Saying Goodbye

So...we've got a lot going on and there is a lot going on in my head these days.  The main thing is we traveled to my parents' farm this weekend (don't tell my doctor!) to watch the demolition of my childhood home on Saturday. 

 

I have words about this that I want to say but I want the writing to be decent and not rushed because I am on pins and needles waiting for interruptions by kids (already happened once in the first five minutes of being on the computer) so I am just sharing a few pictures and a general summary of the day. 

 

This has been planned for several years and the new house that is behind the old house has been finished for more than a year so there has been plenty of time to process and go through the emotions of it but it was still a very strange thing to behold.  In the early morning hour before the demolition started the familiar morning light really impacted me and I hope I never forget it.  My brother said it didn't sink in for him until he listened to the sound of the leaves rustling outside his window for the last time.  But we took it in for the final time and walked out the door. 

 

The demolition started kind of slow because, as you can see, there was a brick chimney that ran from the basement to the attic.  The contractor was worried that the four story chimney could cause debris to tip back toward the new house and also it could have caused him injury so my dad and Justin helped him pull it down by putting a chain around it in the basement, which only collapsed the basement portion and then on the second floor, which involved pounding a hole in my bedroom wall (gulp) and finally collapsing it in the attic.  There was a moment where my dad was in that third floor window after the pillar had been knocked away by the chain which was quite unsettling but the job was done and the chimney crumbled. Then the action really started. 

First he took off the sun/mud room my dad added in 2001, which ripped away in seconds then he got to the main event, which, of course, had to start with my room. It wasn't bad.  It was kind of fascinating.  We had salvaged doors and woodwork and flooring and other oddities but it was still weird to see familiar things in a completely different context.  By the end of the day the majority of the house was hauled away to a giant pile in a field and just the basement was exposed, including the old cistern which I never really understood.  I always imagined a tank of some sort but it was just like a big empty concrete swimming pool on one side of the basement that had been behind a mysterious wall.  I'm glad we never had to drink water that came from a big pool in that basement.  On Sunday the excavator revealed a creepy old staircase which was, of course, the old exterior cellar entrance which my dad remembered from his childhood.  Also, an old postcard from 1908 fluttered out in the debris.  It was to one of the pre-1955 occupants from their cousin and it featured the Harvey, ND school building.  Pretty crazy. 

Now we are back at home and I am counting down the days until I am not pregnant anymore and the big question will be answered.  Is it a boy or a girl??  I am still tired and irritated by daily annoyances and lack of time to do anything or clean anything.  Last night we were outside talking to the neighbors and our next door neighbor offered me some sweet corn that her mom had brought from their farm.  I was still talking and Ben wanted to go in so I told him to just go in already!  He was carrying corn with him that he had removed from the bag and when I went in I was greeted by this scene.

 

Wonderful.  FYI, Tessa was with me the whole time.  She was not inside unattended.  He meant well and thought he was helping, but still it was a mess.  Corn silk is a real pain to clean up.  There is, as usual, crap everywhere which I have come to terms with but it is kind of stressing me out as I think about trying to fit a baby and all of it's crap around what is already here. 

 

This morning I started feeling overwhelmed by what has to be figured out and organized and taken out of storage before the baby comes so I did one small thing and took out the newborn box from Tessa's closet.  Disclaimer:  This box contains girl newborn items but it does NOT mean it's a girl!  It was just the most accessible box.  The newborn boy things are in a different box and who knows where that is.  It would almost be easier to just buy a new sleeper and one outfit and leave it at that!  Ben was really cute.  He held up all the tiny clothes and fussed over them just like I did. 

 

Tessa wore that home from the hospital...awwwwwww!

 

This afternoon Ben was really bored so I entertained him by getting out the Halloween decorations. 

 

I got these orange lights from the farm.  There is a second string that we hung in Ben's window.  He really enjoyed it.  After everything was in place he kept saying, "now what should we decorate?"  He will really love Christmas this year. 

 

Here is a nice table vignette.  Ben has already removed those miniature apples and pears from the vase and is carrying them around the house.  I haven't displayed those for years because they are not kid friendly but he got to them in the box before I did.

 

Here is my favorite Halloween picture of baby Ben!  I love his skeptical expression!

It's Bruce's Birthday!

