riding horses to drive them in. Quite fun. The only problem was when said husband asked me to the ride his horse "red" back in. So I did.... and it was fine.... till the next day. When now I am totally stiff. This is pathetic on a number of levels. The main problem being I really only rode him for like 5 min. This is the equilvalent of being sore for 2 days after walking one city block. So sad. If I want to be Mrs. Rodeo Nebraska.... I am going to have to do better than that. For real.

Calf Pulling

Thanks to the 3 people who commented on my blog. Its nice to know that someone has read it.... even if it was actually only 2 people because my sister said 2 things and the other was my brother. Its cool.... we are nothing without our family.

To continue with adventures on the ranch.... I recently experienced my first calf pull. This may require some defining. It is actually helping a cow give birth to a calf who was stuck. Very fun. Kdoll rode out on a horse.... and got the cow into the corral. Now the reason that we knew she was having a calf in the first place, was because there were 2 little hooves sticking out of her.... ummmm..... booty. It was super cool...... but she was really ticked off. This is kind of typical of new momma cows.... they are like what the heck is happening to my body.... I don't like it. Frankly.... I've been there. So cowboy Joe and I get this calf into the shoot.... this is done by waving sticks and yelling on my husband's part.... and some singing on my part. I called her Bessie (not too original) and there was some singing involved. I think my husband was actually embarrassed and probably glad our nearest neighbor is a few miles away. My job was to distract her while K shut the gate to lock her into place. Try distracting a pissed off cow with a baby hanging out. Not easy. But I did get to climb some fences and I was wearing cute cowgirl boots.... so that part was fun. Once we got her place.....K got in the shoot with her.... and had to put these chains around the calfs hooves. My job was to hold the chains. Of course.... not having done this before.... I did it wrong... and he was like.... if the cow gets mad and sucks the calf back in her... your hand will go with her. Ummmm whhhaaat??? I quickly altered my chain holding technique. So then.... he attaches the chain to a calf pulling apparatus and yanks that sucker out. Beautiful. A new little life. I welcomed it to the world.... it was all wet and covered just like a baby.... although not like my babies because mine had no hair.... and obviously a calf has hair.... and weighed like 90 lbs. No wonder that cow was mad. But now the baby is doing well and the momma is doing well.... so there is a happy ending after all. Ahhhhhhh.

Big doings

In the spirit of attempting to write everyday... here I am. After an entire afternoon spent cleaning, organizing, and decorating. If you think that sounded like fun.... actually it wasn't that much fun. But I did find my baby has no less than 4 shape sorters. Does everyone know what that means? It means if you ever need to put a triangle through a hole into a box.... Crew is your man. Also.... I found about 25 rattles. Really. I told Clay that they needed to be loved by other kids. The unfortuante thing is that.... after literally not sitting down for 4 hours.... I would still be embarassed if anyone stopped over right now. I got some fun decorations in the mail.... complete with enough styrofoam to protect your grandmothers china while it flew around the world in 80 days..... and now it is on my living floor in a million peices because someone (not me) thought it would be fun to make guns out it. We are all about guns at my house. Styrofoam= gun. Any stick= gun. Toilet brush=gun. We've got ourselves a future NRA member in our midst. Except that he has been known to hunt pandas.... that might not go over so well in later years.

Spinach Brownies

Yummm. Seriously... I made these today. Much to the chagrin of my husband. He did come around though... as they were in fact faboulous... but he was def suspicious. This is because I recently made chili that involved cinnamon and chocolate. And unfortunately also beef and chili powder. It was to date the most disgusting thing that I have ever made. Win some lose some. It got 5 stars on allrecipes.com so whatever. Cooking on the ranch is also a different beast. First of all... you have all 3 meals. Which means, I am in the kitchen alot. Our neighboring ranch has a cook... and someone over there recently commented that she cooked "too healthy" and they didn't really like that. Luckily.... anything here passes for a salad. You might be thinking... lettuce, onion, tomatoe... but you would be wrong. Think broccolli and bacon. Red jello and carrots. Snickers and apples and whip cream. Now there is a salad. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Perhaps the very crux of not being able to lose a few pounds is the very fact that I did indeed turn a perfectly good vegatable into a brownie. Pathetic.

First Calf of the season

Exciting news..... the first calf has arrived. This is big here in our neck of the woods. Or sandhills. Small town rural life revolves in seasons.... that everyone knows and talks about. This is unlike big cities....(defined as anywhere with a population over 10,000 peeps) because everyone is doing their own thing and has different jobs. Here, everyone is somehow related to agriculture. So all conversations start the same and really the answer is the same, so that one who is not from here could participate if they knew which season we were in. So around Feb, March.... the convo goes like this

Anybody: Started calving yet?
Person with cows: Close, or got a few.

Around April or May:
Anybody: Finished calving yet?
Person with cows: Getting there. One never actually discloses when they are done. If you go to long.... this indicates some sort of failure on the cow owners part..... so eventually you quit disclosing that you are not done yet.

Also in May:
Anybody: Got any sick calves?
Cowowner: A few. Also represents some sort of failure... but everyone has sick ones but no one fesses up.

This whole line goes on all year.... very pridictable.... which I love somehow. We go from calving to planting, to watering, to harvesting.... to feeding through the winter... and then it starts anew. And now for the spiritual implications..... just reminds me of a time to reap, a time to sow. But this is the best time of year because the baby calves are so cute.... just like your faverite childhood farm book. Mommas standing around licking thier calves.... calves frolicking in the pasture.

Just a glimpse into farm life..... more later. :)

Sick Day

Greetings from the plague. Our little town has been struck with the flu.... no fun. I am on my second week of missing work.... which is also no good. My counter looks like a pharmacy..... and there are kleenex everywhere. This being my first blog.... and first posting.... it may be a little dry till I get in my blogging grove if you will. Until I find my blogging nitch. I feel somewhat intimidated as my sister, who is extrememly artsy and creative....... has a blog as well. And I feel as if our family will read them... compare and I will come up short. Anyone have a cute younger more interesting sister out there?? I know you do. Because in all these cute romanic comedies... they are always about a cute, young, single journalist.... and her older married nurse sister with children. It is so us its not even funny. But I do have farm and children stories..... both of which she is lacking. She only has the swinging single life to draw on.....which is a mere memory of mine. A good memory.... but 5 years prior now.

I was up half the night with my youngest boy..... he is sick too. Snot nosed.... tearful. Both of which are rare for him.

My oldest boy who is 3.5..... has a lot of things to say in this world. Many an observation. Last nights....... if you stick your hand in your booty.... it smells. That is does.... and a good lesson to learn early. We use the word booty at my house..... for a couple of reasons. Because we are literally 45 miles from anyone with any ethnic background and I want him to be comfortable with different terms..... butt sounds crass.... and hiney sounds old lady. If anyone has any better ideas...... they would be welcome. If I knew the biblical term.... I would soooo use it.

Allright.... I will write more, when I think of more.