You Don't See That Every Day

I can't believe it is already here. The first day of school. We usually don't start until after Labor Day. We have a tradition of going yurting while everyone else heads to school. But this year, I decided to be organized. I decided to go through all the lessons and map them out to correspond with the calendar. And I came upon the realization that we had to get a head start, or we would be doing school well into June and July. And I knew that wouldn't fly here. Not for me. Not for the kids. So we jumped into it today. Not a full-body dive into the waters of education. More like a dipping of the toes. I didn't want to start out too hard on the first day. I even restrained myself and did not give out homework today! Now that I am homeschooling three at the same time, my previous methods from years past don't work quite as well. I found juggling three in the same subject was not working; so I am going to have to do some shuffling and figure out how to make this work w...

This is what we picked from the garden about a week ago. The top is my brothers pickup bed, the bottom one is mine. Now imagine all of that in watermelon instead. Two entire pickup beds covered in melons. That would be over 100 of those babies. And these are not the nice little basketball sized ones. They were huge, almost as big as my youngest child. My brother brought them by last night, all 100+ of them, and offered half to my son to sell. Of course, this would involve mom and sisters, since he is only 10! We loaded up the back of the pickup and drove out to the big, busy road and set up some signs. Within minutes we had a buyer, and then another, and then another. It was a slow trickle of interested eaters. And then a guy drove up and counted how many we had left, and said, "Ill take them all" in a lovely Australian (?) accent. I think it was Australian b/c he said, "No worries" and really, who else says that?! So we loaded up his little 2 door car and he pai...

He might look like a harmless giant but yesterday his true colors came out. He's a thief. We picked a ton of vegetables at the farm yesterday afternoon and I set most of them - the beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, the one zucchini my dad set out for me - in the garage while I was cleaning up. I had the kids set for travelling the neighborhood to share the bounty, and I was thinking about the bread, or maybe the cake, I would bake before supper. I went out to the garage to grab the zucchini for either bread or cake (not like I need more cake but it sounded so good!) and it was gone! Gone! A little green stub was on the ground. No dogs around, no zucchini. I know the kids didn't take it and eat it - that would never happen. All I could figure out was That Dog! grabbed it and ran. I found no other traces in the garage ... and I don't think I want to go inspect the 'remains' in the yard. Unless ... this little black one was the thief. She has been kn...

My reading list has taken a turn in the last month or so. Instead of the usual exciting fiction I was reading, I turned my attention to biographies. My first one was by Denise Jackson, It's All About Him . It was a very fascinating read on the life of Deni se and her famous husband Alan. I actually related to some of the stuff she went through. ( ... even though my husband might be mistaken for Payton Manning by some people, we haven't quite made the celebrity list). No, the real life stuff, the struggling with people and relationships stuff. The next one I made it through was Julie Andrews' Home: A memoir of my early years . She has always been one of my favorite actresses and I was curious about her life before The Sound of Music . Boy, were my eyes opened. We think we "know" a celebrity, but then they tell it in their own words and I come to realize I have no idea who this person really is/was. From there I moved on to Carol Burnett, One More Time, a memoir -...

Yesterday was my birthday. The first present I got was when my baby, Princess moved up from level 1 to level 2 in swim lessons! It has been 5 weeks of lessons, and finally she gets to ring the bell! Later in the day the family went miniature golfing. We had quite a good time! Finally, after pizza we got to the goods - notice the chocolate. Costco 7 layer cake; candy bars from my son; my girls bought me jewelry; What's missing is the Marie Callendar's chocolate satin pie - that we finished off the night before (thanks go to my older sister) and also the 2 pints of Baskin-Robbins choco-peanut butter ice cream, waiting in the freezer for me (thanks go to my husband). Overall a lovely, high-calorie, day.

I offered a glass of w ater to my sister-in-law last night. And like any normal person, I asked if she wanted it in a plastic or glass? She looked at me a little funny. I am one of those people. I cannot, or will not, drink water out of glass unless I have to. And if I drink milk, it needs to be in glass, never, never in plastic. It's just wrong. Makes it taste funny. Now pop - that should be in plastic, but I can handle it in glass if it is ice cold. What about you?

