9.21.20 Educated at home

I started school this year on August 17, to see if I could actually teach all 7 kids. That's a lot! I bought some cool markers and invested in some math curriculum. The kids did well. I learned white boards bring much less resistance. I like writing on the white board too, we use it everyday with almost every lesson. 

I want my kids to understand what is going on in America we watched the Republican National convention it was inspiring and educational the stories about being held hostage, overcoming communism, service and life as an American were eye opening. 

These are pictures of the kids on zoom. Don't they look super engaged? I was trying to make it work hoping going against my gut and my heart. The experience did not get better it got worse as the teacher worked to keep and gets on the same page, make the technology work, and still try to teach the kids new information. 

We tried for 6 days of school Everyday I was mad, disappointed, and frustrated. Finally enough was aenough and I pulled the Reed, Livy, & Millie fromt he zoom classroom. Mark never attended and had no intention of participating. Thus I became the boss of our life again- more or less with kid resistance, farm emergencies and necessities. So each day I work to add education to the day we work through our text books and read, sing, memorize, pray etc to learn about the world around us nad ot stretch our mind and understanding of the country we live. 

A big part of school is dealing with everyone always together. Bruce got these awesome magnets for his birthday he plays with them everyday. Merle has learned to grab his toes he studies them and will bounce for an hour or so while I teach the other kids. 

The two brudders. Merle sporting some mean mosquito bites after raspberry picking. Bruce just loves being the big brother. 

Afton is coming along she is the kindergartener. We have had some fun lessons with the number ten as she is our number ten. She is eager and so kind. She is very quick to share and notices the needs of others. I love getting to know the kids as the mature. 

 There's more than one way to skin a cat. We are working to learn, we are working to be nice, we are just plain working. That's what life takes is work and effort. Life is good!

9.16.20 It's the load

One of my favorite conference talks refers to a story about a husband buying a four wheel drive pickup and then taking it to get wood for his family. The pickup gets stuck in the snow. The man decides to do his work and loads the pickup with wood. When the pickup is loaded the pickup easily gets out of the snow and the man returns home. It was the load that allows the man to get out, without the load the man would have remained stuck unable to move.

 This year we added more to our load. We had baby 13, we took over the day to day on the farm, we moved into homeschooling because our governor forced it and now we have chosen to continue. All of these choices added to our load. 

Most days I feel like the flat tire pictured here. Covered in mud/baby spit up mom stuff, flat and worn out. Yet, I am amazed at how much my kiddos have grown and how capable they are and how much energy they have even with all the load. I cannot fathom what I would do with them without a lot to do. 

A blessing/curse of the farm are the pivots. One day I got to go out to the break down to deliver water. This was a while ago, but I have not been into the corn field to  see a flat tire on a pivot and took the opportunity to take some pictures. 

Greg is placing broken concrete in the track to help provide a stable base for the tire to move through. these are tracks we had not added gravel to this spring. 

I think Reed is placing the cement. That mud was so slimy. 

The usual canning for the year is also happening. Poor Lia so tired of the day fell asleep while working. The notebooks in the background are for each kid doing homeschool. 

These girls are big helpers washing jars, peeling fruit, carrying jars, picking fruit. They are getting a taste of being bigger kids and thus having more expected of them. 

Unfortunately, the ripening timing was a bit off and some of our fruit was ready when the family reunion started.  Aliza and I dutifully worked through 50 jars or so while people assembled for the fun weekend. 

Oh be still my heart these sweet boys. Just a random shot one night. Bruce won't go to bed alone so if his brothers are out working, like they were this night fixing the combine, he sleeps on me or in my bed. 

 

The harvest is here. I have been having nightmares and worry about this event for months. But here we are and it is going well. Greg has a relieved attitude and the acres are getting done. The first night he came home at 11 that was the earliest in months. Unfortunately since then it has been much later but like I said the corn is getting harvested and each day is one day closer to done. 

So we increased our load and while I think we might be getting crushed like grapes we are also stretching and gaining confidence and courage. The guys at the shop are holding their own and getting work done. They are working through school and managing. They are learning to be more thorough, to follow the rules they were taught like use a torque wrench not just guess, to read the manual and to keep going. Mark & Reed worked all summer on repairing the tractor and then the combine. They have learned a lot about farm mechanics. They walk tall and proud. The girls hold the fort down here. I honestly don't have much to do as my Super Addie has swooped in cleaning, organizing, and cooking with energy I just marvel at. Aliza and Anna work elsewhere and are working on a  few college classes. 

They are all capable, confident, and tired. That's not bad. John related when we discussed the birth of Christ how it would be his worst nightmare to have no time to sleep with the sun blaring for two straight days. We are tired but tired is good when you have had a day of necessity. Being needed, being part of the team and stretching is good for us all. Not that we won't relish some slow days when this is all done, just lazily building fence and watering 500 cows everyday, so nice to just back off. Ha ha. 

I sincerely hope this path of lots to do all the time teaches the lessons we hope to impart and we survive the extremeness of it all. So far it's ok, the homeschooling is ok. My little nature lover with a empty husk at the cornfield. Life is good we will survive!

9.4.20 Lotsa learning

On a whim I bought a sunflower seed packet.I asked the girls to plant them just for fun. They did at the end of June, and now those seeds have grown into these monster plants. I've hoped to grow sunflower seeds since we moved here, This master gardener got it done!

They are reaping a bountiful harvest for many days spent hoeing. They diligently, tiredly, and happily worked almost every morning, except Sunday of course, in the garden. And now beautiful abundant produce. We are also enjoying cucumbers from the garden right now. 

