What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it ... Dad

~~Author Unknown.~~

 Happy Fathers Day to you dad!

What day is it?

I woke to a loud booming thunderclap, my heart thumping and my head so dizzy and full of congestion...  The clock reads 9:26.  Is that morning?  Night?  The sky isn't indicative of either.  I am rubbing my temples now trying to figure out even what day it is but there's this anxious ache in the pit of my stomach.  The animals are quiet and that is shocking in itself.  Kids!  Ok there are two next to me in the bed but they are sleeping.  I drag myself out of bed and stumble.  The dizziness is extreme and I am having trouble walking.  One more kid is sleeping in the living room and two in their bedroom.  That makes 5.  Kids are accounted for.  Brian wouldn't be here either way.  He had part time at night and district in the morning.  Finally, i find my cell phone and look to see that it is Sunday morning.  I haven't slept this long in...well I can't remember when but it's been a long long time.  I must have an ear infection for me to be this dizzy and out of sorts.  That along with the sleep deprivation I've been dealing with lately.  Well, I'm going to lay here I guess, until the kids wake, and hope for a lazy Sunday.

Sheep!!.

It has been 153 days since my last post and much has transpired here at our little Honeysuckle Farm.  I guess the only way to really catch up is with photo evidence since that will more than likely speak for itself and save my fingers from all the typing.  (This may be my longest post yet!)

 During the winter there was an ice storm.  It coated the field with a thick enough layer to create the fastest most slippery sledding surface - EVER!  Fast enough to give my stomach the butterflies. 

Weeeeeeeee!!  Oh it was so great to feel like a kid again.  We were out until it was too dark to see anymore...

 Jocelyn had a superfun time.  My computer is telling me that superfun isn't a word but I'm telling you it was SUPERFUN!!

 My first purchase for the sheep adventure.  It's shiny and red and reminds me that it won't be long till there are little sheep out here in the barn!

 The kids love to ride on the tractor.  All of them.  At the same time.  And grandma loves every minute of it!

 Digging the post holes for the stalls we built in the barn.  Have to make sure they're straight.  Have to! (OCD!!)

 Tamp tamp tamp tamp...  After Brian and his mom took turns tamping the ground around the posts I put the finishing touches on top with my pink muck boots. 

  I don't think he was ready for this photo but here he is...  my sexy cowboy.

 Pounding t-posts.  Not so fun when it's 200 degrees out... 

 Jocelyn and Ani waiting on the horse trailer for us to decide which sheep to purchase.  Jocelyn... love that girl's style. 

 Ethan holding the girls so they don't decide to leave the trailer before we get the ram loaded.  From left to right: Molly, Butternut, and Willow. 

 This is Bobby John.  That has to be the most redneck hillbilly name ever but it's his and I guess I have to get used to it.  He has an unusually gentle loving personality.

 We returned, our pockets empty and our trailer full.  Everyone is excited to get them unloaded into their stalls. 

Gwen could not wait.  She had to peek through.  After being told how dangerous a ram is, miss smartypants decided that if she was elevated he couldn't charge at her

 Ethan is finally old enough to drive the tractor around.  He was beaming.  I think that just made his day.  Or his year. Or his life.

 Look at that straight line! 

 This is the day we never should have used the post hole digger.  Remember when you were a kid and you stomped in mud with your shoes or boots and they suctioned themselves somehow and you couldn't move your feet?  Like quicksand kind of?  Well...  our ground is made up of mostly clay and today it was very very wet...

 Someone, who will remain nameless, didn't listen to his mom and kept the auger rolling deeper and deeper into the ground where it inevitably suctioned itself into the ground.  Hmm... what do we do now...

 Well, we dig it out. 

 This hole was 3 1/2 feet wide and almost 4 feet deep.  The clay was thick and heavy and as we dug deeper it became the consistency of wet concrete.  Finally, we were able to lift it out - thank goodness!

 This is their makeshift pen until the property is completely fenced in

Brooklyn, Gwen's birthday present, is the dual purpose dog.  Gwen's sweet little puppy and future sheep herder.

Molly.  I love her color and can't wait to have some soft wooly socks... 

