Merry Christmas!!

We at the Kuhlman Farm wish you & yours a very merry Christmas!

To Je Zima -- It's Cold.

This is a picture I took yesterday morning of my bedroom window. The ice is on the inside. I'm trying very hard to remember why I prefer cold weather over hot weather. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Reasons to like cold weather:
Hot chocolate
Hot tea
I can cook indoors without feeling like I'm in a sauna.
Flannel sheets
Beautiful wool sweaters
All this shivering helps me to rationalize the brownies I ate
Snuggling close with loved ones
Warm starchy meals
Using the electric clothing dryer instead of the laundry line becomes a moral imperative because it helps keep the pipes on the south porch from freezing.
The freezer and our beer-and-egg-fridge on the south porch are working really efficiently right now. (It was 27°F in there yesterday morning.) In fact, the fridge might actually be helping to keep the beer and eggs from getting too cold.
No mosquitoes
No fruit flies
Fire places
Hot showers/hot baths

More pictures from home

Paul invented the pulley, using some Christmas ribbon and one of my cupboard door pulls. I praised him for his ingenuity. A little while later Steve came into the kitchen and exclaimed, "Paul, you made a pulley!" We're very proud of our little nerds-in-training.


My children, hugging.


Maggie being a good dog.


This is Julia snitching pomegranate seeds from a bowl. I'm so glad that she likes snitching healthy food.


Here's sticker nose Paul.

Recent Artwork

Here is some of Paul's November opus from preschool.


Here's some of his other recent work. The mass of feathers on the left was supposed to be a turkey, but it would seem that he likes making "silly" turkeys.


I recently brought out some child scissors and started teaching Julia how to use them. She put fringe on some papers laying around.


And this is Julia's recent artwork.

Carpentry Project

With little more than a week left before Christmas I decided to abandon the idea (at least for this Christmas) of getting Paul a drum set. I had a new idea...build him a play table.

So I took some measurements in his room to see what would be a reasonable size. I also measured the height of some other tables the kids play at to get a good idea on height. And finally, I measured how big a standard LEGO plate is...after all, before too long he'll be inheriting my rather large collection of LEGOs which comes with a lot of plates.

Armed with this information I hit the internet looking for free plans for making such a table. After much deliberation I landed on this one:


I've tweaked the dimensions a bit, so the tabletop is now 41"x61" (about 2"x6" bigger than the plan).

Saturday morning Dad & I hit the stores to get the wood and started working on it. We've got most of the cutting done now and a good bit of the sanding. But we still have to assemble it and finish it, which will take most of the time. But we've got like 3 whole days, or at least afternoons/evenings since I've gotta work through Wednesday. No pressure.

Clothing is only optional

Clothing is only optional in the Kuhlman house today. Or so it would seem.

Paul woke up this morning with no pajamas on. Okay, that's not entirely true. His footie jammies were still on his feet. I assure you that is not how daddy and I left him last night. I asked him what happened. He told me he stretched his arms right out of his pajamas.

Then I realized Paul had just one pair of clean underwear available this morning, and I had to raid the diaper bag to find that. I decided to entertain the children this morning by giving them a bubble bath. Guess who's only pair of clean underwear was inadvertantly flung into the soapy water? Rats. Clean undies are in the dryer for him now.

Julia started with all her clothing on. I went outside to walk the dog. Shortly after I came back, she announced, "I have no pull-up [diaper] on."
Really?!?
I patted her fanny and confirmed that she was telling me the truth.
"What happened? Where is your pull-up?"
-"I took it off in the bathroom."
"Did you go tinkle in the potty?"
-"No, I went poopie."
"REALLY??"
-"Yeah."
"Did you wipe?"
-"Yeah." Julia at this point was clearly bored with my line of questioning.
"Did Paul help you?"
-"Yeah."
I'm not sure how much of her story was true, but I didn't have any reliable means of verifying it, so I let it go there.

A little bit ago, Paul announced that he wanted a glass pecker.
The first thought that went through my head was, "WHAT IS HE PICKING UP AT THAT PRESCHOOL?!?"
I calmly asked, "Do you mean like a woodpecker has a beak for pecking wood? You want a beak on your nose for pecking glass?"
-"No, I want a glass pecker. Like on your shirt."
I'm wearing a Christmas-y red sweatshirt with a picture of log cabin window looking in on a cozy fire. There are two cardinals outside the window, and it looks like their beaks are against the glass. Clearly glasspeckers.

I managed to fight down a fit of giggles and changed the subject.

This is why your Christmas cards are late

Steve tells me that each Friday morning, before he plays tennis, he and the other guys get all of their excuses out. They're explaining why they won't be playing well that day. "I had a meeting last night that went late." "I was moving furniture and strained my back." "The sun was in my eyes."
They all like to play tennis, and they all want to play well.

I like sending Christmas cards. I want to send them on time. Here are my excuses for why they will be late.

I need to update our database of addresses. This is a pathetic excuse, but it's true.

I haven't been able to think clearly enough to write a Christmas letter yet. Maybe I could let Steve write it this year. You might hear a lot about brewing beer and chickens.

It took me a while to find where I stashed our Christmas cards.

When it comes to prioritizing activities, baking cookies tends to beat stuffing envelopes.

I could have started working on the cards last weekend, but then my children would have no food or clean clothing.

The big reason that your Christmas cards are going to be late is because I want to send a family photo. The way we've done the photos the last couple of years is to have one of my family members take the picture while we are at their house for Thanksgiving. This year, Thanksgiving Day was a little too busy for pictures. On Friday, Grandma discovered that she needed to recharge her camera batteries. No biggie, we would wait for Saturday. On Saturday, my mom had to take her mom to the doctor, so I was going to ask my dad to take the pictures. Shortly before I wanted to take the pictures, Julia bit Paul on the face.

I was really shocked, because Julia is not in the habit of biting. Paul had taken a toy from her. She shouted at him to give it back. He didn't and Mommy and Daddy did not intervene quickly enough for her. So she leaned over and bit him near the nose, breaking the skin a little. I HATE biting. I was so livid that I couldn't deal with her appropriately, so I let Steve work with her while I gave Paul a band-aid. Paul also received a stern reprimand about taking Julia's things.

Anyway, since that day, we just haven't had a good opportunity to sit together with somebody else to take the picture until last Sunday. I've ordered the pictures. With any luck, they'll be to us before Christmas Eve. If I'm really good, I'll have my cards addressed and ready to go.

Bit of sad news

I wanted to put this up on our blog, just to let folks know what is going on at the Kuhlman house.

