Catching Up

Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can, Seldom found in woman, Never found in man.

 

So it's been a while since my last post....sorry, sorry, sorry.  I'm a busy lady what can I say?

 

I seriously feel like I am being pulled in so many directions all the time that I'm never quite sure what task to complete first.  Unfortunately my blog is usually one of the things that gets put to the back burner when other crap is keeping my plate full.

 

But I have a lot of catching up to do so I figured now would be a good time to fill you all in on my happenings as of late.

 

2 weekends ago I attended my annual state bowling tournaments in Milwaukee.  I didn't bowl worth a darn but I did have a nice time with my Mom and my friends and got to sleep in on Sunday morning.  Hurray!!!

 

My Mom was crowned a Grand Duchess for being 70 years old and bowling in the tournament (see her crown pin she is wearing?).  She also received a plaque for bowling in at least 25 state tournaments in her life.  We were bowing down to her all weekend because of her Duchess status.  Duchess Muriel.  She looks like a Duchess, heh?

 

 

 

 

In addition to being able to hang out with "The Duchess" all weekend we also had a lot of fun playing Sour Apples to Apples in our hotel room while consuming alcoholic beverages of our choice.  Some consumed more than others.  Not sure what is going on in some of these pics?

 

 

 

 

 

I was a good girl.  I wasn't tackling anybody or wrestling, just sitting back and taking it all in.  Our motto for the weekend ended up being the following...

 

"If nobody else claims it, it's yours!"  I know that doesn't mean much to you guys, but for all of us there, it's pretty darn funny.  I can't wait to see what our motto ends up being next year.  LOL!!!

 

 

 

 

 

So, then...last weekend Jeff decided to attend the men's state bowling tournaments, and I was left with the kids by myself most of the weekend.  No big deal there.  However, the kids love when Dad is gone for a bit because he isn't always the most adventurous with his food/restaurants so they couldn't wait to do lunch somewhere different with Mom.

 

We decided on Beanies.  Love that place!!!

 

 

 

 

Zach and Luke were in Heaven with their Strawberry Smoothies.

 

 

 

 

As was I with my Strawberry Daquiri.  Yummy!!!

 

 

 

 

And of course, our family tradition of sticking a french fry into the burger came into play when somebody wasn't paying attention.

 

 

 

 

And Luke even managed to behave for the most part.  He only beat his big brother up once...or twice while there.

 

 

 

 

This past week we also celebrated Samantha's 15th birthday with some ice cream cake and candles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam was even nice to her brothers and after she blew the candles out initially, we relit them and let them blow them out the second time.

 

 

 

 

In-between the birthday celebration, bowling tournaments, working at the farm and everything else I managed to teach Zach's Sunday school class on Palm Sunday and later the boys were part of our Palm parade at church.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had flowers on the altar at church on Palm Sunday in memory of their brother, Adam, who passed away 6 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 And if you aren't tired yet (I am), we commenced Sam's birthday today by assembling the new futon she received as a birthday present. 

 

 

Her bed before.

 

 

 

 

 

And thanks to the large box it came in the boys have now decided to create a hideout/fort type thing on my living room floor.  Yippe, more crap to walk around and trip over.  You gotta love that!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so are the days of my life.  I require a lot of patience and a lot of energy.  Being a Mom is extremely trying and tiring and I hate to say it but Spring Break has been anything but a "break" for me.

 

I wish all of you a Happy Easter holiday.  I'll check in again next week.

 

Dedicated

 

 

A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self. ~Author Unknown

So, today is a very special day at our house, a certain daughter of mine is celebrating her 15th birthday.  It's crazy to think she is that old already?  I mean, seriously, I don't feel old enough to have a child that age and it seems like just yesterday when I became a mother for the first time.

 

So, because she has turned into such a beautiful person (inside and out), I decided today's post needed to be dedicated to her and everything she has accomplished so far, and to reflect on some memories from her past.

 

 

I do know that when she was under a year old, as you can see from the above pic and the next one, that she didn't have a ton of hair and earned the nickname "baldy butch" from some family members.

