12.16.20 Foodies

One adjustment to everyone being home is the amount of food that must be prepared and is then eaten. There is always someone hungry here. I'm pretty sure my teenage sons will say they were always hungry growing up, no matter how much chocolate, bananas, or oranges I buy it is never enough. Oh well they seem to be doing ok and growing into strong men. And I keep buying pound after pound of the aforementioned staples to keep them going.

A better part of having lots of time together is all the cooking lessons. Livy and Millie helped Grandma Saunders make a cake with some old bananas. 

Addie was delighted to be surprised with healthy cookies by her dear friend Lia. 

Addie has also been experimenting with cocoa bombs and hot chocolate recipes. The little kids are demanding taste testing experts. It's not that cold but we drink a lot of chocolate everyday. 

Lia all bundled up ready to go for her ride in the jogging stroller while the kids were working on their 100 miles a week. 

Warm homemade chili to keep the bodies warm. 

Lotsa pie after thanksgiving. This crowd is not into one and done, rather some of this and some of that and a sliver of that one too. No worries that Bruce being the little brother misses out there is plenty to go around with so many cooks watching the serving. 

Our contributiions peanut butter chocolate and sourcream lemon meringue. 

Make ahead mashed potatoes. So so yummy we had to make extra to replace what we ate fresh. We eat about 50 lbs of potatoes a week on average. 

Reed and Millie were my kitchen help as Aliza was busy with college classes. Tasting is a must when preparing food to share. Risky job but Reed is all about service so took one for the group. 

This recipe takes over half and hour of stirring Millie was a champ to keep after it. 

My girls are not good at taking no for an answer. Here Addie is helping them make an individual pie. 

I do love most of the time we spend in the kitchen. I love being together and I love knowing their needs are mostly met. There is a lot of good memories I have of meals shared and special treats. I'm thankful to have enough. 

 

12.10.20 Corona year

It's so hard to accurately express the year of 2020. There have been so many great parts. These pictures showcase a few of the good times. 

Carhart makes winter so much more bearable. We have it in all sizes meaning more can enjoy working on the farm. 

Covid meant more time with Anna, and she has had many eye opening experiences as a working woman. 

My kitchen is the center of my home. We spend so much time there. And Merle who we call Man is growing up. He loves to play.

Our personal family bedtime, wake up routine has not been tied to the school schedule. Thus the kids get to see their dad at night. That has been a help!

Learning happens all the time I've worked hard to get and keep good books in front of my bookworms.

Sometimes after a week of work they enjoy a movie. We don't have a big screen TV so we gather around a laptop. Close is good. One of the major losses in COVID times is human to human touch. We don't generally lack for that here. With little ones to hold and sharing life we are blessed. 

Even the dad wanted to watch with Addie next to him. Yes he was sore but sometimes a break is just so nice. 

Cross age playing! Man was being driven around by Reed the girls were adding pillow traps. It was a busy fun night. 

Through the thick and thin of this year the happiness of our children has sustained our hope. I'm thankful that the one lasting part of this year is this family. Even though there has been a lot of yelling and some crying the dominant noise in my house is laughing, comradery, and friendship. We are blessed and thankful. 

 

11.17.20 Friends

 We have been pretty even girl boy girl boy at our house, at least for the top 8. Then we had a string of girls and this one handsome guy. He has been a sport, and thoroughly enjoyed all the time with his older brothers. But they are quite a bit older. Sometimes it's fun to have a friends your own age or size. 

We have had a few playdates lately with boys his size. He has had a ball. 

I gave up years ago trying to have a stylish house we just go for clean and a very lived in house. This day the kids were teaching the friends how much fun sliding down the stairs can be. 

Enjoying a lunch of mac and cheese. Bruce's #1 asked for food. The friends didn't complain and were happy to enjoy the best lunch ever, well except for hot dogs those are pretty divine too. 

Merle is starting to interact with everyone here. His ability to sit has helped him be part of the action. He is hugging, tasting Harold just prior to prayer one evening. 

Bruce still has big plans for this little brother. Today he was play wrestling a bit with him. Merle thought that was so fun. Life is good. 

11.16.20 Fall Fun

My guys spend a lot of time working in town and they have opportunities to meet many different people. Some customers spend a lot of time at the shop due to lack of rides, amount of work needing to be done, and friendships. One favorite customer who has spent a considerable amount of time with my guys is also a real role model. 

This man suffered a career, almost life ending rodeo accident, that doctors proclaimed would paralyze him for life. He decided that would not be the case and thus worked his way back to mobility. He has stories to tell and is generous with his visits. He now shows up with drinks for all the workers and has taken a special interest in both Harold and John. 

Two months ago he mentioned he was getting inducted into the rodeo hall of family and invited Harold and John to be his guests. I was totally fine with Greg just taking the boys with for the day. Greg was stubborn and demanded I go, thus we left on a rainy Saturday morning for a quick break. 

This turned out to be a fun get away. We got to visit with his sisters' family and view their work. It was nice to be together and to see some different sites. It was interesting to be at the banquet. I was almost brought to tears standing in a room full of cowboys listening to the national anthem while we pledged our flag. That could have been a last time. The political and climate of the country is definitely worrisome, patriotism is not popular or even safe in some areas. I was thankful to be surrounded by God loving, country living, proud Americans. I haven't spent money on professional sporting events, and don't plan to in the future. But I will continue to support Rodeo just for the reason of love of America, manners of the cowboys, and the integrity they encourage. 

