Getting ready
Coming up with games
Sheila and Shannah
two of the games:
And here's all the girls:
Sorry for the bad quality pictures!!!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Yesterday
I spent a great deal of time yesterday in a suburb of a distant city. While there, I was given a list and sent to the store for a few things; so I drove to a large supermarket around the corner.
As I pulled my truck into a parking space about 1/4 mile from the store (who is it that always parks in all the spots closest to the store....and what time do they get there to get those spots???), I noticed an ambulance with its lights flashing just as it was driving away from the front of the store. It turned out onto the street with its siren blowing and sped off.
Hmmm. I thought. Wonder what happened to the somebody they were taking away?
I walked into the store and nothing at all seemed unusual. Back home in my neighborhood if an ambulance had just pulled away with lights and sirens, EVERYBODY would be all consumed with what had just happened----where they'd been standing when they first noticed what was going on, what the person said, who dialed 9-1-1.....all the juicy tidbits relived and retold as if to somehow unravel a mystery or simply to just come to terms that something bad had just happened to someone they probably knew.
It reminded me of the time we country cousins were visiting my city grandma at her apartment which was located next to a hospital. My city cousin was there, and he chided us for being so stupid as to drop what we were doing to notice that an ambulance had just arrived----again----with another somebody. He said, "She lives next to a hospital, you guys. Ambulances come here." Well yeah, so he was right.....but.....whoever was getting a ride to our local hospital back home could well be someone we knew.
Well, so.....someone just left in an ambulance. I'd probably never know who or why, so I turned my attention back to shopping. I'm not a bumkin. I've been shopping lots of times. I can generally find my way around stores. Even if they don't place things where *I* would put them, I can read the signs in the aisles and take pretty good guesses.
I don't know if I simply, in my haste, totally skipped the baby aisle the 14 times (well, maybe not 14...) I circled the store or if that store just didn't carry baby stuff. I was growing sort of frustrated. All's I wanted was a box of baby wipes and I absolutely couldn't even find the diaper aisle in this whole great big store. I looked around for a store worker to ask, but seemingly they were all otherwise engaged and I didn't want to bother anyone. I almost asked the lady who I kept meeting up with every so often. Her stance told me she wasn't finding what she was looking for either. I saw her different times and in different places with her index finger on her chin and her eyes fixed up at the same aisle signs hanging from the ceiling that I kept studying.
I can do this, I told myself. I can find the baby aisle.
I couldn't. I gave up. I ended up checking myself out. The computer told me everything I needed to know about that. I fed my money into the slot that served in stead of a checkout lady's hand and it spit out my change. I think I noticed the screen blink, "Thank you for shopping at Big Grocery Store". I supposed that was the replacement for a real live clerk's friendly smile.
In my mind, I could hear Alan Jackson's song, "The Little Man". I don't know if I can post those lyrics in a blogpost, but google them. It's a hauntingly good song about the things we've lost by the things we've gained in American towns.
For the time being, I can still go to local family owned and operated businesses where I live. The clerks all know me and I know them.
And there are few enough calamities around here that warrant ambulance trips that I can still wonder what happened.....
~Colleen
As I pulled my truck into a parking space about 1/4 mile from the store (who is it that always parks in all the spots closest to the store....and what time do they get there to get those spots???), I noticed an ambulance with its lights flashing just as it was driving away from the front of the store. It turned out onto the street with its siren blowing and sped off.
Hmmm. I thought. Wonder what happened to the somebody they were taking away?
I walked into the store and nothing at all seemed unusual. Back home in my neighborhood if an ambulance had just pulled away with lights and sirens, EVERYBODY would be all consumed with what had just happened----where they'd been standing when they first noticed what was going on, what the person said, who dialed 9-1-1.....all the juicy tidbits relived and retold as if to somehow unravel a mystery or simply to just come to terms that something bad had just happened to someone they probably knew.