 

 

 

Bald or not, she was the sweetest little person I ever laid eyes on and I didn't care.  To me she was perfect just the way she was.

 

I think on her 1 year pictures she was finally starting to grow some real hair that was gonna stick around for a while.  Hurray!

 

 

 

 

And, from little on, she was very inquisitive and always advanced with many things.  She started walking at 10 months, talking super early and was potty trained at 2 weeks before her second birthday.  Jeff of course will say that she got all her intelligence from him but I would like to take some credit as I did spend a lot of one on one time with her when she was small.  I wish I had all that time now :(

 

In addition to spending a lot of one on one time with her, another thing I instilled in her from very little on was the following:

 

"Don't let anybody make you think they are any better than you are!  You are just as special as the next person and deserve the best just like anybody else."

I think she really took that to heart and has developed into her own unique, genuine person who does what she wants, and dresses like she wants, is friends with who she wants and isn't the least bit fake.  LOVE THAT!!!

 

Sometimes I think at the ripe old age of 15 she is way more mature than a lot of adults when it comes to fairness and not judging others.

 

Honestly, she is my best friend.  I confide in her a lot and she does in me.  I can tell instantly when something isn't "quite right" with her, and I don't know what I'm going to do without her in a few years when she goes off to college and conquers the world head on.

 

Some cute pics to make you smile.  My how she has grown..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're reading Mom's post baby girl, I love you more than you can ever know and always, always will.  I love that we think alike and finish each others sentences at times.  I love that we can act completely goofy and insane at times together but that you still "get" that I am the Mom.  I love how much you care for your brothers and help out with them so much and well, I LOVE YOU!!!!  Mwaaahhhh!   XOXOXOXOXOXO!!!

Memories

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

So, last week I borrowed a tote full of old pictures from my Mom's house.  I used to look at these pictures a lot years ago, before life got busy and hectic, but it's been a while so I felt a look into the past and into fond memories was well needed so the tote took a ride over to my house where I've been occasionally going through them all one by one.

 

Oh my goodness there are some real good pictures and some funny ones too.  It's fun to go through them with my kids and give them a glimpse into my life when I was young.  What Grandma's house looked like years ago when I was growing up compared to now.  How I looked and our various family members did and Sam especially got a kick out of the hair and clothing from years ago.  I'll admit, it is quite funny to look at.

 

While going through some of them I pulled out some of the more significant ones for me.  Pictures that no matter how many years go by before I go through these again, these are some of the pictures I will hunt to find and pull out to make me smile.

 

Like this one....

 

Yeah, this lovely lady is me when I was about 6 months old.  Look at those legs!  This photo is actually painted and my Mom and Dad had pictures like these done of my brother and sister as well when they were 6 months old too.  For the longest time these portraits of us hung on the living room wall at my parents house, in order by age of course.  I just think it is one of my favorite pictures of me ever.  I love the little flower basket.

 

Then while searching for more pics I came across this one.  Another family favorite.

 

 

 

 

The man in the center of this photo is my Great Grandpa Oscar, he is from my Dad's side of the family.  I am the little tiny baby in the yellow on the left and am sitting on my sister's lap.  The sweet little girl on Grandpa's lap is my cousin, Cindy and the two boys are my brother (the older one) and my cousin Tim on his lap. 

 

In fact, we decided to replicate the pose at my cousin Cindy's wedding in 1996, but instead of Grandpa Oscar we let his daughter (our Grandma), sit in his spot.  This photo was taken 24 years later.

 

 

 

 

Man, those were some good times.  I really do like to look at these old pictures and think back to those days and remember moments that correlated with the photos.  I remember her wedding being such a fun day.  It would be fun just to redo it all over again.

 

As I was going through the tote I was brought back to my roots and thinking about my Dad as so many people have told me in the past that I look a lot like him.  I also think our Zachary resembles him in many ways.  He has that super dark skin tone that my Dad always had.  He has the dark hair color as well as the big dark eyes.  Here are some pictures of him as a young boy to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I really think this last one looks a ton like Zachary. 

