10.31.15 pumpkins

Halloween the time of the pumpkins! This year they were bigger and thus better than every before!

They were too heavy to move alone this was the group effort to get arguably the largest one in the house!

Or maybe this one was biggest. The flesh was more than 5 inches deep and that is a large bowl holding all the seeds!

So nice that the older kids are so able to do this project.  I mostly tended Afton and cleaned up dinner I had forced them to eat. My parents are great to join us on this tradition. The kids love the creative interaction with Papa and grandma Corn.

Aliza found a pumpkin match for Livy. It had curly tendrils coming off the handle. She had given a pretty severe haircut to Millie just prior to this, note her new bangs also courtesy of Livy the hair chopper!

Checking out the finished project!

Zombies?

Our more mature offering from Aliza- Boo! And thanks to the long warm wet October we made lots of pumpkin pie. Reed hauled about 50 sugar pumpkins up from the garden in wheelbarrows yesterday then began lugging them in the house this morning demanding some pie. He scrapped seeds and peeled skin off of steamed pumpkins. Then these hard workers squished the guts! We made 7 pies to share!

Happy Day of the Pumpkin!

10.27.15 last canning

I think maybe we canned our last produce for the year this weekend. Another batch of spahettie sauce and applesauce. It was a marathon to get hte applesauce done. Such a mess but we all took turns and got thruogh it. As I flipped through pictures this weekend trying to clear some space on my hard drive it was interesting to note our traditions with the seasons. Both the natural ones outside and the ones incidental to child development.

Reed was my master pusher. He is becoming such a skilled young man.

2015

2013

Doing the same things with kids that are bigger and different. Now these hungry hippos consume large pots of spaghetti so they must be master mushers! I can't believe how many plates of spaghetti these sons of mine consume. But it's all good stuff.

Additionally, we support all levels of self-reliance including finding ways to feed yourself. Afton loved the open bag of cake mix provided by an older sister. She was slurping the bag.

AFton 2015

Oh well it was a far smaller mess than the applesauce that was exploding everywhere and taking forever to get done. It was a bit disappointing at the end of the day to survey the vast amount of dishes and mess and the measly 60 jars we got done. And after I found this picture of Ms. Livy years ago I was thankful beyond words for the small amount of cake powder spilled!

2013

10.24.15 Shoulder angels

We love Studio C. There is much that is miserable, hard, tiring, frustrating, worrying etc in the day to day of living. I often feel that their is a great darkness over the face of the land. I think Tolkien talked about this in the Lord of the Rings. I remember the dark mists that grew as the bad guy got more power. Being the relief society president has pulled me out of my safe fortress where I chose to limit the negative inputs, and thrust me into some pretty sad and dismal situations. At the end of the day, when I remember, it has been good to laugh for just a minute or two. To really laugh until you cry.

One of the things we laughed at was the shoulder angel skits. Last night Addie was particularly sour and I was joking that she was going to be carrying me around and got the idea to jump on her shoulders with the aid of the counters. It was funny and changed her sour pickle face to a smile. The boys got in the act and also became shoulder angels. Halloween costume anyone?

A family that has fun together stays together too.

Greg wasn't thrilled we were horsing around but it is these small silly moments (before we break things, he stopped that) that we tighten our bonds of family love. Happy week to you!

10.23.15 take a picture...

It will last longer! Did PeeWee Herman coin that phrase? Was he really weirder than Barney? This is not going where I intended...
There are so many moments I hope to hold onto. When afton is glowing or the kids creativity is especially endearing Or its just Greg and the one. He is such a tender dad. And of course our little sweetie eats up attention from her daddy.

I recently read an article on having a WIDE family meaning large space of age in children. These pictures express my agreement. Its so fun to see how she plays up to the school kids. She is so animated with them and they love playing with her. Maybe her glow is a result of Lots of Love!

Of course Harold would melt if a face picture was taken of him but I got him in the act of cuddling Afton. She is so squishy and pleasant when they are home it's hard to resist kissing and blowing raspberies on her cheek. Hope she's a polite sweet little girl and we're not teaching her too many bad manners.