I saw some interesting news this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning.  Sunday morning is the network TV morning show on network TV that doesn't involve political talk and people arguing and yelling at each other.  What I saw on the little segment where they have a celebrity birthday calendar for each day of the week was that Bruce Springsteen's 66th birthday was approaching this week.  I decided that I was going to post about that since a few weeks ago I saw a replay of the concert that started my interest in Bruce Springsteen back in 2001.  I even bought the the two disk cd set for that concert. 

Well, it's already Wednesday and I haven't put anything on here since the middle of last week.  The reason is that I am so blasted tired that I can barely make it through each day.  I have been by myself since Sunday because Justin is in Fargo for work. It is so bad that yesterday and Monday I fell asleep sitting up on the couch in the middle of the afternoon.  Two days in a row, I feel asleep in the middle of the day sitting up on the couch.  For those of you who really know me, you know that this is not like me at all.  Yesterday was really bad.  I yawned until tears ran down my face and probably shouldn't have been driving a motorized vehicle.  And of course, toddlers don't care and they would...not...leave...me...alone.  Ben would not let me sit for more than 30 seconds at a time.  No TV show or movie would hold his attention.  He only wanted me, sitting on the floor playing (ouch my tailbone!) and reporting with him to the bathroom every time he had to go even though he does not need my help for routine trips. I tried to sneak in a nap with him while he watched Curious George and he caught me and said, "Mama, you can't close your eyes, you have to see me!"  Ugh. I was tempted to drive up to a day care center and tell them I would pay anything they wanted just to take them for the day.  As a result, I spent all day not being very happy and prepared downright crappy food for them to eat because I couldn't face doing anything more and then felt like a failure so after my 20 minute couch nap I decided to take them somewhere out of the house because being there just made me want to sleep so I looked it up and saw that the zoo is still on summer hours for the week and we are members so we headed there for the evening. 

We got there around 5:45 and it closes at 7:00 so I knew the place would not be busy at all.  It turned out to be so empty that it was a bit unsettling.  The only people we saw the whole time we were there were the two teens working at the gift shop and ticket window and an odd single dude walking around the place.  There were no employees or anyone else in sight.  The concession stands and tour trains have been closed for the season.  Also, some of the animals, mostly the ones that live in outdoor water habitats, had been put away for the winter.  The otters, Ben's favorites, were already put indoors so I had to distract him quickly with something else.  The other animals were pretty active, actually.  We saw two leopards frolicking and roughhousing with each other like kittens and the tigers came right up to the windows, licking their lips of course. 

So, yes, this pregnancy is starting to take it's toll on me and everyone else as a result.  Often, when I sit and look around at my surroundings I think that I could go into labor at any moment and that would mean that a neighbor or friend would have to come over here and see this place as it is on a daily basis.  And that would be embarrassing.  It's so bad. 

In addition to my everyday discomfort and exhaustion, I have to see this crap going on nonstop:

This was taken last night but some version of it goes on for 80% of every day.  He's laying in the sun in this very spot right now.  Go ahead, Allan, mock me some more.  You get 18 hours of sleep every day, I know.  Good for you. 

So anyway, today is Bruce's birthday.  I remember watching that 2001 concert on HBO with my mom and brother and sister one night back on the farm.  It was probably a Wednesday night because that was the one night that school activities had to end by 5 p.m. out of respect for families who did religious activities that night (we did often do religious activities that night, such as confirmation and church during Lent) and also my dad was not home on Wednesday usually although I don't remember why.  Maybe that was his bowling night or something.  Anyway, 2001 was as prime year for the pop singers of the time, and news had recently surfaced that Britney Spears did indeed lip sync at her live concerts.  Her people admitted that, yes, she did but only because her high energy dancing made it impossible for her to sing and the dancing was an important part of her entertainment value.  I remember watching Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing that concert, which is three hours long, running all over the stage and dripping with sweat and I knew that having a high energy performance was no excuse for not actually singing at a live concert.  I remember saying something about how he sure was intense for someone who was, "like, 50 years old!" which I'm sure my mom rolled her eyes at.  My point here is that I, unlike many of my teenage peers at that time, suddenly knew that there was music that was a whole different level than much of the crap that was played on the radio nonstop. Although, "Summer Girls" by LFO still has a special place in my heart!  And that, in addition to my dad's Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits cd that we listened to on long car trips, was what inspired my Bruce fandom.  As luck would have it, Napster and file sharing came along that year which allowed me to hear a lot of music that I would not have heard otherwise which is still pretty important to me. 