I'm afraid I've got a little bit of sad news. I had a miscarriage earlier this month. I was only a little past 5 weeks along in the pregnancy, and we had just started telling people that we were expecting.

I've been through an amazing spinning wheel of emotions: panic, shell shock, sadness, peace, denial, disgust, acceptance, hope, disappointment, doubt. I've been amazed at the people that God keeps putting in my path right when I need them. Steve has been a rock, and I've had a bunch of good shoulders to cry on. I've had more peace through this experience than I would have anticipated.

Physically, this has been a little taxing, but not painful. The word from the doctor's office is to expect to be a little extra emotional this month (sheesh, no kidding) and to wait a couple of months before we try again.

My heart goes out to those women who have miscarriages later in their pregnancy, or who do not have the comfort of living children at home.

I find it interesting that I felt led to read Jeremiah's Lamentations the week before last, leading right into Ezekiel. Lamentations is pretty brutal, and it's not your typical Christmas season fare. I feel like I was being prepared for some sadness. And with respect to the holiday season, there is something about looking darkness in the face to help put the appearance of the Light of Heaven on earth into its proper context. So, while I can't say that I'm enjoying this experience, it does help me to feel the importance of Christmas.

So I'm still processing all this, but I wanted to let you know what was going on here.
Peace to you all.

Gingerbread House Making Party

Paul's preschool class had a Gingerbread House making party a couple of weeks ago, and Julia and I got to come. They made the houses by sticking graham crackers on empty milk cartons, using frosting as adhesive.
Here are some pictures.

SUV

Yes, we got a Suburban. I think it worth mentioning that the following is a picture of the SUV I was dreaming of. (Thanks for the picture, Dad.)

Upgrade

After much deliberation, we at the Kuhlman farm decided it was time to upgrade our old '95 Jeep Cherokee Sport to something a little larger. The Jeep's been a great vehicle for us, but its getting up there in years and our family is on the verge of outgrowing it.

And, never having been one to do anything half-way, I decided the Chevy Suburban was the way to go for us. So on Saturday we test drove this '05 Suburban Z71 4x4, and yesterday we drove it home.

Now I just need a Saturday to clear out room in the garage for it to fit....

Thanksgiving 2008

We made it up to my folks' house for Thanksgiving. We left bright and early Thursday morning and ate a picnic breakfast in the car. We left a little brighter and earlier than we meant to, because Paul started singing, "Jingle Bells" at 5:30 a.m. that morning. Thanks, Paul.

I got to see two cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. Nate brought an amazing lemon & raspberry cream pie. Thanks, Nate! And Steve spent some time scaring cousin Liz with alligator, snake, and spider stories from Florida. Liz's next forest ranger job is going to be in the everglades. Later she and I had a conversation that sounded something like this:

Liz: Yeah, Steve was kind of freaking me out there.
Sarah: Yes, but remember that Steve was a Boy Scout in Florida. So you had a bunch of irresponsible guys in woods. I mean, they weren't going out being reckless, but...
Liz: When you have a group of guys that age together, they're just going to be a little irresponsible.
Sarah: Yes, exactly! Anyway, he was there as a teen guy with a bunch of other teen guys, and they all survived.
Liz: That makes me feel better.

Because Grandma and Grandpa Kuhlman went to visit the Michigan Kuhlmans for Thanksgiving, we decided to bring Maggie with us this time. Good news: No doggie motion sickness in the car.
My parents have a beagle named Penny. Penny is a nice dog, and is really good with people. She doesn't associate with other dogs. Mostly, other dogs terrify her. Even unaggressive miniature schnauzers that are half her weight. So while both dogs mostly behaved themselves, Penny spent most of Thanksgiving day running away from Maggie, who was trying to sniff the beagle's hind quarters. Just tryin' to say hello. Penny eventually got tired of the harassment and started snarling at Maggie, but she was still retreating while she snarled. Great Grandma and Grandpa took Penny home with them for the rest of the weekend.

Then the cat came out. Tigger is a nice cat, and is not really good with people. She likes her family well enough, and, miraculously tolerates Paul's attentions, but mostly she hides when there are strangers (like us) in the house. After people had started leaving Thursday evening, it was if the cat said, "I am tired of hiding. This is my house, and I'm going where I please."

Maggie found Tigger riveting. Tigger sat in the middle of the floor. Maggie approached to check her out. Tigger vocalized the most eloquent hissing, spitting, and snarling you could ever hope for. Maggie was doing her best to look humble and unaggressive, but Tigger was not interested in letting another dog near her person. Maggie really only wanted to sniff Tigger. Okay, and maybe chase her a little bit. That would be fun too. But Tigger stood her ground and swatted with de-clawed front paws whenever Maggie came too close. She finally intimidated Maggie enough, that Maggie left her alone, at least for a while. Good puppy.

On Friday, we made cinnamon and applesauce ornaments. Grandma brought out glitter for the children to use to decorate the ornaments. Paul and Julia really liked the glitter. Julia had some trouble with the concept that you only press the dough with the cookie cutter once. Several of her ornaments had multiple impressions on them. I kept repeating to myself, "It's the creative process that's important, not the finished product." Steve entertained Maggie in the other room. That level of contained chaos frazzles his nerves.

Sometime later on Friday, Paul went investigating in Grandma and Grandpa's closet to find the cat, which had resumed hiding for a time. I caught him coming out of the closet and closing the door behind him. I think I was beginning to correct him for going in there without asking permission, when I heard a scratching at the closet door. Strange, that seemed too loud to be the cat scratching. When I opened the door, Maggie trotted out, with the cat on the floor not far behind, staring at us. So then Paul and I had a little discussion about NOT DOING THAT AGAIN.

Everyone traveled home gracefully. When we got home, Maggie bee-lined for her bed, sniffed and sat in it as if to say, Thank heavens it's all still here.

Thanksgiving Memories

I really appreciate the time I get to spend with extended family during Thanksgiving. However, one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day memories mostly has to do with being grateful that there was no bloodshed.

It was one of the first times Steve had joined our family for dinner. He was seated between me and my sister. It was a good arrangement because Steve and Carrie were tucked near a back corner of our dinner gathering where they could quietly joke about Grandma's gravy, and gently tease me. I was delighted that they were getting along so well, because in the past Carrie and I had been at odds.

Late in the meal, Steve looked over and noticed that Carrie was kneeling in her chair, and her feet were exposed. He looked over at me, and made a gesture to "ask" if he should tickle her feet. My eyes got really wide, and I shook my head, NO. I'm not ticklish, but my mom and sister have EXTREMELY sensitive feet. Mom had promised us when we were very small that tickling her feet was a spanking offense.