It reminded me of the time we country cousins were visiting my city grandma at her apartment which was located next to a hospital. My city cousin was there, and he chided us for being so stupid as to drop what we were doing to notice that an ambulance had just arrived----again----with another somebody. He said, "She lives next to a hospital, you guys. Ambulances come here." Well yeah, so he was right.....but.....whoever was getting a ride to our local hospital back home could well be someone we knew.
Well, so.....someone just left in an ambulance. I'd probably never know who or why, so I turned my attention back to shopping. I'm not a bumkin. I've been shopping lots of times. I can generally find my way around stores. Even if they don't place things where *I* would put them, I can read the signs in the aisles and take pretty good guesses.
I don't know if I simply, in my haste, totally skipped the baby aisle the 14 times (well, maybe not 14...) I circled the store or if that store just didn't carry baby stuff. I was growing sort of frustrated. All's I wanted was a box of baby wipes and I absolutely couldn't even find the diaper aisle in this whole great big store. I looked around for a store worker to ask, but seemingly they were all otherwise engaged and I didn't want to bother anyone. I almost asked the lady who I kept meeting up with every so often. Her stance told me she wasn't finding what she was looking for either. I saw her different times and in different places with her index finger on her chin and her eyes fixed up at the same aisle signs hanging from the ceiling that I kept studying.
I can do this, I told myself. I can find the baby aisle.
I couldn't. I gave up. I ended up checking myself out. The computer told me everything I needed to know about that. I fed my money into the slot that served in stead of a checkout lady's hand and it spit out my change. I think I noticed the screen blink, "Thank you for shopping at Big Grocery Store". I supposed that was the replacement for a real live clerk's friendly smile.
In my mind, I could hear Alan Jackson's song, "The Little Man". I don't know if I can post those lyrics in a blogpost, but google them. It's a hauntingly good song about the things we've lost by the things we've gained in American towns.
For the time being, I can still go to local family owned and operated businesses where I live. The clerks all know me and I know them.
And there are few enough calamities around here that warrant ambulance trips that I can still wonder what happened.....
~Colleen
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Our life is punctuated by schooling now and then.....
People ask me what it's like to be a homeschooling farmer's wife. Honestly, it can be very frustrating. But then again, so can it be very humorous......if you're of a mind to see it that way. Today I was.
I was absently tootling away on the computer getting a FedEx label ready for a shipment of bed hardware.
Trent had given me his spelling book so I could test him on this week's words. He plopped down on the office floor, pencil in hand and paper before him.
He had to prod me a few times to get the next word said. Only a few words into it, Brock came in on a gust of wind, hoping to hurry Trent out to help carry milk from the milk house to the cooler for our herdshare owners for today.
Seeing me not notice this necessitated a speedy delivery of the remaining words, Brock proceeded to grab the spelling book from off the desk. He then administered the rest of the test in a most efficient manner. I even heard him ask Trent at one point, "Am I going too fast?"
Spelling test done, Brock slapped the book back down on the desk beside me, Trent set his paper and pencil aside, and they both raced outside to carry the milk.
~Colleen
I was absently tootling away on the computer getting a FedEx label ready for a shipment of bed hardware.
Trent had given me his spelling book so I could test him on this week's words. He plopped down on the office floor, pencil in hand and paper before him.
He had to prod me a few times to get the next word said. Only a few words into it, Brock came in on a gust of wind, hoping to hurry Trent out to help carry milk from the milk house to the cooler for our herdshare owners for today.
Seeing me not notice this necessitated a speedy delivery of the remaining words, Brock proceeded to grab the spelling book from off the desk. He then administered the rest of the test in a most efficient manner. I even heard him ask Trent at one point, "Am I going too fast?"
Spelling test done, Brock slapped the book back down on the desk beside me, Trent set his paper and pencil aside, and they both raced outside to carry the milk.
~Colleen
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The boys putting up a gate this afternoon:
Audrey and I got a chuckle out of this scene as we looked out the window and made the surmise that the boys were in a hurry to run off with friend Dwayne (in top photo) and dad said they couldn't go until the gate was hung, so I guess Dwayne figured he might as well help them! Hurry, Logan, hurry!