One of my favorite places to be - the coast - and I get to go there this week! Even though we might have to wear sweatshirts and jeans in the middle of August, it will still be so worth it, to smell the fresh salty air, to feel the cool breezes (and strong winds), to eat the clam chowder, to contemplate life.

I've won an award! I never win anything, except that one time when I was nine and won a bucket of ice cream. Or the rodeo tickets I won off the radio. Other than that - I am not the winner. Until this week! Someone out there likes me- well, likes my random blog thoughts - enough to present me the honor of One Lovely Blog Award! Thank you so much Dina (http://knownbyname.wordpress.com/) I'm so new to this I don't know how to make your link the name! Maybe someone can help me here. But now I have to send it on - according to what I have read at other sites, the rule is to bestow the award on 15 of your blogging friends once you’ve won. Um .. I don't think I have 15 blogging friends. What am I going to do?! Well, I'll just have to pick one ... one of the few blogs I read daily that isn't seen by a thousand people all the time. It's a hard choice. I don't want feelings to be hurt. But when it comes down to it, I love to read Kimmy's blog at http://thegi...

" one-head " [noun] -- the space above the eyebrows as in "I put a dot on my one-head." The Princess is in the literal stage of her life progression. Each word means exactly what is sounds like, or it should. So she will tell me, "Mom, I hit my one-head," as she points to what most people call their forehead.

I wish I had a picture to go along with this... but the rooms involved are too much of a disaster zone to actually publish and allow people to see. I would cringe, my kids would cringe, the viewers would cringe. The children's rooms have been changed. This past Saturday we actually stayed home and worked around the house! Not something normal during the summertime here. I moved a twin bed into the Boy's room, and now his youngest sister sleeps there at night. He went from being the only one in the family with his own room, to status quo - sharing a room like everyone else in the family. Now we have two per room. And more peaceful evenings. Previously, the younger two girls would go to bed and talk and play until Mom and Dad stormed in and "handed" out discipline. Now they can go to bed, in separate rooms and sleep. Ahhh.... And the older two can go to bed later, and, in a perfect world, read a little bit before they go to sleep without disturbing the younger ones, bec...

Besides being a great month to have a birthday, August gives me blueberries and peaches and green beans - and so many other delicious goodies! As a child, I did not appreciate these foods like I do today. Maybe I am growing up!

"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain." Can you name that movie? So the Farmer's trip to Spain and Morocco has come and gone. Two weeks without my husband was enough. I am so glad he is not in the military - although he tried that at one time in his life, long before I ever met him. But this trip had nothing to do with the military, or with agriculture, like when he got to go to Austria earlier in the year. Yes, 2009 was a big traveling year for this guy. (I'm thinking 2010 will be my year! Italy? Ireland?) (And no, it didn't rain at any time while they were there.) So he left the house at 3 in the morning on a Sunday and he returned exactly 2 weeks later at 3 in the morning on a Sunday. Whoa! He met the missionaries our church supports over in Spain, and had a great time with them. Thankfully the Spanish he learned came flooding back and he was able to manage the language flowing around him - that and the other 6 people he went with knew Spanish pretty wel...

Everyone needs challenges in her in life. It keeps us going, it gives us a way to measure our self and our success. This past week I had some challenges in running. I took my son with me on my midweek run - he on his bicycle, me on my feet. It was my midweek 3 miler. I have an out and back route I like to take, and I have a pretty good sense of my pace on the hills and flats. But this time when we got to the turn-around spot, the Boy says, "Let's go that way," and points to a hill that goes up, Up, UP, and which will eventually loop around to our house. I sighed and plunged onward, up the hill. Thankfully there were downhills to go with it. And it wasn't that bad! It was a good challenge. One I would have never pushed myself to make if I was running alone. Today I set out on a different route - I thought I would go on my 4 mile loop, and push my pace. Instead as I came up to the intersection to go to my house, I continued on straight, passing the turn, pushing myself...