October Marches Onward

So who'd have thought...the Boys in Blue made it to the World Series. Like everyone else in Kansas, we have been watching with abated breath as the Royals have proceeded to walk through one team after the other.

It makes me think fondly of my great grandma Blanche who always kept up with the Royals. She would have loved this October.

In a completely unrelated note, today I watched the elementary CCD classes (this would be Laura's group) release this...

This is a giant balloon rosary. What a fun way to engage the kids with the rosary!

Megan has been chiseling away at those Confirmation requirements. It's still a year away but she has already picked out her saint (if it doesn't change again) and completed some of the first steps. And I haven't even needed to remind her.

Malissa has Lyrics and Literacy night tomorrow. She has been telling me all about the songs they will sing. I'm looking forward to it.

This year I took the plunge and am currently muddling my way through as a newbie 4-H leader. I don't think I've every understood how busy October is. I have a much greater appreciation for those who have led our current club and the leaders who ran the club I was a part of as a kid.

My kids would be considered 3rd generation members although not all from the same club. My mom was a member of a club growing up, I was a 4-H member growing up and now my kids are on that journey. In fact, a recent class reunion reminded me that a friend growing up is who initially invited me to join 4-H. Interestingly our family was not a "4-H Family" that is promoted so much. While most kids were in the club with other family members, my brother chose the Boy Scouts route (although I believe Mom hauled him along to more than a few meetings.)

And I loved 4-H - loved the fun I had as a kid, the fun of the fair. I was grateful for the perseverance it taught me...public speaking was my personal nemesis. And I love that today I can meet other 4-H alumni and can immediately relate with that shared experience of being a 4-Her.

And now for your small child edification I give you Gabe and his encounter with my canner.

I have not told him the story yet about Hansel and Gretel...

The Little Adventures

I am attempting a new experiment in blogging in order to dial up my posting frequency. In a look back to the original meaning of the blog as more of a journal I will pick some of the little things that go into a day around here and create a post about it. I'm expecting it to be more stream of consciousness because I am refusing to structure the post in any way. So be forewarned...if I begin a story I tend to go off into tangents. There are less likely to be pictures to go with my stories because I am spastic about getting my pictures off of my camera - another complication to my writing habits.

So let's begin a little adventure!

What did I find on my kitchen floor this afternoon but Gabe...holding court with the remains of a stick of butter. At the start of the day it was a whole stick, soft because originally it's purpose was  cookies that didn't happen, and partially smashed because yesterday Gabe had grabbed the same stick and I successfully recaptured it. I am reasonably certain he ate half of it. "Why?" you ask? True, I didn't actually witness its ingestion. By the time I happened on the scene, he was busily decorating the floor with what had not been smeared on his own clothing. There appeared to be about half the butter left that I mopped off my greasy boy and floor.

To a certain degree I accept this as the consequences of my actions.

My entire day had been centered around making wine. I had grape wine started courtesy grapes from my sister-in-law. When some people receive grapes they think jelly, but I think wine instead. So the grapes were finishing their primary fermentation stage and needed moved to a carboy. Also a couple of days ago, John and the girls picked a bunch of wild plums so my plan was to turn part of those into wine as well. There was only one problem, the containers I needed to use were busy fermenting grapes. But today it was time to move them so I planned a big switch. And it went about as well as most best laid plans do. Eventually the grape wine ended up in a carboy(guess who is really bad at decanting from one container to the other) and it was time for a cleaning party. Of course most wine making equipment is too large to fit in the sink so you end up trying to make do. Finally the equipment was cleaned but you aren't done.

The next step is sterilizing. Ignore this step at your peril. If the contaminates are not properly controlled you may end up with off tasting wine or, horror of horrors, vinegar instead of wine. So you sterilize.

And next for the wild plums.

I'm going to save time and tell you that I eventually cleaned, pitted and pureed those wild plums and not go into it. Just know that THIS step is why it was a long day. Happily the wild plums are started on their journey of change into wine that will culminate about a year from now.