So, of course, Steve tickled Carrie's feet. She yipped loud enough that the whole table looked to see what was going on. Somehow, my darling sister mustered enough self-control to refrain from killing Steve or me right there in front of all those witnesses. I think I nearly died anyway and was about to sink under the table. Steve thought it was hilarious. I think even Carrie laughed about it later.

Thank you, Lord, for family members who forgive.

Teacher

We were all playing up in Julia's room this afternoon before supper. The toy box in her room is where all the dress-up clothes & costumes are kept. So the kids had gotten into those and were bouncing between different outfits (e.g., pirate, pumpkin, flower, little red riding hood, etc.)


At some time in the past one of our old graduation mortar board hats also ended up in there. I noticed it and put it on, just to get a reaction from the kids. I asked Paul what I looked like, not really knowing what to expect from him. He said that I looked like a teacher. Given the standard portrayal of teachers in most cartoons he watches, that makes sense. So I asked him if he wanted me to put it on him, and he said yes. I put the hat on him and he kinda grinned. Then he walked up to Julia and started shaking his finger at her. "Julia," he said, "This is my teacher face. I learned this in preschool." Nice.



About that time Sarah wandered upstairs, so I told Paul to go demonstrate for her. We all had a good laugh and Sarah seemed to think her mom would be especially proud of Paul.

Homey Pictures

Some home pictures of my little ones.


Maggie looking sharp in her new hair cut. She's feeling a little better.



Julia with big brother's hat. I'm glad he shares some.


She told me this was her pirate baby. It's great when she wrinkles her nose and says, "Aarr."



Paul having fun with his trains.




I'm fascinated by his level of concentration with some things.

I want my children to know about reconciliation

I caught part of a really interesting interview on NPR yesterday afternoon. The man being interviewed was Said Jawad, the Afghan ambassador to the U.S. He was talking about the current move to try to draw Taliban rebels into the political process. This step is controversial, because it necessarily includes "overlooking" some of the crimes the Taliban has done to the people.

One example: remember women weren't permitted to be educated. Certainly, they could not get the education needed to become doctors. And then there were serious restrictions on women being seen by men to whom they were not related. Makes it real hard to get decent professional medical care if you can't be seen by the people who are allowed to get MDs.

[The interview with Jawad can be found on http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97247849 ]

He also recognized that the notion of engaging with the Taliban "is a very painful message, of course, for the Afghan people, who were the prime victims of [their] brutality….

It's the sentence that they left out of the text that really intrigued me. Right after the quote above, he said something like, "But of course, all reconciliation is painful."

Really?
I think he may be right.
I keep waiting for reconciliation to feel good. Isn't that the point of reconciliation? We all feel better about each other.

I think Jawad hit the nail on the head. I'm not reconciling with the people with whom I have differences because I have been waiting for it to feel right. But we are probably both going to have to feel a little pain.
I started thinking about the example of reconciliation with God.

If I accept the things I claim to believe as a Christian, then God's character includes being omniscient, being omnipotent, being omnipresent, and being right. It's that last one that kills me.

If I accept these characteristics, then when I find myself out of step with God and His word, then I have to admit that I am wrong. I hate that. I pride myself on doing what is right. It is painful for me to realize that I am in the wrong. It is hard for me to admit. And if I can admit it, then I might change, but I really really don't want to go back and address what I've already done wrong.

I don't want to go back to the person I've been rude to and really own my wrong. Can't we just get along better now that I am back in the right?
I don't want to tell the person that I have been thinking ill about just how mean-hearted I really am toward them. I don't want to tell God that I can't handle this life without him.

That is my pain as the one who is in the wrong.
What is the pain of the one who is in the right?
Absorbing the wrong. Letting go. Forgiving.

For those around me, it means absorbing the pain of my selfishness.
What was the pain for that omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, righteous God?

Only the cross.

And here's the part that nearly makes me hysterical. Even if I am in the right, I can't absorb the pain that others cause me. All I want is to lash back. I have to trust that Jesus absorbed that pain for me too while he bled on the cross.

And I can't thank Him enough.

Illness update

We're doing better. Paul's earache seems to have dissipated on its own. Julia is back to normal. I might even give her a couple of prunes today. Steve felt well enough to venture out for tennis this morning. I've definitely got the full blown head cold now. I think we will stay holed up inside today.

I've started praying to God to help me stop shouting at my children to get them to obey me. I have been snarling at them to get their attention, the same way that I snarl at the dog. I need to snarl at the dog, because that is what she understands. It would only confuse her to try to correct using a quiet tone. But the children need to mind me before I get to shouting level. Perhaps a few days with a sore throat is part of God's answer to my prayer. We will work on correcting them before I'm shouting, because I can't shout right now.

Thankfullness IV
I'm thankful for our farm.
I'm thankful for the easy opportunity to learn the names of different wildflowers.
I'm thankful for the chance to see a greater diversity of wild birds.
I'm thankful for our garden and all the help we got with it from the grandparents.
I'm thankful for the 40+ cups of pureed squash in our freezers.
I'm thankful for the opportunity to know and see where our eggs, chicken meat, and beef come from.
I'm thankful for a full fridge.
I'm thankful for the chance to teach my children about how to care for and play with animals through our dog.
I'm thankful for cars that have proven themselves to be pretty reliable, and not lemons.
I'm thankful for the 50 yards between the house and the garage that makes us feel the seasons.

Creeping crud

It's been a rough week here at the Kuhlman farm.

Sunday night Paul had a low fever. I kept him home from school Monday. He was not feverish, but had a runny nose. He was energetic enough that I sent him to school Tuesday, where I was assured that they have plenty of tissues and hand sanitizer.

Monday we took our poor schnauzer puppy to the groomer and she came back with some wicked razor burn around her nether region. She was licking herself uncontrollably. I worked from home Tuesday so that I could take Maggie to the veterinarian. She got a cortisone shot for her troubles. She is starting to act a little better, but she still seems shell shocked. She keeps running and diving into new and different places in the house (the tub, the kid's play house, under the couch). I think she's trying to find a place where she can escape the discomfort.

Steve has been slowly succumbing to a full blown head cold this week. Yesterday, I started coming down with it.

On Monday I was thinking about feeding Julia a couple of prunes because she seemed to be stopped up. Before I gave her prunes, she ceased to be stopped up, and has been really loose since then. It doesn't seem to be slowing her down, but it is a little disturbing.

Yesterday afternoon, Paul woke up from his nap with an ear ache. If it's hurting him this morning, we'll be going to visit the doctor today.