I think he may be smiling for this photo.  Funny!

Free to roam!  They are loving the freedom of grazing all over now. 

And since it is that time of year the garden has been planted.  I can't WAIT to gather the produce, eat it, and get the rest canned for the winter. 

Pretty bloom on my clematis

After a rain I took some photos.  If you look carefully you can see the water drip on the limb of my lavender.

One of my budding roses.  Oh I love the smell...

This one I experimented with some photo altering techniques.  I know nothing about photography but I do enjoy playing with it a little.  It's an enjoyable hobby, even for us amateurs. 

Columbine.  It's a delicate flower with a sweet smell.  I love the intricate detail.   

And that is about 4 months in a nutshell on our little city farm.  Now I'm going to walk out my front door, smell the honeysuckle in the air, and drink some coffee while the kiddos watch a cartoon inside.  Happy relaxing Saturday to you all!

Croup

 So...  we have been crouped up in the house now for 4 days.  Get it?  Crouped?  I've sprayed Lysol and watched it mist through the house like the angel of death, wishing I could hear the little germs scream as they are annihilated but my efforts so far have proved to be ineffective.  I'm hoping they are well tomorrow.  Until then I am a cleaning maniac.

In other news:

• The search for small livestock and sheep is underway!  I can hardly contain my excitement.  This has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember!
• I made it through the first week of the second semester of school.  Classes I'm taking are Interpersonal Relations, Psychology, Spanish, and ... Math.  I despise Math.
• Ani is afraid of bubbles in her bath.  Alaina was giving her a bath and brought me in to find her screaming and clinging to the wall like a spider monkey, so I had to take a picture.  The quality isn't the best since I took it with my phone but here she is!

 

Time to start cookin.  Lunch: Chicken stir-fry with rice noodles.  The Bears play in about an hour and I don't want to miss kickoff!

 

The Monster

There's this pile.  It resides in my basement, the unfinished part of the house that contains a storage area with a few pieces of furniture, some dusty boxes of old high school trophies, awards, and my sacred letter jacket.  Also, since it's sort of a nice big area, the kid's school area and desk units, my creative corner and library, and....  the pile.  It grows daily, the slobbering angry mutant, and despite my desperate efforts it can not be tamed!  I try hard to work at it everyday but with small children it's so hard to get away for even a few minutes.

So... temporarily, I have given up.  It's against everything I believe in, but the monster has taken over and I have unfortunately succumbed to the demise of my self sufficiency...

I've contemplated using a laundromat but in fear of becoming the laughing stock of the place, with my van crammed packed full to the ceiling with clothes, I've permanently removed it from the list of options.  Well there's not really a list.  My only actual hope is winning the lottery so I can afford Merry Maids, if they even do laundry... or anyone who does laundry...   Does anyone out there do laundry?  Because I need you.

New Year's Resolutions

Slacker: Someone who puts off doing things to the last minute, and when the last minutes comes, decides it wasn't all that important anyways and forgets about it.  (Urban Dictionary)

Yes, I am a slacker but let me tell you it's not by choice.  Usually by the end of the day when the kids are asleep I sit down to write, take a deep breath, and lay my head back for just a minute....  only to wake up an hour later.  How does that happen?!  I mean I used to pull all-nighters and go for weeks on very little sleep.  During the Ball State years Brian and I would sit in the dorm living room area and talk all night, go to our rooms, then wake an hour later for an 8:00 class.  Seems like just yesterday...  I can't believe it's been 13 1/2 years since we met!  Could it be I am getting old?  Nah.

I publicly declared my devotion to this blog and it's been over a week since my last post.  So, after much consideration, and being the first month of the year and all, I have evaluated my life and decided on a short list of goals for the year 2011:

1. To be more consistent as: a student, an educator, a homemaker, an employee, and a parent.
2. To obtain some sort of time management skills, because I have none, which will make it much easier to accomplish #1.
3. To be slow to anger
4. To enjoy the new beginning Brian and I have in our marriage and keep working at it.
5. To read my Bible everyday  

Cheers to the new year!

