I'm a Pretty Lucky Gal

Its funny how it is far more acceptable to talk about how much one's husband annoys them or does irritating things than it is to say that one's husband is a good man or a good father.  I have done my share of griping over the years but I just have to say that I married a really nice guy and I think I love him more now than I did almost 13 years ago when we got married.  

Occasionally someone will say to me that I do way too much for him.  Maybe to some people it looks that way, but he does so much for us too.  Things that maybe don't always get mentioned in the day to day small talk of "what did you do last night" type conversations.  There are many things I have learned to appreciate about him over the years.  

Teaching Joey to operate the garden tiller

Helping Natalie reel in a fish

He's a very patient teacher.  I knew this when he spent hours with me in our little boat teaching me fishing techniques while we were dating.  He has never lost patience with me or the kids when teaching one of us anything, like letting Joey help till the garden or letting the kids take turns driving the boat, even when they turn us around in crazy loops all over the lake.

Building with Joey

He's very handy.  I don't think I could calculate the thousands of dollars we have saved over the years by him doing almost all of our mechanical repairs.  This is not just oil changes on the car either.  I couldn't help but admire the way he just jumped in and tore apart our sewer system last week when the pump went out.  This was a nasty job, but he did it.  Took all the pipes apart pulled the pump up, got new parts and put it all back together.  This was in the evenings after long days at work and it was not a pretty job to do.  But he did it and he never complained.  And he saved us about $500.

Turning the sharp corners under on th roof of the rabbit hutch so the kids don't get hurt

He is always busy.  This man doesn't sit down until the days work is done.  He is always doing something.  Sometimes I have a hard time determining exactly what he's doing out in that garage of his, but if I ask, he'll show me an actual project that he did, like hanging shelves or making something for one of the kids.  This summer, he spent an entire weekend in the steamy 90 degree heat building a hutch for the rabbits that the kids were dying to get.

He is very tidy.  Since we live in a small house, this means a lot.  He likes things to be orderly just as much as   I do.  Occasionally I find socks lying at the end of the couch where he stretches out at the day's end and have to hunt for the tv remote in the morning, but not often.  He is our chief vacuum operator, and does a way better job at it than I do.

In return for all that he does for our family, yes I make his coffee (almost) every morning, bake his favorite treats and try to have things in order at home when I get there before him.

Does this mean that we have never had a fight?  No.  We have had our share of hard times and growing pains as our relationship has developed over this past 15 years.  What I am saying is that we both do the work to keep our friendship and our marriage going.  And so, maybe I do a few extra things for him.  He does a few extra things for me too, like tilling that garden that he couldn't care less about.  I'm quite certain that nobody ever got divorced because after a decade of marriage, their spouse appreciated them too much.

Apple Picking with Grandpa

I love apple season.  The weather is still warm enough to be pleasant, but not hot enough to melt me into a puddle.  Last week, Natalie went to play at a friend's house and Joey really wanted to go see Grandpa Dennis and pick apples.  So, that's what we did.  Joey picked and picked.  And we got in a good visit too.  Matt's dad gets a real kick out of the kids and loves telling them all about flowers and trees and bugs and birds and anything else they can think of to ask him about.  

Grandpa helping Joey find an apple that dropped.

Joey showing us that he can do it all by himself.

Joey climbed up on the ATV with Grandpa.

After all this apple picking, my boy was pretty tired and fell asleep on the way home.  While he was napping and Natalie was still gone to her friend's, I peeled and chopped about 10 pounds of apples for applesauce.  By the time I was done, I had 4 quarts of cinnamon applesauce done up.  Not a ton by any means, but a respectable project for a Monday afternoon.  And my boy got some one on one time with his Grandpa out in the garden.  What more can one ask for?

Re-Mona & the Skunk

My daughter has been compared to the fictional character Ramona Quimby on many many occasions.    In fact, "Ramona (or Re-Mona as Natalie says) and Beezus" is one of our favorite movies. Last Wednesday was another one of those occasions where she pulled a Re-Mona.

Natalie on her first day of preschool

I had to work an early shift so Matt was in charge of getting everybody up and out the door.  We have had some kind of critter trying to get into our chicken coop for a few days, so he had a live trap set.  Natalie, ever the big helper, went out to check the trap for her dad.  He caught his perp in the trap and it was not a raccoon, but rather a skunk.  Natalie felt bad for that poor skunk in there all alone and decided to keep him company.  However, the skunk didn't feel like having company and told her to go away by "putting its butt out and squirting stinky water".

As this is going on, Matt is getting Joey dressed and himself ready to head out the door.  Now he also has a smelly five year old to deal with and just enough time to get to work.  So, he does what seems the most logical and changes her clothes and gets her in the car.  I would have thought this would be an awfully aromatic ride to town, but Matt said that he didn't notice that she smelled.  (He had gotten some of the spray on himself as he was changing her clothes and just thought it was him who smelled).