So enough complaining already.

Thankfullness III

I'm thankful that I'm able to work from home or just stay home when my people are ill.
I'm thankful that it is not a financial crisis for us if I miss work.
I'm thankful for warm, soft, safe, clean, quiet places to sleep.
I'm thankful and amazed that I got to sleep through the night last night.
I'm thankful for home cooked food.
I'm thankful for leftovers.
I'm thankful for friends and family to call when I'm feeling a little crazy in the head.
I'm thankful for a big yard to play in and explore.
I'm thankful for a chance to sit and write.
I'm thankful for my internet connection.
I'm thankful for quick, easy, inexpensive access to multiple good translations of God's word to us in the bible. (For free easy access, check out www.biblegateway.com It's a ridiculously easy way to look up specific passages or themes.)
God, thank you for all these gifts.

Gear Penguin

Paul is nearly 4.5 years old now. He attends preschool 4 days a week and is doing quite well. But he tends toward the silly when left to himself (I can't imagine where he gets that from).

Anyway, there's a boy named Culp in his preschool, and for weeks now Paul has been reporting to us that "Culp has an engine turtle." He always says this with a smirk, hoping for some fun reaction from one of us before laughing. I asked at some point if Culp talks about his engine turtle or if Paul was just saying this to be silly. He seemed to indicate it was the latter, but it seems like there should have been something to trigger this. Just to be silly back to him I started making up other similar sounding device/animals to see if any of the other kids he knew had any of them. "Does Tim O. have a gear penguin?" I would ask. "What about a tranny fish or a wrench monkey?" And we would all have a good laugh.

Sarah was dropping Paul off this morning at preschool and finally thought to ask Miss Paula (one of Paul's teachers) about the fabled engine turtle. She reported that Culp has a ninja turtle. Needless to say we all got a pretty good laugh out of that one.

Thankfulness II

I'm thankful for Steve.
I'm thankful that he likes to spend time at home.
I'm thankful that he walks the dog when it is cold and windy out.
I'm thankful that he likes spending time with our children and is involved in their discipline and upbringing.
I'm thankful we make a good team.
I'm thankful that he still flirts with me.
I'm thankful that he suggests we eat ice cream in the evenings after the children are in bed.
I'm thankful that he is responsible with money.
I'm thankful that he drags his weary self to work each morning.
I'm thankful that he agrees with me on the rules of engagement when we have a conflict.
I'm thankful that we don't have too many conflicts.
I'm thankful that he enables me to be involved in extra curriculars, like MOPS.
God, thank you for giving me Steve.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, and patient, bride Sarah!!

She's a wonderful wife, a great mother, and I can't imagine life here on the farm without her. Join with me in wishing her a wonderful birthday.

P.S. I'm not gonna spell out how old she is now, but I'll give you a hint....

Lego-mania

When I was growing up I was blessed to be able to own or play with several different types of building toys. I've listed most of the big ones in the new poll, and I have to think that my penchant for these kinds of toys contributed somewhat to my engineering bent later in life. But for all the different ones out there, I always favored Legos. So much so, that for every Christmas from the earliest I can remember through till after I was out of college I got at least one Lego set.

So as another Christmas approaches and my son approaches the age where he's eligible for real Legos (not Duplos), I'm reminded of my Lego building past. Which reminds me of my more recent Lego building experiences....

After we had been on the farm nearly a year I started planning to build the chicken coop in the back corner of the barn. The problem was, I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to arrange it. And it was winter time when I was planning, so it was too cold to be standing around in the barn cogitating on such things. So I went out with a clipboard and tape measure, took pertinent measurements of the site in question, and came back inside to set about building a nearly scale model of the back corner of the barn out of Legos. The following pictures show my model & the real thing, so you can judge for yourselves.





















But in my defense, it really did help me to visualize while I was designing and I've been very pleased with the end result.

Thankfulness

With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I want to take some time to spell out some of the things I'm thankful for. This one is going to sound a bit facetious, but take a moment to consider it sincerely.

I am grateful to God, that He allowed me to be born in an age of indoor plumbing.
I'm grateful for flush toilets that are inside the house.
I'm grateful for toilet paper.
I'm grateful that my son is completely potty trained for the daytime.
I'm grateful that my daughter is making big strides in potty training.
I'm grateful for diapers to put my children in overnight.
I'm really grateful for a washing machine to put my children's clothing and bedding in when they have accidents.
I'm grateful for my water heater.
I'm grateful for hot showers.
I'm grateful for cozy warm baths for my children.
I'm grateful that it is easy to wash my dishes.
I'm grateful for quick, easy access to potable water.

None of these things are necessities, and not all people or ages have them. They are luxuries, and I'm grateful for them.

Mulberry Leaves

It looks like there is only going to be one good day of leaf pile fun on the Kuhlman farm this year.

Our mulberry tree by the swing set is the best for dropping leaves good for making piles to play in. In past years, the leaves came down in October, but the dry warm weather this year has thrown things off. The leaves seemed to come down all at once in the last few days, so yesterday I raked a big pile at the end of the kids’ slide.


We all had a blast. Even before I got the leaves into the pile, Julia was kicking her way through them. Then it was as if the leaves somehow magically dispelled all of Paul and Julia’s normal fears about bumping themselves. Both of them were shooting down the slide head first on their bellies or backs, often crashing into each other, or somersaulting at the bottom. I kept looking at them and thinking that the leaves weren’t really adding that much padding. Its really just the perception of padding, but it was enough. Even Maggie got into the fun.


Because the leaves were so old, dry, and weathered when they fell, they started disintegrating immediately. And now it is raining, which I’m sure will turn them to mush. Thank you, Lord, for one good day of leaf pile fun.

Minutes in the day

I have many interests, responsibilities, and stuff I'd like to be doing. They all take time.
I would like to have
15 minutes a day for a morning bible read and devotional,
20 minutes a day to take care of the mail (bills) and house cleaning,
20 minutes a day to exercise and do the stretches that I know will help keep me healthy,
15 minutes a day to groom my shaggy puppy and work on her obedience training,
15 minutes a day to relearn how to play the beautiful piano my aunt and uncle gave us,
15 minutes a day for writing,
time to make healthy meals from scratch each day,
time for one-on-one preschool activities with my daughter each day,
20 minutes each summer day to weed the garden,
20 minutes each winter day to bake and try new recipes.
I would so love to take voice lessons.
I would be giddy if I could take up drawing again.
I haven't knit anything in over year.
I want to be the sort of person who writes letters and gets thank you notes out.

