October Celebrations!

I could spend this entire blog post complaining about the downsides of this time of year.  It's often the month in which the homeschooling reality hits hard (things are not new, exciting, and "fun" anymore!)  It's often in October that I start to feel pulled in so many directions (keeping up with housework, schooling, meals, laundry, garden, making time for myself and time for God, etc.)  In October, the stress of the upcoming holidays seems to be looming...I blame the stupid catalogs that already have CHRISTMAS stuff in them!  But to lift my spirits I think I'd rather write instead about the blessings and celebrations of our month so far.

A year ago this week our chickens were born and sent to us.  How time flies!  We are still enjoying them SOOO much!

Two Days Old Last October 17th!

A wee one.

These ladies do a lot of work for me---pest control, tilling the soil, and fertilizing!

 

Not to mention the eggs have been beautiful and delicious!

Prayerful chickens.  I hope this isn't sacrilegious. :-)

It's fun to watch them just hanging out.

 

Even our friends like to hang out with them.  Or chase them.

The coop has a new tarp for winter.  I still consider this coop the best purchase I ever made.

If I had to pick another flock, and didn't want variety, I'd choose all Leghorns.  They have been the best bug eaters, the best layers (egg quality and reliability), and although they are a little skittish, they freeze when they're scared, so they are relatively easy to manage.

This is a current picture of the flock.  Three white Leghorns,  two Speckled Sussex, two Silver-Laced Wyandottes, and three Easter Eggers.

We celebrated Meara's 7th birthday this month.  No matter how old she gets, I will always think of her as my baby.  She is the middle child, the girl who I fear will never have her needs met.  She is my silly one, my baby-talker, my bug-catcher, my fruitty tuitty girl, my free-spirit.  I love her so much, and yet don't show her nearly enough.

Birthday bonfire!

Birthday party silliness!

The morning of her birthday, we saw this beautiful patch of sun streaming through our trees.  I always tell the girls that when I was little, I thought this meant that angels were sliding down the sun's rays to come to earth.  Meara ran outside immediately, half-dressed as usual, to be there when the angels landed to greet her for her birthday.  

This is first time in almost four years that I don't have a fairly decent bounty out back in the garden beds.  In the moments when I get depressed about it, I tell myself that this time of rest for the old beds, and the patience required to wait for all the new stuff to sprout are all part of the whole process.  I'm just super happy that the new fall beds are finally in, and I couldn't have done it without serious help from my family and from God.  Long story short, we had about four cubic yards of soil delivered.  The next day we had ANOTHER four cubic yards of compost delivered.  There was no way I was going to be able to get this dirt into the new boxes.  As it was, I had a wobbly wheelbarrow wheel, and the ten loads we had already dumped into the beds (using the wheelbarrow) had barely made a dent in the dirt pile.  I went to bed that night really dejected, and I said to God, "God, if you want me to do this, if you want me to grow more food and start sending food to the food bank, you're going to need to help me.  Because I can't do this.  I can't get all this dirt into these beds."  And the next morning, He answered me.  With a Bobcat.  Ironically, our memory verse for the past couple weeks has been the whole "ask and you shall receive" business, so what a wonderfully concrete way to show the girls that God DOES hear us!

We woke up early to lay the newspaper down on the grass in the beds.

The first pile of dirt arrived.

The next day, the second pile of dirt arrived.

But so did a Bobcat.

And it filled all the beds.

In less than an hour.

I've decided to mark off the beds in square feet, not necessarily to do square-foot gardening, but to make my garden log easier to keep.  For the first time this year, I'm keeping my layout charts TO SCALE, which makes a huge difference when deciding what I want to plant versus what I actually have room to plant.  The divisions also made plant spacing much easier.

The girls had a blast planting the garlic, shallots and onions.

The garlic, shallot and onion bed will be untouched until Spring, when I'll take the leaves off and the stuff will pop through the soil.  Estimated harvest will be July.

The second bed is all planted too---carrots, turnips,  kale, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower,  parsnips, chard, and lettuces. This bed is my hoop house / greenhouse bed this year, and it's a total experiment to see what will actually sprout before the too-cold temps stymie my efforts.  Last winter we had success with carrots done in the hoop bed, so at least we know we'll get some carrots out of it, if nothing else.  

There in the center, are the four things I have available right now-chives, oregano, rosemary and sage! 

Winter rye and hairy vetch are planted in the old beds.  These cover crops will be tilled under in the Spring, and then the beds will be covered with plastic to seal in the heat all summer.  This solarizing of the soil, in theory, will "cook" off any of the bad bacterial build up I had this year (fusarium wilt being the biggest offender).  These two beds will be ready to plant next fall along with all the other beds.