 

 

 

Oh and yeah, the funny pics.  Somewhat embarrassing pics I might say.

 

How about this one?

 

 

 

 

Nice polaraid picture of some obnoxious orphan Annie lookalike.  Yep that's me alright.  I'm looking pretty hot, heh?

 

I actually remember going to the salon in Random Lake to get this wonderful perm.  The Golden Palace I believe it was called, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Don't ask me why I thought I needed my hair to look this way but at the time I think I seriously thought I was looking pretty darn hot.  LOL!

 

Oh and the annual Christmas photo of the grandkids at Grandma's house.  We are all so cool, aren't we?  I love my plaid dress and my cousin's matching sweaters, not to mention my sister's lovely outfit and glasses.  Hilarious stuff!

 

 

 

 

Okay, enough of this for now.  My bed is calling me and I just can't look at anymore of these old time photos.  Although they bring back a lot of good memories it is also starting to make me feel REAL OLD!!!

 

Nighty night!

 

 

 

A Little Glimpse

"There is no gilding of setting sun or glamour of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers wives."  Garland Hamlin

 

So it's been a while since I've posted about my daily happenings around the farm and Lord knows I'm always full of good stories about that place.  It is a never ending storybook really.  Some good stories, some comical, some dramatic, always something.

 

In fact, it was Monday today, start of the work week for normal people.  I obviously am not normal (never have been really now that I think about it?), and well with the way my day started all I could think was, "Yikes!  If this is any sign of how the rest of my day is gonna go, I'm in trouble!"

 

What happened you ask to make me think this?  Well, how about a big, old, poop-covered cow tail smacking you square across the face at 4:15 am?  Nothing like waking a person up, heh?  NOT NICE!  Honestly, that was the first time I've ever gotten caught off guard that bad.  I had to go to the milk house and wash my face off completely with warm water afterwards and I think there could've been some in my teeth?  Yuck!

 

Anyhoo, after that incident, the day did seem to take a better turn and so far so good.  Thank goodness!

 

So yeah, I thought today's post would be about showing you a little glimpse of my daily happenings around the farm.  In the past I've showed pictures but they don't capture the true essence of the animal's personalities and what I get to see every day and what makes me enjoy the job as much as I do.

 

So here are a few little glimpses into my "life as a farmer" and "farmer's wife".

 

This first little clip is to show you some of the baby calves I have to feed outside.  I only have five of them outside right now but they are soooo sweet so I had to include them.  So soft and cuddly with their little winter coats on.

 

 

 

 

How can you not love and want to take care of these little ones?  When my day isn't going so great, they do help to lighten my mood a bit by just being "them".

 

The next clip is of some more of the youngest babies we have at the farm.  Born just last Wednesday and Thursday so they aren't even a week old yet.

 

 

 

Can everybody say "Awwwwwww...."?

 

Now, enough of the little ones.  Let's meet some of the "big girls" on campus.  The cream of the crop!  The top dogs (hee hee top cows I mean).

 

These lovely ladies are the money makers at our farm and like I've said before, each and every one has a very distinct personality, just like humans.  Some of them I like a lot and some not so much.  Some like to be drama queens and some go through the daily routine practically unnoticed.

 

Funny stuff, heh?  When I watched this over for the first time I seriously cracked myself up.  Maybe you didn't find it as funny but sometimes I question my sanity.  Talking to cows?  I need to get out more.

 

And last but not least, here is a little introduction to some of my girlies inside the barn.  And yes, when doing my chores and feeding them hay or whatever else I do talk to them and call a lot of them by name.  They don't usually answer me but they do show interest.  That's more than my husband does sometimes :)  Us girls got to stick together!!!  I apologize for this clip as my battery died on my camera as I was recording so it cuts out kind of rudely.

With that I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into "my world".  A lot different than most of you can imagine I'm sure.  I still say, I'd rather be shit on by cows at this job than shit on by people like at my last.

