hey diddle diddle….

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…the cow jumped over the –      fence.  And under it.  And through it.  Sigh.  WHY oh why is the grass on the other side so much greener to her color blind eyes??  Are not 73 acres enough for one fat cow???  We have neighbor cows who have grazed on the other side of these fences and never entertained the idea of running through them.  Oh, she is a naughty cow. 

This cow is not as easy to manage as she was last summer when one could lift her up and move her if need be. No, several hundred pounds later there is no lifting.  I thought I was pretty smart the other night when she wouldn’t come to me.  (in the front yard, bear in mind : p )  I roped her with the idea of leading her back inside the pasture. I did actually rope her neck too.  Are you cheering yet?  Here I was, just home from errands. one older child available to watch Tess inside, me in my skirt and silver jewelry and up-do ROPING A COW.  Sheesh. 

So I rope this cow, turn to lead her, and she……. stands there looking at me like I had lost my mind. And I was close actually.  Guess it didn’t occur to me that she would not follow. Horses do.  Goats do.  Dogs do. Most of the time the children do.  Cows don’t. Cows stand there saying essentially, Nuh uh.

Eventually the rest of the family rolled into the drive from piano and between us we coaxed and cajoled her into the barn so we could get through the night with no more excitement.  If you have a cow, drop me a line. Tell me this can work. It all looked so easy when the Marlboro Man was doing this in the 70s…

Post Op

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B_oct_2 Today was Brendan’s outpatient surgery.  The week has sort of flown by in a blur. Allen had to fly to FL unexpectedly for work on Tues morning. I ran B to his pre-op appts and got the paperwork together. We had a buyer for one of the horses we are selling and, life being what it is, after waiting for a week, the brand inspector decided he could come out yesterday. This translated into rushing back home from appts to meet him, the buyer hustling to locate a trailer and driver, and the horse finally going at 7:30pm. 

I scooted B into the tub soon after that.  Got him to bed hydrated, per instructions, and got clothes laid out for the babies. Allen rolled in around midnight from the last flight of the night. We slept for about 4 hrs and then started the dressing, loading, driving, registering routine.  B was game for the whole thing, if a little leery of the strangers’ poking and measuring. He was taken into surgery without much fanfare and returned an hr later sober, but otherwise unscathed. Popsicles made a good peace offering from the nurses. A slice of pizza while waiting for his post-op meds to fill further improved his mood and he is currently in jolly good humor.

All in all, the morning went well.  We had to laugh at ourselves, sitting in his room, Allen in his suit and tie, pouring over the Country Living magazine and discussing our long term farming plans. Groggy and coffee’d up, we sketched out a scheme for the ranch entry sign. We debated the pro’s and con’s of home computing and net use ( I love this machine. I hate this machine). We caught up on kid issues and scheduled hay pick up. It’s ironic to be having these discussions like this but such is life at this moment – one foot in each of two very different worlds. I look forward to the day we can jump headlong.

One fruit borne from our conversations was strictly limiting screen time. I soooo do not want to have a virtual life.  Likewise, I don’t want my children to remember their mother’s face aglow from the reflection of a neon screen.  If you email me it may take me a smidge longer to reply. (Better yet, send me snail mail.I am all about real letters written with real hands that can be tucked into purses or books and revisited fondly at a later date.)  Bear with me.    You would have a hard time tearing yourself away from a face like this little man’s too. : )  Speaking of which I think both he and I could use a warm blanket and a cozy chair right now so I better sign off.  Thank you for your prayers.  He came through swimmingly.

