7.25.19 Little snaps

The little people have not been without fun this summer either. Recently we are enjoying a visit from cousins from Mid Eastern Idaho. Sweet Claire and Kate are Sheryl's daughters who are roughly two months younger than Bruce and Lia. Claire was not thrilled to share the shotgun toy with Bruce. 

Uncle MAtt is good to play with the kids and take them on rides. The girls are helping him practice his stunt moves he perfected in college.

After church on Sunday Greg went to do some service and forgot to leave us the keys. So we sat in the shade while HArold went to find some keys. It was nice to just enjoy being outside with my kids, not paying attention to grass stains and bugs.

We were recently blessed to acquire some church clothes from a dear friend who doesn't need them anymore. John was looking sharp in his new duds! He's growing into a fine looking young man.

Sweetness and concerned brother were not to be seen with the family and were off on the other lawn enjoying their spoils of candy from primary. Oh to get my kids united again.

Sundays are good, not sure if we delight in them yet but they are a blessed rest from the work week. A visiting friend commented a few weeks ago he wasn't a church going man but that day of rest might make him religious. Amen it is a blessed nod from a knowing God we need a break if even only for an hour. Life is good, God is real and in the details.

7.24.19 Teenagers

These sweet big kids are rolling through the summer days like a tornado. We are excitedly prepping for the county fair. This guy may or may not be showing chickens at the fair. He has so many skills it's hard to send him to sit any place for hours on end. He however is handsome chicken man. 

This continues to be his true love. He is having the time of his life learning the skills and camaraderie of football. He came home with his first bruise last night. It was his own fault after teasing some teammates he fell through the tire he was attempting to steal. It's a good time of life to be young, strong, and have your hopes happening!

The favorite pose of this sassy lady. Oh man is our house becoming a hot bed of words and jibes. She is a delight alone and a wonder of a worker but fighting rosters have nothing on my girls these days. 

The sweet corn is on! The girls are working the sweet corn business again. It's a great way to earn some cash for future activities. I love this idea!! They hoed and now are picking and selling the delicious vegetable. Love these sweet kids. I'm grateful we spent all that money on her smile as she seems to get her picture posted quite often these days as a representative of her FFA chapter.

In between farm life was a quick trip to the big city to go to youth conference. What a great re-charge that is. We were very blessed to be able to send all three kids this year. This is Aliza with Hank Smith.

Anna with her counselors. The young man is named Adam Sippy. His future wife will be Mrs. Sippy. HA! Life is so fun.

Anna with Kacey....a man with no legs who does spartan races, played football and wrestled. He was a delight. She said her ab's hurt from laughing so much.

Harold also with Hank Smith. 

The delightful car ride home. It is always so heart fulfilling to listen to their positive vibes on the way home from activities. Anna holding flowers the guys in her group had shared earlier in the day. 

And back home where the littles were so happy to see the calvary return. ME too! IT's hard to hold this ship without the big people also pulling oars. We are so thankful for their time, talents, toughness, tenderness, and that they are teenage fountain of youth that keeps life rolling here.

Quick story. I was very anxious about picking them up from their conference. There was a huge concert to be starting about 20 minutes after the kids were to be picked up. Greg agreed to go with me mostly because he was going to help a friend move. The friend was not ready so I got to be chauffeured to Boise by Greg. Life went well and we had no traffic hang-ups or delays we had some time to spare so we went to lunch in downtown Boise. I have never really been there, it's very different from our small town. So urban, with lots of diverse people. We found a burger joint the guys love, we had John with us too. We parked, fed the meter a lot of coins and headed out. I had forgotten how nice it is to have the husband around. He rarely goes with me so usually I am on sensory overload checking out people counting kids, watching for bad things/places/events, trying to get to the destination or the desired object we are after. IT was so peaceful to be guided somewhere to have a strong hand guiding the way and a vigilant body between me and the street. John and I checked out the "free" scooters and discussed various big city sites.
I ordered lunch and sat down with my guys to watch. My goodness guys in the city are different. From the engineer group, to the gamers, to the jocks, to the guy with a sign asking for some food. Life is just different in the big city.
Watching my husband stare down the guy in the line for the bathroom then after gaining the upper hand so to speak, making friends with the guy. Yes I was totally safe and off secret service detail. We headed to get the kids and hear their stories. It was a surprising day 1. to be with Greg during daylight, 2. to have no traffic problems at all, 3. to remember what it felt like to be protected. That's a very nice combination. Life is good.

7.20.19 Tonsil update

The boys have done pretty well. My nursing skills are not totally gone and this has been ok. no crying boys just lots of sitting around. The hardest part is separating the well from the not well kids. But all is good. We have found a bigger challenge is the lack of interactions and wrestling for this guy. Bruce misses his brothers. With John working round the clock pickin up the slack Bruce is left with less hands on sisters. Thus this night he was wired to play with dad. It was so funny. He was literally vaulting over greg jst needing some rough housing. 