That's over 2 hours a day of all good things. I am coming to the realization that I am in a season in my life when I have to sacrifice some of these very good things. Or do less of a job than I would like with them. Because some things take priority.

Playing with my children. (There's my preschool activities.)
Supervising and disciplining my children.
Giving the puppy a good romp. (There's my exercise.)
Sitting watching the cartoons with the children. (I'd rather be cleaning, but it is important to me that TV be a social and interactive time, and that I know what is going into their little heads.)
Sitting and debriefing with my husband.
Recording something of these times in this blog. (This is my writing.)
Connecting with other women. (This is my sanity reinforcement.)

Yesterday, you can add to that list taking the puppy to the veterinarian so we could weigh her and get her heart worm pill. Then getting home, realizing that something is leaking under the car, and taking it in to the mechanic to be fixed.

Fortunately the problem with the car was only a fuel filter, which made for an easy and relatively inexpensive fix. But it hadn't been on my day's to do list. Rats.

Quiet Moment

Paul and Julia aren't always running around like crazy people. Somethimes I walk in on scenes like this.

Paul's October Opus

Art projects from preschool.

Praying for my family

Each year we that we go to the Czech Republic, God is so gracious as to reveal new things to me. This year, He was pointing out to me how much like brothers and sisters the believers at the camp were, both Czech and American. It's not a like a parent-small-child relationship, where one person must train the other in all things. We have different strengths and weaknesses, but one Father. We have different points of view, but one aim. We must trust and depend on each other for different things. My family is HUGE!

I think this perspective triggered the upside down moment I'm about to describe.

First, you must know that I love my small children, and one of the ways I love them is by being very much in control of their lives. I am trying to teach them to respect and respond to the those in authority over them. I let them know, in no uncertain terms, that I AM IN CHARGE and they are not. All this while internally acknowledging that I will slowly relinquish control and send them out into the world, independent. I do not treat my children as brothers and sisters.

And yet, I had this upside down moment of realizing that they are not really my children, they are God's. And, although I am in charge of them for a short time, they will mature into my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I have this prayer, which I pray over them before nap time.

Father in heaven,
This is my son/daughter, Paul Joseph/Julia Rose.
He/She is precious to me.
Please take good care of him/her.
Help him/her grow to be a man/woman of grace.
I dedicate him/her to You.
Amen.

I will keep saying the prayer this way, because it is really for Paul and Julia's benefit to hear it. However, I have realized that God already knows His children and His plans for them. So here is what I pray in my head,

Father in heaven,
This is your son/daughter, Paul Joseph/Julia Rose.
I know he/she is precious to You.
Thank you for giving him/her to me.
Please help me take good care of him/her.
Help me teach him/her to grow to be a man/woman of grace.
And to release him/her to you in the proper time.
Amen.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

I got outside with the kids yesterday for the last couple of hours before dark. Grandpa was over in our yard on his mower, helping Steve with the grass. Maggie, the kids, and I were tooling around the yard. Paul and Maggie started doing loops of the barn.

One of the neighbors' more sociable cats wandered over. We sort of share cats between our barns, both of us putting out food for them. The cats like getting water from our spring and small game from our weedy zones. Julia tried to approach the cat. It was hesitant, but eventually let Julia come close enough to try to pick it up.

Paul soon joined them. The cat wasn't running away, but it was lazily dodging in and out of arms' reach for the kids, while they tried to play with it.

Then Maggie came around the corner of the barn. She saw the cat, and it was like something short circuited in her 9 month old little puppy brain. CAT!!! All the bounce went out of Maggie's stride and she shot off toward the cat, low and level like an arrow. I tried shouting, "Watch out, kitty!" The children had distracted the cat's attention, and the mower hid the sound of Maggie's approach, so Maggie got pretty close before the cat bolted for the neighbor's house.

"Maggie, come back!" Property line? What property line? Maggie zoomed after the cat.
I wasn't concerned about kitty because,
1. Kitty had the advantages of age, wisdom, and home turf
2. Even if Maggie should somehow "catch" the cat, she wouldn't know what to do with it
3. If there were a scuffle, the cat would win.

"Maggie, come!" The cat escaped through the rails of the neighbor's deck. Maggie was too dense to figure out that she could have gone around the deck. She wasn't responding to our orders to come either. She did pause long enough to mark her territory.
"Maggie, you fool! You're not marking anything. All you are doing is trying to annoy Princess."
Princess is the neighbor's very big, beautiful German Shepherd. Princess was inside the house, barking. The only thing between Princess and the excitement outside was a flimsy screen door.
"Hi Princess. Um... We're just trying to get our dog!" I shouted as Paul and I ran over to pin Maggie.
"Paul, run home so Maggie will chase you!"
Paul did, and Maggie chased after him.
By the time I caught up with them, Steve was holding on to Maggie. Her heart was racing and she was still shaking with excitement. It was as if she were saying, "Did you see that cat! Did you see it?!? I almost got it! I was this close! And I got to pee in Princess' yard! hee-hee! Did you see that cat I almost got?"

Julia's Nose Ring

We let Julia have a nose ring. We thought it looked cute on her.

More Camping Followup

The camping trip we took this past weekend to Red River Gorge, KY, was not an autonomous Kuhlman family trip. We were actually there to provide support to our church's first backpacking trip. There were about 20 people who either go to our church or are friends of folks who got to our church who participated in this event.

They came rolling in to camp on Friday night a few hours after us and base camped with us that first night. We all ate breakfast Saturday morning, before I helped shuttle them around to their different trailheads. With 20 people they needed to break into 2 groups: one easier group with all the younger folk, and one harder group. We ended up caravaning out with the easier group and day-hiked the first part of their trail with them on Saturday morning before we needed to turn around and head back for naptime.

On Sunday they all gathered back at our campsite to regroup before heading home. This made the whole trip quite a bit more fun, I think, and allowed Paul the opportunity to play and interact with a lot more people besides just his parents.

Anyway, two of the folks from the backpacking trip have posted pictures of the trip, including some of the base camp time together. Enjoy!

http://prfrank.com/rrg
http://picasaweb.google.com/wesanderson1/SDPCRRG2008#

Campfire Stories

Saturday night, as we sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and making s'mores, Paul insisted that he wanted a scary story. First a ghost story. Second a monster story. Third an alien story. Then something about a bat and a snake and so on.

Truly scary stories disturb me, so I managed to concoct some G-rated scary stories to satiate him. I thought you might enjoy reading one of the adventures of Paco. I think I might be well on my way to writing manuscripts for B-movies.