The result of all this wine action is that I spent pretty much the entire day in the kitchen working on it. The kids had an unprecedented opportunity to watch TV. Karla had started Aristocats on the 3rd time around before I noticed and put a stop to it. Karla and Gabe were unparalleled in opportunistic mischief. By the time baths rolled around this evening Gabe was only dressed in a pull-up (why yes, today was a wonderful day to introduce potty training too) and covered in orange and blue marker.

Well it was snack time...maybe he was just hungry for butter!

County Fair 2014 - part 2



You have waited with abated breath while I slowly churned out a Part 2 of our County Fair experience this year. I know you have. Day 2 was a bit less crazy since we had survived the previous day's bombardment of check-in and judging.

 

First Thing in the morning we run in to take care of our little calf. It's show day so she is going to need a bath. There were quite a few bucket calves this year which means everyone was trying to wash their calves at once. Have you ever watched little kids give calves a bath? Out of the gate is the hilarity of just getting the calf to the wash area and getting it tied up. A few get loose, a few end up tied too loosely and won't hold still. It's all good entertainment but agonizing for a parent.

 



A bath takes a lllooonnnggg time. First the only part of the calf that actually gets clean is the back. And yes...every square inch of that calf needs cleaned. The white spots must actually appear white (we may have picked a calf without a lot of white on purpose). The hooves must actually be clean. But for goodness sakes, don't get any water in the ears. They will droop for days. Finally the soap must be cleaned off the belly completely. This is Malissa's Achilles heal.

 

Malissa has had a bucket calf before so she doesn't do too bad. But the problem is before us. We can't get in to give Lollipop her bath so what to do?

 

We took off for the horse barn.

 

It didn't work perfect because the hitching post was made for horse that couldn't walk underneath but the calf managed to become clean so we could run home quick to round up the rest of the Apple Dumpling Gang.

 Back in town (I'm really glad we only live about 6 miles away) it's show time for Malissa. Probably courtesy of a last name starting with "D" she is the first one in the ring. Once again I am glad she has done this before. Her calf was very nervous and didn't behave the best. She kept leaning on Malissa and knocking herself out of line. But Malissa did a good job of setting her back up again. After everything was tabulated Malissa went home with a blue which made her very happy! We are proud of the hard work she has put in caring for her calf and learning everything she needed to know!

 So what is left but mostly the fun. The first 2 shots are from Saturday night and the last is Sunday. The fair is experimenting with having companies bring in assorted inflatables and fun activities. This first one shows Malissa trying out the bull riding. Just so you know, Megan also tried this and completely refused to allow me to take pictures. Oh well, no blackmail pictures of her.

 Saturday evening also had karaoke. My girls thought this may possibly be the most awesome thing ever invented. They were the first to troupe up and pick out a song to sing. Guess which song they had to sing...and if you didn't guess Let It Go from Frozen then you are living on the dark side of the Moon.

 A different company brought out activities for Sunday evening. Lots of bounce houses, obstacle courses and even a train to ride. We took in the parade and then came back straight away to participate. This is Karla's solution for the put-put golf.

Later that evening John took the older girls over to take their (the last) shift at the concession stand. Apparently they were crazy busy and kept it open later than planned because people just kept coming. I hope the fair had a successful year because I know that my kids all enjoyed themselves and had a great time!

County Fair 2014 - Part 1

When county fair time rolls around what do you think of?...Animals...ribbons...food...All of these things and more are woven into our family's fair each year. This one was no exception. As 4-Hers Megan and Malissa spend their summer "free" time getting ready for the fair.

There are bucket calves to teach to lead and care for. (The picture of enthusiasm.)

Pictures to take. Art to cut, glue, and paint. And on and on and...

Consultation judging is the first hurdle to overcome and ours started on July 16th - 9 days before the official start to the fair: just 5 days after we came home from our vacation. Megan and Malissa both had photography and visual arts entries. In fact, for Megan these were the only projects she was in - so this is it for her. So with paint tacky and glue just dry enough to stick, the girls sat down to the most painful part of judging. The Critique.

The best part of this process? The judge gives them all sorts of great tips for improving. It takes great perseverance on my part to not say "I told you so." It's just so much better to hear these things from someone other than their mother!

