Hello Friends!!

Sorry about the vanishing act!  I have been so yucky sick!  But that will be a blog for another day, because, truthfully, I am tired of being sick and tired! So, no more time or energy on that sad subject!

I am going to vent about something else…..

Ready?

OK, so Eldon (the knifemaking husband) works on the weekends, so I am usually alone, however, a few weeks ago my parents called and wanted to meet up somewhere.  We decided to meet at Thanksgiving Point, which is about half way between their house and ours.  Thanksgiving Point…..this is a place a very wealthy software developer built, to give thanks to the community he was from.  There is a farm, a big garden area, a gift shop, a dinosaur museum…you see, the whole idea, in the beginning was to build a place families could go, for free.

WELL…it got really popular.  Soon the little gift shop that used to sell gardening tools, dinosaur and farm figures grew bigger and more expensive.  Then they opened a fancy-shmancy resturaunt.  Then a movie theatre. 

So, we met up, me with my four kids, my parents, my sister and her two kids.  We had planned on walking around the pumpkin patch, looking at the farm animals, maybe buying a sandwich for dinner….Well, apparently they had something going on called Boo at the Farm.  It cost $5 to get  in, you could look at all the animals, play games and get your face painted.  So, we go in.  $35 it cost me, to get myself and the girls in…..the whole thing was  really crowed…REALLY crowded.  It seemed as if every yuppy couple and thier toddlers (dressed in Baby Gap halloween costumes) were there, pushing around their $700  strollers.  The games were pretty dumb, they were very understaffed for face painting, and the topper, you had to pay AGAIN to go in the pumkin patch!  $4 for a small pumkin, $5 for a medium sized, and $7 for a biggish one!! And you couldn’t just go in the pactch and look around, maybe take some pictures of your kids on a hay bale……NO, you had to pay! ( I had already  bought pumpkins at the grocery for .13$ a pound…less than $4 for 4 pumkins!!)

So, my rant is this….Why is everything about money??  More and more money?   Apparently Thanksgiving Point is quite the money maker..But what happened to the thankful part of it?  And what is with this yuppy parenting thing?  Kids don’t care how much a silly costume costs…and the strollers!

One mom totally cracked me up, we were over by the Jersey Cows, and a baby calf started to pee, she whisks her little boy up and says “oh, turn your head.  don’t look!”  Then she turns to her husband and complains that maybe they could keep better  track of the animals and take them out of public view to do that!  UM…lady, this is a farm!

I did, however, learn a good lesson while we were there…..It is time for me to just go ahead and move out of the city.  I am ready for my own farm.  And belive me, any little city kids will be welcome to visit, anytime.  For free.

Embracing Now

So, Friends, sorry about the lack of photos..I have yet to find time when Eldon and I can sit down at the computer together…

I was feeling under the weather, but not super sick..just kind of yucky.  It has been really cold and snowy, which always throws my arthritis into fits.  I put my girls down to bed early with a good book, and at 7:30 last night I got in the tub for a nice soak…things never really work out the way a Mama of four plans it, and soon baby Em was crying for me.  I had Eldon undress her and put her in the tub with me.

I was worn out and Emme was too.  I used this safe, quiet moment to talk to her and hold her.  I have been trying to wean Emme, she is 15 months old now, and this is the longest I have breastfed, but she has been so tiny….she doesn’t tolerate dairy, or soy….well excuses could go as long as my arm, but *truely* I don’t want to quit nursing because I know she is my last baby!

So we enjoyed a warm bath together and while we were snuggling she latched on to nurse.  I was smelling her fine, whispy hair and she looked up at me with her huge blue eyes, she blinked them once, very slowly.  She brought her tiny little hand up and rested it on my chest, right on my heart..oh!  My eyes filled with tears.  My heart was filled with love.

Sitting in our warm little womb of water, eyes locked, her mouth on my breast and her so tiny hand resting right on my heart…I put my hand on top of hers and just lost myselft in the moment.  Children grow up so fast.  It is hard to keep it all in perspective when I am so tired from too much work, not enough sleep….but in the grand scheme of things this baby time is so short!  During that time in the bath tub with Emme, my heart was about to burst…I love her so much.  It felt so good to be there, warm and safe.  I knew I could provide everything she needs, and I could keep her safe.  I wish life could just stay that way for all of my children….for every Mother’s Child.

I love times like these, when I can forget about the past, not worry what the future will bring and just allow myself to partake in NOW…How sweet it is…

So….We are back from a fun trip to Wyoming….so much has been going on…

First off..we had to search out a Dr. in Riverton, WY because Chloe had another spider bite!!  AAHH!  Luckily, our friends, The Drapers got us in to their family doctor and we got treatment…Chloe is much better!