 

These girls don't do it intentionally at least and they DO appreciate me.  They love when I milk them, they love when I feed them and they may not show it by hugging me or sitting on my lap like a dog (that wouldn't be good?) but I know they do.

 

Have a great week!!!!

Progress

Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress. - Nicholas Murray Butler   Winter stinks, it really does and I've surely had enough of it.  It makes chores longer at the farm, it makes me add about 5 pounds to my body every day by wearing triple layers of clothing to keep myself warm at work and any sign of Spring I get a glimpse of makes me a little giddy.   Even before working at the farm I wasn't fond of the winter months.  I am not an avid snowmobiler or skier or anything like that so I could care less if there was any of that white stuff outside.  All it does for me is make a bigger mess inside and outside of my house.  Snow pants and boots strewn all over out kitchen area where our side door to the house is, mittens miscellaneously placed where they fall at the time and I've had enough.   But, today was a little warmer out.  There is a little sunshine in the distance and things are thawing at the farm, I could feel it instantly this morning and the cows could too I think, a couple of them were smiling real big and I saw some chatting about it in the distance.  They too can't wait until they have those wide open pastures to graze in during the day and don't have to be stuck in the barn anymore, it's no fun in there.   With this warmth brought me new energy.  A new attitude I guess.  At least while it's here.  I know what those stupid weather men are predicting right now for later this week so I'm not getting overly excited but am "living for the moment".   So while my little guy is keeping himself busy playing on the WII on his new Hot Wheels game I am making some much needed progress on neglected areas of my house.

First I started off with a request from Luke (who always has to help) and whipped up some chocolate chip cookies with almonds to keep everybody in the household happy.  Double batch as usual, and it will likely only last until the end of the week if I'm lucky.         During the baking process I did two sinks full of dishes, one from last night (I refuse to do dishes at 8 pm in the evening after we've come home and ate supper) and one with the plastic containers in the cupboard I reorganized this morning.         In-between baking cookies, retrieving drinks and food for Luke, and doing dishes I've also managed to fold and put away two loads of laundry and have another one in the dryer and one in the washer as I type.  Sweet!         Our dog Lucy hasn't been much of a help with any of this.  She didn't even flinch much this morning, even while the wonderful aroma of cookies was baking nearby.  She's got the life!!!         Earlier I also reorganized the upper kitchen cabinets.  Tossing out a lot of old things we accumulated over the last while, expired medicine, etc.  I have a motto at my house when cleaning, "If I haven't been using it and it's just taking up space, it's outta here!"  Oh sure, sometimes these poor, neglected items end up in a box for the local Goodwill or they meet their fate in our beautiful garbage can.         Oh don't get me wrong, I have a very LONG way to go before my house is back the way I remember it being long ago, before three kids and before working a lot of long hours.  But for once I feel like I am making some progress.  Just these small baby steps are making me smile.   Now granted, it's very likely nobody else in the house will notice, and what I just spent time organizing will more than likely be out of sorts sooner than I hope, but such is life.  I have temporary satisfaction from these small little things.  These small steps toward some control and some balance in our life makes me happy for now.   Although, by this time, Luke is ticked at his game on the WII and just stormed off to his room because he's mad at me.  I actually kind of like when he does this, it gives me a little quiet time and it usually makes him rest on his bed and give into his much needed nap.   I hope you all have a great rest of the week.  Hopefully I can keep up my energy level (keep your fingers crossed) and continue on this progress I'm making.  I have so much more to do.

The Eyes of a Child

 

 

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Yesterday was a good day.  Initially, in the morning while doing chores, I didn't know if I would have the energy to do this when I got home, but a special little boy in my life was begging the second I walked in the door and well, my arm was twisted and my decision was made.  Little Luke was finally going to have the fun experience of going to Build A Bear Workshop to create his very own special friend.

See about three months previous I had casually mentioned the idea to him and how there was this cool place where you could pick out your own animal, stuff it, name it and get clothes for it and all this stuff at "the mall", needless to say, he hasn't let the topic go away since and I can only make up excuses for so long as to why we couldn't go.

