6-11-10 Summertime

“Summertime has come; oh, I’m glad school is done. More time to play and have fun, laughing and running around in the sun.” A catchy little tune from somewhere but I don’t remember where. Humidity was back today…upper 80s and really warm. Just a wonderful summer day.

Boys milked. I DIDN’T go anywhere this morning (first time in 3 days). Aunt Joyce came to help today; she got started right away in the basement. Kids joined her as they finished their breakfast and Friday jobs.

I enjoyed my breakfast of fresh wild black raspberries...

[smile] while I made a smoothee. My little Josh LOVES his smoothees and also loves the noise when I make them. Here’s my quick simple recipe. Layer in blender (we use a Vita-Mix) some yogurt, strawberries, applesauce, blueberries, bananas, and oranges. Blend on high for a minute or so, adding milk if it’s too thick to swirl. Add some honey if a taste-test reveals a need (usually with a couple bananas it’s pretty sweet though). Sometimes we add peaches, and once I found a whole apple in the freezer (?????). (The thing is I kind of vaguely remember putting an apple in the fridge…or was it the freezer???? Sometimes I think my mind is going…) I let it thaw until I could cut it, and threw it in too. No waste! I don’t hesitate to buy lots of fruit if I find it cheap, because if it’s mealy peaches or sour grapes or oranges with big nasty seeds – smoothee it and it’s always good (take out seeds, which shreds the oranges, making them a mess for children to eat).

Pre-mixed.

Mixing…

…mixing…

done.

Cleaning, mowing, Friday job lists, phonics with Sarah & Jewel, piano practice, managing, directing, organizing. Levi went to CIT after milking, and Jesse started mowing right away. By 12:00 we were ready to head to Uncle Jerry’s. Carmen was there with Kate and Lincoln – the kids had a great time swimming. Lincoln’s not too sure of us yet, but Kate seemed to have fun with the crowd…her giggle is so infectious. Carmen left before we did (she had been there awhile already) and Aunt Marcia got there soon after that. So she came out until we went home to do chores. Back home, Aunt Joyce read to littles while I put Joshua to bed.

Then Aunt Joyce and I went for a walk – with Aunt Marcia in the pool. I am a walking wimp – when it’s 88 and humid I just plain won’t walk too quick. But walking laps in the pool – 20 minutes of that and my heart rate was right where it needs to be when I walk…I felt like I got a workout. After some relaxing and chatting, home to find 3 littles sleeping, chores mostly done, and Dad on his way home! He headed outside to fix the motor on the table saw; I showered and got ready to go away for supper. Tori and Kate made pizza and were just ready to call everyone to sit down when Dad, Levi, and I left for supper at Monical’s. We had a good supper and a good talk, then did a few errands and came home to enjoy the beautiful evening outside.

The potatoes we fertilized look GREAT!!! Some of them didn’t get fertilized; look at the difference here:

These didn’t get fertilized:

These did:

Isn’t that an amazing difference? Guess which is which in these next 2 pictures:

First picture did, second picture didn’t.

Swinging fun:

And the first lightening bug catch of the year:

And inside for beds…

now my turn, good night!

6-10-10 Hidden Treasure

Another gorgeous morning; the sunrise was just beautiful. A picture hardly does it justice but I’ll post it anyway.

Cats on my porch chair.

And Squirrel 1 (2?) was busy enjoying his breakfast. I’m kind of amazed at how entertaining these little rodents are. Thanks Grandpa!

Dad went to Uncle Jerry’s early, then back to pick up Jesse at 7:00 so he was to Uncle Randy’s by 7:30. Levi and I went to Dr. Luce for a 7:45 appointment. Two weeks ago he reacted to a weed while fencing, and this past week his back, chest, arms, and legs have been more and more irritating to him. It looks awful besides. Dr. Luce put him on a steroid; hopefully this will kick it or we’ll be seeing a dermatologist. We were home again by 8:15; I picked up Kate and headed back to Walmart to get Levi’s prescription and be home again before 10:00 when he went to CIT. We made it, and so he got his first dose of med. before he went to work. Back home, I read to littles; there were also jobs to do and a fussy babe to care for. We got everything done in time to go swimming at Uncle Jerry’s after Dad was home for a brief lunch. After swimming, I walked solo while little girls rested (slept) and bigger kids did chores.

“On a day in August when the blackberries are ripe, we will take the berry pails and go to the clearing at the edge of the woods. When we come to the place where God’s sunshine and God’s rain have helped the blackberries grow, we will eat some of the black, shiny berries and then pick, pick, pick from the tangled, prickly branches. After awhile our fingers will be stained purple, but we will not mind. When our pails are full, we will go home.” [excerpt from Berries Berries Berries by Beverly S. Gordon]

Wrong month, but same scenario…kind of.