And finally the clown in our family turned 10. He is my gift from God reminding me to smile and lighten up. I love this funny kind boy. He loves pumkin pie and friends.the reads quietly and is a fastidious dish washer. He is thorough and tries to be on the right side of the line learning from his siblings choices and not wanting similar consequences.

10.22.15 favorite restraunt

Greg and I have a few and the emphasis needs to be put on few restraunts we really like. After our monthly temple trip and a quick productive shoe shopping trip we headed to one of our favorites, Texas Road house. We had our babysitter and baby.

She proved to be quite the fan of roadhouse too! After devouring a few rolls my dinner came and her hungry growls became more intense. I gave her a bite and from then on spent the meal shoveling fast and restraining her. I also snuck a few quick bites to my mouth.

Restraining her attempts to feed herself. My elbow/arm was used to hold her back.

She is growing fast changing from baby to demanding toddler. She is a first though and literally flows when she smiles. It was a nice change up to the normalcy of daily life. And so nice not to plan, prepare, or clean up this meal. Delicious! Best to you today.

10.19.15 Making Sugar

My favorite harvest of all, and some of my most happy moments happen during this time of year. The sugar beet harvest. This weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the beet field to enjoy rides, donuts, watching the seagulls and gleaning beets.
I love this  harvest because it is fast, cool, and it reminds me so much of my beloved now deceased grandparents. My family has a long history of growing sugar beets, in fact in high school as part of a sales contest I sold the sugar beet company. It was unique and fun- it was really happening at the time the company was re-structuring and moving from private cooperation at farmer owned. I even dressed in the huge sugar bag costume and gave out sugar in the local mall when I was a youth. Think mascot size, and that's when our mall was a happening place.

Here we are all excited to be spending a day in the field!

 

The trailer. We use the beets to feed our small herd of livestock. I told each kid they had to pick up 5 buckets of beets before they got to ride. I thought this would get our wagon close to full. While there are a lot of us and that would be 40 buckets (7 kids + 1 mom) it was far from enough. 

Everyone helped. Of course the kids found fun ways to complete the task at hand. Sugar beets make perfect footballs, they are aerodynamic and abundant. Mark is shown trying to receive the pass from Harold.

 Afton getting refueled. She is a hungry hippo these days. She must be growing. We prefer feeding her to her feeding herself. She was determined to eat the dirt! She only succeeded a little bit.

After the trailer was about half full the kids started dispersing to various pieces of farm equipment. Mark was most concerned and excited to get in the tractor to drive with Juan. Juan is patient and generous letting Mark learn the intricacies of beating the tops off the beets. Mark is sure that Juan needs his help and is very concerned about the harvest being successful without his assistance.

After picking up beets, which helped mom be patient and kept everyone occuppied for the hours we were there, uncle Kevin came to empty his auger...He topped off our trailer with beets so he could grease the machine. Really we picked up a lot, but the mounded top made Greg smile. That's what he would have done had he been there.
When we got done one of our sweet young friends asked if we had gleaned beets to make sugar at home. I guess knowing me that might be a legitimate question. WE do draw the line at such a complex process. Although it made me want to try it just a little bit. Kids firmly said no! 

With some more memories made, we had a nice picnic lunch after polishing off a box or two of donuts thanks to some nice truck drivers, and headed to town to do many errands and shopping. The kids were great and it was a really nice day with them. I dread town but it was seriously a very nice that day.

 I love days that are peaceful and unified. I love sharing highlights of my childhood with them. I love that we are able to continue traditions started long ago. It is easy to doubt the longevity of the earth and our country with all the changes and negatives happening around, but simple pleasures and activities like this refresh my spirit and fill me with hope and happiness. The future is bright and life is good. I know this when I look in my children's eyes and I feel the strength they absorb from simple activities like helping with harvest, refining their donut taste and watching the grace and beauty found in the scavenging seagulls. Making sugar means more than just the stuff you add to cooking and food, it is also the pleasurable peaceful times we spend together. It is the time we spend enjoying our world and relaxing. We made lots of sugar and it is stored until next year when we add some more to our reserve.
Best to you today.

10.14.15 Boxes

Would you could you in a box? 
I would not could not in a box! 

