There, now that’s done. Wayne’s work pants were almost falling to his knees, so I tightened them for him. Wayne can lose weight without even giving it a thought. In fact, I know some women who can do that too. I’ve been one of those lucky ones who come from a long lineage of weight-challenged women. I seem to be between a rock and a hard place.
I can chose to relax and simply eat whatever I want to and enjoy it to the max, which would be wonderful since I love to cook and bake delicious dishes. But then I’d have to deal with not feeling good physically and mentally. There are so many delicious-looking processed foods available on the market that are so tempting to weak people like me. I find it helps to shop locally where a little less variation is available. That’s my rock.
Now the hard place is always having to make a great, conscious, thoughtful effort to what I eat in a day. To have been born in a long line of naturally thin ladies seems to me would eliminate a lot of stress. Actually, the big deal to me is to be healthy and physically fit. I come from a long line of people with heart and diabetes problems, and I’d like to do my part in avoiding these diseases.
I have no problem with getting enough exercise since I do chores for four hours a day. With our changed routine, I inherited more chores. It requires carrying and dumping five-gallon buckets of water. I immensely enjoy it. It gets my heart pumping and gives me energy.
Recently I was telling my children how I used to climb up into the silo to pitch down the silage, load the silage onto a wheelbarrow, and then push the full load about 75 feet out to the feeder. About 20 of those feet were on a two-by-eight-inch board that was suspended from the feed alley to the feed bunk (the area from silo to the place we fed the cows). Load after load after load I hauled. We had no skid loader then. I do think it made me wide awake and ready for school in the morning. We had to get up early to chore, but I’m guessing we handled it okay because we never had plans for evenings during the week. We did the chores, ate supper, maybe played a few card games with my mom and grandma, and went to bed early.
Wayne’s been working in the fields after getting home from his job. Brian can do the TMR mixing, feeding, and other outside chores, plus whatever else we deem necessary to have done. I tackle the milking. Colleen keeps the house going with all that needs doing. The little girls help too wherever they’re directed. One day leads into the next, and time keeps marching steadily on.
The last time we went to town, I treated the little ones to some candy. I also bought a fresh pineapple. That evening while cutting up the pineapple I had a hard time getting any into the bowl because little hands kept snatching the pieces as fast as I cut them. Jesse told me, “Mom, these are better than that candy!”
I agreed. I’m thankful they like fresh fruits and vegetables. Just now Colleen, Jolisa, and Jesse went in search of fresh asparagus, hoping there is enough for lunch tomorrow.
That squeaky, trusty, red trike has reached retirement age. Jesse took to riding a bike like a fish takes to water. His only handicap in the learning process has been starting off. We have a circle driveway the little ones can fly around on their bikes. It’s fun to hear their imaginary stories of where they are going, often stopping in to see if we have this or that they can borrow, depending on the story. To have their sweet, sweet innocence… Sometimes their depth of thought scares me. They notice minute details and imitate them, good or bad. They definitely keep me humble.
One of my greatest concerns as a child was wanting a bike. An honest-to-goodness, two-wheeled bike. I had a trike but had outgrown that by two years. I remember kneeling to pray with my little brother Jay out under the two big maple trees. God was faithful—I did get one!
I thought we had stress with dairy farming and trying to make an honest-to-goodness living. Add to that the stress of Wayne working at the RV factory. Add to that just life in general. Sometimes I feel like throwing up my hands, screaming at the top of my lungs, and running as fast as I can. Run where? I don’t know, but run nonetheless. I know those are not healthy thoughts, but admit it—we’ve all had them.
I need to back up, sit up, and remember what all I have to be thankful for. Between my pinched-up, stressed-up, narrow eyes it too often looks like too little to me, and for those thoughts I am truly embarrassed. I am thankful for what we have: a family filled with love. And we are all healthy as far as I know. When we sit down at the supper table, we are all at home together. There is no way I can list all I am thankful for.
We need to pray to keep our healthy minds and our faith in God. We need to remember to relax and enjoy the blessings the Lord has so graciously given us.
The smartest advice on raising children is to enjoy them while they are still on your side. I enjoyed that quote when I read it. It also makes a sigh escape my lips. They do not have to be very old before they form their own opinions, ideas, and characters. We’ve had some pretty bumpy days since summer vacation has started.
“Mom, we just washed dishes!” “It’s Karah’s turn, or it’s Emily’s turn, or it’s Jolisa’s turn.” It’s time to get a chart made so we can stay more organized and save us the fuss of all these petty arguments.