I do not go garden with them, that is is a special time to learn from and visit with grandma. It has taught me though that continual effort reaps big rewards. It has given the kids confidence and wisdom from the stories she shares and the lessons they just learn by doing. 

As I continue to wrestle with the boss of my kids schooling, this lesson keeps coming to mind. As I worry if home school will be enough? Or real enough? The garden reminds me there's lotsa ways to learn and sure success comes through daily effort with good seeds, not just the habit I've known my entire life. Changing a paradigm is so hard. 

For some reason kids really like to write on white boards. Spelling and sentences are done much more willingly. Math problems seem to fly by. Who knew? I use my white board every time I teach the kids. Livy has wanted to learn cursive writing so I've been working with her through her spelling words. She drew how she felt when she is in danger. 

And some lessons like this one cutting puncture weeds for a neighbor to help cement a lesson just don't happen in a brick and mortar school. Still my responsibility to teach but I have a bit more time to work with when I toss the two hour commute and the endless hours of occupy student time. It's an interesting mix of get the work done and explore, and be in the books show thoughts on paper and "learn." Again hard to change the paradigm that the life we are living is teaching a lot of lessons too. 

This funny duck is learning a lot. I love how he puts the world together in his toddler mind. His go to answer for scripture time- "Satan wants to put us in prison!" Yep that's right he's not a nice being. He was playing football in Harold's super big shoes.

  Another experience full of lessons that were so formative. Living in the country where there is such demand for workers and need for skills sometimes it's easy to loose site of broader ideas. I have no idea which is most needed. I think each kid and their talents and desires required a different kind of learning. It's very overwhelming to look at the whole group of kids and try to meet all their needs and hopes, yet when I go two by two and sometimes one by one we get through the day and If eel confident some important goals were met. This process takes all day everyday, but it's good and it's what I signed up to do. I'm thankful for days when we win, they help me survive the days that we don't. Life is good. 

8.27.20 Faith, Failures, & Farming

Two Sundays ago Mark came roaring into the yard telling me there was a major problem with one of our pivots. I told him to talk to grandpa and tried to get Greg to come home. Mark was instructed to just wait there was nothing that could be done. Later that night after solving another problem Greg and Mark went to take a look. This picture shows the tipped over tower. They found a big problem. The pivot twist and torked until one section was tipped over and another had walked itself about 90 degrees from where it should be to form a right angel to the twisted section. 

Where the final two towers bent the structure to take a right angle to where it was suppose to be. 

An aerial view very faintly under that word you can see where the pivot bends at a 90 angle and is intersecting the pivot line. Not good. 

We had planned on hiring a company to repair the pivot and we did not want to loose any more corn than necessary along with needing the ground and pivot line to be accessible we asked our neighbor to come silage chop a path in. The good news was as he chopped it became apparent there was good moisture in the ground. They got slightly stuck. 

The chopped corn went to some other cows, the very green feed has to be fed quickly but not too much or the cows will get sick. 

I was so happy to see the ears this full. I was worried sick we would get nothing from this 30 acre spot. 

A very good view of the bend and the twist and the field. Dry dirt here is white, this is a nice black all good signs. 

We were both in awe of how close the chopped got to the pivot and hte nice path he made. 

Big events like this are family affairs we all headed down to watch the chopper and truck. The girls enjoyed some extra time with dad. 

Merle was not left out, it was hot standing there in the humid bubble of growing corn. 

I put the kids up on a hay bale to get a better view. Last night Greg couldn't find Reed after working on the combine late, they eventually found him on top of hay bale asleep. 

So that was problem number one the twisted bent pivot. Later in the week maybe the next day the younger kids had presumably moved the wheel line out of the path of another pivot. A month or so ago it was in the pivot track and got pushed back until it snapped the riser. That was repaired and this time the younger hands thought 3 feet away from the monster pivots was enough. Apparently not. Pivots are gigantic machines that do not stop moving unless they are stuck or very broken. In the meantime they just run over and demolish what is in their path. 

 So we continue to learn and try again. The best part of this story though is after ten days of waiting and hand wringing over how to fix the pivot the repair company finally came. After the wait Lloyd decided that it had been too long and we would spend more time researching repair options. Thus the company left and no repair was made. That evening as Anna and I returned from taking the baby to the chiropractor she noted the cloudy sky. I dismissed her observation retorting it was just smoke. An hour later thunder was heard and the kids exclaimed it's raining! I was surprised but even more so when the boys came home from working at the shop where they witnessed the miracle. The clouds opened up and poured rain on that field. Our neighbor 100 yards away even the hay field across the road did not get as much rain as the field with the mangled pivot. Between the smoke clouded sky and tempered weather and that rain I have hope the corn will be ok. I'm humbled that God blesses us so individually and often just when we so hope for help. So even though life doesn't work as planned always there is still good and still ways to be good. We are blessed and life is good even though it is hard. 

8.26.20 Feeding the masses

Family gatherings are never small and never sparse on food. The kids took a few pictures to document the weekend. We enjoyed tri-tip for three meals in a row! And lots of vegetables and funeral potatoes. No funerals just an easy side dish. We are blessed to live in such a land of plenty. This was taken right after church for the day. 

Plates prepared for all the little kids. 

We are hillbillies here we don't wash our shucked corn, but in a spirit of increased safety John and cousin Cobe washed all the corn available. This summer treat was the reward for finishing everything else on the plate. 

 Buffet style for the adults. There was lots of conversation, munching and filling of both body, mind, and heart. We are fortunate to have large family gatherings on both sides of the family, we are grateful for generous cooks and many willing hands. Life is good.