Life's A Dance

The song goes:

Life's a dance you learn as you go
Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow
Don't worry 'bout what you don't know
Life's a dance you learn as you go

Pretty much sums up my life right now. I find that the more I think I know, the more I have to learn.

I think I shall hiatus for a bit, as I'm learning and growing as a parent. This life-with-two-thing is difficult for me right now. I'm learning who Ruby is and how she is different than Ira. And I'm learning that it's okay for her to be different than Ira. Ira was an easy baby, Ruby is not. I'm trying to embrace that.

I wish I was the type who could document my thoughts/feelings as I go, but I've found that I can't. Some can, and I wish I was that type, because I think it's incredibly helpful to read back over to see how one has changed and grown. But this "public" forum is not the place for me to do that. I'm too self-conscious of a person for that. You see, I read all you other moms' blogs and I feel like I never measure up. I play the comparison game - and that is just. not. healthy. And I feel like people read my blog and judge me by what I say or do. And I know that it's just my self-doubt and insecurities, but still - it's my perception -and it's not what I need right now. It's driving me crazy, quite honestly.

So this is farewell for now. Hopefully I'll return to the blogging world someday. Until then - God be with you!

Furlough

On September 17, Andy found out from his employer that he would be on temporary furlough again due to lack of work (He'd been furloughed for 3 weeks in January as well.) As I'm writing this (on Oct. 19) he is still at home. This isn't something we ever thought we'd face, but we are trusting that God has a plan for us. I really don't know what else to say, other than just keep us in your prayers. Thanks!

If you pick a peck of peppers...

If you pick a peck of peppers, there sure are a lot of peppers to pickle! Our pepper plants have been insanely successful this year, so to date, we have put up 24 pints of pickled peppers (which is actually a peck and half, for those nerds who know that a peck is 8 quarts.)

The canner and I are becoming better friends now, and I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it all. We certainly have used it a lot this year! 24 pints of pickled peppers, 10 half pints of pepper jelly, 5 pints of bread and butter pickles, and 8 quarts of applesauce have all been through the canner this year!

Here are some canning and produce pictures for your visual pleasure!

Getting everything ready for pickling peppers

Our knife-skills have definitely gotten lots of practice lately!

We capped and froze these babies to make stuffed green peppers at a later date, when we have more time!

Fall Fest

Our little town had their Fall Festival the weekend of September 25th. We attended with Andy's parents and his brother's girlfriend and their 2 kids.

After the parade passed us, we all went to the playground to play. One minute, Ira was on the equipment, the next minute, he was nowhere to be seen. Andy, Marilyn and I calmly started looking around, knowing that he couldn't have gone too far because we had all just seen him. But we COULD NOT find him. We yelled his name several times and got no response. At that point my heart started pounding and I got really scared. There weren't very many people in the park yet, but there were enough people there, and enough tents set up with crafts and such, that you couldn't see very far, and we certainly couldn't see Ira. Finally, (after what seemed like forever, but I think it was only a minute or two at the most) I heard Andy yelling that he had found him.

Here's what happened. Ira was playing on this 4 person bouncy thing with 3 other kids and one of the kids' mom. She asked her daughter if she wanted to go see the caboose, and Ira tagged along with them. The caboose is across the sidewalk where all the vendors were lined up with their tents, so obviously we couldn't see him. Luckily when Andy found him, the mom was still with him and said that she realized that he was "lost" so she was going to stay with him until he found his parents. God bless her! We took Ira right home to figure out what to do.

Right or wrong, here is how we handled the situation: on the walk home, Ira just kept saying, "but mom I was on the caboose" - you could tell he didn't get what he'd done or how serious it was. So I asked Ira (about a block from our house) if he could see our mailbox (which is around the corner from our house and where we were walking) He said he could (right!) So I said, let me go to the mailbox, and you see if you can see me. So Ruby and I ran ahead to the mailbox, while Andy stayed with Ira. The whole way to the mailbox, Andy was asking Ira where I was "at the mailbox" was his response. Well, much to his surprise, when they got within sight of the mailbox, Ruby and I were nowhere to be seen. According to Andy, he could feel Ira's grip on his hand tighten and see his face get scared when he couldn't see me. We told him that that was just like how we thought he was at the playground, but when we looked, he wasn't there. And we got scared too.

Then we went inside and sent Ira to his room to think about what he did and why it was wrong. He stayed in there for a good while (and missed making pirate hats - which he'd really been looking forward to, and riding some rides in the meantime.) Finally, Andy and I went in and talked to him about it all. From my perspective, it seems like he understood the gravity of the situation as much as you could expect a 4 year old to. He decided that staying close to us for the rest of the day would be a good idea.

Something like that happening definitely knocks your confidence as a parent down to NOTHING, let me tell you!

When we finally met up with Andy's family at the park, Ira had missed a good hour and a half of fun, which Andy and I felt like was entirely appropriate for the situation.