So we went.  I had special talks with both of his older siblings that although they were going along, this was Luke's special day and neither of them were going to talk me into getting new bears themselves (and yes for those of you wondering, they would've).  Nor were they getting anything at the mall at any other store unless they paid for it with their very own money.  Although they weren't thrilled at the idea, they got it and away we went.

There is nothing better to me than taking a young child somewhere he's never been before.  I honestly never go to malls shopping and when I do it's either for school shopping when Luke isn't along or Christmas shopping when he isn't along either so this experience was very new to him.

The first thing he saw when we walked into the mall were the escalators.  He was very excited!!!  I think if he had the chance he would've rode up and down them all day.  He kept calling them "the steps".

 

So, once up "the steps" we headed over to Build A Bear.

 

 

At this point Luke has absolutely no idea what to expect, we aren't frequent flyers in these kinds of places.

 

We head into the store and show him the roughly 20-25 animals to choose from.  Bears of course, dogs, kitties, bunnies, monkies, there was even a penguin.  He looks with all seriousness and then stops and says, "Oh nevermind...we can go.  Let's go to the monster truck store."

 

Can you believe it?

 

Of all those animals, each of them really cute, he didn't want any?  Most people would find that a good thing, that their kid didn't want something from Build A Bear, but I didn't drive roughly 40-45 minutes away to this special store to drive to the nearest Walmart instead and buy a monster truck.

 

I then explained to him that if he picked out the cutest one, he would get to help put the stuffing in and name it and wash it and blow dry it and that the animals would be really sad if nobody took them home to love them.  After that he was convinced.

 

So he picked this adorable little puppy.

 

 

 

He still didn't completely understand the process yet and while waiting in line kept wanting to go back and grab the already stuffed one like this on display.  I think he was pretty certain that the unstuffed one he had wasn't going to be loveable enough and didn't want to get ripped off.  Thank goodness the line moved at the pace it did or we could've had a major meltdown real soon.

 

Onto the creation of his puppy.

 

 

 

Being asked if he wants his doggy to be soft, medium or hard.  He chose soft.  I would've too.  Who doesn't love a real softy, heh?

 

 

 

 

Luke running the foot pedal to put the stuffing inside his newly found friend.  He was starting to dig this Build A Bear thing now.  Or Build A Dog in our case.

 

 

 

 

Here he just picked out the heart that eventually goes into his new friend.

 

 

 

 

Here he is rubbing the little heart for his friend to warm it up.  Previously he had to kiss it too but I didn't get that on film.

 

 

 

 

And the heart is in and his new friend is complete and being stitched up.  Dontcha love how he picked a very feminine, pink little doggie?  LOVE IT!!!

 

Now, time to bathe, blow dry and comb his new friend.

 

 

 

 

 

Ta da!!!  A new found friend.....who he ended up naming Butterscotch?  Yep, he has a pony from Christmas named Butterscotch too and we have a cow at the farm named Butterscotch and well, he's stuck on that name for now I guess. 

 

 

 

 

By the time we left the store he was allowed to pick out some clothes, so he picked out a little pink, multi-colored onesie jammie with hat and some hot pink slippers for her feet.  Too funny.

 

 

 

 

And the Build A Bear experience was a hit.  And luckily for me it wasn't that expensive by comparison. 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the food court for some grub and had conversation.  Luke only had one complaint about Build A Bear, he was not happy that they didn't have any farm animals to choose from.  His list included cows, pigs, horses and chickens.  Apparently he would've liked to have stuffed one of those instead.

 

And before heading out of this big place "the mall", we had to stop at Luke's favorite thing there...

 

 

 

Seriously, I can't pass these up myself, how could a 4 year old?  We had some Mike N Ikes and a few gumballs before leaving.  I think we even stuffed some pockets with some extras for the long ride home. 

 

It was a step away from reality and the strains of the adult life.  Just the four of us "chilling" and not caring too much about anything for the moment.  Life was good.