Ken built me this new compost setup.  It's not quite finished, but I'm super happy to be moving to a more sturdy arrangement.  And I'm really impressed with how handy he has become! 

It's really easy for me to lose perspective this time of year...to get tired and burned out and wonder a million times a day if this gig is worth it.  But when I take a moment to reflect on the ways that God has truly blessed me, it doesn't make all the difficulties go away, but it does give me the "daily bread" I need to keep going...and sometimes even to smile while doing it.

Mudder Mania

A couple weeks ago, Ken completed his first Tough Mudder race.  Since the summer, he has been training for the Toughest Race on the Planet with two friends, Jay and John.  I've always loved Ken's intensity, his dedication, and his passion for doing things well, so it was a proud moment to see all his hard work pay off!  

The greatest thing about the Tough Mudder race, though, is that it isn't about individual success, it's about teamwork and getting through the course together.  As a spectator, the best part for me was watching all the various team members helping each other and cheering for each other along the way.  When all is said and done, it seemed to be an "experience," not just a race for the participants.  Weeks later I'm still very proud of how much Ken, John, and Jay accomplished as a team, and how much love and support they showed each other, not just during the race, but through the whole training process.  God really has blessed us both with wonderful friends in our lives!

Go Mudders!

We waited about 2 hours just to get this sighting of them!

Mud slides!

The mud is oddly flesh-colored.

Lots of kissing going on.

This is the "Everest" obstacle.  The pictures do not do it justice.  Perhaps a movie will help.

Apparently something was really funny.  

FINISHED!  Shiny blankets and headbands to show for it!

Ken's shoes. 

The shoe grave.  I think they clean them (in industrial washers?) and donate them.

Birds and Eggs

Our bird ladies have been busy.  We've been keeping careful track of our chicken egg count for the past six months, nerdy bar graphs and all.  Here are the totals:

By month:
March: 115
April: 255
May: 257
June: 249
July: 233
August: 234

By breed: 
3 Leghorns (white eggs): 473
3 Auracanas/"Easter Eggers" (blue eggs): 365
2 Silver Laced Wyandottes (dark brown eggs): 262
2 Speckled Sussex (buff eggs): 243

Six Month Total: 1,343 eggs

All that laying tuckered them out!

You probably wonder what we do with all those eggs.  We eat a lot of them.  I make a lot of quiche.  But we certainly didn't eat 1,343 eggs in six months!  We gave some away and at the height of summer I took a regular supply of eggs to the food bank in town.  I'd love to be able to donate more, though, and think that at some point I will expand my flock (new coop and a whole new set of chickens) to be able to feed more of the needy in our community.  The reality is that the chickens have peaked in terms of their laying life.  This is probably the best that they will ever lay, and not only the colder, darker months will affect their lay rate, but their age as well.  But for now, we will bask in their fertile glory...

And speaking of birds and basking in glory...It's about that time of year, when we get a little crazy for our favorite birds---the Baltimore Ravens.  There was serious disappointment in the girls' faces yesterday when they realized there was no football on today.  But they know it's coming, and we are all ready and hoping for a good football season.  We are stocked up on our football favorite foods: Sunchips, brie with fig spread, crackers, peanuts, etc.  I am anxious to listen to Caeley talking about the games weeks after the fact, in way more detail than I could ever remember.  I can't wait to watch her and Meara imitate the Fox robotic icon dance during commercials.  I will chuckle to myself, as always, when the girls comment on the "inappropriate" cheerleader outfits or walk around the house belting, "We are FARMERS, Bum-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-bum!"  (If you watch a lot of football, you know that jingle...it's right up with the fame of the e-Trade baby in our house.)  But most of all, I think I'm looking forward to each of us having our OWN spots on our new, bigger couch.

Five people don't have to fight for three spaces anymore!

Let's go Ravens!

 ps: Ray Rice, please get as many rushing yards in six months as we got eggs!

I'm a Total Chicken

Confession: I'm a total wuss.  A chicken, really.  For years after leaving home, I avoided making dentist appointments because the little spinning thingy they use to clean your teeth gives me the heebie-jeebies.  I have vague (yet somehow still horrific) memories of being admitted to the hospital overnight for an asthma attack when I was little; I was put in a room with a bunch of crying babies and barely slept all night.  I initially decided to have natural childbirths, not because I wanted that flowery, hippie momma experience, but because I nearly puked in the tray they passed around in the hospital childbirth class...in it lay the needle they would use for the epidural.  I can't watch those "junkie" movies without turning away in disgust (yes, Trainspotting nearly scarred me for life), and even worse, I can barely make it through a blood draw without serious mental prayer.