Jacob was very excitedly telling me about the hundreds-- no, THOUSANDS! of blackberry bushes down at the South Grove. He shared a few blackberries with me, and they were pretty tasty. So he, Ben, and I whipped down there on the four-wheeler, and I was amazed. What a treasure trove of blackberries...well, they were actually black raspberries. I still don’t quite understand why no one has ever told me about these before, except that this is the first year Jacob has spent serious time down there planting trees and mowing. At any rate, Jacob started blazing (stomping) trails through the brambles, picking as he went, and Ben and I started picking too. We had 3 tiny yogurt cups, which were filled in no time. Somewhere along then, Levi finished chores and brought the dirt bike to help…he quickly decided a machete was in order and made a trip back to get it. Tori and Kate were working on kitchen jobs, and Kate could hardly finish fast enough to come help. She ended up running the whole way, bucket in hand, and joined the picking crew too. And then Jesse showed up to help too…what is it about enthusiasm that makes it so contagious that everybody chooses to come pick berries in the sweltering heat, tromping through thorny weedy buggy (poison ivy? poison oak?!!) brambles to have ‘fun’ with everyone else? I didn’t think Tori would want to miss out, so I went back home for more buckets and to send her in my place, but she was content to stay in the air-conditioned house and finish the snack mix squares she was making. Smart girl! So…I headed back to the patch and picked some more. Jesse was going to grill steaks for supper, but when it was time, he didn’t want to go back – no one did! We all ended up staying until 5:45 (!!!) when we raced back home, showered (all 7 of us!), threw the steaks on the grill, got the rest of the meal ready, and were ready to eat when Dad got home a little after 6:00. What a crew!

Machete action.

Beautiful berries.

Lots to come yet…

We ended up with almost a gallon of berries…and oh, the fun of picking them (and eating them). We’ll see if any of us get poison ivy from our adventure…although Levi said it was everywhere, we were pretty careful not to get close to it. And we all showered right when we got back home and threw all our clothes into the laundry, so we’ll see what happens. We’re all pretty determined to get some Round Up and improve our trails so we can more easily pick the delicious berries.

After supper and dishes we loaded up and drove to Pekin (by the prison there) to check out a hayfield. The drive was beautiful.

Home to beds.

“Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art.”

4-10-10 Happy Birthday Jewel

Joyful

Enthusiastic

Wiggly

Energetic

Loving

“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance…” (Proverbs 15:13)

We love you so much sweet Jewel and are so glad you are part of our family. You are precious to us!

Busy Saturday. Girls and I did kitchen work while Dad and the boys went to clean up and mow CIT. We finished up our kitchen work and headed outside to clean Dad’s car and enjoy the very nice day. Dad and the boys got home as we finished that job, and everybody trickled in and out to eat lunch. Don't remember when, but at some point a cattle buyer relieved us of 13 beef steers. We girls worked on the van for a long time then and got it looking very good again. We also went through our garage farm toys and cleaned up that toybox. We got a lot done.

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Dad and the boys did all sorts of jobs such as making these stone steps for the new red shed.

Dad had lots of help.

They did a great job.

Jacob hauled this broken mower into the shed, where they all spent time taking it apart.

Beth brought us some raspberry plants (thank you Beth!) which was another project…

Don’t they look yummy? (Well, they will if they survive the chickens…last year very few survived…)

Dad and crew roto-tilled ground and sowed a lot of grass seed in various places…this was inside the pheasant pen.

Ice cream bar break for all…

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Dad and Jesse took Sarah and Jewel to do payroll in Morton at one point, and Tori and I put together a bike rack before supper too. Joshua’s nose was running pretty bad, and even though he was outside all day, he was still somewhat fussy, poor little tyke. I think today was day 4; usually by day 10 he’s completely better again. Only 6 days to go…

After supper, Jewel opened her birthday gifts…I didn’t take any pics of her gifts, but she really liked her doll from Grandma and Grandpa Kaiser, and the toy cell phone that Dad and I got her. Dad, Levi, and Jesse went to Morton to Nick Kaiser’s testimony; the 4 oldest cleaned up the kitchen then went out to rip apart the mower for awhile. I bathed and readied my 3 littles for bed; when the bigs came in we sang happy birthday to Jewel and enjoyed her Malt Shoppe birthday dessert. She held her new doll pretty close!

Littles were put to bed, and then the bigs had many inside chores to do before baths and beds. Dad and the boys got home a little after 9:15, and they had dessert and told Tori and me about their evening.

Then beds.