So now he is 66, and that would make me...32.  Hopefully he keeps going for a long time so I can see a concert one of these years. 

Farming with Ben

A new routine has formed around here.  After Tessa goes to her room for her nap after lunch, I try to distract Ben with Netflix and TV shows for as long as possible so I can be productive and/or hit the couch to watch something of my own choosing.  Often I try to combine these two activities and sit and fold laundry or work on the computer while watching the show.  However, this usually only lasts for about an hour before he comes running own the hall, bored with TV and wanting my attention.  He usually asks, "Mama, you want to do farming with me?" and heads over to the farm toys like I wouldn't possibly want to do anything else.  Although I want to ask him in return, "you want to do reruns of 'Sex and the City' or last week's episode of 'Project Runway' with me?" I of course go to the table and play with him and usually end up sitting there for 45 minutes to an hour playing with tractors.  He has some dried corn seed that he enjoys playing with too, which can cause a huge mess but oh well. 

 

He keeps a constant monologue about what his tractors and implements are doing and constantly moves the corn around.  If I start to put my attention elsewhere, such as a mail order catalogue or my phone, he pulls me back by telling me to choose a tractor or help him hook a grain cart of cultivator up to an appropriate machine. 





The wine rack is right by the table and he figured out that the plastic wine glasses that I have hanging on it instead of glass ones look kind of like hopper bottom grain bins so now those are always laying around too.  This place is downright disorderly. 



On this day he combined farming with play dough, which involved me making many little tiny cubes that he loaded into his machinery. 

He went to Big Iron today with Justin.  If you didn't know, Big Iron is a large ag show.  I've never been to it myself, although my dad goes most years.  I think there is a lot of machinery on display and demonstrations and lots of booths where various agriculture companies promote their businesses.  I guess they didn't take any pictures but that's OK.  I've had a nice afternoon off from "doing farming" although I know I will miss these days when he doesn't want to play with me anymore!

A Few of My Favorite Things: Trees Bowl and Book Orders!

The months continue to fly by, and football season is here again.  I won't be making it to every home game this year, and the ones I will be attending will probably not be very fun, let's be honest.  Saturday's game could have been better and it could have been worse.  The only way bringing the kids is tolerable is because we have family members there also.  I could never do it alone.  The weather was really warm and absent of blasting winds, which was good.  The prime game and tailgating hours are during afternoon naptime, those hours in the routine that usually give a much needed break but also make life feel like a prison on certain days, which was bad.

There was no question that Tessa looked very cut in her new NDSU dress and headband. 

 

Ben's cousins came to their first game.  He loves them and they love him so it was fun.  

 

They ended up sitting up in the high seats with me for the game and they don't know much about football so they asked me a lot of questions.  I tried to explain football, which I have a hard time doing since I recently started understanding it these last few years so now they probably know even less about football.  Sorry guys!

 

I tried to get Tessa to nap by pushing her around with ear protection on to muffle the commotion of the tailgating lot.  It didn't work very well as you can see. 

 

She eventually drifted off but I woke her up once we were in the game.  Then she spent the entire first half trying to climb the railing in front of us.  That was fun.  The second half Ben sat up with me and the cousins and spent a lot of time trying to eat peanut shells off the floor. 

 

I didn't even realize it, but the game was my favorite of the year...the Trees Bowl!  The North Dakota Forest Service gives an award to a community that has done great things in advancing the planting of trees around the state (a few years ago my hometown won!) and at the end of the game they give away little saplings.  Every year I plant my baby trees in a pot, with varying degrees of success.  Since our houses never seem to have the space for a tree I always intend to plant them at my parents' farm but it so far has never happened although a few have survived in pots for quite awhile.  Here is a picture of my trees from 2009.  This is the first day Allan lived with us and he treated them like cat toys. 

 

 

He made himself at home in no time!  In about a month it will be his six year anniversary with us! 

 

This year my mom took all of our trees home with her and, much to my surprise, planted them right away in a box so they can be transplanted in a few weeks after our old farmhouse is demolished. 

 

 

They sure are cute!   I hope some of them make it.  There are no oak trees at the farm so it would be fun to enjoy them.  Well, maybe the kids will enjoy them in their lifetime. 