When we went to Wayne’s home place the other evening, he teasingly encouraged me to get a handful of lilac twigs off the lilac bush. He remembers what those feel like on his hiney, and he thought maybe the girls should know too. I was going to take his advice seriously and then forgot. So I guess for now the rubber spatula will have to do.
This is the first full week that the scholars are at home. This morning Karah helped Colleen with a huge laundry. Friday night was Wayne’s side of the family night, Saturday was the end-of-the-year picnic at the school, and Sunday night we went to see our brand-new niece, Deanna Kay. That meant a lot of laundry to do.
Early this morning Brian went to the field to cultimulch.* He enjoys working in the fields, which is evident because he was soon in the field after lunch. Watching him hitch up those big Belgian draft horses—and evidently knowing what he was doing—had my heart by the strings. He’ll be 14 in August and has much better insights on farming than I do… except for the milking part. He can milk, but he doesn’t enjoy it.
We’ve had a lot of rain lately, which on our farm produces mud. Major mud. Karah decided it’s easier to go get the cows in from the pasture in bare feet than with boots. She lost her boots to the mud one time. It’s easier washing her feet.
We had a hard frost this morning. Wayne was quite concerned about the hay. It’s looking good at knee-high and higher. We are hoping for a good harvest. He plans on making haylage* with the first cutting.
I’ve had to rinse frost off the strawberry patch a couple mornings. I want to save all the strawberries I can. We are looking forward to strawberries and ice cream, strawberry shortcake… well, just about anything is good with fresh strawberries—even salads.
I’m sitting here with a blue bandana wrapped around my neck and smelling like a Vick’s VapoRub jar. Last week Wayne started out with a bad head cold. He didn’t have one all winter. Having a cold in this warm weather is miserable. Now I’ve started with a bad sore throat, earaches, and sniffles. With my sister Freda coming from Oklahoma this week, it produces a lot of plans, so I’m hoping this bug is short-lived.
The girls are actually getting to the end of the dirty dishes. We need to continue working on the virtue of promptness. It’s amazing all the things they can do at the same time. The stories they come up with are worth recording, as are the songs they sing. The squabbles we can forget.
Karah is now baking a couple pans of cookies. This morning I stirred a big batch of chocolate chip cookies together to bake some now and then later this week. I usually bake them all at once, but with Freda coming I decided to bake them fresh as needed. We’re excited to have her in our midst.
The other evening after supper and playing outside for a good while, Jesse was hungry and simply had to have something to eat. We prepared a small bowl of yogurt and granola for him. He sat on the couch and devoured it, savoring it to the last lick. Then out loud he said to himself, “Was that good, boy?” He paused and then he said, “Yes, it was!” We all got a good laugh out of that.
We’ve been teaching Jesse to talk English, which is always interesting to me. I remember before I was old enough to go to school I told one of my dad’s friends, “It is dropping!” It had started to rain. The less I talk English, the more Dutchy I get.
We have the absolute ugliest county dirt roads we’ve ever had. They are supposedly graveled, but this spring they dumped tons of stones on them. It’s almost impossible to ride a bike on them, and that’s a major form of transportation for us. With our house practically on the road, we eat a lot of dust.
We appreciate when it rains so the dust is settled and the vehicles pack the stones so it’s easier to bike on and easier for the horse to pull the buggy. Our appreciation doesn’t last really long because it seems as soon as it rains the workers come by with a big grader and tear the stones all up again. Hopefully one of these days they’ll put some dust control on the roads again. That always helps for most of the summer. I appreciate living in the country, and for the most part of the day our road is fairly quiet. The mornings and afternoons are busy with factory traffic and school buses.
Some days Wayne comes home from work late, so we trudge on, putting in long hours. I feel very fortunate to be able to work, and I do not want to complain. Spring and summer are my favorite seasons, even if we work long, hard days. I have hopes of leisure nights sitting around the campfire in our yard and enjoying s’mores and popcorn. The children spend a lot of time on the trampoline in the evenings—so much so that we sometimes have to use the timer so everyone gets an equal opportunity. Even this mama likes a turn. That’s good because I need to burn those calories from all those strawberries and ice cream and s’mores.
I’ve started doing my walking in the morning since it gets daylight earlier. I love listening to the birds’ cheery good-morning songs, plus it is a time completely to myself. Colleen and Brian both go back to bed after the chores are done, but all too soon it is time to get everyone up and at it.
I am anxiously awaiting canning season as I’m out of ketchup, and I noticed the tomato juice is getting low. I thought I had done a lot last year, but I guess it takes a lot too. The apple pie filling is also getting low, so I’d better start using more of the other fillings. Apple seems to be a favorite. We use the apple filling for apple crisp too. We dump a quart of the filling in a baking dish, top it with our homemade granola, and bake it until it is heated through. You can’t get it any simpler or yummier than that!