Living Crafts Magazine

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Ooooh, now this looks like fun – a magazine full of family craft projects.  Doesn’t sound like fun yet?  Admittedly not.  The very term brings to mind plastic canvas and toilet paper tubes. Instead, how about a knitted doll sweater, beeswax modeling projects, beading, felting,and crochet crowns for one’s birthday? That’s more like it. : )   I am anxious to get an in person look at the premiere issue of Living Crafts Magazine to see if it is as nice as it promises to be.

first snow

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The first snow blew over the plains yesterday. I stood at the kitchen window mixing venison sausage for breakfast watching it fall.  When the grass was frosty you could see the outlines of the jackrabbits clearly as they bounded over the field. We normally miss them unless they are very close since they blend into the buffalo grass so completely.

The little boys are ready for winter. Moira needs some warmer skirts and boots. Her mom does too. Tess is ready for church shoes. Plans for Christmas decorating are already floating through my head. Fall is going way too fast isn’t it? I am trying to savor every second.

To that end I hung around Susan Branch’s site this weekend and played with some watercolors.  We are also going to mess around with the bag of pinecones we picked up before the snow ruined the rest of them. I read you should heat them at 250 for 20 min to kill any bugs inside and open them nicely so that will be our first step. Next we plan to wind floral wire around their bottoms and fix them to either a foam or wire wreath frame. I think we can repurpose one of the rapidly multiplying wire hangers for that.

We also have some fall leaves pressed into a book to use for setting our Thanksgiving table.  Susan suggested (dont miss the Country Living link here for lots of ideas!) a simple napkin fold with a single leaf atop as a place card. She wrote the names in gold pen. Very simple, very lovely.  That sums up my vision for the coming months.

We begin our round of appts today and Allen has some extra work "stuff" over the next few weeks complicating things. This is not what we shoot for, just an unhappy convergence of to-do’s. It is ironic coming on the heels of the Down to Earth blog exercise. Allen says it’s ok – it reminds us what we do NOT want to do and helps us keep our goals in clear focus.  Still, we have to get through these weeks. So, we are keeping lots of things simple but special.

Our school year has been chugging right along nicely despite these interruptions. The older children are following a modified Robinson curriculum style schedule and have read a nice chunk of lit this month. We are using their writing exercises for grammar practice and all in all I am well pleased with their progress. This plan, along with their Montessori cards and notebook pages, has meant that school can carry on smoothly even when life calls. What a blessing!  It reminds me how very simple learning can really be. Good books, good friends, good music, good art supplies, and lots of time outdoors. 

I hope fall is treating everyone as well. : )

Simple is as simple does

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I wandered onto Rhonda’s blog to get these way cute embroidery patterns.  I stayed to read more of her musing about simple living. Her Two Simple Things post includes this challengs:

As soon as you finished reading this blog today, I have a task for you. Your first small step: sit down with a pen and notepad and think about the kind of life you want to live. Picture yourself in your ideal location doing what would make you happy. What is complicating your life? What do you need to change in your life to achieve what you want?

It reminded me of that Elsie Flanigan layout I linked to last week which said, "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"  (If I was a good blogger I would go dig it up to hyperlink, wouldnt I : / )

Rhonda says today can be the first day of the rest of your simplified life. She also echoes my recurrent thoughts:

I’d be lying if I told you that simple living is easy. It is satisfying, rewarding, healthy, beautiful, it makes you feel happy and content, it’s substantial and important and necessary, but it isn’t easy, especially when you start. But it’s a wonderful and significant way of life and I hope all of you decide that even if it isn’t easy, it is how you want your life to be.

Simple.  Not to be confused with easy.

Anyhoo, if the idea of simple, sane living intrigues you but you feel you are buried under with no hope of digging out then give yourself an hour and go read the Down to Earth blog with a pen and notebook. See if she can’t change your mind. : )

Pssssssssst!!!!!

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You are in for such a treat!  Our favorite Gypsy Caravan has rolled back into town and is every bit as delightful as it ever was.  Now you can also see the lovely notebook pages the children have been creating this school year on her sidebar.

Speaking of which, if you check out our lefthand sidebar we are slowly creating albums of our notebooks as well.  It has been such a pleasure to make this journey with frequent phone visits with Rebecca. We are having such fun.  Go visit and welcome her back to blogland! 