After an eventful weekend Ben headed back to school this morning and I was surprised and excited to find that he had his first Scholastic book order!  More experienced parents warn me I won't always be excited to see these, but I remember how fun they were when I was a child and I was still ordering from them in middle school. 

 

I, of course, never paid attention to what the books cost when I was the one picking them out as a child but after a quick scan it appears that they are quite a bargain.  I hope the cousins are excited to get books for Christmas this year!  Hehe. 

The Final Countdown

I haven't talked much about my pregnancy this time around.  I think this is because nothing is new about it anymore and I am occupied with other crap all the time.  But here I am with about one month left (the doctor's due date is October 6th, I think it is more like the 10th).  The heat of summer has hopefully passed after a very hot week last week and temperatures in the 70s feel fabulous.  I am getting large and bursting out of many maternity shirts.  The truly tent-like garments in my collection are suited for cooler weather so hopefully I can use those at least a few times in the next month.  At my last appointment I was measuring 37 weeks at 35 weeks (still 34 based on my own calculations) which is bigger than ever before.  Hopefully the weeks will go fast (but not too fast because we still haven't retrieved our bassinette from my cousin who borrowed it last year, we need to dig out the newborn boxes and carseat and we don't exactly know who is sleeping in which room or riding in which spot in which car.  Oh, and also we don't have names picked out).

Ben talks about the baby often although it has been going on so long that the whole idea is probably abstract to him.  He's probably doubting that this baby actually exists! 

He had his third day of preschool this morning and was pretty happy when I picked him up.  He is still talking about that wedge!  Also, they had apples for a snack today and read a book about pumpkins.  According to the schedule, they are covering the letter A this week but he didn't say anything about that.  He knows A well, as in "A for Al!!!" 

Tessa does not get very upset when we drop him off like I thought she would, although she seems kind of out of sorts without him when we go about our morning activities.  She talks about "brother's seat" in the car and that sort of thing.  She won't have to wait long to have company again, whether she likes it or not! 

Here is a video I took of her this morning to give this post a lift since it's quite forgettable otherwise.  Tessa likes to play in the whirlpool tub (at least the kids and the cat like to play in there, since we never use it).  She uses the slanted end as a slide. 

First Day of School!

School sure has changed over the years.  When my parents were in elementary school in the 1960's they didn't even have kindergarten.  School started when you went to first grade at the age of 6 or 7.  When I went to preschool in 1980-whatever, probably 87, it was standard to go to a very part time program for one year before kindergarten and kindergarten was only part time.  Now kindergarten is all day, every day in this state so preschool is more important than ever for preparing for such a big step into elementary school.  Now that Ben is three (before the date of July 15 or 31st or whatever the cutoff is) he was off to his first day of preschool this morning.  I have been excited for this day for a long time because I have seen how he likes going to the various group activities he attends, although they do not have the structure of preschool.  He has been talking about wanting to go to school since last winter so he was excited for this morning, although he really wants to ride the school bus and he will have to wait longer for that excitement!

 

I had thought he would wear a new plaid shirt but, in the grand tradition of first days of school, the high temperature is forecast to be near 100 degrees today so I went with a t-shirt instead.  I enjoyed the fact that I still get to pick what he wears.  I know one of these days he will start to protest what I choose and want to decide on his own.  Or...if he is anything like Justin, my dad, my brother, and most of the boys I knew as a child, maybe he won't.   

 

 

I wanted to get a cute picture of them together, but that didn't work. 

I knew I had a few first day of school photos of myself scanned somewhere but I can't see the dates on these so I don't know. 

I am guessing this one is preschool but I don't know.  I can't imagine why my sister would be dressed up too so maybe I'm wrong and this is for some kind of church function.  Nice work on the design and arrangement of those shelves behind us Mother...that pitcher and that book look really minimalist. 

 

I am quite certain this photo is my first day of kindergarten.  I loved that dress.  If you search "girl's clothing" on google you will find many outraged articles and blog posts about how sexist and gender stereotype-y little girl clothes are these days and I mostly agree (have you seen that store called "Justice"?) but my "Gossip Team" outfit here shows that girls were being placed in those roles even in the 80's almost thirty years ago!  With the excepton of some really bad t-shirts, like the beauty below that diminish the intelligence of females,  and garments that look like they are for women in their 20s to wear to night clubs, I don't really care if a girl gravitates toward certain colors and characters.  Choosing clothes is a pleasure in life and it doesn't have to be a big thing. 