The Story of Paco and the Aliens

One day Paco went over the hill to play at Mark's house. They had a fun time playing hopscotch. They played so long that it got dark out. Finally Mark's mom came out and said, "Mark, it's time to come in for bed. Paco! What are you doing here? It's late. You need to go home now!" We'll talk later about why she didn't drive him home after what had happened to him before.

So Paco started walking home. He wasn't worried about the five legged monster, because nobody had seen it in months and months. And besides, he had his mouse, Shirley, in the cage in his room, so he could scare the monster away (as long as his mom didn't lock him out of the house again.)

It was a very dark night. The wind howled, "Ooooooooh." The frogs croaked, "Ribbet. Ribbet." The crickets chirped, "chirp-chirp." It was cloudy and there was no moon. Paul walked about halfway home. Suddenly there was a terrible crash!

Paco looked over toward the crash and saw an eerie glow. He decided to go explore. He went through the trees and hid behind a bush. He saw a group of aliens. At first they were a little disoriented after their rough landing. But they quickly snapped out of it and set about their work of collecting specimens.

The first alien said, "Oh, this is interesting." He picked up a cricket and put it in a jar to take home.

Another alien said, "Oh, this is interesting." He dug up a daisy and put it in a jar.

Another alien said, "Oh, this is interesting." He pulled out his shrinker gun, and shrunk a tree. Then he put the tree in a jar.

Another alien said, "Oh, this is interesting." He pulled out his shrinker gun, and shrunk a large boulder. He put the boulder in a jar.

Paco gasped. The aliens saw him. They said, "Oh, this is interesting." And one of them raised his shrinker gun.

Paco started to run. He ran home as fast as he could, but he could hear the aliens behind him. Pitter patter, pitter patter. Paco tripped and fell. Zap! The aliens shrunk a tree beside him. He got up and ran some more. Zap! The aliens shrunk another boulder. Paco ran with all his might. The aliens were right behind him. Pitter patter pitter patter. Then he heard them say, "Oh, this is even more interesting." Zap.

Paco did not turn around. He ran all the way home. His mom had left the door open for him this time. He ran inside and watched to see if the aliens would come, but they never did.

In the morning he decided to go back and explore. He found the broken trees where the alien's flying saucer had crashed. He saw the place where the daisy, the tree and the boulder had been. He saw the alien's footprints. Paco traced his way back home. He saw the tree the aliens had shrunk. It looked like a baby tree. He saw the boulder the aliens had shrunk. It looked like a little rock.

Then he saw the footprints of the five legged monster. He saw in the dirt where the footprints became very small. The aliens had shrunk the five legged monster and taken him home in a jar!

The End.

First Camping Trip

Before we moved to the farm and had kids, Sarah & I used to do a fair amount of camping and backpacking. Most years we made it out at least 2-3 times, with most of those being actual backpacking trips. But with the demands of the farm and the extra complications of bringing kids, we just haven't made it out yet, in spite of our best intentions. So when the opportunity presented itself to spend a weekend camping with Paul at Red River Gorge, KY (one of our favorite "local" backpacking spots), we jumped on it.

When we arrived Friday night it was rainy, so getting camp set up in the rain was a bit taxing for us all. But Paul did okay, really, and we didn't have too much trouble sleeping that first night. Once we were all in the tent it was probably to our benefit to have the rain, 'cause its a nice drone that blocks out a lot of the potentially strange sounds.

The next morning we did some day hiking and Paul did really well. He started off a little concerned..."How will we find our way back to our car?", "That's a long way down.", etc. But after a mile or so he really started to gain his confidence and, on most parts of the trail, was then able to walk/run on the trail without holding mommy or daddy's hand.

In camp that night we sat by the fire, mostly, while eating supper followed later by s'mores. Paul's idea of roasting marshmallows involved daddy putting the marshmallow on the stick, Paul waving the stick quickly over the flames, and then pulling it off & eating it. Hardly suitable for s'mores, so daddy had designated marshmallow roasting duty for most of the s'mores made that night. Paul absolutely loved this treat and was quiet for quite a while as he savored every bite.

The next morning daddy got up and got the fire going to help coax the rest of the family out in the cold. After some initial hot chocolate & breakfast, we packed up the campsite and headed out for another quick bit of hiking.

This last trail was a short one that took us over & then under "Sky Bridge". Sky bridge is a natural bridge that sits way up at the end of a ridge, several hundred feet above the creeks below. Paul was definitely scared going across, but he did real well holding daddy's hand and continuing across. He didn't panic or cry. We stopped most of the way across so daddy could try to show him some of the amazing view, but I'm not sure how much he appreciated that.

But once we got to the other side and walking around underneath the bridge, he felt much safer and more confident. Overall, Paul did really well for his first camping trip, and he really seemed to enjoy it. Now we just have to decide if we get one more under our belt with just him before we take Julia, or just take the plunge and try to bring 'em both.

Field Training

We've finally figured out how to get it to rain around here. All we have to do is plan a camping trip!

We're going to take Paul camping this weekend. Julia is going to have some one-on-one time with grandma and grandpa.

Speaking of being out in the wild,
Wednesday afternoon, the kids and I were down by the weedy part of our property. Julia announced that she needed to go potty. I looked at her and quickly assessed my options.
1. Pick Julia up and sprint to the house, leaving Paul and Maggie unsupervised longer than I wanted.
2. Try to herd all three reluctant little ones up to the house in time for Julia to make it to the potty dry. Hmmm... not likely.
3. Teach Julia to squat in the weeds.

I looked around. There was nobody nearby.
Option 3 it is!

At Any Rate

Monday saw the first eggs being laid from this, our fourth, flock of chickens. We found the 2 small brown eggs on the roost Monday afternoon. On Tuesday they started finding the nesting boxes, where we found 4 eggs.

Let's see...Mon. - 2 eggs, Tues. - 4 eggs...at this rate by Halloween we'll be, uh ... swimming in eggs.

At any rate, its just about time to dust the "Farm Fresh Eggs" sign off and start selling again.

UPDATE: Wed. - 6 eggs...the trend continues

Yesterday: A Review

Sarah:
I hadn’t really planned on yesterday being a baking day. I started a pot roast in the crock pot in the morning. Steve asked me to see if we could process the two Amish Pie Squashes, which had matured in our garden. Steve had brought the smaller squash up to the house the night before.
I called grandma over to help. The plan was to chop them, cook them, and puree them like a pumpkin.
Please note that while an Amish Pie Squash is about the size of a pumpkin, it has the hard rind of a squash. After trying to chip and pry our way into them with our favorite chef’s knives, Grandma pulled out the cleaver.
Can I just take a moment to express how much I appreciate that cleaver?
I started hacking into the pie squash with about as much speed and strength as I could. Grandma backed away and started collecting the pie squash chips that hit the floor.
We used the cleaver to break the squash into large pieces, and then used our chef’s knifes to cut smaller pieces and cut of the rind.
We baked the squash in the oven in my giant turkey roaster with a couple of inches of water in the bottom.