Along with Bruce being full of energy Alia has decided not to sleep all night, she has been a bear. Of course she sleeps pretty well in the morning, Afton joined her this morning. Pretty sure I will miss this stage but hope when it is over I will re-find my ambition and energy to get things done.

Life is good, we continue on dosing kids as needed. Modern drugs are wonderful!!! Hour by hour we are getting through this with everyone taking a different role. Reed paces back and forth to the garden checking his crops. I asked if he doesn't trust grandma? He said he did just wanted to see for himself. We have gotten 4 small tomatoes and about 10 zucchini. Payoff! Mark is able to care for his chickens which continue to grow well and are all alive. Slowly but surely the time is passing and we are super excited to get the big kids back home in the mix.

7.20.19 Farm Dating

Part of loving the life is finding the humor in the situation. This post is for my sisters who are also farm wives, although much more for real than I. Last night as we were eating our dinner I about fell out of my chair when I saw my husbands vehicle round the corner to our house. The sun was still up and we were eating a warm dinner, he is NEVER here when those two things are happening. He gallantly strode in and asked if I would like to go for a ride with him. I hurried and dished him some dinner so he would be eating while I was recovering from my shock and got myself ready for some time with my husband when we weren't both sleeping. 

As I got read yI noticed my hair had even dried cute that day! Score. Well that was quickly a non issue as I Remembered a hat was a necessity so shoved the hair up and out we went. I learned a while ago the back of the four wheeler is the dirtiest spot so I insisted on being in front, of course not wanting to squelch the strong masculine presence taking the dirt offered to let him drive. 

We headed down the road casually observing this and that. I was honestly enjoying the close space. We headed to check a new irrigation project first over a low strung fence wire. No problem for him of course. Then through a ditch- who nelly! Then over hard corrigates, to get up close to the sprinklers. And alas the end one was plugged. Back to the fence for wire. I opted to walk this time the ditch crossing was a bit much. Then hand in hand through weeds and corrigates in the semi-dusk to try to clean the sprinkler. No such luck it was plugged!

Back to the road back to the shop for tools.

I got points for being the tool holder. I was quickly deposited half a mile away to be the valve opener....say what?? "Oh yes, just scurry under the hot fence to the valve and wait for my shouts to turn it on and off." Romance no! 

So I assumed the soldier crawl and scurried under the fence large side up, but low enough to not get shocked. Low enough to get a nice dirt cover. So much for prettied up. And assumed my position in the mud by the randomly furious squirting valve opener. Waiting for my Romeo to shout on or off!

Notice one wire missing, so kind no service left undone here.

I heard the call and turned the water off. Thank goodness for glasses that always protect my eyes from random farm things. I was wet nonetheless, but did not fall in the mud! Greg removed the sprinkler from the pipe yelled on, and I turned the water back on. A high geyser shot the offending mouse out of the pipe (glad I was far far away flying rodents are nightmare stuff) and hollered off. Again the water all over. He replaced the sprinkler yelled on and all was right. I decided I would be ready for the quick farmer and scurried under the fence in the dust in my wet clothes being oh so careful not to electrocute my wet self on the ominous high wire. Ahh beautiful.

I was literally rounded up in my husbands arms back on the 4 wheeler, holding tools, while we whisked back to the shop to watch the stars come out. Besides the brisk breeze and 60 degree temperature while being pretty wet it was a beautiful gesture. I'm pretty sure beauty on the farm is almost equal to skills posed and willingness to be the much needed second set of hands. Seriously it was nice to be together. When asked if he realized the downside of valve opener he innocently or wisely ignorantly said no what? You get wet, very wet! Oh well better than flying rodents at my feet.
Life is good!

7.19.19 Normal Days go by

Quick catch up Bruce and his nearest in location cousins. The two big ones have fun running and playing as much as they can outside. The little one on the end I think will be grateful for Bruce's protective prowess as the days go by. They are good friends. Bruce is gentle and kind to both. 

While I stocked up on supplies for the impending surgeries the kids swam and played at Aunt Annie's.

Afton posing silly with her big sister. She is a spunky one.

The latest 4-h project meat chickens. They do seriously just eat and drink all day. No ranging and their legs are big as a man's thumb. the dainty layers have legs like pencils. Interesting what scientific breeding can do.

Greg found some treasures at a recent online auction. Love the bookshelf he got, the kids are loving the wheely chairs. We have 5 vacuums for sale if you need one!