 

 

And I would have been crazy to let my brother and his terrible penmanship anywhere near my homework even if he would take the time away from looking at baseball stats and watching obscure sporting events on ESPN3 to do such a thing.

 

When we got to school Ben was excited to go in and play with a certain toy he had played with during the orientation visit.  It is some kind of truck with a conveyor belt on it that makes it shaped like a wedge.  Ben knows about wedges from the TV show "Blaze and the Monster Machines" which is about a crew of monster trucks who give subtle lessons about science and physics during the episodes.  I took his picture by his coat hook. 

 

 

He looks very worried but I think he was just confused. 

 

They had a little photo backdrop set up in the hallway that we missed on the way in and he didn't want to leave the room to go out there.  That is why he looks a bit out of sorts here.  I think he wanted to find the "wedge". 

 

Don't worry, we turned his nametag right side up.  There is another boy with the same name so he gets to be a "last initial" kid, like so many of the Jessicas and Michaels of my day. 

When I picked him up he didn't have much to say.  He said he spilled his milk which must have been during snack time and it must not have been too catastrophic because his shirt is clean.  I asked if he played outside, sang songs and colored and he said "yes" to all of it and when we were eating lunch he said, out of the blue, "we don't color on toys" (yikes, I hope he wasn't the one doing that!) and also he has been spouting a teacher-ism about lights out and settling down.  Ah, the old light switch trick. When I asked him what his favorite part of school was he said, "playing with the weeeeeeedge".  Hmmm, OK.  Not what I expected but OK. 

I can't believe I have entered the "school age" years, even if it is just three year old preschool.  I just read through the handbook and was reminded of my school days when the whole school would sit in the gym on the first day for "assembly" and listen to the principal read the handbook to us in his booming voice.  The major points included not parking cars on the lawn and not "rigging" the lockers by sticking a pencil in the lock mechanism to avoid having to enter the padlock combination every time.  I never wanted to do this but many people did and theft wasn't a huge problem.  Eventually, the principal got so tired of problems caused by this practice that he said we could ask the custodians to do it for us the right way, whatever that was.  Also, the handbook discussed dress code but by my senior year in 2001 it hadn't been updated for quite awhile and the major dress code issue was "Co-Ed Naked" t-shirts, which peaked in popularity in the mid 1990s.  We always used to giggle about that because by 2001 those shirts were long gone.


Ummmm...eeew?  And the administrators of today think they have a problem because girls wear leggings! 

Hello, MT!

Last weekend we took a road trip.  We went to Western Montana!  Missoula, MT specifically.  We were going to a college football game.  I have been to Montana many times but I have never been to Missoula and I have also never been to the mountains of Montana in the summer, at least not in my post elementary school memory.  So, even though I am 34 weeks pregnant and some people might be horrified at the idea of travelling, I went ahead and travelled although I was nervous.  I wasn't worried about going into labor early (yeah right!) but I was worried about being uncomfortable in the vehicle on the long drive and having to make everyone else stop for bathroom breaks every 45 minutes.  I've had more enjoyable road trips but it was OK. 

If you have watched the national news lately, you have seen that there are now wildfires burning in the United States and not just Canada like earlier this summer.  Some were burning in northern Montana and many are burning in Idaho.  Looking at the atlas, I realized just how close Missoula is to Idaho. The smoke is in North Dakota and got thicker as we entered Montana and drove west.  By the time we approached the Rocky Mountains we couldn't even see the mountains.  So we didn't see any mountains.  The smoke was very thick in Missoula and you could smell burning in the air.  This is what Missoula looks like: 





Where you see that "M" on the side of the hill is right above the University.  We could see that hill but that's about it.  I'm not exactly sure how close the fires were but I don't think I have ever been that close.  It made the smoke plume from earlier this summer look like nothing.  It would be terrifying to be in the path of that. 

Missoula was a fun city with a vibrant downtown area.  We were looking for a place to eat the evening we arrived and saw the corner of this banner inviting us into the foyer of this place so we had to patronize. 

 

This is the point in pregnancy where I cringe to see photos of myself.  If it's not the wideness and ill fitting clothes it is the puffy face and expanding chin area as exhibited below.

 

The day of the game was my first time wearing my loathed maternity jeans that don't stay up.  It's been too hot so I have not worn any full length pants yet but I just couldn't bring myself to wear yoga pants to the game.  I regretted the decision as soon as I walked to the car from the hotel room and had to hold the pants up as I walked.  Oh, I can't wait to wear zippers and buttons again. 