Football Sunday

 This is Brian.  He loves: dogs, animals, football, cooking, being a cop, the kids, beer, and ME.  It's football Sunday and this is how it goes...  Brian and I start loading up the oven and crock pots with lots of good comfort food, good tunes playing in the background of course.  Kids clean up the house to get ready for game time and play some of their crazy weird made-up games while the dogs are fed and perfumed - because I can't stand the dog smell.  Then, it's relax time with food and football.  This is how Brian prefers to relax. 

 Sometimes the dog doesn't want to relax.

 He wants to wrestle.  (Notice my semi-naked child in the background).  I do try to keep clothes on her but she refuses most of the time.  Luckily, in this photo she still has on a pullup...

 Gunny taps out!  Brian wins holding him in a headlock.  Game over.

 They are inseparable lately.  She sits on the top of the chair and slides down on Ethan, over and over and over again.  He doesn't seem to mind. 

 But sometimes she falls, and being the tough cookie she is there are no tears.  That's my girl!

Farewell 2010

Farewell to you, the year 2010!  You have been the most bittersweet and undeniably eventful year in the history of my life...  

January 15, 2010:  I began the life of the working, single mom of five kids in my new apartment.  Took kids out of their school and transferred to another.  Food stamps and medicaid here I come...

February - May: I learned more about myself in these few months than I had ever known my entire life.  My sixth and final surgery, a complete hysterectomy, is performed and the slow process of recovery begins.  I applied for school at Ivy Tech and discovered that none of my credits from 5 years at Ball State University will transfer since it has been 11 years and they don't accept them past 10.  Bummer...  Kids are adjusting to our new life.  Ethan is depressed and his grades, once A's and B's, are now D's

June: I received enough grant money to cover my schooling and some extra for living expenses.  Yay!  Kids are glad to be out of school.  Running every night and working out at the gym are doing great things for my high stress levels.  I'm feeling better physically and emotionally than ever before. 

July - August:  The decision to begin homeschooling again after a year at public schools is made.  (Super excited about that!)  And sometime during this time period, Brian convinced me that things were different and bought me the Love Dare book and the movie Fireproof.  I (hesitantly) agreed to go through it with him even though I was convinced I was content with how things were and it would never work.

September: We begin spending time together other than dropping off or picking up the kids.

October - November:  Slowly things were moved back into the house from the apartment.  We buy a new vehicle and start fixing up the house a little.  I am no longer staying at the apartment.  Things are good.  Kids are happy.  Miracles do happen!   

December: Last payment to apartment was made and it is no longer mine.  Our life together is officially resumed!  Only finally, it is healthy and wonderful.

Sushi Night

 The last few days of year 2010 were suprisingly warmer than it has been for a few months now.  A welcomed break from the snowy cold.  All kids were ordered outside, to play and burn off some of their energy from being cooped up in the house all week.  Colds and fevers swept through the house, holding hostage everyone but myself and Alaina.  The smell of Vick's vapor rub still lingers in the air...  Since little wheezy Ani was still oozing green snot she was willingly carried in her "pack pack", a Didymos wrap that is worth it's weight in gold when you have more than one child! 

 Gwen, lover of life and beauty and nature, found her most rare treasure of the season when she saw, beneath the withered grass and soggy dead leaves, a speck of color.  She dug fervently, uncovering a fresh new dandelion and ran like the wind to show me.  I wish the photo of her face  had turned out.  Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks were flushed from excitement... 

 We ended the night with make-your-own-sushi.  I cut up cucumbers, little strips of cheese, smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese, spicy salmon, and some black and red lumpfish caviar, to be wrapped in sheets of seaweed.  Then I made my sticky rice in the rice cooker.  I like to add a little more than the usual amount of rice vinegar and a few sprinkles of cane sugar.  The hint of sweetness is appealing to the kids but not overpowering.  Everyone was able to put whatever they wanted inside and ate it up!  

 Ethan discovered he loves salmon, Alaina even enjoyed it and she is my most picky eater, and Ani was content to eat the sheet of seaweed and a baseball sized sticky rice ball.  I love that they enjoy such a wide variety of food!