But tomorrow I have to go to the hospital for a "routine medical procedure" that will involve anesthesia.  It's nothing earth-shattering, but it feels that way to me in some respects.  At first glimpse, it seems the opposite of the "pain with a purpose" of childbirth...which seems so much easier for me to handle.  Instead, it seems like it's just going to be a whole lot of yuck, ick, and nastiness.  It has been a little stressful this week to answer questions like, "Do you have a living will or a medical directive?" and to get a message on my cell phone today stating the following:

Please do not eat or drink after midnight tonight.  This includes candy, chewing gum, breath mints, cough drops, cigarettes or anything you could possibly put into your mouth and swallow.  (WHO SWALLOWS CIGARETTES???!!!  She didn't say that, that's me saying that, by the way.)  You may brush your teeth in the morning, but do not swallow any water.  We ask that you don't wear any body creams, jels, powders, makeup, eyeliner, mascara, rings, body-piercings, perfume, deodorant or fingernail polish.  And wear loose comfortable clothing.

And THIS is what they tell you for a "routine procedure!???!!!"  It is routine, I know it is, and I have to keep reminding myself of that.  Of that and the fact that there is no such thing as purpose-less pain.  I've been thinking a lot this week about how much purpose pain and suffering can have in our lives.  If nothing else, I feel just a tiny bit closer to God, and to his Son, who endured a lot more than "yuck, ick" suffering.  He bore a whole lot so that one day none of us would have to suffer at all.  In whatever way I can unite myself with Him and his offering to me, I think I join in that offering somehow.  Instead of a total one-way street, the suffering becomes a two-way street, and when that happens, as many saints have recognized and spoken so poetically about, it becomes less suffering and more love.  Him for me, and I for Him.  Tomorrow might be a small thing, but to me it's a big thing.  And I know He sees that.

Pray for me tomorrow morning.  :-)    

Holy Garlic!

Although it's about three weeks too early for the garlic to be ready, it's ready.  I blame the hot days we had this Spring, and the relatively mild winter, but I'm secretly happy to get an early start on planting whatever is going to take its place in the garden bed.  I feel like I've been neglecting the garden, so it felt great to get back into the dirt.

There's something so simple, but so magical about pulling your food right from the Earth.  I couldn't help but thank God (probably for the millionth time this gardening season) for the little piece of co-creating that I'm blessed to do with Him out there in the dirt.  While it pales in comparison to the co-creating we do as parents, there is something profound about it that I can't quite articulate in words.

For some reason, my usually non-enthusiastic gardener was super anxious to help with the garlic!

The first couple heads took quite a while to get out...

Peeling back the dirt to find the edge.  Crowning, if you will.

The garlic is born!

At some point I looked up and realized I had a LONG way to go.

I enlisted the help of Omlet, who really did help loosen the dirt!

Laying out on a screen to cure.  (This helps the heads dry out and get that nice papery skin on the outside edge.)

No vampires here.  Fifty-two heads in all.

A large spot for something new!

My Shot in the Arm

Last summer, my friends Alexis and Kristina asked me to join them at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Homeschool Conference.  I went, loved it, and couldn't wait to go back this year...this time without my toddler in tow!  There are always inspiring speakers, those men and women who fill me with that reassurance that I CAN do this crazy Catholic-homeschooling-mom deal for another year.  And there's always the gigantic hall filled with beautiful books from what seems like every major Catholic homeschooling curriculum provider or book publisher.  My eyes were bloodshot and blurry by the time I left that hall!  (I was particularly relieved that my homeschooling plans were pretty much in place before the conference so that I was not as tempted by all the shiny, shrink-wrapped curricula!)

I take notes during all the lectures, but thought that it would be nice to have a digital place to return to when I need to access some of my favorite thoughts or quotes or discoveries from the talks.  I thought I'd just put them here, in case the words offer help or comfort or a laugh to those friends of mine who couldn't attend!

Lectio Divina: Kindling the Fire at the Heart of Our Interior Life by Fr. Stephen McGraw

- The format for Lectio Divina parallels the biblical quote, "Seek and you shall find.  Knock and it will be opened to you."  The "seeking" is the reading of the Scripture.  The "finding" is the meditation portion.  Then you "knock" during the prayer time, and if you are lucky, the door will be "opened" to you during contemplation. 

- "The devil knows he has lost a soul that perseveres in mental prayer."

The Academic Approach for All Ages by Ginny Seuffert

- "You can not teach a brat anything!"