Cutie!!!
Cutie!!!
Saturday, January 09, 2010
The other night we went sledding with some friends.
After everyone got too cold, we all went in and played some games.
War...
Catch a phrase...
Trent, Brock and Brady.
See the new window!? =)
The old ones get to sit on the porch...
Wow, everything looks better through new windows!!!
Trevor really likes playing piano!!!
Now lets switch pages!!!
Don't you just love his hairdo!?
Logan and Trevor.
Clark loves his firefighter movie!
After everyone got too cold, we all went in and played some games.
War...
Catch a phrase...
Trent, Brock and Brady.
See the new window!? =)
The old ones get to sit on the porch...
Wow, everything looks better through new windows!!!
Trevor really likes playing piano!!!
Now lets switch pages!!!
Don't you just love his hairdo!?
Logan and Trevor.
Clark loves his firefighter movie!
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Of Wringers and Cell Phones
Generally I like to take advantage of my modern automatic washing machine which deftly turns our dirty clothes into clean by the turn of a few knobs. It's rather mindless, filling the machine and walking away. Feeding the washer then dryer, washer then dryer. I hardly think of it, actually, unless I forget to feed them and someone of my family complains that they have nothing to wear.
Tonight---partly because I had forgotten to keep my automatic washing machine and dryer fed----I pulled out the old hose and plugged in Gramma's old fashioned wringer washer to catch up on a few loads to hang up in the basement. I stood watching that tub fill up with water from the hose with water the temperature of my own choosing. Then I watched the dirty clothes swish back and forth rhythmically for the amount of time I decided they should be swishing. I then personally fed them through the wringer into the rinse water at intervals and in arrangements I specifically thought best for each article. It's almost an art, the custom washing of clothes. Something that I never get to do when I throw them in my automatic washer and turn the knobs.
I had already been thinking about these things when Garth walked into the basement. I believe wringer washers are boy kind of washers. There are things to see and feel and do with wringer washing machines. Without much of a word about it, he took over the job of running the things through the wringer and filling the tubs and emptying them. We talked while we worked, not about anything earth shattering or particular, but just talked and enjoyed our time doing the laundry together.
Would I like to always do my laundry with a wringer washer? I used to do it that way all the time. I well remember from way back when what it is to pop holes in rubber pants as I accidentally sent them through the wringer with a diaper. I know the benefit of both ways of laundering. Tonight it just struck me how much I miss sometimes by doing it "the easy way".
There is a simple irony to this little reflection, however. As I was between loads, I was continuing my text "conversation" with my mother who was twenty miles away at her home, she on her Droid and me on my cell phone. I'm glad I can just hit a few keys and tell my mom whatever I want to whenever I want to and she does the same.
In so many ways I have the best of both worlds and I can decide when to use either.
~Colleen
Tonight---partly because I had forgotten to keep my automatic washing machine and dryer fed----I pulled out the old hose and plugged in Gramma's old fashioned wringer washer to catch up on a few loads to hang up in the basement. I stood watching that tub fill up with water from the hose with water the temperature of my own choosing. Then I watched the dirty clothes swish back and forth rhythmically for the amount of time I decided they should be swishing. I then personally fed them through the wringer into the rinse water at intervals and in arrangements I specifically thought best for each article. It's almost an art, the custom washing of clothes. Something that I never get to do when I throw them in my automatic washer and turn the knobs.
I had already been thinking about these things when Garth walked into the basement. I believe wringer washers are boy kind of washers. There are things to see and feel and do with wringer washing machines. Without much of a word about it, he took over the job of running the things through the wringer and filling the tubs and emptying them. We talked while we worked, not about anything earth shattering or particular, but just talked and enjoyed our time doing the laundry together.