I was freaking out!  We had our house (outside) sprayed after we had the first spider bite, but I guess that is the worse thing you can do for Hobo Spiders!  That just kills off all of the other spiders that compete with them for food!  Yikes!  So I read up and found out the only thing to do to get rid of them is to get EVERYTHING off of the floor!  No shoes, no laundry, no toys, nothing on the floor…that was a big job! Then the major fall cleaning this all has prompted..I moved the stove, the fridge, all of the beds…vacuumed and set out the glue-type traps…then I cleaned all of the airvents.  I hung the over-the-door shoe racks, I threw away alot of toys and clutter, and got rid of alot of clothes….WHEW!  I am worn out!!

I couldn’t sleep because I felt all itchy and crawly…so for about 3 nights now I have been going on about 3 hours of sleep…THAT would be why I woke up sick this morning!  I have a sore throat and an earache!!

Oh, well, at least I know that our house is spider free, and relatively clean…it’s alot easier to rest in a clean house when you are sick.

A couple of things I learned on our road trip

1.  Wyoming is kind of like going back in time…no big stores, not nearly as much traffic, not so many subdivisions and new homes everywhere.  I liked it.

2.  The no-eating-in-the-new-van rule was really hard to do.

3.  Baby Emme is not a good road traveller.

4.  When I don’t have alot of other things to do but sit while Eldon drives, I can knit alot of washcloths.

I am going to try and figure out the whole posting pictures thing tonight and I will put up some photos from our trip….

The run-down of our weekend…

Eldon works Friday, Saturday and Sunday..he is scheduled for 12 hour shifts, but always ends up working longer…so us girls are on our own.

This Friday I had a long day, the kind that drags and drags….Saturday was a busy day.  The girls and I did alot of running around.  We went to the new Target that has just opened…Holy Cow!  Talk about busy!  We got some snacks for our vacation…all kinds of junk food that we never buy…granola bars, capri sun drinks, pop tarts (yuck) and some yummy looking red grapes, and my very favorite..Honey Crisp apples.  We are leaving for Wyoming in the morning, and I love vacations, but eating out is always hard for me…not eating gluten and milk means I can’t really eat out.  I went to the healthfood store and got some little fruit bars.  We also went to the pumkin patch and got a pumpkin for each of the girls.

Church was nice, the girls were relatively well behaved…which was nice. 

Oh…this leads to a rant!  Why on earth do people bring sick kids to church????

I have been careful this week, I don’t want to drag sick kids on a vacation!  Last year, we had to take  Chloe on the airplane to Disneyland with numbing drops and an antibiotic because she had an ear infection….back to my rant..we are sitting behind a family and their sick kids keep turning around to play with Emme and they sneeze and cough and wipe their snotty little noses on their hands then touch my baby!  Please, people, keep sick kids at home!  Rant over…

I have been working on some fun things to send out to all my FarmGirl friends, and I am stopping at the UPS store on my way out of town Monday mornin’.

Can’t wait!  I hope they all like the goodies   I have made/found/junqued!

Friday…a long day.

Today has been such a strange, long day.  I had a big ole’ list of things to do.  We are getting ready to go on a vacation, we will leave Monday morning for Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  After a day and night in Jackson we will go to Riverton Wy…we will be visiting some knifemaker friends.  I am hoping to “scout” the area for potential homes…..which is a good set-up to my strange, long day…I am so tired of traffic!!
I drove to the grocery store today,  it is 1.6 miles away from my house, and it took me 15 minutes to get there!  The road is being worked on, and what a mess….I forgot about the detour, so did the rest of the world, apparently!!  It was right during rush hour…..bottom line, rush hour, road closures and four kids in a minivan for a long time=grumpy Mama.

I shocked my daughters my leaving the grocery cart in the parking lot.  I didn’t even push it back to the cart corral.

I would love to live somewhere with a little less traffic.

So here’s my to do list for  tomorrow…I spent too much time today knitting…but it was raining and cold, and I just wanted to unwind…knitting helps when you are feeling a little stressed….

 

Here’s the list:

1. sort and wash laundry

2. take stock of luggage, wipe out

3. vacuum out van.

4. get kid’s winter coats out, (WY can be really cold, especially at 8000 ft elevation)

5. pick up medications

6. change sheets…(nothing better than coming home to a clean bed)

7. go to UPS store for Eldon, find out about home pick up service…

 That should be enough!  Hell,,erm…Heck!  Just the laundry coudl

Toothaches and Scare Tactics.