I do not like that Sam I am
If I try them Sam will you let me be?
Say I like them!
(Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss)

 Often lately I find that I have put myself in a box. A box that I have good reasons for allowing in my life.
 I will try to illustrate it this way.

Long ago I would watch a movie when I folded clothes and matched socks. Something like the Andy Griffith show. Then I wanted to be more spiritually fed so I switched to general conference talks. Then we declared no more TV wasting time so I don't turn it on as it would undermine our decision. This has led to large piles of laundry accumulating on the couch and the socks being matched sporadically. Some of this is the result of LOTS of clothes so it is almost impossible to get them all back in the drawers, and really I don't have gads of time to match socks AGAIN! However I really don't like these tasks now. But I am following my rules of no TV and not wasting time.


I made the box and I have my reasons for being in it.
Yet I cringe at every picture taken with clothes in the back ground.

I made the box and I have my reasons for being in it.

Do you see the point? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has made a box for them self that they chafe against. Kick against the pricks anyone?

So as it's fall and pre-Christmas and I'm trying to dig out my house, AGAIN, ugh! I'm realizing some of it is a mental problem not just lack of organizational talent or efficiency. I may just plug in the ol' tube and enjoy some days of movies and laundry and organizing. I really like movies, I need to be distracted to get past the sentimentality of clothing management for our family.

 I may even get my kids a screen habit and enjoy them a bit more because they will be distracted some and not always at my feet. And I may not. As I work through the in's and out's of my decisions I hope I can be brave enough to crawl out of my box and try something new and see if I might like the Green Eggs and Ham! (which I do, sauteed peppers and onions make eggs delish!).

10.12.15 Animal YUCK!

 Fall is quickly descending with cooler nights and leaves raining all day. We have glutted on fresh garden produce and are just starting to miss having an abundance of produce around the kitchen. Thus we went for a scavenger walk to the garden to see if there was anything fresh.

I should state that the deer our nemesis to all gardening efforts have effectively outwitted the numerous hunters. Two have been harvested and that was about 10 too few! As I'll illustrate.
Reed is enjoying some of the bounty we found but note where he is. At home by the sink....

These are the Juliet bushes. The most prized of our tomatoes. They are an elongated grape and delicious to the taste. We love them. The plants are ginormous and abundant producers. Until the deer come.

Then they decimate the crop and only leave their unwelcome remains behind. Notice the words.
I was picking/gleaning what they had not already nibbled on and as per the reward of work was snacking on fresh sun ripened tomatoes. I always wipe of dust and check for mold or bugs. Well the last and I mean very last tomatoes I picked were a bit wet but looked gorgeous so I popped it into my mouth as I finished a relief society phone call and all the sudden spit it on the ground. Spitting the more profusely as it left. Oh no the only idea was deer pee on the tomato! Oh my goodness I'm going to get some weird disease because I got animal waste in my mouth!! Gross. And my hand stunk the whole way home.

I washed the tomatoes with dawn dishwater and rinsed them a few times and Reed finished them. Not sure on my tomato desire from here on out.

On my way back to get these pictures to tell the story Livy was my escort. She stepped in cat offal and well stopped crying to clean her foot thus spreading the mess to her hands then her face as she wiped her nose from crying! Oh the smell and the day. So we are staying home and done with the garden. Dang deer. Really don't like those pests. And the cats well they are not much higher on my list.

So another day on the farm sharing the land with animals, that leave not so good remains to be dealt with. Thank goodness for running water and lots of soap!

10.8.15 Building Fence

One of the challenging opportunities of Jay being gone is the fall fence building projects. This year the muscles are growing on my kiddos. They recently attained my height and are on their way past. Additionally, they are gaining strength as well.

Fences here at the farm are constructed of this post and wire. All these rods are pounded into the ground with muscles and endurance.

This is the area to be sectioned into smaller paddocks which causes the cows to more efficiently graze the leaves and stocks that are left after harvest. I read an article a few years ago in the Farm Journal that suggested this was a beneficial plan as it helped the cows trim up a bit before calving and they actually calved better healthier calves on stocks than in a feed yard. Exercise and the lighter diet make for a better finish! (maybe I will try that next time too:).