When I got my first break at work that day, I called daycare just to make sure that everybody got there in one piece (I'm a control freak like that) and the daycare lady was just coming in from an appointment.  She got the report from her sub that the kids told her Natalie got sprayed by a skunk.  So, she asks Natalie and sure enough, she got a direct hit.  The daycare lady asks me to please come and get her.  So, I leave work, pick the kids up (there's no way Joey was letting me leave him there, he might miss something), and take them home.  Thank the Lord that my de-skunkify solution that I mixed up worked!  I scrubbed Natalie down, soaked her clothes in it, then re-showered myself and headed back to work.

All I could think during this whole fiasco was that this was just another Re-Mona moment.  It made for a hectic day, but it really was pretty funny.

And that is the Absolutely True Tale of Re-Mona and the Skunk. :)

**In case you should find yourself with a skunk scented child (or pet), here's a really good potion to get rid of the smell.

2 c. 3% hydrogen peroxide

1/4 c. baking soda

1/4 c. dish soap

Mix all together.  Use enough to get a good coating of lather all over.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then rinse.  Repeat if necessary.  Thanks to my friend Maria for googling this for me as I was racing out the door!

Sunday Afternoon on the Homestead

Rose Geranium

I hope this doesn't sound too brag-ey, but we had a really good day.  Natalie and I went to church this morning and out for lunch with Matt's parents after.  Then we came home and had my favorite kind of afternoon.  We were just at home.  The four of us, puttering, playing, working, sometimes talking, sometimes not. It was a perfect end to an otherwise crazy week. 

Matt spent some time in his garage doing some tidying up and I was in the garden pulling a record amount of weeds.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I hauled three wheelbarrow loads of weeds out of our veggie patch today.  Wonder if I'll get that many vegetables by the time its all said and done...  The kids went back and forth and helped us both along the way and still played their games and got some of their projects done.  Natalie was a help and picked peas for me.  Joey yanked weeds and reminded me not to pick the tomatoes and peppers, they're not ready yet.

We accomplished quite a bit in our afternoon/evening home and outdoors.  I like that.  The homestead looks much nicer.  Speaking of the homestead, I have been reading a lot of other blogs lately that talk about homesteading.  A few people have referred to our little homestead as a farm. I'm flattered by this, but having been to actual working farms and seeing the work that goes into farming, it seems silly to call myself a farmer.    Maybe if we ever got a pig or a goat and our apple trees start producing, then just maybe.  I think I like the term homestead.  Homesteads have kitchen gardens and flocks of chickens and cats sleeping on the porch.  Homesteads have small houses and clotheslines and casual flower gardens.  Yep, I think we're a homestead.

Here's some pictures that I snapped this afternoon while roaming around our little homestead.

Meow napping on the porch.

My hen & chicks plant I picked up at the farmer's market.

Natalie's Strawberries

Grape tomatoes just starting to set fruit.

T-Roy.  I think he's saying "You Tawkin to Me? Huh?"

Pippy our little peeper is getting big!

On of our Barred Plymouth Rock hens.  My favorite birds.

Tiger Lilies in bloom my friend Mary Jane

Mallow descended from Matt's Grandma's plants

Gaillardia (blanket flower) blossoms from Dennis

Natalie snuggling Rosie, Joey's bunny.

The fall of the T-Rex.  History according to Joey.

Chalk animals. Clockwise from top, sheep, turtle, cow, and your guess is as good as mine.
I do like the udders on the cow though.

And back around to the porch to find Papa Stray lounging.

Lots of photos to share tonight.  This is pretty much a lap around our backyard with the camera.  A fine little homestead indeed.

Some Thoughts on Finding Balance

After our afternoon of berry picking last week, there was quite a bit of jam to be made.  The next evening when I got home from work, I made a quick dinner and set to work.  The next day at work, my co-workers were all surprised that I could work until 6 pm, stop at the store on my way home and still get roughly a gallon of jam made.  

The purpose of this post is not to brag about how I'm such a fantastic domestic engineer that I can get home from my job set a colorful, delicious home cooked from scratch meal on the table, clean up, bathe children read them stories and have them tucked into bed just at the first stars come out.  In case you actually believe that, let me know.  You can be the president of my fan club.

The reality of making jam on a weeknight is this: my family ate frozen pizzas for dinner, Matt entertained the kids while I sanitized jars and got the ingredients all ready.  We tag teamed baths, settled them down in front of their favorite TV show and I got jam cooking.  We tucked the kids into bed in between batches, then I returned to the kitchen.  At around 10:30, I finished up and shut the lights off on what my dad refers to as a "jam session".

The moral of the story is this.  For everything you do, there is a trade off.  I chose to feed my family essentially a fast food dinner in order to make our year's worth of raspberry jam.  I can't stand store bought jelly any more.  It all tastes like melted candy to me.  This is the choice I made on that day.  In a perfect world, I would have a nice home cooked meal on the table for my family every night, I would never get behind on laundry or forget to pay a bill.  However, in the real world, sometimes we eat pizza or fish sticks so mom and dad can get whatever task completed in the short space of an evening (sometimes we just eat sandwiches and go fishing too).