A few days before we attended the local corn maze and pumpkin patch. The highlight was the zip line. 

It was enough of a challenge to be fun for the younger kids, and yet tame enough even the smaller children could enjoy a ride. Uncle Bryce worked at this place a few years ago and was still in service mode helping the group of riders have an enjoyable experience. 

The younger crew wanted to attack the corn maze. 

The low point was about 10 seconds after this picture when hearts began to fail and kids were sure we were NEVER getting out of the corn maze. I must admit they worried me some too. But alas their navigational gut feelings and trying a lot of the paths led us out back to the zip line! 

 A beautiful last of the season floral bouquet from my generous daughters and their employer. They have been working for a kind older man this summer taking care of his yard. He has an amazing variety of roses. These were dazzling additions to my busy counter for a week. 

11.5.20 Halloween

Halloween was a long time coming this year. With Addie around all day she began preparing costume ideas the beginning of the month. She worked gathering supplies and ideas and created some fun costumes. We also carved the obligatory pumpkins. Thanks to our generous farm friends we were able to get some beautiful large Halloween style pumpkins. 

Each year we get more kids that become of age. This year The oldest 3 and Mark did not carve pumpkins. Part of me was very sad that they were too old to participate and the other part  was ok with them growing up, as there was plenty of mess and activity to compensate for their not joining in. 

After we carved pumpkins. we indulged in caramel apples. We found a youtube instructional video and followed along carefully. The lady talked a lot and we got ahead of her and just had to figure it out. My hairdresser had given us pretzels as an additional topping. She does this yearly instead of carving pumpkins so I added her list of toppings to the plain caramel we had planned. Thus we dipped them in caramel then crushed oreos, or crushed pretzels, or coconut, or walnuts. All were delicious. 

YUM! We all enjoyed them a lot. 

The night of Halloween was the much anticipated Halloween party at Grandma Corns. Cousins and friends showed up for a full trick or treat walk and party. This was an ideal night and we had a great time being together. 

These two were the final candy spot on the long walk. At the other end was Uncle Kevin never to disappoint or remotely skimp. He loaded all the kids up with LOTS of chocolate. 

Grandma Lasley was the first stop with hot chocolate and popcorn. We love the yearly special treat we don't enjoy much here. 

The three princess cousins. Eloise in her custom made gown my girls loving their Christmas ball gowns. Best of all being together getting candy.

Bruce's custom tractor. The smoke stack was a perfect place to hang his candy bag. 

Pretty red heads after a fun candy activity. 

And that's all I got. I was busy watching kids. I was yelling at older sons for pushing little kids in slippery clothes too high, or going much to high themselves with lots of little not paying attention kids around. The hotdogs, chili, soup with donuts for dessert was delicious. The opportunity to gather around a bonfire and pause for a moment was really nice. The perfect weather was inviting. We are thankful to be close to family. 

After we cleaned up I made my kids all squish together int he car to go look at the pumpkin display in a local town. A dear friend has had the goal to display more than 300 pumpkins for year. This year her children came and helped carve 343 pumpkins in one week. Not plain pumpkins either but intricate, delightful, artistic pumpkins. We were impressed! I was able to visit with her son whom I haven't seen for over 15 years too. That was a great surprise. Yet another witness, to the power and greatness of family unity and dreams. Life is good!
 

11.4.20 A strong home

When people ask me how homeschool is going I have come to answer with Charles Dickens iconic- "It is the best of times and it is the worst of times." Of course I don't usually take time to photograph the bad, but the good is pretty sweet. I love the increased time together and the added time all my ages of kids have to be together. It's interesting how the older ones interact with the youngers and how the younger kids pick a favorite older from day to day. 

Bruce is reading Merle a book. Merle has since graduated from the bouncy chair, he is an independent sitter and loves to be played and interacted with. 

Lia had a birthday and is officially 2 years old. She was delighted to have her turn being the center of attention. 

 Lia is in love her younger brother. She is very hands on much to his dismay. He is working reluctantly to acquire a taste and skill at eating solid food. 

One of the hard parts of having everyone home is meeting all the needs. Lia demands to be on my lap with Mr. Man quite often. He demands nursing with just me alone, those are tricky requests being that the kids couple that with crying and persistent asking I make it work or thankfully an older sister sometimes swoops in and helps. 

My next group of kiddos. These two spend a lot of time at Grandma Saunders playing with Eloise and Evander their cousins. They are funny and really good at sneaking off. 

Just a normal day, homemade lunch thanks to Addie and mom. Continual play with the magnet blocks and mimicking what the big kids do. My older guys sit wrapped in the blue sleeping bag while they slog through hour upon hour of online course instruction. 

Somehow we make it through each day. I'm sure there are some things being learned and some being missed. I'm thankful to gather my children around and know they are ok. I'm thankful we have a lot of them to meet at least in part the social needs they each have, not to mention the work needs and personal development hopes Greg and I have for each of them. Life is good, it is loud, crazy, and loving. Life is good, we build strong homes by righteous habits, focus on goodness and love. We are working daily to fortify our home and our lives. I am truly blessed. 

As we anxiously await the political outcomes I have been striving to teach my kids we will not die or radically change our lives no matter the political decisions. We will still love each other, we will continue to do our work, and we will go on. I was struck to the core last week when we read the parents had taught their children to hate and that was the reason the peaceful unified society fall apart. Thus I work to teach them that though people believe, live, choose, and/or act different than us we can still be friends and still find activities or ideas we agree upon.