We ate lunch, then I went home to put Ruby down for a nap while the kids rode the rides, so Andy took lots of pictures for me. Ira and Hayden had a blast riding the carnival rides. Much to all of our surprise, Ira was the daredevil on the "big kid" rides and Hayden was scared. (To give you some perspective, Hayden was the kid who at 1, thought it would be a good idea to jump off of Grandma Orpha's porch pillar- a good 7-8 feet off the ground.) So yeah, it was a surprise for all of us!

Ira and Hayden

Sara was nice enough to ride the "big kid" rides with the boys.

Andy even rode the Sizzler with Ira. (I had an opportunity to later in the day, but was afraid I would puke!)

Notice how trim Andy is getting! He has lost 25 pounds over the last 4 months! I am SO proud of him!

Ira and Hayden got their faces painted. Ira wanted a checkered flag, but the lady told him that she only knew how to make hearts, so he requested a red heart with a pink middle and an orange heart with a brown middle. Hayden got red and blue hearts.

Ira, Andy and I on the Tilt-a-Whirl

I know it's blurry (the camera focused on the bar) but it's the only picture of all three of us on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Have you ever tried taking picture of people on carnival rides? It is NOT EASY!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Every Thursday at noon, Andy's Grandma Gladys makes a fried chicken dinner for any kids, grandkids, and great grandkids that can make it. Mind you she has 8 children, 43 grandchildren, and 62 great grandchildren (with another one on the way, no not us.) Typically, there are "only" 20-25 people there to eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas (which you must put on top of your mashed potatoes), homemade bread with homemade sandplum jelly, lettuce salad, and homemade dessert with ice cream.

Grandma Gladys is an AMAZING woman who will be 88 years young in November. We have been blessed to get to attend "Chicken Dinners" for over four years now. It really is an establishment. So on 9/16, I decided to take some pictures. I didn't get any of the actual meal, but I do hope to take more in future weeks. You have to be kind of sneaky though as Grandma Gladys doesn't really like having her picture taken.

Grandma with great grandbaby #58 or 59

4 of the 7 great grandbabies born this year

Again the four babies, this time with their in-utero cousin, Noah (who was actually born 6 days after this picture)

Ah Hail...

We had a CrAzY hail storm on 9/15. Fortunately it did not hail in our small town. Unfortunately, we were not home when it happened. We were at my parents' house right smackedy smack in the middle of it! I have honestly never seen ANYTHING like that. The hail was softball size. It hit the ground so hard that it left craters and sent mud splashing up onto the windows of the house. That being the case, imagine what it did to our car! It was bad, but it could have been much worse. There was no glass broken on our car and no one was injured, so really we were very fortunate. Here are some pictures of the damage.

Slightly Unconventional

I had to laugh when I looked out the dining room window to see Ira playing with his soccer goal like this:


And because I thought the screen was slightly distracting in the previous photo, I removed it so that I could snap another shot. You may whistle at my clean windows if you wish. Before you get all in awe or anything though, you should know that I think that's only the 3rd time I've cleaned them since we moved in.

Getting there!

As predicted in a previous post about Ruby, she is getting awfully close to pulling up in these pictures taken on 9/14!

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?




I'm pretty sure it's our little Ruby Roo, that's who!

A moment of silence please...

On Sunday, September 12, the Catholic School that Ira will be going to had an open house after Mass. We decided to go over to see the school (Andy went there, I'd never seen it though) and let Ira see his classroom and meet his teacher for next year.

I love the little school and think that it'll be a great place for Ira. The kindergarten teacher seemed really nice, and I asked her what times kindergarten was (we were still unsure about whether to send Ira to morning or afternoon kindergarten.) I'm not sure if it was entirely visible to everyone else in the room, but I'm pretty sure that my heart shattered on the floor when she said, "Oh we go all day now!"

A moment of silence for me while I pick up the pieces of my broken heart please...

Now, I understand in my head (and as a former teacher) the "reasoning" behind all day kindergarten. There are not enough hours in the day (especially in half-day kdg.) to cover all of the topics that students are required by the state to know. However, I vehemently disagree that the solution is making kids (especially 5 year olds) go to school for longer. The state needs to loosen up their requirements for one thing. And throwing money and additional time at our schools has done nothing to improve the quality of education that our children are getting. I would argue that kids today are dumber than ever because of the "quality education" the state supposedly provides (and forces all who want to be accredited to provide as well.) I just think that it is totally unnecessary and quite frankly unhealthy for 5 year-olds to be in formal schooling for 8 hours every day. And I think that the reason it is so common for schools to have it is mainly to provide daycare, which is just ridiculous. A good portion of the population is being punished so that another portion of the population can have free daycare for their 5 year-olds. It's just wrong!

I have given some thought to home schooling Ira, but right now, I really don't think it's God's will for us to do that next year. So slowly but surely, I am trying to come to terms with Ira being gone all day next year. Again, trying to let go and let God...