I do things I feel are important for my family.  Clearly, homemade jam is not a priority for the majority of people, otherwise there wouldn't be 89 different kinds at the grocery store.  I prefer to make as many things as I can.  That's just me.  Maybe that's not you.  That's ok.  We all do the best we can.  I learn new techniques from others in my community and Pinterest, lots of Pinterest.  Sometimes they work out for us, sometimes they don't.  I don't sweat it.  Ok, sometimes I do, but I try not to.  I want my kids to have happy memories of their childhood like the smell of homemade jam, their dad teaching them how to run the garden tiller, our family taking our little boat out to see what's biting.  In order to do that, I stay up late when I have to, let them eat cereal for supper once in a while and occasionally go to daycare in their jammies.

As parents we make so many decisions every single day that it can get overwhelming.  We're all flying by the seat of our pants here.  If somebody tells you they have it all together and are on top of everything, they are either lying or drinking heavily, maybe both.

Berry Pickin'

On my day off last week, the kids and I made the trek up to visit my aunt & uncle.  They live about an hour north of us.  Not a long haul by any stretch, but long enough to require some planning when travelling with two small children.

The excuse reason for our visit was that raspberries are ripe and need picking.  I love picking berries and don't have to be too heavily persuaded to go.  It was worth  the trip.  We came home with an ice cream bucket full of berries and good moods from having spent a peaceful day up north.

The kids enjoy berry picking too.  Natalie takes her berry picking very seriously and can't wait to be big enough to get to stir the pot of boiling jam.  Joey on the other hand, seems to think of lots of other things he can do besides actually pick the berries and still be "helpful".  This time, he decided that he needed to hide in the lilac bush near the berry patch and hunt the berries for us.  That way, they'd hold still and we could pick them.  You know how quick those raspberries are.  They might just get away.  So, armed with a stick gun and one nice big raspberry leaf stuffed in each ear for earmuffs (those stick guns can get pretty loud), he shot down quite a few of those feisty canes so we could get their berries.  I just love kids and their imaginations.  Here's a few pictures of the kids on our berry picking adventure.

Natalie very seriously picking berries.

Joey preparing for battle with his huntin' earmuffs

Joey shooting berries for Natalie to pick.  Isn't he helpful?

Homemade Laundry Soap & Countertop Spray

It was a hot hot day here in the woods.  After our morning of outdoor chores, I retreated indoors to my air conditioning.  There is hardly ever a shortage of  things that need to be cleaned or otherwise set in order, so I stayed busy.  Or at least occupied.  It was a good time to refill my trusty all purpose spray cleaner and laundry soap supplies.  

These two handy products are my favorite things in my arsenal of weapons against grime.  I have nothing against buying laundry detergent or spray cleaner in the store.  I make my own because they are gentler on our clothes and skin, more earth friendly and very importantly, cheaper.  I didn't just wake up one morning and decide to make some kind of statement by "going green".  Making my some of own cleaning supplies was a way to trim some off our household expenses.  All the rest was just a bonus.

Now, I  make no claim of having invented these concoctions.  I found them on the Internet.  Somebody else invented them.  I use them faithfully though and felt they were worth mentioning.  Because I have that kind of time on my hands today and there must be a need for one more blog with a post about homemade cleaning supplies, right?

To make the spray, you will need a glass 2 cup measuring cup, measuring spoons, a clean spray bottle, white vinegar, borax and some nice smelling dish detergent.  I usually use natural liquid dish soap, so I substitute this in for the castile soap that the original recipe calls for.  I have nothing against castile soap.  It is not as hard to find as it once was.  However, for the price of a small bottle of castile soap, I could just go buy ready made all purpose spray cleaner.  A little bit of dish soap works nicely and is a fraction of the price.

Put 1 1/2 cups hot water in the measuring cup.

Add 3 Tbsp. vinegar & 1 1/2 tsp. borax.

Mix well to dissolve borax.

Pour into spray bottle.

Add 1/4 cup liquid dish soap.

Gently shake to mix.  Then add a bit more water to top off the spray bottle.

I use this on my dining room table, counters and stove top.  Works like a charm.  And it is pretty darn cheap to make, which is the main reason I started going this route anyway.

For the laundry soap you will need a big bowl, a fairly fine cheese grater, 1 cup measuring cup, baking soda, washing soda, borax, Zote (or Fels-Naptha or Kirk's castile soap), and oxy clean (optional), a long handled spoon and a big jar or bucket to store your soap in.

Start by mixing 2 cups each baking soda, washing soda and oxy clean (if using).

Add 3 cups borax and stir to combine.

Then you will grate what is about 2 cups of soap flakes.  This is approximately 1/2 bar of Zote.  The finer you grate your soap, the easier it dissolves in the washer.  It should look something roughly like the texture of shredded coconut. Add this to your powders and stir well to combine. Then just scoop it into a big jar with a lid. Use 2 Tbsp. per wash load.

*Safe for HE machines as it does not bubble at all.  In case you don't have and HE machine, do not be alarmed when you see that it produces no bubbles.  It's not supposed to.  

**The oxy clean is totally optional, but I like to add it in for summer time laundry.  Our clothes just get dirtier in the summer and I'm all for a little boost in the laundry.

Yes, I know the lid is off my jar.  I put it on after I took the picture.