The last several days we have been crossing a lot of odd jobs off our list of have-to-be-done. That’s a good feeling. We’re not caught up, but we sure enjoy making a dent in the list. This summer I’ve been making lists every day or two, and that seems to be working well. The girls think all they have to do is wash the dishes and sweep the floor. I keep telling them that is the way to learn to work and to like it—by knowing the satisfaction of a job well done. We adults have to do the same things over and over and over. Suppose we would decide one day we just don’t want to anymore? That advice lasts for one complaint. How quickly the children forget. They helped really well with cleaning strawberries. Bringing in the laundry from the lines and folding and putting it away is about the worst punishment to them. But it’s a job that has to be done, and they can easily do it.
I’m having a bad case of fingernail-biting nervousness right now with a field of raked hay waiting to be baled. Wayne is still not at home. Our neighbor Junior will be here in a couple minutes, as will several more neighbor boys to help. I don’t like to make them wait. Brian does really well with harnessing and hitching up the horses, getting the hay raked, and all that, but sometimes the know-how and management skills of mine are pretty well zilch. When we see Wayne coming home, Brian and I breathe huge sighs of relief. It feels so good when we are all at home and working together.
The other morning I slept a little too long, so I was in the parlor by myself a little while longer than normal. It was dark and rainy, which made me tired and moody. I was thinking of all the rain, all the mud, and planting crops late because of it. Must be I needed a wakeup call from my self-pitying thoughts because all of a sudden a cat let out a horrible scream! It grabbed my attention.
I kept on hosing out the milk parlor, and my mind started to wander again. Then two male cats got into a vicious fight. They really got my attention off me! I proceeded to give them a good morning shower with the startling cold water. They took their fighting elsewhere, and I continued on with the chores. As Colleen would say, that’s about as exciting as our life gets.
We have this little bull we’ve been feeding to fatten up to butcher next year. His name is Hamburger Steak. Well, he discovered he’s quite the macho man once he got to the cows. The excitement level got plenty high the other night when Brian and I were milking. Hamburger Steak thought he belonged in the parlor with us. He had plenty of bawling and aggressiveness to get where he wanted. It made my heart pound and my knees weak. My legs turned to rubber. A bull is nothing to mess with. Needless to say, as soon as Wayne came home Hamburger Steak got moved back to where he belonged. That’s plenty of excitement for me!
I have a peace rose that hasn’t bloomed for several years, but it has such beautiful foliage so I keep the plant. It turns out the foliage is wild, and it has bloomed profusely this summer—only the blooms aren’t the peace rose. They are a cheery, bright red. Big deal. I’m not professional either. We might as well bloom where we are planted. The other roses are busy bringing sunshine to our lives. We have four rosebushes where we can see them from the kitchen window. The hummingbirds also frequent the feeder right outside that window. It makes washing the dishes a bit more interesting.
We didn’t get our fill of asparagus this spring, much to the chagrin of the children. They brought in enough for some soup the other evening. It was barely enough for that, but we made do. Growing an asparagus patch takes patience, but it will multiply. We just have to be patient. The strawberries were delicious while they lasted. Now we are looking forward to fresh blueberry pie. We’re hoping to enjoy the fresh blueberry pie with our friends the Hogues from Oklahoma. We’re looking forward to their annual visit.
On my daily walk this morning I heard the birds singing their praises. I saw a new species! It looked like a scarlet tanager, but I don’t know if those are in this area or not. It was a beautiful, bright red-orange. I also heard the woodpeckers busily at work. Taking a morning walk has many benefits. It helps keep my mind clear and often fills my heart with song.
This spring Wayne and I went on several dates again. What fun and oh so romantic. After I was done with the evening milking, I’d walk back to the field and join him on the plow for several rounds to catch up on the daily news. No roses. No fancy, expensive dinner. But love and partnership to the fullest! Yep, Wayne is mighty popular when he comes home from work. I walk up to the house again, and there by the walkway to the house are the roses, and Colleen has prepared us supper, I am blessed indeed.
We love these long summer evenings, but they do have a big disadvantage. We have a hard time knowing when to stop working and go to bed. So soon it is time to get up again. We do take time for making s’mores though, and lounging around the campfire, and gazing at the stars, and filling a jar with fireflies.
Did you ever make s’mores with Ritz Crackers instead of graham crackers? We love it! Ritz Crackers, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, and roasted marshmallows. What a way to end the day!