There were quite a few fans at this game.  Usually visiting fans don't get a parking lot to tailgate in.  They just get a tent next to the home tailgating area. 

Of course, the toilet situation was lacking and there were only three portas for the whole lot.  Fortunately, some enterprising and desperate beer swiller figured out how to get into the nearby campus building by hitting the handicap door opener which opened the door even though they were locked.  Hehehe.  What followed was a parade of hundreds of people coming in and out of that building to use the bathroom.  I'm sure the custodians are baffled today to find empty toilet paper rolls and full garbage cans in the bathroom they left clean on Friday. 

Walking through a campus, even while holding up my pants, is always a thrill for me and makes me nostalgic even if it not where I went to school.  The mix of old and new buildings, landscaping and green lawns are so beautiful.  We passed this building, and some people used the bathroom in it, and I was intrigued by the little pine trees on it.  It is the forestry building and probably one of the oldest buildings on the campus if the original wavy glassed windows are any indication. 

 

I wish I had gone into use the bathroom too!

 

Little trees!

 

The game was OK but we lost...we lost when Montana earned a touchdown with two seconds left on the clock.  It was pretty awkward because the night before all the Montana fans we met around town said that we would probably win because they weren't that good.  Eeeehhhh...During the game the smoke got really thick and we could even see little pieces of ash falling.  Yikes. 

 

Meanwhile back at home the kids were enjoying the weekend with their grandparents.  Justin's mom took Ben to his first movie on Friday!

They went to an afternoon matinee and since school started last week afternoons at animated movies are destined to be slower but they ended up being the only ones in the theater!  They saw Minions and Ben was a good boy and stayed quiet and in his seat the whole movie.  He's such a big boy. 

Here is Ben and Miss Fuzzy Head in their game day clothes.  So cute. 

OK, I have to go on Pinterest and look at skinny people wearing cute outfits to motivate me to face the next six weeks of whale-dom that lay before me. 





Never mind...that's NOT HELPING!

The Garden: The Good, the Bad and the Scary

We were gone all weekend since Thursday so I knew the garden would be out of control when I visited this morning.  I knew there would be an excess of tomatoes and probably zucchini and who knows what else.  The most fabulous pick so far this year is this red pepper. 

This thing was huge.  I say it was...it is now diced into little pieces in some Texas caviar.  It was much bigger than ones from stores.  You can get an idea from that stem!  It was almost hard to cut it because I was so proud of it!  Through the years bell peppers have not ben the most successful crop of ours and I was watching this one on the plant until it was perfectly ripe. 

 

The one cherry tomato plant is really producing.  They are more than I can eat.  I gave a bag to our neighbor last week and whenever we visit anyone they get a bag too.  This bag is all from today:

 

 

Remember, I am the only one in the house that eats these.  In a few weeks I will be ready for the frost to come and end the tomato season although hopefully it will be more than a few weeks before that happens!  The kids want to play with them, especially Tessa, because they look like balls of course but they don't eat them.  I'm not worried about that.  They are kind of hard for little kids to eat because of their skins. 

 

We have four tomato plants total, and I already shared disappointing results from the large yellow plant.  There is also a plant that produces large and red "beefsteak" tomatoes.  When I left on Wednesday they were all green.  Now they are all red and to say they look unappetizing would be an understatement:

 

I don't know what is happening here.  Clearly there is some sort of disease but also I don't know what is causing the strange shapes and that one is multicolored.  In addition, I discovered the whole plant was uprooted and half tipped over in its cage because yesterday there were really intense winds.  The wind has been very hard on the garden this year.  There have been a few windstorms this year unlike any from past summers.  I tried to put it back in the ground but who knows if it will work!  Tomato plants get really tall and heavy this time of year!

In other news, Ben starts preschool next Wednesday.  You will see pictures and hear more about that when it happens but this morning was the orientation so we went to meet the teacher and see the classroom.  Ben played with his new classmates and we submitted paperwork.  Tessa was quite interested in preschool too and neither of them wanted to leave.  Too bad she will have to wait amost a whole year after her third birthday before she can start.