I admit - I learn a lot from these too. I have zero knowledge and ability in art so of course the girls are always in it. They don't receive a lot of help from me. Just a "Good Luck!" Usually I quiz them afterwards trying to find out what tidbits they picked up. ("What do you mean you don't remember...you were taking to the judge for 20 minutes!)

After consultation judging the non-purple art projects come home. But the photography stays for the upcoming fair. I assume its a storage issue. Pictures stack. A lot of art projects just take up too much room.

With my fair baby sitter firmly lined up (Megan may be rethinking this not having regular fair exhibits thing.) Malissa bakes...and bakes...and bakes some more. We all usually put on a pound or 2 while cleaning up all the practice. We all usually put on a pound or 2 while cleaning up all the practice. And occasionally we head outside to wash or walk the bucket calf. By the way - the calf is a heifer named Lollipop.

Finally, the day before the fair, Malissa made a peach pie, peanut butter blossoms, sour cream chocolate cake, yeast bread and banana bread. Phew!

With the morning of July 25th we are loading up the calf alongside cousins that have 4-H dairy heifers. Then we pack up all our food and art, hunt down all the entry cards and head for town. Arriving at the fair building it is bedlam. I am feeling very fortunate right now that Megan stayed home to watch her younger siblings because the last thing anyone needs are my 3 youngest running around underfoot.
Malissa and I check in her and Megan's visual art projects and then I take custody of the food while Malissa heads over to settle in her calf. My job this year at the fair is to help the judges with the food so I head over to help. When Malissa returns she gets in line and waits for the foods judges. Once again consultation judging gives her some great tips for next year. A lot of the things she made this year were new to her like the yeast bread and the pie. The intermediate division has a lot of entries so its really tough!

That afternoon Malissa sits down with a judge for consultation judging with her bucket calf. This is a little different in that there aren't any tips. The job of the judge is to quiz Malissa on her knowledge of her calf, calf care and cattle in general.

And with that Day 1 is done. Part 2 will pick up the next day. More fun awaits!

Ball Season Has Begun

Last Thursday was the first game of the softball season. This will be Laura’s first year playing in Wee Pee. She is so exciting to be playing real ball this year. Malissa is playing Pee Wee ball. She is hoping that her hitting has improved. This year Megan has decided not to play. She prefers a more laid back and less serious approach to softball. So this year I have a babysitter!

Our first game is at Corning.

Little Laura might possibly be the smallest on the team. Her jersey is “0” and the smaller the number the smaller the jersey. It’s all she can do to haul that bat around.

But that didn’t stop her from getting a hit!

I love watching this age group. Everyone bats around. No scores are kept. We just learn how to hit the ball, which direction to run around the bases and where the different positions are. There is a lot of playing in the dirt. Laura did an entertaining dance in right field. She actually got hit by a ball while running the bases and shook it off like a pro (or at least like a sister used to rough and tumbling.)

Malissa is up to bat in her game following Laura’s game.

And she gets on base. The final score was a win for Baileyville at 18-4. The girls did a great job.

Good Luck girls on a fun and exciting softball season. This was a great start!

A Kindergarten Graduation

Have you ever read the poem “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum? As you read it you find yourself nodding your head in agreement with everything it says. Somehow this poem doesn’t mention the massive amount of artwork that the modern kindergartener will drag home from school.

I had no idea that the volume of artwork would cover this entire wall. What you see isn’t even all of it. A few favorite pieces had already made it to Laura’s room are were not hang-up-on-the-wall material. However, I like to think that Jesus was happy for the company.

So on May 20th Laura made the first big step in her school career with Kindergarten graduation.

Many nursery rhymes were sung with great enthusiasm by Laura and her classmates. In this picture I believe it was Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

Laura received her Diploma from Dr. Beck with her teacher Mrs. Jones announcing the exciting event.

Mrs. Jones and Laura pose together.

So how does the poem end?

When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Congratulations Laura!

Another Year Older

Malissa has celebrated one year older today.

I would like someone to tell me how it could possibly be that she is 11 years old today. Today was even her last day of 5th grade and the first day of the softball season.

Is it even conceivable that she is now officially a 6th grader and will be in middle school next August?

We love you Malissa and wish you a very Happy Birthday!