Would I like to always do my laundry with a wringer washer? I used to do it that way all the time. I well remember from way back when what it is to pop holes in rubber pants as I accidentally sent them through the wringer with a diaper. I know the benefit of both ways of laundering. Tonight it just struck me how much I miss sometimes by doing it "the easy way".
There is a simple irony to this little reflection, however. As I was between loads, I was continuing my text "conversation" with my mother who was twenty miles away at her home, she on her Droid and me on my cell phone. I'm glad I can just hit a few keys and tell my mom whatever I want to whenever I want to and she does the same.
In so many ways I have the best of both worlds and I can decide when to use either.
~Colleen
Windows!
The phone rang this morning at 6AM. Like any comfortably warm person too lazy to get up herself, I woke Paul up to go answer it.
He comes back to our room asking me to guess who called. I couldn't guess.
It was the window shop wondering if they could come and install our new windows since it was snowing and they didn't want to drive far. (We live less than 3 miles from the window shop). I wasn't expecting them until January 11th. They said they'd be at the house around 7:30AM.
We discovered our family can spring into action pretty fast if necessary. I had children dispatched to clean up most of the embarrassing corners of our house by the time they got here.
Our house now sports 22 new windows! (We had a few replaced in other years as it became urgently necessary.) What a blessing to have these new windows! I don't know if I can conscientiously complain about washing windows ever again!!!
~Colleen
He comes back to our room asking me to guess who called. I couldn't guess.
It was the window shop wondering if they could come and install our new windows since it was snowing and they didn't want to drive far. (We live less than 3 miles from the window shop). I wasn't expecting them until January 11th. They said they'd be at the house around 7:30AM.
We discovered our family can spring into action pretty fast if necessary. I had children dispatched to clean up most of the embarrassing corners of our house by the time they got here.
Our house now sports 22 new windows! (We had a few replaced in other years as it became urgently necessary.) What a blessing to have these new windows! I don't know if I can conscientiously complain about washing windows ever again!!!
~Colleen
I think the next generation of diesel mechanics is at the starting gate!
I was at the store the other day where I saw a tractor/truck coloring book I thought Miles (4) and Clark (3) would like so I bought it for a $1. Miles loves to color, but Clark got to it first. Clark sat happily for a loooooong time with the book and crayons. He'd smile sweetly every time our eyes would meet. I was relieved he was sitting still and not on the roam for more trouble to get into.
A while later Miles was crying that Clark ruined the coloring book. I discovered what Clark had been doing all that long while. He had a black crayon and had drawn plumes of black smoke out of every single exhaust pipe in the entire book. He did not bother to color the pictures. I told Blake that all his doings with diesel truck exhaust stacks was being a bad influence on Clark!
I told Miles I'd buy him another coloring book soon.
~Colleen
A while later Miles was crying that Clark ruined the coloring book. I discovered what Clark had been doing all that long while. He had a black crayon and had drawn plumes of black smoke out of every single exhaust pipe in the entire book. He did not bother to color the pictures. I told Blake that all his doings with diesel truck exhaust stacks was being a bad influence on Clark!
I told Miles I'd buy him another coloring book soon.
~Colleen
Friday, January 01, 2010
Last of 2009, beginning of 2010
Last night we went to Blake and Christine's for new year's eve. Some friends came as well.
Playing "war".
Christine explaining how to play Psychiatrist
Eldon was the psychiatrist
Another game
Ever hug a pot holder without picking it up? We got to!!!
"You really want me..to hug..that...thing...???"
"No way!!!" BTW we didn't have to hug the thing on the floor!!!
More games...
"Poor pussy"!
It was a lot of fun when some of the grown ups got involved!!! :)
Playing "war".
Christine explaining how to play Psychiatrist
Eldon was the psychiatrist
Another game
Ever hug a pot holder without picking it up? We got to!!!
"You really want me..to hug..that...thing...???"
"No way!!!" BTW we didn't have to hug the thing on the floor!!!
More games...
"Poor pussy"!
It was a lot of fun when some of the grown ups got involved!!! :)
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