 Of course, Ben had a minor head injury like he does 50% of the time so I felt bad.  Last night he fell of a kitchen stool and hit a chair on the way down and instantly formed a huge purple bump on his forehead.  We applied ice and fortunately by this morning it was not very noticeable.  I don't know how because it was huge and discolored last night.  That kid is crazy.  It's not a matter of if he ends up with stitches but when. 

The Earth Has Yielded it's Produce

We've been doing a lot of farming this month, so once again this post is about farming and harvest.  Here is Ben in Justin's bean field on July 31.

 

Here he is in the same field this weekend!

 

When I saw this picture I said, "don't lose him!" Those are pretty tall.  I always remember wheat being the tall crop but actually soy beans are taller. 

 

For example, here are the kids this weekend in a wheat field where combining was in progress.  Golden wheat makes a lovely setting for photos...if the people in the photos want to be in the wheat.  I had some big ideas for these pictures.  I imagined these would be lovely, with the golden wheat and the golden blond hair perfectly complementing each other. 

 

 

However, the blinding sun and very scratchy wheat did not make agreeable kids.  Tessa's raised arms mean "get me out of here!"  Also, it was 100 degrees outside. 

 

Oh well, this is real life. 

 

It was recently my brother's and sister's kids' birthdays.  They were born three days apart in August so we celebrated their birthdays this weekend.  We tried to get some good group pictures of the cousins together but with three one year olds involved we just did our best. 

 

 

There was a tractor driving back there!  That furry mass in the corner is the dog. 

 

This one's pretty good!

 

The bounty of harvest has come to our garden also.  The tomatoes in this bowl were all picked this morning. 

 

Time to eat some salads and omelets! 

Summertime Blues

I think everyone knows the song "Summertime Blues".  I first heard it coming from the radio in Alan Jackson's appealing country voice in the 90's and it has been used in many soundtracks and commercials and covered so many times.  I just researched it and learned that the original version was recorded by Eddie Cochran in 1958, which means that my grandparents heard it coming out of their radios while they tended to my parents as infants that summer.  I wonder if, as my grandmothers were bleaching cloth diapers and washing dish after dish by hand, they listened to the lyrics and thought, as I do now, "Oh, I feel sooooo bad for this guy...his girlfriend had to wait for their date until his shift at work ended!  And then he had to listen to a lecture from his dad before he gets to have fun! Must be soooo hard!"

My version at the moment would entail raising a fuss and a holler about spending all summer trying to stop my daughter from dumping bubble solution and a box of 50 pieces of sidewalk chalk all over the driveway every day, only getting to enjoy my patio set in 30 second increments while my kids try to dig holes in my plants and throw dirt and rocks everywhere, having to pee really bad at the park but not being able to go because all they have is an outhouse and myself and two kids don't fit in there, and counting down how many more times I will have to wear my maternity swimming suit in public.  Oh, and really craving beer and not getting to have any.  I tried to make it rhyme but my brain is too slow.  Sorry. 



This week is forecast to be the hottest of the summer so far, and today is the hottest day of the week.  I used to love days like these, just as I loved many days that epitomize each season.  This was probably because my life in general resembled a beer commercial, with summer bringing late night bar hopping on foot in the balmy heat, long days at the swimming pool (working, but still...I was in a swimming suit) and drinks on restaurant patios while various beer and liquor promoters made the rounds leaving everyone with obnoxious freebie gifts like beads, t-shirts and blinking lapel pins.  At least, even if I wasn't out living it up, I was able just sit outside with a book or magazine and feel the heat sometimes. 

In the spirit of honesty, and NOT complaining, because these statements can seem like complaining, I am going to acknowledge that summer with toddlers isn't that great.  And I love summer and hot weather.  With little kids, everything is just a big pain.  We all know that the old days our grandparents lived are gone, and I cannot do as my dad's mom did and send him out to roam around the farm under the supervision of his 4 year old brother.  And the women of past generations generally were surrounded by family members (between my grandmothers they had a total of ten sisters and probably as many sisters in law and cousins in close enough proximity that they probably socialized with another adult woman every day) so they had an easier time entertaining and managing kids.. 

Sure, since Tessa is sleeping right now, I could bring Ben out in the backyard, sit on a patio chair and read a book while he played.  After sitting for 20 seconds he would be pulling on my arm wanting me to get up and get something or see something.  Or he would be ignoring the water table or activity I just set up to play in the pile of dirt that washed out from the wall earlier this summer.  And soon he would figure out how to transfer water from the table to the pile to make mud and then he would make a huge damn mess.  I don't remember if I shared pictures on here but I let this happen once.  It was cute that one time, but it ended with a bath at 4 pm and mud handprints all over the glass door and footprints in the kitchen and I practically had to shovel out the bathtub after his bath.  So cleaning it up probably took as long as he was playing. 