So, I have had a toothache, I hate tooth aches.

My regular dentist,  Dr. Tom, was really nice.  He told me there wasn’t really anything he could do for me.  I would have to see a specialist.  I went on Monday, and the guy tells me that I need a root canal.  This tooth has already had a root canal!  So he takes the xray, and then tells me that I have a growth of some kind on my jawbone….I am worried, he says I need the root canal, and a biopsy.  It could be cancer.  It will cost $560 for the root canal and another $200 for the biopsy.  He isn’t sure my dental insurance will pay for it, so I will have to write a check….or they do accept credit cards.   He even went as far as saying they can start just as soon as they call the bank to make sure my check is good!  What!!  How tacky.

I guess that part in the Hippocratic oath..that part about not taking money from a patient unless they feel like they have been cured…..

Well, whatever it says.  I don’t know if I understand ancient greek, but I do understand scare tactics and pressure!

I told him that I appreciated his time and his opinion.  I would be happy to pay for a consultation fee…I stopped before I told him that he could take his pink paper bib and shove it……….

Yuck, what to do now??

Pray for my sore tooth, and my growth on my jaw….mostly, just pray that I can make a good decision on what to do.

Oh, and thanks for listening.

The Tale of the Sleepless Night….

Soo…I had the hardest time falling asleep last night, I took a nice relaxing bath, I did some meditation that always helps…but no sleep.

Ok, I just use this free time to knit- right?  So  I knit until I feel like I am going to drop off, snuggle in bed and go to sl….no I am restless.  I get up and check the locks, tuck in the kids again.  Lie down in bed to read….I get very sleepy..but still, no sleep.  It is around 1:30am…I am in the kitchen eating peaches from a quart jar (wonder why I can’t lose weight? now we all know) when I get that feeling!  That run, check now!  That deer in the headlights!   I run to the bathroom just in time to see my candle sputter and drip and almost catch the shower curtain on fire!!!

The morals to this story are:

1.  When you are restless, worried, say I little prayer for direction…this works better than knitting and peaches.

2. When you relax in the bathtub, don’t forget to blow out the candle….D’oh!

So we had a power outage here last night.  It was kind of a pain in the butt, more it was just fun.  The girls and I “camped out” we used our flashlights and made a little tent out of blankets, got out pillows and a couple of books and we had so much fun..

A couple of things I noticed about living here in the big city without power….

1. It is very quiet.

2. It is very dark, so dark that I was worried about who might be lurking.  I was even worried about a break-in.

3. Everyone around me is *very* dependant on electricity.  All of my neighbors and everyone in my church called to ask me when Eldon was going to turn the power back on….I guess they thought I could just give him a phone call, he would run right over, flip a switch and everyone would be good to go…..

In fact, one particular lady, who is very pious and rightous on Sunday, was really kind of nasty with Eldon when he knocked on her door, asking permission to get to her backyard….Sister____  told him that she couldn’t sleep without moving her adjustable bed into position!  Could he hurry it up?!?!  Eldon tried to explain how the whole system works, and that unfortunately it would be several hours before power was restored….she used a few choice words.    Funny how some people have a Sunday face, and an everyday face…I hope I can be considered one of the folks that is far from perfect, but will help someone in need…on Sunday, or any other old day.   I guess, for some, Love Thy Neighbor is conditional!

Keeping the Peace

So, I am the Mama of four daughter, and I feel so gifted to have them…..however…..today has been one of those days where I have done nothing but play referree…fighting, bickering, mean words, tattle telling…today is one of those days that reminds me of why my mother needed some “quiet time” in her room with a cool washcloth on her eyes!

Days like today also help  me understand why some parent spank their kids.  I have been pretty exasperated today.  But really, hitting our kids to punish them for hitting each other???

Let me introduce myself…

My name is Kate, I am married to my lover and best friend, Eldon.  We have 4 daughters,  and one cat.  We are two small town kids living in the big city, for now….Eldon is a knifemaker by hobby and an electrical lineman by profession, but we hope to make a living of his art someday soon.  We are hoping to move to a rural setting, grow our own food, enjoy some peace and quiet……

The most important thing in my life is my family.  I love my children, I want them to grow into strong, capable loving women.  There is nothing better than watching my girls play and learn.  I feel my job as a parent is to protect them and provide their basic needs, after that it is my role to nurture them and allow them to grow as individuals.

I am on a quest for knowledge, there are so many great things to learn…..I have made a list, and will share it in a future blog…”Kate’s list of things to learn”  I also have a “list of places to see”  

I am on a quest to simplify my life…any help in this area would be appreciated!

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