Friday UNschool : )

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Just occurred to me that it is the end of Thursday already and I forgot to post about this.  We will have an altered Funschool schedule over the next couple of weeks. This week two moms are out of town.  Brendan has his tear duct procedure next Thursday and two appts before that. We have All Saints Day the week after.  My goal is to do one Funschool sometime between now and Nov 2nd.  I can’t promise yet which day that will be. Funschool has been just that – lots of fun. To keep it that way we try to be reasonable and meet when we can without making ourselves crazy.  It is hard to learn when you are rushed and mom is grumpy so we avoid those two things wherever possible. : )

Our little people have been spending their days exploring the new games we have brought out each week. The geoboards have had a lot of use. We have circle and square boards so the possibilities are endless. The soap grater – huge hit! We found if you wet the shavings and wad them together you get a new bar of soap too once they dry. 

I wanted to share this too. Brendan is 2 and a half now and moving closer to 3. He has been quite a busy boy, always into something and not one to sit still for long.  Even with years of Montessori theory stuck in my brain I could not rearrange the circumstances the first half of the year dumped in our laps. (you might recall power lines) Goll, that just ate up HOURS every week. Hours I didn’t have with a newborn in tow. Our prepared environment …. wasn’t.  His behavior responded accordingly.  I am happy to report that after two months of very gentle, very sporadic exposure to the homemade manipulatives, stories, and group work Brendan is a new boy.

It is amazing to see ‘normalization’ happen. He is still a firecracker <g> but no more does a grocery store run with him strike fear in my heart lol!  He is visibly more relaxed and engaged with whatever project is at hand.

You don’t need to do all these activities.  You don’t even need to do most of them.  However, if you do one or two each week, while truly being present with your little person, and then keep him close by the rest of the time, I promise you that little person will respond in amazing ways. : )

Autumn on a budget

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We have been adding autumnal touches around the house these past few weeks. Pottery Barn’s seasonal decor ideas are increasingly my favorite resource. Not too mod (ala some of the most popular craft blogs)and not too cheesey. As Goldilocks would say, they are ‘just right’ for my taste.  Not quite as right for my budget comfort, however. We have solved this problem rather easily though. Enter Walmart. <g> Literally and figuratively. 

Perusing the home, floral, and craft aisles netted several knock off’s for next to nothing. A ‘for instance’ – we picked up this wooden dough riser/kneader piece for $5. It looked just like the one featured as a centerpiece in September’s Country Living mag. We filled it with some tiny pumpkins.

Fall

In the floral aisle they had many shapes and sizes of glass vases similar to those in the PB pages.  I can’t see any measurable difference in a $5 glass container vs a $25 version. It is what they are stuffed with that makes them attractive. A bag of cranberries costs less than $3 at the grocery. We had some time while the kids were in choir practice on Sunday so Kieran and I gathered a bagful of pinecones from under a tree in the planter outside. They look stunning in those oversized glass vases or in open bowls. Walmart had several wood bowls in the kitchen/dishware section as salad bowls. They would make really classy  displays of natural fall-ish stuffers. Their pillar candles would look great stuck inside those glass vases with stuffers like berries or acorns surrounding.

I am finding with this many people in the house my tastes are leaning towards the clean lines and simple graphic-style displays vs lots of small stuff which is soon tipped over or dusty.  In fact, anything with ‘clean’ in the description fits the bill. ; )   I far prefer using these natural materials to the  cartoonish commercially available holiday standby’s.

Charger Oh, another project in the works here are the rattan chargers shown at left. (from PB too) I thought they would look so nice on our mission cherry table.  We spotted some round placemats in the seasonal sale section at Walmart. (below)I have seen them paint these on HGTV and think that a coat of walnut paint would produce a lovely set of knock off chargers for waaaay less than $18ea. I will keep you posted : )

Placemat