Then I went to get the big squash. (Steve and his dad later thought it was very funny that Steve brought up the small squash and left his wife to bring the big one.) I weighed it on our bathroom scale.
34 lbs.
More quality time with the cleaver.

With much help from the grandparents, 3 batches of squash in the oven at about 2 hours of baking per batch, and lots of work from our food processor, we ended up with 12 quarts of pureed Pie Squash.

So if we show up to any social function with any kind of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, or pumpkin sauce, be aware, it’s not really pumpkin.

Steve:
Steve is between contracts at work, so he took a half day off yesterday. After picking Paul up from preschool, he witnessed some of the great Pie Squash massacre. He planted four little mounds of the Pie Squash seeds that we had extracted. Let’s see, if 1 vine this year grew 2 squash, which gave us 12 quarts of puree, then 4 vines can make… Okay, I don’t want to think real hard about that one.

Then he and his dad went to work on the barn. Grandpa had disassembled an interior barn door that we weren’t using. They took down a broken down exterior door and sided over it with the planks from the interior door. A fresh coat of paint later, and you can’t even see where the broken door had been, unless you are really looking for it.

Julia:
Julia brought 3 hair bands to me yesterday. I put two on the sides of her head, and I was going to leave it at that. She insisted she wanted me to use the 3rd tiny hair band, so I put it in her bangs. They stuck straight up and she looked like Cindy Who.

We made a short trip to the grocery store in the morning, and on a whim, I got one of the little carts for her to push. She did a great job! I was impressed. Her nose barely cleared the handle, but she stayed right with me and didn’t go crashing into the shelves or other shoppers.

Yesterday she wore big girl underwear all day and kept them clean and dry! Yay Julia!

Paul:
Paul had sort of a rough day with discipline. Julia did too to some extent. But poor Paul couldn’t turn around yesterday afternoon without being corrected for doing something he knew he should not have done. After a particularly antsy supper, I abandoned the dinner clean up duties and took him outside to run. He ended up running around the barn 6 or 7 times, and had a much more graceful evening. At the end of the day, my analysis to Steve was, “Well at least I feel like I held the line with him.” It’s hard to be well behaved in the morning for school, and then have people bossing you around in the afternoon too.

Maggie:
The morning was pretty chilly when I took Maggie out for her morning walk. Usually we walk down to the barn to open up the chickens. It is a long enough walk to give Maggie the opportunity to do whatever doggy business needs to be done. Yesterday, we got outside and she quickly pulled to one side of me and wet. We went a few more yards toward the barn and she pulled to the other side and dirtied. Then she started pulling back to the house.
Okay, Maggie, if you are going to be that quick with what I want you to do, then I will reward you with a quick return to the warm house. The chickens can wait until later.

Chickens:
The chickens got to peck at a whole bunch of squash rinds yesterday. They laid two eggs, the first of the season.

Plantin' Time?

If you're planting garlic, it is anyway...after the first light frost, late Sept. - end Oct. Well Sunday morning there was a nice light frost on the ground as we were heading out for early service at church. So Sunday evening we got our garlic in the ground.

I didn't actually count how many cloves we planted, but there were 5 bulbs with 8-12 cloves/bulb. At 2" deep & about 6" apart we got one full row (about 25') out of 'em. Now, I've never grown garlic before. But if we end up getting a pretty good yield, by next June we oughta be swimming in garlic. The variety we got is called Persian Star (pictured to the right) and is described as follows:
"Pleasant flavor with a mild spicy zing. One of the best all-purpose garlic varieties."

The best part of the whole thing was how well Paul & Julia both helped. I had tilled a strip a few days ago to get ready. And yesterday afternoon I quickly raked it out and hoed a trench in which to plant 'em. The kids took turns running to mommy to get cloves then running to me to plant them. I showed them how to wiggle them into the dirt so they stood up with the pointy end up. So for each one I pointed where to put it, then they would take turns wiggling their garlic clove into the ground before running back to mommy for another one. I got 'em all covered with dirt and mounded a bit after we were all done puttin' 'em in.

Now I just need to clean out the little chicken coop to get a good 6" layer of "mulch" on top. Anyone wanna help?

Sarah's Profile

I recently commented on a friend's blog and left my blogger identification, Sarah, as a signature. My friend pointed out that she knows so many Sarahs that my profile was nearly as bad a saying, anonymous. hmmm...

I have consequently filled out a bit of a profile for myself. It includes this blog as well as some little tidbits of personal information. For a photo, I picked a broken spoon.



I had used the spoon in a paper for school. The class was about the fracture and fatigue of materials. We needed to find something broken, and examine it to determine the type of break and probable cause for breaking. I love that kind of work.

I found this spoon in the dirt near our front porch in 2004. Remember the house was built in 1900.

Here's the Reader's Digest version of the report.
The crack extended from near the tip of the spoon, about 2 cm into the bowl of the spoon. The fracture surfaces had separated, but otherwise there was no large-scale deformation [metal stretching] to speak of. It should be noted that some of the flakes of color on the spoon were quite green. The spoon felt light for its size.

The fracture surface was examined under a scanning electron microscope....

On the back of the spoon, the words “WM A. ROGERS NICKEL SILVER” were found. Internet research found that William A. Rogers was an American silversmith. He was working at least from 1907 to 1925 and sold silver and silver plated goods. Nickel silver would more appropriately be called nickel bronze. It is an alloy of nickel and copper, named for its silvery color. It may or may not contain zinc. It may contain silver, but generally did not. Nickel silver is typically corrosion resistant.

There should have been more stretching around the fracture surface if the spoon had been broken before the corrosion started. Even though nickel silver is corrosion resistant, the spoon may have been buried for nearly 100 years, giving it enough time to break down.

The crater seen in on the fracture surface may have been the location of an inclusion that formed a stress riser, which led to a crack starting.

...
In conclusion, it is probable that the spoon broke in a brittle fashion, caused by corrosion and accelerated by residual tensile stresses. The crack started near the tip of the spoon near a possible inclusion. It propagated from the tip to the center of the bowl, and from the convex side of the bowl toward the concave side of the bowl. Intergranular stress corrosion cracking is evidenced by the rock candy appearance of the fracture surface. Dezincification may have also played a part in the cracking.