Oh, look, he made a demo derby!  OK, now never do that again! 

So, back to the summer of toddlers...what options are there?  Any outdoor activity can just be exhausting.  The swimming pool is always fun, but it costs $3.00 per person over the age of 12 months so all three of us would cost $9.00 and you know how long the attention span for 1 and 3 year olds is.  That price is reasonable for a several hour session but for 45 minutes it is a lot.  Also, as a former lifeguard, I have seen how fast little kids can get into trouble in shallow water so I almost feel panicked with both of them and only me to watch.  I actually prefer going to my hometown pool when I am visiting because, even though it is dated and lacks the fun jungle gyms and features, it has a separate fenced wading pool that is free!  You only have to pay for the "big pool"!  Then there is the park, which is usually fun until I want to leave and then have to wrangle two screaming maniacs who don't want to leave across the lawn and to the parking lot.  And of course, you can't in good conscious let your kids outside without sunscreen and it's enough trouble to maintain my own sunscreen usage and I am a willing user.  Toddlers are NOT willing.  In NO WAY are they willing.  I have to threaten to take away the outdoor activity in order to get Ben to submit to wearing sunscreen.  Although, Tessa likes to wear her sun hat so that is nice. 

So anyway, I will probably be enjoying the hottest day of the summer indoors.  Yesterday was really hot and we went out in the back yard and I set up water related fun only to spend the short time we were out there trying to stop Ben from making a mud hole and stopping Tessa from stomping her feet in it.  I see pictures on social media of outdoor escapades every day and it's hard not to feel like you should be outside nonstop, enjoying summer since it is so short.  I read a blog post earlier this week from another mom, someone I don't know personally, who described a summer afternoon taking her 4 and 1 year old to a splash pad to meet up with friends.  All the kids started whining about being cold after two minutes and there was no shade and she ended up spending most of the outing chasing the younger child who was continuously trying to run away from the scene.  Yet, she would not admit that it was a bust and they probably should have just watched PBS or played in their own yard.  Nothing about it sounded fun but people feel like they can't admit that every activity with their kids isn't fun and in fact most of them are very tiresome.  They manage to get a good picture to share so it looks fun but everything that went on behind the scenes wasn't.  I reassure myself with visions of the future, when these kids are in elementary school and can swim without constant supervision, play outside alone without getting lost or destroying something and don't want my attention every minute of every day but for now summer is just an extension of every other season.  Maybe they will be in a sport and actually participate without running over to me constantly and trying to pull leaves off a tree instead of listening to the coaches (T-ball flashback!) and I can sit back and eat candy and watch in peace.  Maybe we will live in a neighborhood or town where kids still take off on bikes with their friends all day (although people are getting so paranoid that in a few years a parent who allows this will probably end up in jail) and they will even be old enough to mow the lawn and water the plants and wash our cars for us.  We just have to make it through these few years!

 

Speaking of sunscreen, I have discovered something this summer.  My children get tan.  WHAAAAT?  Ben is developing an obvious farmer's tan even though I apply sunscreen regularly.  It's like his tan can't be stopped!  And Tessa is the same.  After time in the sun they don't look red at all.  They just look bronze.  Everyone assumes that because I have red hair I must fry after minutes in the sun, which is not true.  It certainly will happen eventually but if I go outside for 30 minutes without sunblock on my legs they are as white as ever but if Ben and Tessa go outside for 30 minutes without sunscreen they look three shades darker.  They have it...the coveted blond haired, blue eyed combination with a naturally bronzed complexion.  They look like they could be in advertisements for bronzing powder and their hair is naturally highlighted in all the right places.  Lucky them...but if they ever want to go near a tanning bed the answer will still be NO!

Here is a cute picture to wrap this up...Tessa found her new fleece jacket for this winter and she wants to wear it all the time.  She is oblivious to the fact that it is 100 degrees outside and can't wear it.  She gets mad when she has to take it off. 

 

Soon enough we will all be so tired of zipping jackets that we will want to scream...maybe the sunscreen isn't so bad!