And one morning Sue called to tell me their was a badger walking down the lane from her house toward mine. I was nursing Lia and had no intention of trying to shoot it but it made for a long weary day inside. The  next morning the boys armed themselves and went hunting. Thankfully they found no trace of a badger (mound) and though bummed at not firing any weapon we are happy they did not need to.

After swimming one night. That's a great way to end a hot day of working in the heat a quick hour or so in the water to restore the bodies equilibrium.

And the apricots are on! Addie spent some time picking these for us. Yum! The hardiest of all fruit trees they are an acquired taste, but since I have it my kids do too. We enjoyed apricot cobbler this time.

7.18.19 tonsils

This spring after a full year and a half in speech therapy the therapist recommended Reed have his tonsils removed as he just wasn't able to physically make certain important sounds like g, and d. I was surprised but agreed to check into it. I called around a found a price we could handle and decided to add Mark to the list as he has always since birth struggled with breathing issues no asthma but general breathing and a persistent cough. The doctor said on a scale of 4 Reed was a 2 and and a 3, and Mark was a 4 and a 3. 4 being fully covered, Mark had about the size of a Wendy's straw passageway. Reeds was more the size of his finger. So I backed off not wanting to push something that may or may not work. The therapist checked with me a few weeks later and again encouraged surgery. After the well placed prodding just ahead of another round of strep for Mark we made the appointment all the way in July. That seemed like a long time. The week finally got here and I was nervous.

I called other moms who had been through this and got their advice and tips. I stocked up on juice, tylenol, and bought ice cube trays. I thought maybe we were ready. 

Yet, I have vivid memories of my own sister crying for what seemed like days when she had her tonsils out. I lay awake the entire night before fretting and worrying and praying that all would be well. The entire night well the 4 hours after making lunches, getting Lia to sleep for real, I just fretted I almost backed out what kind of mom takes their kid to get hurt??? But alas the time finally came to wake them and I decided I would be in no condition to drive home so included Anna in the experience. The kids slept and I drove cautiously through small towns to get to the appointment. We were there before the elevators were unlocked. We were the first ones to show up, and thus had a leisurely time of waiting. The facility was welcoming and low key. The boys weighed and changed and settled in to wait. 

They were fans of the heated blankets. Me too love that feature of hospital care. This was actually a surgery center Which was minimal cost compared to hospital!! Blessing!

Reed was the first to go. I was amazed at how quick they got them up and in a chair as soon as their eyes were open and they were sipping water feet were over the bed and they were moved to a rolling recliner into recovery two. Their they ate a bit and took the first pain meds, then drink drink drink.

Mark was silly waking up. Reed has had a bit more of a struggle than Mark. Their tonsils were comparable in size but Marks were much thicker, though Reed bled quite a bit more. The doctor reported they were infected and great places for infection to hide out. I really think they will be healthier overall when they are totally well.
They got on their feet literally within the hour and were treated to a wheel chair ride to the car.

We got frosty's on the way home.  Which was a great way to end clinic and begin home nursing.

I was so thankful for Anna being a second set of hands and nurturing. We had to hunt for a pharmacy that had the prescribed meds. Big hurrah for Bi-Mart though they were super helpful and found us a discount which cut the price in half, glad I didn't decide not to get the meds as Reed especially is needing them.
While I was gone Aliza held down the fort here. This lady decided to break her two top teeth through, thus she was a cry baby all morning long refusing to be happy unless held, sounds like her strategy for the night before.

One of the best parts of this whole experience was the blessings Greg shared with all the kids who asked before hand. The littles love to get blessings, and take it very seriously. Alize irreverently took these pictures.

The sweet spirit that fills our home when this is going on is priceless. When I taught my primary class Sunday we spoke about blessings and the priesthood and what it cost. I asked the kids if they got blessings and one little girl said no not this year. I was sad for her they can be more than yearly. I told her her dad would probably be happy to give her one, that it's a special way for dads to show and feel love for their children. She said she would think about it. I shared the experience with her dad, he said yes he'd give her the world but sometimes it was hard to be patient with her. Yes that's the truth.
Nonetheless, Greg shared that spirit of calm and faith with his kids that night and yet again I was so thankful he's the dad here. It's not always pretty and never perfect but there are moments of sheer joy watching my husband and children's faith in action soothed my very nervous heart. Now if I just would have got a blessing too maybe I would have slept.

So one day out boys are doing ok. I'm thankful I watched my grandfather deal with stomach issues for years as it's giving me ideas for Reed who is nauseated. Poor kid. They are drinking well and not hurting bad enough to cry. PHEW! We are taking a personal day complete with movies and rest. I am cooking and trying to get fluid and soft food into them to ward off stomach and dehydration troubles. My big kids are gone so it's me and the littles who are loving free access to popsicles. Another adventure in the making.