All that is to say, I wrote a profile for myself, and it said I'm pretty geeky.

More conversations with the wee ones among us

Julia outside on our stoop: What's dat, mommy?
Me: A daddy long legs.
Julia: Oooooo. I don't like it!
Me: Stomp on it! [I actually like daddy long legs spiders, but I'm trying to get Julia to be brave about her fears.]
Julia: No! I don't like it. It gives me Goose Bumps!
-reference "Toot and Puddle and the New Friend" by Holly Hobbie

This morning Julia was whining and fighting going into her car seat. She paused briefly, looked me in the eye and said seriously, "I having llama drama." Then she went back to wiggling.
-reference "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama"

I told Paul and Julia that Heather and Jeremy were far away and across the ocean to get their daughter, baby Elli. Paul sat and thought about that a minute. Julia decided that "Baby Elli" sounds a lot like "B-I-B-L-E" and started humming the song with hand motions.

At the supper table last night,
Me: Julia, can you tell daddy what we had from breakfast this morning?
[The correct answer was lovely homemade wheat toast with butter and honey on it.]
Julia: I don't know.
Daddy: Was it bear?
Julia: No.
Daddy: Was it asparagus?
Julia: No.
Daddy: Was it spiders?
Julia: Yes! It was spiders!
Daddy: Really?!?
Julia: Yes. It was daddy long legs. I chomp them up all gone!
Paul: Me too!

In the church nursery,
Me: Julia, do you know what the princess named the baby that she drew up out of the water?
Julia: Skanalea.
Me: Wow, that's a good name, but I don't think that's what she called him.

For a while, whenever Julia saw a word printed, she would read us the letters, "B-O-D-9" No matter what was written, it was always, "B-O-D-9" Steve suspects that will be her first license plate.

Paul's favorite number for something that has a lot of things is, "Forty-five, fourteen." Last night when we asked him what time it was, the answer was "45-14."

In the middle of lunch time,
Julia: Mommy, I need to go potty.
Me: Julia, you just went potty.
Julia: I need to go potty.
Me: You can go potty but no more jelly beans until after lunch. [Jelly beans are our potty reward right now. Paul is getting them too if he happens to use the potty when Julia produces.]
Julia: I need to go poopee inna potty.
A little later,
Me: Julia, you really did need to go poopee in the potty. Good job! I'm so pleased that I will let you have 2 jelly beans! [I know that violated what I said earlier, but I really really want to encourage this behavior.]
Paul: [seeing Julia's reward] I want to go poopy in the potty too!
He runs into the bathroom and starts straining. He also produces.
They both get two jelly bellies. I say to Steve, "These things work better than Exlax!"

Julia at the store: What's innat box, mommy?
Me: [Hesitating briefly to decide whether she can handle the truth] Candy.
Julia: I like candy! It's yummy and tasty.
Me: Yes it is. [Keep walking]

Baby in Arms!

Congratulations to our friends Jeremy & Heather and their new daughter Elli!


Jeremy & Heather have been working to adopt a baby girl from Taiwan for a while now, and have been waiting specifically for Elli for several months. But their wait is over & Elli is in their arms now. If you like, you can read of their adventure and see pictures of them with Elli over at their blog: http://jeremy-n-heather.blogspot.com/.

We look forward to them returning home and the chance to greet Elli very soon.

That can't be good

My parents were able to make it out for a visit this weekend. That was really nice. We went out with the kids to a local nursery that is supposed to have a lot of native Ohio plant species. We found a rather substantial paw-paw tree, but the prices were nothing special so we came back empty handed.

Next we drove to a farmer's market that has play sets the children can climb on, plus goats they can pet. This farmer's market was very busy because they offer hayrides and harvest/halloween festivities in October. Paul fell in love with a big wooden firetruck and stayed with that for quite a while. Julia got to pet the goats and then practiced walking the gang plank on a wooden ship.

Since it had been quite cool in the morning, Paul was dressed in a turtleneck and overalls. But by the time we were done at the farmer's market, the temperatures were in the low 80's. We got him changed into some shorts, but he still took some breaks from playing to sit in the shade.

We made a short drive home, and then Paul's eyes glazed over. He didn't want to drink his milk. He didn't want to drink any water. And rather than eat any grapes, he said he wanted to be excused from lunch so he could go nap. That can't be good. Usually we are trying to keep him from eating too many grapes. Usually we are trying to convince him to take a nap.

At first we wondered if he were overheated or dehydrated. Then he spiked a pretty substantial fever, which lasted for about 24 hours. At one point Saturday evening I had Steve start driving Paul and I to the children's urgent care because in addition to the fever, Paul started weeping over stomach pain. Appendicitis! But shortly after we were in the car Paul stopped crying. A moment later he said his tummy didn't hurt so bad anymore.
I asked, "Paul, did you pass gas?"
"Yes."
Okay, I feel foolish. So we went back home and made him sit on the potty for a little while. That cleared up any remaining stomach discomfort.

Last night the fever seemed to clear up and he was running around outside like his old normal self. Fun fun.

I guess now we just wait and see if anybody else comes down with it. What is it about visiting my folks and having somebody come down ill??

UPDATE: 7:30am - Paul's temp was back up this morning, so its off to the doctor's office instead of school for him. Nuts.

Just Because

This picture is just too darn cute not to post.

Oktobeerfest '08 Rehash

Thanks to everyone that came out this past Friday night to enjoy the 4th annual Oktobeerfest! The weather was the warmest we've ever experienced for this event. As a result, we had a great turnout with over 120 of you showing up to join in the fun.


As we've all come to expect, the brats were excellent, the bonfire was large & warm, the blues jam was rockin', and the beer was diverse and wonderful. But most importantly, the company of so many fine folks was the best part.


Congratulations to the winners: Mark, Brian, Art, & Nora! Thanks to our 8-member panel of judges this year for their sacrifice and hard work. ;-)


And thanks to everyone that helped with the preparation and setup, the wonderful folks that cooked brats & brought food, everyone that took pictures, and everyone that stuck around to help cleanup afterwards. (BTW, if you took some good photos of the party, please send 'em on to me...I'd be glad to see 'em and maybe even post 'em up here on the blog.) Thanks also to the fine members of the blues jam band for all your hard work practicing & preparing for this.



And to all you poor folks that for one reason or another had to miss it this year, be on the lookout for next year's Oktobeerfest date so you can get it on your calender early.

Thanks for another great party everyone!