 I watched this cute, very proud team as I was learning how the fence is built. Grandma drove and carried the post. Addie counted steps to determine how far apart to space them (27 of her steps). Reed was the muscle handing the posts across the ditch. He was so happy to help.

The muscles!! Harold smashed his thumb the night before and learned to wear gloves and be more attentive to the job. These two are so thankful to be two not just one pounding these long rows of posts.

Removing a post that isn't placed in the correct line and position something about out and in maybe the bumps on the post matter?

Even the little kids find ways to be involved. Thank goodness we don't dig all those holes for posts. Dirt is the best toy ever. And baths are a close second. Childhood is so much easier than we adults think.

The reward, a ride when done or when dusk comes. Everyone loves to ride on the 4 wheeler. Maybe we should just take a sharpie to the riding instructions as we never follow them.

Walking put this little one out. She was then entertaining until 1 am, but I really enjoyed the beautiful evening watching my kids grow a little more confident and stand a little taller.

Or just play out doors. Winter is hopefully coming fast and nice nights enjoying the sounds, sights, and tranquility of the world around will be gone. It was especially rewarding to walk back hand in hand with Reed and hear him and John tell of their jobs on the crew. Oh and have John try to scare me with tales of mice and bats. Sweetheart that he is.

We try to soak up as much outside time as possible right now. And I try to get myself out of the kitchen to be present in the action of my children, so we can be ready for a long winters nap! Best to you today. 

10.7.15 Vacuum Review

I posted a while ago that we tried the Kirby vacuum and were impressed. Well we sent the frist one back after seeing how much thy go for second hand. We bought this one off of ebay for a fraction of the new price. It is nice to have a one piece set up. It is easy to use in the regard of no big motor to roll down the stairs or over baby playing in the room. However, it is not the end all of vacuums. Nice thing of having two is I can switch which one I use. Now of course both lead you to believe that if you use theirs no other vaccum will get anything else out of your carpets.

Not exactly true. I think we are the ultimate testing ground 12 people, farm, the infamous dirt of our area coming in through our open windows and our floors get super dirty!

Both vacuums suck dirt and have plenty to show when we are done using them. The novelty of a new vacum makes us use it more, and it's easy. I do like the water of my rainbow though as I can see what we've sucked up and it is a lot lighter to maneuver on our steps. I am still getting the hang of the head hook-up on the kirby and I miss being able to just detach the hose and suck up the edges of the room. But it does suck well and the carpets seem to have more loft or fuzziness to them. could be the renewed interest in vacuuming them more often too though.

I'm mostly just thankful to have gotten both my vacuums for a fraction of the new price because I know their job is extreme and their users are in training. Now off to clean some more. Best to you today.

10.6.15 looking out my window

This day Addie was home sick. She has a pulled muscle in her calf and it was pretty sore compound that with lack of sleep and it was time to have a day resting at home. Addie isn't down long and soon had her siblings learning from her. I love that Afton is even paying attention to teacher Addie.

Of course this was after she had woke up early to see the kids off, she gave in and went back to sleep by 7:30. She was tired after cat napping all night. She is teething or being a baby or something but long periods of sleep have disappeared from my life again thanks to this crabby girl.

However there is still work that needs to happen and this day we proceeded to make 6 pies. The apples are fresh from the tree and screamed to be made into pies. I love fresh apple pie. The kids love turning the apples. We live in such a wonderful garden of Eden. I am so thankful for this valley and kind neighbors who share with us.

Another of the suggestions given in the recent conference was to stop looking so much in the mirror and look out your window to see who you really are. Sometimes I struggle with who I am in the mirror and even more so what I see out my window. The responsibility and the reality of this large family is staggering and difficult sometimes. Yet it is fun to see in the pictures how they grow and love each other. How they take opportunities and turn them into gold. I think the blessing of pictures is it turns straw into gold. Meaning the floors were a mess the house was chaos Addie was not comfortable the baby had slept little but in the pictures they are sweet and the memories are precious. I guess motherhood is what we choose to remember, not necessarily what it is just in the moments that run us over.

How thankful I am for these kiddos of mine who are always coming up with some new adventure right outside my window. And how humbling it is to realize the trust placed in me by their first father even God. Wow! Best to you today.