- "If I am going to be fat and lonely, darn it, they are going to LEARN!" (Referring to the fact that if she has spent her whole life sacrificing her time at the gym and her outings with friends, than she's going to make sure her kids reap the benefits of her sacrifice!  I thought this was a funny, but really true way of looking at homeschooling!)

- "Homeschooling IS your service to Christ."

The Basic Brick for Building a Civilization by David Ahlquist  

- "Every bad philosophy is self destructive." 

- "The family is the only kingdom founded on love that creates its own citizens."

- "We can get really prideful that we don't commit sins that we aren't tempted to commit."

- "Work, education, and recreation should not all occur outside the home."

How to See the Truth in Great Literature by Joseph Pearce

- "God gives us our gifts to use or abuse freely."

- "Be true to the true beyond yourself." (The anti-"To thine own self be true.")

Leaving the Nest by Joseph Pearce

- "We get to Heaven  by getting others to Heaven."

- "The most important thing about any education is that at the end, you are oriented in the right direction for the rest of your life---TOWARDS God."

- "Being clever is not the same as being wise." 

- "The future belongs to those who have children.  The Culture of Death doesn't have children."

Play and Work

It's summer and we've been making the most of it.  We recently took a trip to Dutch Wonderland with my mom, sister, and niece, which the girls really enjoyed.  (I think I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't ruined my toddler's day by taking her on the kiddie roller coaster!  She was pretty cranky after that!)  This was our first trip to an amusement park, and the big girls would've stayed there for three days!  So much to do and see, and so little time!

T and Meara!

Mom, Meara and Baby A

Auntie Kel, Caeley and T

I hope this isn't the closest I get to being a farmer!

We just returned home from our yearly trip to North Carolina.  For Ken especially, it was a much needed vacation.  The best part was seeing him relaxing and enjoying his ladies!

I might have found the biggest daddy's girl yet!

Ailin loved the beach!

Ready to Boogie.

My favorite picture of the whole trip.

Eating ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery

Working in the sand.

My Mears.  My precious middle girl.

I have been struck this summer with a couple thoughts.  First, how fortunate we are that we truly can enjoy and live out the maxim: "To everything there is a season."  Every summer, we are able to take a break from the routine and the "work" and make time for play and relaxation.

But I've also been struck by another thought, which I'm sure many saints or popes or other gifted writers have been able to articulate better than I will here, so bear with me.  :-)   As we were getting ready to leave my in-laws' house in North Carolina yesterday, and I was sweeping the floor, I was struck by how much I missed cleaning.  I missed the work of my every day life.  I missed Meara running from the chicken coop with a handful of eggs.  I missed feeding the chickens and letting them play in the yard.  I missed weeding.  I missed cutting the flowers in our yard for vases.  I missed cooking, cleaning, and maybe I missed laundry, but my thoughts didn't get quite that far.  :-)   

I realized that there was a life I had left behind that was infinitely more precious and valuable to me than any vacation could ever be.  That doesn't mean that the vacation wasn't absolutely wonderful for our family, and so much appreciated.  But I think it means that I am living the life I am meant to live.  Somewhere along the lines, the joy inherent in my "times for work" and "times for play" seems to have become one and the same joy.   I don't know if it makes me a loser, but I realized that in the past couple years, I've never felt desperate for a vacation.  I've never felt the need to flee from my duties or my life at home.  (Side bar:  Of course, there's always the need for small breaks and respites, like the days when Tee Tee comes and I get to go grocery shopping by myself, or when Ken takes the girls for a couple hours on Saturday while I garden and plan for our school week!)

But the older I get, the more I feel that longing to return when I am not in my 'nest.'  I don't think it's because I'm a workaholic or such a homebody that I can't have fun on vacation.  But the part of me that feels most fulfilled, feels that way in my home.  I also can't deny that it made me truly happy to hear the girls also express how much they missed home and the chickens.  They couldn't wait to see if the tomatoes were ready or how big the cucumbers had grown.  Life as a mother means you don't often get to hear "thank you," but it was enough for me to know that there's a part of them that loves this life too.

"Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another....Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him...Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ."  (CCC #2427)

I'm realizing that my goal should always be to cultivate so much joy, love, and beauty in our everyday life, in our times of work and our times of play, that we never feel the desperate need to escape.  And when we are lucky enough to get those precious moments away, I hope that all of us will miss this little homestead.  I'm beginning to see the truth that there is value, dignity, and the true Spirit of Christ to be found in the work AND the life of the home.  

Silly times in bed with the iPhone!

I wish Caeley had made it in this one!

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